VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications download pdf (Page 19)

36 MAXIMUMPC HOLIDAY 2005

Upgrade Your Optical Drive

Whether you’re sticking with traditional Parallel ATA drives or moving to an all-SATA conﬁ guration, installing a

new optical drive is just like installing a new hard drive—only easier! But that doesn’t mean you can be care-

less, or that you should whiz through the process; for example, you’ll want to screw the drive ﬁ rmly into both

sides of the case using all four screws. This will signiﬁ cantly reduce the amount of rattle and hum that high-

speed optical drives generate.

Although new hardware appears all the

time, and new standards have their own

installation routines and quirks, there

remain a handful of simple upgrad-

ing maxims that apply to any upgrad-

ing scenario. We inherited these pearls

of wisdom from our grandfathers and

grandmothers, and now we pass them

along to you.

ALWAYS ground yourself before touching

any components inside your PC. Simply

touch the metal on the side of your PC’s

case when it’s off but still plugged in. Wear-

ing an antistatic wrist strap is even better,

but these aren’t of much use if they’re not

attached to something that’s grounded;

plus, they itch.

ALWAYS read all the directions before

you begin your upgrading project. Docu-

mentation is notoriously poor, so you might

end up completing a step only to ﬁ nd that

the directions warn you after the fact not to

epoxy your hand to the case.

ALWAYS write down your components’

model and serial numbers before installing

them. You’ll probably never need them if you

do, but we can almost guarantee that you

will need them if you don’t.

NEVER close your case before the ﬁ rst

boot. We know you’re eager to get up and

running, but your new rig will need a little

shakedown time ﬁ rst. Before you close

the case, make sure your upgraded rig

is stable. You should also go through the

Device Manager to make sure there aren’t

any yellow exclamation marks next to any

components.

ALWAYS install your drivers in the cor-

rect order. This shouldn’t be necessary,

but it is. When performing a fresh install of

Windows XP, start with the OS, move on

to Service Pack 2 (if it wasn’t slipstreamed

with the OS install), drop in your mobo’s

chipset drivers, follow that with DirectX,

and then your videocard drivers. Finally,

hoof it to www.windowsupdate.com to

download the latest critical updates.

NEVER reuse thermal paste. Wipe off the

old stuff with 99 percent isopropyl alcohol

and lay on a fresh supply.

If your new Parallel ATA optical

drive must share a channel with a

hard drive or another optical drive,

conﬁ gure one device as master and the

other as slave. Because some operat-

ing systems have difﬁ culty booting from

slave devices, your hard drive should

be set up as master and your optical

drive as slave. Now you can move on

to installing the drive and connecting its

data and power cables.

You’ll recall that each Parallel ATA

device must be conﬁ gured as

either the master or the slave; but

in an ideal world, your optical drive will

have a channel all to itself so it doesn’t

have to share bandwidth. We set up

this drive as the master, using jumpers

on the back of the device. You’ll ﬁ nd a

jumper diagram for your drive either in

its documentation or on a label on the

drive itself.

If your new optical drive is a Serial

ATA model, you won’t have to fool

with all this master/slave non-

sense: Just pop in the drive (remember

to use all four screws and tighten them

ﬁ rmly). Now connect the SATA cable

to the SATA port on your mobo or

expansion card and plug in either the

legacy four-pin power connector or

the slimmer, extra-fancy SATA power

cable—but not both, obviously.

DISASTER CONTROL The best way to deal with upgrading horrors is to prevent them

1 2 ... 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ... 55 56

Comments to this Manuals

No comments

VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications Page 19

Comments to this Manuals