Purpose :The purpose of the motherboard is to provide the electrical and logical connections for the other components of the system to communicate.The motherboard is one big communication highway. Its purpose inside your PC is to provide a platform for all the other components and peripherals to talk to each other.
Characteristics :The motherboard holds the CPU, hard drive, CD-ROM drive, floppy drive, video cards, memory and other card devices. They all fit or attach to the motherboard. On the motherboard itself, the places that the components attach to are called slots and sockets.The motherboard is dependent on the type and speed of the central processing unit (CPU). This is important since the circuitry of the motherboard needs to handle the directions of the CPU.The motherboard defines a PC, the chipset defines a motherboard. The chipset determines the main characteristics of the motherboard?what processors it supports, what RAM types it can use, what bus types and speeds it supports, whether it supports standards such as AGP and USB, and so on.The chipset is an electronic circuit whose job is to coordinate data transfers between the various components of the computer (including the processor and memory)When the computer is turned off, the power supply stops providing electricity to the motherboard. When the computer is turned on again, the system is still on the right time. An electronic circuit, called the CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxyde Semiconductor, sometimes called the BIOS CMOS), saves some system information, such as the time, the system date, and a few essential system settings.The BIOS is a small chip on the motherboard that has the program instructions for start-up and testing of the computer when it is turned on. It contains a small amount of memory that is programmed to remember these instructions. The BIOS also is in charge of setting the new "Plug and Play" devices and also for handling the input and output of data. The BIOS is programmable and can be changed and updated.ROM-Read-only memory (ROM), which contains the computer's permanent startup programs. ROM is nonvolatile; its contents remain with or without power being applied. Most PCs use standardized expansion slot connectors that enable various types of peripheral devices to be attached to the system. Optional input/output devices, or their interface adapter boards, are plugged into these slots to connect the devices to the system's address, data, and control buses.A CPU socket or slot is an electrical component that attaches to a printed circuit board (PCB) and is designed to house a CPU (also called a microprocessor). It is a special type of integrated circuit socket designed for very high pin counts. A CPU socket provides many functions, including a physical structure to support the CPU, support for a heat sink, facilitating replacement (as well as reducing cost), and most importantly, forming an electrical interface both with the CPU and the PCB.
Name :Storage devices
Purpose : The hard disk drive is the most popularly used secondary memory device. The main reason for this is the access speed and the reliability of the data it can offer. In the case of the tape drives the access speed is much low and the data transfer is comparatively low than the hard disk drive. The hard disk drives are also available in two different types that is the internal and also the external hard disk drives. The internal hard disk drives are used for the storage of the data in the computer case. There are not portable and usually are inside the case. The external hard disk drives are portable can be connected to other computer systems as well. There is a hard casing over the hard disk.
Characteristics :A typical hard drive has two electric motors, one to spin the disks and one to position the read/write head assembly. The disk motor has an external rotor attached to the platters; the stator windings are fixed in place. A typical hard drive has two electric motors, one to spin the disks and one to position the read/write head assembly. The disk motor has an external rotor attached to the platters; the stator windings are fixed in place. A typical hard drive has two electric motors, one to spin the disks and one to position the read/write head assembly. The disk motor has an external rotor attached to the platters; the stator windings are fixed in place. A typical hard drive has two electric motors, one to spin the disks and one to position the read/write head assembly. The disk motor has an external rotor attached to the platters; the stator windings are fixed in place.
Name :CPU
Purpose : The main purpose of the CPU is to execute programs.A Central Processing Unit is the main processor in a computer that processes all the logic statements put to it. It is responsible for all the processing of the computer unless there is another process that does the job like a Graphics Processing Unit or Physics Processing Unit.
Characteristics :
Size
Computer processors are small; any processor would be able to fit into your hand. However, some processors are bigger than others. For example, a Intel Atom processor, which is used in tiny pocket PCs, is much smaller than the Intel Xeon processor, which is used in powerful servers that host websites.
Cost
The prices of computer processors vary greatly. The newest, most powerful quad core processors will cost over a 1000 USD. Older processors, such as the single core Intel Pentium, can be a few dollars.
Thermal Surface
A computer processor has a thermal surface, which is colored silver. It is a flat surface that covers the processing core(s) inside of the CPU. A CPU cooler is placed on top of the thermal surface to draw heat away from the processor, as they can get very hot when in use.
Pins
The processor has pins on the bottom that contact the CPU socket in a motherboard. These pins should never be touched because they are very delicate. Pins on the processor transmit the data that was processed in the CPU to the northbridge of the motherboard, which then goes to the monitor.
Electrostatic Sensitivity
Computer processors are extremely sensitive to static electricity. The pins on the bottom of the processor are like open circuits that transmit data and electricity directly to the CPU cores. When an uncontrolled burst of static electricity is transmitted through the CPU pins and reaches the processor, it can fry the CPU cores, rendering the processor useless.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU)
Name :Ports
Purpose : In computer hardware, a 'port' serves as an interface between the computer and other computers or peripheral devices. Physically, a port is a specialized outlet on a piece of equipment to which a plug or cable connects.There are many ports in computers.They are USB,FIREWIRE,ETHERNET PORT,SERIAL PORT,PARALLEL PORT,PS\2,IEC,DC,TRS,VGA CONNECTORS,SCSI and DIGITAL VISUAL INTERFACE.
Characteristics : Computer ports in common use cover a wide variety of shapes such as round (PS/2, etc.), rectangular (FireWire, etc.), square (Telephone plug), trapezoidal (D-Sub - the old printer port was a DB-25), etc. There is some standardization to physical properties and function. For instance, most computers have a keyboard port (currently a round DIN-like outlet referred to as PS/2), into which the keyboard is connected. Plug-and-play ports are designed so that the connected devices automatically start handshaking as soon as the hot-swapping is done. USB ports and FireWire ports are plug-and-play. Auto-detect or auto-detection ports are usually plug-and-play, but they offer another type of convenience. An auto-detect port may automatically determine what kind of device has been attached, but it also determines what purpose the port itself should have.
Name :Adaptor cards
Purpose : The primary purpose of an adaptor card is to provide or expand on features not offered by the motherboard. An adapter card connects to a desktop computer's PCI bus. Because the PCI bus is contained inside the computer, the unit must be opened and the wireless network adapter installed inside. The expansion card (also expansion board, adapter card or accessory card) in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard to add functionality to a computer system.
Characteristics :
A Video Adaptor card is an internal circuit board that provides signals to external display device for displaying images and text in an orderly manner. A video card is also known as video controller card or a video board. Sometimes, video card may be an integral part of a motherboard, and connect directly to the video monitor using appropriate cable. Usually, for high-end applications, a video adapter card interface is available on most of the motherboards. The adapter card may use any of several available interfaces including PCI, AGP (Advanced Graphic Port), PCIe, or others. :
PCI: The PCI slot was developed prior to AGP, and inferior in performance compared to AGP. A PCI adapter card is usually cheaper than its AGP counterpart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Adaptor-cards)
Name :power supply
Purpose :The purpose of power supply is to convert the alternating current (AC) line from your home to the direct current (DC) needed by the personal computerPower supply is a supply of electrical power. A device or system that supplies electrical or other types of energy to an output load or group of loads is called a power supply unit or PSU. The term is most commonly applied to electrical energy supplies.A PSU (Power Supply Unit) converts the power received from the wall outlet to the power power needed to supply power to the mother board and all other components within the PC.A PSU (Power Supply Unit) converts the power received from the wall outlet to the power power needed to supply power to the mother board and all other components within the PC.
Characteristics :Power supplies may have passive or active power factor correction (PFC). Passive PFC is a simple way of increasing the power factor by putting a coil in series with the primary filter capacitors. Active PFC is more complex and can achieve higher PF, up to 99%.The power supply converts alternating current from the power grid (220 or 110 volts) into a direct voltage of 5 volts for the computer components and 12 volts for some internal peripherals (drives, CD-ROM drives, etc.).The power supply is generally between 200 and 450 Watts.The power supply also has a circuit that supplies 5 volts, called VSB for "standby voltage" even when it is officially "off".Simply stated, this process is done by stepping down the input voltage level with a transformer and then rectifying it to convert to DC. Once the DC signal is generated it is used to power all the devices and components of the system. In order to distribute the signal around to every component, many internal or external splitters can be attached to satisfy the number of connected devices.For computers the power supply is most responsible for providing power to the motherboard,hard drive, CD drives, expansion cards, etc. In most cases, a single PSU unit (as opposed to a redundant power supply setup where multiple PSUs are cascaded in case one fails) is responsible for powering all parts internal to the system. Some external devices such as keyboards, mice, and external drives may also draw power either directly or indirectly from the power supply. This makes the power supply a critical component to the system. That's why when the power supply fails,the system will no longer operate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-supply)
Task 2
Task 2
(a) ATX
In 1995, Intel wanted a system board that would be used to support the Pentium II processor and the new AGP slot, so the ATX form factor was built. The ATX board is 7.5 inches wide and 12 inches long and has all the IO ports integrated directly into the board, including USB ports. The ATX board introduced a 100 MHz system bus, whereas older Pentium boards ran at 60/66 MHz and had one AGP slot for video cards. The ATX board also had soft power support, which meant that the system could be shut down by the operating system. The ATX form factor rotated the baby AT components by 90 degrees so that any cards inserted into the bus architectures would not cover the processor and prevent proper cooling.
www.gateway.com
Gigabyte P55A-series
The Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards support the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology made possible through an onboard NEC uPD720200 host controller. With super-fast transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps, users are able to experience an almost a 10x improvement over USB 2.0. Additionally, backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 assures users of long term use of their legacy USB 2.0 devices. The onboard NEC SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology also provides power management features that include increased maximum bus power and device current draw to better accommodate power-hungry devices. Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards feature a 3x USB power boost, delivering greater compatibility and extra power for USB devices. Gigabyte's unique USB power design is also able to efficiently regulate output over the full voltage range, which greatly enhances USB device compatibility. In addition, dedicated lower resistance fuses ensure lower voltage drops, and provide more stable and plentiful power delivery.
www.overclockers.com
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3
It has many overclocking features and is a very stable board. This board is perfect for those who have 2 or more graphic cards with a pci-express sound card. Only downside it doesn't detect my ide hard drive correctly and gave me loads of issues, minute I pulled it out was flawless. This board was the basis of my i7 build. I had previously built an Intel P35 Gigabyte board, so I was familar with their product line. Needless to say, it's awesome. I had no issues whatsoever with my build; the machine cranked up with no issues. Performance with my i7 930 CPU is incredible. And, the board's layout is very attractive
www.zipzoomfly.com
.
(b) CMOS
A special type of memory is used to store this information, called CMOS memory, and a very small battery is used to trickle a small charge to it to make sure that the data it holds is always preserved. CMOS stands for "Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor". This is one type of technology used to make semiconductors (integrated circuits) such as processors, chipset chips, DRAM, etc. CMOS has the advantage of requiring very little power, compared to some other semiconductor technologies. This is why it was chosen for this use, so that the amount of power required from the battery would be minimal, and the battery would be able to last a long time. This memory came to be called just "CMOS" since in the early days most parts of the computer did not use CMOS. Ironically, with today's processors having to do more and more and needing to do it with lower power consumption, they themselves are typically made entirely with CMOS technology. However, "CMOS" by itself usually still refers to the BIOS settings memory. Old habits die hard in the computer world.
www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de
(C)
Dye Sublimation printers are professional devices widely used in demanding graphic arts and photographic applications. True these printers work by heating the ink so that it turns from a solid into a gas. The heating element can be set to different temperatures, thus controlling the amount of ink laid down in one spot. In practice, this means that color is applied as a continuous tone, rather than in dots, as with an inkjet. One color is laid over the whole of one sheet at a time, starting with yellow and ending with black. The ink is on large rolls of film which contain sheets of each color, so for an A4 print it will have an A4-size sheet of yellow, followed by a sheet of cyan, and so on. Dye sublimation requires particularly expensive special paper, as the dyes are designed to diffuse into the paper surface, mixing to create precise color shades.
www.lonestardigital.com
Impact (Dot-matrix) printers use a set of closely spaced pins and a ribbon to print letters or other characters on a page. These printers actually impact the page to print a character, much like a typewriter. Dot-matrix printers vary in terms of speed and the number of pins they have. They can run at a speed anywhere between 50 and 500 CPS (Characters Per Second). The number of pins, which can vary between 9 to 24, determines the quality of the print job. Dot matrix printers are commonly used for printing invoices, purchase orders, shipping forms, labels, and other multi-part forms. Dot matrix printers can print through multi-part forms in a single pass, allowing them to produce more pages than even high-speed laser printers. www.bhphotovideo.com
Task 3
Task 3
(a)
Fiber Optic Cable
Fiber optic cabling consists of a center glass core surrounded by several layers of protective materials (See fig. 5). It transmits light rather than electronic signals eliminating the problem of electrical interference. This makes it ideal for certain environments that contain a large amount of electrical interference. It has also made it the standard for connecting networks between
Fiber optic cable has the ability to transmit signals over much longer distances than coaxial and twisted pair. It also has the capability to carry information at vastly greater speeds. This capacity broadens communication possibilities to include services such as video conferencing and interactive services. The cost of fiber optic cabling is comparable to copper cabling; however, it is
The center core of fiber cables is made from glass or plastic fibers (see fig 5). A plastic coating then cushions the fiber center, and kevlar fibers help to strengthen the cables and prevent breakage. The outer insulating jacket made of teflon or PVC.
www.cablesplususa.com
Coaxial Cable
Coaxial cabling has a single copper conductor at its center. A plastic layer provides insulation between the center conductor and a braided metal shield (See fig. 3). The metal shield helps to block any outside interference from Although coaxial cabling is difficult to install, it is highly resistant to signal interference. In addition, it can support greater cable lengths between network devices than twisted pair cable. The two types of coaxial
Thin coaxial cable is also referred to as thinnet. 10Base2 refers to the specifications for thin coaxial cable carrying Ethernet signals. The 2 refers to the approximate maximum segment length being 200 meters. In actual fact the maximum segment length is 185 meters. Thin coaxial cable has been popular in
Thick coaxial cable is also referred to as thicknet. 10Base5 refers to the specifications for thick coaxial cable carrying Ethernet signals. The 5 refers to the maximum segment length being 500 meters. Thick coaxial cable has an extra protective plastic cover that helps keep moisture away from the center conductor. This makes thick coaxial a great choice when running longer lengths in a linear bus network. www.accesscomms.com.
(b)
Cable Modem Broadband A connection through an ordinary coax cable through your digital cable provider is the easiest and most common way to connect to the Internet at high speeds. Most connections average about 400K/second download and 128K upload. Cable's largest advantage is its availability and ability to produce multiple upstreams (when sending). The biggest downside to a cable connection is the slow-downs you'll experience during gluts of service when several people are sharing the network. Expect to pay around $40 per month for this service.
www.dlink.com
Digital Subscriber Link (DSL) This is a connection using your phone line and a special modem. You have to be within so many feet of a phone station "hub" and your line has to be of a newer type to qualify. Good portions of the population (especially in urban areas) match these criteria and can get a DSL connection. The modem uses a sound frequency well above the human ear's limits and will not interfere with normal telephone operation. Most connections average about 400-650K per second in download (some are faster) while anywhere from 128-256K in upload speed is available as well. The biggest downside to this type of connection is the availability. The biggest boon to this technology is its reliability and that network slow-downs are less common than with a cable connection.
www.freepatentsonline.com
Satellite (HST) This is the most expensive alternative for getting a high-speed connection to the Internet. If you live in a rural area or a spot where other options are not available (as I do), then this is probably your only hope for a high-speed connection. These come in two varieties, 1-way and 2-way. One-way satellites are like television receivers: they only accept signals. You'll still have to use your modem to connect for uploads. A 2-way connection, however, both sends and receives and is telephone-free.
www.abads
Task 4
Task 4
Windows XP System files
NTLDR
BOOT.INI
COMMAND.COM
CONFIG.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT
NTUSER.COM
NTDETECT.COM
HAL.DLL
(FHOS IDCS-2008)
(b) Microsoft Management Console
The first thing to understand is that a Microsoft Management Console is a host for an administrative tool called a snap-in. A snap-in is actually an Active-X module that is used to perform a specific function, but without a snap-in a console is useless. It's sole purpose is as an application to hold the snap-ins you select and provide a mechanism for them to become functional. Each console is created from either a single snap-in or combination of snap-ins. Once a basic console has been created it's up to you to add snap-ins appropriate to the intended use of the console. To illustrate, use the Run command in Start Menu to open the Event Viewer Console (eventvwr.msc) and the Computer Management Console (compmgmt.msc). The Event Viewer Console will contain only the event viewer snap-in. The Computer Management Console also contains the same event viewer snap-in under the category System Tools. A comparison of Event Viewer in both locations will show they contain identical data. The event viewer snap-in can be used by itself to construct a single purpose console, or as a component part of a multiple purpose console such as Computer Management. Whether one snap-in or multiple snap-ins are used, once they are added to the host and saved with a .msc extension it becomes a functional Microsoft Management Console. www.wilsonmar.com
Event Viewer
Windows Vista
Event Viewer consists of a rewritten event tracing and logging architecture on Windows Vista.[1] It has been rewritten around a structured XML log-format and a designated log type to allow applications to more precisely log events and to help make it easier for support technicians and developers to interpret the events. The XML representation of the event can be viewed on the Details tab in an event's properties. It is also possible to view all potential events, their structures, registered event publishers and their configuration using the wevtutil utility, even before the events are fired. There are a large number of different types of event logs including Administrative, Operational, Analytic, and Debug log types. Selecting the Application Logs node in the Scope pane reveals numerous new subcategorized event logs, including many labeled as diagnostic logs. Analytic and Debug events which are high frequency are directly saved into a trace file while Admin and Operational events are infrequent enough to allow additional processing without affecting system performance, so they are delivered to the Event Log service. Events are published asynchronously to reduce the performance impact on the event publishing application. Event attributes are also much more detailed and show EventID, Level, Task, Opcode, and Keywords properties.
www.windowsnetworking.com
(C)
Printer installing
Connect the printer with the computer and printer can be seen in the mangae as undetected device. To access the printer, the user must install the printer driver.
To install printer driver, put the CD that the printer company gave and install the driver as recommend and the printer can access.
Scanner installing
Connect the scanner with the computer and scanner can be seen in the mangae as undetected device. To access the scanner, the user must install the scanner driver as printer.
To install scanner driver, put the CD that the scanner company gave and install the driver as recommend and the scanner can access.
(FHOS IDCS-2008)
Task 5
Task 5
Common error codes and start up messages
NTLDR missing
Cannot detect BOOT.INI
(b)
Network Diagnostics Tools
ï‚· The Network Diagnostics Tool is included with Windows XP and provides a way to test your Internet connection settings. You can access it from Internet Explorer by clicking "Diagnose Connect Problems" from an error page or by selecting the tool under the "Tools" option menu. You can also right-click any network connection from the Network Connections menu and choose to troubleshoot the connection there to do further network diagnostics. Also, try using a website such as Speed Test (see Resources) to test your broadband connection speed and diagnose any speed issues
www.monitortools.com
Disk Utilities
ï‚· Many errors can be caused by hard disk problems. The Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Error Checking utilities can assess and fix many of these problems. All can be found under the System Tools section of the Accessories sub-menu. Also, running your hard drive manufacturer's specific disk diagnostic tool can help to diagnose any read or write errors that cause application problems in Windows XP.
www.hitachigst.com
Malware and Adware Utilities
ï‚· Adware, malware and viruses can infect your computer, decimate its performance and siphon your private data from your fingertips. Since most of these malicious programs are built to target Windows XP, it is important to regularly check for malware. Tools such as Lavasoft's Ad-Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy are great utilities for finding and eliminating harmful or infected applications (see Resources). In combination with traditional anti-virus software such as Norton or McAfee, they are essential for keeping your computer running smoothly.
www.cnet.com
Reference
