IRQ

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Hi all, i'm studying the A+ certification at the moment and the IRQ's are giving me a headache. Does anyone have away of remembering them so when i get asked what IRQ11 is used for i'll remember.

 

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Unfortunately, that's one of the areas that I just couldn't come up with a trick for remembering.

Best I can offer is 0, 1 and 2 are low-level system (CMOS clock, etc, I think) 2 and 9 cascade, and, I think is it 13&14 (or 14&15 ?) are the 2 IDE channels ?

When you manage to understand the fixed IRQ's, then the free ones are easier to get to grips with, then soon the whole thing falls into place!

Stick with it, tho', as it will probably be in the exam. Once you've done that, then do the same for the Com ports.

Just do what is in the book, and don't get too worked up about it at the expense of the rest of the rest of the material.

 

Thanks. I just wondered if there was a easier way to remember them as i'm finding it hard to get them into my head.

 

The way i remembered that kind of stuff was to get a sheet of paper and write all the IRQs down with a marker pen (big) and stuck it near my PC. That way when you stop for a wee rest or are doing nothing you can look at it easily and remember it all.

I did the same for boot files and processor/ sockets...

Worked for me..good luck.

 

Good advice, Angus -

I'm using the same thing for the OSI model at the moment.

Thing is, it actually appears to be making sense (not fun, but sense !)

:P

 

I usually try to make a song out of it. You know, "...and a partridge in a pear tree...". I once memorized the IEEE 802 codes that way, but just to show off. If I have to know that stuff now, I look it up. If you use it fairly regularly, eventually, you won't need a trick.

For the OSI layers, the common one is

All
People
Seem
To
Need
Data
Processing

for

Application
Presentation
Session
Transport
Network
Data-Link
Physical

Maybe you could concoct something along those lines for the IRQs. Publish it, and your fortune is made.

 

Feel free to delete this if it is too rude but for the OSI I was also told

Princess
Di
Never
Tried
Sh*gg**g
Prince
Andrew

Of course this is starting at the Physical layer and going up.

 

Good one Tripwair and taz, am writing it down now to use later on in the course

 

Taz,

You know, by rights, Nelix and I should have that off the board straight away - but it is a classic

All help towards understanding the OSI, then ??? :P Nice one ....

 

Thanks. I'm glad it is appreciated.

It isn't that it is easy to remember it, its just difficult to forget.

 

Thanks guys. I guess its just a case of stuffing the things into a small part of the brain thats not used for much other than breathing :?

 

Unfortunately, it's one of those things where the test doesn't necessarily mirror real life. Unless you set IRQs manually everyday, you are not likely to remember what they are all used for. In real life, you'd just look them up as you needed them or keep a small card or reference book in your toolkit if you needed to look it up in the field. Good luck, Brent.

 

I'm kinda getting the impression that alot of stuff in the A+ i wont really need or have much use for. Why is that? Why do they make you commit all this stuff to memory only then never to need it

 

Frankly, and this is just my opinion, if you can memorize it, it's some sort of indication that you have the capacity and aptitude for it. I agree, though. A better, but much more expensive test, would be to have to troubleshoot and repair a PC that has carefully introduced flaws into it.

As an interesting aside, that's actually part of the RHCE lab test. Take a look at the RHCE site:

http://www.redhat.com/training/rhce/courses/

It makes anything the A+ exam can do to you look like a walk in the park.

IRQ Default assignment Usage
0 Timer Click .
1 Keyboard .
2 PIC (Sec.8259A) .
3 Serial 1 (COM2/COM4) .
4 Serial 0 (COM1/COM3) .
5 Paralel 1 (LPT2) .
6 Floppy 0 (A .
7 Paralel 0 (LPT1) .
8 Real Time Clock .
9 Redirected IRQ2 .
10 . .
11 . .
12 . .
13 Math Coprocessor .
14 Primary IDE .
15 Secondary IDE

If you can think of a nemonic (somehow, I think this is the wrong spelling, but I don't have time to look it up right now) for this, not only will you make life easier on yourself, but you can publish it and provide a service for techies everywhere.

 

i made up a mnemonic for the printing process

Cream Cleaning
Cakes Conditioning
Will Writing
Damage Developing
The Transferring
Figure Fusing

irqs
0 is system timer cos timers always count down to zero
1 is keyboard cos u need one lol
2 cascades to 9
3 com2 and com4 because 3 is in the middle lol (mouse)
4 com1 and com3 because 1+3=4 (modem)
5 LPT2 (usually sound card or second printer)
6 is floppy got 2 p's and upside down p is a 6
7 LPT1 (printer)
8 is real time clock because like an 8 it is never ending. 8 on its side is the symbol for infinity
9 redirects to 2
10 open
11 open
12 mouse
13 is maths co processor because its an unlucky number
14 primary ide
15 secondary

 

Welcome to certforums, shyguy. I see you're a creative soul. Tell us more about your irq memory teaser. Did you come up with it yourself and, has it helped you when you were testing (for school or certification)?

Also, it's become something of a tradition (young as this forum is) for new members to post something about themselves. Click on this link:

http://www.certforums.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=6 then find the third "sticky" from the top entitled: "What do you do?". Click on the latest page (up to page 4 I think) and add a little something about yourself. If you haven't already, you can also find out a bit about the rest of us. Welcome aboard.

 

made it up all by myself lol
the printers and the irq's
the printers in the book was
charlie can walk dance and talk french
but i was hungry at the time of reading
so i made up cream cakes will damage the figure
for cleaning conditioning writing develping transferring fusing;)
other easy one was for memory module
CUE
convention upper and extended memory
anybody else got good mnemonics for remembering a+stuff
im struggling on processor speeds and bus widths
got core exam next month wish me good luck

good free tester to download is at www.examdrill.com
they give u the core one for free but u have to pay for the operating system one,
also downloaded the shredder which is also quite good and free
any one know where there are any good operating system free test engines as im struggling on that side :roll:

 

Sorry can't really help with the IRQ's but I don't think you will ever get asket to recite them "parrot fashion" anyway. Try to remember the common (and prone to conflicts) ones, the ones that are attached to external ports etc. (Hint: you can have both odd or even com ports in use at the same time). BTW if it's not too rude here's my suggestion for the OSI 7 layer model:

All
Prostitutes
Seem
To
Need
Deep
Pe edit: rsonal contact with their client-base

 

I didnt get one question on these, did the exam a couple of weeks ago.

GOOD LUCK shyguy

 

I agree, Shyguy - best of luck on the Core

As for memory, best I used to remember was that the letter X is the shape you get if you EXTEND your arms and legs >> Extended Memory, which leaves EMS >> Expanded.

I truly believe mnemonics are the best way to remember these sort of things, but lets face - 5 min after you pass the exam, and half way down yer first pint, are you still thinking about them ??? 2