3.11.5 Practice Questions Expansion Cards

Riser Explanation Riser cards attach to the motherboard and have expansion cards plug into them instead of the motherboard. The primary benefit of a riser card is that by installing expansion cards parallel to the motherboard, it is possible to create a low-profile design. Communications and Networking Riser (CNR) is a type of expansion slot found on some motherboards that is used for network and sound expansion boards. Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMIA) cards were used several years ago to add devices to laptops. VESA Local bus was also a type of expansion slot found on older motherboards that was primarily used for the video interface.

PCI Express Explanation The PCI Express expansion buses are most commonly used for devices such as sound cards, modems, network cards , and storage device controllers. While you can use PCI for video, better performance is obtained from PCI Express. CNR is a legacy on motherboard slot to support networking, wireless communication, sound, or modem functions. AMR slots also legacy buses provided on some motherboards for riser cards to support sound or modem.

PCI Explanation PCI buses are most commonly used for devices such as sound cards, modems, and network cards. The AGP and VESA expansion buses are most commonly used for videa. ISA buses were used to connect peripheral cards to the motherboards, but are considered a legacy device and are no longer available in newer systems.

PCIe Explanation A PCI Express (PCIe) expansion bus is best for high-speed, high-resolution, three-dimensional graphics. The PCIe standard supports a data rate that is dramatically faster than AGP. VESA is an older graphics interface that was replaced by AGP many years ago. PCI and ISA are typically used for non-video expansion cards. While PCI can be used for video, PCIe offers better performance.

The driver has been tested by Microsoft. The driver file has not been altered. Explanation A Microsoft digital signature is your assurance that a particular file has met a certain level of testing, and that the file has not been altered or overwritten by another program's installation process. Unfortunately, this testing cannot completely eliminate the possibility of drivers interfering with each other, nor can it ensure that the most recent driver has been installed. Later drivers can be installed, and both the earlier and more recent drivers may carry digital signatures from Microsoft. Typically, separate drivers are provided for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Device Manager Explanation After a device has been installed, used Device Manager to modify non-Plug and -Play parameters such as IRQ, memory address, and DMA channel.

Hot-swappable Explanation Inserting and removing PC cards without rebooting the computer is called hot-swapping. This feature is also called dynamic reconfiguration. Plug-and-Play devices are automatically detected by the system and the driver is automatically leaded. Unless the bus and device is hot-swappable, Plug-and -Play devices should be added or removed with the system shut down. An attachment (ATA) is the standard interface for transferring data from storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives.

Card is not properly seated. Explanation In moving the computer, it is likely that the card became jostled and is no longer properly seated in the expansion slots. None of the other options would have been affected in just moving the computer. FireWire does not use IRQs for configuration. Simply moving the computer such a short distance would not require adding an external power supply if it wasn't needed before. Moving the computer does not change drivers used for devices.