how to Remember IRQ, I/O etc
Hello everybody,
i've just finished my A+ OS and HW training and am ready to go and sit my exams. But i still have a problem trying to remember IRQ's, I/O addresses, BIOS beep error code's in my head.
Does any one have a way of easily remembering these, so if a question is asked what is IRQ 11 for example, you could have a way or code or somthing to remember the order.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU DO
Tanks
i've just finished my A+ OS and HW training and am ready to go and sit my exams. But i still have a problem trying to remember IRQ's, I/O addresses, BIOS beep error code's in my head.
Does any one have a way of easily remembering these, so if a question is asked what is IRQ 11 for example, you could have a way or code or somthing to remember the order.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU DO
Tanks


Comments
You know that IRQs go from 0 to 15 so construct a sentence (the crazier the better) taking the first letter of the device and matching it to the number
EG
0 S (system timer)
1 K (keyboard)
2 C (cascade from 9)
I know someone called Sue who keeps cats.....so I use Sue Keeps Cats...and so on
It sounds really weird but works (for me anyway)
Give it a try
For the I/O addresses, do this:
then then fill the last line with 8s:
reading vertically downward, you have in order:
com1,com2,com3,com4,lpt1,lpt2
BIOS beep codes (borrowed elsewhere from this forum)..the number in the list corresponds to the number of beeps:
"SMacK For Coming Home Naked"
(or, I prefer)
"Slap My Knees For Coming Home Naked"
System board, Memory, Keyboard, Floppy, CMOS, Hard Drive, Network.
Original post: http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=122
I'm sitting Thursday (6/26) for Core. Salivating in the meantime.
Good luck!
working with windows 95 helps know them when you use legacy hardware because of the configuration you have to do. it made me glad that i retained my old p133 and got some adapters from ebay to mess with
- WS
COM1 - IRQ 4
COM2 - IRQ 3
LPT1 - IRQ 7
LPT2 - IRQ 5
Also, you know that IRQs 2 & 9 are cascaded and IRQs 10-12 are reserved.
As for I/O adresses, there is a pattern for those too. Just make some flash cards with these column headings and you will see:
IRQ Default Function I/O Address
0 System Timer 40h
1 Keyboard 60h
2 Cascade -
3 Default COM2 (external modem), COM4 2F8h, 2E8h
4 Default COM1, COM3 3F8h, 3E8h
5 LPT2 / Sound card * 278h
6 Floppy drive 3F0h
7 LPT1 378h
8 Real time-clock 70h
9 Cascade / USB -
10 Open for use -
11 Open for use -
12 PS/2 mouse * -
13 Math coprocessor F0h
14 Primary hard drive controller 1F0h
15 Secondary hard drive controller 170h
* Optional
For example the I/O address for:
IRQ 4
COM1 - 3F8
COM3 - 3E8
IRQ 3
COM2 - 2F8
COM4 - 2E8
I just rank them with com1 being the highest or the first or has priority or however you wanna look at it. Since com 1 is ranked number 1, it is assigned the highest hex value in the group and so on and so forth. This also works for the LPT I/Os and the HD controller I/Os.
LPT1 - 378
LPT2 - 278
Primary HD - 1F0
Secondary HD - 170
That's how I remembered. As for the IRQs I just memorized them and remembered what shinobi was talking about (numbered backwards).
Also, what really helps is if you see them all the time on practice exams.
How to do IT
Great idea
I will create a separate quiz with only IRQs/DMAs/IO addresses, which you can use to drill yourself.
COM2 and COM3 are incorrect (swap them).
woops... sorry bout that. edited.
How to do IT
Its all great advise and i will see which one works best with me.
(be sure to print out the printer-friendly version at the end of the exam)