Patent ID: 7447822

Claim:
A hot-plug control system applied to a computer device, wherein the computer device is provided with a PCI-E (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) bus, at least one PCI-E slot having a power switch and an indicator light, a power control unit and a driver, the hot-plug control system comprising: a signal control module for generating an interrupt signal; a NB (North Bridge) chip electrically connected to the PCI-E slot: and a SB (South Bridge) chip electrically connected to the NB chip and the signal control module, the signal control module sending the interrupt signal to the SB chip, the SB chip comprising: a detection module for detecting the status of the PCI-E slot and its corresponding power switch in response to the interrupt signal; a control module for providing power to the PCI-E slot and then illuminating the indicator light corresponding to the PCI-E slot when the detection module detects that an expansion card is newly inserted in the PCI-E slot and the corresponding power switch has been actuated, and for stopping providing power to the PCI-E slot and the indicator light corresponding to the PCI-E slot when the detection module detects that the power switch of the PCI-E slot into which another expansion card is originally inserted and has a driver installed is actuated; and a drive module for loading a driver of the expansion card inserted for driving the expansion card inserted in the PCI-E slot when the detection module provides power to the PCI-E slot when detecting that the PCI-E slot is inserted with the expansion card and the power switch is actuated, and for removing the driver of the another expansion card when the detection module detects that the power switch of the PCI-E slot into which the another expansion card is originally inserted is actuated, wherein PCI-E hot-plug technology is applied to computer devices through the use of the SB chip, the detection module, the control module, and the drive module, without being limited to the computer devices having identical specifications.