Hardware 2 ND Sem

BUSES: -The exclusion unit is the actual processing of data task placing inside this unit.
It accept instructions
and data that have been fixed by the bus interface unit and then and exclusives the instruction personnel unit with
in the exclusion unit personnel unit with in the exclusion unit ALU. Registers and control logic and etc.
ALU: - The arithmetic logic unit is the calculator part. It has hardware circuits like counter shift resisters etc.
which performs the arithmetic and logical operations.
BUS INTERFACE: - The bus is a communication channel. Using with the microprocessor. Interface with the
rest of the computer devices. The Idea of bus is nothing but having a setup lines carrying some signals to all the
devices in parallel. The bus control unit part runs bus operations for the microprocessor transmits the instructions,
data other processor and other devices of the system. It has the task of making speed the system. The bus is used
to fullest capacity in order to speeds up operations.
ADDRESS BUS: - The microprocessor uses a setup lines for selecting a particular device or selecting a location
in memory. It is about to access the setup lines, which is used to specify what the CPU about to access is called as
an address bus.
DATA BUS: - After selecting a device using address bus microprocessor has to either read information from the
device or writer information to the device the setup lines used for these purpose is called data bus stored carry
information from microprocessor this bus is by directionally.
CONTROL BUS: - Set of lines is to control the flow of signals on the address bus and data bus. The control bus
specifies the control signals that determine. How and when the operation is to be performed addresses bus and
control bus is unidirectional.
BUSES IN EXPANSION SLOTS

Expansion slots one in different slots is
one which different cards are can be fit in the motherboard.
TYPES OF EXPANSION SLOTS: -
1. 8 Bit Expansion Slots: - This was first type of bus to design for PC's. It has maximum clock speed
4.77Mhz. 8 interrupts and 4 DMA channels. This bus is presently out dated. The slot color
is block with out any cutting in between this card.
2. ISA (INDUSTRY STANDARD ACHITECTURE): - It is specified to provide 8 bit and 16 bit I/O
cards for data trance face and the card devices controlled it. ISA has to run 10 MHZ speed.
It has 16 interrupts and eight DMA channels. The slot color is black.
3. EISA (ENHANCED ISA): - It was designed to provide 32 bit data trance for but was not very
popular. It is configured using software. It is backward compatible with 16-bit ISA standard.
EISA speed is 8 MHZ. The color was black.
4. VESA (OR) VL-BUS: - Video Electronics standard Association designed this standard. It is 32 bit
standard specifically designed for Video cards. SCSI cards, IDE cards. Its speed at the same
processor speed of microprocessor. It slot color brown.
5. PCI (PHERIPHERAL COMPONENT INTERFACE): - Specification to provide 32 bit and 64 bit
data transferred rates between interface then the device controller its runs at the same clock
speed of the microprocessor. PCI cards will automatically configure themselves for IRQ' s
DMA and I/O part addresses the slot color is white.
6. AGP (ACCELERATED GRAPHICS PORT): - Data transferee in 64 bit and 128-bit speed is same
as processor. It is used for graphics, animations and Maya softwares etc.
7. PC CARDS: - Personnel computer memory card international association or pc card standard assist
in popularity knows as the specification for interface cards. The specification for interface cards used
in mobile computers. They come in 16 bit and 32 bit versions the speed of clock 33 MHZ.
COMPARSION TABLE: -
S. No. SLOT/BUS WIDTH WIDTH IN BIT SPEED IN MHZ
1) 8bit 8 4.77
2) ISA 16 8 or 10
3) EISA 32 8
4) VESA 32 PROCESSOR SPEED
5) PCI 64 PROCESSOR SPEED
6) AGP 64 PROCESSOR SPEED
7) PC CARD 32 33
OPERATING SYSTEM KEYS
1. WIN98SE : BCKG6-FBF23-3CVQ2-3CVQ2-BPC23-383BT
2. WIN98SE AND ME20000 : FXR3M-FM9D7-P9H6H-F2D8J-B9GQD
3. WIN98SE FULL VERSION :4Q6K2-QPC42-3HWDM-BF4KI-W4XWJ
4. WIN 2000 SERVER AND ADVANCE 2000 SERVER :
C2QJ- RHHKQ-DR73F-TQ4CD-RBG33
5. WIN 2000 PROFF : W633Q-7P2RB-M3R7G-3KJ8W-VPP9V
6. WIN 2000 PROFF : RBDC9-VTRC8-D7972-J97JY-PRVMG
7. WIN 2000 PROFF : DDTPV-TXMX7-BBGJ9-WGY8K-B9GHM
8. WIN 2000 PROFF : MKP9H-3XX6H-MX7GC-HTFR9-6C2TM
: VJQCF-BMXG2-JJ7GA-QMYGR-BAY8D :QK8TD-PJKHP-23273-FFG97-2WX9D
: G7RQ3-W6GYY-JWJWV-FTFG9-P7363
9. WIN NT 4.O : 419-02155017.
10. WINDOWS XP PROF : FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8
11. MS OFFICE 2000 : JBRR7-C8FDH-HGC67-98K2K-Q63B8
12. MS OFFICE 2000 : RBJ8B-M7427-PCBRT-DMKJ8-PV7KD
13. THREE IN ONE CD : WIN 2000 PROFF
: FCPGG-4YYDJ-3FF3T-R328P-3BXTG
14. WIN 2000 SERVER : KRJQ8-RQ822-YRMXF-6TTXC-H2DVM
15. ADVANCE 2000 SERVER : MVVRP-KGRF9-87262-8JVTB- F37P8
16. WIN 2003 STANDARD/WEB/ENTERPRIZES ONLY ONE KEY
: JB88F-WT2Q3-DPXTT-Y8GHG-7YYQY
17. BRITANICA 2001 : 520F-00397545
18. WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION : HBV7B-2H4KQ(2HAHQ)-FF4F9-VRC26-
YXJFY
19. NORTON 2004 PRODUCT KEY : VKPP-F4YP-MBBC-CPX8-TXCK-BFG8
NORTON 2004 PRODUCT KEY : VHTQ-FFTW-CBHK-VDKP-J9MV-BBJ4 20. SCO
UNIX 5.0 : 4DC013134
custom : 1khmgreb
21. WINDOWS NT 4.O SERVER : 111-1111111
22. AUTOCAD 2000 : 112-11111111/5x8nug
23. AUTOCAD 2002 : 400-1235678/T4ED6P
24. OFFICE XP :FM9FY-TMF7Q-KCKCT-V9T29-TBBBG
25. MS OFFICE 2003 :GWH28-DGCMP-P6RC4-6J4MT-3HFDY
26. NERO BURNING 6 :1A23-7008-2175-3244-0477-9386
27. WIN 2003 STANDARD :C4C24-QDY9P-GOJ4F-2DB6G-PFQ9W
28. WIN 2003 ENTERPRISE :QW32K-48T2T-3D2PJ-DXBWY-C6WRJ
29. WIN 2003 UNLIMITED : K4RBR-F3K42-M9RXG-48TPR-H6BPB
30. PHOTO SHOP 7.0 :1045-1209-6738-4668-7696-2783
31. PHOTO SHOP 6.0 : PWW600R7105467-948
32. ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR 10 : 1034-1003-4400-0000-1115-2040
33. OFFICE 2003 PRODUCTS : WFDWY-XQXJF-RHRYG-BG7RQ-BBDHM
(PROJECTS,VISION,FRONT PAGE, ONE NOTE)
34. WIN98 :CFR4D-TQ4PH-3WQ86-9JRF6-7HHPG
35. WIN95 : 00100-OEM-0123456-00100
36. WIN MELLENIUM : MD3X9-CCCCB-MYPBR-Q4TCJ- 36MQQ
37. OFFICE 97 : 0201-1120102 OR 1112-1111111
38. VISUAL STUDIO 6.0 : 123-1234567
39. ADOBE PAGEMAKER 7.0 : 1039-1121-2998-7586-7388-7545
40. DRMWEAVER ULTRA DEV 10 : UDW100-01315-77219- 49377
CD-ROM
INTRODUCTION: -
A CD-ROM or compact disk read only memory drive, as the name suggests is a read only
drive, which means that it can read data from a CD-ROM in the drive, but not write data to it. The
drive use compact disks three types of information can be stored on the media. They are audio,
video and computer data programmers.
OPTICAL MEDIA OR COMPACT DISK: -
The CD-ROM is the media used in CD drives. CD's made up of Polly carbonate wafer plastic
with aluminum coating, search resistance. Diameter is 12CM and thickness is 1.2mm, center of the
whole dais 15mm. Thickness of track is 5km, that track is divided into many sectors all same size.
DATA STORAGE ON A CD-ROM: -
Data is recorded only one side of the CD-ROM. The data is stored on the single groove
(side), which stands at the center of the CD and is in the form of a spiral similar to the gramophone
records of older days.
The system area of the disk identifies the location of the volume areas, which the actual data
is stored. Data is stored in microscopic areas on the CD-ROM called as lands and pits. A land
stands for a value of 1, and pits stand for value of '0'.
OPTICAL STORAGE DEVICE: -
The compact disk read-only memory drive is the most popular storage device available that
uses light energy to read and write data. CD drives use laser beam emitted by a laser diode to read
and writer data on a CD-ROM.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE CD-ROM DRIVE: -
CD drives can be connected through an IDE or SCSI interface. The CD drive consists of the
following components.
1. LASER DIODE: - This is a light emitting diode that emits a low energy red laser beam
towards the reflecting mirror.
2. SERVO MOTOR: - This motor positions the beam onto the correct track on the CD-ROM
by moving the reflecting mirror. After the beam hits the disk its reflected light is
gathered and focused through the first lens beneath the disk, then bounced off the
mirror and sent toward the beam splitter.
3. BEAM SPLITTER: - This component directs the returning laser light towards another
focusing lens.
4. LENS: - Lenses are used to focus the laser beam on to a mirror and then onto the surface
of the CD-ROM.
CLASSIFICATION OF CD DRIVES: -
CD drives are broadly classified into three types out of which is CD-ROM players is the most
commonly used device.
A) CD PLAYERS: -The user can read data from the CD-ROM players are available in different
speeds. The speed is denoted as 'X' and its stands for the speed at which the cd-drive is able to
transfer data from CD-ROM media to the main memory of the computer. The following are various
speeds of popular cd players.
Speed Approximate Date Transfer Rate (in KMPS)
1. Single speed 1X 150 kbps

2. Double speed 2X 300 kbps
3. Quad speed 4X 600 kbps
4. 6X 900 kbps
5. 8X 1200 kbps
6. 12X 1800 kbps
7. 16X 2400 kbps
8. 24X 3600 kbps
9. 32X 4800 kbps
10. 40X 6000 kbps
11. 48X 7200 kbps
12. 52X 7800 kbps
These speeds are using in CD writing process among these all speeds we are using only 8X to
16X preferable you can write highest speeds the CD life will be less.
B) CD Recorder: The user can record data on the CD-Rom once but read many times and
hence these drives are also called as worm drives (Write once / Read many)
C) CD Read/Writer : The user can read and write data on CD-Rom any number of times.
CD DRIVES OPERATE THE FOLLOWING MANNER
1. The laser diode emits low energy infrared beam towards a reflecting mirror.
2. The servomotor, one command from the microprocessor positions the beam on the correct track
on the CDROM by moving the reflecting mirror.
3. When the beam hits is gathered and focused through the first lens beneath the platter bounced
off the mirror and sent toward the beam splitter.
4. The beam splitter directs the returning laser light toward another focusing lens.
5. The last lens directs the light beam to a photo detector that converts the light into electric impulse.
6. These incoming impulses are decoded by the microprocessor and along to the host computers
data.
CD Write: - An external writeable Cd Drive also called as CD Burner. With this type of drive .You can
take music data files from your computer & your owns CD's. In this session youll. Find out how CD
write or also called burners. Encode songs and other, information into blank CD Rewritable
Technology, see how the data file are put together and find out how
you make your music mixer with & CD Burner CDROM recorded using Technique is called
CLV(Constant Lineat Velocity) CD Max sectors 333.000.
74 minutes of Data it can stores 75 Blocks of 2,048 Bytes
682 millions Bytes (or) 650 MB .Audio converts into Digital information into anolog signals
DVD (DIGITAL VERSATILE DISK) :- These disks are making is possible to store more data
even the same disk. large amount of data it can stores this disks. In this data recorded in both sides.
Digital versatile disk capacities are available in 4Giga bytes to 17 Gigabytes.
WHAT IS A COMPUTER?
A computer is a sort of electric brain, which capable to solve mathematical problems with in
movements or produce desired information or a controlling order. An automatic computer is machine
that accepts data at its input, process it by doing some kind of manipulation and the produces at
output the desired results. More technically. A computer is a high-speed electronic data processing
machine.
Infects an automatic computer may be pictures as a block box into which is fed raw
data which as after a slight pauses responds with reports, forecasts, analysis statistics, solutions etc.
Infects an automatic computer consists of several sections of equipment each performing a define
function. The data is far from raw. A lot of work by skilled people takes place before the data gets
the automatic computer can be substation, alteration and indentation, deletions rearrangement,
movement, testing logical and arithmetic operations, computers has come to assist humanity in its
tasks of collecting, memorizing and analyzing the information
COMPUTER AND THEIR IMPORTANCE: -
A computer is basically a fast calculating machine. It is capable performing most of Arithmetic

functions at tremendous speed. The advances in computer science and ENGG. And the reducing
trend of cost of the computers have helped an host of general users like engineering business
community, scientist, executives administrations, teachers, medicines, students and decision makers.
The computer has an own special characteristic and abilities the computers are capable of: -
1. Storing large amount of data
2. Performing scientific and arithmetic calculations at a very speed and very accurately.
3. Plotting of figures and graphics.
4. Self-checking the correctness of the programmed.
5. Helping in taking decisions.
These outstanding features made the computer the most accepted and most widely
used device today society. They are being increasing by used in office automation and process
control industries.
MAIN PRINCIPLE UNITS OF COMPUTER: - They are I) INPUT II) STORE III) ARITHMATIC IV)
OUTPUT V) CONTROL UNITS
Computer instruction means request been made to make a take fulfill. A programmed
means many instructions are given to make a work done digital means using binary numbers
The computers are classified into 3 types: -
1. MINI FRAME COMPUTERS: - These computers are large equipment like a switching
controller in automatic telephone exchange and they are also used for general-
purpose machines.
2. MICRO FRAME COMPUTERS: - The micro frame computers are generally used for office
establishment and educational instruction and they are also two types 1) PCAT 2)
PCXT 3) PCXT
3. MAIN FRAME COMPUTERS: - The computer is used to large machines and for
commercial data to be processed they are also used scientific calculations.
ERROR RECTIFICATION
1. KEYBOARD ERROR
CMOS setup(standard)
Keyboard
Keyboard PC/AT switch
2. FDD FAILURE (press f1 to continue)

FDD drive
ID card
Bus (FDD) cable
Power supply cable
3. HDD FAILURE (press f1 to continue)

HDD drive
ID card
Bus (HDD) cables
Power supply cable
4. CMOS FAILURE (press f1 to continue)

Battery
Improper settings
Battery Jumper
5. DISPLAY ERRORS (press f1 to continue)

Monitor
F AU L T S
1. SET DEAD (No indicators glowing):
Check power supply cable

ON/OFF switch
Power supply
Power supply output units
Check power supply input cable condition and ON/OFF switch position. Cable may be internally open or ON/OFF
switch may be defective. If the input path (cable and switch) is normal check power supply condition. The power
supply inside may be efective. Check power supply line filters, rectifier unit, SMPS output transistor ,transformer and
input/output voltage fuse condition.
1. NO DRIVE DETECTION(HDD):
Check Hard disk,

Cable,
Supply and I/O cards condition,
Check hard disk condition, Hard disk may be internally failure or hard disk primary slave jumpers may be misplaced, if
the jumpers and hard disk condition is normal check hard disk supply. The hard disk supply may be disconnected or
supply may be bsent. If the supply is normal check hard disk BUS cable continuity and condition. Cable may be
internally open or cable connection may be reverse position, if the cable condition and connection is normal check ID
card condition, ID card may be defective or ID card Jumpers may be misplaced. Check and replace ID card. If the ID
card Built-in mother board (PCI mother board) check CMOS setup, ID card address. If the address is normal, check ID
card connectors. If the connectors, address and jumpers condition is normal insert new ID card in I/O port.
3. NO COMPORTS WORKING:
Check comport connections,

Comport jumpers,
ID card condition.
Check comport connections, the comport connections may be in reverse or comport address may be defective in CMOS
setup. If the address and connections is normal check I/O card condition, I/O card may be defective or I/o card jumpers
may be defective. If the I/O card is built-in motherboard, check comport address and comport connections. If the
address and connections is normal insert new I/O card in I/o port and disable on-board comports in CMOS setup.
1. NO LPT WORKING:
Check LPT port cable,

LPT port address,
BUS cable,
I/O card condition.
Check LPT port cable continuity and condition, port cable may be internally failure or cable may be in reverse, if the port
cable is normal check LPT address in CMOS setup. The address may be defective correct the address. If the address
and cable is normal, check I/O card condition and I/O card LPT jumper setting. I/O card LPT jumper setting may be
misplaced or I/O card may be defective, check and replace I/O card.
1. SERIAL AND PARALLEL PORTS DEAD:
Check I/O card,

I/O card jumpers,
I/O card condition.
Check ports connection, port address and port jumpers settings, port address jumper settings may be defective or port
cabling may be defective. If the jumpers and cabling is normal check and replace ID card.
1. NO LIGHTNING (display information) BUT BEEPING SOUND IS NORMAL:
Check monitor,
Monitor supply cable,
Video display card,
Display card condition.
Check monitor indicator is glowing or not, if it is not glowing check monitor ON/OFF switch, monitor supply cable and
monitor power supply path. If the indicator is glowing check video display card connection and condition. The display
card connection may be defective or display cable may be internally failure. If the display cable and connection is
normal, check display card condition. The display card may be loose contact or card may be defective or the video
display card memory may be failure (VRAM).
1. FDD NOT WORKING:
Check floppy drive,

Cable, Supply,
I/O card condition.
Check floppy disk condition, Floppy disk may be internally failure, Check floppy disk supply. The floppy disk supply may
be disconnected or supply may be absent. If the supply is normal check floppy disk BUS cable continuity and
condition. Cable may be internally open or cable connection may be reverse position, if the cable condition and
connection is normal check ID card condition, ID card may be defective or ID card Jumpers may be misplaced. Check
and replace ID card. If the ID card Built-in mother board (PCI mother board) check CMOS setup, ID card address. If the
address is normal, check ID card connectors. If the connectors, address and jumpers condition is normal insert new ID
card in I/O port.
1. NO CD-ROM DETECTION:
Check CD-ROM supply,

CD-ROM condition,
BUS cable,
CD-ROM driver software.
Check CD-ROM supply condition and cable connection, the cable connection may be in reverse or the cable connector
may be internally failure. If the cable and supply path is normal, check CD-ROM condition. CD-ROM may be internally
failure. If the CD-ROM path is normal, check CD-ROM drivers software. The driver software may be improper
installation or CD-ROM accessible MSCDEX.EXE file may be corrupted or AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files
may be defected.
9. MEMORY IMPROPER CHECKING:
Check memory,
CMOS setup
Check memory condition and socket connections. The socket connections may be defective or memory type may be
mismatched. If the RAM and socket Connections is normal check CMOS setup memory parity check condition.
1. AUTOMATIC REBOOTING:
Check reset switch,

Reset jumper,
System file condition,
System files may be affected with virus.
Check system reset switch, the reset switch may be loose contact or switch may beinternally affective. If the switch
connections and condition is normal, check reset switch jumper in mother board. The reset switch jumper may be in ON
condition. Change the jumper connection from reset mode to normal mode. If the reset jumper condition is normal
check the system files and software files. In the files may be defective. Scan all files
(including system files) by using any virus scannersoftware.
1. SYSTEM HANGING:
Check system bootable files,

CMOS setup.
Mother board,
CPU heat shink fan.
Check system files condition, the system files may be affected with virus or IO.SYS or MSDOS.SYS files may be
corrupted. If the both system files is normal check COMMAND.COM file area. The COMMAND.COM area may be
modified. Scan all files by using any virus scanner software. If the system files and COMMAND.COM is normal, check
CPU, Heat shink fan. The heat shink fan may not be working.
1. SYSTEM SPEED BECOME A LOW:
Check system bootable files,

CMOS setup,
Mother board,
CPU heat shink fan.
Check system files condition, the system files may be affected with virus, IO.SYS or MSDOS.SYS files may be corrupt -
ed. If the both system files is normal check COMMAND.COM file area. The COMMAND.COM area may be modified,
scan all files and COMMAND.COM area is normal, check CPU, heat shink fan, heat shink fan is not working.
13. FLICKERING INFORMATION:
Check monitor connection,

Supply cable,
Monitor control card (display card).
Check monitor signal cable, the signal may be defective or monitor brightness control may be loose contact. If the
monitor and cable condition is normal check input supply cable. The input supply cable may be loose contact. Check
and replace supply cable. If the supply path is normal check video display card connections, check video display card
connected I/O slot. The connected I/O slot may be loose connection or the I/O card may be defective. Check and
replace display card. Before replacing the display card, check VRAM condition.
14. SYSTEM NOT BOOTING (system files and COM files is normal condition):
Check hard disk partition tables,
CMOS setup,
CMOS setup boot sequence.
Check CMOS setup boot sequence condition and hard disk mode. If the mode and sequence is normal check hard disk
condition. The hard disk may be affected with virus. Boot the system from externally (through fresh bootable floppy).
After booting the system scan the hard disk and hard disk partition tables by using any virus scanner, the partition tables
may be affected with virus. After scanning the hard disk and partition tables, restart the system by using power ON/OFF
switch.
15. FDISK COMMAND NOT WORKING:

Check hard disk,
Fdisk command,
Hard disk partition table condition.
Before using FDISK command scan the hard disk by using any virus scanner, after completing the scanning check hard
disk partition by using FDISK command, after scanning also FDISK command is not working check FDISK command
and hard disk mode in CMOS setup.
16. FLOPPIES NOT READING BUT NO FDD ERROR:

Check floppy disk condition,
CMOS setup FDD reading setup.
Check floppy drive condition, the floppy drive reading head motor may be failure or reading head may be defec tive. If
the reading head motor and head is normal, check floppy drive drum motor. The drum motor may be not rotating.
Check and replace floppy disk drive. Before replacing the floppy drive, check CMOS setup floppy reading address.
17. SET DEAD BUT ALL INDICATORS GLOWING:

Check mother board supply,
CPU condition,
Pulse goods signals (P.G signals).
Check power supply output P.G signals and mother board input supply connections ( +5v, 12v, -5v, -12v, P.G signals and
ground). In this input connections any one supply connection may be absent. If the supply condition is normal check
CPU and BUS control IC's. The CPU may be internally failure. Check and replace CPU. Before replacing the CPU
check BUS control IC's and memory IC's.
1. Getting Help with Hardware
Consider the components found in a PC, among them the power supply and fan, motherboard,
memory, hard drives and floppy drives, video card, modem, sound card, CD-ROM, parallel and
serial ports, and drive controller. Then there are the peripherals such as the keyboard, mouse,
monitor, printer, scanner, and joystick, to name a few. With so many components, there are ample
opportunities for problems to occur.
2. Simple Solutions First
At one time or another, most of us have been stumped by an apparently catastrophic computer
glitch, only to have another user end the crisis with a few clicks of the keys or the throw of a
switch. Even experienced users sometimes overlook the simple solutions and immediately begin
taking more drastic measures. Any user--novice or expert--is better off starting with basic
diagnostic procedures that take only a minute or two before going on to more exotic efforts.
Remember two simple solutions before you begin dissecting your computer:
Many hardware problems are the result of incorrect setup or settings.
Sometimes a single-click or a reboot will solve a seemingly catastrophic problem.
3. The following sections discuss each of these approaches in more detail.
CAUTION: Do not open up your computer's power supply or monitor. Both can store enough
energy to hurt or even kill you. Besides, there's little the average user can do to repair either
of these components. Power supplies are inexpensive and normally are replaced when they
fail. If you have a problem with your monitor, and reading the manual doesn't suggest a
solution and the cables are firmly seated, take it to an authorized repair facility.
1. Getting the Settings Right
The best way to prevent annoying hardware problems from developing is to be sure the hardware
is set up properly when you install it. While serious hardware problems--those where the
hardware is damaged and in need of repair or replacement--can crop up occasionally, most
hardware problems are related to improper settings that don't allow components to work together
smoothly. These problems often occur when you make changes to the system's hardware. If you
incorrectly install a new component or change a hardware setting, your well- behaved computer
can become a monster.
A couple of quick tips for avoiding newly installed hardware problems

Read up on the system or component before you buy it. In particular, read the product reviews
in computer magazines. These are good places to find out about a system's quirks or
nonstandard design that can lead to hardware conflicts down the road. You can also find
these product reviews on the Internet at such sites as ZDNet, C|Net, and Tech Web.
If you are installing a new component, read the manual first. Reading manuals on
motherboards, add-in boards, or CD-ROMs may be like reading a foreign language, but
they're better than hours of guessing. The more you familiarize yourself with the terminology
in these manuals, the easier it is to diagnose and solve problems as they arise.
2. TIP: Experienced users save the boxes and packing materials for their
equipment, in case it has to be shipped back to the manufacturer.
Such components as motherboards, hard drives, and CD-ROMs use jumpers and DIP
switches that must be set correctly to work with the other equipment in your system. On a
new computer the manufacturer will set the jumpers, although sometimes an incorrect
setting may be overlooked, causing glitches. Or, in adding a new device to your system--
for example, if you add a second hard drive to your computer--you may set some jumpers
incorrectly, and the machine can't detect the drive.
How do you know which jumpers or DIP switch settings to use? Start with the manuals for your
motherboard and the component. These will show the proper settings for most circumstances.
3. Avoiding Problems with Device Drivers
Device drivers are another frequent source of hardware foul-ups. A device driver is a software
program that acts as an interface between software and hardware (or between two software
programs). Video display drivers and printer drivers are among those that most commonly cause
frustration for new users. New users often aren't aware that drivers are necessary for these and
other components to work, so they think they have a catastrophe on their hands when the video
goes haywire, or when the printer doesn't work correctly.
All the drivers you'll ever need aren't automatically installed when you set up Windows 95. You
may have to manually install driver upgrades or reinstall drivers if the driver files have been
corrupted. You can change device drivers by way of the Add New Hardware Wizard or the Device
Manager.
Most devices requiring drivers come with a disk that has the necessary drivers on it. However, if
you need a driver, you can quickly find it on the Internet. Go to the Windows Sources page at Z
Dnet and choose Driver Finder to search for the driver for the component you're using. Or, go to
the device manufacturer's Web site.
4. Dealing with Interrupt Conflicts (IRQ)
Interrupt (IRQ) conflicts are another hardware problem that has wasted millions of man-hours of
effort. When a component needs a chunk of time from the computer's processor, it sends out its
request on an interrupt line. Each device has its own interrupt, but there are a limited number of
IRQs available on a PC. If two devices are competing for the same interrupt, conflicts can
develop. As you cram your system with more devices, juggling hard.
HARD DISK DRIVE AND CONTROLLERS
INTRODUCTION: -
Hard disk drives are similar to the floppy disk drives with some major differences. First the disk
rotates approximately 20 times faster than the floppy disk at a speed of 7200 to 10,000 rpm as
opposed to 360 revelations per seconds the read and writes head is flying one. That is the head is
attached to the slight airfoil like an airplane wing. The third major difference is that the disk is made
of rigid oxide coated aluminum instead of flexible Mylar plastic.
BASIC STRUCTURE OF HARD DISK DRIVE: -
The hard disk drive is a sealed unit that holds most of the data in a computer system. A hard disk
drive is made up of many components, and many are various types suds as st506 interface, ESDI
(Enhanced Small Device Interface), IDE (Integrated Device Electronics), SCSI (Small Computer
System Interface) etc., in these entire however, the basic mechanical components are generally the
same they are:
1. Disk platters
2. Read and Write heads
3. Head Actuator (Stepper or Voice coil)
4. Spindle Motor
5. Logic Board
6. Connectors etc.
The platters spindle motor; heads and head actuator mechanism are usually contained in a sealed
champers called hard disk assembly (HDA). The HDA generally forms single assembles, since if can
be opened in a dust free, environment only.
PLATTERS: -
The typical hard disk has one or more platters or disks of generally 5.25" or 3.5" diameter. Cold high
capacity drives used 8" and 14" platters also. All these platters are mounted on a single shaft, and
driven (at about 7,200rpm to 10,000 rpm) by the spindle motor. The platters are about 0.05" thick and
coated with a magnetically (aluminum) retentive substance or media, which is actually responsible for
the storing the data. The thickness of this media is about 30 microns.
READ AND WRITE HEAD: -
The hard disk drives have read and write head for each platters surface. Depending upon the derive
model number, there may be 4 to 15 heads, all which are mounted on common movement
mechanical each head is mounted on an arm that is spring loaded to force the heads on to the
platters. At rest, the heads are in contact with the platter. But, when the drive is spinning out full
speed, air pressure, it formed below the read and write head, which lifts it away from the platters.
HEAD ACTUATORS: -
The electro mechanical, that moves the read and write head assembly on the platter surface, is
called the actuator. Two types of actuators one commonly used. In a stepper motor type actuator,
this movement is achieved by a stepper motor, which uses a metal band to more the head assembly7
from outer edge of platter to its inner edge, and back. In a voice coil type actuator the similar
movement of the head in achieved using a voice coil. It must be noted that while voice coil has a
spring, which brings the read and write head automatically to the park position on power down. In a
stepper type actuator the heads hare to be parked by a suitable disk park program before moving the
computer.
SPINDLE MOTOR ASSEMBLY: -
Together the platters rotate as a unit on a shaft, called the spindle. Typically the short connects
directly to a spindle motor that spins the entire assembly. Most hard disks use servo-controlled
spindle motors, which constantly monitor their own speed using optical or magnetic sensors and
automatically compensate for any variation. Typically hard disk platters spin at about 7200rpm to
10,000 rpm.
CONTROLLED ELECTRONICS BOARD: -
All the electronics in the disk drives is located on the logical boards. This electronics controls the
spindle motor, head actuator, read and write head signals from or to the head, the signal interface
between the hard disk controller and drive etc.
HARD DISK STRUCTURE: -
Platters of the hard disk are made from an aluminum alloy. The aluminum serves as substance to
which a magnetic medium is affixed either with a binder or mechanically. In addition to that it in
coated writer oxide, by the method of electroplating.
SENSORS: -
Concentric circles on a disk that are numbered from the outside starting of 0 to most floppy disk have
either 40 or 80 tracks per side, which hard disk have many more some as many as 1000.
SECTORS: -
A sector is that part of a track lying with in what could be farmed a "pick slice" of the disk.
CYLINDERS: -
Tracks of the same dos number on each platter form a cylinder. Cylinder made of same tracks on
different platters.
CLUSTERS: -
A clusters is a set of configures sectors, which a hard disk may have four or more sectors per
clusters.
TERM ASSOCIATED WITH HDDS
I) DISK CAPACITY: -The capacity of hard disk depends upon the total number of cylinders, heads,
sectors per track and number of bytes per sectors. For instance, if a drive has 1024 cylinders, 124
heads, 17 sectors per track, the total capacity will be
1024*12*17*512=102.0MB. In the present day disk with capacity ranging 2GB to 80GB are
commonly available.
II) SEEK: -
When data is requested from the hard disk by the computer, the controller, signals, the hard disk to
move the head to the specified track where the data is stored. This operation is called seek
operation moving a head take a finite amount of time is known as head setting time.
III) ACCESS TIME: -
The average access time is calculated based on the track to track seek time. The seek time is the
duration taken by the head to move from one track to another.
IV) LATENCY PERIOD: -

It is time taken for a sector to reach a correctly position head, which is directly related to the speed of
the rotation of the disk.
FORMATTING OF A HARD DISK: -

Before a hard disk can be used to store data it must under go three types of preparations.
1. Low-level formatting (physical format)
2. Partitioning
3. High-level formatting (Logical format)
1. Low level formatting

The disk controller performs the low level formatting and it is done by the hard disk
manufactures.
2. Partitioning
This is done through the dos external command FDISK. This program divides the
disks into one or more partitions. If determines the operating system to be loaded in different
partitions of the hard disk.
History of Computers:
1.Abacus: The Chinese invented this in 600 B.C. This is also called soroban. The beads on the
racks represent the numbers. This calculating device is mainly for addition and subtraction.
2. John Napier's Bone: john Napier invented this in 17 the century. This was also called
"cardboard multiplication".
3. Punched Cards: This calculating device is used to store the data in the form of punches on
the cards. This was used as input device.
4. Analytical Engine: This device does all the operation that the modern computers do. This was
invented by Charles Babbage in 1822. This device doesn't meet the necessity requirement and
he came up with the new idea called "Difference Engine" 1842. So, he is called the "Father of
Modern Digital Computers"
5. MARK1: This device was invented in 1937, this was used for all calculation. This was also
called Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator.
6.ENIAC : Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator. This was invented in 1943. This was the
first Electronic device in its time.
7. EDVAC : Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer : This was invented in 1946. The
basic idea was to storage of data that directs the flow of controls.
8. EDSAC : Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer. This was in 1947. This device
simultaneously invented by the British.
9. UNIAC : Universal Advanced Computer.
GENERATION OF COMPUTERS.
Generation represents the "development in the Technology". There is mainly four generation
and it is divided in the development in the technology.
First Generation:
In this generation Vacuum tubes were used to develop any computer.
1. The size of the computer was large.
2. Vacuum tubes were used.
3. Produces large amount of heat because of many vacuum tubes.
4. Difficult to repair because of frequent hardware failure.
5. Cost was high.
6. Large rooms with A/C were required.
Second Generation:
In this generation Vacuum tubes were replaced with transistors.
1. Size of the computer decreased compared with the first generation.

2. Transistors were used.
3. More reliable.
4. Less hardware failure.
5. Cost decreased compared to first generation
6. Produces less heat.
THIRD GENERATION
Some groups of transistors were placed in a silicon chip called IC's (Integrated Circuits).
1. More reliable than first and second generation of computers
2. IC's called Integrated Circuits were used.
3. Less hard ware failure compared to both generation
4. Cost decreases
5. Mainly used for commercial purpose.
6. A/C not required due to less heat.
FOURTH GENERATION
In this generation IC's also called Small Scale Integrated Circuits were removed and Medium
scale Integrated Circuits and Large Scale Integrated Circuits were used.
1. Less cost
2. The size decreased.
3. No hardware failure.
TYPES OF COMPUTERS:
Computers are divided in to three types.
1. Analog computers: This type of computers process the data in variable quanties. For example
in the petrol pumps, analog processors are used, the flow of fuel is converted into quantites and
price values. This analog computers are cheap and easy to program. They are not accurate.
2. Digital Computer: Computers of this type process the data in numerals. They accept numbers,
letters, symbols,etc. The values are accurate. They are used in banks.
3. Hybrid computers: This type of computers is the combination of analog and digital computers.
It got the best features of both the type.
Computers are characterized in functions.

1. Special purpose computers: These computers are also called dedicated computers. Some
sets of instruction were feeded to do a specific job according to that instructions. So, they can do
only
a particular job.
2. General Purpose Computers: This type of computers can do any application. It is not
restricted to a particular task.
Computers can be categorized to physical sizes. In first generation of computers a huge

computer was used to do a simple operation and now it became a desktop size and works faster
than the previous generations.
There are some computers, which differ in their sizes.

1. Super computer: Super computers are fastest and largest computers. They accept many
processors and no. of jobs can be done at a time. It accepts no. of users do to different tasks. It
uses many secondary storage devices like magnetic tapes, cd's, etc,
It has a huge capacity to store the processed data. It is mainly used in defense and weather
research, etc. ILLIAC IV was the first super computer. Some other examples are CRAY, PARAM,
fujitsu,etc,
2. Mainframe Computers: These computers accept multiple processors, and it accepts or many
terminals can connected to it. It must have a high speed printers, many input / output devices.
It processes the complex type of data and also has the capacity to hold huge database. It is used
in large banks, airlines for the storage of the database.
3. Mini Computers: Mini computers are smaller in size. It can accept many terminals. It has the
capacity to store the processed data. It is a commercial purpose computer.
4. Micro Computers: It is also called Personal computers. The size of this computer is smaller
than mini and mainframe computers. Its main input device is keyboard. Mouse used as pointing
device. It has less storage capacity compared to super and mainframe computers.
Basic Computer Organization:

There are five basic operations. They are
1. Inputting
2. Outputting
3. Control unit
4. Storage unit
5. Processing
1. INPUT: This operation is used to feed the information in the computer. The standard devices
are keyboard, Mouse-a pointing device, and card redirect. The input devices must accept the data
from the outside world and the computer to process it must accept the same data. The data or
information feuded through the keyboard are stored in the storage device.
2. OUTPUT: This operation is used to display the feeded data or the processed data. Some
standard output devices are monitor or screen, printer, etc. These output devices must accept the
data, which was processed by the processor. The processing is done binary format and it must be
converted to understandable form.
3. CONTROL UNIT: This unit is used to control all the devices, which is helpful for processing. It
controls the inflow and outflow of data. It works like a traffic cop, which controls the movement of
data from memory to processing unit. We can also say it as central nervous system of the
computer. Because it controls and co-ordinates all the devices. It must accept the value returned
by the ALU and also by the memory.
4. STORAGE UNIT: Storage unit is to store any kind of information. Whatever the data inserted or
feeded through keyboard is first stored in the memory for further processing. It must store the
intermediate results and also final result. The memory in the storage unit is divided in the form of
cells. Each and every cell has its address.
Memory is divided in two types.
RAM: Random Access Memory. It is a type of memory, which access randomly. All the values are
not stored sequentially. This type of memory is also called Read/Write memory. That means the
values are stored as well as it can be retrieved from the memory. There are two types of RAM.
(I) Static RAM

(ii) Dynamic RAM
(I) STATIC RAM: Values are stored throughout the process. It consumes more power.
(ii) Dynamic RAM : Data stored in this memory must be refreshed in every milliseconds.
Otherwise the values are erased off. It consumes less power and it is it's advantage.
b. ROM: Read Only Memory. The content in this memory is mainly used for reading purpose.
The program cannot be altered, added, or modified by the user.
PROM : Programmable Read Only Memory. This is similar to ROM.
EPROM: Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. This type of ROM is used to make
changes in the ROM contents. The programs must be deleted everything and new program must
be added. Some portion of the program cannot be altered. Whole program must be deleted and
fresh or new Program must be loaded in the ROM chip.
EEPROM : Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory: ROM chip of this type used
to erased a small portion of the program with the help of high voltage.
Processing: Processing is done in Arithmetic Logical Unit (ALU). Any kind of data stored in the
memory flow through control unit to ALU for processing are again stores the result in the memory,
which flows to control Unit. The combination of control unit and the ALU is called Processor.
SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES:

The values, programs or the contents in file are basically stored in primary devices called hard
disk or local disk. Some other storage devices called secondary storage devices used to store the
values. They are also used for transportation of data.
1. Punched Paper cards: This type of storaging data is used in the form of punched holes. The
paper card is in the form of rolls and it width is of one inch. The values are stored in row wise. The
punched holes in the form of rows are called channels. So, each row in the card represents a
character.
2. Floppy Disks: This type of storage devices are commonly used now a days. The disk is made
of plastic cover coated with magnetic oxide, and it is covered with hard plastic cover. Disk is
divided in the form of tracks and in sector wise. The data is stored in the tracks in sector wise.
3. Winchester Disk: Winchester disk is closed in a hard cover and it is not recommended to
open. A special type of lubricant is used to reduce the friction when the head pointer moves to
read the data.
4. Optical Readers: This type of input devices is used to read the special characters, marks,
printed characters, etc. This is a special device which the marks with the reflection of light.
a) OMR : Optical Mark Reader. This device is used to read the marks, bars, or any other
special character or symbols.
For example, to read the rate of the products, a bar code reader is used to read the bars
available on the product's cover.
OMR sheets are used to dark the marks wherever necessary so that the mark reader reads the
dark objects as it's input.
b) OCR : Optical character Reader. This is used to read only hand written characters, printed
characters. The hand written character must be in standard width, height,etc. There shouldn't be
any loops as we write in running letters. The printed characters must be in standard font and size.
Output devices:
1. Visual Display Unit (VDU): This is the most common device used with microcomputers. It is
having the technology of CRT, which is also used in television. CRT - Cathode Ray Tube. It
displays the character on the screen instead of on papers. The printed text is also called softcopy.
The screen varies in different sizes. Normally the screen has 24 lines and 80 characters.
2. Plotters:
Plotters are used to produce designs and graphs. There are basically two types : a) Drum
plotter b) Flatbed plotters.
a) Drum Plotters: It is having a drum in which the paper is fixed and it is moved to and fro which
makes it in vertical motions.
The pens are clamped in the holder with different set of colors and they are moved in horizontal
directions. When the both move simultaneously the graphs or design are produced on the paper.
b) Flatbed Plotters: In this type of plotters the paper is not fixed and set of colored pens are in
motion. These are controlled by the computer.
Plotters are normally slow because it is marked up lots of mechanism as compared to the speed
of computers.
3) Printers: Printers are of two types. They are impact and non-impact printers.
a) Impact Printers: This type of printers normally leaves the impression of the characters on the
paper.
b) Non-Impact Printers: Printers of this type are quiet and fast and they don't leave any
impression.
a) Impact printers: These are of two types, character printers and line printers.
Character printers: In this type of printers one character is printed at a time. For example, a
typewriter, which prints one character at a time.
Some examples of character printers are:
1) Letter-Quality printer: This is of impact printers having a set of font wheels also known as
daisy wheel. This wheel is set to rotate at a high speed. And whenever the desired character is
required, a hammer which is behind the paper strikes the paper. 10-50 characters are printed in a
second.
2)Dot-Matrix Printers: These printers print each character as a pattern of dots. The print head
had matrix of tiny needles. The print quality is inferior to letter-quality printers but faster than it.
These printers are less expensive as compared to daisy wheel. These printers can print any
shape characters as described by the printer.
3)Ink-Jet Printers: These are non-impact printers which prints the characters by spraying small
drops of ink onto paper. It produces high quality output because the characters are formed by
dozens of tiny ink dots. They are quiet and form any shape of characters.
Line Printers: Line printers are impact printers used with large computer system to produce huge
output. They are fast printers.
Drum Printers and Chain Printers are commonly used.
1) Drum Printer: Drum printers are consists of a solid, cylindrical drum that has raised characters
in bands of its surface. There are many bands and it rotates at high speed. When the desired
character appears, the hammer strikes the paper along with the ribbon which is behind it. One
revolution is required to print one line.
2) Chain Printers: They use rapidly moving chains called print chain. As the print chain
rotates, there is a print hammer located behind the paper and when it founds the desired
character it strikes on the paper along with the inked ribbon.
Page Printers: Page printers are non-impact printers, which can produce documents with a high
speed. For example, xerography, lasers and other technologies. These techniques called electro
photographic techniques. Printers of this type are extremely fast and cost effective.
Computer Software:
It is a set of programs written in a language in order to control the applications.
Basically three types of softwares:

1. System software
2. Application software
3. General-Purpose software.
1. System Software:
This type of software is related to system, for example to control the process of printers,
floppy, media devices, etc.
System software include the following options:
a) Programming Language
b) Translators
c) Modules
d) Operating system
a) Programming Language: These are some set of instructions given to system in a systematic
manner in order to get the desired output.
Machine level or Low level Language: This language is related to machine understandable
code. i.e., only machines can understand easily but not the user. It does all the manipulation in
BITS (Binary Digits). 0's and 1s, so combination of bits represents a number or character.
Assembly Level Programming Language: In this type of languages the code are written in
mnumonic which are the combination of letters-symbols. It is also a machine dependent.
High-level language: This user-friendly language, i.e. the user can understand the language
easily but the system fails to understand it. So, we use translators to translate high level
language to machine level.
b) Translators: Translators are used to convert the source code written in high level to low level.
Assembler translates the source code written in assembly level to machine level. Compilers
and Interpreters convert the source code in High level to low level. Compilers compile the source
code all at once. Wheres the interpreters interprets one statement at a time.
c) Modules: Modules are set of instructions to do a specific task. So, group of modules constitute
a program. A separate module does a specific task.
d) Operating System: Operating system acts as an interface between the user and the
hardware. It manages the users request and also the hardware components. It acts like a
manager.
2) Application Software: It is special software used to do some specific job. Like the employee
payroll, so the software deals with only the payroll application, railway reservation is also one of
the examples, which uses the details about the train and about the reservation details, and it is
also used for scientific calculations used by the researchers.
3. General Purpose Software: This type of software executes only one function, which is mostly
used in the offices. Like word processing, spreadsheets, database management, graphics, etc.
Number System:
Number system is used to convert the numbers in the form of bits. Here 0's and 1's are called
bits or binary digits. Zero indicate "false" or "Off" and One indicates "True" or "ON"
Types of Number Systems:
1. Binary Digits - base 2
2. Decimal - base 100
3. Octal - base 8
4. Hexa Decimal - base 16
Disk Operating System (DOS):

Dos is a layer of programs which controls the system components and the files. It acts like an
interface between user and the hardware. It is like a manager, which manages the system
resources as well as the user's request.
[draw the diagram ]
In the diagram the Operating system acts like a mediator to the user and the hardware. If the
user wants a file, he will request the o/s and the O/S accepts the request and searches the file in
the hardware and again responds to the user. Here the O/s does interact directly with the
hardware.
Features:
1. Multitasking: Task is any kind of job. Multitasking represents to no. of jobs which the o/s can
handle at time. Some o/s can handle many tasks to do. For example Unix, Linux, windows NT,
2000 Server, etc.,
Ms-Dos is a single tasking o/s, which can do only one job at a time. After the completion of a task
it moves to another job to do.
2. Multi-User: Multi-user operating system supports many users at a time. It can accepts many
user's job at a time and can process it. For example, Linux, Unix, etc, and Ms-dos supports only
single user. It can accept one user's request and after completion of the job it moves to another
user.
3. Multi-Threading: Thread represents functions or a self-contained block of statements that has a

specific task to do. Some operating system supports multi-threading that can do all the functions
simultaneously.
4. Time Sharing: This is the method where all the multi-tasking operating system works to do a
sequence of jobs given at a time. If some group of jobs is given by number of users, the
operating system sets a priority of the jobs, and allocates time for each job.
History of Computers:
1.Abacus : This was invented by the chinese in 600 B.C. This is also called soroban. The numbers are represented
by the beads on the racks. This calculating device is mainly for addition and subtraction.
2. John Napier's Bone: This was invented by john Napier in 17 th century. This was also called "cardboard
multiplication".
3. Punched Cards : This calculating device is used to store the data in the form of punches on the cards. This was
used as input device.
4. Analytical Engine : This device does all the operation that the modern computer can do. This was invented by
Charles Babbage in 1822. This device doesn't meet the necessity requirement and he came up with the new idea
called "Difference Engine" 1842. So, he is called the "Father of Modern Digital Computers"
5. MARK1: This device was invented in 1937, this was used for all calcuation. This was also called Automatic
Sequence Controlled Calculator.
6.ENIAC : Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator.

This was invented in 1943. This was the first Electronic device in its time.
7. EDVAC : Electronic Descrete Variable Automatic Computer :

This was invented in 1946. The basic idea was to storage of data that directs the flow of controls.
8. EDSAC : Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer. This was in 1947. This device simultaneously
invented by the Britishers.
9. UNIAC : Universal Advanced Computer.
GENERATION OF COMPUTERS.
Generation represents the "development in the Technology". There are mainly four generation and it is
divided in the development in the technology.
First Generation :
In this generation Vacuum tubes were used to develop any computer.
1. The size of the computer was large.
2. Vacuum tubes were used.
3. Produces large amount of heat because of many vacuum tubes.
4. Difficult to repair because of frequent hardware failure.
5. Cost was high.
6. Large rooms with A/C were required.
Second Generation :
In this generation Vacuum tubes were replaced with transistors.
1. Size of the computer decreased compared with the first generation.
2. Trasistors were used.
3. More reliable.
4. Less hardware failure.
5. Cost decreased compared to first generation
6. Produces less heat.
THIRD GENERATION
Some group of transistors were placed in a silicon chip called IC's (Integrated Circuits).
1. More reliable than first and second generation of computers
2. IC's called Integrated Circuits were used.
3. Less hard ware failure compared to both generation
4. Cost decreases
5. Mainly used for commercial purpose.
6. A/C not required due to less heat.
FOURTH GENERATION
In this generation IC's also called Small Scale Integrated Circuits were removed and Medium scale
Integrated Circuits and Large Scale Integrated Circuits were used.
1. Less cost
2. The size decreased.
3. No hardware failure.
TYPES OF COMPUTERS:
Computers are divided in to three types.
1. Analog computers: This type of computers process the data in variable quanties. For example in the petrol
pumps, analog processors are used, the flow of fuel is converted into quantites and price values.
This analog computers are cheap and easy to program.
They are not accurate.
2. Digital Computer: Computers of this type process the data in numerals. They accept numbers, letters,
symbols,etc. The values are accurate. They are used in banks.
3. Hybrid computers: This type of computers are the combination of analog and digital computers. It got the best
features of both the type.
Computers are characterized in functions.

1. Special purpose computers : These computers are also called
dedicated computers. Some set of instruction were feeded so that to do a specific job according to that instructions.
So, they can do only
a particular job.
2. General Purpose Computers: This type of computers can do any application. It is not restricted to a particular
task.
Computers can be categorised to physical sizes. In first generation of computers a huge computer was used to do a
simple operation and now it became a desktop size and works more faster than the previous generations.
There are some computers which differ in their sizes.

1. Super computer : Super computers are fastest and largest computers. They accepts many processors and no. of
jobs can be done at a time. It accepts no. of users do to different tasks. It uses many secondary storage devices
like magnetic tapes, cd's, etc,
It has a huge capacity to store the processed data. It is mainly used in defense and weather research, etc. ILLIAC
IV was the first super computer. Some other examples are CRAY, PARAM,fujitsu,etc,
2. MainFrame Computers: These computers accepts multiple processors, and it accepts or many terminals can
connected to it.
It must have a high speed printers, many input / output devices.
It processes the complex type of data and also has the capacity to hold huge database.
it is used in large banks, airlines for the storage of the database.
3. Mini Computers: Mini computers are samller in size scale. It can accepts many terminals. It has the capacity to
store the processed data. It is a commercial purpose computers.
4. Micro Computers : It is also called Personal computers. The size of this computer is smaller than mini and
mainframe computers. It's main input device is keyboard. Mouse used as pointing device.
It has less storage capacity compared to super and mainframe computers.
Basic Computer Organization:

There are five basic operation. They are
1. inputting
2. outputting
3. control unit
4. storage unit
5. processing
1. input: This operation is used to feed the information in the computer. The standard devices are keyboard,
moouse-a pointing device, card reader,etc. The data from the outside world must be accepted by the input devices
and the same data must be accepted by the computer to process it. The data or information feeded through the
keyboard are stored in the
storage device.
2. Output : This operation is used to display the feeded data

or the processed data. Some standard output devices are
monitor or screen, printer, etc. These output devices must accept the data which was processed by the processor.
The processing is done binary format and it must be converted to understandable form.
3. Control Unit: This unit is used to control all the devices which is helpful for processing. It controls the inflow
and outflow of data. It works like a traffic cop which contrls the movement of data from memory to processing
unit. We can also say it as central nervous system of the computer.
Because it controls and co-ordinates all the devices. It must accepts the value returned by the ALU and also by the
memory.
4. Storage Unit: Storage unit is to stored any kind of information. Whatever the data inserted or feeded through
keyboard is first stored in the memory for further processing.
It must store the intermediate results and also final result.
The memory in the storage unit is divided in the form of cells. Each and every cell has its address.
Memory is divided in two types.
a. RAM : Random Access Memory. It is a type of memory which access randomly. All the values are not stored
sequentially. This type of memory is also called Read/Write
memory. That means the values are stored as well as it can be retrieved from the memory. There are two types of
RAM.
(i) Static RAM
(ii) Dynamic RAM
(i) Static RAM: Values are stored throughout the process. It consumes more power.
(ii) Dynamic RAM : Data stored in this memory must be refreshed in every milliseconds. Otherwise the values
are erased off. It consumes less power and it is it's advantage.
b. ROM: Read Only Memory. The contents in this memory is mainly used for reading purpose. The program
cannot be altered, added, or modified by the user.
PROM : Progrmmable Read Only Memory. This is similar to ROM.
EPROM : Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. This type of ROM is used to make changes in the ROM
contents. The programs must be deleted everything and new program must be added. Some portion of the program
can be altered. Whole program must be deleted and fresh or new Program must be loaded in the ROM chip.
EEPROM : Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memeory: ROM chip of this type used to erased a
small portion of the program with the help of ultra-violet rays.
Processing : Processing is done in Arithmetic Logical Unit (ALU)

unit. Any kind of data stored in the memory flow through control unit to ALU for processing are again stores the
result in the memory which flows to control Unit. The combination of control unit and the ALU is called Processor.
SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES:

The values, programs or the contents in file are basically stored in primary devices called hard disk or
local disk. Some other storage devices called secondary storage devices used to store the values. They are aslo
used for transportation of data.
1. Punched Paper cards: This type of storaging data is used in the form of punched holes. The paper card is in the
form of rolls and it width is of one inch. The values are stored in row wise. The punched holes in the form of rows
are called channels. So, each row in the card represents a character.
2. Floppy Disks: This type of storage devices are commonly used now a days. The disk is made of plastic cover
coated with magnetic oxide, and it is covered with hard plastic cover. Disk is divided in the form of tracks and in
sector wise. The data is stored in the tracks in sector wise.
3. Winchester Disk: Winchester disk is closed in a hard cover and it is not recommended to open. A special type
of lubricant is used to reduce the friction when the head pointer moves to read the data.
4. Optical Readers: This type of input devices is used to read the special characters, marks, printed characters, etc.
This is a special device which the marks with the reflection of light.
a) OMR : Optical Mark Reader. This device is used to read the marks, bars, or any other special character or
symbols.
For example, to read the rate of the products, a bar code reader is used to read the bars available on the
product's cover.
OMR sheets are used to dark the marks wherever necessary so that the mark reader reads the dark objects as it's
input.
b) OCR : Optical character Reader. This is used to read only hand written characters, printed characters. The
hand written character must be in standard widht,height,etc. There shouldn't be any loops as we write in running
letters. The printed characters must be in standard font and size.
Output devices:
1. Visual Display Unit (VDU) :This is the most common device used with micro computers. it is having the
technology of CRT which is also used in television. CRT - Cathode Ray Tube. It displays the character on the
screen instead of on papers. The printed text is also called softcopy. The screen varies in different sizes. Normally
the screen has 24 lines and 80 characters.
2. Plotters :
Plotters are used to produce designs and graphs. There are basically two types : a) Drum plotter b)
Flatbed plotters.
a) Drum Plotters : It is having a drum in which the paper is fixed and it is moved to and forth which makes it in
vertical motions.
The pens are clamped in the holder with different set of colors and they are moved in horizontal directions. When
the both move simultaneously the graphs or design are produced on the paper.
b) Flatbed Plotters : In this type of plotters the paper is not fixed and set of colored pens are in motion. These are
controlled by the computer.
Plotters are normally slow because it is marked up lots of machanism as compared to the speed of
computers.
3) Printers : Printers are of two types. They are impact and

non-impact printers.
a) Impact Printers : This type of printers normally leaves the impression of the characters on the paper.
b) Non-Impact Printers : Printers of this type are quiet and fast and they don't leave any impression.
a) Impact printers : These are of two types, character printers and line printers.
character printers: In this type of printers one character is printed one at a time. For example, a type writer
which prints one character at a time.
Some examples of character printers are :
1) Letter-Quality printer: This is of impact printers having a set of font wheels also known as daisy wheel.
This wheel is set to rotate at a high speed. And whenever the desired character is required, a hammer which is
behind the paper strikes the paper. 10-50 characters are printed in a second.
2)Dot-Matrix Printers: These printers print each character as a pattern of dots. The print head had matrix
of tiny needles. The print quality is inferior to letter-quality printers but faster than it. These printers are less
expensive as compared to daisy wheel. These printers can print any shape characters as described by the printer.
3)Ink-Jet Printers: These are non-impact printers which prints the characters by spraying small drops of
ink onto paper. It produces high quality output because the characters are formed by dozens of tiny ink dots. They
are quiet and form any shape of characters.
Line Printers: Line printers are impact printers used with large computer system to produce huge output.
They are fast printers.
Drum Printers and Chain Printers are commonly used.
1) Drum Printer : Drum printers are consists of a solid, cylindrical drum that has raised charaters in bands
of its surface. There are many bands and it rotates at high speed. When the desired character appears, the hammer
strikes the paper along with the ribbon which is behind it. One revolution is required to print one line.
2) Chain Printers : They use rapidly moving chains called print chain. As the print chain rotates,
there is a print hammer located behind the paper and when it founds the desired character it strikes on the paper
along with the inked ribbon.
Page Printers : Page printers are non-impact printers which can produce documents with a high speed. For
example, xerography, lasers and other technologies. These techniques called electrophotographic techniques.
Printers of this type are extremely fast and cost effective.
Computer Software :
It is a set of code written in a language inorder to control the applications.
Basically three types of softwares :

1. System software
2. Application software
3. General-Purpose software.
1. System Software :
These type of software are related to system, for example to control the process of printers, floppy, media
devices, etc.
System software include the following options :
a) Programming Language
b) translators
c) Modules
d) Operating system
a) Programming Laguage : These are some set of instructions given to system ina systematic manner inorder to
get the desired output.
Machine leve or Low level Language : This language is related
to machine understandable code. ie, only machines can understand easily but not the user. It does all the
manipulation in BITS(Binary Digits). 0's and 1's , so combination of bits represents a number or
character.
Assembly Level Programming Language : In this type of languages the code are written in mnumonic
which are the combination of letters-symbols. It is also a machine dependent.
High level language : This user friendly language, ie the user can understand the language easily but the
system fails to understand it. So, we use traslators to translates high level language to machine level.
b) Translators : Translators are used to convert the source code written in highlevel to low level. Assembler
translate the source code written in assembly level to machine level. Compilers and Interpreters converts the
source code in High level to low level. Compilers compile the source code all at once. Whereas the
interpreters interprets one statement at a time.
c) Modules: Modules are set of instructions to do a specific task.

So, group of modules constitute a program. Separate modules do a specific task.
d) Operating System: Operating system acts as a interface between the user and the hardware. It manages the
users request and also the hardware components. It acts like a manager.
2) Application Software: It is special software used to do some specific job. Like the employee payroll, so the
software deals with only the payroll application, railway reservation is also one of the examples which uses the
details about the train and about the reservation details, and it is also used for scientific calculations used by the
researchers.
3. General Purpose Software: This type of software executes only one function which is mostly used in the offices.
Like word processing, spreadsheets, database management, graphics,etc.
Number System:
Number system is used to convert the numbers in the form of bits. Here 0's and 1's are called bits or
binary digits. Zero indicate "false" or "Off" and One indicates "True" or "ON"
Disk Operating System (DOS):

Dos is a layer of programs which controls the system components and the files. It acts like an interface
between user and the hardware. It is like a manager which manages the system resources as well as the user's
request.
[ draw the diagram ]
In the diagram the Operatiing system acts like a mediator to the user and the hardware. If the user wants a
file, he will request the o/s and the O/Saccepts the request and searches the file in the hardware and again responds
to the user. Here the O/s doesn't interact directly with the hardware.
Features:
1. Multitasking : Task is any kind of job. Multitasking represents to no. of jobs which the o/s can handle at time.
Some o/s can handle many tasks to do. For example Unix, linux, window NT,etc.,
Ms-Dos is a single tasking o/s, which can do only one job at a time. After the completion of a task it moves to
another job to do.
2. MultiUser : Multiuser operating system supports many users at a time. It can accepts many user's job at a time
and can process it. For example, Linux, Unix, etc, and Ms-dos supports only single user. It can accepts one user's
request and after completion of the job it moves to another user.
3. Multi-Threading : Thread represents functions or a self contained block of statements that has a specific task to
do. Some operating system supports multi-threading that can do all the functions simultaneously.
4. Time Sharing : This is the method where all the multi-tasking operating system works to do a sequence of jobs
given at a time. If some group of jobs are given by number of users, the operating system sets a priority of the
jobs, and allocates time for each job.
MOTHERBOARDS
Over the year, theres been consistent development in motherboard design to make them more
compact and efficient. Various manufactures have defined specification to make motherboards compatible with
other components such as the cabinet, SMPS, and add-on cards. These are design suggestions for the shape
and size of the motherboard, location of various components, heat dissipation confiscations, power supply
design, shielding, etc. These specifications are broadly referred to as the from factor of a motherboard.
Form factors can be broadly divided into three categories AT, ATX, and NLX. They help motherboard
manufacturers in designing motherboards conforming to the same standard. So a user buying a particular
standard, say an AT motherboard will go to the market and ask for an AT cabinet.
Each form factor category has several sub-categories that are prefixed by Baby, Mini, and Micro. These
are nothing but a set of enhancements provided to the original.
AT (12 x 13.8) This form matches the original IBM AT motherboard design. Youll find these
motherboards in very old PCs such as the 286s and 386s. These motherboards can be distinguished mainly by
the of power connector they have. Its similar to a male plug with flat pins.
Baby AT (13.04 x 8.57) These evolved from the AT motherboards mainly because of its width and the
location of the onboard components on the board. The processor was placed near the expansion slots, which
made it difficult for longer cards to fit in. these problems were corrected in the Baby AT form. These forms is
popular because it can also fit into an existing AT cabinet.
ATX/Mini ATX (12x9.6/11.2x8.2) Intel designed this form factor. Its essentially a Baby AT
motherboard rotated 90 degrees within the cabinet. This way, the processor is relocated away from the
expansion slots, allowing them to hold full-length add-on cards. Another improvement is that it has a new type of
power connector with 20 pins instead of the earlier 12. On the SMPS side, theres a single connector instead of
the earlier two, making it easier to insert. Thats not the only improvement. You have to hold the cabinets on/off
switch for four seconds to power it down. The ensures that a PC isnt switched off accidentally. ATX power also
enable soft power off.
NLX (8.9 x 10-13.6) This form factor is usually found in a lot of branded desktop machines. In this,
the expansion slots are put on a separate riser card plugged into an edge connector on the motherboard. This
places the expansion cards parallel on the motherboard, thereby making a more compact design.
Motherboards Based on the CPUs they support, motherboards are divided in to six different types.
The Super 7 motherboards support AMD K6-III and Cyrix MII processors. But this is last years
technology, and you wont choose them unless you already have one of these processors, and want AGP and
USB support.
Socket 370 motherboards support the Celeron processors from Intel.
Slot 1 motherboards support PII and PIIIs.
Slot A motherboards support AMD K7 chips. these are different to come across. We keep hearing
about AMD starting operations in India, unless youre patient enough to hunt for the board and the CPU, this is
not really an obvious choice.
Dual broads support both Slot 1 and Socket 370 CPUs. But you can use only one CPU at a time. The
idea seems to be that you buy a cheaper Celeron now, and if you upgrade to a PIII later, you neednt change
your motherboard.
Now thats a really big if. As we saw earlier, any upgrade to your PC is viable only within one year. Next
year, when chip speeds Coors the GHz barrier, who knows what slot or socket will be in use? Lets say you buy a
Celeron/433 today. That would cost you 4,000. Now, if you want to upgrade to A PIII later in the year, youre
likely to shell out somewhere around Rs 15,000-20,000. What are the chances that youll spend that much
money within a single year? And if you were actually going to do that, youd be better off postponing your
purchase. In other words, we dont see much of an advantage with dual boards, other than the fact that they
come at around the same price as the others.
If your need is productivity applications, then youre well served by a Celeron CPU, and your choice of
motherboard is quite obvious. However, Celeron-based systems rate at entry-level for gaming, So if youre a
serious gamer, avoid the Celeron.
If your work requires more juice from the CPU, then obviously your motherboard should have a PIII.
Here, you have two choices-one with a Front Side Bus (FSB) of 100 MHz or one with a FSB of 133 MHz.
Boards with 133 or higher FSB will soon become common, and should be your choice, provided other
subsystems like graphics are up to mark. Intel 810-based motherboards may not fit the bill if youre into high-
end graphics work.
One youve decided that, you come to the chipset. The chipset determines the features supported by
the board. There are many choices here, but the most common ones are the Intel 810, the Intel 440 BX, and
440Zx. There are comparable chipset from competing vendors like Asus, Via, etc. The most notable feature of
the 810 in our context is that it has a video card and a sound card built onto the motherboard. What this means
is that if youre looking for entry-level performance, you can save of cost by using 810-based motherboards.
However, if youre looking for cuttingedge video or audio performance such as in good gaming, multimedia
development, etc., then the 810 or its equivalent is not the chipset for you.
Once youve decided which chipset you want, you come to the number of slots and the maximum
amount of RAM. In newer motherboards, youre not likely to find ISA slots. You wont miss them unless you have
some older ISA cards that you disparately want to use. The standard is three PCI slots, but some boards even
give you four or six. If you have an 810-based board, than video is built in. Otherwise, youll have an AGP port
for the video card. 2x AGP is common; 4x is on its way in. With the 810 gaining popularity, the future of AGP
cards hangs in balance at present.
Dont go for aboard without USB ports. Most of the new peripherals today-printers, scanners, digital
cameras, modems, etc.-are likely to come with USB. All chipsets support USB ports on them. So witch out for
that.
If you are into high-bandwidth applications such as video editing, etc., you may want onboard SCSI
support. Also, do note that motherboards for servers are quite different. They include additional features, and
support, and the Xeon CPUs on Slot II.
Motherboard from factor is another important factor to be kept in mind. This is what determines the size,
layout, and design of your motherboard. ATX motherboards usually have all the ports onboard. Baby AT and
Micro ATX boards are much smaller in size and will fit into the old AT cabinets. Check that these motherboards
have dual AT and ATX power connectors if you plan to use them with an older cabinet.
BIOS(Basic input Output System) A small code of instruction etched into a ROM chip and put on the
motherboard. The BIOS is the most crucial component of a motherboard. It determines and detects what kind of
hardware is present on your motherboard. When your system starts, the processor looks for its first instruction in
the BIOS . Hardware is identified, and the operating system start up. Initially, BIOS came in EEPROM
(Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) Chips. The Problem with these was that the BIOS
code couldnt be updated . So for example, if a new processor was introduced and your motherboard didnt
support it, you had buy a new motherboard. Later, a new type of ROM was introduced, called the flash BIOS,
which is also popular today. You could update the BIOS code here using a software program. Motherboards that
use chipsets like the Intel 810 are likely to have their BIOS offer many advanced features, such as the ability to
change the processor clock speed and setting soft power option through the BIOS itself, which once had to be
set using jumpers.
Slots and sockets

The processor slot or socket on a motherboard determines which processor your motherboard supports. The
following are the most-commonly used sockets on motherboard.
Socket 7 Motherboards with this type of slot can house the Pentium class of processors, including
Intels Pentium range, AMD K6-2 and 3, Cyrix MII, and IDT Winchip. The Processor in this socket is mounted
horizontally. Today, these motherboards are identified as Super Socket 7. The difference is that Super Socket 7
motherboards contain an AGP port and USB support.
Socket 370 This socket is similar in appearance to socket 7, except that it supports only Intel Celeron
processors. In this category, 433 MHz Celeron are now commonly available.
Slot 1 Intel fist introduced this slot for its PII processors. Later, it also introduced its Celeron processors
on it, but moved them to Socket 370 subsequently. Slot 1 also supports PIII processors. Slot 1 mount the
processor vertically, similar to a normal add-on card. the processor is mounted on a PCB (Printed Circuit Board)
that contains the L2 cache.
Slot A When Intel patented its slot 1 design, other processor manufacturers had to resort to other slot
designs, and thats how Slot A came into the picture. This Slot is designed for AMDs Athlon processor. The
interface is mechanically compatible with Slot 1, but has different electrical connections, so that the Athalon and
the PIII cant be exchanged for each other.
Memory
The level of satisfaction you have with your PC depends on the amount of Ram it has. Even if the
processor is fastest or the hard drive the best and quickest around, you just wont get the performance youre
looking for without the right type and amount of RAM. So, its important for you to understand the various type of
RAM starting from the earlier EDO to the current SDRAM and future RDRAM. This will help you decide which
RAM to buy for your PC.
So, what is RAM? RAM stands for Random Access Memory. Its a common place for all the devices in
a PC to store their data for processing. RAM is volatile by nature, so if the PCs power goes off, all the data
stored in it will be lost. Its faster than the fastest hard disk around. So the CPU doesnt have to go searching on
the hard disk all the time for data. There are primarily two kinds of RAM-Static (SDRAM) Dynamic (DRAM).
Dynamic RAM is made of an array of transistor capacitor pairs. The capacitor are charged or discharged
depending on the data, and must be constantly refreshed every few milliseconds, otherwise the charge will leak.
On the other hand, SDRAM doesnt need to get refreshed so often and is therefore faster than DRAM by up to
six times. But its quite expensive to produce and therefore more often used for caches than for main memory.
FPM, EDO, SDRAM what are these? There are several type of DRAM. One way to differentiate
between them is to check if theyre synchronous or asynchronous. this refers to whether the memory is
synchronized to the system bus or not. If the memory is slow than the system bus, then the processor will have
to wait for it to catch up every time it needs some data. This reduces the overall system performance. The
earlier DRAM, Fast page Mode (FPM), and Extended Data Out (EDO DRAM) were Asynchronous. They were
widely available till the times of Socket 7 motherboards, which housed the Pentium class of CPUs.
As processor speeds and bus speeds went up, asynchronous DRAM became a bottleneck to the overall
system performance. The solution was to move to synchronous DRAM or SDRAM. This RAM could work at the
system bus speed, currently touching 133 MHz. However, its the 100 MHz SDRAM that is more popular.
SIMMs and DIMMs Earlier, memory modules were soldered onto the motherboard. These were single
IC chips and occupied a lot of space on the motherboard. Upgrading Ram was also a difficult process. To tackle
this problem, Single Inline Memory Modules (SIMMs) were developed which had either 32 or 72 pins, and could
be plugged into the memory slots on the motherboard. These housed the earlier asynchronous DRAMs.
Later on, Dual Inline Memory Modules (DIMMs) were developed. there were 72-pin and 168-pin
modules and were faster and more efficient. Most PCs Come with two or three DIMMs or four SIMMs.
Future of RAM Future CPUs will be even faster than those made today, looking to be measured at GHz
rather than MHz. This will mean more pressure on RAM to provide faster data access. The current RAM wont
be sufficient to handle this load. So manufacturers are now coming out with faster RAM-prominent example
being RDRAM (Rambus DRAM) manufactured by Rambus, and DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate SDRAM).
RDRAM can operate on system clock speeds of 133 MHz and has four channels for transferring data, each
channel transferring at the rate of 553 MB/sec, bringing the total transfer rate to 2.132 GB/sec. DDR SDRAM
also has a high data transfer rate at 1.066 GB/sec. Theres also news of a new type of RAM-DRDRAM-thats
slated to be even faster than RDRAM as it has wider data channels. Theres also the Synchronous link DRAM or
SLDRAM, developed primarily as a competition to RDRAM, that expands on the SDRAM model.
Other types of RAM Besides the Ram used for local memory, theres a variety of other type of RAM
being used in PC sub-systems. One common example is the Video RAM (VRAM) found on display cards.
Earlier, there were many different type of video RAM termed as SGRAM for Synchronous Graphics RAM,
WRAM or Windows RAM, etc. However, today most graphics cards come with SDRAM, as VRAM and other are
more expansive variety of RAM in display cards used for high-end graphics work. SDRAM is found mostly in
AGP gaming cards.
RAM is a type of solid-state storage media, which means that it doesnt use any magnetic material for
storage. The latest advancement in solid-state storage is the Sony memory stick. Its a kind of non-volatile RAM
that comes on a board smaller than a chewing gum stick. The main application of this memory stick is to
transfer data between digital audio/video products such as digital cameras, hardware MP3 players, etc. The
stick can be connected to a PC, MAC, or a windows CE device through an IDE interface. It supports Windows
9x, CE, and Mac OS.
This is definitely not the last word on Ram, with new development taking place every day. But these
changes are at the development level, and would take a long time to come to your desktop.
How do you know weather you have EDO or SDRAM? When your computer boots up, youll see that
the screen displays a table. At this table, hit the pause key to hold the screen. Look for something that says
SDRAM at Rows. If it says :None, you dont have SDRAM. if it says 0-1 or has numbers(s) from 0-2, you
have SDRAM. The number 1 indicates that your PC has only one memory module, and likewise a2 indicates
two modules.
Ports
A small portion of motherboards is devoted to connectors for external peripherals, such as hard disk and
floppy drives. You have different types of connectors, which include:
IDE Short for Integrated Device Electronics. this interface is used to connect hard drives and other
ATAPI (AT Attachment packet interface) - compliant devices such as CD-ROM drives, CD-Writers, etc. A
motherboard usually has two IDE ports, termed as primary and secondary. you can connect two devices to each
IDE port, which are then termed as master and slave device. You have to change the jumper settings on each
device to determine whether its master or slave. usually, the primary master is a hard drive on which the
operating system is loaded. The latest motherboard come with support for the new Ultra ATA/66 specification.
This allows hard disks to achieve burst transfer rates of 66 MB/sec. an Ultra ATA/66 IDE cable is different from
the normal one, so ensure the motherboard you buy has that cable.
FDD connector this floppy drive port is similar to an IDE connector, Except that it has fewer pins. Its
usually placed with the other two IDE ports.
USB (Universal Serial Bus) All motherboards have provision for this port, but some dont provide the
connectors for it. A motherboard usually has two USB is an interface that allows a maximum of 127 devices to
be daisy chained one after the other. the transfer rates are also pretty high, reaching 12 MB/sec. USB ports are
plug-n-play, that is, any device connected to it gets recognized immediately.
Firewire (IEEE-1394) Firewire was developed to meet the demands of todays audio and video
applications. Its extremely fast, with transfer rates of 400 MB/sec, and even faster speeds are being developed.
Fierwire supports three different-100 MB/sec, 200 MB/sec, and 400 MB/sec. A maximum of 63 devices can be
connected by daisy chaining them through two game boy type connectors that have six pins each. Firewire
technology is expansive, but is applicable in areas where the work involves a lot of digital video.
Buses
This is a term meant to identify slots for inserting add on cards in a motherboard. Bus refers to a set of
line that help in transferring data between the CPU and other devices. Here are the various buses found on
motherboard.
ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) IBM introduced this 8-bit bus architecture in 1981. It had a
theoretical transfer rate of 4 MB/sec. in 1984, with the release of the 286 data processor which used a 16-bit
data path, the ISA bus was expanded to 16 bits. The theoretical transfer rate for this was 8 MB/sec. The 16-bit
ISA bus is still in use on many motherboards today. A major disadvantage of this bus was that IRQs had be
manually defined through jumpers on cards that mounted on the bus.
MCA (Micro Channel Architecture) The release of the 32-bit 386 resulted in IBM coming out with MCA
bus. IBM wanted to replace the IAS bus with it, but the two were totally incompatible. IBM also insisted that
vendors using MCA pay a royalty to them. Due to this, the bus didnt last too long.
VESA (Video Electronics Standard Association) the VESA bus developed by NEC, also know as the
VL (Video Local) bus, came into existence in August 1992. Unlike its predecessors, it ran at the speed of the
processor rather that at a speed of 8.33 MHz. It could even access memory at the same speed and gave a
theoretical throughput of 128 to 132 MB/sec. It was popular only for two years, as it was compatible only with
486 processor and FSB speeds of 33 MHz.
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Another bus specification spearheaded by Intel in 1992,
and currently found on all motherboards. the PCI bus required an additional bridge chip to connect to the I/O of
the CPU, rather than directly tapping into the processor bus and take VL bus did. this allowed it to use the
system bus and take full advantage a throughput of 132 MB/sec. Another important feature of PCI is was the
model for the PNP (Plug-n-Play) specification, which meant that PCI cards could be configured via software,
rather than through jumpers as was the case with ISA cards.
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) The AGP port is a dedicated graphics port based on PCI. Its a
dedicated point-to-point channel that enables the graphics controller to access main memory, bypassing the
bottleneck of the PCI bus. It allows textures to be stored in main memory rather than video memory. the AGP
channel is 32 bits wide and runs at 66 MHz, giving a bandwidth of 266 MB/sec. AGP also supports two optional
faster modes, giving throughputs of 533 MB/sec and 1.07 GB/sec.
MOTHERBOARD CHIPSETS
The backbone of all motherboards is undoubtedly the chipset, which performs an ever-increasing
number of jobs. A chipset in nothing but a set of chips around which a motherboard is built. They aid the
processor in communicating with the outside world. To understand this, lets compare a chipset to human body.
The coordinator for all functions in the body is the brain. This is equivalent of the processor on a
motherboard. The brain needs other parts of the body to interact with the external world. This includes the eyes
to see, mouth to speak and taste, ears to hear, nose to smell and breathe, limbs to walk around and feel other
objects. Similarly, a chipset lets the CPU interact with the outside world, external as well as internal to the
motherboard. Theres an AGP controller to which you can connect a display adapter to view all the data (eyes).
Theres a PCI controller that lets you connect various other devices such as a sound card (talk, hear). This chip
also controls hard disk and memory, Similarly, theres another chip that controls all the ports such as USB,
Parallel, DIN, PS/2, etc.
Cipsets are available from various manufacturers. they differ in the amount of functionality they can
provide. Its up to the motherboard manufacturer to include some or all functionalitys when using these chipsets.
For example, a manufacturer may not provide USB functionality, although a chipset might support it.
MOTHERBOARD SECRETS
1. Motherboards of similar categories are very similar in performance, be it in running productivity
applications or gaming. So, when buying motherboard of a particular category (say a socket a 370 with Intel 810
chipset), the deciding factors would largely be price and features.
2. All other components being same (hard disk, RAM, display card), a PIII/500 gives a 10-11 percent
performance boost over a celeron/433 when running productivity applications.
3. Ensure that the motherboard you buy comes with DMA (Direct Memory Access) drivers for your hard
disk. If it doesnt, make sure that you enable DMA for your hard disk from system properties. This option will be
there if your hard disk drive supports DMA. This gives more than 100 percent boost in your hard drives transfer
rates. It also reduces the load on your CPU significantly. Without DMA, the disk CPU utilization is above 70
percent, but with DMA, it goes down to around 4 percent or less.
4. The connecting cable for UltraATA/66 is different from the conventional IDE cable. The connecting
strip has more wires. We didnt find any difference in performance with this cable.
5. If youre buying a motherboard for gaming, them go for a motherboard with an external AGP slot. This
is because your display adapter has a large role to pay in your gaming performance, and determines your
games speed and graphics quality.
6. Your motherboards and circuit design determines how effectively it can utilize your processors
capabilities. It can cause a difference of as much as 5 percent in overall performance while running productivity
applications.
7. Ensure that you download the latest driver and BIOS updates for your motherboard. Most
motherboards today have flash BIOS. This can be upgraded through software you can download from your
motherboards site.
8. Some motherboards dont provide all the features that are supported by the chipset theyre based on.
One example is USB support, and another is the AMR slot in the new 810 motherboards. These are listed as
optional in the motherboards manual and you cant upgrade the motherboard for those fetters later. So ensure
that all the feature you want are available on the motherboard when you buy it.
9. Jumper-less motherboards are mush easier to configure ad several factors like the CPU clock speed,
etc., can be modified through the BIOS instead tweaking with jumpers.
10. The price difference between a dual processor (Slot 1/Socket 370) and a Socket 370 motherboard is
not too much. So if you plan to buy a Celeron now and upgrade to a PIII later, the dual is a good option.
Otherwise, go for just the Celeron.
SYSTEM ASSEMBLE
1. Start by fixing the motherboard on to the cabinet panel using spacers
2. Now its time to fix the CPU. A Slot 1 CPU-a PII/PIII would go in like this. The AMD K7 also goes in
similarly
3. Ensure that the CPU fan is connected. CPUs generate a lot of heat, and not having the CPU fans
working could land you in serious trouble
4.A Socket 370 (or a socket 7) CPU aligns with the ZIF socket only in one direction. This is identified by
the cut corner on the CPU
5. Open the lock, insert the CPU without applying any force, and push the lock back into the locked
position
6. The heat sink and fan for a Celeron or a Socket 7 CPU is fixed like this. Apply a thick layer of IC
paste to the sink and the CPU surface to improve heat conductivity
7. Time to put in RAM. Open the lock on the DIMM slots and push in the DIMM firmly. The locks will
automatically close, locking the DIMM in position. The DIMM can go only one way in its slot
* Time for the various cables to go into the motherboard. Depending on the motherboard youve picked
up, the number of cables and where they have to be connected on the motherboard will vary. Refer to your
motherboard manual for exact instructions on which cable goes where.
* At a minimum, you need to connect the cable for the hard disk/CD-ROM drive (the IDE cable connects
both) and for the floppy drive. In addition, you may have to connect up the parallel and serial ports, the monitor
port, the sound jacks, and MIDI port, and maybe even the USB port.
8. There are two IDE ports on your motherboard. Select the one marked primary, and connect the cable
there. The cable goes in only one-way as identified by the notch
* At this stage, fix the motherboard back into the cabinet, and fix the drives on to their respective bays.
Typically, you would have three drives- the hear disk, the CD-ROM drive, and the floppy drive. Assuming that
youve fixed the drives.
9. The floppy drive cable goes in next. Now hoe do you distinguish the cable from each other? The IDE
cable is wider than the floppy cable
10. The IDE cable connects to the hard disk this way. Again, they go in only one way, which is identified
by the notch (circled)
11. Power connectors to the hard disk. Like all other connectors, these also go in only one way, which is
identified by the round edged on one side
12. Connect the floppy drive and giving it power
13. Time to connect power to the motherboard itself. you could have either an ATX power connector or
an AT connector at your cabinet (Power supply SMPS ). Some motherboards and some SMPSs give you
connectors for both. Be sure that youve got matching connectors on your motherboard and your cabinet
14. If youre using AT power connectors, they connect like this. Youll be connecting two power
connectors to the motherboard. Ensure that the black leads come at the center
15. If youre using an ATX connector, plug it in such that the lock on the side is aligned, and locks
properly
* Dont force any connector or card in. If youve to use lot of force, then youve probably got it wrong.
Forting them in can damage the connectors and pins. So re-check whether youve got it right
16. Time to move on to add-on cards. It youre using a motherboard such as the Intel 810-based ones,
then you dont need a separate video or sound card. Otherwise, for video you need to in an AGP card. the AGP
card goes into the brown-colored slot on the motherboard
17. Most other are PCI cards. You wont find any new card thats based on the older ISA slot. So most
recent motherboards dont have any ISA slots. A PCI card goes into the PCI slot (White colored)
* Once everything is connected, its time to close the cabinet, connect the monitor, power up the
machines, and start installing operating system. If the machine doesnt start up, but beeps instead, check your
motherboard manual for what the beep mean. Then rectify the error and start again.
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)

AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port was brought to life by Intel in the last quarter of 1997. It was first
introduced in Intels PII Slot 1 motherboards. The idea behind bringing out AGP was bandwidth congestion on
the PCI bus. More and more devices were moving from the slower ISA bus to the faster PCI bus. PCI also had
the advantage of automatically assuaging IRQ (Interrupt Requests) to all drives. This was a nightmare in the
ISA bus, where all jumper setting had to configured manually. Devices moving to PCI included network cards,
and later sound cards. The new Ultra DMA hard drives also use the PCI bus for data transfers. With more
devices sharing the same bandwidth on the PCI bus its easy to see the resulting congestion. And having the
graphics card transfer its data (which is a lot) on this already congested bus marks matters worse. So enters the
savior-AGP.
AGP is a separate bus used for transferring data between the graphics card and the processor. Its a
separate port which you can plug in the graphics cards-it doesnt use the PCI bus at all. Theres separate AGP
controller chip on the motherboard for controlling data transfers. The chipset also allows the video card to
access the main memory and use it to store the large textures generated in games and graphics. This was not
the case with the earlier PCI display cards. where the data was first sent to the main memory, and then copied
to the graphics cards memory (VRAM) as needed. This had two limitations. First, there was redundancy of data
with textures being stored in the main and the video memory. Second, texture-rendering capabilities were
restricted to the amount of video memory on the display card. This was eliminated by AGP as it uses only the
main memory to store textures. So, the local memory of the graphics card-also known as VRAM or frame buffer
is used to get higher refresh rates and screen resolutions.
The bandwidth available to AGP and the clock speed at which it functions are much higher than PCI.
Whereas PCI works at 33 MHz, giving a throughput of 133 MB/sec, AGP works at 66 MHz with a throughput of
266 MB/sec. Initially, however, even with higher bandwidth, AGP cards didnt give any significant improvement
over their PCI counterparts. However, the advantage with AGP is that the bandwidth can be increased. Today,
AGP 2x cards with a bandwidth of 532 MB/sec are commonly available. AGP 4x with a bandwidth of over 1
GB/sec is also becoming popular.
The future of AGP is interesting. In the entry-level market, its being built into the chipset itself, for
example in Intel 810 chipset motherboards. At the higher end, AGP is getting faster and faster, with display
cards bundling tons of VRAM onboard. the current world standard is 32 MB.
INTEL 820 MOTHERBOARD
This Motherboard from Intel is based on the new 820 chipset. Its out on an ATX from factor and has
onboard color-coded ports. 820-based Motherboards ship in two versions-with RDRAM and SDRAM
respectively. We tested the latter and found its performance similar to the existing Motherboards
based on 440xx series of chipsets. RDRAM is supposed to provide significantly better performance,
but is more expensive.
{RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory,) or RDRAM, is a faster kind of RAM, which can
operate on system clock speeds of 133 MHz. It can provide double the bandwidth of conventional PC
100 SDRAM. However, RDRAM is difficult to find at present and is very expensive.} The board
supports FSB of 100 MHz and 133 MHz, depending on your processor. Even if you operate at 133
MHz FSB, you can use the PC 100 RAM, thinks to the CC820s MTH (Memory Translator Hub). You
can have a maximum of 512 MB of SDRAM. It supports P II 350-450 MHz and P III 450-733 MHz
Processors.
The Motherboard has a 4x AGP slot, which means that you can get transfer speeds of up to 1
GB/sec or more. Youll, however, need a graphics accelerator card that also supports AGP 4x. These
are currently hard to find, at least in the Indian market, and are also expensive.
There are five PCI slots, which are enough for expansion. The CC820 has one parallel and two serial
ports. The mouse and keyboard can be connected through the PS/2 ports. It also has two USB ports.
It supports the new ATA/66 interface, which allows burts transfer rates of up to 66 MB/sec. It also
comes with an ATA/66 cable, which is one of the basic requirements for ATA/66 to work.
The Motherboard is available in two different flavors, with or without onboard audio. The onboard
audio is Sound Blister 128 from Creative and increases the Motherboards cost by Rs 650. The board
also has an AMR slot, which can be used to house next-generation modems and sound cards.
We put the CC820 through various tests to check its performance on productivity applications,
graphics, and gaming. we compared its performance against the Asus P2-99B. In productively
applications, the Motherboard was just behind the Asus with a performance difference of 1.4 percent.
In graphics and gaming using DirectX 7, the Motherboard was again behind the Asus by 2 percent,
which is not much.
We then ran a gaming benchmark from Intel that uses three 3D games, namely Iron Strategy,
Battlezone II, and Dispatched. These benchmark calculators the frame rates in each. The
Motherboard failed to perform as well as the Asus. In Battlezone and Iron Strategy, it scored 18 and
21 percent lower than the Asus respectively. in Dispatched, it lagged behind by just nine points. In
Quake II with OpenGL, however, the CC820 managed to salvage some pride coming out on top with
a difference of 8 percent.
On the price front, the Motherboard is slightly more expensive than the Asus. It comes with a CD
containing drivers for Sound Blaster audio PCI128, plus Adobe Acrobat Reader 4, Norton Anti Virus
5.01.02, Intel LANDesk Client Manager 6, IE 4.72, and Encryption Plus Secure Export 3.1.
Ms.Office
Word (.doc)
Excel (.xls )
Powerpoint (.ppt)
Ms.Access (.mdb)
Ms.Access
It is RDBMS
Data
Information (or) Raw Material
DataBase
Collect interrelated data from a particular topic is called Database.
For example :
Employee:
eno, ename, age, sal, address, phone
DBMS
DBMS means Database Management System which is used to manage the Database such as Create a
table, inserting records, retrieve records and remove a records from a table.
RDBMS
RDBMS means Relational Database Management System which is used to create relation between one
or more table. RDBMS has four types of relations. They are
1. One to One
2. One to Many
3. Many to One
4. Many to Many
Data Type
DataType Property
You can use the DataType property to specify the type of data stored in a table field. Each field can store data
consisting of only a single data type.
Setting
The DataType property uses the following settings.
Setting Type of data Size
Text (Default) Text or combinations of text and Up to 255 characters or the length set
numbers, as well as numbers that don't by the FieldSize property, whichever
require calculations, such as phone numbers. is less. Microsoft Access does not
reserve space for unused portions of
a text field.
Memo Lengthy text or combinations of text and Up to, 65535 characters. (If the
numbers. Memo field is manipulated through
DAO and only text and numbers [not
binary data] will be stored in it, then
the size of the Memo field is limited
by the size of the database.)
Number Numeric data used in mathematical 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes (16 bytes if the
calculations. For more information on how to FieldSize property is set to
set the specific Number type, see the Replication ID).
FieldSize property topic.
Date/Time Date and time values for the years 100 8 bytes.
through 9999.
Currency Currency values and numeric data used in 8 bytes.
mathematical calculations involving data with
one to four decimal places. Accurate to 15
digits on the left side of the decimal separator
and to 4 digits on the right side.
AutoNumber A unique sequential (incremented by 1) 4 bytes (16 bytes if the FieldSize
number or random number assigned by property is set to Replication ID).
Microsoft Access whenever a new record is
added to a table. AutoNumber fields can't be
updated. For more information, see the
NewValues property topic.
Yes/No Yes and No values and fields that contain only 1 bit.
one of two values (Yes/No, True/False, or
On/Off).
OLE Object An object (such as a Microsoft Excel Up to 1 gigabyte (limited by available
spreadsheet, a Microsoft Word document, disk space)
graphics, sounds, or other binary data) linked
to or embedded in a Microsoft Access table.
Hyperlink Text or combinations of text and numbers Each part of the three parts of a
stored as text and used as a hyperlink Hyperlink data type can contain up to
address. A hyperlink address can have up to 2048 characters.
three parts:
text to display the text that appears in a
field or control.
address the path to a file (UNC path) or

page (URL).
subaddress a location within the file or

page.
screentip the text displayed as a tooltip.
The easiest way to insert a hyperlink address

in a field or control is to click Hyperlink on the
Insert menu.
Lookup Wizard Creates a field that allows you to choose a The same size as the primary key
value from another table or from a list of field used to perform the lookup,
values by using a list box or combo box. typically 4 bytes
Clicking this option starts the Lookup Wizard,
which creates a Lookup field. After you
complete the wizard, Microsoft Access sets
the data type based on the values selected in
the wizard.
Ms.Access
=========
It contains seven database objects. They are
1. Tables
2. Queries
3. Forms
4. Reports
5. Pages
6. Macros
7. Modules.
1.Table
Table is a Database object which is used to store one or more records. The Table Consists of rows and
columns.
Ex
---
Eno. Ename Age Salary DOJ
---- -------- ---- ------- -----
101 Prasad 32 13000 12/12/04
102 Srinu 26 6500 12/12/04
...... .... .... .......
..... .... ... .....
Eno - Column Name

101 - Field
Collection of fields called record
Collection of record is called table.
Collection of table is called database.
How to Create a New Table in Ms.Access

About creating a table
To create a blank (empty) table for entering your own data, you can:
Use the Table Wizard to choose the fields for your table from a variety of predefined tables such as business
contacts, household inventory, or medical records.
Create a table in Design view, where you can add fields, define how each field appears or handles data, and
create a primary key.
Enter data directly into a blank datasheet. When you save the new datasheet, Microsoft Access will analyze
your data and automatically assign the appropriate data type and format for each field.
To create a table from existing data, you can:
Import or link data from another Access database or data in a variety of file formats from other programs.
Perform a make-table query to create a table based on data in a current table. For example, you can use make-
table queries to archive old records, to make backup copies of your tables, to select a group of records to export
to another database, or to use as a basis for reports that display data from a specific time.
Powerpoint is a software used to give presentation to a group of audience. If a group needs any
explanation on particular topic, this software is very useful. It has many features,
1. Many different slides for different topics.
2. Can insert movies, charts, clip arts,
etc.
3. Text, tables, pictures, and formats.
4. Can set time for each and every slide
5. Slides can be packed to view in another computer.
6. Animation to the objects can be customized.
start --> run --> "powerpnt"

or
start --> programs --> Micorsoft powerpoint
Pack and Go:

This is a special tool used to pack all the slides of a presentation in a folder. And this folder can be
opened in the some other system to view the slide.
file --> pack and go --> next --> active presentation --> choose distination by clicking the "browse" and
select a location --> next -> next -> finish.
Slide Master:
Slide master is used to make same kind of changes in all the slides. Changes can be format of the text,
backgroud, font styles, size, superscript, subscript, footnotes, etc.
View --> master --> slide master.
Change the format of the text, the same changes is applied to all the slides.
Slides from files : This tool is used to insert some slides or all the slides from other presentation.
Insert --> Slides from files. --> find presentation
---> Browse --> select the file --> open --> add to favourites --> ok --> select "list of favourites" --> display.
It displays all the slides --> "insert all" to insert all the slides and "insert" for the selected slide.--> close.
Hyperlink : To link the present file with some other application files. Select the text or any object, right click or
Insert --> Hyperlink --> file ---> select the file --> ok --> ok.
slide Layout:
This tool is used to change the present slide to another.
format --> slide layout --> select the slide -- ok.
Meeting Minder:
This tool is used to write the notes at the presentation. The notes can be copied and sent to ms-word.
At the time of presentation, right click on the screen --> meeting minder --> write the notes --> select "export"
--->ok.
Rehearse Timings: This is to set time for each and every slide inorder to display autmatically.
slide show ---> rehearse timing
After few seconds use enter key to set time for the next slide, continue till end of the slides.
To view normal , view --> normal
Action buttons : Used to do a specific actions like to move to next slide, previous slide, last slide, etc,. It works
like a hyperlink. Select a button from the action buttons, click and drag on the slide. At the time of presentation,
select the buttons to do the actions.
Preset Animation : It is for quick and simple animation for the objects, pictures, etc.
Insert some pictures from clip art, select each picture and slide show --> preset animation --> select the
"animation".
Custom Animation : It is used to animate object along with time settings, effects, and also some properties for
multimedia. Preview of the animation can be viewed.
slide show --> custom animation --> order and timing
Order and timing used to set time for each object and their order to view.
Effects : Effects like motion of the objects, sound effects, etc.
slide transition : To animate slides, slide show --> slide transition --> select the option from "transition" --> set
the time by using "automatically" --> play a sound in "sound" option, and select "apply to all" , the effects will
apply to all the slides.
Hide slide : Select a slide and slide show --> hide slide, inorder to hide the slide.
Cutom show : This is also called a presentation within presentation. This is divide the presentation for different
group of audience.
silde show --> custom show --> new --> give the name for the show ---> select the slide from the list box -->
add ---> ok.
Continue the same process for another group.
To view, slide show --> custom show --> select the group --> show.
Printers
Printing files and documents can be as simple as clicking an application's Print button. The hard part
is deciding which printer is right for you. This chapter defines printers, and explains the differences
between the most common printers available. In addition, you learn how to connect a printer to your
computer, and how to make sure it will work with Windows 95.
Printers Defined
A printer is the computer component that lets you create copies of the information stored in your
computer on paper. The printed material is often called hard copy, to differentiate it from the data
stored on a disk, or held in the computer's memory.
There are three basic types of printers available for use with personal computers:
Laser printers. These combine a magnetic roller with powdered ink called toner to transfer
high-quality characters or images onto a page.
Inkjet printers. These have small nozzles that actually spray fast-drying ink onto the page to
form characters or images.
Dot-matrix printers. These use a print head to strike an inked ribbon against paper, like a
typewriter, creating characters out of a series of dots.
The type of printer you choose depends on your budget and the type of output you need. For
example, if all you need to print are grocery lists, you may be happy with a dot-matrix printer. In
general, dot-matrix printers are noisier, slower, and produce a poorer-quality image than does laser or
inkjet printers, but they are also less expensive. If you need to print newsletters, brochures, or
illustrated reports, you will probably want a high-quality laser printer.
In general, there are three main factors to consider when purchasing a printer:
Cost. Printers are available ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand
dollars, but the purchase price is just the beginning. Paper, ink, toner, printer ribbons, and the
other consumables are required to keep the printer running, and they all cost money.
Resolution. Resolution is measured by how many dots per inch (dpi) the printer can print. The
more dots per inch, the higher the resolution of the printed image. The higher the printer's
resolution, the better is its quality.
Speed. Printer speed is rated by how many characters printers output in a second (cps) or
how many pages printers output in a minute (PPM). The higher the number, the faster the
printer.
Although the primary considerations involved in selecting a printer are usually cost, speed, and
resolution, there are other issues that come into play as well. Available fonts, the ability to print in color,
and the amount of maintenance involved may weight your decision:
Noise. Impact printers such as dot-matrix printers are noisier than non-impact printers such as
laser or inkjet printers. If you have a small or crowded office, noise can be an important factor.
Software support. PCs communicate with printers using software programs called printer
drivers, and some printers come with built-in printer languages, such as PostScript. Be sure
that the software programs you use support the printer driver and printer language for the
printer you purchase.
Fonts. A font is the style of letters that your printer puts on the paper. They are important if
you want control over the appearance of text on the printed page. Most printers come with
built-in fonts called internal or resident fonts. Some dot-matrix printers may only have a few
resident fonts, while some laser printers may have dozens. In addition, laser and inkjet
printers can use soft fonts that come with your software applications.
Color. Color spices up most printed documents, but it can significantly increase the cost of
printing. Not only do color printers cost more, but the ink, toner, or ribbon cartridges cost more
as well. Although the cost of laser color printers is coming down, color inkjet printers still offer
the best combination of cost effectiveness and print quality.
Maintenance. The amount of time you spend cleaning a printer, refilling a paper tray, or
changing a toner cartridge may vary greatly from printer to printer.
Laser Printers
Laser printers are similar to copy machines--they use laser beams to burn special toner onto the
page to create a permanent impression. They create high-quality output at a relatively fast speed,
without making too much noise. The downside is the price; most black-and-white laser printers cost
$500 or more, and each toner cartridge (which lasts about 3,000 pages) can cost an additional $50.
When considering a laser printer, here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Laser printers offer a resolution ranging upwards from 300 dpi-600 dpi is common, and
very high-quality printers can output at resolutions as high as 3,386 dpi!
2. 3. Laser printers are available in speeds of 4, 8, or 12 PPM. However, keep in mind that
these are the top speeds. The actual speed will depend on whether you are printing
plain text, or complex characters and images.
4. 5. The amount of desk space a printer uses is called the footprint. If you don't have much
room, you'll want a small footprint printer.
6. 7. Some printers can hold only 50 sheets of paper, while others can hold 250 sheets. Some
have more than one paper holder, which increases capacity, and makes it possible to
switch between different sizes of paper. That means you don't have to reload when you
want to print legal size pages or envelopes.
Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printers spray a fine, quick-drying ink through small nozzles to produce characters and images
on paper. Although the results are not quite as sharp as those of laser printers, inkjet printers provide
very good quality output at a lower cost. Laser printers cost more than other printers, but they may
be worth the price because they are fast, quiet, and produce high-quality text and graphics.
When considering an inkjet printer, here are some things to keep in mind:
Inkjet printers are quiet.
1. Inkjet printers, which start at about $200, are less expensive than laser printers; yet produce
output almost as well.
2. 3. Inkjet printers are slower than laser printers, but faster than dot-matrix printers.
4. 5. Replacement ink cartridges are expensive, costing about $45 each.
6. 7. Many inkjet printers can use color ink cartridges.
Dot-Matrix Printers
Dot-matrix printers are the cheapest printers available. They create text and images on the page by
hammering several small pins against an inked ribbon. The more pins used, the better the image--9-
pin and 24-pin are common options. The 24-pin printers produce a better quality output, but are
somewhat slower than the 9-pin printers.
Print quality for dot-matrix printers is often described in terms of mode: draft mode (low resolution),
near-letter-quality mode (medium resolution), or letter-quality mode (high resolution). The speed
depends on the mode, with draft mode being the fastest.
When considering a dot-matrix printer, here are some things to keep in mind:
1) Dot-matrix printers are the cheapest. Prices start at about $100; the ribbon cartridges
last a long time and cost about $15 apiece.
2) 2) The sound made by the pins banging away can be quite loud; 24-pin printers are
louder than 9-pin printers.
3) Most dot-matrix printers can use different types of paper, including continuous feed as
well as cut-sheet paper. In addition, they can be used to print on multipart forms.
Some let you switch back and forth between the different types reloading.
4) 5) Narrow carriage dot-matrix printers can accommodate standard letter size paper, while
wide carriage dot-matrix printers can handle 11x17-inch pages. Wide carriage
printers cost generally about $100 more than narrow carriage printers.
Connecting Your Printer to Your PC
Most printers have two cables: one is a power cord, and the other is the printer cable. Connecting a
printer involves attaching the printer cable to the correct port on your computer's system unit, then
plugging the power cord into an electrical outlet.
To attach a printer cable to the system unit, follow these steps:

1. Locate the printer cable. The easiest way is to find the one that isn't a power cord. It is probably heavy, gray,
about six feet long, and it ends in a D-shaped connector with 25 pins. NOTE: For laser and inkjet printers, the
printer cable is probably permanently attached to the printer. For dot-matrix printers, you will have to manually
attach one end of the cable to the printer. Locate the end that is not the D-shaped 25-pin connector and attach it
to the port on the printer. Secure it using two clips that snap into place.
2. Locate the parallel port on the system unit. The parallel port also has 25 sockets,
arranged in the same configuration as the 25 pins on the cable connector.
3. Plug the connector on the cable into the port on the system unit.
4. Secure the connector by tightening the screws on either side.
Understanding Your Printer Controls

Although most commands that affect your printer come from your PC and your PC applications, most
printers also have a set of controls. For example, you may be able to select the mode of operation as
well as which paper tray to use for a particular print job. Status lights on the front of the printer let you
know which controls are active.
If you look at the front of your printer, these are some of the controls you are likely to find:
Online or ready light. A printer must be online in order to work, which means it must be active
and ready to accept data from the computer.
NOTE: Although some printers automatically come online when you print a file, most
have an on/off switch. If none of the status lights on your computer are lit, locate the
on/off switch and turn the printer on.
Mode indicator. Dot-matrix printers are likely to have different modes such as draft mode,
near-letter-quality mode, and letter-quality mode.
Error indicator. If there is a problem with printing such as no paper, or a paper jam, the error
light will be lit.
Be sure to read the documentation that comes with your printer for complete instructions on using the
printer controls.
Installing Your Printer to Work in Windows 95

Windows 95 uses the Add Printer Wizard to assist you in installing a printer. If your printer is not
already installed, run the wizard to add the printer.
NOTE: These instructions are for installing a local printer, one that is attached directly
to your computer. If you have a networked printer, ask your network administrator for
information about installing it for use with your computer.
1. Double-click My Computer and then double-click the Printers folder icon. Double-click the
Add Printer icon to start the Add Printer Wizard. Choose Next.
2. On the second screen of the wizard, select the Local Printer option button to install a printer
directly attached to your computer. Then click next again.
3. Select the printer's manufacturer in the Manufacturers list box. Select the specific printer in
the Printers list box and then choose next.
NOTE: If your printer is not on the list, either choose the Generic manufacturer and
Generic/Text Only printer, or click the Have Disk button and follow instructions to install
a vendor-supplied driver.
4. Choose the printer port, typically LPT1, and then click the Configure Port button. Check the
Spool MS-DOS Print Jobs and the Check Port State Before Printing check boxes. Choose OK
and then choose next.
5. In the Printer Name text box, type a name for the printer or keep the name that is
displayed. Select the Yes option button if you want Windows-based programs to use this
printer as the default printer. (If a different printer is the default printer, choose No.) Choose
Next.
6. Select yes if you want to print a test page, and then choose Finish. The test page prints (If
you selected Yes). The wizard copies the printer drivers to your system, prompting for the
Windows 95 disks or CD if needed.
After you install a printer in Windows, you can make changes to the configuration to customize it for
different printing requirements. You make these changes in the printer's Properties dialog box:
1. Click the Start menu, select Settings, Printers, and then select the printer icon for the
printer you want to configure.
2. Right-click the printer icon and then select Properties to open the Properties dialog box
Windows 95 makes it easy to install a new printer by using the Add Printer Wizard. Just pick
the right make and model from the list.
3. The Properties dialog box contains several tabs. Select each tab to view the settings. Click
the Help button (the question mark in the upper-right corner) and then click a feature to read
details about that property. Properties vary according to each printer's capabilities.
4. Change settings as desired, and then choose OK to save the new settings. Choose Cancel
to get out of the dialog box without making any changes.
If you no longer need a printer that is installed in Windows 95, you can delete it from the Printers
folder window:
1. Double-click My Computer and then double-click the Printers folder icon.
2. Select the printer you want to delete. Open the File menu and select Delete.
3. Windows asks if you are sure that you want to delete the printer. Choose Yes. The printer
icon is deleted.
4. Windows then asks if it can remove files that were used only for this printer. Choose Yes.
(If you plan to reattach this printer in the future, choose No.)
Other Printing Considerations

Printing a document is similar in most Windows applications. You can open the application's File
menu and select Print to open the Print dialog box. In the dialog box, you can select options such as
which pages you want to print and how many copies to print. To quickly print the current document
without setting options, click the Print button on the toolbar.
A printer icon on the taskbar near the clock indicates that printing is in progress. A quick way to check
the status of print jobs is to point to the printer icon on the taskbar.
After you issue the print command, the Print Manager takes control of the print job. You can use the
commands in Print Manager to check the status of a print job, to cancel a print job, or to pause a print
job.
Print Manager keeps track of documents waiting to be printed. There are several ways to open Print
Manager:
If a print job is in progress, double-click the printer icon in the taskbar.
Click the Start button and select Settings, Printers. Then double-click the printer icon for the
printer you want to manage.
Double-click the My Computer icon and then double-click the Printers folder icon.
Double-click the printer icon for the printer you want to manage.
If your printer is not working, here are a few things to check:
Is the printer turned on?
Is the printer online?
Are the cables between the printer and the computer attached correctly and securely?
Is the printer power cord plugged in?
Is there paper in the printer?
Has the printer been paused in the Print Manager?

TIP: To check if a printer has been paused, open the Print Manager, and then open
the Printer menu. If there is a check mark next to the Pause Printing command, the
printer has been paused. To restart it, select the Pause Printing command.
PRINTERS
INTRODUCTION
Printer is an electro mechanical device that receives data from the pc in the form of binary
coded characters and prints the characters on the paper. There are two types of printers that are
used.
They are two types: -

1) IMPACT PRINTERS
2) NON IMPACT PRINTERS
1) IMPACT PRINTERS: - These printers have a moving head that strikes on a

ribbon to form an image on paper.
E.g.: - Dot matrix printers
2) NON IMPACT PRINTERS: - In this type of printer there is no physical contact
with the paper. Non-impact printers are quiet.
Eg :- Inkjet printer, LaserJet printers
DOTMATRIX PRINTERS
This is one of the most popular printers used for personnel computing systems.
These printers are relatively cheaper compared to other technologies.
This uses impact technologies and a print head containing banks of wires moving at
high speeds against inked ribbon and paper. Characters are produced in matrix format the
speeds range from 40 characters per second (cps) to about 1000 cps. A disadvants of this
technology is that the print quality is low. The working principle of a dot matrix is simple. The
print head consists of several pins with coils attached to term. Normally printers come with
either 9 pins or 24-pin configuration. In a 9-pin printer the pins are arranged in single row
where as in a 24-pin printer they are arranged in two tows of 12 pins. The pins are arranged
in a matrix of 7*9 and 5*7 matrix is used for spacing.
When current is passed to the coils, which in turn ejects the pin out. In this manner
current is passed and stopped thereby making the pin to eject and return to its original
position. This process of the pins ejecting and coming back to its original position is called
firing. Current passed through the coil controls the pin firing.
The characters are formed as a set of dots. In order to print characters or images
pins are selectively fired to print dots on paper and form the required character or image.
The printer receives the ASCII codes from the pc and converts them printable characters by
referring to the CG-ROM. The carriage motor is rotated in steps to provide column and row
movement for the print head.
CONSTRUCTION OF A DOT MATRIX PRINTER
(Block diagram of dot matrix printer)
The DOT MATRIX printer has the following section.

1. Power supply
2. Mechanical Assembly
3. Sensor
4. Control panel
5. Logic Board.
1. POWER SUPPLY: -
+5v DC is used for IC's (Logic Board)
+12v DC is used for interface circuitry (communication interface)
+24v DC is used for motors.
2. MECHANICAL ASSEMBLY: - The head assembly has a set of coil inside. The head
moves in horizontal direction from left to right and back signal are sent to the head through a
flat cable.
Carriage guide rods: -This unit carries the print head on it. This rod guides the print head
for its horizontal movement.
Head carriage unit: -This is the head actuator this is stepper motor, which can be driven by
giving pulses. For each pulse, the head will move one step.
Timing belt: -This belt is fixed to motor and head carriage unit. This belt is used for
converting the rotational motion of the motor into linear motion of the carriage.
Platter roller: -This roller is provided to move the paper in vertical direction. Platter roller is
mode out of vulcanized rubber. The friction between the roller and the paper enhances
movement of the paper in the vertical direction.
Line Feed (LF) motor: -This motor rotates the platter roller through a gear assembly. It is a
stepper motor, which is driven by four pulses and moves in steps according to the sequence
of the pulses given to it.
Ribbon drive mechanism: -The ribbon is present in between the head and the paper. As
the head moves the ribbon is also rotated. A set of gear arrangement rotates the ribbon in
one direction ensuring that the print head does not strike the ribbon on the same pint.
3) SENSORS: -
There are four sensors used inside the printer they are: -
1) Home position sensor
2) Paper Sensor
3) Paper Feed Sensor
4) Thermal Sensor
1) Home Position sensor: -

This sensor draws the print head assembly to the left most position when the printer is
switched on. This sensor plays a role in pulling the head mounting assembly to the home
position when a line feed is encountered.
2) Paper sensor: -
This sensor is used to find whether paper is fed or not. When printer runs out of paper
this sensor stops further print jobs there by preventing the head striking directly on the
platter and damaging the pins.
3) Paper Feed Sensors: -

This sensor is used to determine whether the paper is fed through the tractor or not.
5) Thermal Sensor: -
This sensor is used to maintain the temperature of the print head within the specified
limit. If the print head gets heated, the sensor stops the printing until the head
temperature returns to normal.
6) Control Panel: -
The control panel available in the printer is mainly used for setting print quality, style, size, line
feed and form feed. The printer control also has on online switch, which indicates the printer
ready status. The printer prints only in online made. In off line mode paper feeding, style or font
setting, etc., are done.
7) Logic Board: -
The logic board contains the main components that control the functioning of the
printer. They are: -
Master Ram: - This IC contains the instruction for self-test and general operations of
the printer.
CG-ROM: - This IC contains image of each character. The pc sends dates in ASCII
form and the printer CPU refers the CG-ROM to convert the ASCII code to printable
characters.
CPU: - The CPU us the knob IC that controls all the operations of the printer. It
excites the instruction stored in the master Rom and it controls the data flow between the pc
and printer.
RAM: - This is the temporary memory present on the logic board used as a buffer for
receiving data from the pc. The RAM is useful because the printer cannot receive data as
fast as they are being sent by the pc.
DECODER: - The Decoder is used form providing select signal to different IC's (CPU,
RAM, ROM) to enable them one at a time. The CPU Controls the decode.
Print head pin firing circuit: - This circuit controls the firing of the pins present in the
print head.
Head gap Adjustment lever: - This lever is provided in order to adjust the gap
between the print head and the paper for accommodating more papers to be feed along with
carbon sheets for taking multiple copies of a page.
LASER PRINTER
INTRODUCTION: -
The laser printer use either electro photographic (EP) or LED technology to print images on paper. The
clarity of image is measured in units called DPI (Dot Per Inch). The more the number of dots per inch the sharper the
image. Printing is achieved by deflecting laser beam on to the photo sensitive surface of a drum and computer image
attracts the toner to the image areas the toner is then electrostatic ally transferred to the paper and fixed into a
permanent image. Speeds can range from 10 pages a minute to about 200 pages per minute.
(Block diagram of a laser printer)

The laser printer consists of the following assemblies.
1. Toner Cartridge
2. Fusing Assembly
3. Laser Scanner
4. Power Supply
5. Paper Transport Assembly
6. Corona
7. Printer Controller Circuit
8. Toner Cartridge: -
The cartridge holds a micro fine black powder called as a toner. If is made up of carbon mixed with polyester
resin and iron oxide particles in order to make it flow and sensitive to electrical changes. The cartridges also
contains a print drum coated with photosensitive material that can hold a static charge when it is not exposed to
light, but can not hold it is exposed to light. The drum also contains a cleaning blade (cleaner) to scribe the
surface of the photosensitive drum to keep it clean.
9. Fusing Assembly: -
The fuser assembly is made up of three parts: - A halogen heating lamp, A Teflon-coated aluminum fusing roller
and rubberized pressure rollers.The fuser used the halogen lamp to heat that fusing roller between its defers to
180 degree centigrade. As the paper passes between the two rollers, the pressure roller pushes the paper against
the fusing roller, which melts the toner on to the paper.
3) Laser Scanning: -As the photosensitive drum rotates it is scanned by the scanning
assembly in order to discharge particular areas of the drum.
10. Power Supply: -
The EP process requires high voltage electricity. This component converts the AC
into higher voltages DC, that the printer can use this high voltage is used to energize the
corona wire and the transfer corona wire. The high voltages used in the EP process cannot
power the other components in the printer. These components require low voltage DC
between +5v ton +24volts.
The DC power supply converts the AC into two voltages.
+5v logic circuitry
+24v Transport motors
5. Paper Transport Assembly: -

This assembly is responsible for moving paper through the printer. It consists
of a motor and several rubberized rollers that each performs a different function. The first
type of roller is the feed roller or paper pickup roller, This D-shaped roller when activated,
rotates against the paper and pushes and sheet into the printer. This roller works in
conjunction with a special rubber pad to prevent more than one sheet being fed at a time.
Another type of roller is the registration roller. There are two registration rollers.
These rollers synchronize the paper movement with the image formatting process in the EP
cartridge. Both these rollers are operated with special electric motor knows as electronic
stepper motor. This type of motor can accurately move in very small increment. This motor
powers all of the paper transport rollers as well as the fuser rollers.
6. Transfer Corona Assembly: -
This assembly is located beneath the EP cartridge on the floor of the printer. It is
charged with a high voltage electrical charge. This assembly charges the paper, which pulls
the toner from the photosensitive drum. There is also a static charge eliminator strip that
drains away the charge imported to the paper by the corona. If this to done then the paper
would get jammed in the printer.
7) Printer Controller Circuitry: -
This is a logic board that converts signals from the pc into signals for the various
assemblies in the printer. This board is usually mounted at the bottom of the printer. The
board has connectors for each of the types of interfaces and cables to ends assembly.
WORKING OR LASER PRINTER ELECTRO PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS
Xerox was the first company to design the EP process. This technology uses a
combination of static electric charges, laser light, and a black powder called toner. The EP
process consists of six steps to create image on paper.
1. Charging
2. Exposing
3. Developing
4. Transferring
5. Fusing
6. Cleaning
1) Charging: - This is the first step in the EP process. A special wire called charging corona within the EP toner
cartridge gets a high voltage from the DC. If uses this charge (-600 volts DC) to the surface of the photosensitive
drum.
2) Exposing: - The next step is exposure. Hence the laser is turned on and the drum is
scanned from side to side decoding to the bits, of information, the printer controller sends.
Wherever the laser hits on the photographic drum there the charge reduces from -600v DC
to -100v DC. As the drum rotates, a pattern of exposed areas is formed representing images
to be printed
3) Developing: - The electrical charges on the drum hare to be converted to an image that can be transferred to paper.
In this step, toner is transferred to the areas that were exposed. The metallic roller called as
developing roller inside the cartridge acquires a -600-v dc charge.
The toner sticks to this roller because there is a magnet located inside the roller and because
of the electrostatic charges between the toner and the developing roller.
4. Transferring: - In this stage, the developed image is transferred on to the paper that is
fed in to the printer. (The controller notifies the registration rollers that the paper should be
fed)
The registration rollers move the paper underneath the photosensitive drum. Next, the
controller sends a signal to the corona roller to acquire a strong positive charge (+600v Dc)
and applies that charge to paper. (The charged paper pulls the toner line by line and once
the registration rollers move the paper. The static eliminator strip removes all charge from
the line on paper. This is done in order to prevent the paper getting jammed inside) because
of like charges.
5. Fusing: - This step ensures that the toner image is made permanently on the
paper the registration rollers push the paper towards the fuse. The fuser at 350-degree
forhen heat melts the polyester resin of the toner and the rubberized pressure roller presses
it permanently on the paper. One the paper completely exits the fuser; it trips a sensor that
tells the printer to finish the EP process with the next step.
6. Cleaning: - This is the last step in the EP process the printer cleans itself with a
rubber blade inside the EP cartridge to remove any UN transferred toner. The cleaning
keeps the drum fresh for each use.
INKJET PRINTER
INTRODUCTION: -
This is another technologies, which is cheap and also popular. Spraying ink through the
microscopic nozzles of the cartridge prints images. The clarity of image is measured in units
called DPI. The more the number of dots per inch the sharper image.
WORKING OF AN INKJET PRINTER
(Block Diagram of Inkjet printer)

These printers hare a moving print head on which an ink cartridge is attached.
Inside the ink cartridge, there are small chambers. At the top of each chamber is a metal
plate and tube leading to the ink supply. At the bottom of the ink chamber there is a small
pinhole. This pinhole is used to spray ink on the paper to form images as pattern of dots.
An electrical signal is sends to the metal plate to energize the ink to vaporize
because of the expansion of ink vapor, the ink is pushed out of the pinhole and forms a
bubble of ink. As the vapor expands, the bubble gets large enough to break off into a
droplet. The rest of the ink is pulled back into the chamber by the surface tension of the ink.
In this manner drops of ink are sprayed on paper.
PRINTER INTERFACE
Printers are connected to the pc via cable. They are serial, parallel port.
1) Serial communication: -
In this type of communication the printer is connected through a serial cable to
the serial port of the pc. Data is sent from the serial port in the form of bits.
These printers are very slow technology.
2) Parallel communication: -
Here the printer is connected in LPT port through a cable. The PC end of the
cable has a male 25-pin connector and the printer end of the cable has a male 36 pin
connectors. Data is sent in the form of bytes eight bits at a time these printers are fast. The
main signals are STROBE, ACT, WIT, SLOT, and SLCT IN, PE.
The computer to printer generates the strobe signal. This signal informs the
printer that the next byte data to be printer is available in the data lines. This signal is an
active low signal. The printer to the computer to inform that the previously sent data has
reader the printer and it is ready to accept the next byte of data generates the ACT signal.
The ERROR signal is raised whenever there is some error or problem in the
printer. When this signal is raised if automatically activates the busy signal thus stopping the
computer from sending any more data. The Busy signal is activated when these is any error
in the printer or when the printer buffer is full and cannot accept any more data.
The PE signal indicates that these is no paper in the printer and this is in burn
activates the error, buses signals and as result the computer stops sending data to the
printer. The SLCT, SLCTIN signals are used to select the printer.
PRINTER DRIVER SOFTWARE

This is the next component that help the printer by converting the signals sent
by the PC Driver Software comes CD along with the printer.
PRINTER CONSUMABLE
Apart from paper and transparencies the printer uses consumable items like
the printer uses consumable items like ribbon, ink cartridge, and toner cartridge depending
on the type of printer.
RAM GUIDE
Due to cost considerations, all but the very high-end (and very expensive) computers have
utilized DRAM for main memory. Originally, these were asynchronous, single-bank designs
because the processors were relatively slow. Most recently, synchronous interfaces have been
produced with many advanced features. Though these high-performance DRAMs have been
available for only a few years, it is apparent that they will soon be replaced by at least one of the
protocol-based designs, such as Sync Link or the DRDRAM design from Rambus, Inc. and Intel.
Basic DRAM operation

A DRAM memory array can be thought of as a table of cells. These cells are comprised of
capacitors, and contain one or more bits of data, depending upon the chip configuration. This
table is addressed via row and column decoders, which in turn receive their signals from the RAS
and CAS clock generators. In order to minimize the package size, the row and column addresses
are multiplexed into row and column address buffers. For example, if there are 11 address lines,
there will be 11 row and 11 column address buffers. Access transistors called sense amps are
connected to the each column and provide the read and restore operations of the chip. Since the
cells are capacitors that discharge for each read operation, the sense amp must restore the data
before the end of the access cycle.
The capacitors used for data cells tend to bleed off their charge, and therefore require a periodic
refresh cycle or data will be lost. A refresh controller determines the time between refresh
cycles, and a refresh counter ensures that the entire array (all rows) is refreshed. Of course, this
means that some cycles are used for refresh operations, and has some impact on performance.
A typical memory access would occur as follows. First, the row address bits are placed onto the
address pins. After a period of time the RAS\ signal falls, which activates the sense amps and
causes the row address to be latched into the row address buffer. When the RAS\ signal
stabilizes, the selected row is transferred onto the sense amps. Next, the column address bits are
set up, and then latched into the column address buffer when CAS\ falls, at which time the
output buffer is also turned on. When CAS\ stabilizes, the selected sense amp feeds its data onto
the output buffer.
Page Mode Access

By implementing special access modes, designers were able to eliminate some of the internal
operations for certain types of access. The first significant implementation was called Page Mode
access.
Using this method, the RAS\ signal is held active so that an entire page of data is held on the
sense amps. New column addresses can then be repeatedly clocked in only by cycling CAS\. This
provides much faster random access reads, since the row address setup and hold times are
eliminated.
While some applications benefit greatly from this type of access, there are others that do not
benefit at all. The original Page Mode was improved upon and replaced very quickly so you will
likely never see any memory of this type. Even if you do, it wouldnt be worth even getting it for
free, considering the advantages of later access modes.
Fast Page Mode
Fast Page mode improved upon the original page mode by eliminating the column address setup
time during the page cycle. This was accomplished by activating the column address buffers on
the falling edge of RAS\ (rather than CAS\). Since RAS\ remains low for the entire page cycle,
this acts as a transparent latch when CAS\ is high, and allows address setup to occur as soon as
the column address is valid, rather than waiting for CAS\ to fall.
Fast Page mode became the most widely used access method for DRAM s, and is still used on
many systems. The benefit of FPM memory is reduced power consumption, mainly because sense
and restore current is not necessary during page mode access. Though FPM was a major
innovation, there are still some drawbacks. The most significant is that the output buffers turn
off when CAS\ goes high. The minimum cycle time is 5ns before the output buffers turn off,
which essentially adds at least 5ns to the cycle time.
Today, FPM memory is the least desirable of all available DRAM memory. You should only consider
using this if it is either free, or your system does not support any of the later memory types
(such as a 486 based system). Typical timings are 6-3-3-3 (initial latency of 3 clocks, with a 3-
clock page access). Due to the limited demand, FPM is actually more expensive now than most of
the faster memories now available.
Hyper Page Mode (EDO)

The last major improvement to asynchronous DRAM s came with the Hyper page mode, or
Extended Data Out. This innovation was simply to no longer turn off the output buffers upon the
rising edge of /CAS. In essence, this eliminates the column precharge time while latching the
data out. This allows the minimum time for /CAS to be low to be reduced, and the rising edge
can come earlier.
In addition to a 40% or greater improvement in access times, EDO uses the same amount of
silicon and the same package size. EDO has been shown to work well with memory bus speeds
up to 83MHz with little or no performance penalty. If the chips are sufficiently fast (55ns or
faster), EDO can be used even with a 100MHz memory bus. One of the best reasons to use EDO
is that all of the current motherboard chipsets support it with no compatibility problems, unlike
much of the synchronous memory now being used.
Even with all the stated advantages, EDO is no longer considered mainstream. Most
manufacturers no longer produce it, or have limited production. It is only a matter of time before
the prices begin to rise, and the equivalent size SDRAM module will be less expensive.
If you already own EDO memory, there is no real reason to jump to SDRAM unless you require
bus speeds above 83MHz. With a typical EDO timing of 5-2-2-2 at 66MHz, there is almost no
noticeable improvement with SDRAM over EDO, and at 83MHz it is still negligible. If you require
100MHz bus operation, EDO will lag far behind current SDRAM in performance even if it does
operate at that speed due to the need for 6-3-3-3 timings. On the other hand, with EDO being
phased out, you will likely find SDRAM to be equal to or even lower in price.
Burst EDO (BEDO)

Burst EDO, while a good idea, was dead before it ever was born. The addition of a burst mode,
along with a dual bank architecture would have provided the 4-1-1-1 access times at 66MHz that
many expected with SDRAM. Burst mode is an advancement over page mode, in that after the
first address input, the next 3 addresses are generated internally, thereby eliminating the time
necessary to input a new column address. Unfortunately, Intel decided that EDO was no longer
viable, and SDRAM was their preferred memory architecture so they did not implement support
of BEDO into their chipsets. In fact, several large memory manufacturers had put considerable
time and money into the development of SDRAM over the past decade, and were not very happy
with the BEDO design.
Except for support of bus speeds of 100MHz and faster, BEDO would probably have been a much
faster and more stable memory than SDRAM. Essentially, BEDO lost support as much for political
and economic reasons as for technical ones, it seems.
Synchronous Operation
Once it became apparent that bus speeds would need to run faster than 66MHz, DRAM designers
needed to find a way to overcome the significant latency issues that still existed. By
implementing a synchronous interface, they were able to do this and gain some additional
advantages as well.
With an asynchronous interface, the processor must wait idly for the DRAM to complete its
internal operations, which typically takes about 60ns. With synchronous control, the DRAM
latches information from the processor under control of the system clock. These latches store the
addresses, data and control signals, which allows the processor to handle other tasks. After a
specific number of clock cycles the data becomes available and the processor can read it from
the output lines.
Another advantage of a synchronous interface is that the system clock is the only timing edge
that needs to be provided to the DRAM. This eliminates the need for multiple timing strobes to
be propagated. The inputs are simplified as well, since the control signals, addresses and data
can all be latched in without the processor monitoring setup and hold timings. Similar benefits
are realized for output operations as well.
JEDEC SDRAM
All DRAMs that have a synchronous interface are known generically as SDRAM. This includes
CDRAM (Cache DRAM), RDRAM (Rambus DRAM), ESDRAM (Enhanced SDRAM) and others,
however the type that most often is called SDRAM is the JEDEC standard synchronous DRAM.
JEDEC SDRAM not only has a synchronous interface controlled by the system clock, it also
includes a dual-bank architecture and burst mode (1-bit, 2-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit and full page). A
mode register that can be set at power-on and changed during operation controls the burst
mode, burst type (sequential or interleave), burst length and CAS latency (1, 2 or 3).
CAS Latency is one of several performance related timings for SDRAM. This measurement is the
time it takes to strobe in the Row Address, and to activate the bank. When a burst read cycle is
initiated, the addresses are set up and RAS\ and CS\ (chip select) are held low on the next clock
cycle (rising edge of CLK), thereby activating the sense amplifiers on the bank. A period of time
equal to tRCD (RAS\ to CAS\ delay) must pass after which CAS\ and CS\ are held low (again, at
the next clock cycle). After the time period for tCAC (column access time) has passed the first bit
of data is on the output line and can be retrieved (at the next clock cycle). The basic rule is that
CAS latency times the clock speed (tCLK) must be equal or greater than tCAC (or CL x tCLK >=
tCAC). This means that the column access time is the limiting factor for CAS Latency.
SDRAM was initially introduced as the answer to all performance problems, however it quickly
became apparent that there was little performance benefit and a lot of compatibility problems.
The first SDRAM modules contained only two clock lines, but it was soon determined that this
was insufficient. This created two different module designs (2-clock and 4-clock), and you
needed to know which your motherboard required. Though the timings were theoretically
supposed to be 5-1-1-1 @ 66MHz, many of the original SDRAM would only run at 6-2-2-2 when
run in pairs, mostly because the chipsets (i430VX, SiS5571) had trouble with the speed and
coordinating the accesses between modules. The i430TX chipset and later non-Intel chipsets
improved upon this, and the SPD chip (serial presence detect) was added to the standard so
chipsets could read the timings from the module. Unfortunately, for quite some time the SPD
EEPROM was either not included on many modules, or not read by the motherboards.
SDRAM chips are officially rated in MHz, rather than nanoseconds (ns) so that there is a common
denominator between the bus speed and the chip speed. This speed is determined by dividing 1
second (1 billion ns) by the output speed of the chip. For example a 67MHz SDRAM chip is rated
as 15ns. Note that this nanosecond rating is not measuring the same timing as an asynchronous
DRAM chip. Remember, internally all DRAM operates in a very similar manner, and most
performance gains are achieved by hiding the internal operations in various ways.
The original SDRAM modules either used 83MHz chips (12ns) or 100MHz chips (10ns), however
these were only rated for 66MHz bus operation. Due to some of the delays introduced when
having to deal with the various synchronization of signals, the 100MHz chips will produce a
module that operates reliably at about 83MHz, in many cases. These SDRAM modules are now
called PC66, to differentiate them from those conforming to Intels PC100 specification.
PC100 SDRAM
When Intel decided to officially implement a 100MHz system bus speed, they understood that
most of the SDRAM modules available at that time would not operate properly above 83MHz. In
order to bring some semblance of order to the marketplace, Intel introduced the PC100
specification as a guideline to manufacturers for building modules that would function properly
on their upcoming i440BX. With the PC100 specification, Intel laid out a number of guidelines for
trace lengths, trace widths and spacing, number of PCB layers, EEPROM programming specs, etc.
There is still quite a bit of confusion regarding what a true PC100 module actually consists of.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few modules being sold today as PC100, yet do not operate
reliably at 100MHz. While the chip speed rating is used most often to determine the overall
performance of the chip, a number of other timings are very important. tRCD (RAS to CAS
Delay), tRP (RAS precharge time) and CAS Latency all play a role in determining the fastest bus
speed the module will operate on to still achieve a 4-1-1-1 timing.
PC100 SDRAM on a 100MHz (or faster) system bus will provide a performance boost for Socket 7
systems of between 10% and 15%, since the L2 cache is running at system bus speed. Pentium
II systems will not see as big a boost, because the L2 cache is running at processor speed
anyway, with the exception of the cacheless Celeron chips of course.
DDR SDRAM
One limitation of JEDEC SDRAM is that the theoretical limitation of the design is 125MHz, though
technology advances may allow up to 133MHz operation. It is obvious that bus speeds will need
to increase well beyond that in order for memory bandwidth to keep up with future processors.
There are several competing new standards on the horizon that are very promising, however
most of them require special pinouts, smaller bus widths, or other design considerations. In the
short term, Double Data Rate SDRAM looks very appealing. Essentially, this design allows the
activation of output operations on the chip to occur on both the rising and falling edge of the
clock. Currently, only the rising edge signals an event to occur, so the DDR SDRAM design can
effectively double the speed of operation up to at least 200MHz.
There is already one Socket 7 chipset that has support for DDR SDRAM, and more will certainly
follow if manufacturers decide to make this memory available. In this industry, many times it is
the first to market that gains the support, rather than the best technology.
Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM)
In order to overcome some of the inherent latency problems with standard DRAM memory
modules, several manufacturers have included a small amount of SRAM directly into the chip,
effectively creating an on-chip cache. One such design that is gaining some attention is ESDRAM
from Ramtron International Corporation.
ESDRAM is essentially SDRAM, plus a small amount of SRAM cache which allows for lower latency
times and burst operations up to 200MHz. Just as with external cache memory, the goal of a
cache DRAM is to hold the most frequently used data in the SRAM cache to minimize accesses to
the slower DRAM. One advantage to the on-chip SRAM is that a wider bus can be used between
the SRAM and DRAM, effectively increasing the bandwidth and increasing the speed of the DRAM
even when there is a cache miss.
As with DDR SDRAM, there is currently at least one Socket 7 chipset with support for ESDRAM.
The deciding factor in determining which of these solutions will succeed will likely be the initial
cost of the modules. Current estimates show the cost of ESDRAM at about 4 times that of
existing DRAM solutions, which will likely not go over well with most users.
Protocol Based DRAM

All of the previously discussed DRAM have separate address, data and control lines which limits
the speed at which the device can operate with current technology. In order to overcome this
limitation, several designs implement all of these signals on the same bus. The two protocol
based designs currently getting the most attention are SyncLink DRAM (now called SLDRAM due
to trademark issues) and Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM) licensed by Rambus, Inc.
DRDRAM
Intel has placed their money on the proprietary memory design developed by Rambus, Inc. On
the surface, this looks to be a very fast solution for system memory due to its fast operation (up
to 800MHz). The reality is, however, that the design is only up to twice as fast as current SDRAM
operation due to the smaller bus width (16 bits vs. 64 bits).
Despite the claims from Intel and Rambus, Inc., there are some potentially serious issues which
need to be addressed with this technology. The higher speeds require short wire lengths and
additional shielding to prevent problems with EMI. In addition, latency times are actually worse
than currently available fast SDRAM. Since most of todays applications do not actually utilize the
full bandwidth of the memory bus even today, simply increasing the bandwidth while ignoring
latency issues will likely not provide any real performance improvements. In addition, processors
operating with 800MHz bus speeds will certainly require more than double the current memory
bandwidth.
While these issues are serious enough, the biggest drawback to the technology is that it is
proprietary technology. Manufacturers wishing to implement a solution with DRDRAM will be
required to pay a royalty to Intel and Rambus, Inc., and will also have no real control over the
technology. This is not an attractive outlook for most memory manufacturers who have no desire
to essentially become chip foundries.
SLDRAM
Many memory manufacturers are putting their support behind SLDRAM as the long-term solution
for system performance. While SLDRAM is a protocol-based design, just as RDRAM is, it is an
open-industry-standard, which requires no royalty payments. This alone should allow for lower
cost. Another cost advantage for the SLDRAM design is that it does not require a redesign of the
RAM chips.
Due to the use of packets for address, data and control signals, SLDRAM can operate on a faster
bus than standard SDRAM up to at least 200MHz. Just as DDR SDRAM operates the output
signal at twice the clock rate, so can SLDRAM. This puts the output operation as high as 400MHz,
with some engineers claiming it can reach 800MHz in the near future.
Compared to DRDRAM, it seems that SLDRAM is a much better solution due to the lower actual
clock speed (reducing signal problems), lower latency timings and lower cost due to the royalty-
free design and operation on current bus designs. It appears that even the bandwidth of SLDRAM
is much higher than DRDRAM at 3.2GB/s vs. 1.6GB/s
Though Intel initially intended to support only DRDRAM in future chipsets, competing chipset
manufacturers, memory manufacturers and pressure from end users may force them to include
support for SLDRAM as well. If the marketplace can successfully influence Intel to provide this
support, we may actually see a situation where the best technology wins over marketing hype.
1. PROCESS MANAGER: - As said above with in a computer there might be different process
going on simultaneously. The amount of time to be spent on a process by the CPU is also
decided by the OS. This is called process manger.
2. TYPE OF OPERATIONS: -
1) Single User OS (DOS, WINDOWS 95/98/98SE/ME/XP/2000PRO)

2) Multi User OS (Windows NT Windows2000server/
a. Advance2000server/Windows 2003standardserver
b. 2003 Enterprises/2003 Web Edition/Unix/Novel/
c. Linux)
3. WORKING OF THE PC: -
There are three layers involved in the functioning of the pc. The user uses application
software for performing various processes. The application software in turn processes the
help of the operating system. The OS converts the high level language to machine language
with the help of the hardware of the lowest layer completers the process by transporting data
signals from one component to another.
4. POST: - (POWER ON SELF TEST)
Every PC hens a built-in Rom or BIOS. Which contains instructions to check the status of
devices like memory, hard disk, floppy disk.cd-rom drive, serial ports and parallel port. When
the PC is powered on post is executed and a system which is done to verify that all the
subsystems and working. In case there are any hardware faults, post informatics the some by
giving beep sounds through the speaker inside the pc or by displaying or error message on
the monitor screen. Post is very useful in identifying faults that many occur in PC's.
5. BOOTING: -
After the Post is completed, the next step involved in the process of starting a pc is to load the
operating system into the main memory of the pc. The Bios looks for a small OS loader program
called as the bootstrap. The bootstrap will be present in the hard disk (primary partition) once the
bootstrap is loaded, the other system files of the OS are loaded and the pc becomes operation all
sections. The process of loading the OS from the disk (floppy, harddisk.cdrom) Into the main
memory of the pc is called booting. After the OS is loaded the user can load any application
software and start working on the PC. At that time of booting the following Dos programs called
as system startup files or just system files are loaded into main memory of the PC. Bootable files
are io.sys, Ms.sys, Command.com these are storing in zero sectors. Every system must be want
to these files for booting.
The Motherboard Guide
The motherboard is the foundation of any PC. All the critical subsystems, including the CPU,
system chipset, memory, system I/O, expansion bus, and other critical components run directly
off the motherboard. Likewise, the interconnections among these components are laid into the
motherboard itself.
The main board is possibly the most important part of the computer. It manages all transactions
of data between CPU and the peripherals. It houses the CPU and its second level cache, the
chipset, the BIOS, main memory, I/O chips, ports for keyboard, serial I/O, parallel I/O, disks and
plug-in cards.
The first decision you have to make before buying a motherboard is nowadays which CPU and
then which chipset you're going to use and which motherboard to choose. There's no doubt about
it - you really should go for a brand motherboard, preferably a brand that's present on the
web, because that is by far the best way to get the latest Flash BIOS update, drivers and
information about the board you might require.
Add-Ons
It is becoming pretty common to use a few more cards in your system than only a graphics card.
A gaming system without a modem, ISDN or network card is certainly not worth being called a
gaming system anymore, simply due to the fact that the only real gaming experience is
generated by multiplayer games, my beloved Quake II is only one of many others. Hence it's not
out of the world if I expect that any network card should work flawlessly in any motherboard.
People who buy expensive Pentium III systems are certainly making a smart move when
investing in SCSI rather than EIDE. SCSI still offers the highest disk performance, a great
upgradeability for e.g. CDROMs, CD-recorders, scanners, streamers, ... and last but not least a
very low trouble level. Thus I do appreciate if motherboards that are targeted towards expensive
high end systems have got a SCSI adapter already onboard, a RAID port is even better, and it's
almost perfect if it's even Adaptec's latest U2W SCSI adapter, as e.g. on DFI's new BX board.
The least I would expect however is that any SCSI adapter runs flawlessly in any board.
A sound system is nowadays a basic component of any PC. Thus I'd appreciate if there's either a
decent sound system onboard or the board works fine with older ISA soundcards as well as the
new PCI soundcards. In case of the latter it's useful having the new 'SBLink' onboard, which
enables compatibility to the old ISA SoundBlaster standard.
All in all do I think it's not really asked too much that a modern motherboard can host all these
components together at the same time? If it doesn't, it may be as fast as it wants, it will still be
pretty useless for any home or office user, system integrator or OEM.
Stability
Another requirement of a motherboard is certainly the stability. In the most cases boards
become instable when they cannot work properly with the RAM that's plugged in. As we are fast
moving towards the 100 MHz system bus as a standard, memory problems will become a lot
more common. It can easily be that a board only works reliably with RAM of only a few memory
vendors; other boards were designed and tested better, so that you can throw virtually any
memory at it, as long as it applies to the basic specifications.
One way of testing this out is of course over clocking. If the board is running stable at a higher
system bus than what it was designed for, it will most likely be rock stable at the specified
system clock. However, testing a board to the limits is very difficult, because no board
manufacturer and neither any CPU manufacturer would tell you which instructions are most
sensitive to timing problems and over clocking.
So it's virtually impossible saying that a board or a CPU run absolutely stable at a particular clock
speed, because it is very likely that the really touchy procedures haven't been ran at all. This
means for the reader that you of course can be lucky as long as you are not using these
procedures on your system, but it could as well be that you are using particularly the very
software that will cause a crash in a board that was testified as stable.
Summary
Finally, the features of a board should be pointed out as well. I already mentioned onboard SCSI,
network adapter and sound, but there are other things too. System monitoring can be an issue
for people and it's certainly not wrong if a board is equipped with it. It can tell you if your fan
stopped working, if your power supply fails or if your CPU gets too hot.
The new wake up features maybe worth a look at too, because it can save you from leaving your
system running permanently, thus saving energy. Wake up on ring, on LAN and also on clock are
features that I do appreciate. These features are used best in combination with the 'suspend to
disk' feature, as well known from notebooks. AOpen is one of the few manufacturers who have
this feature implemented into their boards for more than a year now. It starts your system
exactly the same way you left it. The same programs are running, the same data is still there.
The above said leads to the following new evaluation scheme for motherboards in exactly this
order:
1. Compatibility and Reliability (AGP, PCI, ISA cards, BIOS, RAM)
2. Features (onboard features)
3. Performance (office performance and gaming performance
TROUBLE SHOOTINGS
1) "Disk boot failure insert system disk and enter"
Solution: - Check the CMOS setup whether hard disk is enabling or not. If it is not enable from the
CMOS setup in standard CMOS setup.
2) Invalid system disk press any key to continue

Solution: - Boot from bootable CD. If system files (command.com, IO.SYS) Missed. That time insert
bootable CD make it first booting CD ROM to boot the system you are get the A:\ > in A:\> to type the
sys c: After system files transferred.
3) "Involved partition table"

Solution: - Again create partition then data will be loss. Using CD with FDISK or disk manager.
4) "Floppy drive failure"

Solution: - Enter CMOS floppy drive is not enabled or cable problem go to CMOS setup and is
standard CMOS setup enable floppy drive.
5) "A Certain Green light will flow at floppy drive "

Solution: - The floppy drive or data cable or power supply is in wrong connecting arranged due to the
right position.
6) " Floppy not Access"

Solution: - To change the floppy or floppy division error it.
7) "Enable to read in drive a:"

Solution: - The problem in drive a or floppy
8)" Floppy not accessible "

Solution: - Floppy Cable problem or Floppy problem or Floppy writes protected Error or Floppy power
Supply Problem.

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BUSES: -The exclusion unit is the actual processing of data task placing inside this unit.

BUSES IN EXPANSION SLOTS

OPERATING SYSTEM KEYS

OPTICAL MEDIA OR COMPACT DISK: -

DATA STORAGE ON A CD-ROM: -

OPTICAL STORAGE DEVICE: -

CONSTRUCTION OF THE CD-ROM DRIVE: -

Speed Approximate Date Transfer Rate (in KMPS)

1. Single speed 1X 150 kbps

CD DRIVES OPERATE THE FOLLOWING MANNER

COMPUTER AND THEIR IMPORTANCE: -

A computer is basically a fast calculating machine. It is capable performing most of Arithmetic

2. FDD FAILURE (press f1 to continue)

3. HDD FAILURE (press f1 to continue)

4. CMOS FAILURE (press f1 to continue)

5. DISPLAY ERRORS (press f1 to continue)

1. SET DEAD (No indicators glowing):

Check power supply cable

Check Hard disk,

Check comport connections,

Check LPT port cable,

1. SERIAL AND PARALLEL PORTS DEAD:

Check I/O card,

1. NO LIGHTNING (display information) BUT BEEPING SOUND IS NORMAL:

1. FDD NOT WORKING:

Check floppy drive,

Check CD-ROM supply,

9. MEMORY IMPROPER CHECKING:

Check reset switch,

Check system bootable files,

1. SYSTEM SPEED BECOME A LOW:

Check system bootable files,

13. FLICKERING INFORMATION:

Check monitor connection,

15. FDISK COMMAND NOT WORKING:

16. FLOPPIES NOT READING BUT NO FDD ERROR:

17. SET DEAD BUT ALL INDICATORS GLOWING:

1. Getting Help with Hardware

Many hardware problems are the result of incorrect setup or settings.

Sometimes a single-click or a reboot will solve a seemingly catastrophic problem.

3. The following sections discuss each of these approaches in more detail.

A couple of quick tips for avoiding newly installed hardware problems

3. Avoiding Problems with Device Drivers

4. Dealing with Interrupt Conflicts (IRQ)

BASIC STRUCTURE OF HARD DISK DRIVE: -

READ AND WRITE HEAD: -

SPINDLE MOTOR ASSEMBLY: -

CONTROLLED ELECTRONICS BOARD: -

HARD DISK STRUCTURE: -

III) ACCESS TIME: -

IV) LATENCY PERIOD: -

FORMATTING OF A HARD DISK: -

1. Low level formatting

9. UNIAC : Universal Advanced Computer.

1. Size of the computer decreased compared with the first generation.

Computers are characterized in functions.

Computers can be categorized to physical sizes. In first generation of computers a huge

There are some computers, which differ in their sizes.

Basic Computer Organization:

(I) Static RAM

SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES:

Basically three types of softwares:

Disk Operating System (DOS):