MaximumPC 2004 03

IS MY HEADPHONE JACK

VESTIGIAL?

I can never seem to get the headphone jacks

to work on my CD/DVD-ROM drives. Does

something have to be enabled to get them to

work? Is there a cable that I need to split to

run to the audio on the back of my computer

and then back to the CD-ROM drive? Why

would they put a jack on the front of my

drive if it doesn’t do anything? Are they just

screwing with my mind?

—JOSH RIBBLE

The headphone jack is a vestigial organ from the

Windows 3.1 days, when most people weren’t

blessed with soundcards. But optical drives

did have inexpensive, built-in digital-to-analog

converters that could take the digital signal from

a CD, convert it to an analog signal, and send the

output to your headphone jack. Suddenly, you had

an instant CD player. Very cool.

But as you’ve noticed, the headphone jack

doesn’t do much these days. In fact, you won’t

even get any sound from it with most system

configurations. That’s because your soundcard

and operating system have teamed up to create a

digital, as opposed to analog, path from your audio

CD all the way to your speakers. If you want to

listen with headphones, use the line-out jack on

your soundcard. If you don’t have a breakout box

that brings the line-out to an accessible spot, you

can buy a headphone extension cord from Radio

Shack for peanuts instead.

If you’re determined to use your optical drive’s

headphone jack, it’s still possible—you just

have to get your analog signal back. In XP, right-

click My Computer, select Properties, and click

Device Manager. On the device list, click the +

sign next to DVD/CD-ROM drives, and right-click

the drive you want to plug your headphones into.

Select Properties from the menu, then click the

Properties tab. Uncheck “Enable digital CD audio

for this CD-ROM device.” Your headphone jack

should now work.

If you want to be able to play the audio through

your PC speakers and headphones interchange-

ably without having to dig up this checkbox, you’ll

need to connect the analog-out from your optical

drive to the analog-in on your soundcard using a

special two-pin cable that should have come with

your drive. Check your drive’s documentation to

find the analog-out on the back of the device.

The headphone jack only works if your

optical drive is configured to use the ana-

log output for audio. It won’t work if you’re

digitally extracting audio to listen to CDs.

MARCH 2004 MAXIMUMPC 57

There comes a time in every young doctor’s life when he must

choose. Choose to fight for good or evil. Choose to help people

or PCs. This doctor chooses PCs. Whether your PC isn’t work-

ing, smells funny, or just ain’t right, the Doctor can help. E-mail

your PC problems to [email protected] , but don’t expect

him to respond to every e-mail.

again. To my shock, it booted
fine. I checked that the CPU
fan and memory were snug,
and they appeared to be. What
else should I check? If this is a
weight/mounting problem, what
can I do about it?
—TERRY GOWETT

There are a couple things you
should try. You may want to reseat
the CPU in the socket and make
sure you are using the correct shim
for your CPU. Also, arm yourself
with a good flashlight and make
sure you have every single CPU
jumper set correctly on the mother-
board. You should also check all the
power connections from your power
supply to your mobo. Finally, make
sure you have the latest BIOS for the
board, and make sure you have a
good-quality power supply.

APPARENTLY, I’M NOT
SO SMART
Every time I boot, my Pentium
533 displays two messages:
“SMART is bad... back up and
replace.” and “Drive is SMART
capable but disabled.” What do
these messages mean, and what
is SMART anyway? I’ve read my
owner’s manual and can’t find
any reference to it.
—KENT MCLEOD

S.M.A.R.T. stands for self-monitor-
ing, analysis, and reporting technol-
ogy. Basically, S.M.A.R.T. monitors
the health of your hard drive and
should give you an early warning if
your drive is on the brink of failure.
The messages you are receiving
suggest that one of your drives is
failing and the other is not being
monitored by S.M.A.R.T. You can
turn S.M.A.R.T. on and off in your
system’s BIOS. The Doctor also
recommends that you back up any
important data from the drive that
S.M.A.R.T. reports as failing.

LAPTOP HARD DRIVE OPTIONS
My Gateway m500 laptop
has served me well for a long
time, but the 40GB hard drive
that came factory installed is a
turtle! It’s a 4200rpm Toshiba

TravelStar and is very sluggish at

booting, loading Windows, and

loading anything else. I was told

by Gateway customer support

that this laptop supports up

to a 40GB hard drive, but they

wouldn’t recommend a faster

drive to me. I’d hate to settle

for a 5400rpm drive when the

7200rpm drives offer way more

bang for the buck! Do you have

any recommendations?

—BILL JOHNSON

Pretty much any mobile hard drive

will work with any laptop, assuming

it will fit into the drive bay. To tell how

much room your drive bay has,

remove the drive that’s currently in

your machine, measure it, and then

eyeball the drive bay to see

if there’s any extra room for a larger

drive.

Before you remove your laptop’s

hard drive, you should disconnect

the power supply and remove all

the batteries from your laptop. Then

follow the directions in your manual

for removing the hard drive. Every

notebook is different; in some, the

drive is easily accessible, but oth-

ers force you to disassemble practi-

cally the entire machine.

If it will fit in your laptop, we

recommend the Hitachi Travelstar

7200rpm. It comes in a wide variety

of capacities, and is smokin’ fast.

HOW DO I REWARD OPEN

SOURCE DEVELOPERS?

I’m now a die hard fan and user

of certain “open source” apps.

I regularly use Mozilla Firebird ,

Open Office , Mailwasher ,

and loads of other handy,

free apps. The problem

is that I feel guilty using

programs that are better and

easier to use than their costly

alternatives.

What is the best way to fairly

compensate the programmers

without worrying that my credit

card number will be hijacked in

the process? Should I even feel

compelled to pay developers

who openly make their goods

available for free?

—DAVE TURMAN

The Doctor uses a lot of free soft-

ware too. Many developers ask

for small donations, or micropay-

ments. Check the site’s home page

for details. The Doc uses a Paypal

or Amazon account to help those

developers out.

Many other programmers con-

tribute to larger projects, such as

Mozilla Firebird , for the pride of

contributing to the greater good,

and don’t expect any kind of mon-

etary reward. If you’d like to help

support larger open source projects,

most run nonprofit organizations

that support new development. Find

out about the Mozilla Foundation at

http://www.mozilla.org/foundation. n