Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
(normally dated September 2002 or newer), the latest chipset driver, and Windows XP with Service
Pack 1 (or later) installed. If your motherboard BIOS does not provide the necessary support, try
downloading and installing the latest version. Note that the original version of XP, as well as all
Windows 2000 and earlier versions, does not provide native support for hard drives larger than
137GB.
I installed a 3TB hard disk in my system, but only a portion of the capacity is recognized.
SATA hard disk drives with capacities above 2.2TB require a system with support for Long LBA
addressing (a feature of Windows Vista and later), a GUID partition table (GPT), and hard disk
drivers with support for drives greater than 2.2TB in capacity.
If you want to boot from a drive greater than 2.2TB using Windows, your system must have EFI or
UEFI firmware, and you must use a 64-bit version of Windows Vista or later. However, recent
distributions of 32-bit and 64-bit Linux can use drives above 2.2TB as boot and data drives with
either traditional BIOS or EFI/UEFI firmware.
Barrier
” in
Chapter 7
,
“
The ATA/IDE Interface
.”
My optical drive doesn't work.
Optical drives are one of the more failure-prone components in a PC. It is not uncommon for them to
suddenly fail after a year or so of use.
If you are having problems with a drive that was newly installed, check the installation and
configuration of the drive. If the drive is a parallel ATA type, check the jumper settings on the drive.
If you're using an 80-conductor cable, the drive should be jumpered to Cable Select; if you're using a
40-conductor cable, the drive should be set to either master or slave (depending on whether it is the
only drive on the cable). Try replacing the cable with a new one or a known-good spare, preferably
using an 80-conductor cable. Make sure the drive power is connected, and verify that power is
available at the connector using a digital multimeter. Also make sure the BIOS Setup is set properly
for the drive, and verify that the drive is detected during the boot process. Finally, try replacing the
drive and, if necessary, the motherboard.
If the drive had already been installed and was working before, try reading different discs, preferably
commercial-stamped discs rather than writeable or rewriteable ones. Then try the steps listed
previously.
If you are using a SATA optical drive in Windows Vista, you might need to configure the SATA host
adapter the drive uses in PATA emulation mode rather than the native AHCI mode or install a hotfix
(see Microsoft Knowledgebase article 928253). You could also install Service Pack 1 (or later),
which also contains this fix. Windows 7 and later can use a SATA optical drive in either PATA or
AHCI (recommended) mode.
My USB port or device doesn't work.
Make sure you have enabled the USB ports in the BIOS Setup. Try removing any hubs and plug the
device having problems directly into the root hub connections on your system. Try replacing the
cable. Many USB devices require additional power, so ensure that your device has an eternal power
supply connected if one is required.
If the device requires USB 2.0 support, make sure your ports are configured to run in USB 2.0 (Hi-
Speed USB) mode. Many systems also offer a USB 1.1-only mode. If the device is bus powered, try
