AST Premmia GX Series, User Manual

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34
Premmia GX Series
Using the Serial Ports{ XE "Serial ports" }{ XE
"COM1" }
You can connect most serial devices such as mice and modems to the serial ports on the
back panel. Serial devices must be connected and disconnected when the computer is turned
off in order to work correctly. If you connect the device with the computer turned on, you
may damage both the computer and the device.
Once the device is connected and turned on, you'll probably need to run a Setup program,
refer to the device's manual for details.
However, the serial port standard is an old, slow one, and you should use the USB devices
instead - these are faster, can be connected without turning off the computer and support
plug and play so you don't have to reload drivers each time you connect or disconnect a
device.
Windows refers to serial devices as COM1, COM2, COM3, etc, and assigns according to the
addresses and interrupts of the serial devices. There are two serial ports on the back of your
computer (see page 13): Serial Port 1 and 2; the addresses and interrupts of these ports are
set in Setup (see page 71). By default, Serial Port 1 is set to COM1 and Serial Port 2 to
COM2. If you ordered your computer with a modem installed, this will be COM3.
Using the USB Ports{ XE "USB ports" }{ XE
"Universal Serial Bus" \t "
See USB" }{ XE "Hubs" }
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports give you an easy way to connect accessories.
Previously, you had to connect external devices in several different ways - parallel, serial,
PS/2, game port - the computer and external device had to be turned off while doing this,
and you spent a long time getting everything to work together. With USB, you can connect
up to 127 devices to your computer, using cables between each device up to 16 feet (5m)
long, each using the same type of connector. The first time you connect a device, you may
have to load some software, but after that, the device is configured automatically.
Using the Video Controller{ XE "Video controller" }{
XE "ATi Rage Pro Turbo" }
Your computer features the ATi 3D Rage Pro Turbo with 4MB of SGRAM memory. The
controller connects to the computer via an AGP 2.0 video bus. The video controller comes
with an application that lets you set up the display as you want it; click on the ATi icon next
to the clock for more details.