Electronics Projects
Vol. 22
EFY Books & Publications
FOR YOU
EFY is a reputed information house, specialising in electronics and information technology
magazines. It also publishes directories and books on several topics. Its current publications are:
(A) CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
1. Electronics Projects, Vol. 1: A compilation of selected construction projects and circuit ideas Rs 120 published in Electronics For You magazines during 1979 and 1980.
2. Electronics Projects, Vol. 2 to 19 (English version): Yearly compilations (1981 to 1998) of Rs 120 (each) interesting and useful construction projects and circuit ideas published in Electronics For You.
3. Electronics Projects, Vol. 20, 21 and 22 (with CD): Yearly compilations (1999 to 2001). Rs 150 (each) 4. Electronics Projects, Vol. 16 (fgUnh laLdj.k): Yearly compilations (1995) of interesting and Rs 95
useful construction projects and circuit ideas published in Electronics For You. (B) OTHER BOOKS
1. Learn to Use Microprocessors (with floppy): By K. Padmanabhan and S. Ananthi (fourth enlarged edition). Rs 180 An EFY publication with floppy disk. Extremely useful for the study of 8-bit processors at minimum expense.
2. ABC of Amateur Radio and Citizen Band: Authored by Rajesh Verma, VU2RVM, it deals Rs 75 exhaustively with the subject—giving a lot of practical information, besides theory.
3. Batteries: By D.Venkatasubbiah. Describes the ins and outs of almost all types of batteries used Rs 60 in electronic appliances.
(C) DIRECTORIES
1. EFY Annual Guide: Includes Directory of Indian manufacturing and distributing units, Buyers’ Guide and Rs 300 (with CD) Index of Brand Names, plus lots of other useful information.
2. ‘i.t.’ Directory: First comprehensive directory on IT industry covering hardware, software, telecom, Rs 250 (with CD) dotcom and training institues.
3. Technical Educational Directory: Includes course-wise and state/city-wise listings of technical educational Rs 100 institutes in India, besides the alphabetical main directory offering all the relevant information about them.
(D) MAGAZINES
1. Electronics For You (EFY): In regular publication since 1969, EFY is the natural choice for the entire Rs 60 (with CD) electronics fraternity, be it the businessmen, industry professionals or hobbyists. From microcontrollers to Rs 35 (without CD) DVD players, from PCB designing software to UPS systems, all are covered every month in EFY.
2. Linux For You (LFY): Asia’s first magazine on Linux. Completely dedicated to the Open Source community. Rs 100 (with CD) Regular columns by Open Source evangelists. With columns focused for newbies, power users and developers,
LFY is religiously read by IT implementers and CXOs every month.
3. ‘i.t.’ (Information Technology): A monthly magazine for ‘Techies’ and those who want to be. Its readers have Rs 30 two things in common—a background related to IT and the thirst to know more. Topics covered boast technical
depth and aim to assist in better usage of IT in organisations.
4. Facts For You: A monthly magazine on business and economic affairs. It aims to update the top decision makers Rs 50 on key industry trends through its regular assortment of Market Surveys and other important information.
5. ePower: Published every alternate month for the electronic-power industry, primarily consists of all electronic Rs 50 power-supply equipment, and their related components and services. A must read for those in this industry and
those catering to it.
6. BenefIT: A technology magazine for businessmen explaining how they can benefit from IT. Rs 20 ★ Kindly note that these prices can change without any notice.
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ELECTRONICS
PROJECTS
VOL. 22
EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd
D-87/1 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-1 New Delhi 110020
© EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd.
First Published in this Edition, December 2006
Published by Ramesh Chopra for EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd,
D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-1, New Delhi 110020.
Typeset at EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd and
Printed at Nutech Photolithographers, B-38, Okhla Industrial Area,
Phase-1, New Delhi 110020
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form without the written permission of the publishers.
FOREWORD
This volume of Electronics Projects is the twenty second in the
series published by EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd. It is a compilation
of 21 construction projects and 66 circuit ideas published in
‘Electronics For You’ magazine during 2001.
We are also including a CD with this volume, which not only
con-tains the datasheets of major components used in construction
proj-ects but also the software source code and related files pertaining
to various projects. This will enable a reader to copy these files
directly to his PC and compile/run the program as necessary, without
having to prepare them again using the keyboard. In addition, the CD
carries useful software, tutorials and other goodies (refer ‘contents’
in CD).
In keeping with the past trend, all relevant modifications, corrections
and additions sent by the readers and authors have been incorporated in
the articles. Queries from readers along with the replies from authors/
EFY have also been published towards the end of relevant articles. It
is a sincere endeavour on our part to make each project as error-free
and comprehensive as possible. However, EFY cannot resume any
responsibility if readers are unable to make a circuit successfully, for
whatever reason.
This collection of a large number of tested circuit ideas and
construction projects in a handy volume would provide all classes
of electronics enthusiasts—be they students, teachers, hobbyists or
professionals—with a valuable source of electronic circuits, which
can be fabricated using readily-available and reasonably-priced
components. These circuits could either be used independently or in
combination with other circuits, described in this and other volumes.
We are sure that this volume, like its predecessors, will generate tre-mendous interest among its readers.
Section A: Construction Projects
1.
Build Your Own Pentium III PC ... 3
2.
Automatic Room Light Controller ... 17
3.
Intelligent Water Level Controller ... 21
4.
A Unique Liquid Level Indicator ... 25
5.
Interface Your Printer with 8085 Microprocessor ... 28
6.
Morse Processor ... 33
7.
Access-Control System ... 42
8.
Telephone Line-Interfaced Generic Switching System ... 46
9.
Programmable Melody Generator ... 55
10.
Auto Control for 3-Phase Motors ... 66
11.
Telephone Remote Control ... 72
12.
Microcontroller-Based School Timer ... 75
13.
Digital Capacitance-cum-Frequency Meter ... 80
14.
Fluid-Level Controller with Indicator... 84
15.
MGMA—A Mighty Gadget with Multiple Applications ... 87
16.
Traffic and Street Light Controller ... 91
17.
Lead-Acid Battery Charger with Active Power Control ... 98
18.
Amplitude Measurement of Sub-Microsecond Pulses... 101
19.
Automatic Submersible Pump Controller ... 104
20.
Transistor Curve Tracer ... 107
21.
Tripping Sequence Recorder-cum-Indicator ... 113
Section B: Circuit Ideas
1.
Electronic Starter for Single-Phase Motors ... 119
2.
Modem ‘On/Off’ Indicator ... 120
3.
Touch-Select Audio Source ... 121
4.
Precision Attenuator with Digital Control ... 121
5.
Precision Amplifier with Digital Control ... 122
6.
Random Number Generator Based Game ... 123
7.
9-Line Telephone Sharer ... 124
8.
Electronic Card Lock System ... 126
9.
Pulsed Operation of a CW Laser Diode ... 127
10.
Generation of 1-Sec. Pulses Spaced 5-Sec. Apart ... 128
11.
High-/Low-Voltage Cutout with Timer ... 129
12.
Automatic Heat Detector ... 130
13.
Musical ‘Touch’ Bell ... 131
14.
Non-Contact Liquid-Level Controller ... 131
15.
High-Power Bicycle Horn ... 133
16.
AC Mains Phase-Sequence Indicator ... 133
17.
Luxurious Toilet/Bathroom Facility ... 135
18.
EEPROM W27C512 (Winbond) Eraser ... 136
19.
Intelligent Electronic Lock ... 137
20.
Stable 455KHz BFO for SSB Reception ... 139
21.
Auto Shut-off for Cassette Players and Amplifiers ... 139
22.
House Security System ... 141
23.
Simple Water-Level Indicator-cum-Alarm ... 142
24.
Precision Inductance and Capacitance Meter ... 142
25.
Under-/Over-Voltage Beep for Manual Stabiliser ... 144
26.
Ultra-Sensitive Solidstate Clap Switch ... 145
27.
15-Step Digital Power Supply ... 145
28.
Microphone for Computer ... 147
29.
Versatile Zener Diode Tester ... 147
30.
DTMF Proximity Detector... 149
31.
Stepper Motor Control ... 149
32.
Low-Cost Intercom ... 150
33.
High-Power Car Battery Eliminator ... 151
34.
Automatic Plant Irrigator ... 152
35.
Simple Telephone Ring Tone Generator ... 152
36.
Dual-Input High-Fidelity Audio Mixer... 153
37.
Unipolar/Bipolar Triangular and Bipolar Square Wave Generator ... 154
38.
Anti-Theft Security for Car Audios ... 155
39.
PC-Based Dial Clock-cum-Electronic Roulette ... 156
40.
Long-Range Cordless Burglar Alarm ... 157
42.
Invisible Broken Wire Detector ... 160
43.
PC-Based Multi-Mode Light Chaser ... 161
44.
Fuse Status Indicators for Power-Supplies ... 163
45.
A Hierarchical Priority Encoder ... 164
46.
Digital Mains Voltage Indicator ... 165
47.
Electronic Dice ... 166
48.
Light-Operated Organ ... 168
49.
Stereo Tape Head Preamplifier for PC Sound Card ... 168
50.
Heart Beat Monitor ... 169
51.
Digital Fan Regulator... 170
52.
Running Lights and Running Holes... 171
53.
A Simple Transistor Tester ... 172
54.
12V, 3A Power Supply ... 172
55.
Speller Effect Sign Display ... 173
56.
Darkroom Timer ... 174
57.
Active Shortwave Antenna ... 174
58.
Long-Range Target Shooter ... 175
59.
Power Supply for Walkie-Talkies ... 176
60.
High-Performance Interruption Detector ... 177
61.
Digital Relay Tester for RAX and MAX ... 178
62.
Fastest Finger First Indicator ... 179
63.
Decorative Signboard ... 180
64.
Condenser Mic Audio Amplifier ... 181
65.
Smoke Alarm ... 182
S
ECTION
A
:
C
ONSTRUCTION
P
ROJECTS
Fig. 1: Block diagram of motherboard employing 810E chipset
Build Your own
Pentium iii PC
K.c. Bhasin and neeraj Kundra
T
he procedure presented herewould enable you to assemble your own multimedia personal computer. It is assumed that you have a fundamental knowledge of how a PC func-tions and some basics of electronics. By way of tools you only need Philips-head and flat-blade screwdrivers. A simple mul-timeter is the only test equipment that you would ever require during assembly, for AC and DC voltage measurement.
All the parts needed to assemble this multimedia PC with processor speed of 700 MHz are listed under Parts List. The cost of parts may vary from dealer to dealer and also with time.
It is suggested to source these items from authorised dealers who would meet their warranty obligations. We have also mentioned the brand names of the parts that we used during assembly of the basic unit. It is, however, not necessary to use identical makes, except, of course, the main processor and the motherboard, based on identical chipset mentioned later in this article.
Precautions
Before starting the actual assembly of the PC system, the following precautions would help you to avoid any mishap dur-ing the assembly process:
• While the motherboard has to be fitted at a fixed place inside the PC cabinet, the locations of add-on cards (as and when used) and the drives (hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, and CD-ROM drive) within the drives’ bay of the cabinet can be changed within certain limits. But it is better to place them far away from each other. (Of course, the length of the cable provided for interconnec-tions to the motherboard or add-on cards has to be taken into account, as
there must be some slack after these are installed and connected.) This will improve the cooling and reduce the chances of electromagnetic
interfer-ence between them.
• The motherboard contains sensitive components, which can be easily dam-aged by static electricity. Therefore the
motherboard should remain in its original antistatic envelope until it is required for installation. When it is taken out from the enve-lope, it should be immedi-ately placed on a suitable grounded conductive sur-face. The motherboard itself should be held from edges and the person taking it
out should wear an antistatic wrist strap that is properly grounded. In the absence of a proper wrist strap, you may make one on your own using a peeled off multi-strand copper cable and ground it properly. Similar han-dling precautions are also required
for DIMMS and cards.
• If you are using a motherboard dif-ferent from the one mentioned in the parts list, modify the guidelines mentioned here as per the directions given in the user’s manual (which is supplied with the moth-erboard you may be using), since there
would be some differences between any two makes of the motherboard.
• Start the assembly only after going through this article at least once. Only when you feel at ease, start the assembly of your machine as per the guidelines included in this article and the applicable user’s manuals.
• Never try to insert a card in PC slots or try to plug/unplug a connector with power supply to the PC ‘on’.
• Ensure that the mains 3-pin socket or the socket on your stabiliser/UPS that you would be using for connection to the SMPS of the computer and/or the monitor is correctly wired with ‘live’ line on your right hand side. To find out which line is live (phase) and which one is neutral, use your multimeter in 250V AC or higher range. The live line will show full voltage w.r.t. neutral pin and nearly the same voltage w.r.t. the ground pin, while the neutral pin (w.r.t. ground pin) would/ should show very little voltage (less than 10V AC). Else, the mains wiring has a problem that needs to be set right.
• Don’t drop any screw or other conducting material on your PC’s moth-erboard as that might cause shorting of pins/tracks and consequent damage when you switch it ‘on’.
• Make sure that you have a large, flat surface area to work on. That will reduce the chances of small screws etc falling and getting lost.
• While screwing components on to the chassis, do not use excessive force as that may damage the screws or their grooves/holes.
Pentium iii technology
Some points to be noted about the Pen-tium III processor being used here are:• Intel’s Pentium III processors sup-port various clock speeds from 450MHz to 933 MHz. The one meant for desktop version goes up to 1.13 GHz. (We are us-ing here a 700MHz version.)
• Integrates P6 dynamic execution architecture and a dual independent bus (DIB) architecture.
• Has a multi transaction system bus.
• Incorporates Intel’s MMX media enhancement technology.
• Supports Internet streaming single-instruction multiple data (SIMD) extensions.
• Compared to Pentium II, it has 70 new instructions, enabling advanced 3-D
Key Features of Motherboard Using Intel 810/810E Chipset
Processor
• Full support for the Intel Pentium III and Celeron processors using PGA370 socket. • Supports 66MHz and 100MHz bus speed including all PGA370.
• Supports 133MHz bus speed (810E chipset version only). VRM 8.2 (Voltage Regulator Modules) On-board
• Flexible motherboard design with on-board VRM 8.2, easy to upgrade with future proces-sors.
System Memory
• A total of two 168-pin DIMM sockets (3.3V SDRAM types). • Memory size up to 512MB.
• Supports SDRAM at 66/100 (PC100) MHz.
• Supports symmetrical and asymmetrical DRAM addressing. • Banks of different DRAM types and depths can be mixed. System BIOS
• 4-Mbit Intel Firmware hub (with security feature). • PnP, APM, ATAPI, and Windows 95/98.
• Full support of ACPI & DMI.
• Auto-detects and supports LBA hard disks with capacities over 8.4 GB. • Easily upgradable by end-user.
On-board I/O
• Supports two PCI-enhanced IDEs PIO mode 3, mode 4, and ultra DMA 33/66 channels (optional ultra DMA 66 cable). Twin headers for four IDE devices including IDE HDDs and CDROMs. • One ECP/EPP parallel port (via a header).
• Two 16550A UART parallel port (via a header).
• One floppy port. Supports two FDDs of 360KB, 720KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB, or 2.88MB (via a header).
• Four USB ports (via a header, optional). • PS/2 mouse port (via a header, optional). • AT keyboard port (factory option for PS/2 type). • Infrared (IrDA) support.
Plug-and-play
• Supports plug-and-play specification 1.1.
• Plug-and-play for DOS, Windows 3.X, Windows 95, as well as Windows 98. • Fully steerable PCI interrupts.
On-board VGA
• Hardware motion compensation for S/W MPEG2 decode (DVD). • 3-D hyper pipelined architecture.
• Full 2-D hardware acceleration. • 3-D graphics visual enhancements.
• Dynamic display memory (DDM) or optional 4MB display cache (810DC100 or 810E chipset version only).
• Resolution up to 1,600x1,200.
• Win 95 vxd, Win 98/NT5 mini-port drivers support. • VGA port (via a header).
On-board AC97 Sound
• Integrated AC97 controller with standard AC97 CODEC. • Direct Sound and Sound Blaster compatible.
• Full-duplex 16-bit record and playback. • PnP and APM 1.2 support.
• Win 95, 98, and NT drivers ready.
• Line-in, line-out, mic-in and MIDI/game port. Power Management
• Supports SMM, APM and ACPI.
• Break switch for instant suspend/resume on system operations. • Energy star ‘Green PC’-compliant.
• WAKE-ON-LAN (WOL) header support. • External modem ring-in wake-up support. Expansion Slots
• One audio modem riser (AMR).
imaging, streaming audio and video, and speech recognition.
• Has a 32k (16k for instructions and another 16k for data) as primary (level 1) non-blocking cache for rapid access to most heavily used data. In addition, it has 512k unified, non-blocking (level 2) cache or 256k advanced transfer cache integrated on die, which runs at the core frequency of the processor with very low memory access time.
the motherboard
While the processor is the most important part of the motherboard, the motherboard itself is the most important part of the com-puter system. Together with the chipset, it forms the brain of your computer.The modern motherboards do away with the large number of controller chips and cards that were used in the older XT and AT versions, such as clock generator, bus controller, timer/counter, monitor/ printer adopter, FDD and HDD control-lers, multi-I/O or super IDE controller card, and DMA controller. All the func-tions performed by these controllers/cards (and others) are now performed by just two or three chips and that too at much higher speed.
The motherboard based on Intel’s 810/810E chipset (being used in the present system) combines the advan-tage of a multimedia (screen, full-motion video with realistic graphics) and enhanced Internet performance at a budget price. With this motherboard, one does not need separate sound, video, or graphics enhancement cards. A block diagram of a motherboard employing 810E chipset is shown in Fig. 1.
Key features. The main features
of the PC Partnermotherboard used
in this project are shown in the accom-panying box. A layout diagram showing the relative position of the jumpers, connectors, major components, PCI slots, and DIMM and CPU sockets is shown in Fig. 2.
Jumper settings. Positions of
vari-ous jumpers within the motherboard are shown in Fig. 3. The jumper settings for enabling various functions are shown in Table I. Default settings are shown with an asterisk mark. (Note. Leave all these
jumpers in their default setting posi-tions for the present project. The proces-sor speed setting is to be done through CMOS setup as indicated later.)
JP35, JP36 - On Board AC97 Codec Sound
JP35 JP36 Function
1 1-2* 1 2-3* (S)# AC97 Sound Enable* 1 2-3 1 1-2 (P)# AC97 Sound Disable
TABle I
JP1, JP2—System Bus Frequency
JP1 JP2 CPU Clock Speed
1 Open 1 Open 133MHz (100MHz CPU run at 133MHz Front Side Bus) 1 Open 1 1-2 100MHz (66MHz CPU run at 100MHz Front Side Bus) 1 Close* 1 1-2* Auto*
Fig. 2: PC Partner motherboard layout diagram
JP15 - BIOS (Firm Ware Hub)
Boot Block Protect JP4 - CMOS Clear
JP15 Function JP4 Function
1 Close* Unlocked* 1 1-2* Normal
1 Open Locked 1 2-3 CMOS Clear
JP34 - On Board Crystal PCI Sound (Optional)
JP34 Function
1 1-2* PCI Sound Enable* 1 2-3 PCI Sound Disable
JP29 - Keyboard Power On Select
JP29 Function
1 1-2* Powered by +5V* 1 2-3 Powered by +5V Standby
(Allows Keyboard Power On) * Default settings # P = Primary AMR, S = Secondary AMR
Hardware installation
and checkout
Verifying components. First, carry out
a physical check of all the items as per the parts list to ensure that there are no apparent deficiencies and no signs of any physical damage, and the parts are correct as indicated by the labels on the items/pack-ages. For example, the Pentium processor pack should comprise Pentium III proces-sor labeled 700MHz/100MHz system bus, fan/heat-sink assembly, and installation
manual with 3-year lim-ited warranty. Similarly, en-sure that the 64MB SDRAM DIMM bears the label (such as PC100) to indicate that it is compatible with 100MHz system bus speed.
Checking cabinet and its accessories. The AT
mini tower PC cabinet measures approx.180mm (width) x 330mm (height) x 360mm (depth). The drive bays comprise two 133.35mm (5.25-inch) exposed, one 89mm (3.5-inch)
exposed, and two 89mm (3.5-inch) inter-nal bays.
It has 200W SMPS of VESTA make pre-installed (+5V @16A, +12V @6A, -5V @0.5A, and –12V @0.5A). LEDs with 2-pin SIP connectors are provided for power ‘on’ (green and white twisted wires), HDD (orange and white twisted wires) activity indication, and to reset push switch (blue and white twisted wires), which are re-quired to be connected to the appropriate pin pairs (Berg type) on the motherboard. (Please refer Fig. 2 to spot the correspond-ing connectors near JP34/JP4, but for the
time being, leave them alone.) An 8-ohm, 0.5W speaker (with black and red twisted wires and 4-pin connector), to go into corresponding 4-pin speaker connector on motherboard, also forms part of the cabinet.
Checking SMPS. The control
con-sole on the cabinet also has a DPDT push-button switch to switch on the mains (230V AC) to SMPS of the compu-ter and a parallel-wired 3-pin AC socket on SMPS for connecting AC power to the monitor used with the PC. At this stage, slide the shielded connectors of the four power supply wires of the SMPS into the corresponding connectors on the DPDT switch as per the diagram provided on the SMPS case (top side). The same is reproduced in Fig. 4. The white and black wires have a return path via blue and brown wires, respectively, when the power supply switch is flipped ‘on’. Con-nect the 3-pin power cord provided with the cabinet to the socket at the back of SMPS and plug 3-pin plug into the
Fig. 3: Jumper positions within motherboard
Fig. 4: Power on/off switch wiring
Fig. 5: Installation of Pentium III processor in PGA 370 socket (a)
(b) (c)
(d)
Fig. 6: DIMM installation
A A
socket of the mains supply or the UPS, as appropriate.
Switch on the SMPS. The fan blower
inside the SMPS should start running, indicating availability of +12V supply to the fan. Now verify all DC outputs of the SMPS as follows.
There are two distinct 6-pin Molex
female power connectors with projection in the middle. If these are held such that all black wires are adja-cent to each oth-er, this forms a 12-pin AT power supply connec-tor with orange wire (carrying power good sig-nal) emanating from pin 1.
The volt-ages on various pins of this joint 12-pin connector with their colour codes are shown in Table II. Check the cor-rectness of these voltages within the range as given in Table II. Then switch off the power supply and take out the 3-pin plug from the mains socket. If the AT power connector voltages are correct, you can safely assume that voltages in all other power connectors [4-pin Molex, carrying +12V (yellow wire) followed by two black wires (ground) and +5V
(red wire)] meant for various drives are also correct.
Motherboard fitment. The chassis
on which motherboard is to be mounted can be easily removed from the PC cabinet. Unscrew it and gently slide it out from the main casing. Lay it flatly on the antistatic workbench (properly grounded conductive surface). Mark the side facing the keyboard connecter cutout on the chassis.
All motherboards have standard mounting holes. The hardware supplied comprises plastic and metallic mother-board retaining fasteners/screw-holders. Metal-type screw-holders are better as these have better strength and also these ground the motherboard to the chassis. You may use four metallic screw-holders for the four corner holes in the mother-board, while the plastic fasteners may be
used for the middle holes of the mother-board.
Before attempting fitment of the mother-board, align it on the chassis such that the keyboard connector on the motherboard is towards the side marked earlier for this purpose. Now
TABle III
VGA–VGA Out Connector CN34* Pin Signal Name Pin Signal Name 1 Red signal 9 NC 2 Green signal 10 GND 3 Blue signal 11 NC
4 NC 12 Display data channel data 5 GND 13 Horizontal sync
6 GND 14 Vertical sync
7 GND 15 Display data channel clock
8 GND
*This connector is for the VGA display port. Connect a VGA or higher resolution display monitor to it.
TABle II
At Power Connector Pin Voltages
Pin Voltage Range Wire Pin Voltage Range Wire
Colour Colour
1 *P. G. 4.5V (min) Orange 7 Ground - Black
2 +5V +5%/-4% Red 8 Ground - Black
3 +12V +5%/-4% Yellow 9 -5V +10%/-8% White
4 -12V +10%/-9% Blue 10 +5V +5%/-4% Red
5 Ground - Black 11 +5V +5%/-4% Red
6 Ground - Black 12 +5V +5%/-4% Red
*P. G. = Power good signal which is +5V (delayed, 100ms – 500ms). PArTS lIST
Item Description Make
AT cabinet with SMPS, power cord, power switch, reset switch, speaker, LEDs, complete with connectors and
installation hardware packet. IMIL,
Chen-nai
Motherboard with Intel’s 810 chipset PC Partner, USA along with user’s manual, CD (containing drivers for onboard devices) and headers for motherboard connectors.
* (refer check-list) PC Partner
Pentium PIII-700 Processor Intel
64MB (PC 100)SDRAM (168-pin DIMM) Alpha
HDD (hard disk drive) Seagate
FDD (floppy disk drive) 3.5” Sony
CD-ROM drive 52X with audio cable Samsung
Keyboard Logitech
Mouse(3-button) Logitech
Colour Monitor 14” LG
USB connector bracket with 2 headers
-*list of connectors/brackets forming part of motherboard. Header (connectors with cables) for HDD (40-pin twin) - one
Header for FDD (34-pin twin) - one
Header for PS/2 mouse - one
Port bracket set with headers for:
(a) VGA (15-pin ‘D’ connector ending into 16-pin FRC and parallel port (25-pin ‘D’ ending into 26-pin FRC) - one (b) Com1 and Com2 (two 9-pin ‘D’ ending into 10-pin FRC) - two (c) Onboard AC97 sound codec (line-in, line-out, mic-in and
MIDI/game port ending into 26-pin FRC) - one
TABle IV Parallel-Port Connector CN6 Pin Signal Name Pin Signal Name
1 Strobe- 14 AFD
2 Data bit 0 15 Error 3 Data bit 1 16 INIT 4 Data bit 2 17 SLCTIN 5 Data bit 3 18 GND 6 Data bit 4 19 GND 7 Data bit 5 20 GND 8 Data bit 6 21 GND 9 Data bit 7 22 GND 10 ACK 23 GND 11 Busy 24 GND 12 PE 25 GND 13 SLCT 26 GND TABle V COM1/COM2–Serial Connectors CN4*, CN5* Pin Signal Name Pin Signal Name
1 DCD 6 DSR
2 SIN 7 RTS
3 SOUT 8 CTS
4 DTR 9 RI
5 GND 10 NC
*These connectors are for the serial port bracket. Both connectors have the same pin-outs.
fit all the screw-holders/fasteners, as discussed above, on the chassis, oppo-site the holes on the motherboard, using Philips screws pro-vided in the hard-ware packet. Align the motherboard above the fasteners and push it down, so that the self-retaining heads of plastic fasteners pop out from the respective holes. For the metallic screw-holders, use Philips screws to secure the motherboard to the chassis firmly without using exces-sive force.
Pentium processor mounting (re-fer Fig. 5). The processor is to be fitted
into the PGA370 (pin grid array with 370-pin recesses) socket, which is a ZIF (zero insertion force) socket. Take out the processor and its heat sink fitted with cooling fan and heat sink retainer clip ‘D’. Now proceed as follows:
1. Lift handle ‘A’ to its vertical posi-tion [refer Fig. 5(a)].
2. Align the processor pins with the socket holes and insert the processor into its socket [refer Fig. 5(b)].
3. With the processor in its socket, lower handle ‘A’ and bring it to its closed (horizontal) position [refer Fig. 5(c)].
4. Orient the heat sink (with fan on top) such that the depression on one side of the heat sink matches the correspond-ing projection on PGA370 socket, and place it (along with fan) over the proces-sor [refer Fig. 5(c)].
5. On the PGA370 socket, there are two small projections on opposite sides, in which the heat sink clip has to be inserted. While it is fairly easy to insert one side, it is rather tricky to insert the left-out side as it needs to be pulled down with considerable force to engage it into the projection. You may use the flat
screwdriver tip to do this, but be careful that screwdriver does not slip and dam-age the tracks on the motherboard [refer Fig. 5(d)].
6. Connect the 3-pin fan connector to the corresponding connector CN17 marked ‘CPU Fan’ on the motherboard.
DIMM installation (Fig. 6). There
are two 168-pin SDRAM DIMM sockets on the motherboard with socket 1 marked ‘1’ and socket 2 left unmarked. The two sockets can together accept 512MB SDRAM (i.e. up to 256 MB each). We propose to install a single 64MB DIMM, which is quite adequate for current type of applications. It can be inserted into any of the two sockets and the same will be automatically suitably configured during setup. Remove the DIMM from its anti-static envelope, holding it by its edges. Proceed as follows:
1. Using fingertips, push the retainer clips on either side of the DIMM socket slightly away from the socket.
2. Position the DIMM to be installed above the socket, aligning the two small
TABle VI
Audio & Game Port Pin Header CN341*
Pin Signal Name Pin Signal Name Pin Signal Name Pin Signal Name
1 VCC 8 GND 15 NC 22 MIC-in
2 VCC 9 XTD 16 VCC 23 NC
3 SWC 10 GND 17 Line-out 24 GND
4 SWA 11 SWB 18 Line-out 25 Line-in
5 XTC 12 XTB 19 GND 26 Line-in
6 XTA 13 MSIN 20 GND
7 MSOUT 14 SWD 21 MIC-in
*This header is for the audio port bracket. It connects audio ports-stereo line-out, stereo line-in and microphone—and a game port (for a joystick or MIDI device) to your system.
TABle VII CN7: USB Port Pin Assignment 1 VCC 2 GND 3 USBP1-4 USBP0+ 5 USBP1+ 6 USBP0-7 GND 8 VCC TABle VIII
IDE Connector Pin Definitions (J18, J19) Pin Function Pin Function
1 Reset IDE 2 GND
3 Host data 7 4 Host data 8 5 Host data 6 6 Host data 9 7 Host data 5 8 Host data 10 9 Host data 4 10 Host data 11 11 Host data 3 12 Host data 12 13 Host data 2 14 Host data 13 15 Host data 1 16 Host data 14 17 Host data 0 18 Host data 15
19 GND 20 Key 21 DRQ3 22 GND 23 I/O Write- 24 GND 25 I/O Read- 26 GND 27 IOCHRDY 28 BALE 29 DACK3- 30 GND 31 IRQ14 32 IOCS16-33 Addr 1 34 GND 35 Addr 0 36 Addr 2 37 Chip select 0 38 Chip select 1-39 Activity 40 GND
notches at the bottom edge of DIMM with the corresponding keys in the socket.
3. Push the DIMM vertically down, inserting its bottom edge into the socket.
4. Once seated properly, push DIMM down from the top edge until the retainer clips snap into place and the DIMM is firmly held into its position.
Cable set installation. While the
motherboard chassis is still not replaced into the case, you could install one of the ends of all the cables originating from the motherboard. The installation of cables, which originated from SMPS and the con-trol panel of the case (LEDs, reset switch, and the speaker), would be completed after the motherboard chassis is screwed back into the PC case.
The cables to be connected to the FRC-type male connectors/headers on the motherboard are listed below, and the pin assignments are shown in the referred tables. On the motherboard, normally, only start pin 1 is indicated. In an FRC connector, all odd number pins are in one row while even number pins are in the opposite row; pin 2 is opposite pin 1, pin 4 is opposite pin 3, and so on.
Pin 1 on the mating FRC female con-nector can be identified by an arrow mark over it. Ribbon cable wire going into pin 1 is of red (sometimes blue) colour. Some of the FRC connector pairs have a notch
TABle IX
Floppy Connector Pin Definitions (JP26) Pin Function Pin Function
1 GND 2 FDHDIN 3 GND 4 Reserved 5 Key 6 FDEDIN 7 GND 8 Index-9 GND 10 Morot enable 11 GND 12 Drive select B-13 GND 14 Drive select A-15 GND 16 Motor enable 17 GND 18 DIR-19 GND 20 STEP-21 GND 22 Write data-23 GND 24 Write gate-25 GND 26 Track 00-27 GND 28 Write protect-29 GND 30 Read data-31 GND 32 Side 1 select-33 GND 34 Diskette TABle X PS/2 Mouse Connector* Pin Description Pin Description
1 Mouse data 2 NC
3 Ground 4 +5V
5 Mouse clock 6 NC
*This connector is for the optional PS/2 mouse port bracket.
and the corresponding projection, which serves as a key so that they can go only the correct way. The cables used for the drives have an additional connector in the middle (for slave in case of HDD and drive B in case of FDD, which will be ex-plained later). Using the tips given here, you can install the motherboard end of the following cables:
• 16-pin VGA connector CN34 (refer Table III).
• 26-pin parallel-port connector CN6 (refer Table IV).
• 10-pin serial/com ports 1 and 2, CN4 and CN5 (refer Table V).
• 26-pin sound cable connector CN31 (refer Table VI).
• 8-pin USB connector CN7 (refer Table VII).
• 40-pin IDE-1 connector for HDD/CD-ROM drive CN1 (refer Table VIII).
• 34-pin FDD connector CN3 (refer Table IX).
• 6-pin PS/2 mouse connector CN8 (refer Table X).
• Installation of drives in drive’s bay. Before proceeding with the physical
installation of CD-ROM drive, hard disk drive, and floppy drive in the drive’s bay, you have to plan their configuration. We propose to use only one floppy drive. This drive will be configured as floppy drive ‘A’. The 34-pin floppy drive cable end with twisted wires, emanating from CN3 on the motherboard, needs to be connected
to floppy drive (DS1 in Fig.7).
Let us configure the HDD as primary master and CD-ROM drive as primary slave using a sin-gle cable emanating from CN1 (IDE-1 header) on the motherboard (refer Fig. 8). (We could alternatively configure CD-ROM drive as secondary master and connect it directly to CN2 (IDE-2 con-nector) in motherboard, using another 40-pin cable/connector.)
The jumper on HDD should be used to short pins 7 and 8 on the jumper block at the rear of HDD (refer Fig. 9). Simi-larly, there is a jumper block at the rear of CD-ROM drive with the pairs of pins marked as CS (cable select), SL (slave), and MA (master). Ensure that jumper is used in the middle to select the slave mode for CD-ROM. The cable connection arrangement for HDD and CD-ROM is shown in Fig. 8.
Before installation of drives, note down pin-1 orientation/position of the 34-/40-pin interface cable connectors on the drives.
The CD-ROM drive may be installed in the topmost position for 13.33cm (5.25-inch) drive, after pushing out the plastic piece (used for protection) cover-ing the cutout in this drive’s bay. Align it from the front side of the case to en-sure that it is flush with the cabinet’s external surface. Using four Philips screws (6-32 UNC) secure it in proper horizontal position. The screws should not be allowed to go more than 3.5 mm into the threaded holes.
Suitable cutout also exists in the drive bay for installing the 8.9cm (3.5-inch) floppy drive. Before fitting, ensure that drive door in the front opens downward (hinged towards top). For installing floppy drive follow the same procedure as used for fixing CD-ROM drive.
The HDD can now be installed at the lowest closed (without any cutout in front) position in the drive bay. Secure it like the other drives using four Philips screws.
• Completing the hardware in-stallation. After having completed the
installation of drives and the cable set of the motherboard, install back the as-sembled motherboard chassis (complete with its cable/connector set) into the PC cabinet and then complete the cabling as follows.
You may start with AT power supply connectors. By now you are familiar with two 6-pin Molex connectors from SMPS used for powering the motherboard (re-fer paragraph under heading ‘Checking SMPS’ in Part I). Take connecter with orange wire (PG signal) first and align it over pin 1 of PW1 connector on mother-board. Projections on Molex connector of SMPS would engage into corresponding holes in PW1 connector. Once you have engaged the connector in this fashion, make it vertical and then simply slide it down. It will snap into its position. (Be careful not to bend the pins and ensure that you have not engaged the wrong pins.) Similarly, insert the other 6-pin Molex connector in the adjacent pins of AT power connector. On installation, all black coloured wires will be adjacent to each other.
Some of the connectors originating from the motherboard (e.g. COM1, COM2, and VGA connectors) can be secured into the cutouts provided on the case below the SMPS. Thus secure the ‘D’ connectors for COM1, COM2, and VGA into the respec-tive cutouts using Philips screws. This saves the precious space inside the PC case and gives it an ethical look.
For accommodating the panel/bracket for 25-pin ‘D’ connector of parallel port and PS/2 mouse as well as audio panel/bracket, remove two of the cutouts from the rear of the case by just forcing them out with hands, and secure these brackets in the vacant positions using Philips screws.
Now you may terminate the connectors originating from control panel on the cabinet at the motherboard. Connect the loudspeaker connector to CN14, power-on LED connector to CN12, HDD LED connector to CN13, and reset switch connector
to CN11. (Correct orientation
can be ensured by matching the pin connected to coloured
Fig. 7: Floppy drive cable for connecting up to two FDDs
Fig. 8: Connection of HDD and CD-ROM drive using IDE-1 header
from CN1 in the motherboard to CD-ROM drive and its end connector to HDD, ensur-ing that pin 1 of connector pairs correctly match. (Projection/slot in the middle of connectors will help you in proper orien-tation of the connectors, unless you try to force it in with wrong orientation.) Follow it up by connecting the 34-pin floppy drive end-connector (at the end of twisted cable) to the interface connector of floppy drive. This header originates from CN3 on the motherboard.
The 4-pin Molex-type power supply connectors now remain to be connected to the drives. Ensure that rounded shoulder on the female connectors mate correctly with the corresponding male power connectors on CD-ROM drive and HDD. In all cases you will observe that yellow wire (+12V) pin faces the PC case cover.
For FDD, use the 4-pin mini power supply connector. This con-nector, if inserted properly, will lock itself into position. To take out this connector, you should press the retaining lever with your fingertip. Connect one of the 4-pin connectors—CN24 or CN33 or CN32—to analogue audio out-put connector on CD-ROM drive,
after correctly matching the ground pin ‘G’ marked over the analogue audio connec-tor on CD-ROM drive (refer Fig. 10) and those of CN24 or CN33 or CN32 as given in Table XI.
If you have followed all the tips reli-giously, your hardware assembly is com-plete on closing the cover of the cabinet using four to six Philips screws. But before you do that, have a look again to ensure that no loose wires are hanging around. After closing the cover, you may connect the keyboard cable to the keyboard con-nector, mouse cable to COM1 concon-nector, and amplified speakers’ banana-type stereo jack into the line-out plug on the audio bracket.
Now that hardware assembly part of the basic unit is over, installation of other cards, such as LAN card (for networking), internal modem card (for Internet access), and TV tuner card, into the PCI slots, using the software drivers supplied with them, can be attempted subsequently.
Creating a startup disk
Eventually you will be using Windows operating system (say, Windows 98), and for that you should be having Microsoft Windows 98 installation CD. Use some other PC having Windows 98 operating system to create a ‘startup disk’. The idea is to have all important files, including system files, Fdisk.exe, and Format.com files, in hand, so that you may proceedFig. 9: Back-panel connector details of HDD and CD-ROM drives
SCrEEnShotS CMoS SEtUp MEnUS
Continued
TABle XI
Pin Assignment Internal Audio Connector Internal Audio Connector CN25 : AUX-IN Pin Assignment 1 AUX-L 2 GND 3 GND 4 AUX-R CN24 : CD-IN Pin Assignment 1 CD-L 2 GND 3 GND 4 CD-R CN33 : CD-IN Pin Assignment 1 CD-R 2 GND 3 CD-L 4 GND CN32 : CD-IN Pin Assignment 1 GND 2 CD-L 3 GND 4 CD-R
(not white) wire to go into pin 1 of the connectors in motherboard.)
Now connect the 40-pin middle con-nector (in the ribbon cable) originating
with hardware partitioning and format-ting of hard disk once you switch on your newly assembled PC for the first time.
To make a startup disk, get a new formatted 8.9cm (3.5-inch) floppy. On the working computer, click ‘start button’, select settings, double click on icon ‘add/ remove programs’, select ‘startup disk’, insert formatted floppy in floppy drive, and click over the ‘create disk’ button seen on monitor’s screen.
The program would prompt you for insertion of original Windows 98 CD in CD-ROM drive. Insert the same and click on ‘OK’ button. Even if you do not have the original CD, but have all programs in Win98 directory in ‘C:’ drive, you can give the proper path and the appropriate programs will be copied to the startup floppy disk.
CmoS setup
Switch on the newly assembled PC. It performs power-on-self-test (POST). Dur-ing POST you will find ‘Num Lock’, ‘Caps Lock’, and ‘Scroll Lock’ LEDs flashing. A single short beep during POST indicates that motherboard is ‘OK’.
Certain messages will keep appearing on the screen of your monitor, including “Press Del to enter CMOS setup”. When this message appears, press ‘Del’ key to enter setup. The CMOS Setup Utility screen appears on monitor screen (refer screenshot 1). There are seven items on the left, which can be selected using ar-row keys on your keyboard. On the right, it shows certain options that are quite obvious and can be interactively executed when required.
Select the first item on the left, “Standard CMOS Features”, and press enter to see its screen (refer screenshot 2). Use arrow keys to move between the items and ‘Page Up’ or ‘Page Down’ key to edit or select the options. You may correct the date, including year and century, and the time to their current values.
You would notice from screenshot 2 that during power up, the BIOS has identified the primary master (Seagate’s 10GB hard disk ST310211A), 52X Sam-sung’s CD-ROM Drive SC-15, floppy drives, video, and RAM address range (including its breakdown). This latest Award BIOS 1984-2000 does not contain ‘Auto Detect Hard Disk’ as a separate utility in the CMOS setup options.
To select any other screen/setup utility option, press ‘Esc’, select the next item from setup utility menu, and press ‘Enter’. The next screenshot (screen shot 3) pertains to ‘Advanced BIOS Features’. Here you may edit and change the first,
second, and third boot devices to read CD-ROM, HDD-0, and floppy, respec-tively. This will enable you to boot/run the computer from CD-ROM (if you have a Windows installation), CD, HDD (after formatting and transferring the system files), or floppy drive (using the startup floppy created earlier), in that priority.
Press ‘Esc’ to come back to the open-ing screen. For the time beopen-ing, skip utilities/screens 4 through 7 with their default values. Select the last “Fre-quency/Voltage Control” menu item. Edit ‘CPU clock/spread spectrum’ item to read ‘100MHz/On’. Thereafter press ‘Esc’ and select ‘Save and Exit Setup’ or F10 key, and then ‘Y’ and ‘Enter’ for saving the edited BIOS selections.
Hdd partitioning and
formatting
Assuming that you have Windows 98 installation CD in CD-ROM drive, the PC will boot from the CD and start the Windows 98 setup program. Press function key ‘F3’ to come out of the setup program and come to the prompt ‘D:\Win98>’. Type ‘Fdisk’ and press ‘Enter’ for starting with
the partitioning of HDD. (Note. We could
have used the ‘start up’ floppy in Drive ‘A’ instead of inserting Windows CD in CD-ROM drive and come to ‘A:\>’ prompt for running the ‘Fdisk’ program from ‘A’ drive, if desired.)
On pressing ‘Enter’ key, the following FDISK main menu appears:
Current fixed disk drive: 1 Choose one of the following:
1. Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive 2. Set active partition
3. Delete partition or logical DOS drive
4. Display partition information Enter choice: [ ]
Press Esc to exit FDISK
Enter choice 1 above and press ‘Enter’ key. The next menu on page 2 appears as follows:
1. Create primary DOS partition? 2. Create extended DOS partition? 3. Create logical DOS partition?
Type ‘1’ and press ‘Enter’ key. The program verifies integrity of the disk and then displays.
Do you wish to use max. size for a primary DOS partition and make it ac-tive. Y/N?
Type ‘N’ and press ‘Enter’. (Because, we propose to create two DOS partitions of equal size.) Once again the program verifies integrity of the disk and prompts you to enter/specify partition in megabytes or percentage of disk space. Type 50% and press ‘Enter’. The program complies. Now press ‘Esc’ key to return to the main FDISK menu.
Now enter choice 2. (The primary DOS partition created earlier becomes active.) The program will ask you to enter the number of partitions. As it is currently ‘1’ on ‘C’ drive, therefore type ‘1’ and press ‘Enter’.
Again press ‘Esc’. (Do not press ‘Esc’ key more than once, else it will come out of FDISK.) Again you are led to main FDISK menu.
Enter choice 1. You will come to menu on page 2. Now enter choice 2 to create extended DOS partition. The program
will again verify the integrity of the disk and show availability of 50% of the disk space for extended DOS partition. Type 50% for extended DOS partition and press ‘Enter’.
Again press ‘Esc’ (only once). The pro-gram will ask you to specify the disk space for logical drive. Simply press ‘Enter’ and then press ‘Esc’ to come back to the main FDISK menu. Choose option 4 to display the information. After looking at the parti-tion informaparti-tion that it has been correctly done, press ‘Esc’ to come out. Press keys CTRL+ALT+DEL or RESET button for settings to take effect. The PC will boot from CD-ROM drive as per settings done in the CMOS setup. On booting you will again come to the setup part of Windows 98 program. Hence to come out of it, press
F3. Now your drives are designated as under:
C: First partition on hard disk D: Extended partition on hard disk E: CD-ROM drive
Now you will be able to access CD-ROM drive by typing ‘E:’. After the prompt ‘E:\>’, type ‘Format C:/S/U/V’ and press ‘Enter’. (Here ‘C:’ refers to drive to be for-matted, ‘S’ to system (transfer of system files to ‘C’ drive during formatting), ‘U’ to unconditional, and ‘V’ to verification.) Af-ter formatting ‘C’ drive, you will come back to the prompt ‘E:\Win98>’. Type ‘setup’ and press ‘Enter’ to install Windows 98 on ‘C’ drive.
As the program is interactive, keep answering the questions logically. Choose ‘typical’ while selecting the Windows
ver-
sion. Various messages like ‘enter compu-ter name’, workgroup, etc keep appearing, which you may reply suitably. Against ‘date/time zone’ selection, choose India.
Computer will show the Agreement format that you are bound to accept. Hence click on the appropriate button.
Before proceeding with the Windows installation, the program prompts you for entering the key number of Windows 98 product, which accompanies each original copy. You must type the key number ac-curately. It will then copy the Windows 98 files to ‘C’ drive in Win98 directory. This will obviate use of Windows CD for creating a startup file, whenever required.
To format drive ‘D’, double click on My Computer icon, click the right button on drive D:, choose ‘Format’, and in ‘For-mat D:’ menu box, choose full and click on ‘Start’ button. After completion of the formatting of ‘D’ drive, it is accessible for read/write operations. This completes par-titioning and formatting of the hard disk.
loading
motherboard drivers
• On-board VGA display driver. Whenthe PC is running, insert the motherboard driver CD that came with the motherboard (PCPartner driver’s CD, in our case) into CD-ROM drive. Select drive ‘E’, select ‘In-tel Chipset Products’, 810, VGA , Win9X, and Graphics, in that order, and double click on its ‘Setup.exe’ icon and follow the instructions on screen. After finishing, shut down the PC as per Windows shut-down procedure and restart to allow the drivers to take effect.
• On-board AC97 Codec sound driver. Click on ‘Start’ button, select
set-tings, select control panel, double click on ‘System’ icon, click on ‘Device Manager’, go to ‘Other Devices’, double click on ‘PCI multimedia’, select ‘PCI Audio’, click on ‘Remove button’ (since compatible soft-ware drivers have not yet been installed to avoid conflicts), and then click on ‘refresh’ button.
Go back to control panel and, click on ‘Add new H/W’. A wizard guides you through rest of the process, and in due course, a message “Found new hardware – PCI multimedia audio, display, sound video” appears. The program asks if you have disk (drivers). Click the ‘Browse’ button, select E:, ‘Intel Chipset Products’, 810 , AC97 Sound, CS4299, Win98, in that
order, and run ‘Setup’.
During the setup, when the program prompts you for selec-tion of device, choose ‘Crystal Audio Codec’ and click ‘OK’. Again during the course of driver installation for Crystal Audio Codec, the program will prompt you for location of Windows 98 files, which you may browse and point towards C:\Win98 directory or towards Windows CD as E:\Win98 and click ‘OK’ button. After finishing, you may verify, via ‘Device Manager’ (refer preceding para) by clicking on ‘Sound, Video and Game control-ler’ icon, that ‘Crystal Audio Co-dec’ as also ‘Crystal Audio Codec with Game Device’ appear under it. (A sound icon will concurrently appear on the bottom line of your desktop.)
• Intel Firmware Hub configuration. In ‘Device
Man-ager’ under ‘Other Devices’, an
‘Unknown Device’ would still appear. This concerns ‘Intel’s Firmware Hub’. To correct this problem, again go to 810 subdirectory on the CD, double click on ‘INF_install’, and then on ‘Setup.exe’ within that sub-directory. A message “Found New Device – Intel Firmware Hub” appears on the screen. This device will be automatically configured when you follow the instruc-tions appearing on the screen properly. To confirm that there are no unknown devices now, open ‘Device Manager’ and check all the items under ‘Other Devices’.
With installation of drivers for on-board devices, hardware and software configuration of your multimedia PC is complete. Other secondary functions such as power management functions— APM (advanced power management) or ACPI (advanced configuration and power management interface)—can be
incorpo-rated later through CMOS ‘Power Man-agement Setup’ fa-cility. Similarly, you can install Ethernet card for LAN and modem card for the Inter-net, fax, and e-mail accessibility via telecom lines. A brief information on these additional functions is given below.
• APM. APM caters to the PC to enter
an energy-saving standby mode. BIOS enables APM by default. It can be initiated in the following ways:
1. By specifying time-out period in BIOS setup program.
2. By connecting a hardware suspend/ resume switch to CN10 on the mother-board.
3. From ‘Suspend’ menu item in Win-dows.
• ACPI. ACPI provides direct control
to the operating system over the power management as well as plug-‘n’-play func-tions. Features include:
1. Power management control of individual devices, add-on cards, video display, and HDD.
2. Methods for achieving less than 30W operation in ‘Power-on Suspend Sleeping State’ and less than 5W in ‘Sus-pend to Disk Sleeping State’.
3. A soft-off feature to power off the PC.
4. Support for multiple wake-up events for the PC to resume normal operation.
5. Support for front-panel power and ‘sleep’ mode switch.
• Ethernet card for LAN. Ethernet
cards capable of running at 10Mbps to 100Mbps, of different makes such as Intel, Real Tek, Mercury and Dax, as Ethernet PCI adapter are available in the market.
diskette, and user manual. The bracket would have an LED and RJ-45 jack. This jack is used for running a twisted-pair unshielded cable (max. length 100 metres) between the card and the hub/ concentrator (10Base-T or 100Base-Tx) to which other computer’s LAN cards are similarly connected. Once the cable is connected to the hub, the LED on Ether-net card would light up. Before installing, remove a cutout opposite the PCI slot to make space for the bracket of Ethernet card. When you install the card, the
power to the PC should be ‘off’.
When you switch ‘on’ the computer, it automatically detects its presence and ‘New Hardware Wizard’ appears on the screen to guide you through the installation process. It asks for location of the drivers. The driver’s floppy can be inserted in ‘A’ drive and path can be in-dicated. You can then proceed further, as per instructions appearing on the screen, to complete its installation.
• Modem. 56kbps PnP (plug-‘n’-play
compatible) and Windows 95/98
compat-ible internal modem cards are available from different manufacturers for instal-lation in any of the PCI slots. The modem card will have a telephone line jack for connection of telephone line from wall socket, a parallel phone jack for connect-ing a telephone set, and Mic and speaker jacks for external mic and speakers for use with voicemail and speakerphone facili-ties, respectively.
For installing the drivers, the pro-cedure would be similar to that used for installation of the Ethernet card. ❏
Readers’ comments:
Q1. The authors have shown
irresponsi-bility by planning to install a Pentium III processor on a PGA 370 socket meant for a Celeron or lower processor.
Adarsh Soodan Through e-mail
Q2. The article is really interesting and
useful. Please clarify the following techni-cal terms:
1. PS/2 mouse connector 2. Energy Star, Green PC 3. Audio modem riser (AMR)
R. Sreerekha Hareendran Kollam, Kerala
Q3. I request the authors to clear the
fol-lowing doubts.
1. Is there any single and reliable dealer in Chennai, Bangalore or Kerala from where I can procure all the com-ponents.
2. Is the PC available in kit form? 3. Instead of a 35.5 cm (14-inch) colour monitor, can I use a 43.2 cm (17-inch) col-our monitor with this PC, without making any alterations. Further, is there any 43.2 cm LCD, colour monitor available for this PC. In that case what are all the altera-tions required to be made?
A. Venugopalan Unny Palakkad
Q4. Please clarify:
1. What is the difference between a boot disk and a start-up disk?
2. How can I increase the HDD capac-ity to 20 GB? Further, how can I partition HDD into four sections (logical drives) and CD-ROM drive as the fifth drive?
3. Define primary master/slave and secondary master/slave.
4. How can I configure HDD as ary master and CD-ROM drive as second-ary slave?
5. Provide a few tips for attaching a CD-writer and also a DVD drive to the system.
T. K. Hareendran, Kadakkal
Q5. I have successfully assembled the
PC as per the given procedure using a 128MB RAM instead of a 64MB RAM. Please answer the following regarding this project:
1. How should I proceed to partition my hard disk into four logical drives?
2. The booting speed of my PC is lower than that of my colleague’s PC that uses 500MHz Celeron processor and 64MB RAM. Why so?
3. What is the difference between AMI BIOS and AWARD BIOS?
Narla Sankar Through e-mail
Q6. Following the guidelines in the article,
I have successfully assembled my PC using altogether a different processor (500MHz AMD K6-2) and a different motherboard (Tomato with SIS 530 Chipset) with Award BIOS. All is well except that dur-ing the first switchdur-ing, it flashes “CMOS checksum error” and “CMOS battery failed”. The former message “Checksum error” does not appear on restarting the PC. Is this problem due to wrong orienta-tion of BIOS chip?
Vinod D. Buchia Gandhidham
Authors, K.C. Bhasin and Neeraj Kun-dra, state:
A1. We have not only planned but
also installed the Intel’s Pentium III processor in PGA 370 socket, and the system is up and running superbly at EFY ever since.
In fact, Fig. 5 showing its installation in PGA 370 socket is from Intel Pentium III processor installation notes which ac-company the Intel Pentium III processor. So the remarks made by the reader are totally unwarranted.
A2. 1. PS/2-compatible keyboard and
mouse connector are miniature 6-pin DIN connectors unlike the PCAT 5-pin keyboard and 9-/25-pin (comport) connec-tor for the mouse. The pin signals are: 1.
Data; 2. N/C (not connected); 3. Ground; 4. Vcc; 5. Clock; and 6. N/C.
2. Label Energy Star is awarded by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USA, for products which meet its specifi-cations. It was introduced in 1992. Green PC is Energy Star program developed by EPA for minimising unnecessary en-ergy consumption and release of harmful chemicals during production, especially chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that cause depletion of ozone layer.
3. The AMR (audio modem riser) card is a new modular specification that inte-grates the audio/modem functions on the motherboard by assigning the analogue I/O functions to a riser card. Integration of the audio/modem function enhances system capabilities while reducing costs. The AMR interface is based on an AC-link that is compliant with Intel audio codec ’97 version 2.1 specification. It supports data, fax, and voice modes. The pin details of its 46-pin edge connector are given in Table I.
The general features of the card in-clude:
– Transmission protocols supported (ITU-T V.90 and K56flex, V.34, V.32is, V.22bis, V.21, Bell 212A, and Bell 103)
– Maximum download speed of 56,000 bps
– Virtual COM Port throughput – 460.8 kbps
– Call progress monitor – On-/off-hook control
– DTMF detection and generation – Distinctive ring for data, fax, and voice
– Call ID support (optional)
We will try to publish troubleshoot-ing procedures for the PC, in EFY, very soon.
A3. 1. We have not carried out a
mar-ket survey of the cities/states mentioned by you and as such we cannot provide you any related information.
