A+ Hardware Service Technician: System Architecture

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IRQs

IRQs (Interrupt Request) are a very important portion of this course as there could be several questions on the exam in regards to this material. In addition, understanding IRQs and what effect they have on your computer can help you when troubleshooting problems in your career as an IT technician.

All CPUs perform tasks one at a time. When a device needs the attention of the processor, it sends an interrupt request. Since the processor needs to know where the request came from, we have the IRQ settings to minimize conflicts and allow multiple devices to interrupt the CPU when needed.

Here is a chart of common IRQ settings; you should memorize these for the exam:

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