Patent ID: 6609170
Filing Date: 2003-08-19
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
In a computer system including a BIOS, a group of electrical devices, an address ID module connected to each of said electrical devices, a routing module connected to at least one of said electrical devices, and an electrical device controller connected to the routing module, where one of the electrical devices is designated a primary electrical device, a method for disabling an original primary electrical device and designating a new primary electrical device, comprising:providing a presence signal to indicate that a first electrical device is the primary electrical device; providing a device enable signal input to a signal control circuit to enable and disable the first electrical device; inputting the presence signal to the address ID module and the routing module, to indicate whether one of the group of electrical devices is located on a motherboard and enabled; using the BIOS to control the device enable signal, to adjust the presence signal through the signal control circuit; and if the presence signal indicates that one of the group of electrical devices is located on the motherboard and enabled: operating the address ID module to assign a primary address to the electrical device located on the motherboard, and to assign a secondary address to at least one of the group of electrical devices (other than said electrical device located on the motherboard), and operating the routing module to route an output signal from at least one of the group of electrical devices (other than said electrical device located on the motherboard) to at least one input of the controller adapted for input from a secondary electrical device.