Practical excercise II

Date 29/09/08
Unit 2

Computer Systems

Dilyana Manolova

Task: Connecting a secondary device (CD-ROM) to the IDE2 of the motherboard. Set one of the devices as Master and the other one as Slave.

People involved:
Working in a team of two including Nathan and Dilyana Manolova 159400

Used equipment:
Antistatic Wrist strap
Screw drivers – Phillips and Slotted

Health and Safety procedures followed:
1. Cleared enough space for work on the desk.
2. Took a machine from the shelves and put it on the working desk.
3. Took out the Tool kit pack and prepared them for use.
4. Listened to the instructions of the tutor: how to connect a second device – CD-ROM, and what to be aware of not to cause damage of the equipment.
5. Put an antistatic wrist strap to protect the equipment.
6. Checked the power before started to work.
7. During all these steps of taking out the computer components and putting them back in the computer, we were using our antistatic wrist strap and the written above screw drivers.

Description of the task:
We needed to open the computer case and connect a secondary CD-ROM to the one existing in the computer. In order to work both devices we had to made one of them Master (the Primary one) and the other one Slave (The secondary one).

Step 1:
Unscrewed the case and released it. Lifted and opened it to see all the computer components inside.

Step 2:
We released the ribbon cable that was connected to the CD-ROM as it was folded and tighten.

Step 3:
We had to check the status of our already connected CD-ROM whether it was Master or Slave. It was setup as a Slave device. The CD-ROM that we had to connect had to be a Master. So we had to remove the jumper at the back of the CD-ROM on a Master position.

Step 4:
We put the CD-ROM into its slot. Also we plugged the ribbon cable into the new Master CD-ROM very carefully. We checked the position of pin 1 on the device and plug the ribbon cable with the red line into the pin 1.

Step 5:
We plugged the power supply cable into the CD-ROM.

After all these steps, we closed the case and connected it to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. We plugged it into the power socket and put the power on.
When the computer started we went into the BIOS to check, whether everything was fine. We saw there that we had connected to IDE 1 the HDD and to IDE 2 we had the Primary device (CD-ROM) and Secondary device (another CD-ROM).
when we started the computer, we went into a Linux operation system as that was the OS on our machine. It made its general checks and showed out a message saying that a new hard drive is found. This was our connected Secondary CD-ROM.

What we have learned
1. How to open and close a computer
2. How to install a secondary disk drive on a computer.
3. What I need to check on the disk drives when I plug the ribbon cable on it. To search for the marked pin 1 on the disk drive and the red/black line on the ribbon cable that correspond it.
4. What cables need to be plugged, where and in which connector.
5. How to be careful with the connectors not to break the pins.

What went well/less well?
There was a problem that we did not check the existing CD-ROMs status at the beginning. It was slave and we could not see it on the BIOS window. So we had to check the devices again and solve this problem.

Conclusion:
Do not think that everything should be set up by default. Each part of a computer needs to be checked properly, in order to have properly working system.

Evidences of work: at the top of the page.