Computer Repair

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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
SECTION 1: Getting Started

1. Safety......................................4
2. Data Backup.............................11
3. Hardware Identification..............20
4. PC Cleaning..............................57
SECTION 2: Hardware Diagnosis and Replacement

5. Diagnostics...............................61
6. Replace Hardware.......................68
SECTION 3: Software Problems and Solutions

7. Virus Removal............................84
8. File Recovery.............................90
9. Windows Utilities.......................93
10. System Utilities........................97
11. Factory Restore........................101
12. Unwanted Program Removal.......103
13. Junk File Removal....................104
14. Software Updates.....................105
SECTION 4: Install and Configure Windows OS

15. Windows Installation................108
16. Drivers Installation...................115
17. Internet Setup.........................119
18. Software Installation................127
SECTION 5: Optimize User Experience

19. Windows Update......................130
20. User Account Customization......131
Flow Charts................................133
Glossary.....................................139
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Be Your Own It Computer Repair Guide. This guide is designed
to compliment the material in the Computer Repair Mastery Course. The sections
follow along in sequence with the order of the videos. In many sections, the guide
goes into greater depth and detail, and even dives into a few more topics that we
deemed relevant. These topics were included to improve the value of this guide as a
reference tool.
In-depth coverage of each topic is provided to present a valuable reference material

that may be consulted when you need help performing a certain technique or need
information about a certain part.
Though this guide is intended to be a useful tool, it is definitely not the only
guide available or needed. Most computer work can be accomplished with a simple
screwdriver set, but this is far from ideal. Some work will need specialty tools.
Tools that will help you easily and safely perform the repair tasks are recommended.
A good set of small screwdrivers will help you disassemble and reassemble
components. Contrary to common opinion, it is mostly safe to use magnetic
screwdrivers in a computer. A triple-pronged "grabber" will help you retrieve
small screws that you will inevitably drop into tight places. A power supply tester
will make it easy to check power supplies. Pliers can be used on many items but
especially when trying to take off heat sinks on clip lock motherboards. Toolkits can
be found at www.beyourownit.com/store.html.
©2011 BeYourOwnIT.com. You may not copy, reproduce, post or forward this document in any format.
SECTION
1
GETTING
STARTED
In This Section:
1. Safety
2. Data Backup
3. Hardware Identification
4. PC Cleaning
— COMPUTER REPAIR MASTERY COURSE —
1. SAFETY
Introduction
When dealing with computers, we often think of safety as keeping your computer safe from viruses, and
perhaps keeping your personal information out of the hands of identity thieves. However, this safety section
deals with how to keep your computer physically safe, and how to keep yourself safe while fixing your PC.
Surge Protectors
Plugging electronics into a surge protector is a pretty
common practice. The goal of a surge protector is to protect
your computer from high voltage power spikes caused by
nearby lightning strikes. The surge protector is plugged into
the wall outlet, and the computer’s power cable is plugged
into the surge protector. One mistake people often make,
however, is they only plug in the desktop computer itself.
They are only protecting the main unit when they do this.
It is extremely important to plug every electronic device

into the surge protector. This includes the computer
Fig. 1-1 Surge protector: A device that shields and
monitor, speakers, and any other peripheral that plugs into protects any electronic device connected to it from
the computer desktop and requires power from an outlet. power surges or transient voltage.
Plugging in all of the things connected to your computer
helps you create an "environment of protection" that your
computer can reside in.
If you do not plug it all in, you may as well have not plugged any of it in. As an Power strips
example, if your computer monitor was plugged directly in to the main outlet Power strip, also
unprotected, a power surge could be powerful enough to damage the monitor and known as a power bar,
gangplug or multibox,
also travel the connection into the PC. So, make sure to plug everything in.
is an electricity
Note: There is a distinction between power strips and surge protectors. Many power distribution device
that turns a single AC
strips and surge protectors look alike. However, a power strip only includes outlets
wall outlet into several
so you can plug multiple devices into it. When buying one, make sure the box says
multiple units.
surge protector.
Power conditioners
Power Conditioners An electrical device
configured between a
Power conditioners regulate voltage and ensure that the power coming to the computer and its power
computer is high quality. Surge protectors don’t regulate voltage, they just protect supply, typically a wall
against large spikes in power. Conditioners protect against things like power line outlet. Provides surge
flicker and reactive power. Power line flicker is when a light bulb constantly changes protection and main-
brightness due to fluctuations in its source. Reactive Power is when the power tains a continuous volt-
source is out of sync with itself, so that when work is attempted on a load, the age fed to the computer
power pulled is half positive and half negative; resulting in a null amount and no during brownout.
work is accomplished.
©2011 BeYourOwnIT.com. You may not copy, reproduce, post or forward this document in any format. 4
— CHAPTER 1: Safety —
Protection During Lightning Storms

Just because you have plugged everything into a surge protector and are
using a line conditioner, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re immune to all power
Load
problems. You should still unplug your computer and its peripherals during a
To install or mount a
disk in a drive. Load lightning storm. Surge protectors are good at absorbing nearby strikes, but
also means to copy it usually wouldn’t be able to defend against a direct hit. Even though the
a program from a chances of a lightning strike happening right outside your home are slim, its
storage device into the better to be safe than sorry. So unplug your computer during a lightning storm.
computer’s memory.
Fun fact: Higher-quality power supplies and motherboards tend to fare better
Standby Power Supply than the cheaper ones during a lightning storm. When there is damage, the
(SPS)
An AC back-up power
higher-quality ones tend to limit the damage to themselves rather than
source in which the destroying more components within the computer.
power line switches to
battery power as soon
as it detects a problem
Backup Power
or when a brownout or A frustrating event you may have experienced before is loss of power.
blackout occurs.
Perhaps you were in the middle of typing up a document when all of a
sudden the power went out, and you lost your work. You have two options if
Battery backup
you want your computer to remain on during a loss of power.
A secondary source of
power for the computer 1. UPS or Uninterrupted Power Supply
system that serves
to protect volatile 2. SPS or Standby Power Supply
data from being lost
in case the system is These two devices provide backup power in the event of a loss of power or a
disconnected from its lack of sufficient current at the source.
primary source of power.
Standby Power Supply
Ferroresonant
transformer Standby Power Supply (SPS) is the name for a type of battery backup that
A special type of only engages when the power is out or insufficient. When looking for an
laminated transformer SPS, buy one with a good switch speed. Switch speed is the time it takes
that supplies a
to switch from using outlet power to battery power. A good switch speed
regulated output
voltage or current
is going to be in the neighborhood of 10ms. This is perhaps the most
which remains constant important factor when determining which SPS will fit your needs. If an SPS
despite changes in input doesn’t switch fast enough and the PC shuts down you might as well have
voltage and load. not bought one in the first place. Looking for units that use a ferroresonant
transformer will help ensure the proper performance of your power supply.
Line-interactive A ferroresonant transformer can be thought of as a high-speed switch
A type of standby connected to a small battery; it can store enough power to bridge the gap
UPS that dynamically
between outlet power and battery power. Many SPS systems have built-in
interacts with an AC
power source to smooth line conditioners for protection of their electrical circuits. SPS and UPS are
out waveforms and usually marketed together as "uninterruptable power supplies".
correct the rise and fall
of voltage. Rule of Thumb: If it has a switching time it’s an SPS, and if it says the
words "Double Efficiency" or "Double Conversion" it’s a true Uninterruptable
Power Supply (UPS), although there are some other types as well. We will
cover those types shortly.
5 ©2011 BeYourOwnIT.com. You may not copy, reproduce, post or forward this document in any format.
Uninterruptable Power Supply

Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) systems are
units where the power runs off the battery and the
battery is charged by the wall socket. Some types of
UPSs are called "line-interactive", meaning it has an
autotransformer. An autotransformer is a special unit
that is able to divert varying amounts of power to or
from the line. This is especially true when surges or
brownouts occur and the autotransformer diverts more
power away from the line or supplements existing line Fig. 1-2 Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS): An
electrical device that provides emergency backup
power with its batteries. A line-interactive unit has a power to the computer system, monitor and other
better power-efficiency rating, but has the potential devices plugged into the UPS when the main power
to lose power if its transformer fails or the transformer source fails.
cannot provide enough power in the event that it is
overloaded. A Double Conversion UPS is more reliable, but is more expensive Autotransformer
and much less efficient because the power has to be converted from AC to DC, An electrical transformer
then AC, then back to DC again for most PC units. with the primary voltage
being constant while
A special type of UPS that has been gaining traction recently is called a Double the secondary voltage
Conversion on Demand UPS. HP and Eaton have models using its design. It is is variable. It features a
essentially a double conversion UPS that is allowed to run in line-interactive single winding coil, act-
ing as both the primary
mode if the power source is of high enough quality. This allows it to handle
and secondary winding.
large variations and electrical isolation much better than a line-interactive
unit and be a much more economical variant of a double conversion unit. Es-
Transformer
sentially, the best of both worlds. A device used for
transferring electrical
UPS vs. SPS electricity from one cir-
Many SPS and UPS are usually marketed together as "uninterruptable power cuit to another through
inductively wired coils
supplies". Here is one way to know what you are looking at: If it has a
wrapped around a core.
switching time it’s an SPS, and if it says the words "Double Efficiency" or
"Double Conversion" it’s a true Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS).
Double Conversion UPS
The best class of UPS
Static Electricity available from a tech-
nology standpoint that
Static electricity is a power charge that results from the imbalance of constantly conditions
electrons on one surface to another. You’ve probably experienced static and controls AC output
electricity before, especially if you live in an area that gets cold and dry during normal operating
conditions.
during the year. Sometimes it happens when you touch a doorknob, flip a
light switch, or shake someone’s hand. You can get that little snap, that
Double Conversion on
quick jolt of electric current. That is static electricity. Surprising as it Demand UPS
may seem, static electricity can be very damaging to the components of a The combination of any
computer system. An ESD or electrostatic discharge has high voltage, and can two or more network
topologies that operates
often be up to 6000 Joules.
as an off-line/standby
UPS when power
The important factors of electricity are voltage, amperage, and resistance.
conditions are within a
If you use an analogy of a fire hose, the voltage is the water pressure. The certain preset window.
amperage, or current, is the amount or speed of water flowing through the
hose. The resistance is how wide the hose is. High pressure at low speed,
due to resistance (the size of the hose), will cause strain on the fire hose.
If the pressure is suddenly increased to high levels, the hose bursts. Even
Static electricity if the hose doesn’t completely shred, it’s still strained and accumulates
The buildup of electric damage over time. Going back to static electricity’s effect on electronics, a
charge on the surface of
sudden instance of high voltage and low current causes strain and eventually
objects. A process called
triboelectrification damages the electronic pathways in the components you are working on.
causes static electricity.
Processors and memory are more susceptible to ESD damage because they are
Electrostatic discharge
some of the more advanced parts in your computer. In an effort to constantly
(ESD) increase performance in new products, they are always being built on smaller
The sudden, rapid trans- scales (or processes). The smaller the component and the more complex, the
fer of electric current
smaller and more delicate the pathways are, and the less tolerant they are
between two objects or
surfaces that have come for overloads. The materials the components are made from will impact their
into direct contact with susceptibility to this type of damage as well.
one another or are close
enough to develop a Note: If the air is dry, such as during the winter in temperate regions, static
high electrostatic field accumulates more readily and it can be easier to accidentally discharge into
between them. components.
Memory Working Safely

The temporary storage
area of a computer
Anti-Static Wrist Strap
that holds data and
instructions that An anti-static wrist strap is a device that you put around your wrist, similar
the CPU, or central to a bracelet. Attached to the bracelet is a thin coiled cable connected to
processing unit needs. an alligator clip. When you are going to be working inside your computer,
put on the wrist strap and attach the alligator clip to the case. Now you are
Anti-static wrist strap grounded. You have now protected the components from an electrostatic
A ground bracelet used
discharge.
by a person handling
sensitive electronic
equipment to prevent
Anti-Static Mats
electrostatic discharge Anti-static mats serve the same purpose of wrist straps: to guard against ESD.
(ESD) by channeling
You can get them for desktop or floor use, and they help inhibit the forma-
static electricity to a
proper ground.
tion of static energy by insulating you and the parts you are working on from
charge imbalances. You’ll often see them behind cash registers at stores.
Anti-static mats
Specially made mats
Jewelry Precaution
that channel static Before working on a computer you should remove all jewelry. Jewelry poses
electricity away from many dangers to the hardware inside the computer. A watch or ring could
sensitive electronic
hit something as you move your hand around in the case or a necklace could
components and onto
a proper ground. They
fall off, causing physical damage to the computer. Metal jewelry conducts
are made of static- electricity, and can produce an electrostatic discharge if you aren’t properly
dissipative material grounded. The precious metals in your jewelry have less resistance to
which safely discharges electricity than your bare hand, so it’s possible to get an arc of electricity
static electricity.
from a watch or ring.
Disconnect Cables Monitors

Electronic devices used
Whenever you are working inside a computer, make sure to unplug the power to display the programs
cable. It’s also good to disconnect other cables going to and from the main on a computer for data
unit, since they can store electricity. This includes monitors, keyboard, mouse, processing. There are
speakers, etc. two main types of moni-
tors: CRTs and LCDs.
Power Supplies and Monitors
Keyboard
If it turns out you have a bad power supply, do not try and service it. The
A hardware device con-
capacitors inside can store a very large charge, enough to kill you. If a power sisting of alphanumeric
supply is bad, just buy a new one. The same holds true for old CRT monitors. and command keys used
Do not open them. Simply replace the unit as it is not worth the risk to try to enter data into a
and repair it. LCD monitors are so cheap now, you can replace a bad CRT computer system.
monitor for less than $100.
Capacitor
If for whatever reason you do try and work on these components, which we A component that stores
electrical energy, con-
highly advise against, do not wear your anti-static wrist strap. Normally an
sisting of two conduc-
anti-static wrist strap keeps you grounded so you don’t damage components, tors and an insulator, or
but the energy stored in power supplies and monitors, even when unplugged, dielectric. Capacitors are
can travel through the wrist strap and electrocute you. primarily used for allow-
ing alternating current
Handling to pass and blocking
direct current.
When you are handling computer components you
should make sure to only hold them on the edges and
their mounting surfaces. Try not to get into the habit
of holding expansion cards by their heat sinks. Heat
sinks are the metal fins which pull heat away from a
component and disperse it through its surface area.
However, this is more preferable than touching the
circuit board directly. Why? The oils in your hands can
eventually corrode the metal and impede the ability
of the component to function in the correct manner.
Washing your hands before handling these components
Fig. 1-3 Hold card on edge.
can help protect against this as well.
Liquids and Your Computer Expansion card

An expansion card,
also called adapter,
Most of us know that computers and other electronics don’t handle water
is a printed circuit
well. One of the worst things you can do is spill water or coffee on a laptop board that can be
computer. Sometimes you can still save the computer from permanent installed in a computer
damage. It can be easier to save your computer than you think, but you have to provide the system
to act fast. If you spill liquids on your computer you can follow these steps to with additional
functionalities or
attempt to repair it:
capabilities.
1. Power Down the Unit. Disconnect the AC power and remove the battery
if it is a laptop. As soon as the liquid reaches two power sources that are
opposed and strong enough it will short out. The faster you disconnect all of
the power the more likely you are to save your machine.
2. Flip the Unit Over.

Turning the unit over will prevent the spill from traveling any deeper into the machine and it will
stop or travel back towards the source. Use a dry countertop or sink for this.
3. Clean Up Liquid and Clean Easily Removable Parts
Wipe up any liquid you can find. Remove the keyboard and any other easily removable parts if they
are indeed easily accessible and clean up any excess spill located on them.
4. Sticky Surfaces Need to be Cleaned
Use a damp lint-free cloth to clean up any sticky surfaces.
5. Disconnect the Unit
Unhook all cables if you haven’t already.
6. Ground yourself
Static electricity can kill computer components easily. Even if it doesn’t immediately destroy the
part, it can easily shorten the lifespan of the part. Given the fact that you are rubbing the case down,
you are going to be creating a large amount of static charge. To prevent this charge from hurting
anything, you will need to make sure you are grounded to the case. Use an anti- static wrist strap,
hook it to the case, and wear it on your wrist. You can find anti-static wrist straps in the Be Your
Own IT store.
7. Take it Apart
You or someone else is going to have to tear down the unit, completely disassemble it, and look
for any residue or spill that is still in its liquid form.
8. Remove Dried Spill
Using an anti-static cloth or toothbrush, you can then take each part and inspect it for residue. If
residue is found, gently brush it to break it up and use compressed air to help remove it completely.
Some people like to use air first and bush the remains.
9. Rinse
Rinse the components affected with distilled water.
Some components may need to be rinsed under a tap
if they have especially sticky residue from cola or other
sugary drinks. After this is rinsed you need to rinse
that part again with distilled water to remove the
deposits from the tap water. If you need a stronger
rinse, you can use rubbing alcohol and then rinse with
distilled water. Do not use any stronger solvents on
PC parts because you could damage the component’s
Fig. 1-3 Circuit board: In electronics, the circuit surface material.
board is used to mechanically support electronic com-
ponents and provide conductive pathways through an Rule of Thumb: When rinsing, know that things with
etched copper layer laminated on a non-conductive moving parts are not liquid friendly. This would include
material, such as glass, fiber and epoxy.
fans and disk drives. Circuit boards, however, (when
powered off) are perfectly safe to rinse.
10. Dry
Before any parts are reinstalled they need to dry completely. Let them dry
naturally during a 48-hour time period. A dehumidifier may be used in the
room to speed up the process. Do not wipe excessively to dry, and don’t use
a heat source like a heat lamp or hair dryer because these may cause more
problems.
11. Reassemble and Test
After reassembling the machine, test it to make sure everything is working
properly. If it doesn’t work, and your are confident that it has been
reassembled properly, it most likely sustained critical damage during the spill
and will have parts that need to be replaced. In severe cases the entire unit
may need to be replaced.
Heat Precaution
One final concern in the safety of our machines is the heat they produce and
how it is handled. Simple things first: It is generally preferable for a laptop
to be on a solid flat surface. The reason for this is that most laptops draw Thermal Expansion
The tendency of matter
cool air in through the bottom of the case, and vent the hot air out the to change in volume in
backside of the case. response to the change
in temperature.
For this reason, you don’t want to set laptops on blankets or beds because
it’s difficult for the fans to bring cool air in. If you are just checking email
Electromigration
for a bit, it probably won’t hurt it too much; however, watching movies, The result of the
gaming, or running multiple programs are all potentially dangerous to an transfer of momentum
under-cooled machine. Netbooks tend to do okay on beds simply because from electrons through
they don’t put out much heat. the electric field to
the ions which make
Why does heat hurt a computer so much? The answer lies in two issues: up the interconnective
thermal expansion and electromigration. Thermal expansion deals with the material.
growing and shrinking of parts as they heat up and cool down. The laptops
cooler kicks into high as soon as it realizes that the temperature has gone up
over the safety limits and cools it down. Repeated heating and cooling wears
out components, which causes electromigration. Electromigration is the
gradual decay of the pathways in a component, and ultimately occurs when a
component’s temperature goes over 80 degrees Celsius. As you can see, it is
definitely in your best interests to keep your laptop cooled properly.
Fun Fact: There are a few laptop models that draw air in through the
backside of the case, allowing you to place the laptop on many different
surfaces, without having to worry about overheating. The Asus G73 is one
example.
2. DATA BACKUP
Introduction
A computer is just a fancy calculator in a sense. Without the programming
and data that make up its purpose and abilities, it is only worth as much as
the hardware it is constructed from. Essentially, the software and data in a
computer is worth much more than the replacement cost of the machine. The
inherent value of the software and data is why we back up data. Knowing
this, you should not hesitate to backup data even before the hardware tests
are run.
What to Backup
Operating System
My Documents First and foremost, the most important thing to be able to restore on a
A special Microsoft computer is the Operating System. It may not be the most expensive or seem
Windows folder on the to be the most important piece of software on the machine, but without
computer’s hard drive
it, your ability to repair the machine in the event of the software being
that stores documents,
photos, music, videos corrupted or the data storage failing are largely compromised. The most
downloads and other common ways to restore an Operating System is either from the retail discs
files. you got when you purchased the Operating System or the files contained
in the system restore partition you were given when you purchased the
My Pictures computer as a whole. Many new computers do not come with restore "disks"
A Microsoft Windows per se, but instead come with a partition that includes the disc images. This
folder where users can is actually the first thing you should backup when you buy a new computer.
store images.
If you do not use the built-in software and create a set of restore disks from
the built in partition, your restores will be lost in the event of a hard drive
My Videos
failure and will subsequently require you to purchase a new set from your
A Microsoft Windows
folder where the computer manufacturer. You may also want to keep a copy of the driver disk
system normally stores if the restore disk and the drivers are separate media.
downloaded videos.
Personal Information
The next thing you want to have backed up is any personal information. This
would include things from as important as family photos and tax returns all
the way to the seemingly unimportant things like music or bookmarks. What
gives a computer its intrinsic value is the combination of its setup, its data,
and its familiarity. The more of each of these fields that can be maintained
between the previous version and the new version, the less recovery time
there is before the user is operating at full capacity within their comfort
zone again.
Most personal information is stored in the user’s account folders. Many
applications used to store user data in the program folders themselves, but
this has been on the decline. When backing up user data, be sure to check
the "My Documents" folder first. This folder will be located under the user’s folders in the "Users"
folder in Vista and Windows 7 and under "Documents and Settings" in XP. Inside of this folder will
be more folders such as "My Music", "My Pictures", and "My Videos". The "Favorites" folder is where
Internet Explorer holds its bookmarks. This may seem like an obvious step, but it is important
to check this folder because many programs storing user data today use their own folder in "My
Documents" or in the "Application Data" folder.
The "Application Data" folder can be located by setting Windows to show all hidden folders. Here’s
where to find it in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Windows XP
Open any folder link, either "My Documents" or "My Computer" will work fine. Locate the Tools
menu and drop down to Folder Options" and click on it. Select the "View" tab and find the
entry named "Hidden Files and Folders". Select the radio button labeled "Show Hidden Files
and Folders". Click OK. If you go to C:\Documents and Settings\username, you will now find the
application data folder exposed.
Windows Vista and Windows 7
Open a folder link. Look to the left side of the Explorer window and click on the Organize menu
item. In that menu you will find an item named "Folder and Search Options”. After clicking on
it you can select the tab labeled "View" and find the entry named "Hidden Files and Folders".
Select the radio button labeled "Show Hidden Files and Folders". Click OK. If you go to C:\Users\
Username\ the application data folder should now be exposed.
The now exposed "Application Data" folder holds things like the bookmarks for Mozilla Firefox and
Google Chrome in their respective profile folders. When backing up this data it may be easier just
to grab the whole folder and look for the bookmarks afterwards, as they are inside. Outlook Express
stores its address book in Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book.
If you back up a level and go back into the "User" folder you will notice another folder called
"Local Settings". "Local Settings” has another "Application Data" folder inside of it. In this folder
is mostly a collection of configuration files; however, in the Local Settings/Application Data/
Microsoft/Outlook path is where Outlook Express and Outlook store their mailboxes. If you are
backing up email messages you need to grab all of these files.
If possible, it is best to do the data backup with the user present so that they can think through
what you are backing up while you do it. This allows them to remember things they might not
have remembered if they had not been completely committed to the process. This, however, is not
usually possible. If there is money involved, make sure that the customer writes down what they
want backed up before you start backing up data. Have them sign off on this as it is easy to miss
something that is placed in an odd spot. You should always have a customer sign off on the data
that is going to be backed up so that you cannot be held responsible for it. If a customer requests
that you backup a certain applications data, by all means do some research and find out how to
properly backup the data contained within it.
In addition, you’ll also need to explain to a customer that applications cannot be backed up unless
they were written in a special way to make them portable. Most applications write entries to the
registry that need to be preset for the program to run. Explain it in plain terms that they will need
— CHAPTER 2: Data Backup —
to reinstall the applications or at the very least bring the applications they
want reinstalled to you if you are going to need to do a restore.
Ways to Backup Data

When considering how to back up data there are two types of backups to
really consider; the manual and the automatic backup. An automatic backup
is ideal if the data source is constantly changing and it is important to
maintain the backup in a regular fashion. This would apply to things like
business environments or people who do their finances on their computer.
Manual backups are good for one-off projects that involve backing up the
end result of a piece of work. Manually backing up things such as a music
or movie collection or the data folder in a digital distribution environment
like Steam is a general best practice; so that installing those applications
on another computer does not require you to download all of the data more
than one time.
Windows 2000 Automatic Backup

A product of Microsoft
for its Windows line Automatic Backup capabilities have been included with Windows since
of operating system
Windows NT. Below is an outline of how to use the auto backup on Windows
designed for use on
business desktops,
2000, XP, Vista and 7.
notebook computers,
and servers. The system
Windows 2000 and XP
provided new key
features such as the
Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. This is the
Windows 9x accessibility location of the backup shortcut. Clicking this shortcut will bring up the
features, an enhanced Backup Wizard. You can then choose to either back up files or restore files.
shell, Plug and Play Choosing to backup files leads you to the next screen which asks you what
with full ACPI support, you want to backup. You can chose between the current user’s documents
Windows File Protection
and the Encrypting File
and settings, everyone’s documents and settings, the entire computer, or a
System (EFS). manual selection of files. The entire computer creates a system recovery disk
that can be used to restore Windows. Choosing the restore option on the
first screen of the Backup Wizard allowed you to select a backup you wish to
restore content from.
Windows Vista
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Status and Configuration
Backup. This can also be accessed by typing in backup into the run/search
bar and clicking the link that shows up. Upon clicking this link, you will then
choose "Save File". Next, click "Configure automatic backup of Files". After
"Save Files" opens, choose the backup media you would like to use. Hard
drive, Optical disk, and network are all available options. Once you select the
destination, you can then select the types of files you want backed up. When
that is complete, you can set the frequency of the backup. Some versions
of Windows Vista do not support the entirety of the backup program. Home
Basic doesn’t even include the program.
Windows 7
Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore is the link
for this program. This can also be accessed by typing in backup into the
run/search bar and clicking the link that shows up. Click on "Setup Backup".
Chose the backup destination, and then click on the help link "Guidelines
for choosing a backup destination" if you have questions about them. You
can then pick the files you want to backup or let Windows choose. Letting
Windows choose the files to backup means Windows selects your documents
and includes a system image to restore the system from scratch. After you
select these files, you can then decide when you would like to run the External hard drive
backup. To restore the files, you can click "Restore my files" and then select Stand-alone magnetic
which backup you would like to restore from. After selecting the files, you disk drive having its
may then select the location to restore them to. If the hard drive dies and own power supply and
fan mounted outside
you have the restore disc available, you can boot from it and then provide the computer system
the system image to restore from. enclosure and connected
to the computer by a
Some software can also be setup to do automatic incremental backups of cable.
data, similar to what Window’s built in software can do. Synctoy is a piece
of software written by Microsoft to keep files synchronized on the same Batch file
versions across multiple devices. It was released for free and can be used to A set of DOS commands
keep automatic backups where it only copies files that have changed for less that automatically
overhead. runs in sequence
once the batch file is
Other software is sometimes bundled with the hardware it is meant to be executed. Batch files
are usually created to
used with. Western Digital’s Worldbook external hard drives are an example
execute commands for
of a device meant for external storage with its own backup software. The operations that the user
software can be configured to backup a file whenever it is written to in order has a repeated need.
to keep the backup current.
Exterrnal drive
Manual Backup Device that reads and
Manual backups are good for one-off projects that have a set amount of data or writes data onto a disk
contained in a separate
a specific group of easily locatable files that need to be backed up at irregular enclosure from the
intervals. If data needs to be backed up every week, it should be automatically computer system. Some
handled. If it only needs to be backed up when it’s worked on and there is no examples of external
set schedule of work, then a manual backup can usually work just fine. drives include hard
drives, optical drives
Manual backups can be done in a few different ways. A manual backup could and magnetic disk
be anything from simply dragging the data you wish to be backed up on to a drives.
different drive or burning it onto DVDs. Backup programs that lack automatic
scheduling functions like DirSyncPro can be considered a manual backup, or
even something as simple as a script or batch file can run to move large
quantities of data from a location and copy it to a backup.
Where to Place Your Backups

When backing up data, be sure to place the data on a device separate from
the one you are storing the main data on. This ensures that if the device
Fig. 2-1 Automatic backup in Win7
1. Open the restore application 2. Choose where to save your backup to
3. Choose what to backup or let Windows decide 4. Choose how often to run the backup
5. Review settings, save them and run the backup
fails you won’t lose your data backups as well. Storing the backup on the same storage device
defeats most of the intended functions of a backup in the sense that we are covering here.
In fact, the further away from your computer you can store your backups the safer they are from
things that could potentially take out all of your data in one shot. For instance, if you have two
hard drives in a machine and it catches on fire, the backups you made would hypothetically get
burned along with the original data stored on the machine. If it is stored in another machine in
the building, then it is much less likely that a fire in your work PC will reach the other machine.
Better yet, if the data is stored offsite and is remotely accessible then the fire which consumed
your machine and maybe the building will not touch your backups. Many businesses store data in
this offsite manner to provide exceptional security and safety to their intellectual property and
records.
This also describes another concept which is known under a variety of names and terms. We are
going to refer to it as Availability, Reliability, and Cost. Each one of these three concepts is an
important aspect of your backup solution. Availability is the likelihood that the original data will
be available at all times, or what percentage of time the backup will be useable. If you use a RAID
1 system where the drive is a copy of another drive, this availability is increased; however, this
is not a backup. If anything happens to the data on one drive it will be replicated on the other
drive. If anything happens to the machine it will take down both drives and render the Operating
System unavailable. When considering hard drive failure though, the hard drives are twice as likely
to experience a failure as there are now two drives. The catch is that the probability of both drives
failing at the same time is less than the added probability of having the extra drive fail. This
means that the probability of having your system down and unavailable due to drive failure has
been reduced. In terms of backups, this statistic would be in regards to how hard the backup is to
access and how likely there is to be a backup always accessible.
Reliability is how likely the data is to be retrievable and the backup to work properly. The more
easily accessible and more in contact your backup is with its host system, the more chances there
are for things to go wrong.
Cost is actually going to be an inverse attribute for this discussion as the more accessible and the
more reliable a backup is, the higher the cost will be. This means that the more resources pushed
toward lowering the cost lowers the other attributes of the backup. Cost also has a large amount to
do with how relevant the backup is. Cost is not only in money but in time as well.
In the end, this means that the cheapest and most reliable backups will be the most inaccessible
to the system. Offsite backups that are not connected via internet are most reliable as they have
had no opportunity to be corrupted by the system. However, with such an inaccessible backup
there may be problems with using the backup solution such as downtime or old backups. Backups
that are accessible and reliable tend to cost quite a bit.
Some users and even some companies use several side by side methods of backing up their
systems. They have a single backup of the system image that is used for restoring the PC. Normal
users would know this as a restore CD or a System Image. They then use smaller backups for
personal data. This helps to assure that the system is available and the backups are reliable while
attempting to keep costs down.
Backup Media
When creating these backups, we tend to use whatever media is most convenient for us. Different
types of media, however, tend to have strengths and weaknesses when compared to other types of
media. Here are the various types:
Flash Drives
Flash drives are small storage devices based off of Non Volatile Memory modules. These devices are
usually low-cost and relatively reliable for their price. Currently they are available in sizes ranging
from 512 MB all the way to 256 GB. The breaking point for price hikes is currently around 8 GB to
16 GB.
When using a flash drive for a data backup device it will show up as a standard hard drive. This
allows you to use manual or automatic style backups with this type of drive.
Flash drives are convenient and easy to use. However, when you are dealing with important data
it may not be enough to have a single backup on a flash drive as they can be damaged from any
number of things. Flash drives can be electrically damaged by power surges, they can be lost or
stepped on, and they can be stolen.
Due to these problems, it is smart to have more backups than just a single USB flash drive. It can
work fine for your average home user and is more than capable of storing your data while you
restore an Operating System. For sensitive information or large amounts of data you may want a
more permanent backup solution.
External Hard Drives
External hard drives can be considered reliable as and even more reliable than standard drives
inside a computer. The benefit is that they can be moved around and do not necessarily have to be
left on the entire time that the computer is on. This allows them to potentially last much longer
as the amount of wear and tear is potentially lower. The one drawback used to be using the USB
connection to interface with the computer. These connections are quite slow. The ESATA standard,
which provides near native host speeds to the external drive, has for the most part remedied this
problem though.
Optical Media
Burnable discs have been used for quite a few years to make backups and copies of various other
media. Be it people wanting to put VHS tapes on a newer format or play their mp3s in a car stereo
before USB connections or mp3 players became all that popular. Sizes range from 700 MB for CDs to
50 GB for dual layer Blu-Ray discs.
Burned discs are perfect for temporary storage of backed up data. Burnable discs are recognized
by most backup systems as acceptable destinations. When burning backup discs, be sure to burn
slowly as burning quickly case cause write errors and buffer under runs. Most burning programs
or backup programs that support burning to disc also support data validation of those same discs.
This helps lead to a lower chance of having a bad backup.
Long-Term Storage
When it comes to storing data on optical discs over a long period of time there are a few different
options.
First of all, you can use archival media. Gold Verbatim are an example of these. Instead of the
standard material in a burnable disc which can oxidize and destroy the data held on it, these discs
use gold. The use of gold prevents the oxidation and secures the long term survival of the disc.
The next option is to have the discs pressed or to own your own disc press machine to press them
yourself. Pressed CDs that were put on sale more than 25 years ago have been known to still play
perfectly in modern CD players as long as the disc was taken care of. Most pressing requires a clean
room and can be a little expensive to setup. However, in certain business environments that make
multiple backup copies of data that need to be distributed and need to last a long time, this could
be a potential option. This work can also be outsourced if this makes for a more economical process.
The next option is to use a high-quality disc like the ones made by Taiyo Yuden. These are standard
discs, but they use a special ink that resists the standard causes of data loss. These are generally
considered to be some of the best burnable discs around as they have a great percentage of
readable first burns and a very low occurrence of burning errors.
On Line Backup
On line storage where you do something simple like email documents to yourself to leave them
stored on the email provider’s servers or something like Dropbox or Mozy. Online storage provides
an offsite backup that should survive any sort of machine malfunction or accident.
Cloning
Cloning a drive is the process of taking the contents of one drive and replicating them bit for bit on
another drive. The idea is also extended to the storing of compressed versions of the content of a
drive through third-party cloning tools like Symantec Ghost, Acronis True Image, or the open source
PartImage.
Cloning is an efficient way of making a clean copy of a system after its initial setup. The purpose
of this copy can be to simplify a rollout or making incremental backups simpler, as the base system
doesn’t have to be considered if it is easy to replace.
Providing a cloned image packaged with a self-booting executable on a disc is an easy way to provide
a self-booting restore disc to a customer that you had to restore the Operating System for if they do
not have access to a restore.
When to Backup
Backup frequency depends quite a lot on how you use your computer and what kind of data you
are backing up. For things such as pictures and other things that are updated infrequently making
a backup after a significant change is probably sufficient. Tax returns also fall under this category,
as you need only to back them up after you finish them for the year. If you are working from home
or running your finances from your computer, or even working on a project that you make frequent
updates to, you may need to schedule automatic updates for every week or even every day.
Fig. 2-2 Cloning a drive
1. Boot to the Diagnostic disk and select HDD. 2. Select Disk Cloning.
3. Select HDClone. 4. Select disk to disk.
5. Select the source drive (the disk you want to clone). 6. Select the destination drive (the disk you will clone to).
7. Select next. 8. Start copying.
9. The cloning process will now proceed.
3. HARDWARE IDENTIFICATION
Computer Case
A computer’s case is its home. The physical characteristics of the case, such as size, cooling vents,
and bolt patterns, determine the types of hardware and components you can install inside the case.
Choosing a case is one of the most important component decisions to make when building a PC.
The case will affect:
• The size of components you can install
• Which aftermarket parts you can install in the future
The case has an impact on the cooling system, too. The case could have vents on the front, back,
side, or top, all ready for fans, depending on the model. The case’s rear fan mount determines
whether you will be using a 120mm, a 92mm, an 80mm (or pair of 80mm) fans, as well as other
potential configurations. The same holds true for the intake fan on the front and the top or side-
mounted fans if they are included on the model you are using.
Size Implication
The case’s depth changes what CPU coolers can be mounted inside the case.
CPU coolers will be explained in upcoming sections, but they are essentially
devices made up of heat sinks and pipes to cool the processor. The better job
it does at keeping the CPU cool, often the larger it is, because temperature
MicroATX lowers if you have more surface area to disperse heat over. But some CPU
A standard for
motherboard systems
coolers will be too big for cases. If they are too tall you will not be able to
that is designed to be attach the side panel of the case to the unit.
backward-compatible
with ATX, a motherboard Some cases will only accept certain sized motherboards as well. MicroATX cases
form factor specification will only take mATX and smaller motherboards. Full sized cases will take full
developed by Intel. sized and smaller boards as long as they are ATX compatible. The majority
of motherboards in the consumer space are ATX compatible. One thing to
ATX watch out for, however, is the EATX standard or "extended ATX" size: These
An industry-wide motherboards require cases with an extra expansion slot to mount properly.
specification for a
desktop computer’s Plan to Expand
motherboard developed
by Intel in 1995 to Larger cases allow you to add extra hard drives, more optical drives, and a
improve on the previous
second video card that may be required for some of the latest video games.
standard (Baby AT form
factor) and allow for a That being said, if you need a small case for some reason, still try to find one
more efficient design, with more expansion slots and large clearances. A great example of this is
with disk drive cable the Lian-Li PC-Q08B. Although this Mini ITX case is tiny in size, it allows for
connectors nearer to six hard drives to be installed internally, and provides enough room to install
the drive bays and the
a full-sized video card with a dual-slot cooler into its tiny 13.5”x9”x10.7”
CPU closer to the power
supply and cooling fan. footprint. It also has great airflow by using a 140mm fan and a 120mm fan.
This is truly an exceptional case design for its size.
Expansion slot
Long, narrow sockets Cooling
located on the
motherboard inside Cooling systems in a computer are perhaps the most underappreciated and mis-
the computer that understood components of the system. It is the single most important system
allows expansion cards, in the computer when it comes to maximizing performance, reducing wear and
or adapters, to be
tear, and minimizing the noise the computer makes while it is running.
connected to it.
Many users have been upset over the years by the noises their computer
Cooling system makes without understanding why they occur. If they would have properly
Devices that help dis- cooled their system, they could have reduced the noise and their frustrations.
sipate heat produced by
computer components
and keep them within
Cooling the Processor (CPU)
safe operating tempera-
Processor cooling comes down to a few important factors. The most
ture limits.
important factor is the contact between the processor and the heat sink. The
level of contact between the two surfaces directly affects how much heat
energy can be moved into the heat sink from the processor. A bad level of
contact will result in overheating no matter how good the heat sink you
installed on it is. Hopefully the thermal protection on your motherboard is
working properly.
Contact Area
This contact area is dependent on a few factors. The
contact area is the size of the processor surface that is
touching the heat sink surface. A processor has cores
that are located in the middle. However, if you opened
your computer right now and removed the heat sink
from the processor, you’d see that there is a piece of
metal covering the entire processor. This thin, metallic
surface is known as a heat spreader. Its purpose is to
protect the processor and provide a larger surface area
to attach the heat sink to. Essentially, the heat spreader Fig. 3-1 Heat spreader: External casing usually made
attaches to the processor, and the heat sink attaches of aluminum specially designed to cover an electronic
to the heat spreader. Again, the goal of all of this is to device and dissipate heat.
cool the processor by removing as much heat from it as

possible. Processors get very hot, and without cooling, they would burn up and fry. Your typical, run
of the mill heat sink, has a simple design. It has fins, which allow it to have a big surface area. The
heat from the processor expands to the heat sink, which pulls heat away from the processor.
Thermal Compound
Heat sinks and heat spreaders are typically made from nickel, copper, or Thermal compound
aluminum. They attach to each other to make up the contact area. Under A fluid substance that
aids a heat sink in
ideal conditions these two pieces would sit flush against each other to
cooling a computer
provide a good conductor of heat; however, this is rarely the case because system’s Central
any imperfections in the surface of the contacts causes heat to be trapped Processing Unit (CPU).
inside air pockets, and air insulates heat well. Higher-quality heat sinks have
surfaces that have been more carefully machined and polished to help cut
down on anything that could rob them of their heat dispersing abilities.
To compensate for surface imperfections and get the best contact area
possible, we generally use a compound called "Thermal Compound" or
"thermal grease" or "heat sink compound". The compound is a type of grease
with a large amount of minuscule, thermally conductive particles mixed in.
This compound does not conduct (transfer heat) as well as direct contact,
but it does much better than air. The grease works its way into the small air
pockets between the heat sink and heat spreader, replacing the air pockets
with the thermally conductive particles. This gives a much more uniform and
effective contact area as it fills in the holes on the sides of both the heat
sink and heat spreader.
Thermal Compound, for the most part, performs the same from brand to brand,
regardless of the price tag. Expensive, silver-based compound will gain you a
few degrees of cooling over the cheap, zinc-based compounds—so choose the
compound most suitable based on how you are planning on using the computer.
Games and graphics programs use a lot more CPU power, so sometimes spending
the extra money on silver-based thermal compounds is important.
— CHAPTER 3: Hardware Identification —
Silver-based compounds can also help the system last longer, while cheaper compounds tend to
dry out quicker which decreases their cooling performance. Two companies that make long-lasting,
quality compounds are Arctic Silver and CoolerMaster.
Heat Sink
We’ve already discussed how the heat spreader allows
the heat to travel from the CPU to the heat sink . We
will now take a look at what makes individual heat
sinks better than others. Heat sinks need to have a
proper mounting system to hold them properly to the
processor. They need to be able to handle the heat
output by dispersing a rated amount of thermal energy
into the case. Size and design restrict a heat sink’s
Fig. 3-2 Heat sink: Device used to transfer heat gen- effectiveness.
erated within a solid material to a fluid medium such
as air or water. Heat sinks dissipate heat away from
sensitive electronic components to prevent damage.
Mounting
Heat sinks are mounted in predetermined ways that
are set by the manufacturer. As of late, Intel has been
using four pins that push through the motherboard,
lock behind it, and are released by turning the pins
a quarter turn to release the tension. AMD has been
using a spring-and lever assembly that connects to
three points on each side of the brace, which bolts
through the back of the motherboard.
Aftermarket heat sinks can either use these existing
Fig. 3-3 Heat pipes: Thin, sealed metal tubular
Intel or AMD methods or use their own mounting
devices that combine the principles of both thermal methods. Some heat sinks will come with their
conductivity and phase transition to efficiently man- own mounting brackets. An example would be
age the transfer of heat between two solid interfaces.
CoolerMaster’s Hyper 212, in which you would mount
to your own back plate and bolt through the existing
holes in the motherboard. The heat sink is then spring-loaded and screwed down into the steel
frame. Most of the other 120mm coolers also are mounted in this manner simply due to the weight
of the heat sink. Smaller coolers may be mounted with plastic clips.
Heat Pipes
Higher end heat sinks tend to employ heat pipes to help transfer heat. The reason for using heat
pipes may differ. Sometimes they are used to help move heat away from the source and disperse
heat in a different location. Laptops often employ this technology to move heat to a centralized
heat sink. This makes laptop cooling easier to design and easier to employ. Other times, heat pipes
are used to provide a more uniform and higher level of heat transfer.
Heat pipes work by suspending a working liquid in a low pressure environment. In computers,
water is generally used. There is a central vapor cavity to allow fast movement of water in its
gas form. The water is boiled and travels the length of the pipe from the hot end to the cool end,
where it condenses back into water.
This action unloads the heat energy the water is carrying from the hot end into the rest of the heat
pipe. There is a wick inside the heat pipe that pulls the cooled water back to the hot end where the
cycle repeats itself.
Note: If you are purchasing a new heat sink, check to see if your current heat sink has heat pipes.
If it does, make sure your new heat sink has them as well.
Surface Area
A heat sink’s ability to disperse heat rests almost solely on its surface area and how well it is
utilized. Heat sinks use fins, which allow them to have a large surface area. Heat energy is a finite
amount. Spreading heat across a larger surface, lowers the temperature at each individual point.
The more surface area, the better it will disperse heat. The 92mm and 120mm heat sinks have large
surface areas, and will do a better job of dispersing heat than a 25.5mm unit. The only way to
dissipate more heat is to add more surface area and make sure the heat is evenly distributed.
Heat dissipates into air at a set rate. The air cannot be forced to absorb heat faster or take more
than it can hold. The solution to this problem, however, is airflow. By having the air cycled at a
normal rate by the case fans, fresh air is always available for the heat to disperse into.
Airflow and Fin Spacing
By bringing in cool air and increasing the surface area for the air to
flow over, we maximize our ability to cool our components. There
is a balance between the number of fins and the spacing between
them. If the fins are too close together, air flow between the fins is
decreased, which also decreases cooling performance, because hot air
isn’t exchanged for cool air as well. If the fins are too far apart, then
the heat sink has a smaller surface area, which makes it less effective.
This is why manufacturers need to maximize the surface area of the
heat sink, while maintaining good air flow between the fins.
The fans on stock coolers provide two important functions. First, they
force air exchange through these tightly spaced fins. This allows Fig. 3-4 Fin: A metallic alloy,
for proper cooling and perhaps even allows the heat sink to take usually an aluminum compound,
used in heatsinks to provide a
advantage of its large surface area. Second, they push air to various larger coverage area to draw heat
parts of the motherboard that may need cooling. These could include away from sensitive electronic
the Mosfets, the Northbridge, and even the memory. components, such as microproces-
sors. Cooling fans are sometimes
Passive vs. Active Cooling used to dissipate heat better and
faster from heatsink fins.
Everything that has been described so far deals with passive heat
sinks. Heatsinks that have fins which allow cool air to blow over them
are called passive. Active heatsinks will actually have their own fans
which blow cool air through the fins and draw the warm air out.
Fun Fact: When the Pentium 4 was reaching the end of its use in new computer systems, it needed
to use “thermally advantaged chassis”. Essentially, as the speed of P4’s increased, they got hotter,
and they needed cases that were better equipped to cool them. There was a vent and air channel
on the side of the case which allowed the processor fan to pull in fresh air easily.
Active heatsink Fans

An integral cooling com-
ponent in most electron- After heat has been transferred from the CPU to its heat sink, and dispersed
ic devices, incorporating into the case, the case needs to get rid of this hot air. Most likely the case
a normal heat sink with
will use the exact same methods that it used to bring cool air into the case—
a cooling fan.
fans. Fans are a relatively simple concept, but there are a few things that
make the more expensive ones special.
Pentium
A widely-used personal Fans are noisy. Smaller fans need to spin at a higher RPM to create the same
computer micropro-
amount of airflow as large fans. The higher the RPM of the fan, the noisier
cessor developed by
Intel. First offered in it will be, which can be slightly annoying to some people. Larger, lower RPM
1993, Pentium is the fans tend to move a large amount of air without making as much noise, and
successor to the 486 can be used if you want to have a quiet computer system. Generally, when
microprocessor line as buying replacement fans, you should buy the largest, lowest RPM fan you can
the microchip-of-choice
find that will fit into your case. Make sure to check the manual or measure
in personal computer
manufacturing. the screw holes to figure out which size fan, in millimeters, you can buy.
If you have a high performance system; perhaps it
is used for extreme gaming, graphic design, or video
editing; you may want to get large, high RPM fans
because your system needs a lot of cool air. You’ll
sacrifice sound a bit, but that might be the trade off
to having a high performance system.
Fan controller s can be useful in very high performance
systems. A fan controller routes all of the fans through
a central location that allows you to make adjustments
Fig. 3-5 Fan and fan controller on the fly and turn up the fans during heavy loads.
This would be ideal for things like rendering scenes,
Fan encoding video, or gaming.
Active cooling devices
attached to a computer Monitor Hardware Temperature
case or a specific
component, such as When building a system from scratch or modifying an existing system, it’s
a heatsink. Computer good to monitor the amount of heat in the system to make sure your hard-
fans can draw cool air ware isn’t overheating. There are plenty of tools that let you monitor tem-
into the CPU chassis or
channel warm air from
perature, some free, some paid. One program is called HWMonitor by cpuid.
the inside of the case. com. The paid version gives you access to all of the tools, but the free ver-
sion allows you to monitor the CPU temperature. It’s best to have your CPU
Fan controller run under 70 degrees Celsius, even under full load. If you are in the high 70’s
Electronic devices used and above, you may want to invest in better fans, a heat sink, or thermal
to slow down CPU cool- compound. You can search Google for "cpu temperature" to find more tools.
ing fans and precisely
select optimum fan
speed. Fan controllers
Power
use an inline diode
or resistor to produce
Another important aspect of the computer is the power supply. Clean power
fixed fan speeds and helps the computer components operate properly. Dirty power (voltage
potentiometers to allow fluctuations and spikes) can be responsible for damage to components,
variable fan speeds.
system instability, and even fire risks. Cheap power

supplies tend to fail sooner. When they do fail, they
tend to damage other components.
Power Factor Correction

Electrical circuits have Real Power and Apparent Power.
Real Power is the capacity of a circuit to perform
work in a certain period of time. Apparent Power is
the summed amount of power actually on the circuit.
Apparent power will be greater than real power. Fig. 3-6 Power supply: Converts AC current to DC
required by electronic circuits. It is a hardware com-
Essentially, the difference between apparent and real ponent that supplies power to electrical devices.
power heats wires and wastes energy. Power Factor is
the ratio of these two measurements, usually given
as a percentage, e.g. 0.5 pf = 50% pf. A load with a low power factor draws Real Power
In alternating current
more current than a load with a high power factor for the same amount of circuits, real power
useful power transferred. Therefore, a load with a higher PF is more efficient. refers to the portion
that results in the net
When purchasing power supplies, try to get one with the highest PF Rating. transfer of energy in
Cheap power supplies will be down around 0.4 to 0.5 pf. The next step up one direction, averaged
is a Passive PFC (Power Factor Correction), which has a filter on the line to over one complete AC
control imbalances. They can provide a ratio between 0.7 and 0.75 pf. Next is waveform cycle.
Active PFC, which can provide PF ratings all the way up to 0.99 pf.
Apparent Power
The European Union requires all power supplies to have at least a Passive PFC A measure of alternating
equipped now. You can still get non PFC power supplies in other countries, current (AC) power that
but lean towards purchasing a PFC equipped unit. is computed by multi-
plying the root-mean-
square (rms) current by
Efficiency the root-mean-square
voltage.
Power supply efficiency is the power output divided by the power draw. A
500-watt power supply that is 50% efficient will provide 500-watts of power
while drawing 1000-watts and wasting the other 500-watts as heat. A 500- PF Rating
The ratio of power
watt power supply that is 80% efficient will provide 500-watts of power while available in a circuit
drawing 625-watts. A more efficient power supply will draw less power. As you to the apparent power
can see, the efficiency of a power supply has an effect on your energy bill. of the circuit. A higher
power factor results
80 Plus in more efficient use
of energy and a lower
The 80 Plus program is an attempt to promote higher efficiency in power factor indicates more
supply units. Power supplies are cooled and tested at room temperature. wasted energy.
When the power supply approaches maximum draw and starts to create
more heat, the heat forces efficiency down. In order to meet basic 80 Plus
certification, the power supply needs to be 80% efficient or greater at 20%
load, 50% load, and 100% load.
Typically, the most efficient load for a power supply to be running at is
between 50% and 75% load. Loads below 20% are usually heavily inefficient.
This includes standby loads, also called vampire power.
Power supply efficiency There are five different 80 Plus certifications: 80 Plus, 80 Plus Bronze, 80
The efficiency of a Plus Silver, 80 Plus Gold, and 80 Plus Platinum. The higher the certification,
power supply is deter- the more efficient the power supply is at each load percentage.
mined by taking the DC
output of a power sup-
ply and dividing it by Percent Loading 80 Plus 80 Plus Bronze 80 Plus Silver 80 Plus Gold 80 Plus Platinum
the AC input. The higher
20% 80% 82% 85% 87% 90%
the power supply’s ef-
ficiency, the less power 50% 80% 85% 85% 90% 92%
the computer system 100% 80% 82% 85% 87% 89%
will consume.
Watt Vampire Power

An International System
unit of power equal to Vampire Power is the power draw of all appliances in standby mode.
one joule per second. Remember that loads under 20% are highly inefficient. Most standby devices
draw between 2 and 25-watts in standby. This may not sound like much,
80 Plus program but when you consider multiple appliances per home and homes all over
An energy efficiency the world, the amount of vampire power accounts for almost 10% of all
program that certifies
power consumed. The One Watt Initiative is a program, developed by the
power supplies which
are 80% energy efficient International Energy Agency, to use only products that are certified to use
or more when running only 1-watt during standby.
at 20%, 50% and 100%
of their rated loads.
Motherboard
Vampire power The motherboard is the center of the personal computer. All modules plug
An energy efficiency into the motherboard to provide their services to it. When building a computer,
program that certifies don’t skimp on the motherboard. Motherboards are a good place to invest a
power supplies which
good portion of the money you have budgeted for a new computer. A high
are 80% energy efficient
or more when running quality motherboard will impact system stability, and have more expansion
at 20%, 50% and 100% slots which allow for future add-ons , or any number of positive attributes.
of their rated loads.
Cheap RAM works well on high quality motherboards because their signaling
is usually stronger and their supplied power usually cleaner. It isn’t a free
pass to skimp on the rest of the system, but a high quality
motherboard can help gloss over many of the flaws that
might have otherwise given you grief as you used your new
machine.
In a second, we will dive into detail regarding motherboards
and how they work. Before we do, there are a few
components to briefly define so this section makes sense.
Each of these components will be expanded upon later in
the guide.
Fig. 3-7 Motherboard: The primary compo-
nent of a computer that takes the form of a
Chipsets
large printed circuit board which connects all
of computers’ essential components such as
Chipsets can often be a confusing and almost ambiguous
CPU, controllers, memory, monitor, keyboard term. The chipset is essentially the motherboard. The chip-
and expansion slots. set defines the features and performance the motherboard
has. So each motherboard will be a certain type of chipset. Because there are
so many manufacturers of motherboards and new products are coming out all
the time, rather than discussing model numbers, enthusiasts can talk about
chipsets. And by knowing the chipset, you know the features the mother-
board has and the performance it will offer.
Power Delivery
Power is fed into the motherboard by a 20+4 pin connector, the 12-volt 4-pin
connector, and other connections occasionally. When power is delivered to RAM
the rest of the board, it is run through extra circuitry to ensure its clean and A type of memory
stable operation. The motherboard is designed to take the dirtiest of power device made up of small
sources and attempt to clean it to a useable state for your processor, memory, memory chips that
and peripherals. form a memory module.
It is used for holding
Voltage Regulator Circuit programs and data that
will be executed.
The voltage regulator circuit is responsible for converting the power supply’s
+12V voltage into the appropriate voltage required by the CPU, memory, Chipset
and other circuits. For the most part, the quality of the voltage regulator A set of integrated cir-
cuits specially designed
circuit determines the quality and lifespan of the motherboard overall. This
to work together and
is because good voltage regulators provide the circuitry with stable, clean perform one or more
power, without fluctuations, noise, or ripple. computing functions.
These are usually spe-
Power is filtered through capacitors, MOSFETs, and chokes; referred to as cialized chips mounted
phases when combined to clean the power. The general consensus is that on a computer’s moth-
the more cleaning phases a motherboard has, the more stable it will be. If erboard.
a circuit has four phases (or channels) each phase will operate 25% of the
time. Each device will operate less of the time, which will allow them to last Volt
longer and reduce their operating temperature. When a manufacturer refers The basic unit of electri-
cal potential, used for
to phases, they are typically referring to the CPU main voltage circuit.
measuring the force
used to produce an
A capacitor stores electricity and discharges it when needed. Solid capaci-
electric current.
tors contain a solid organic polymer, while electrolytic capacitors use a liquid
electrolyte. Better motherboards use solid capacitors because they don’t
MOSFET
swell or leak. Older motherboards with old style aluminum electrolytic ca-
A device used to amplify
pacitors benefitted from high phase count as the amount of ripple (variations or switch electronic
in sine wave) inherent in their design was cured with high phase counts. signals and is designed
to handle significant
A MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) is a switch that power levels.
allows or disallows electric current to pass through an electronic circuit.
A choke is an inductor that stores energy and regulates current. You’ll find
iron and ferrite chokes, ferrite being the better of the two because they don’t
lose as much power and have better resistance to rust. Each phase uses one
choke, so one way you can figure out how many phases a motherboard has, is
by counting the chokes.
A PWM (pulse-width modulation) controls the output voltage to the CPU,

memory, and other components. Each requires a different voltage. The correct
amount of voltage is created by turning the switch between on and off at a
fast pace. The longer the switch is on, the higher the supplied voltage.
Thermal Design Power
It is good to look at the maximum power the motherboard can support for a
processor, especially when purchasing a new motherboard or processor. This
is usually referred to in TDP. Thermal Design Power is a funny measurement
as many companies have their own definitions of what constitutes TDP. This
means you need to do a bit of research as to how your company approaches
TDP. However, when it comes to expressing how much power a motherboard
can supply to a processor you’ll read something like this, “this board
supports all processors less than 95W”, speaking about the heat output and
PWM power draw of the processor. Laptop processors have a TDP between 5-watts
A modulation tech- and 45-watts. Desktop processors tend to range from 45-watts to 140-watts.
nique that generates
Make sure your motherboard supports your processor’s TDP.
variable-width pulses to
represent the amplitude
of an analog input sig- Power Cautions
nal. The pulse duration
can be changed relative
If you run a high-draw processor in a limited chipset, meaning the processor
to fixed, leading or is maxing out the power capabilities of the motherboard, it will affect the
trailing, time edges or a system’s stability. Similar to overclocking a processor (running it at a higher
fixed pulse center. clock rate to increase speed and performance), additional power is drawn to
provide stronger signaling in order to increase the stability of the processor;
Thermal Design Power however this additional power is affecting the stability of the overall system
Thermal Design Power, due to the limits of its power handling. Power is drawn and most of the
or TDP, represents
drawn power is converted to heat, which in turns makes the unit even less
the average maximum
amount of power a efficient as it warms up. As the unit loses its efficiency, the power delivery
computer’s cooling system starts to have fluctuations in its supply. These fluctuations can restart
system can dissipate a computer, lock it up, or even damage parts.
while running available
software. Enthusiasts that demand a lot from their systems will use motherboards
with overbuilt power systems. The MOSFETS and capacitors that make up
the phases to filter the power, will often have passive or active heat sinks
attached.
Along with the heat sinks and active cooling of the power system there
is one other thing that many manufacturers are doing today as well. They
are using 2-ounce copper PCBs (printed circuit boards) instead of the older
1-ounce units. What this does is place more copper on the transmission lines
for all of your pathways on the motherboard. The temperature of the board
drops since there is less resistance due to the larger pathways.
Connectivity
In a nutshell, the motherboard is the hub for all things to connect to your
computer. For this reason it is sometimes referred to as the mainboard. Other
terms thrown around are board or mobo. The motherboard provides all of the
ports for your computer. These include display connections such as DVI and
VGA, USB, eSATA, Firewire, PS/2, audio, networking, and more. VGA
A widely used graphics
Most of these connections are found on the back panel of the case. There display system between
are a couple of front panel connectors that attach to the motherboard which a computer and monitor
are for your power switch, reset button, and any of the lights that indicate developed by IBM that
uses a 15-pin plug and
power usage. If your system has front USB ports or a headphone jack in the
socket and provides a
front panel, those connectors are plugged into the motherboard as well. resolution of 720x400
pixels.
Northbridge
The Northbridge is connected to the CPU, the system memory, and PCI USB
A small, removable,
Express or AGP video cards, and the Southbridge, which is discussed below.
rewritable flash memory
Some Northbridges will also contain Integrated Graphics Controllers. data storage device that
allows data to be trans-
Processors have been integrating more functions onto the CPU itself, thus ferred between devices.
negating the need to have the function on the motherboard itself. One
example of this is the memory controller, which is responsible for the
Firewire
communication between the CPU and the RAM. More and more you’ll see the A high speed data trans-
memory controller on the processor which allows it to access RAM quicker fer technology often
because it doesn’t have to go through the Northbridge first. used for connecting
digital cameras to com-
Southbridge puters. FireWire provides
a single plug-and-socket
The Southbridge is connected to the Northbridge and typically handles the connection on which
up to 63 devices can
slower functions because it isn’t directly connected to the CPU. Some of func-
be attached with data
tions are the PCI bus, SATA, USB, audio, BIOS memory, and Ethernet. transfer speeds up to
400 Mbps.
Front-side Bus
The front-side bus connects the CPU to the Northbridge and is the data USB port
A standard cable con-
highway between the two. A front-side bus has a few characteristics that are
nection interface or
important when determining its speed. Since the FSB essentially carries the socket on a computer
data between the CPU and Northbridge, and the Northbridge communicates into which a USB device
with RAM and PCIe video cards, the quicker the FSB the better. Of course can plugged into.
there are diminishing returns when purchasing a computer with a faster FSB
because the CPU, RAM, and applications you are running may not get even SATA
close to fully utilizing the FSB’s bandwidth capability. Serial ATA, or Serial
Advanced Technology
Since Intel came out with the quad-core i3, i5, and i7 processors, the front- Attachment, is a serial
bus has migrated to the CPU chip itself. It is still used in Core 2, Celeron, bus link interface that
connects host bus
and Atom processors.
adapters to storage
devices such as optical
Speed
drives and hard disks.
The maximum bandwidth of a front-side bus can be determined by
multiplying its data path width (in bytes) by its clock frequency and data
transfers per clock cycle. So, a 200Mhz FSB that is 8 bytes wide and performs
4 transfers per clock cycle has a bandwidth of 6,400MB/s.
8B x 200Mhz x 4 = 6,400MB/s
Typically manufacturers express the speed of a FSB in terms of Megahertz, but
Front-side bus (FSB) they don’t use the clock frequency. They use the clock frequency multiplied
The FSB, also called by the data transfers per clock cycle. Therefore a system with a 200Mhz
the system bus, is an frequency clock FSB will be expressed as 800Mhz (200Mhz x 4 transfers).
electrical pathway on a You may also see it express as 800MT/s, which stands for megatransfers per
computer’s motherboard
that connects the com-
second. The former refers to the overall frequency and the latter refers to
puter’s processor to the how many transfers per second can be performed.
system memory (RAM)
and other components. Expansion Slots
Motherboards have a few types of expansion slots to enhance the capabilities
Celeron of the system they are installed in. An expansion slot allows you to add
The brand name of the
hardware to the system in the future. Some of the more popular types of
Intel microprocessor line
designed for low-cost
hardware that would be plugged into expansion slots are video cards, sound
basic computer systems. cards, networking cards, firewire or eSATA. The standard expansion slots
The Celeron micropro- are PCI slots for general expansion and PCI Express for bandwidth intensive
cessor is based on the expansion cards.
same architecture as the
Pentium II but it lacks PCI
some high-performance
features of the Pentium Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) comes in one size for standard
II line. computer users. There are other types of PCI slots in the server environment,
but for the home user this is the one and only. The bandwidth for the entire
MB/s PCI Bus is 133MB/s (Megabytes per second). All of your PCI attached devices
Stands for megabyte per share the 133MB/s bandwidth. For this reason, PCI video cards, nowadays,
second and is a unit of
offer sub-par performance because they don’t have the bandwidth required
data transfer rate equal
to one million bytes per to make them truly exceptional. Better, faster video cards need to transfer
second. higher volumes of data quicker. Other technologies have been developed
since PCI, and those will be addressed shortly.
Peripheral Component
You can find just about any expansion component for your computer
Interconnect (PCI)
PCI stands for packaged on a PCI card. Most of the cards that were used in the past,
Peripheral Component including but not limited to: sound, network, video, and USB expansion
Interconnect. It is cards, have all been integrated into the motherboard in some way or another.
an interconnection If you need more of them however, you can still usually find it with a PCI
system between a
connection.
microprocessor and
attached devices
designed by Intel and AGP
is used in both PCs and Accelerated Graphics Port was introduced by Intel to expand upon the
Macs.
bandwidth offered by PCI so that video cards would not be constrained by
bandwidth. It was introduced in 1997 with a bandwidth of 266MB/s and rose
throughout the years to a powerful 2,133MB/s. At the time of writing this
guide, you can still find AGP video cards for sale, however, they have since
been almost made obsolete due to the higher performance PCI-Express slots
and cards. Some of the AGP cards use a bridge chip in order to plug them Accelerated Graphics
into the new PCI-Express slots. Port (AGP)
AGP was an advanced
PCI Express graphics card expansion
port designed for
PCI Express was launched in 2004 as the replacement for AGP. Originally the video cards and 3D
two of them had very similar speeds, but PCI Express has one distinct advan- accelerators, which
tage. PCI Express is a synchronous protocol which means it can transmit data introduces a dedicated
point-to-point channel
in both directions simultaneously, while AGP can only transmit data in one so that the graphics
direction at a time. Officially abbreviated as PCIe and often seen as PCI-E. controller can directly
access the main
Serial vs. Parallel Bus memory.
Previous PCI standards used a parallel bus, which allowed several bits of PCI Express
information to be sent as a whole. A bus is just a word for an electrical PCI Express is a high-
connection between devices. speed expansion card
format developed by
Before PCI Express, during the days of standard PCI, parallel was an Intel Corp. in 2004. It
connects a computer
improvement over serial. Serial is the process of sending one bit at a time.
system with attached
Parallel allowed more information to be sent at the same time. However, the peripheral devices and
transmission speed and signal integrity of serial buses have improved so is abbreviated as PCIe
much over the years that serial is used more commonly now. PCI Express uses or PCX.
serial buses.
Interconnect and Lanes
PCIe devices pass data through an interconnect, also
referred to as a link, which is a point-to-point channel
of communication between PCIe ports. A link contains
lanes . Lanes are comprised of 4 wires that transmit
and receive data simultaneously.
PCIe slots can have 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 lanes. More
lanes allow you to transmit more data simultaneously. Fig. 3-8 PCI and PCI Express ports
More lanes means the PCIe slot will be physically larger.
See Figure 3-8. Lanes
Lanes, in the context of
Peripherals on the market most commonly use x1, x4, and x16 lanes. A this guide, are memory
wireless card may be x1 while a high performance graphics card is x16. channels for the PCI
Smaller cards like x1’s and x4’x fit into the bigger slots and operate correctly, Express interface. PCI
but the larger x16 cards will not fit into the smaller slots. When placing a Express interfaces con-
sist of one to sixteen
smaller card into a larger slot the smaller cards can only run at the lane and
lanes which provide syn-
specified speeds that they have been setup for. chronous transmission
and reception of data.
PCIe Versions Version 1 had lanes of
250 MB/s, Version 2 has
PCI Express is now on its 3rd version. Version 1 came out with 250 MB/s per 500 MB/s, and Version 3
"lane". Version 2 came out with 500 MB/s per lane, and the newly ratified has 1 GB/s per lane.
version 3 has 1 GB/s (or 1,000MB/s) per lane. Version 3 PCIe devices rated at
1GB/s will work in version 1 or 2 PCIe slots, just at the reduced bandwidth.
CPU
The CPU (Central Processing Unit), or processor for
short, is the brain of the computer. It performs all the
calculations and transformation of data, and ultimately
is the greatest contributor to the speed of the system.
Cores
Fig. 3-9 Central Processing Unit (CPU): The CPU, or
central processing unit, is the part of the computer Processors have cores. A core is a calculating engine of
system that processes the system’s functions and ex-
a processor. Intel used to have single core processors,
ecutes the instructions of installed software, programs
and applications. It’s speed and power are determinedbut as technology has progressed, they’ve come out
by three intrinsic factors: clock speed, bandwidth and
with 2, 4, and 6 core processors; similar situation with
instruction set.
AMD. When you have a multi-core processor, some or
even all of the processor’s internal components and functions are duplicated
and then coupled to work together to make a more powerful and efficient
processing machine. The more cores a processor has, the more tasks it can
Core
Refers to the Intel
work on at nearly full speed at the same time.
Core brand of various
mid-range and high-end
Some tasks in a single application can be divided and worked on
personal and business simultaneously by multiple cores. Certain applications and software scale
microprocessors. The across multiple cores well, meaning they take advantage of a multi-core CPU
very first Core brand was in order to perform tasks quicker. So, on one hand, a multi-core processor
Intel’s 32-bit mobile will allow you to multitask so you can read your email, watch a movie, burn a
dual core x86 CPUs de-
rived from the Pentium
data disc, and edit a photo in Photoshop all at the same time. On the other
M microprocessor line. hand, specific programs have been built and updated to utilize different
cores so that all the tasks and calculations done by the program can be done
Burn simultaneously, and thus, quicker.
In computing, burn is
a slang term for optical
You also have applications that that use parallel computing architecture that
disc authoring, which is enables huge increases in computer performance by not only using the CPU
the process of record- but harnessing the power of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), which is
ing or writing data onto the processor on a graphics card. CUDA is an example of this, developed by
an optical disc. The
NVIDIA, and will be covered later in the Video Cards section.
content can be data, au-
dio or video, and these
need to be assembled
Threads
into the proper logical
A thread is the smallest unit of code a core can work on. A thread is
volume format before it
can be burned on opti- contained inside of a process. Multiple threads can execute code for a single
cal discs. process, sharing memory resources.
Multithreading, or hyperthreading as Intel coined their version of the
Thread
Thread, or Thread of Ex-
technology, is when the processor is running multiple threads at the same
ecution, is the smallest, time. On a single core processor, however, the processor is really switching
basic unit of process- back and forth between threads very quickly, so it seems simultaneous.
ing activity issued by a Multithreading is more effective in a multi-core processor since cores run
computer system. their own processes and threads concurrently.
Applications can be programmed to take advantage of multiple threads HT (Hyperthreading)

executing concurrently, again, especially on multi-core processor systems and Technology developed
systems with multiple CPUs. by Intel Corporation
that enables a process-
ing core to execute two
Cache or more threads, or sets
of instructions, at the
Cache in a processor stores data so that requests for that data can be served
same time.
extremely fast. It aims to store frequently used data in its high-speed
memory to deliver it to the processor whenever it needs it. Cache storage
Cache
space is limited and much smaller than RAM, and typically stores values that In computer engineer-
have been calculated previously and have a high likelihood of accessing ing, cache is a special
those values without having to compute them again. high-speed storage com-
ponent that transpar-
When the data the processor requests is in cache its called a cache hit, ently stores data so that
otherwise it is a cache miss and the data is grabbed from the RAM or hard it can be accessed faster
drive or even calculated again. when it is needed. The
cache can either be
The more accurate the cache is at guessing what the processor is going to a reserved section of
the computer’s main
need next, the faster the processor calculates, and the faster the computer
memory or an indepen-
runs. When the cache guesses wrong it causes a cache miss. Certain types dent storage device.
of processors are more vulnerable to cache misses and some handle it much
better than others. Storage
In computing, storage
L1, L2, L3 refers to computer com-
ponents or recording
Cache in processors is defined by its "level". In this case level refers to how
media designed to hold
many steps back from the processing logic the memory is. L1 is going to be digital data. Storage
right next to the processing core, things stored in L1 are accessed extremely is one of the most es-
fast. The L2 is checked when the requested information is not found in L1. sential components of a
L2 is slower than L1 but larger so it can hang onto data longer to facilitate computer system.
quick data retrieval. L3 is underneath L2 and is slower yet, but again can
store larger amounts of data. In the end, there is no real definition of cache L1 cache
The L1 cache, also known
level other than where it is positioned. L3 on one processor could be twice
as the “primary cache”,
the speed as on another, but it would still be L3 because of its location in is the fastest memory
the hierarchy of memory access. cache built into the CPU
chip or microprocessor.
The reason you make multiple cache levels is mostly due to cost. The The computer loads fre-
extremely high-speed memory used in L1 cache is expensive; you could quently used pieces of
make system memory out of it, however, it would be a few thousand dollars data into the L1 cache
per stick. The memory used in most L2’s is slower but still much faster than enabling it to process
requests much faster.
standard system memory and more expensive. The same holds true for L3 and
potential further levels of caching.
L2 cache
If the data is not located in the L1, L2, or L3, the system will then look The L2 cache, also
known as the “second-
to main memory. The memory is slow in comparison but there is a massive
ary cache”, feeds the
amount of it. If the data is not here, the computer searches for it on the L1 cache. Its memory
hard drive, which is even slower but much larger than system memory. is slower than the L1
cache and resides on a
separate chip from the
microprocessor chip.
L3 cache To give an example, a new computer system could have a CPU with 8MB
The extra cache built of Cache, 4GB of RAM, and 1TB of hard drive space. Since we haven’t
into motherboards that talked about measurements and conversion yet, here’s a quick rundown on
feeds the L2 cache, and
its memory is typi-
megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), and terabytes (TB):
cally slower than the L2
memory.
A bit is the smallest unit of information in computers. A byte is 8 bits. A
Kilobyte (KB) is 1,024 bytes. A Megabyte (MB) is 1,024 Kilobytes. A Gigabyte
(GB) is 1,024 Megabytes. And a Terabyte (TB) is 1,024 Gigabytes. If we do
Byte
In computing, a byte the conversion quickly in our head, we can assume the 1,024 conversion is
is the abbreviation for about 1,000.
binary term, a basic unit
of digital storage which Therefore, if you do the conversion, a new PC may have 8MB of Cache,
is equal to eight bits. approximately 4,000MB of RAM, and roughly 1,000,000,000MB of hard
drive space. Refer to the figure below for the actual storage capacities and
Core 2 Duo conversions of these units.
Refers to Intel’s Core 2
microprocessor line con- bit byte Kilobyte Megabyte Gigabyte
taining two (2) cores,
or individual processors bit 1 8 8,192 8,388,608 8,589,934,592
in a single die. The Core byte 8 1 1,024 1,048,576 1,073,741,824
2 Duo microarchitecture
provides more execu- Kilobyte 8,192 1,024 1 1,024 1,048,576
tion units and efficient Megabyte 8,388,608 1,048,576 1,024 1 1,024
decoding stages while
increasing processing
Gigabyte 8,589,934,592 1,073,741,824 1,048,576 1,024 1
power and reducing Terabyte 8,796,093,022,208 1,099,511,627,776 1,073,741,824 1,048,576 1,024
power consumption.
The search for data finally ends when the computer locates it. The search
Athlon results in one of three results. It either finds the data, looks for another
AMD’s main micropro-
location to search, or informs you that the requested data is not found on
cessor line developed
to compete with Intel anything this computer has access to.
Pentium CPUs, and was
the first processor to be Front-side Bus
shipped in a 1 giga-
hertz (one billion clock The front-side bus is the devices that carries data between the CPU and
speed) version. Northbridge. The only PCs that you’ll find that still use a form of the aging
front-side bus are Pentium, Celeron, Core 2, i3 and i5, and Atom processors.
With the i3, i5, and Atom processors, Intel moved the FSB onto the chip itself
so it really is closer to the Integrated Memory Controller or IMC style setup
that Intel’s i7 and AMD processors (since the Athlon 64) have been using.
The FSB historically was centrally connected the CPU and all of the system
devices, but as more point-to-point connections have been introduced to
increase system speed, there has been a lesser need for it. In fact, it is now
believed to be a slower technology that can bottleneck today’s CPUs and
systems. A processor will only execute instructions as fast as the FSB can
send and fetch data.
Today, with our newest processors, the front-side bus has been replaced by Clock speed
AMD’s HyperTransport and Intel’s QuickPath Interconnect. The rate at which a
microprocessor executes
The FSB receives data requests from the processor and it answers them by instructions, and is
requesting data from the memory system. In the previous section we talked expressed in megahertz
(MHz) or gigahertz
about cache misses. The Core 2 processors had massive L2 cache reserves to (GHz).
improve the amount of cache hits. The trip to the FSB is slow and the large
amounts of L2 memory helped the processor avoid using the FSB as much as
CPU Multiplier
possible. Measures the ratio of an
internal CPU clock rate
The original Intel Pentium 4 Dual Cores were essentially two Pentium 4 CPUs to the externally sup-
placed on one chip, and the two processors communicated through a front- plied clock. A CPU with
side bus. It was a way for Intel to increase performance a bit while utilizing a 10x multiplier will
the base chip. When Intel went to Core 2 Duo they actually had two cores see 10 internal cycles
for every external clock
on the chip, improving performance even more. The Core 2 Duo chip overall
cycle. Most systems al-
still used a FSB, but the components on the chip were not using a FSB to low the clock multiplier
communicate with each other like they did in the original P4 Dual Core. to be changed in the
BIOS, and by increasing
Similarly, the Core 2 Quad Cores were two dual core CPUs on one chip the clock multiplier the
communicating through a FSB. The i7 was the first "true" quad core Intel CPU clock speed will in-
produced for the consumer because there were four cores on one chip that crease without affecting
didn’t need to go through a FSB to communicate. the clock speed of other
components.
You can see a front-side bus is a convenient way for devices to communicate,
but at the expense of speed. As processors advance, they try to find a way Double pumped
to eliminate extra transmissions lines and interconnects. Every request, In computing, double
pumped refers to a
transmission, and transfer from one point to another takes time.
computer bus transfer
The Front-Side Bus’ Affect on Clock Speed technique that effec-
tively doubles the data
The FSB is part of the equation that determines final clock speed of a transfer rate on both
the rising and fall-
processor. You take the FSB and multiply it by the CPU multiplier value. In
ing edges of the clock
this case, if your FSB was 133 MHz and your CPU has a multiplier of 20, your signal.
final clock speed will be 2.66 GHz.
Most FSB frequencies (on more modern hardware) are multiplied as well. If Quad pumped
Quad pumped (double
you hear the term double pumped it means your 133 MHz FSB is going to data rate) is a com-
show up as 266 MHz. Quad pumped means that your 200 MHz FSB will show munication signaling
up as 800 MHz. More modern numbers are going to be 400 MHz quad pumped technique that transfers
to 1600 MHz. data on both the rising
and falling edges of
In the new i7 series, the processor runs off of a speed variable called BCLK or a clock signal and at
base clock, which is the internal reference speed of the processor now that two intermediate mid-
points.
the FSB is no longer used in the i7. It performs the same function as the FSB
frequency when figuring processor speed.
32-Bit vs. 64-Bit

The 32-bit “maximum RAM barrier” has been the subject of many discussions,
and a motivation for people to switch to 64-bit computing. The idea is
that a 32-bit operating system won’t recognize over 4GB of RAM, but it is
misunderstood by many people. Most people think that because the processor
is a 32-bit machine that the computer cannot see more than 4GB of memory.
This is true, but not for the reasons implied by that statement. In fact, even
the archaic Pentium Pro that launched back in 1995 can address up to 64GB
of RAM.
32-bit
A binary file format term PAE
in computer architecture
where each basic unit of Addressing memory above the 4GB barrier by processors which would
information is defined
on 32 bits, or 4 bytes.
normally be limited to 4GB is accomplished by using a technology called
In Microsoft Windows, Physical Address Extension (PAE). PAE is implemented by using addressing
32 bit defines the way tables that work in a 4-bit range above the standard 32-bits. Most modern
on how the system operating systems support PAE including Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Mac OSX.
accesses groups of mem-
ory, which is in 32-bit PAE changes table structure to allow you to place 64-bit tables inside of
chunks or 4 bytes. a 32-bit aligned boundary. This is done by creating a table of “pointers ”
that are simply locations of different blocks of page memory. These memory
64-bit locations are switched or “paged” when the normal 32-bit boundary is
In computer architec-
reached. 32-bit programs can usually only access 2GB of RAM per program,
ture, 64-bit integers,
memory addresses, or
some can do up to 4GB. When they need more they can use Address
other data units are Windowing Extensions on Windows machines and the mmap function on
those that are at most Unix-like machines to achieve similar results.
64 bits (8 octets)
wide. The new 64-bit PAE is not without its problems though: many drivers become unstable when
Microsoft Windows can they are paged into memory above 3GB. This was a large problem with the
efficiently access larger initial release of Windows XP which had PAE enabled by default.
amounts of random
access memory than the Most 32-bit Windows machines limit the physical address space to 4GB even
previous 32-bit system,
in PAE mode, but this is due to a licensing restriction which we’ll talk about
allowing it to run faster
and handle more ap- next.
plications and programs
simultaneously. Licensing Limits
Even if you turn on PAE, many versions of Windows will not support more
PAE (Physical Address
than 4GB of memory. This was done intentionally by Microsoft to enforce
Extension)
In computing, Physi- product separation. For instance, Windows 7 Home Basic 32-bit version
cal Address Extension only supports 4GB of RAM. The 64-bit version supports 8GB of RAM. 64-
(PAE) is a function that bit Windows 7 Home Premium supports 16GB, Professional, Enterprise, and
allows x86 processors to Ultimate support 192GB.
add a level to the page
hierarchy and handle a This number is still a far cry from the actual amount the 64-bit processors
larger physical memory
can address. A 64-bit processor that is being completely utilized can address
address.
between 16 and 18 exabytes of memory depending on its implementation.
A terabyte is 1000 gigabytes, a petabyte is 1000 terabytes, and an exabyte
is 1000 petabytes; to put this perspective the total digital content of the
world is thought to be in the neighborhood of 500 exabytes, or 500 billion
gigabytes.
Currently, only 40 of these bits are being used which results in a maximum Terabyte
memory address of 256 terabytes. The current maximum memory allowed for Terabyte is a unit of
any version of Windows is 2 TB, and these are your Windows Server editions. measure of computer
storage capacity equal
to one trillion bytes.
RAM
Petabyte
RAM stands for Random Access Memory and is often just referred to as
Petabyte is a unit of
memory. It’s a type of storage that allows data to be accessed in any order, computer memory or
and is separate from Hard Drive storage and the CPU Cache. data storage capacity
equal to 250 bytes or
Memory started out by being soldered to the motherboard but eventually approximately a thou-
moved up to installable chips and then to the removable modules we have sand terabytes.
today.
Exabyte
Larger amounts of RAM often assist in multitasking and running programs Exabyte refers to a mas-
that deal with large amounts of data, like photo or video editing. Many times, sive unit of computer
the performance in computers that tend to run slow, can be fixed by adding data storage, 2 to the
more RAM. 60th power bytes, or
one quintillion bytes.
A PC running Windows XP would do well with at least 1GB of RAM, 2GB being Exabyte uses the unit
recommended. And 2GB should be the minimum with Windows 7, with 3-4GB symbol EB and when
used in byte multiples
being ideal for normal operation like internet browsing, email, and office indicates a power of
suite work. 1,000.
SDRAM
Modern memory pretty much starts around Synchronous
Dynamic Random Access Memory. The large difference
between this memory and the memory that came
before it is that SDRAM runs synchronized to
an internal clock cycle. It’s a bit slower than Fig. 3-10 SDRAM: SDRAM is the generic name for
asynchronous memory, but its benefits allowed it to various kinds of dynamic random access memories
(DRAM) that are synchronized with the clock speed of
interleave commands to multiple banks of RAM and a microprocessor.
for commands to be queued, instead of having to wait
for the memory to be ready to accept commands. As
the technology matured, the bandwidth advantage of SDRAM continued to
grow. SDRAM comes in a 168-pin package with two notches in the module for
mounting orientation.
Timings
The timings of a memory module represent the latency, or delay, in
responding to requests. They are defined in clock cycles. The four
components of timings are CL, tRCD, tRP, and tRAS. They are commonly
written together like this: 9-9-9-24.
The discussion of timings and latencies usually separate your standard
computer user and your advanced user. You have to search hard to find
timing specifications for memory, and it’s often confusing to understand.
But where a user with standard needs will choose memory based solely on
storage and price, an advanced user, aficionado perhaps, will look into the
Timings
timings to determine the fastest memory for his or her money.
Set of clock signals
oscillating between CAS Latency
the low and high state.
These signals are syn- CAS latency, or CL, is the time delay in internal clock cycles that it takes
chronized and determine from when a column access strobe is activated, and when the activated data
the delays in the trans- is available for use. In simpler terms, if you were ordering food for carry
mission of data. out, the amount of time until the food is ready for pickup would be the CL.
Because CAS latency is a time delay, lower CL is better. So when you read
CL (CAS Latency) “low latency,” that’s a good thing.
Stands for Column
Address Strobe latency RAM returns data in words. A word is a group of bits. Modern memory will
and refers to the delay
transmit data in blocks of 64 bits. The first word of memory would come in
between the time a
memory controller
20ns for PC100 and 22.5ns for the PC133. After that, the results start to
instructs the memory get a bit murky, as the fourth word comes in at 50ns for PC100 and 45ns for
module to access the PC133. The eighth word comes in at 90ns for PC100 and 75ns for PC133.
correct column of the
memory matrix to the The initial words transmitted faster with PC100, but PC133 catches up as
time the data from the the fourth word is being delivered because of the superior clock speed. It
array location is avail- allows the PC133 memory to slowly overtake the PC100 as long as the data
able on the module’s
output pins.
is longer than two or three words. This illustrates how faster memory (higher
clock speed measured in Mhz) with higher latency can be faster than slower
memory with low latency.
tRCD
The number of clock
Sometimes the opposite of this can be true. Depending on the settings of
cycles between the
issuing of the active
the memory, slower memory with tighter timings can be faster overall than
command and the read/ higher speed memory.
write command.
tRCD
tRP tRCD stands for Row Address to Column Address Delay, and represents the
The number of clock
time between opening a row of memory and accessing memory columns
cycles required to termi-
nate access to an open
within it.
row of memory and open
access to the next row.
tRP
tRP stands for Row Precharge Time, and it measures the clock cycles
tRAS between issuing a precharge command and opening the next row. The
Defines the minimum
precharge command is what is given after a memory row is read and emptied.
number of clock cycles
needed to access a
Precharge basically means “ready for work”.
certain row of data in
Random Access Memory
tRAS
(RAM), between a bank
tRAS stands for Row Active Time, and is the number of clock cycles between
active command and
issuing the pre-charge a bank active command and the arrival of the next precharge command. This
command. is how long it takes to refresh a row internally.
DDR SDRAM
When SDRAM started to reach its maximum performance, the next version of the memory started
a trend that is continued today. By changing the way the memory is accessed, they managed to
nearly double the bandwidth of the module at the same clock speed as SDRAM. They did this by
double pumping the data access on the clock signal. The previous SDRAM transferred data on
the rising edge of the clock signal only. Double Data Rate memory managed to access data on
the rise and the fall of the clock signal, which allowed for double the data access while allowing
manufacturers to keep clock speeds down.
Clock speed was the significant technological barrier
keeping SDRAM from becoming higher performance.
Backing away from this barrier allowed progress to
continue as technology matured in many other areas.
DDR SDRAM uses significantly less power than SDRAM
and runs in a voltage range of 2.3 to 2.6 volts,
compared to 3.3 volts for SDRAM. Switching to more Fig. 3-11 DDR SDRAM: A clocking technique that
accesses per clock and less clocks, in DDR SDRAM, utilizes clock signals to increase the transfer speed
led to an increase in latency but a larger increase in of data at twice the speed of regular SDRAM chips by
using both the rising and falling edges of the clock
bandwidth. signal.
DDR2 SDRAM
DDR2 is the next generation of SDRAM after DDR. It
follows suit by doubling the number of data accesses
per clock cycle from two to four. It also almost doubles
the latency of the previous memory module while
raising the bandwidth significantly. DDR2 includes a
prefecth buffer to load the next four bits to keep the
command unit fed; any idle time on this unit ends up
with a loss in bandwidth. Fig. 3-12 DDR2 SDRAM: A high-performance main
memory that enables higher clock and data rate
It also includes an important improvement called operations along with reduction in power consump-
tion in a smaller package, commonly used in personal
on-die termination that makes deliberate stops for computers and various digital electronics today.
electrical signals and helps maintain a much cleaner
electrical signal. This makes DDR2 capable of much
higher clock speeds than DDR1. Power usage is
lower than DDR1 and operates between 1.8 volts
and 2.2 volts. The packages are 240 pins wide and
have an offset notch towards the middle to facilitate
orientation in the memory slot.
DDR3 SDRAM
DDR3 is the upgrade from DDR2 memory. It expands Fig. 3-13 DDR3 SDRAM: A random access memory
technology that is being used for high speed storage
the processes per clock to eight. Like its predecessors, of the working data of a computer or other digital
it also raises the bandwidth and latency. DDR3 electronic device using lower power consumption and
doubles the prefetch buffer to eight bits. The electrical heat dissipation.
stability is increased and the voltage is lower than DDR2. DDR3 modules run between 1.3 and 1.6
volts and have 240 pins like DDR2 modules, but the notch is in a different location. DDR2 and
DDR3 memory will not fit in the same slots on a motherboard.
DDR4 SDRAM
DDR4 is set to be the upgrade to DDR3 and has a predicted to be available sometime between 2012
and 2015. It will double the prefetch buffer to 16 and run voltages around the 1.2 volts or less.
The mounting system will be very different as it will either be one stick of memory per channel
or will use a technique called Through the Silicon Via or TSV. This means that the memory will be
stacked on top of one another and connected with electrical pathways running vertically through
the model. Other methods could possibly be developed between then and now, but at the time of
writing this guide these are the two methods being considered.
DDR-400 and PC-3200 are the Same Thing?

Memory tends to have confusing speed ratings. Some manufacturers use one standard, while others
use a different one. Some even use both. You will either see “DDR” with some numbers after it or
“PC” with some numbers after it. The standards are related and it just takes a bit of simple math to
translate one to the other.
DDR-400 and PC-3200 refer to the same memory module. The former uses the memory bus clock
rate in Mhz to identify it, while the latter uses the peak transfer rate in MB/s. The aforementioned
module has a clock rate of 200Mhz and a peak transfer rate of 3200MB/s.
Since DDR-400 is double data rate, you multiple the clock rate of 200Mhz by 2, that’s why it is
called DDR-400.
To get to PC-3200 from DDR-400 you multiple 400 by 64 because that is the number of bits that
are transferred at a time. Then you do the bits to byte calculation. There are 8 bits in a byte so you
take (400 x 64) / 8, which gives you 3200.
In summary, the easy way to get to DDR to PC is to multiply or divide the number by 8.
It gets a little more confusing when dealing with DDR2 and DDR3 modules, because they each have
double the data rate of the previous standard. Remember, DDR2 performs 4 operations per clock
cycle and DDR3 performs 8. If you had DDR2-400, you have a clock rate of 100MHz. DDR2-400 is
PC2-3200. DDR3-1600 is PC3-12800 with a clock rate of 200Mhz.
Dual and Triple Channel

Dual channel is a method of utilizing memory in groups to provide increased bandwidth at minimal
costs. Essentially, two memory slots with a module in each of them work together to become
“dual channel.” Normal memory channels are 64 bits wide. In a single channel configuration,
only one of these channels can be used at a time. Original implementations of dual channel
technology run these channels together as a single 128-bit channel. There were problems with
this implementation, however, so the process was changed to allow the 64-bit channels to run
independently at the same time.
This facilitates multithreading as separate threads can use the less-utilized channel. Triple channel
works much in the same way: Three separately useable 64-bit channels give Dual Channel
a flexible 192-bit memory interface that responds well to threads. When A development in moth-
setting up a dual channel system, you need to place the memory in specific erboard and chipset
design that allows the
slots, either 1-2 and 3-4 or 1-3 and 2-4. These slots are usually color coded increase in bandwidth
or named in banks. Triple channel is similar, but you need three sticks of transfer when using two
memory and a supported motherboard. The x58 socket 1366 motherboards or more memory mod-
are the only consumer boards to currently support this technology. The ules in separate transfer
channels.
memory will be installed as 1-2-3 and 4-5-6.
ECC Multithreading
The ability of an operat-
Error Correction and Control RAM is used in servers where integrity of ing system to create a
data is a much higher priority than in the consumer space. This memory new thread of execu-
tion within an existing
contains an extra chip that contains parity data to ensure no outside
program in a way that
corruption has occurred in the memory. ECC RAM uses more power and is not all threads can run
compatible with all motherboards. ECC is also usually slower than its non simultaneously.
ECC counterparts due to the buffering that the error correction requires to
function. Triple Channel
A type of channel archi-
HARD DRIVES tecture technology that
theoretically increases
Hard drives are where we save all of our user data for the computer. The data throughput speeds,
leading to faster system
operating system is stored here as well as your pictures, videos, music,
performance.
documents, programs, etc.
Mechanical Hard Drives ECC

ECC RAM is a type of
Most consumers have mechanical hard drives in their computer. A mechanical memory that includes
special circuitry to
hard disk has a group of magnetic disks called platters rotating within its
validate the data being
case. Each platter has a head with a read/write head floating over. Platters sent. ECC RAM tests the
rotate as the head moves across the platter to read or write data. Usually, accuracy of data as it
platters are made of glass, ceramic, or aluminum alloy, and then are coated passes in and out of
with a magnetic material. memory.
RPM
In a mechanical hard drive the speed the platters
rotate at is their revolutions per minute (RPM). The
standard RPM ratings are currently 5400 and 7200 with
4200, 5900, and 10,000 being less common.
Some drives that are listed as energy saving units
dynamically change their RPM with the given workload
to try to save power.
Fig. 3-14 Hard Drive: A non-removable, magnetic
Seek Time data storage device that stores all the data where
files and folders are physically located. It consists of
Seek time is an average of how long it takes the read/ non-volatile, random access memory.
write head to go from one point to another on the disk.
Seek time is measured in milliseconds.

Mechanical Hard Drive
Storage devices that
Rotational Delay
have moving or me-
chanical parts. The term Rotational delay is the average time required for the area of the disk that is
mainly refers to hard
disk drives, which have
to be accessed to rotate into the correct position to be accessed. On a drive
rotating platters and that is rotating at 7200 revolutions per minute, the rotational delay is about
read/write heads. 8ms (60/7200) x 1000 milliseconds. A 5400 RPM drive has a rotational delay
of about 11ms, and a 10,000 RPM drive has a delay of roughly 6ms.
RPM
Revolution per minute Transfer Rate
is a unit of frequency
that is used to measure
Transfer rate is the speed in which the data flows from the hard drive to
rotational speed. It is the computer. Transfer rates have evolved from PIO mode, which supported
measured by the number 3.3MB/s up to 16.7MB/s to UltraDMA, which supported speeds from 16.7 to
of full rotations in a 133MB/s. After this limit was reached, the interface and cable was switched
fixed axis completed in
to Serial ATA instead of Parallel ATA .
sixty seconds.
Originally, the transfer cables were serial and switched to parallel cables
Seek Time because individual speeds per cable weren’t able to achieve high enough
The average time it performance. After a while, parallel cable speeds hit a barrier because there
takes for a program
was a problem with crosstalk between the parallel wires themselves. During
or device to move the
read/write from its this time serial technology improved and was capable of handling much
current location to a higher transfer rates. The industry moved from using PATA ribbon cables to a
particular track on a smaller SATA cable. SATA connections have grown from 150MB/s to 500MB/s
disk. with the newest release of SATA III.
Rotational Delay Density

The time required for
rotating storage devices Newer drives with slower rotational speeds may be faster than older drives
such as a disk or other with higher rotational speeds. This is due to the increase in hard drive
random access stor- density. It essentially refers to how much data each platter can hold. A disk
age device to reach drive divides its total capacity among the platters it contains; therefore, if
its position where the
you had a hard drive containing five platters at 200GB each, you would have
read/write head can
be positioned over the a 1TB drive.
desired data.
More platters need larger motors for spinning the disk and require the drive
to be taller, which tends to drive up costs and demand more electricity.
Transfer Rate
This can also cause issues with size compatibility when it comes to smaller
The amount of digital
data transferred from enclosures. The denser a platter, the more it rotates under the read/write
one location to another heads, and the less the arm and head should have to move to access more
in a given time which is data. Denser platters lower seek times and speed up transfer rates.
usually measured in bits
per second. For a hard disk drive to have fewer platters it needs to have a denser platter
structure. Some drives can even be comprised of a single platter. But at some
Density point, manufacturers hit a limit on platter density, and in order to increase
How tightly information the storage of the drive, they just add more platters.
is packed together on a
storage medium (tape
or disk).
Solid State Drives

Solid state drives are a relatively new technology using non-volatile flash
memory to store data. They are similar to high-performance versions of flash
drives that people use for backing up data. They come in two versions called Solid State Drive
A high-performance,
SLC or Single Level Chip and MLC or Multi Layer Chip.
all-electronic plug-and-
SLC is faster, the cells last longer, and the cells themselves draw less power. play storage device that
stores persistent data
SLC chips store single bits on each layer. In an MLC design, multiple bits are on solid-state flash
stored per layer. They draw more power, are slower, and tend to need more memory and is used as
error correction hardware. They are cheaper than SLC chips, however. an alternative to a hard
disk drive.
TRIM, Garbage Collection, and Sandforce
When solid state drives first came out, there were issues with rewriting Single Level Chip
A type of NAND flash
“dirty” cells. A dirty cell means it has had data written on it before. Even if memory that works by
was deleted, it still sits there until the cell is rewritten. storing one bit in each
cell and offers lower-
The initial write speed of a memory cell was extremely fast, but in order to power consumption and
write new data to a cell, the drive had to copy all the data in the cell to faster transfer speeds.
cache, then combine the new and “deleted” data and rewrite the cell. This
led to extreme performance degradation. Once speed slowed down enough, Multi Level Chip
the only way to fix it was to do a complete format of the drive and start over. A type of NAND flash
This of course was only a temporary fix and a hassle. memory that stores
more bits per cell than
TRIM is a technology introduced to handle this problem. It tells the SSD SLC. It is cheaper to
which memory cells are no longer needed and so that they can be cleared produce but more likely
to have errors due to
ahead of time so there are fresh cells available for writing. the complexity of the
manufacturing process.
TRIM does have a few drawbacks, however. These include things like write
amplification, which is the addition of write cycles in addition to the
TRIM
apparent cycles. In this case, the trim command says that the SSD can erase
A command that allows
a block of memory. The memory is then read into the cache on the drive; it the drive controller to
is altered to all 0’s, and then written back onto the block. Since the lifespan erase unused blocks of
of an SSD is determined by the number of write cycles, this effectively lowers memory. This command
the lifespan of the drive. You are essentially using write cycles to erase a is used to preserve the
drive performance.
block because it’s not just “deleting” data, it’s filling the block with zeros.
TRIM does not work in a RAID volume and it also may impact some security Garbage Collection
encryption software making it vulnerable to cracking. A process to manage the
allocation and release of
Garbage Collection is a generic term for the function that TRIM performs. memory for application.
Then are other techniques besides TRIM. Some newer drives run very Its purpose is to reorga-
nize or recover system
aggressive garbage collection algorithms and do this on their own terms.
resources to prevent
TRIM needs to be implemented in the host operating system to run properly, failure due to resource
but some of the new garbage collection techniques are implemented without starvation.
any of the operating systems involvement. This helps keep the drive running
in top form and makes the performance very reliable. TRIM on the other hand
can get overloaded if the drive is near full or is under heavy loads.
SandForce is a type of SSD controller that was developed as the TRIM

commands were being standardized. TRIM doesn’t do much for a Sandforce
controller because of how it functions. The Sandforce compresses any data it
can on the fly to save room on the drive. Sandforce, for the most part, is not
SandForce
affected by dirty write slowdowns as it handles its own garbage collection.
A Saratoga, California-
The big thing about this controller is that it allows less expensive MLC chips
based private American
Fabless Semiconductor to be used in enterprise environments reliably. Before this, only SLC chips
Company that designs were being used in servers. It did this by implementing a technology called
and manufactures SSD Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements (RAISE). It is essentially
processors for solid- RAID 5 on a chip that improves disk failure rates.
state drives.
Wear Leveling
RAISE
A label for a RAID-like SSDs and flash drives both utilize a technique designed to extend the
protection scheme at lifespan of their hardware. Wear leveling spreads the writes evenly over all
chip level that protects of the cells in a flash memory device. It works relatively well in practice and
against failure of the extends the life of the unit.
entire sector, page or
block. If the unit is running low on free space (less than 20% of the drive available
as an example), the wear leveling doesn’t work very efficiently and tends to
Wear Leveling wear the 20% free space of the drive out quite quickly. For this reason, most
A preservation tech- modern SSDs do not make the entirety of its storage available for writing,
nique to prolong the
service life of erasable
and reserve between 5% and 15% for wear leveling operations and for early
computer storage media failure compensation.
such as flash memory
and USB flash drives. Error Correction
Almost all modern hard drives have a method to detect errors and attempt
RAID
RAID stands for Redun-
their repair. This usually involves writing ECC or Error Correcting Code files to
dant Array of Indepen- the beginning or ending of a file or block that contains information about
dent Disks, a method of what should be included in that block.
storing data in different
places on multiple hard RAID
disks. There are at least
nine types of RAID and Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology is intended mostly
one non-redundant array for server environments, but many home users have started using it as well.
type.
RAID comes in four flavors for the average user, with many more types being
available for enterprise use. They all have one thing in common; they are
Striping designed to enhance aspects of the hard disk drive by combining multiple
A method of storing
data on multiple com-
drives.
puter storage devices
RAID 0
by spreading data to
improve system perfor-
This technique is known as striping. You install two hard drives in the RAID
mance.
volume and the RAID controller treats them like a single hard drive and
interleaves or “stripes” data across them. Each drive has exactly half the
data.
A quality RAID controller will almost double your read and write speeds. This
technique can be expanded to more drives, but generally most average users Mirroring
of RAID 0 use two drives. The downside to using this technique is that you An arrangement of hard
have now increased your likelihood of failure. If one drive goes down your disks that creates an
exact copy of a set of
whole system is down with no way to rebuild it. If you are running RAID 0 data on two drives.
you need to have a good backup.
RAID 1 RAID 5
RAID 5 (Speed and Fault
This technique is called mirroring. You install two or more drives and set Tolerance) is one of the
most popular implemen-
them up as a mirrored RAID volume. Data is duplicated on two or more hard
tations of RAID that
drives. provides data striping at
the byte level as well as
If one of the drives fails, the other will still work as a single drive until the stripe error correction
failed drive is replaced with a new one. RAID 1 doesn’t have the performance information.
of RAID 0, but it offers fault tolerance.
RAID 10
Contrary to popular belief, data on drives in a RAID 1 configuration can still
RAID 10 is RAID 1 +
be corrupted and be infected by viruses. 0 (A Stripe of Mirrors)
or mirrored sets in a
RAID 5 striped set that provides
fault tolerance and
RAID 5 is a technique that uses parity bits and striping to achieve higher
improved performance
levels of performance with a higher degree of safety. RAID 5 mirrors data but increases system
and embeds parity files across the array. Parity is a technique of checking complexity.
whether or not data has been lost or written over. Each disk in the
configuration contains its own data as well as the parity information for a
block of another disk.
RAID 5 will operate at high speeds and is still available as long as more than
one disk does not fail at the same time. This being said, there is no limit to
the number of disks to use in a RAID 5, but the likelihood of double failure
increases with the more disks that are used. Only enthusiast chipsets tend to
have RAID 5 support.
RAID 10
RAID 10 is not a 10, it is actually RAID 1 + RAID 0.
This technique combines four or more drives where half
of them are striped, and the other half are copies of
the stripes. This effectively mirrors all striped drives to
provide performance and availability.
ROM DRIVES
ROM Drives today typically refer to optical disc drives
Fig. 3-15 ROM Drive: A non-volatile type of memory
or ODDs. Depending on the ROM drive, they are that can only be read as opposed to Random Access
capable of reading and writing CDs, DVDs, and blu-rays, Memory (RAM) which can both be read and written.
depending. ROM retains all stored information even when power
is turned off.
— CHAPTER 1: Computer Repair —
CD, DVD, Blu-ray Readers

Disk readers read data off of discs by shining a laser on the disc and then
observing the result. You can’t tell by looking at a disc with the naked
Disc Reader
External or internal eye, but it actually has indentations in the surface called pits, and normal
devices used to read elevation surfaces called lands. When the laser goes over a pit, the depth of
digitized program on the pit is such that it refracts the light and changes how it is detected. This
disks. varying amount of refraction is then translated into binary data; ones and
zeros. CD-ROM uses a 780nm laser that is near-infrared. DVD uses a 650nm
Optical Disc Writer red laser. Blu-ray uses a 405nm blue/violet laser. The shorter wavelength
A drive that uses laser
“blue” laser allows for more data storage per layer.
to write data onto opti-
cal discs. Optical disc
writers also have the
CD, DVD, Blu-ray Burners
ability to read data
Optical disc writers use a laser to burn ink against a metal reflective
from optical discs, and
are called burners or layer. These burns create structures similar to the lands and pits in pressed,
writers. production discs. The burned discs are not as durable as the professionally
made pressed discs as they tend to be more open to moisture and other
CD-ROM contaminants. Burned discs that are stored in dry areas away from light
Compact Disc-Read Only and in well ventilated cases can last many years, but ones exposed to
Memory, an optical stor- contaminants and sunlight can degrade as early as two years.
age media capable of
storing large amounts of There are different types of burnable media formats. DVD-RAM was created
data. CD-ROMs contains in 1996 and today it’s mainly used for data backup and archival. Most
data that can be ac-
cessed using a CD-ROM
consumers use DVD-R and DVD+R in their burners. They also have rewritable
player on a computer. versions, labeled as DVD-RW and DVD+RW, which allow the media to be
rewritten about one thousands times.
DVD
Of the two, DVD-R was the first to come out and it was developed by Pioneer.
a digital medium optical
disc technology with a
About 5 years later DVD+R was developed by a group of manufacturers. It
4.7 gigabyte storage ca- was their goal to create some new technologies that allowed the burning of
pacity made from poly- DVD+R media to be more accurate and error-free than DVD-R media, although
carbonate substrates most consumers would never notice a difference.
with reflective metalized
layer and protective The one difference consumers might notice is the discs’ ability to playback
lacquer coating. in a DVD player. Some of your older and cheaper DVD players, probably older
than 2004, may play DVD-R but not DVD+R. This is less of an issue today
Blu-ray since a lot of people have newer DVD or blu-ray players. And at this point,
The new optical storage
pretty much every DVD player will play DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and
format that has a stor-
age capacity more than DVD-RAM.
five times that of tra-
ditional DVDs. Blu-ray Optical Discs as a Storage Medium
was developed to allow
recording, rewriting and CD-ROM discs hold up to 700MB in their standard forms.
playback of high-defini-
tion (HD) video. DVD discs hold 4.7GB on a single layer. A double-sided single layer disc it
will hold 9.4GB of data. Dual layer discs hold between 8.5 and 8.7GB.
Blu-ray is available in single layer and dual layer discs. They hold 25GB and
50GB, respectively. This is why the quality of blu-ray movies is so impressive.

High definition video has a larger file size than standard definition. The
larger storage space in blu-ray discs allow for the video to maintain more of
its original quality.
VIDEO CARDS
Graphics cards (or video cards as they have become
known) allow your computer to display the shapes,
textures, and colors many of us take for granted today.
It wasn’t all that long ago that you were lucky to have
more than four colors and more than 240 lines in
either direction. These days, video cards present a few
other functions than just displaying the screen.
Additional Features
Video cards come with more than just the ability Fig. 3-16 Video Card: An expansion card plugged
into a computer that processes visual graphics and
to show your display. Many of these functions are sends the information to the computer’s monitor or
provided by the video driver. The driver leverages projector.
the parallel computing power of the GPU (Graphics
Processing Unit) to perform a multitude of functions,
including but not limited to video encoding, parallel GPU
processing, dvd and blu-ray playback, and post processing. Graphics Processing
Unit, is used for com-
Video Acceleration puting 2D or 3D graphic
display functions.
Many video formats are encoded (or compressed) to save space or to encrypt Display adapters contain
one or more GPUs for
the video so that it is harder to steal or copy. This requires the video to
fast graphics rendering
be “decoded” during playback. The bit rate and the amount of compression and for realistic games
performed on the video determins how heavy the CPU load will be decoding and video.
it during playback.
Bit Rate
Bit rate is the amount of bits that are processed per frame of video. The
Measured in bits per
ability to decode video has transferred from the CPU to the video card’s GPU. second, refers to the
Computers that may have had trouble playing certain video seamlessly in the number of bits that
past, are able to play them back smoothly and with much better quality than pass a given point on
before. a network in a given
‎amount of time. ‎Also
This process started with MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and moved into codecs VC-1 refers to video and
audio quality.
and H.264 within a few years. A codec is a name for an encoder/decoder.
It is the algorithm used to encode and then reverse the process on a piece of
data. Codec
Any technology, whether
With the release of Adobe Flash 10.1 and compatible driver software, video software or hardware,
used for compressing
cards now have the ability to decode HD videos being served by websites.
and decompressing data.
complexity.
Some video cards have the ability to decode blu-ray videos. These video files
usually have extremely high bit rates and can bring most computers to their
knees.
Without decoding, even the most powerful computers have trouble playing
back these videos and keeping the audio files in sync. Some video cards
even have the ability to accelerate multiple streams of video on the same
screen.
Connections and Audio

Video card connections have evolved over the years. VGA (Video Graphics
Array) connectors were used for quite a long time. They can be found on
desktops, laptops, and some HDTVs. This 15-pin connector caries analog
video signals.
DVI (Digital Visual Interface) was designed to replace VGA and to carry
Bitstreaming uncompressed digital video data. When LCD monitors started using DVI
The process of transfer- connections, video cards started having one DVI and one VGA port. This
ring an entire encoded way they were flexible to support a VGA or DVI monitor. Today, many
audio stream to another
monitors and video cards have a VGA and a DVI connection, to ensure their
‎device, usually an A/V
receiver, which then de- compatibility with each other. A video card that has two ports can support
codes the audio stream multiple monitors. Even if one of the ports is VGA and the other is DVI, they
into individual, separate can still be used for dual monitor support.
channels.
Your high-performance video cards will often have two DVI ports, and some
GPGPU come with an HDMI port and a DisplayPort.
General Purpose
Computing on Graph- HDMI and DisplayPort have the ability to transmit audio along with video.
ics Processing Units, is Nvidia originally did this by connecting a pass-through cable from the
the technique of using onboard audio or sound card to the video card for transmission to the HDTV
Graphic Processing Units or monitor.
(GPUs), primarily used
for computer graphics, Eventually their newer cards had the audio devices on the video card to
to perform computa-
process and send the audio signal over the connection on their own. ATI
tions of general applica-
tions usually handled by also mounts audio technology on their cards.
the CPU.
Similar to the required decoding when playing back video, some high quality
audio streams require their own decoding to be properly used. Some of the
newer cards’ built-in audio devices support a technique called bitstreaming,
which is used to transmit uncompressed audio from the card to the receiver.
GPGPU
General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) is a
technique for using a GPU to perform difficult calculations that a CPU would
normally handle. Typically the GPU was used to speed up the processing
of image data and matching to the pixels on your screen. The GPU was
extremely limited and only able to accelerate parts of the rendering process.
Over the years, however, it has grown in strength and ability. GPUs started
adding multiple cores and handling calculations in parallel.
The GPGPU processing abilities work on matrix mathematics, which is

essentially a two-or-three dimensional grid that represents the data being
worked on. These processors are highly adept at performing operations on
multiple similar objects at the same time. They have allowed programmers
to generate even more realistic effects.
CUDA
CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing architecture. It enables dramatic CUDA
increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of the GPU. Compute Unified Device
Architecture, is the
CUDA has been around since and has since gone through many iterations and computing engine
software developers are finding a wide range of uses for it. CUDA is utilized architecture that pow-
by video editing programs, computational biology and chemistry, CT image ers NVIDIA graphics
processing units (GPUs).
reconstruction, seismic analysis, and more. Depending on how well suited
CUDA provides software
the application is to parallel processing, the improvement can be between developers access to the
2x and 20x increase over CPU-only speeds. Microsoft Visual Studio also now virtual instruction set
supports CUDA. and memory of parallel
computational elements
Stream in CUDA GPUs.
Stream is AMD’s implementation of GPGPU for their ATI graphics cards. It

Stream
isn’t as well supported as NVIDIA’s CUDA, but it works well when employed. A technique used to
Part of the reason for the slow adoption has been the constant switching of transmit or transfer data
back-ends as they keep reconfiguring the project. ATI has its video encoding in real time, especially
program built into Avivo that can take advantage of Stream. Adobe CS4 and over the Internet.
Folding@Home can use Stream to accelerate their computing as well.
OpenCL
OpenCL A framework for writing
programs and gives any
The Open Computing Language framework is designed to let you write application access to
programs that take advantage of the parallel processing functions of any card the graphics processing
that is certified to work with it. It is similar to OpenGL and OpenAL, and is unit for non-graphical
computer systems.
in fact managed by the Kronos Group: the same organization that manages
those two standards. Apple originally developed this cross-platform standard
and has since submitted it to Kronos to manage. It’s free to use. DirectCompute
A general-purpose
DirectComputer computing application
programming interface
DirectCompute is a function of DirectX 11 that exposes the processing power on graphics processing
units that runs on both
of the video card to programs through an easy-to-use API in Windows. It
Microsoft Windows Vista
is still in its infancy but the technology shows a lot of promise. AMD’s new and Windows 7.
Morphological Anti Aliasing (MLAA) uses DirectCompute to apply itself to
images and video.
Memory
There seems to be a cloud of confusion whenever video card memory is talked
about. Video card memory is used to hold information temporarily. This
means that the memory is more like the kind you find in system RAM than
the kind you find in flash drives.

A certain amount of memory is required to hold the values that display the
current screen. Another amount of memory is required to hold often-used
objects and textures. The more of these objects that can remain in fast
video memory, the better the card tends to perform. If the card needs to
hold more objects than it can store in its memory, it places them in system
RAM, which is slower than the video memory. Coincidentally, if the system
RAM runs low, the data is paged to the hard disk, which is even slower. If
this happened while playing a video game, it would most likely render it
unplayable.
Detrimental Factors
There are many things that can degrade the performance of your video card
even though you may have enough memory to store all of the textures
being used. When comparing cards, you need to make an apples to apples
comparison. This is true for most things in the computer world. You
Video Card Memory shouldn’t compare dissimilar products, except by how they perform in a
RAM installed on a video common exercise.
adapter used for the
processing and display- Benchmarks show the results of different hardware models performing the
ing of images on the same task. They allow you to compare models against each other, and
computer’s screen. determine what they’ll do in a real world scenario. The data presented in
this section has been confirmed by benchmark results over the years and the
Memory Bottleneck generalizations made are based in these facts.
A state of sustained
hard page faults, where Memory Size and Speed
the system is having
difficulties locating The GPU needs to have data to work on. The data is brought in and if the
data that an application texture is loaded too slowly, the GPU may spend work cycles waiting on data
needs.
to be loaded. This is called a memory bottleneck. A bottleneck almost always
results in a loss of performance. Memory bottlenecks can happen for two
reasons:
First, remember that if there is not enough memory on the card to store all
of the textures needed it stores textures in system memory. If there isn’t
enough system memory then it stores it on the hard drive. The farther back
the texture is from the video card, the longer it takes to get back to it when
it needs that texture. If you are out of system memory many other things
are being paged and cached and moved around as well. The texture might
have to wait to get transferred back to system memory depending on its
priority aside from the normal wait time required to get back.
Second, a bottleneck can be caused by memory speed. All textures start
out as files on a hard drive. When they are needed they are loaded from the
drive to the memory and then to the card. When they are loaded they travel
through various bus interconnections. The PCI bus has a maximum transfer
rate of 33MB/s. This means that any video card connected to the PCI bus
has an automatic bottleneck of 33MB/s. This is the maximum speed that the
texture from the system memory can flow into the video card memory. It will
never go any faster on this connection.
PCI Express and AGP tried to fix this problem. Not only do they have transfer
speeds in an entirely different class from PCI, but they are usually connected
directly to the system memory and use a technology called Direct Memory
Access (DMA) to speed up this process. The only time this is not true is
when you have an AGP port that is connected to the PCI bus (as some of the
cheap motherboards did when PCI Express first came out).
If you see a motherboard with a couple of PCI Express x16 slots, and you
find the wording “x16, x8x8, and x8x8x4” or something similar, it’s talking
about the division of bandwidth and transfer speeds between the slots. The Memory Bus
x4 at the end is low because it runs through the Southbridge to get to The connection path
the Northbridge, instead of directly connecting to it. The Northbridge is used to transfer memory
connected to the memory and the processor. In this scenario, even though addresses and data to
and from the system
the card is in a x16 slot, the maximum amount of data it can push through is
RAM. It is made up of
limited to x4 speeds. two parts: the data bus
and the address bus.
If the memory is too slow to load the textures over the connections in a
timely manner, the GPU may be starved, bottlenecking by the lack of these
Shader
textures. The connection may also bottleneck the video memory in cases of A computer program
slower connections. Cards with a gigabyte or slower memory will never have or set of algorithms
the speed necessary to utilize all of that memory space. Even if the card executed on a special
managed to get all of the textures loaded into memory, the slow memory environment that deter-
could not switch the textures between cache and working memory fast mines how 3D surface
properties of objects are
enough to make a difference and would bottleneck the GPU anyway. Smaller rendered, and how light
amounts of fast memory will run circles around larger amounts of slower interacts with the object
memory. using a 3D computer
program. Also refers to
Memory Bus small parallel process-
ing elements in a video
The memory bus has a direct impact on memory transfer speeds. Provided card which perform the
that every other part can handle the increased transmission rate, a 256-bit previously mentioned
bus has twice the throughput as a 128-bit bus, assuming the memory speeds calculations.
are the same.
Shaders
Shaders are software instructions that calculate rendering effects like depth,
geometric detail, skin tone, natural effects, metals, color of pixels and
much more. OpenGL and Direct3D have their own libraries of shaders that
programmers can utilize when creating games.
Eyefinity and 3D Sound

AMD and NVIDIA have released similar but not identical technologies to
achieve a more immersive gaming experience. Eyefinity is AMD/ATI’s
technology that supports between two and six monitors per video card and
using them as a single display. Adding more cards in crossfire allows you to
connect even more monitors to this single display. Demos of 24 monitors
have been shown publicly.
Expansion Card 3D Surround is NVIDIA’s technology for adding multiple monitors to a single
A printed circuit board display. This version tops out at three monitors and requires SLI to work
that can be installed in
properly, but supports 3D gaming on optimized 120Hz displays. When
a computer to provide
the system with addi- thinking about which one to use, it’s really a question more about what
tional functionalities or your machine will support and how you’ll implement it. Your motherboard
capabilities. determines this for you.
EXPANSION DEVICES
Aside from video and memory upgrades, there are many more things that
can be added to your computer to add function. Expansion cards typically
include sound cards , Firewire cards, wireless cards, and TV tuners.
Sound Cards
PC sound has come a long way from the simple beeps
that rang through the integrated peizo speaker on
earlier motherboards to powerful and relatively high-
quality integrated systems that are now in use. The
main difference in sound cards is the quality of their
signals. Just like any sound system, it is only as good
as its worst component—so if you have expensive
speakers, rather than using basic onboard audio, you
almost owe it to yourself to get a nice sound card.
Fig. 3-17 Sound Card: A computer expansion board
Aside from the clarity of the signal and the ranges in
that enables the computer to manipulate the input
and output of audio signals to and from a computer which the card responds, they differ in their ability
under control of computer programs. to drive a pair of headphones. Some of the higher-
end audio cards contain enough power to shred your
typical off-the-shelf headphones. These audio cards are instead meant for
high quality gaming and audio enthusiast headphones, which are able to
handle and even thrive on clear high energy signals.
High-end sound cards might also have replaceable amplifier components.
This allows enthusiasts to trade them out for their personal favorites as each
type can sound slightly different. The other feature of the card is its ability
to handle multiple channel sound. 7.1 surround sound on a computer may
sound ridiculous, but when you are using it to feed your amplifier in your
home theater PC it becomes slightly more relevant.
Lastly, the software that comes with the sound card alter audio. For instance,
EAX, implemented by CreativeLabs, is a technique for rendering more realistic
sounds. Games and programs must be designed to use EAS in order to take
advantage of it.
Network Cards
Connecting to a network is more important than ever with modern computers.
Network cards are usually integrated into the motherboard and some high-
end boards even integrate wireless connectivity. If you need to add a
wireless card, you have a variety of choices: you can use a USB port, a PCI
slot, a PCI-Express x1 slot, or an access point connected to your network
cable via the normal network port. The three reasons you buy a new network
card are:
1. You didn’t have one
2. Your old one died
3. You need a faster one Network Card
A piece of hardware or
It makes sense to buy a network card if you didn’t have one yet or your old expansion card that
allows the computer to
one died, but there are also reasons you might need a faster one. With the connect to a network.
advent of streaming HD video or music over a network sometimes a 10/100 Examples of network
network card just won’t cut it anymore. cards are Ethernet cards,
wireless network cards
Remember that a network card and see 10/100/1000/54/150/300 = those and Token Ring network
ratings are all in megaBITS , not megaBYTES . This means you can calculate cards.
the maximum bandwidth by dividing those numbers by eight. An old 100Mb
network card will max out at about 12.5MB/s transfer rate. Overhead on Megabit
the cable reduces it to about 10-11MB/s. This is fast enough for standard One million bits, and is
a unit of measure for
definition video and music but when you are tripling and quadrupling the
data transfer rates.
size of your files or moving photo collections taken with a 10 Megapixel
camera, you most likely will want something a bit faster. Gigabit networks
Megabyte
max out around 125MB/s. That is enough to pretty much max out the
A megabyte is a unit
transfer rates from the hard drive to the other computer. It also means these of data transfer rate
transfers can complete without bothering anyone else on the network. equivalent to one mil-
lion bytes.
With wireless-N maxing out at 300Mb/s for standard home users and
600Mb/s for enterprise level deployments, it would be thought that there
should be no bandwidth issues. However, cheaper routers and wireless cards
have issues handling the maximum speed when there are multiple computers
sending and receiving data.
KEYBOARDS AND MICE

Input devices are often overlooked, but they are essential to the enjoyment
of your computer. Investing in a high-quality mouse and keyboard can
definitely be worth it. Mice that click easier and move smoothly can
help reduce the impact and fatigue of using the device. If your hand-eye
coordination is good, you can even run the mouse on higher sensitivity and
move your arm less while still getting the same result. This can also make
the mouse more comfortable to use.

High-end keyboards will have a higher polling rate which means they check
for key presses more often. If you type extremely fast and you are having
trouble with keys not registering you may be outrunning your keyboard and
an upgrade may put an end to your frustration. The keys themselves may
also have an improved tactile feel and response. Smoother operation keeps
the impact on your fingers down and may result in less joint pain later.
Macro keys allow you to record functions to specific keys on the keyboard.
This is generally seen as a feature for gamers, but can have more benefits as
the keys can be made to launch programs. Some keyboards also come with
LCD screens which can be used to display various things like email status or
news feeds. They can also be used to monitor temperatures and fan speeds
on the computer.
MICROPHONES AND WEBCAMS

Monitor
Electronic devices used A quality webcam and microphone can make video chatting or conferencing
to display the programs a good experience.
on a computer for data
processing. There are Voice control and dictation also workbetter when the microphone is high
two main types of moni- quality. If you use Skype and Google Voice to make phone calls over your
tors: CRTs and LCDs.
computer, it can be worth getting a better microphone. Since most of these
technologies support video chat, a nice webcam can transmit a high quality
Pixel Pitch video feed, rather than a small, fuzzy, image that skips frames.
Also known as dot pitch
(phosphor pitch). It
is a measurement that MONITORS
indicates the diagonal
distance between like- Monitors are a key component of how we interact with our computer. The
colored phosphor dots quality of the monitor you select can drastically change how you experience
on a display screen. your machine. Some people like lower resolutions so they can see the text
easier and they are cheaper. Some people like ultra high resolutions to give
them more working space and see more detail. Some people even hook their
computers up to HDTVs and use them in home theater setups.
Viewing Angle
Viewing angle one of the most important things to check when purchasing
a new monitor. Usually it isn’t a problem because we sit in front of our
monitors; however, if you are using a multi-monitor setup or view it from the
side for some reason, viewing angle can be important. Essentially, viewing
angle is the degrees one can be from off-center and still perceive the correct
colors, contrast, and brightness. When you move to the side of LCD monitors
and HDTVs, colors usually start to slightly fade.
Pixel Pitch
Contrast Ratio
Pixel pitch is the distance between a pixel of a color and the closest pixel The measurement of
of that same color. This influence how sharp and image can be and how well the difference in light
colors end and begin. High pixel pitch can lead to running colors and fuzzy intensity between the
images. brightest color (bright-
est white) to that of the
Contrast Ratio darkest color (darkest
black) that the system
Contrast ratio is important, but know that manufacturers may use different is capable of reproduc-
ing.
techniques to measure it. So comparing contrast ratio between brands may
not be accurate. The best test is to actually look at them side by side, rather
than just viewing the numbers on a spec sheet. Contrast ratio is difference Refresh Rate
The maximum number
between the whitest white and the blackest black. Higher contrast ratio is of times the image on
better. a computer screen can
be refreshed per second,
Refresh Rate measured in hertz (Hz).
Refresh rate is the speed at which the display can switch itself completely
VGA
to another image. 5ms and under is generally recommended for gaming, but A widely used graphics
some people can’t tell the difference between a 5ms and 25ms refresh rate. display system between
a computer and monitor
Connectivity developed by IBM that
uses a 15-pin plug and
Many HDTVs can be comfortably used as monitors nowadays. HDMI is socket and provides a
generally the preferred connection, but DisplayPort and DVI can be used as resolution of 720x400
well. Stay away from using a VGA connection. Anything over 720P will pixels.
become difficult to watch due to the lack of resolution and the distortion the
cable can pick up. Using a VGA cable will also void the HDCP capabilities of DVI
the display and will not allow you to watch some types of media until a cable A digital interface cre-
ated by the Digital Dis-
supporting HDCP is used. HDMI and DisplayPort are always HDCP compliant play Working Group to
as long as your video card and your monitor support the technology. DVI convert analog signals
can be compliant, but is not always so—as it depends on which version of into digital signals to
DVI you are using. accommodate both ana-
log and digital monitors
in a single connector.
HDMI
A compact audio/video
interface for transmit-
ting uncompressed
digital data. HDMI is
used to transfer digital
video signal from a
source to a TV, convert-
ing the digital signal to
analog.
4. PC CLEANING
How a Computer Gets Dirty Fig. 3-1 Clean PC interior (A) and dirty PC interior (B)
Computer components get dirty. This is a fact of

being in a non-clean room environment. Computer
cases provide cooling to the parts they protect by
bringing in cooler room air and exhausting hot air.
This incoming room air tends to have contaminants
inside of it that are heavier than the air itself. When
the air inside loses some of its momentum, the
contaminants drop out of the airflow and deposit
themselves in the case and onto the components.
These contaminants can include things such as dust
and small insects to things more insidious in nature
like tar and smoke.
Aside from the interior, the exterior components
get dirty as well. Keyboards and mice pick up the
oils from your hands, and this accumulates on them.
Monitors pick up dust and other grime and need to
be cleaned as well.
Why It Is a Problem
Dirty computer components can have a number of disadvantages
compared to clean components. Excessive dust buildup can rob
components of the airflow needed to cool them. The warmer a
part runs, the shorter it’s lifespan before things begin to fail. More
destructive contaminants like tar from cigarette smoke can adhere
to the components themselves and not only block the airflow they
need, but can also trap moisture against the parts which encourages
corrosion. This tar also mixes with dust and grows something similar
to a fur of dust and air around the tar. This "fur" has the effect of
making the components even warmer.
Dirty computers can also be an issue from a health aspect. All of
the contaminants in the house collect inside the computer and can
Fig. 3-2 Compressed air : A gas be released in a large amount if cleaned infrequently. However, if
or a gaseous compound, that has cleaned regularly, you can cut down on concentrated exposure to the
been put under greater pressure
than the air in the surrounding contaminants.
environment. It is typically used
to clean computer systems and
dust electronic components. What You Need to Clean Your PC
The most common tool used to clear a computer is canned
compressed air. This can of compressed air should always be fired
— CHAPTER 4: PC Cleaning —
from an upright position, as the propellant in the bottom of the can is liquid and if it slides too
close to the spray head it can shoot out the propellant. This propellant is extremely cold and can
cause frostbite if used improperly in such a manner. If you get propellant on PC components while
they are off, it will not damage them as long as you let it evaporate before trying to start the PC.
Note: You should not use compressed air on the PC while it is operating.
When you have filth on computer components that is not easily removable, such as heat sink com-
pound or tar from cigarettes, you may need to use something to help you remove them. Rubbing
alcohol is one of the more popular compounds to use to assist you in this endeavor. Resist the urge
to use acetone or other solvents on your computer components as it will attack the components
and can easily destroy your machine.
Anti-static wipes and cotton swabs can also assist in removing grime from your computer. Dipping
the cotton swabs in rubbing alcohol and using them to wipe down the keys on the keyboard is the
preferred method for cleaning them. Some people like using toothbrushes instead of swabs as they
can apply a little more force to the keys without damaging them or the brush, and the brush is
reusable.
What Not to Use

Certain cleaning chemicals can cause irreparable damage to your computer or even prove dangerous
to you, depending on the compounds created, when you use them. As stated earlier, acetone and
other solvents should be kept off of computer components as they can attack the materials used in
their construction and result in a weakening of the insulators used to protect the electrical pathways.
When cleaning a monitor it may be tempting to use a cleaner like Windex or any other commercial
glass cleaner. This, however, is wrong; you should not use a cleaning product on the screen of
your monitor. Most monitor screens are plastic, not glass. These cleaners will eat into the plastic
and leave it cloudy from the damage they cause. This will require the purchase of a new monitor as
most warranties don’t cover willful destruction of property. When you go to clean a monitor, just
use water and a soft cloth. Speaking of water; if you need to use water to clean up components
on a PC make sure that the machine is off and unplugged. Then, use distilled water to clean the
components up afterwards.
Cleaning the Keyboard

If you spill anything on a keyboard immediately unplug it and rinse it out. Using distilled water
is preferable as it won’t corrode the contacts, but if you do not have access to it you can use tap
water and then rinse it with rubbing alcohol to clear the minerals left behind by the water. Leave it
upside down on the sink overnight to dry.
Beyond Cleaning
After the component has dried from being cleaned, you can lubricate the connections with contact
lubricant. These compounds can be found at high-end audio shops and they possess qualities that
inhibit oxidation and encourage electrical flow. For many people this is complete overkill. It is the
computer equivalent of waxing a new car.
Things to Watch For

When you are cleaning your computer make sure that the expansion card slots are clean. Contami-
nants that remain in expansion slots can interfere with the connection to the expansion cards and
cause them not to function or can be the cause of additional heat buildup, shortening the life of
the card or the motherboard. Also, look for clogged heatsinks on the processor or the video card. If
these heatsinks have large solid dust buildups in the air channels, the dust needs to be removed.
Fan Care
If you see large buildups of dust on a case or other cooling fan you will need to clean the fan.
When using compressed air on a fan you need to hold the fan blades and keep them from spinning.
This may seem counterintuitive, but the compressed air can spin the fan blades at a much higher
speed than the fans normally run at. In most ball bearing fans this is not an issue, but on cheaper
sleeve bearing fans this can destroy or damage the sleeve; and, thus would require the replacement
of the fan.
How Often Should You Clean Your Computer

How often you clean your computer really depends on the environment that you are operating it in.
In a non-dusty environment with no smokers present you can probably clean the PC every three to
six months. In dusty environments or in a location like a work shop of some kind, you may want to
clean it monthly. Do not make assumptions on the level of contaminants in an area. Be certain by
checking the computers case often and cleaning it when it is dirty. By doing this you can find out
exactly how often the machine should be cleaned.
Where the PC Should Be Cleaned

When you are cleaning a computer it is preferable to do so outside. If this is not feasible, make
sure to clean the computer in an area with good ventilation. Be sure not to have anything in the
room that you do not want to get dirty, especially if it is a computer that has not been cleaned in
a long period of time. The amount of dust and grime that is going to come out of that computer
could be quite large. Also be sure to wear expendable clothing as the residue can ruin clothing.
Health Hazard
The contaminants inside a computer are not good for you. If it is your computer you at least know
what is most likely inside of it since a computer will pick up everything in its environment. This
means that when you clean out someone else’s computer, you are being exposed to their environ-
ment. If you have allergies, you may be exposed to those allergens; you may be exposed to things
which could make you sick; and you can be exposed to them without you knowing. Make sure you
ask them if they have pets, if they smoke, and if there is anything in their environment that you
should be aware of while cleaning their computer. Cleaning a computer in a well ventilated area,
using a dust mask and communicating with the owner before servicing someone else’s computer
can help you avoid unnecessary issues.
SECTION
HARDWARE DIAGNOSIS
2
AND REPLACEMENT
In This Section:
5. Diagnostics
6. Replace Hardware
5. DIAGNOSTICS
Introduction
The easiest way to understand diagnostics is to picture them as the Doctors of your computer.
Diagnostics help us to determine the cause of a problem that a particular system is having. While
it is true that most computer problems are related to software, there are definitely times when
problems can be traced to hardware as well. So, instead of spending hours trying to diagnose a
problem with your system, it will save you time, money, and energy to utilize diagnostics and allow
them to identify problems within your system.
Choosing a Diagnostic Suite

When it comes to choosing a diagnostic suite, there are many options. Of course some suites
are quite expensive and can cost several hundreds of dollars while other suites are considerably
cheaper. The suites that are more expensive generally include diagnostic tools that can test
individual hardware components and are much more granular in their diagnosis while the more
cost effective suites are generally based around a diagnostic engine with several scripts supporting
its use. Finally, there are free diagnostic suites that you can download from the internet. The
Ultimate Boot CD is considered to be one of the most complete collections of free diagnostic
software available on the internet, and it has features such as upgradeability through patches and
customizability. We have chosen to explain how to use the Ultimate Boot CD because it is free,
easy to download, and it supports a wide variety of hardware.
Other Diagnostic Types

In addition to the Ultimate Boot CD and its included
tools, there are other diagnostic tools and procedures
you can use to help you determine the status of the
hardware in your computer. One such tool is the power
supply tester. The power supply tester is a device that
you plug the various connections from the power
supply into, and it reports if the connections are
providing the correct amount of voltage to the power
supply. Thus, it allows you to test the power supply’s
abilities and make sure it’s working properly. Fig. 5-1 Power supply tester : A tool used to check
the functionality of a computer’s power supply.
Power Supply Tester
The power supply tester we used for the purpose of
this course is an Ultra 7-in-1 power supply tester that is available for purchase on our website.
When testing the power supply, you should first disconnect all of the power connections from
the computer components. You may also remove the power supply from inside the case (but still
keeping it plugged in) if it makes it easier to handle. Once these steps are completed, you may
proceed to testing the power supply.
When testing the power supply, remember that if the specified LED’s do not light up, then the
power supply has failed its test and should be replaced.
— CHAPTER 5: Diagnostics —
Warning: Do not open or try to service a power

supply as it can be extremely dangerous if you are
not trained. When reading this section if you come
across a connector that your power supply does not
possess, skip it and move onto the next connector. The
following steps can also be found in the Ultra 7-in-
1 Power Supply Output Tester’s user manual which is
included with any Ultra Power Supply Tester purchase.
Testing the 20/24 Pin Connector
Fig. 5-2 Power supply tester (20/24 Pin Connector)
First, you will want to stop any power going to the
power supply before you hook the tester up to it. So
you can either flip the disconnect switch on the back
24-pin connector of the power supply, unplug it if you don’t have this
The main power cable of the ATX motherboard switch, or you can turn off the power by flipping
consisting of 24 pins. The new ATX motherboard
version, the ATX12V 2.0 introduced the 24-pin
the switch on the power strip. On the back side of
connector to the power supply industry, providing the power supply tester you will notice a 20/24 pin
additional 3.3V, 5V and 12V power supply. connector. Hook the tester up to the power supply by
plugging the 24-pin plug into the corresponding 24-
pin connector and turn the power to the power supply
back on. The LED lights for +5v, -5v, +12v, +5VSB, PG,
-12v, and +3.3v should all be on. Some power supplies
do not provide power to -5v, so it may be dark. The
tester should then beep. After you have tested the
main 20/24 pin connector, you can disconnect it.
Testing the 4-Pin Molex Connector
On the left-hand side of the power supply tester there
should be a 4-pin molex connector. With your power
supply power off, go ahead and connect a molex plug
Fig. 5-3 Power supply tester (4-Pin Molex Connector) to this connector. When you turn the power back on to
the power supply, the +12v and +5v lights should turn
on. Turn off the power and disconnect the molex plug.
Testing the 6-Pin PCI-E Connector
To the left of the 4-pin molex connector on the power
supply tester is a 6-pin PCI-E power connector. Again,
turn off your power supply and connect a PCI-E power
plug to this connector. Turn the power back on to the
power supply, and the PCI-E 6 pin should light up the
+12v light. Turn off the power to the power supply and
disconnect the PCI-E plug.
Fig. 5-4 Power supply tester (6-Pin PCI-E Connector) Testing the 8-Pin Connector
To the left of the 6-pin PCI-E connector on the power
supply tester there is an 8-pin connector that will
allow you to insert a 4-pin 12v plug into four of the
connectors. This 4-pin 12v plug is one that plugs in

near the processor. Turn the power off to the power
supply, plug the 4-pin 12v plug into the power supply
tester, and turn the power back on. Plugging in this
4-pin will light up the +12v light. After turning off the
power supply and removing that 4-pin, you may test
the 8-pin PCI-E cable in this same 8-pin connector.
With the power supply off, plug in the 8-pin PCI-E
cable and turn the power back on. Plugging this cable
in will light up the +12V light. Fig. 5-5 Power supply tester (8-Pin Connector)
Testing the 4-Pin Floppy Connector

To the left of the 8-pin connector on the power supply
tester is a 4-pin floppy connector. Again, turn the
power off, connect the 4-pin floppy cable to the power
supply tester, and turn the power back on. Connecting
the floppy power cable to this connector should light
up the +12v and +5v lights.
Testing the SATA Connector
To the left of that connector on the power supply
tester is the SATA power cable connector. Turn off the Fig. 5-6 Power supply tester (4-Pin Floppy Connector)
power to the power supply, connect the SATA connector
to the power supply tester, and turn the power back
on. Connecting this cable will power up the +12v, +5v,
and +3.3v LEDs.
If you followed this series of tests and your lights
all came on correctly then your power supply is
still good and working appropriately. Any remaining
diagnostics performed on hardware that will not turn
on can be considered manual diagnostics. This is
where the motherboard diagnostic cards would come
Fig. 5-7 Power supply tester (SATA Connector)
into play if you had purchased one. However, if you
did not purchase motherboard diagnostic cards there
are still things you can do: It is possible to use the
motherboard’s own error signals to diagnose it.
Diagnosing a Computer
If the machine is not POSTing be sure to disconnect all peripherals that are not directly needed
for the basic operation of the computer. That means you should unhook hard drives, ROM drives,
speakers, video cards, and anything else. Leave literally the RAM, the processor, and a keyboard
hooked up to the motherboard, a power supply to start it, and the front panel connectors to
control it. If the motherboard does not have integrated video, you may need to leave the video
card connected. If you want a cheap test card you can go to eBay and look up a cheap set of
trident PCI/AGP cards or Cirrus Logic 2Mb boards.
Once we have achieved our base state, be sure

everything is connected properly, and try to start
the machine. If the machine does not turn on, try
discharging the unit by holding down the power
button while the unit is disconnected and try to start
it again. If the power supply isn’t turning on when you
press the power button, you are most likely dealing
with a dead power switch or a dead motherboard. You
can check the power switch in two ways. One way is to
Fig. 5-8 Bridging the + and – pins. connect the reset switch to the power switch leads on
the front panel and hit the reset switch. The other way
is to take a regular screwdriver and bridge the + and – pins for the power
switch. If the board still does not start, remove the memory sticks and hit
Piezo speaker
Piezo speakers, or
the power button. If the unit starts and makes a beep or several beeps, you
Piezoelectric speakers, have at least one bad memory stick. This is providing of course that the
are small audio output motherboard has a piezo speaker attached. If it is one of the speakers that
devices frequently used plugs into the front panel, make sure you have it connected. If it still does
as beepers in watches
not power on you either have a dead processor or dead motherboard. Without
and other electronic
devices, and are also
a diagnostic card or another motherboard to test the processor, it’s not very
used as tweeters in less- reliable. I would recommend you replace both units.
expensive devices, such
as computer speakers If the base unit powers on, but does not POST, you follow much the same
and portable radios. type of procedure. Remove the memory and see if the machine beeps for
you. If it does, at least one memory stick is bad. If it does not beep, place
POST the memory back in the RAM slots. If you are using a video card, remove
POST, or Power-On Self it. Turn the machine on with the video card out and pay attention to the
Test, is the initial set Num Lock and Caps Lock lights on your keyboard. If pressing either of these
of diagnostic tests that
keys changes the lights then the motherboard is working but the video card
the computer runs to
ensure that essential is bad. If the motherboard did not work in any of these tests and without
system components are further testing equipment, then both the CPU and the motherboard should
functioning properly. be considered bad and you should replace them. This could also be caused by
a bad CMOS flash; so if you were updating the BIOS and failed, you will have
CMOS to have your motherboard serviced.
CMOS, or Complementary
Metal-Oxide Semicon- If the machine POSTs but locks up during POST it is usually a bad memory
ductor, is a semiconduc- stick. The other two options are a damaged motherboard or an overheating
tor technology used to CPU caused by improper seating of the heat sink. If the CPU is hot enough to
construct integrated
be uncomfortable to hold, the heat sink is properly mounted, and the mem-
circuits of microproces-
sors, microcontrollers, ory is fine—then the motherboard should be considered bad and should be
static RAM and other replaced. This could also be caused by a bad CMOS flash; so if you were up-
digital logic circuits. dating the BIOS and failed you will need to have your motherboard serviced.
Once the machine POSTs and informs you that it is either missing a hard disk
or to insert a boot device, you can turn it off and attach the ROM drive and
the hard drive. Then take the diagnostic disc included with your course and
place it in the ROM drive. Enter the BIOS and set the boot order to use the
ROM drive first. This will cause the computer to boot from the diagnostic CD
first (assuming the disc drive is in working order). While you are in the BIOS looking at the boot
order, make a note of the type of hard drive you have.
If you do not know what the numbers and letters mean, write them down and enter them in to a
search engine of your choice, such as Google, and they will bring up the model number in the search
results. If the drive is connected and not showing up, check to make sure the cables are properly
inserted and that the power is connected. If it still will not show up it could have failed completely.
Fig. 5-9 Boot device order
1. Enter the bios. 2. Browse to the boot device menu.
3. Push the CD or DVD rom’s priority ahead of the hard drive’s. 4. Save and exit.
Diagnostic CD Flash drive

A small storage device
Once inside the diagnostic CD enter the memory sub menu and run the new- that has a built-in USB
est version of Memtest. It will run data through your RAM and check each connection and can be
block. Once the memory test has run and if no errors have presented them- used to transfer files
selves, you can restart the machine. Go into the hard drive sub menu and en- from one computer to
another. Flash drives act
ter the diagnosis category. Here you can find the tools to check hard drives. as portable hard drives
Select the hard drive that matches the drive you saw and wrote down earlier. but they are smaller and
Enter the tool and select the long or extended drive test. When this has fin- more durable, contain-
ished you will be able to verify that the hard drive is operating properly. ing no moving parts.
Fig. 5-10 Ultimate Boot CD

Ultimate Boot CD on USB
If you wish to run the Ultimate Boot CD from a
USB device instead of a CD, you can boot into the
Operating System and insert your diagnostic disc into
the ROM drive. Insert a flash drive at least 512MB in
size into your computer.
Note: this process will erase all of the data on
the flash drive, so be sure to have any important
1. Open an admin command prompt and browse to information off of it first. Then open the diagnostic
your diagnostic disc.
disc by expanding the file structure. Browse to tools,
win32, and the folder ubcd2usb. Running the script
inside this folder will present you with a command line
and several options. Under Windows Vista and Windows
7, this program will need to be run as Administrator.
Type in ubcd2usb <path of the ultimate boot CD>
<destination path>; on My Computer in the videos this
command looked like ubcd2usb D: I: Once the process
has completed, you can set your BIOS to boot from
2. Enter the command "cd ubcd\tools\win32\ a USB device, and if this drive is inserted into your
ubcd2usb" and press enter.
computer it should boot to the diagnostic disc.
Safe Mode
After running all of these tests we have determined
that our hardware is sound. The reason we tested
these things in this order is that we needed to be sure
of the cause of our issues. The other reason was that
RAM and hard drive errors both have the same result in
3. Enter the command "ubcd2usb.cmd" followed by the
corrupted or lost data. These two issues have the most
letter of the drive the disc is in and the flash drive. in common with each other over all other problems.
They cause lock-ups and blue screens as well as most
Windows Vista
of the hardware-related issues a repair technician will
An operating system developed by Microsoft for have to deal with over time.
personal computers and includes many new features
such as enhanced visual style and graphical user The next issue this helped resolve was that corrupted
interface, improved multimedia tools and redesigned software, which was corrupted through means other
visual, audio and networking sub-systems. than bad hardware, can also exhibit the same symp-
toms as these two problems exhibit. Corrupted soft-
My Computer ware, however, is extremely difficult if not impossible
A section of Microsoft Windows that allows users to to pinpoint at times. It is much easier to rule out the
explore the content of their hard drives and manage
two easily testable pieces of hardware as causes.
files and folders.
So now we’re booting into Windows and there are still
Safe Mode issues. Going forward from here you will begin to use
A diagnostic mode of a computer system that allows the error codes presented by the blue screen errors
users to troubleshoot windows and fix most, if not all
and the event viewer to help you. If a blue screen
problems within the operating system.
Fig. 5-11 Safe Mode
1. Press the F8 key after the bios loads but before the Windows 2. Select "Disable Automatic restart on system failure".
screen shows up. If you see this screen, you pressed it too late.
shows up, you can run the error code through a search engine of your choice, Blue screen
such as www.Google.com, to find out what is causing this problem. If the The error state of
computer is restarting while loading Windows or is showing a quick screen Windows 95/98/NT
that displays an error
and then restarting, you’ll need to disable automatic reboot. If you can boot message and causes
into safe mode by hitting F8 before the Operating System tries to startup, the monitor’s screen to
you can disable this feature. turn blue. The computer
system also becomes
Windows XP completely unresponsive
and requires the user to
For Windows XP, the option to disable automatic reboot is located under reboot the system.
Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery. Click on
Settings and uncheck "Automatically Restart".
Control Panel
Windows Vista In many computer
interfaces, the Control
For Windows Vista, the option to disable automatic reboot is located under Panel is a system
Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced utility application that
Settings > Startup and Recovery. Click on Settings > System Failure and lets users modify and
configure many system
uncheck "Automatically Restart". Click OK to close out the Windows. settings and parameters.
Windows 7
For Windows 7 the option to disable automatic reboot is located under Start
> Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings >
Startup and Recovery. Click on Settings and uncheck "Automatically Restart".
Click OK in Startup and Recovery and OK in System Properties.
If the hardware has all been checked and passed, these blue screens are
almost always resulting from incompatible drivers. Occasionally, they can
be the result of software or an incompatible piece of hardware that may be
working fine, but does not function on this Operating System version.
6. REPLACE HARDWARE
Introduction
When doing any work on a PC, make sure you are following proper safety procedures and machine
safety rules. When storing components, either to be installed or after they are removed, be sure to
use anti- static bags to reduce the possibility of damage.
Memory
Removal
When removing memory, be sure to remove any impeding parts to prevent accidentally damaging
parts of your computer. Some proprietary designs tended to hide RAM behind the overhanging hard
drives, and some custom designs have issues with RAM slots being too close to the processor or
the video card. These are just a few examples of the problems that could occur. Remove cables if
they are getting in your way when you are trying to
remove the RAM. Take pictures to remember where
cables connect to if you are worried about putting
them back together properly.
After you have accessed the memory, locate the clips
on the ends of the stick of RAM. These clips should
fold down away from the RAM and eject the memory
from the slot. Repeat the process for the remaining
memory modules.
Fig. 6-1 Locate the clips on the back of the stick of RAM. When inserting new memory, make sure the memory
is of the same type as the old memory. This can be
QVL (Qualified Vendor List) confirmed by checking the labels on the modules or by
A manufacturer’s list of third party services or product using a third party site like Crucial.com. In addition,
vendors that have been approved as compatible with vendors also maintain QVLs or Qualified Vendor Lists.
the manufacturer’s own line of products and services.
A QVL is a list of products that were tested by the
manufacturer and are guaranteed to work properly in
Dual channel
this product.
A development in motherboard and chipset design
that allows the increase in bandwidth transfer when
When installing memory into modern computers you
using two or more memory modules in separate
transfer channels.
will most likely have to install the memory into specific
slots to correctly setup dual-channel and even triple-
Triple channel
channel configurations. In a dual channel configuration,
A type of channel architecture technology that the memory must be installed into bank pairs such
theoretically increases data throughput speeds, as two sticks in bank 0 or bank 1 or memory in 1+2
leading to faster system performance. and 3+4, or even 1+3 and 2+4. Your motherboard
documentation will cover this. There should be
Voltage drop markings on the memory slots, or beside the memory
A voltage reduction or loss experienced by electric slots, identifying the banks. Some manufacturers do
circuits due to impedances between the power source
and the load.
68
this by color coding the slots with the same color where you would install modules in pairs. With
triple channel it is similar, but it’s simpler at present. Triple channel boards are going to have three
or six memory slots, and you need to make sure to fill all of the slots in the channel.
You may have problems with voltage drop in cheaper and older motherboards. Voltage drop occurs
when you have RAM slots filled and the RAM slot on the end does not receive proper amounts of
power. This can have the effect of the computer suffering errors under a heavy work load as the
rest of the system is stressed. The memory can even test badly under memtest because it isn’t
working properly, but there is nothing truly wrong with the memory as this is a motherboard is-
sue. Sometimes lower voltage RAM can work in the last slot but more often than not, you have to
reduce the speed of the entire RAM in order to run all four sticks properly. This is why some old
motherboard manuals will say things like DDR2 1066 on the first three slots only.
Installation
Installing memories of different speeds is not usually
an issue as long as they are the same technology.
DDR2 667 and DDR2 800 can coexist quite happily as
long as there isn’t an underlying compatibility issue
with the motherboard. When installing memory in this
way the slowest speed of the different modules will
be used as well as the slowest timings. If the slower
speed memory chip has tighter timings than the
Fig. 6-2 Line up the nothces on the module and slot.
faster speed chip, the overall speed can be increased
by tightening the timings of the faster chip. This is
because faster chips run slower timings for stability.
Now that they are slower they can run the tighter
timings of the slower RAM.
When installing the RAM, line up the notch on the
memory module with the notch on the memory slot.
The notch is a little off center on DDR modules so you
can only put them in one way. If the memory is not
seating properly do not force it. The phrase do not
force things is almost a golden rule for PC repair. Most Fig. 6-3 Line the edges of the module into the recesses.
things are made of thin metals or plastic and neither
responds well to being forced. Line the edges of the
module into the recesses near the clips on the end of
the memory slots. Push the memory down into the slot
firmly and the clips should snap shut. If they do not,
you can help them by closing the clips manually and
the memory module should clamp down into the socket.
After connecting the memory you can close up the
computer and boot it to see if the proper amount of
memory is being recognized.
Fig. 6-4 Push memory into slot firmly until it snaps shut.
— CHAPTER 6: Replace Hardware —
ROM Drives
Removal
Removing a ROM drive involves first opening up the
sides of the case and disconnecting the cables attach-
ing the drive. The machine should of course be off
while this is done, and if the cables look too compli-
cated to remember, take a picture of their state before
you go disconnecting all of them. Depending on how
Fig. 6-5 SATA drive : A device in computers used
for storing files having a smaller motherboard cable your case is constructed, you may or may not have to
connection and are significantly faster than external remove the front trim panel to remove the drive. Some
USB hard drives. cases simply have snap tabs holding the trim panel on
and with some cases the panel is screwed on. If you
are trying to remove the panel, remember that forcing
it is a sure way to break it. Examine any resistance and
look for a way to release it.
After the panel is off or you’ve noticed that it does not
impede the ability to remove the drive from the front
of the case you can unhook the drive from the case by
removing the screws that hold it in. On some drives
there may be a slide lock style mechanism where a pair
of rails is bolted to the drive, and those rails are slid in
Fig. 6-6 IDE drive
with simple pressure locks to hold the drive still. After
this you can slide the drive out.
Boot When you slide the drive out, make note of how it is
The process of loading the very first software, usually connected. Whether you are plugging in a new SATA
the operating system, when starting a computer. drive to replace an old SATA or IDE drive, SATA drives
will be hooked up in such a way that you can just plug
ROM (Read-Only Memory) the new drive in. When replacing an IDE drive with
A non-volatile type of memory that can only be read an IDE drive, make note of the jumper settings and
as opposed to Random Access Memory (RAM) which which connector on the cable the drive is connected
can both be read and written. ROM retains all stored
information even when power is turned off.
to. Cable select is usually fine for a jumper setting but
if it isn’t working and you have two drives make sure
you set one to master and one to slave. You can see
IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
A standard electronic interface for mass storage what jumper position corresponds to what setting by
devices where a parallel ribbon cable is used. looking at the drive itself. There should be letters by
the jumper or a diagram on it.
Cable select
A drive mode that automatically configures itself Installation
as a master or slave, according to its position on
the cable. It is an alternate method of identifying When you have the connections straightened out you
the master and slave devices on ATA/ATAPI systems can then go ahead and place the drive back in the case
through the master/slave jumpers. and attach the connections to it. Once it is in a position
where it is flush with the front of the trim panel, you
can then look to the side where the screws go through
the case to bolt the drive down. Place two screws on

each side and that should be enough to hold it steady. If
your ROM drive had the rail mounts, unscrew the mounts
from the old drives and connect them to the new drives.
Then slide the rail mounts into their holders on the case.
Once the drive is reconnected, you may reattach the
side panels and start the PC. If the drive is SATA and
it is not showing up in Windows, you may need to set
the SATA ports to AHCI or IDE mode in the BIOS. If you
Fig. 6-7 Jumper
are installing a new ROM drive in a case that did not
previously have one, you may need to remove a piece
from the front trim panel and remove a steel spacer
from the case. The trim piece can be removed by Master
depressing the tabs that hold the panel in place. The In computer architecture, master refers to a device
that controls one or more other devices, or slaves.
steel spacer can be removed by running a screwdriver
through one of the punched holes and working it back
Slave
and forth until the thin steel sides give away.
Any device actuated or controlled by another similar
device known as master.
Hard Drives
Hard Drive Removal
Hard drive replacement is very similar to ROM drive
replacement. Remove the sides of the computer and
locate the hard drive. Note the way the drive is
connected and take a picture if you need to remember
how it is setup. Disconnect the cables from the drive.
Then remove the screws that hold the drive to the case
and remove it from the case.
Hard Drive Installation Fig. 6-8 Hard drive
Like with the ROM drives, if it is SATA plug it back in

the way it was and if it was IDE match the jumper
settings. Place the new drive in the old location and BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
fasten it to the case with the screws in the same An independent, built-in software that a computer
uses to successfully start operating.
manner that you removed them with.
You may then reattach the drive cables and reattach Hard drive cooler
the side of the case. Turn the machine on and make A cooling device used for any always-on server
sure the drive shows up in the BIOS and if so that it computers as well as any computer which experiences
a lot of hard drive usage to protect stored information
also shows up in Windows. If the drive is brand new it and increase system stability.
will be blank and either needs to have the operating
system installed on it if it is the boot drive or, if it
is a new storage drive, it’ll need to be initialized by
the operating system. You can do this from the disk
management console.
Sometimes when many hard drives are installed in a system the airflow can become constricted, so a
front fan is positioned across from the drives or a hard drive cooler is used. A hard drive cooler is a
small two fan unit that screws onto the bottom of the drive and keeps air circulating around the drive.
Some cases use rubber mounts to isolate the hard drive from the rest of the case in order to cut
down on the amount of noise the unit can generate. If you do hear hard drive noises know that
loud clicking can be the sign of a bad drive; however, some amount of clicking is normal as the
heads will "park" themselves when not is use and they click when they reach their final position.
Once you hear both a head park click and a failed hard drives "click of death", you will never
mistake them again.
Power Supplies
Power Supply Removal
Power supplies are connected to most of the components
in your computer. When you go to disconnect a power
supply you will first power down the system, remove the
power cable from the computer, and remove the access
panel. Then you can go and start removing the power
connectors from your hard drives and ROM drives. Fig. 6-9 Power supply: Converts AC current to
DC required by electronic circuits. It is a hardware
Once those power connectors are removed, remove any component that supplies power to electrical devices.
connectors attached to the video card (if you have

one) and remove any connectors that are hooked up to the power supply’s rails. You may then dis-
connect the 24-pin connector from the motherboard by pressing the clip and pulling it off of the
motherboard. Then remove the 4-pin 12 volt connector from the area of the processor by pressing
the clip and pulling it off.
Look at the back of the case and notice the four screws holding the power supply in. Some propri-
etary systems use their own mounting method to hold the power supply inside the computer. Dell
(in particular) uses a latch that you depress inside the case and it drops the power supply. When
you press this latch or begin unscrewing the hardware from the power supply, be sure to support it
inside the case so that it does not fall and ruin any components.
Power Supply Installation

Installation is the reverse of removal. Place the power supply in its position and either affix it to
the case using the latch, or fasten it down with the four screws. Then take the 12 volt connector
and plug it into the motherboard and follow with plugging in the 24-pin adaptor. If you have a
20+4 pin connector where the four pins are separate, you will need to examine it and see how it
sits in the socket. The connector usually has a lip that is hanging over the edge to hold the four
pin connector in place.
You will then reconnect your video card and your drives. Make sure your new hard drive is set to
the correct voltage for your country. The voltage selector is a little red switch typically found near
the power jack on the back of the power supply. You can now plug the PC in and power up the
machine. If everything is working correctly, you may replace the case side.
Video Cards
Video Card Removal
To replace a video card, you should start by detaching
the existing monitor or monitors. Then, with the
computer turned off and unhooked, open the side
panel and take a look at the card itself. Larger cards
will be connected to the power supply as the slot they
connect to can only give so much power. For example,
a PCI Express video card can provide 150 Watts of
power through its connector. If the card draws any
more power than that, it needs to have an additional
connection to the power supply. Fig. 6-10 Open the side panel to access the video card.
Look to the left side of the card where it is attached

to the case. There should be either a single screw or a
pair of screws holding it in place depending on if it is
a single or dual slot card. Remove these screws and set
them aside.
Look to the back of the card near the motherboard.
There should be a plastic lever that attaches to a
clip that holds the card into the slot. Some older
motherboards may not have had this feature on
them, but almost all modern ones do. Depressing this Fig. 6-11 Lever attached to holding clip.
clip should allow the video card to slide out of the
slot when you pull gently on it. If that connector is
present, detach it now by pressing the tab and pulling the connector off.
Video Card Installation

Installation is the reverse of removal. If you are installing a new card in a computer that previously
did not have one, you will need to remove the back plates that would block the card in its new lo-
cation. Insert the card into the slot on the motherboard, press it in, and make sure the lock clicks
in. Then affix the video card to the case with a coarse screw through the backplate mount. Some
cases may have other methods of attaching the expansion cards.
Once the card is secure, hook up any power connections the card may require. Some power supplies
have dedicated rails for 6-pin and 8-pin connections coming from the main unit. A power supply
rail refers to the single voltage provided by a power supply unit. The ones that do not have dedi-
cated rails will require you to connect 6-pin or 8-pin adaptors to available molex connectors. When
reading the power supply requirement for a video card, be aware that the total wattage is not actu-
ally what the card needs. The watt rating is given because it is considered a safe bet that all power
supplies over that wattage will have enough power per rail to provide for the card. Certain power
supplies are capable of supplying video cards with much higher rating requirements depending on
their amp ratings and how the power is divided. If you forget to plug this cable in the card it may
POST emit high pitched alarm noises, report that it is in low power mode, or not
(Power-On Self Test) function at all.
The initial set of
diagnostic tests that With the card hooked back up, you may place the side cover back on the
the computer runs to computer, connect the monitor cable, and start the computer up. If it does
ensure that essential
system components are
not POST be sure you seated the video card properly. If this is a new card
functioning properly. installation where you previously used integrated video, you will need to
change the monitor cable from the old connector to one that is on the card.
Processor
The part of the Processors
computer system that
processes the system’s Upgrading a processor is one of the most direct ways to increase the speed of
functions and executes your computer. It is also a way to increase various other parameters of the
the instructions of unit. You could replace the processor with one built on a newer process that
installed software, pro-
grams and applications.
is smaller and more efficient. While, this might not necessarily increase the
It’s speed and power speed of the system, but it should decrease the heat the system generates as
are determined by three well as the noise associated with dispersing that heat.
intrinsic factors: clock
speed, bandwidth and Before attempting to replace a processor make sure the processor you are
instruction set. using is compatible with the motherboard. If you are just replacing a burned
out processor with another of the same model, this is not an issue. If you are
OEM’s trying to replace it with a different model you need to check the CPU support
The company that origi- list. Some OEM’s publish these and some do not; however, if you are using
nally manufactured any
a system that someone built, you will be able to search the motherboard
product or component
which is purchased by
manufacturer’s website for a support list for that motherboard. In this list
another manufacturer it will tell you not only what processors will work, but if a BIOS update
or reseller and retailed is required to complete it. If one is, be sure to complete that task before
it under the purchasing swapping the unit.
company’s brand name.
Processor Removal
To begin replacing the processor you will need to unplug the computer and
remove the side of the case. Locate a large heatsink
typically topped by a fan. In some older Dell models and
some other computers you will sometimes have a large
heatsink and an air duct connected to a case fan. Once
this heatsink has been located you may disconnect the
fan power cable which is typically hooked up next to
the unit.
Intel Processor Removal

The stock heatsink will be connected by four push pins
with rotational locks. Take a regular flat screwdriver and
Fig. 6-12 Heatsink: Device used to transfer heat
generated within a solid material to a fluid medium use it to turn the lock. You can also use your hands if
such as air or water. Heat sinks dissipate heat away there is enough room. Turning the lock will release the
from sensitive electronic components to prevent
pressure and it will pop up. If there is resistance do
damage.
not force the rotational lock, as you are most likely turning it the wrong direction. Unlock the four
pins and lift the heatsink off of the processor.
Note: Intel processors use a land grid array socket where the pins are on the motherboard. There
is a retention spring arm that applies pressure to a frame which holds the processor on the pins on
the board. Releasing this arm releases the pressure on the frame. After taking the frame off you can
then lift the processor out of the socket.
Fig. 6-13 Intel processor removal
1. The Motherboard and installed Intel processor. 2. Locate the fan controller plug.
3. Remove the fan controller plug from the board. 4. Rotate the 4 pins on the heatsink to unlock them.
5. Pull the heatsink off of the board after all 4 pins have 6. Unlock the CPU by pushing the lever down and out.
been unlocked.
7. Opening the clip allows you to open the frame. 8. Remove the CPU from the socket.
Fig. 6-14 AMD processor removal AMD Processor Removal

If your processor is made by AMD, you will most likely
have a heatsink that is connected by a clip on both
sides of the processor. There will be two arms that
are connected to tabs on the frame and are tightened
by a clamp on one of the arms. Unlatch this clamp
and release it. Next, take the arm off of the tabs and
release the other one. Then lift the heatsink off of the
processor.
1. Unplug the fan controller, unlock the tension clip, If it has been a long time since the heatsink has been
remove the heatsink from the CPU. removed, the heat sink compound may have solidified
into a form resembling cement and will stick to the
processor. Sometimes this adhesive is so strong that
it pulls the processor out of the socket. Make sure
you pull the heatsink straight up off of the board to
prevent damage in case the processor comes out with
the heatsink. If the processor does come off with the
heatsink, take a straight edge and pop the processor
off of the heatsink. Once the heatsink is removed, and
assuming that the processor did not come off with it,
you can then locate the retention mechanisms holding
2. Raise the locking arm from the socket.
the processors onto the board.
Note: AMD processors have a chip that is locked into
the socket by a sliding mechanism. A lever holds
tension on this mechanism, and pulling the lever up
pulls the tension off of this device and allows you to
slide the part over. The processor can then be removed
from the socket. On AMD processors the pins are on
the chip and plug into the socket.
3. Remove the processor once the arm is unlocked.
Processor Installation
Intel Processor Installation
If you are reinstalling a used processor be sure to clean the processor’s heat spreader with a paper
towel and some rubbing alcohol to take the thermal compound off. If you are reusing the heatsink
the same process applies. After the liquid has dried you can then take your thermal compound
and place an amount about the size of a grain of rice on processor. If you have a desire to use
more you can place another amount about the size of a grain of rice on it. Any more than this can
become extremely messy.
There is a pair of notches on one end of the processor directly across from each other. These
notches line up with a pair of notches on the socket.
Place the frame over the chip and place it under the lever. Then close the lever and lock it to the
board with the small locking location.
Take the heatsink and examine the locking pins. How they work is that when they are in the
locked position they can be pushed over a little tab that snaps them in. When they are rotated to
unlocked, they can move up and down freely. Place them in unlocked and pull the cylinder to the
top position. Rotating the clip to locked and pushing it down will relock it. Place the cylinders
in the locked position without the lock being engaged and place the edges into the holes in the
motherboard. Then press the cylinder down until it snaps in and holds. Proceed to do the same
with the remaining three pins.
Fig. 6-15 Intel processor installation
1. Be careful not to damage the pins on the motherboard. 2. Line up the notches on the CPU with the ones on the socket.
3. Place the CPU in the socket and close the locking frame. 4. Lower the arm and clip it into place under the frame to lock it.
5. Apply thermal compound to the CPU. 6. Rotate the locking pins to unlock them, pull them out, and
then rotate and arm them.
7. Place the heatsink on the CPU. 8. Line up the pins with the holes on the board.
AMD Processor Installation

There is a small triangle on one of the corners
that lines up with a triangle on the socket.
Orient the processors to these marks and place
them in the sockets.
Lower the flip lever from top position to the
processor socket to lock the socket.
Take the heatsink and attach the clip to the
9. Push the pins down to lock them when they are through the nubs on the side of the heatsink bracket. Make
board. Hook up the fan controller. sure the tension clamp is undone otherwise
you won’t be able to clip the other side on
easily. Once the two clips are on the frame,
you can close the tension clamp.
FireWire
A high speed data transfer technology often used for connecting After the heatsinks are reinstalled on top of
digital cameras to computers. FireWire provides a single the processors, hook up the fan power cords to
plug-and-socket connection on which up to 63 devices can be the fan lead next to the heatsink. Make sure
attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 Mbps.
the heatsink is securely on the processor and
close the side of the computer. You may now
plug the unit back in and turn it on.
Fig. 6-16 AMD processor installation
1. Line up the arrow on the socket with the arrow on the CPU. 2. Place the CPU in the socket and close the locking arm.
3. Apply thermal compound. 4. Place the heatsink on the CPU, attach the tension spring to
the clips and close the spring. Hook up the fan controller.
Sound Cards
Most computers come with relatively competent sound cards integrated directly into the motherboard
these days; however, for the person who has that nice home stereo that the PC gets run through or
is listening to high-quality music using high quality headphones, the limit of the basic hardware
becomes apparent quickly. Installing a quality sound card is the answer to most of these problems.
Sound drivers are complicated pieces of software. Most sound card problems can be traced back to
driver errors or software incompatibilities. When you are looking at replacing a sound card due to
the old one not working be sure to try driver replacement before replacing the unit.
To remove an existing sound card, you’ll need to power down the machine and open the side panel.
Disconnect all wires attached to the back of the sound card outside of the case. Then remove the
screw holding the card to the backplate. The audio card should then slide out of the expansion slot.
Installation is the reverse of removal. Locate a free expansion slot and take the backplate spacer
out. Push the card into the expansion slot and secure it to the backplate with a coarse screw. The
sound card may have a firewire port built into it, so connect that if you have one available.
Afterwards, you may replace the side cover and plug the PC back in. Hook the connections to your
headphones or speakers and microphone up to the new sound card. You may need to disable the
onboard sound in BIOS.
Fig. 6-17 Sound card installation
1. Locate the sound or expansion card. 2. Unhook interior and exterior cabling that goes to the card.
3. Remove the screws that hold it to the case. 4. Pull the card from its slot.
Some sound cards come with optical output to hook up to an external device. If you are using this
connection you may need to set the default output on the sound card to use this connection or you
may not get any sound through it.
Motherboards
Replacing a motherboard can be tricky business, both from a hardware and a software side. It was
kept until the end of this section because it involves taking most of what we have already covered
out of the computer. It is not necessary to remove them but it can help with the space issue. For
instance, we will cover unhooking the power supply and other things, but it may just be easier
to remove the power supply and install it when you are done. The same goes for the rest of the
hardware.
Removing The Motherboard

To start removing a motherboard you are going to first unplug the computer and remove the side
cover. All of the expansion cards need to be removed. This includes any video, audio, or other kinds
of cards currently installed in the machine. If you need knowledge on how to remove them they
were covered earlier in this section.
After the expansion cards are removed, you need to unhook the data connections from the drives to
the motherboard. SATA and IDE cables should all be unplugged from the board, too. If you need to,
take a picture of the installation before you dismantle

it. You will then unhook the power connectors from
the board. This includes the 24-pin power connector
and the 4-pin 12v connector near the processor.
You will then remove the front panel connectors
and any USB or firewire connectors hooked up to
them. Also remove the front audio connectors. You
can take the heatsink and processor out, but this is
only required if you are replacing the board and not
Fig. 6-18 Unhook data connections.
the processor, or if the board is bad. The RAM can
be removed for safety, but this is also not required.
Unhook any fans that run off of the board.
After you have removed all of those parts, examine
the board. There should be several screws holding the
board to standoffs that are screwed into the case. Take
all of these screws out and gently lift the board from
the case. You may then remove the back connection
plate from the case if it is to be replaced with a new
one. If the new board is an identical replacement it
can stay where it is. Fig. 6-19 Unhook power connectors.
Installation
Installing the new motherboard is the reverse of re-
moval; so start by making sure all of the old hardware
from the other board is swapped into the new board.
After the board is setup, you may install the new back
connection plate if it is needed. Then you may in-
stall the standoffs in the correct locations as per your
motherboard form factor; if they are already installed
correctly you may skip this step. Next, you attach the
board to the case by screwing the coarse thread screws Fig. 6-20 Remove the front audio connectors.
into the standoffs. Do not over tighten them.
Now that the board is secured to the case, you can
start reattaching components. Usually it is easiest to
start with the front panel connector. If you are lucky
enough to have one with a q-connector or a cable
organizer, then you plug the cords into that and then
into the front panel connectors; otherwise, you will
have to look either at the board or your documentation
to see which cables go to which pins. You may also
hook up the front USB and firewire connections now. If
Fig. 6-21 Remove screws holding the board in place.
they are in separate pins, feel free to look them up in
your manual as well. The standard pin layout for USB
2.0 is VCC, D-, D+, and Ground.
Connect the power cables from the power supply to the motherboard. Plug in the 24-pin connector
and the 4-pin connector. Then reconnect the data cables from your drives into the motherboard.
Next, you can reinstall your expansion cards and hook them back up. After this is done, you can
replace the side panel and plug the computer back in and start it.
If you are having problems, know that you need to make sure everything is connected properly and
that everything is securely mounted in its expansion slot. You can also try clearing the CMOS. Make
sure that you connected the front panel connectors to the appropriate pins, otherwise you may
have problems where lights do not function or the power switch may not do anything.
Fans
The method to replacing a computer fan depends on its
purpose. Simple case fans are usually held in place by
two to four self drilling screws. Removing these screws
and disconnecting the fan’s power lead will allow
you to plug in the new fan and attach it in the old
location. On the side of the fan, there are two arrows.
One indicates which direction the fan spins and the
other indicates which way air is blowing. Remember
Fig. 6-22 Fan airflow indicators
that air is blown into the front of the case, and
towards the back. If your case has a side fan mount,
VGA fans the air should be blown into the case. If it has a top
An active cooling device that provides additional fan mount, the air will be blown out of the case.
cooling support to a VGA heatsink to prevent VGA
cards from overheating. If the fan is a CPU fan, it will be held onto the
heatsink by a small clip. Removing this clip will allow
VGA heat sinks the fan to come off of the heatsink. VGA fans are
A passive cooling device for VGA cards consisting of usually part of the heatsink. When they fail you can
metal alloy fins that help absorb heat from VGA cards replace them with a new one or replace it with an
and dissipate this into the surrounding ambient air. aftermarket cooler. VGA heatsinks are usually held on
with several small screws.
SECTION
SOFTWARE PROBLEMS
3
AND SOLUTIONS
In This Section:
7. Virus Removal
8. File Recovery
9. Windows Utilities
10. System Utilities
11. Factory Restore
12. Unwanted Program Removal
13. Junk File Removal
14. Software Updates
7. VIRUS REMOVAL
Introduction
With the growth of the internet and email becoming the standard means
of communication, viruses and other malware have become a more
prevalent threat. Until the introduction of services like online banking and
online shopping which led virus creators to write malicious codes to steal
confidential data, viruses were more for causing damage. Today, computer
hijacking, ad seeding, identity theft, and even extortion are carried out on a
daily basis by millions through viruses. Malware
Software programs
specifically designed
Malware to damage or disrupt a
computer system.
Malware is the generic term encompassing all of the different types of
malicious, unwanted, and potentially unknown software that can be
Virus
operating on a system for nefarious reasons. There are many different types: A computer program
that can degrade or
Virus damage the data on
your hard drives and
A computer virus is a program that can infect the host machine when the interfere with the
executable is run. It does not actively replicate itself, but if the host file is normal operation of
moved and accessed, it will infect the new host on which it is located. Virus your computer system.
programs are designed to modify system files on the host machine.

Worm
Worm A program or algorithm
that replicates itself
A computer worm spreads by transmitting itself over networks and exploiting over a computer
network and usually
security holes in other nodes (computers on the network). Worms are
performs malicious
designed to spread, and unlike computer viruses they do not need to attach actions. It is usually
to an existing program. A worm may be carrying a payload (the actual data) invisible to the user
that is designed to do more than just spread with the worm. It might delete and uses automatic
files or send documents using your email. Sometimes these payloads are components of an
operating system.
actually backdoors for other types of malware. Many types of worms send out
a huge number of scans looking for potential hosts to infect. Detecting this
flood of scans is the reason some people will get letters from their ISP asking Backdoor
An undocumented
them to have their computer looked at, because the systems at the ISP have method of gaining
identified it as a potential threat. access to a software
application, online
Trojan Horse service or an entire
system. A backdoor is
A Trojan horse is any kind of malware that is packaged secretly with a usually created by the
desirable program or one that invites the user to install it under the programmer, built-in
pretense that it is something the user wants or needs. The hidden files can to the code, that will
allow him to bypass
be anything, from simple but annoying spyware to potentially catastrophic normal authentication
worm infections. It is important to realize that a Trojan really isn’t a type and easily access the
of virus, but it is a technique for spreading infected files. Unlike a computer program or system..
— CHAPTER 7: Virus Removal —
Trojan virus, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves. They usually require
A software that may interaction with a hacker in order to fulfill their purpose. Some of the ways
seem to perform
Trojan horses are used are to: steal data; download or upload files on the
desirable functions for
users to run or install, user’s computer; keystroke logging; modification or deletion of files; and,
but may actually permit crashing the computer.
the creator to steal
sensitive information Rootkit
or harm the computer
system. A Rootkit is all about concealing any activity that is happening on the
system. Rootkits will be installed by tricking the user, stealing the user’s
Hacker password, or using a backdoor installed by other malware. Rootkits are not
A proficient programmer necessarily malicious, but they have been famously used to enslave millions
or engineer with of computers to botnets without their owners having any clue what is going
sufficient technical
on. Rootkit detection is notoriously difficult because rootkits can subvert
knowledge to determine
the weaknesses of a the programs and Operating System that is currently searching for it. They
security system and do this by feeding false information to the virus scanners, falsely reporting
to exploit these weak that processes have been terminated when they haven’t, and just plain old
points and break into not showing up on the system. The most effective detection methods include
computers or networks,
using another non-infected computer to scan the infected system, behavior
either for profit or
motivated by the based analysis, and memory-dump analysis. If a rootkit manages to install
challenge. itself to the kernel level of the Operating System, it can be impossible to
remove and the machine must be formatted to destroy it.
Rootkit
A set of software tools Spyware
that keeps itself, other
files, key registry and Spyware is a type of program that is created to provide some sort of financial
network connections gain for its author. These programs are secretly installed on the user’s
hidden from detection. computer to gather information on users and their habits, and then transmit
that information back to the author to be sold to the highest bidder. A type
Password of Spyware typically referred to as "adware" tends to take this a step further
A secret string of by showering a user with popup ads, overwriting legitimate advertising
letters or numbers, or
on a website and inserting its own over the top of it, or even replacing it
a combination of both
used for authenticating
completely. Spyware can also redirect search engines to only its sites or
user identity or gain infect the Windows Hosts File to redirect web traffic. Also, Spyware can
access to a system or change a user’s computer settings which can result in slower connection
resource. speeds, different home pages, or loss of an internet connection.
Botnets Key Logger

A network of computers
or software agents A key logger is specific type of Spyware that records a user’s keystrokes
that has been remotely without the user’s knowledge, and then returns that information to the
and discreetly set up creator. This allows the theft of bank accounts, email, and any other
to simultaneously and
automatically forward
password secured application. This is extremely bad among online games
data transmissions to where people would steal user accounts, empty their virtual goods, and
other computers on the subsequently sell them to the highest bidder before the accounts were
Internet. forcibly returned to the original owner.
Other Attack Methods

Kernel
Being infected by malware is not the only way you can lose your data and The central module of
an operating system
perhaps your property. Attacks such as Cross Site Scripting (XSS), which are
that provides all the
typically found in web applications, allow attackers to inject malicious scripts essential functions
into web pages you currently visit to gain access privileges to sensitive page needed by applications
content, cookies, and other information. Phishing scams, such as the now in- and system components.
famous "Foreign official needs your help to access his vast funds" and others, The kernel oversees
memory management,
attempt to acquire sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy
disk management and
entity in an email. These emails will claim to be from online payment proces- process management.
sors, auction sites, and popular web sites. Sometimes they will ask you to
login to your account through a link in the email, and then take you to a site Spyware
that looks just like the real one. Then, when you login through this fake site, Any software that
they will collect your login information. Phishing is an example of a social aids in gathering user
engineering attack. Social Engineering attacks use methods other than a direct information without
attack via the computer, to compel a person to provide the passwords on their the user’s knowledge,
usually for advertising
own. Getting to know someone and befriending them for the purpose of access purposes.
to sensitive data is a social engineering attack. Man-in-the-middle is another
type of attack where some 3rd entity makes independent connections with the
Adware
victims and relays messages between them, making them believe they are talk- A software package
ing to each other privately. It is an attack on mutual authentication, and it can in which advertising
only succeed when the attacker can successfully impersonate each endpoint. banners are displayed
Unsecured wireless networks are a prime location for this to take place. while the program is
running. It can also
Another type of attack involves profiling. This is not profiling in the typical be used to describe a
sense, but profiling that result from customer records being stolen or massive type of malware that
specializes in popup ads
amounts of data being sold from social networking sites. The more data sets on the host computer
you are recorded on, the easier of a target you make for this sort of attack. system.
Let’s say that you bought a blue 2006 Corvette in Reno, Nevada. On a social
networking site you tell all of your friends that you bought a new blue car and Key logger
the site knows where you are located. You now belong to a subset of data that A type of surveillance
says you are one of a number of people who bought a blue sports car in Reno software, either a
on a certain date. The data from the dealerships is returned to the profiling software or spyware,
that has the capability
companies, and if this data is accessed and cross referenced against the data
to record keystrokes on
already held with the profiling companies, the dealerships are identified that a computer.
sold the blue cars and what neighborhoods they serve. There may even been
customer names, email addresses, ID numbers, and what the car model actually Virtual
was in this data. It may even have the license plate number, which referenced In computing and
against DOT information, returns who you are and where you live. information technology,
virtual has various
Now, as creepy as this all sounds it really isn’t that big of a deal. It will most meanings such as in
likely end up with you getting emails more closely aligned to things you actu- reference to a simulated
ally purchased instead of random spam. Instead of the typical email you might gaming environment,
computer-generated
get an ad about discount Corvette parts and upgrades. Another function of simulation of reality or
this type of profiling means that you might get ads in the mail for a local store software that function
instead of some store you’ve never heard of. as if it were hardware.
Attack The main thing to take away from profiling is that when a company has
Any malicious intrusion a large amount of these data records stolen or is being investigated for
that targets a computer selling the private data, then you run the risk of having your information in
system, affecting it
in a number of ways,
somebody else’s hands.
depending on the
attacker’s intent. Security Methods
Attacks can deny,
degrade, disrupt or
destroy information
Keep Applications Up to Date
residing in computer
First and foremost, the number one way to protect yourself from these issues
systems and networks.
is to make sure your software stays as up to date as possible. Adobe Flash
Player, Adobe Reader and Internet Explorer are three of the programs that
(XSS)
Cross Site Scripting
seem to give users the most trouble with security vulnerabilities. Insuring
A Type of computer that these programs stay up to date helps protect you from exploits that are
security breach constantly evolving due to how many people use these pieces of software.
typically found in Someone trying to make use of an exploit targets the software with the
web applications that largest install base first.
enables malicious
attackers to inject
client-side script into
Have a Good Antivirus Installed
web pages viewed by
Having a good antivirus installed also helps. Whether it is a free or paid
other users.
program, don’t just install it and assume that it will protect you from
everything. Constantly evaluate it, look at online reviews, see how often it
Phishing scams
The malicious activities
updates, and talk to other users. If the software is constantly scoring low or
of an individual or isn’t being updated quickly enough on new threats it may be time to change
group of individuals your security programs.
that scam users into
revealing confidential Ad and Script Blocking
information, such as
credit card numbers or The next line of defense is actually in your web browser. Most major web
passwords.
browsers except Internet Explorer support extensions or add-ons. Since many
malicious programs use browser exploits in flash and in dynamic advertising
Social Engineering code to install them, running a program like AdBlock will prevent them from
The act of obtaining or
gaining access to secure
loading.
data by conning an
Script Blockers like NoScript can completely prevent Cross Site Scripting and
individual into revealing
secure information or Flash based attacks, but that security comes at a price. Many websites make
tricking an individual heavy use of flash to deliver content. YouTube for instance has two or three
into breaking normal script locations that need to run in order to function. Some of the websites
security procedures. that use drop down page selections do not function with NoScript installed.
You can teach NoScript what not to block, but it can be a serious hassle to
someone who isn’t used to it or only wants to check their email or watch a
video.
Firewalls
Firewalls are much the same as ad and script blockers. Overly aggressive
firewalls will block everything and need to be taught not to do that. Firewalls
that are too laid back tend not to block important things that should have Man-in-the-middle
been investigated. A computer attack
during which a cyber
criminal funnels
Habits communication between
a consumer and a
Finding a set of websites you like to visit takes a while; however, once you
legitimate organization
find them—you realize that most of the websites you visit are free from then retransmits them,
malicious software. If you are the kind of person who visits shady websites substituting his own
on a regular basis, then having protections in place are a must. However, public key for the
once you’ve settled down and the websites are more familiar to you, the risk requested one, so
that the two original
of being randomly jumped by scripts and drive by ads drops significantly.
parties still appear to
be communicating with
Something else to consider is that many websites use advertising money
each other.
from the companies that pay to advertise on their site to stay operational.
Adblock stops these from loading; this also stops the website from getting
Authentication
paid. If you are visiting a website often and you are sure that it is safe, you The process of
may consider adding the domain to the white list on the Adblock software. identifying users so that
Ads can get annoying but much more annoying is your favorite websites they can gain access
going under from lack of income. in secure systems.
User identities are
Don’t open files unless you know what they are from. If you get weird pop- usually authenticated
ups that say 'click me to go on' or the system won’t let you close a Window through usernames and
passwords.
do not click yes under any condition. Restart the computer if necessary and
begin scanning.
Profiling
Using Security Programs A form of dynamic

program analysis and
investigation of a
With the antivirus program installed, you need to update the virus database program’s behavior
to the latest version. Once it is updated you can run a full scan. If the scan using information
comes up clean, your computer is either free from infection or the infection gathered as the program
is much worse than your antivirus can handle alone. It is important to executes.
know how your computer should behave under normal circumstances. If you
are getting messages from people telling you that they’ve received several Spam
spam emails from you or you are getting messages from your ISP—you are An electronic junk
mail sent to a mailing
most likely infected. Other signs to watch out for is antivirus software that list or newsgroup for
errors out constantly when it tries to update. Antivirus programs also have commercially advertising
scheduling software to run scans automatically. For most people once a week a product or service.
is sufficient. If you are the kind of person who visits a large amount of new
websites outside of your standard comfort zone, you may need to run it once Firewall
a night or once every few days. Portable antivirus software like ClamWin can A system of programs
be installed to a USB drive and run and update itself on any machine the configured at a
computer network’s
drive is plugged into.
gateway that protects
the resources of that
Anti-spyware runs similarly to most anti-virus programs. Update to the newest
network from other
definitions and run a full scan. Anti-spyware should not be too affected by external networks.
any infection. However, if you have spyware that the program cannot remove
you may have a more serious infection.
Anti-spyware Anti-spam runs mostly on its own. You can usually add spam explicitly to the
A software designed list that the program did not pick up.
to combat unwanted
spyware program Firewalls are also mostly autonomous. If you need to open ports manually for
installations and remove specific programs you have usually been instructed by a how-to.
these programs if
installed. Hijack this is a process scanner. It shows entries in the registry and you can
delete these entries directly from the program.
Anti-virus
A software designed to Note: This is an extremely powerful program that shouldn’t be used in this
detect, repair, clean, or manner if you do not understand the actions you are taking. It is typically
remove virus-infected used for pasting the list into a forum to give other people an overview of the
files from a computer.
It even helps repair
things running on the machine you are asking about.
the damaged files left
behind. Advanced Removal Techniques
Anti-spam
To demonstrate advanced techniques, I will outline a procedure list that
Methods that detect I wrote for a customer of ours who was dealing with an infection of the
e-mail messages Storm Worm. First, however, I’ll give some background on this specific Worm.
that are unsolicited The Storm Worm sends out various messages including weather alerts and
advertisements hallmark cards. It then merges the infected computers with a botnet using a
(spam). Various
anti-spam techniques
decentralized server similar in design to a Bit Torrent peer to peer network.
are embedded in Unlike old botnets, this one did not have a central server that you can take
products, services and down to destroy the botnet. Storm is resilient because it changes its own
software to ease the code every 10 minutes and is continually updated. The botnet seemed to
burden on users and be shrinking recently but security experts believe that it is because the
administrators.
botnet is being partitioned off and sold once it reaches a certain size. Most
of this information can be found on www.bleepingcomputer.com. This is a
community website that helps support new users in removing various types
of malware. If you are having difficulty removing a virus I strongly suggest
you check their forums for information. Here’s the breakdown of how the
Storm Worm was removed:
Removing the Storm Worm

If you get lost you should delete the Operating System and long format the
drive. I would. This worm isn’t worth fixing if you don’t have to; however,
this is about as bad as computer viruses can get, so if you want the practice,
here it is. TDSSkiller is capable of hosing the entire system, so if there’s
important data make sure it is backed up first, and then scan the files with
tdsskiller and Malwarebytes after running rkill.
You are most likely going to have to use a combination of rKill, TDSSKiller,
and Malwarebytes.
1. Before you do this, disable hibernate and turn of system restore.
• RKill requires actual kills when the kill command is given, so it
shuts down processes properly.
• TDSSKiller will remove the Trojan from all its hiding places as it is
good at taking out TDSS based rootkits.
• Malwarebytes is a free scanner that is updated frequently and used
by the community for virus removal.
2. Next, run rkill. A bunch of windows will most likely popup if that
blackmail virus is still installed saying that you’re being attacked. Ignore
them, let rkill do its job and leave it alone.
3. Run TDSSkiller. Scan and quarantine anything that it is angry about.
4. Install Malwarebytes. Update and run a full scan and delete anything it
finds.
5. Run msconfig. Go to startup and uncheck anything that seems unusual.
6. Reboot and scan again with Malwarebytes and tdsskiller.
External Virus Removal

If you need to pull a hard drive to scan it on another machine or back up the
data prior to formatting the drive, there are some things you should be sure
of. Make sure the host system is up to date and that the antivirus software is
working properly. You may want to use a limited account to access the data.
Most virus files are inert when accessed externally but some will attempt to
infect the host system.
8. FILE RECOVERY
Introduction
File recovery can be a tricky business. It is centered on three points. The File recovery
first being that when data is deleted it is not really deleted. Second, when a The process of restoring
file integrity once a file
storage device fails it hasn’t failed completely. Lastly, if a machine crashes
has been deleted or
and the Operating System is no longer operable this doesn’t mean that damaged. Deleted files
the files are not accessible. These three points and a little help from some can be recoverable but
recovery programs can help you recover data that you might have otherwise damaged files can only
thought was lost forever. be recovered if the data
has not been corrupted.
Precautions
When attempting to recover data from a machine, you need to know what
the status of the machine was before its current problem. If the machine
was clean then there should be no real need for precautions in attempting
data recovery. If the data recovery is being attempted on a machine that was
— CHAPTER 8: File Recovery —
incapacitated by a virus it is possible that the virus files may still be active when recovered. Be
sure the host system is up to date and that the antivirus software is fully functional. Consider also
running the recovery from a limited account.
When Are Files Recoverable?

It is important to remember that each situation is different. Never promise to recover data, as the
situation can change in an instant. Even drives that you can apparently access can fail from the
smallest amount of data transfer. Sometimes recovery is just not possible. Drives affected with a
symptom called the 'click of death', which is a rhythmic clicking that occurs any time the drive has
power, is almost guaranteed to be unrecoverable as the read heads are not functioning properly.
Similarly, drives that have experienced a head crash will most likely be unrecoverable. This problem
is where the term hard drive crash originates. What happens is the read heads, which usually
float on a cushion of air above the magnetic surface, actually crash into the magnetic surface and
physically destroy it. Sometimes the electronics that control the drive are damaged by power surges
or other electrical malfunctions. This will lead the drive to not show up in the BIOS and will be
unrecoverable to the average technician.
Professional data restoration services are available for those whose lost data is worth more than
the many hundreds of dollars a clean room replacement costs. In a clean room replacement,
technicians will actually remove the hard drive disks and place them in a new case with a new
spindle and arm. If this procedure goes as planned, the drive will be restored to its pre-error state
with data intact.
This leaves bad sector data recovery as something that can be handled by regular technicians. A
bad sector is when the magnetic state which holds the 1 or the 0 is lost, and the data has become
corrupted. Sometimes the sector just needs to be rewritten and sometimes a long format will mark
the sector as bad and it will not be used again. Whichever ends up happening, the drive has begun
to die. Sometimes, the progress from one bad sector to many more bad sectors takes place over
several years and sometimes it takes place rapidly. Once bad sectors start to appear, make sure you
have good backups of your sensitive data.
Recovering the Data

The two free utilities included on our diagnostic disc, Testdisk and Photorec, are useable either
from inside Windows, on the diagnostic CD itself or from the Linux Live CD on the diagnostic CD.
If you can see the drive, but the file structure cannot be read, then use Testdisk to recover the
partition tables. Once the partition is recovered the Operating System should be able to be read
the files. If the files are there attempt to copy those to another media as soon as you can. If
the files do not copy or they are not there, run Photorec on the directory and specify the output
directory on the new media. Photorec will scan the directory for files and compare damaged files
to ECC data, and attempt to output the files to the new specified directory. The files will have the
correct file type but in many cases lose their names. All of your pictures may show up but they will
all be named in the style of 00001.jpg, 00002.jpg, and 00003.jpg.
There are other data recovery programs such as PCTools File Recover but these generally have a
charge associated with their use. Testdisk and Photorec were covered as they were free to use.
Fig. 8-1 Running Photorec
1. Choose which disk to run photorec on. 2. Choose the partition table type. Choose Intel.
3. Choose the partition to run photorec on. 4. Select partition type. Other for Windows.
5. Choose to scan the whole disk or just free space. 6. Choose a directory on another disk to save the recovered files to.
7. Quit when recovery is complete.
— CHAPTER 8: File Recovery —
External enclosure If the drive itself is in another computer and the computer is nonfunctional,
A specially designed you may need to remove the drive and either place it in an external
chassis that secures enclosure or install it in the case of the host computer itself. When installing
and provides power to
external hard drives.
this drive, if the drive does not show up in the BIOS, the drive is most likely
External enclosures also dead. If it shows up in the BIOS, but not on the device manager the device
allow the hard drive is also most likely dead.
to communicate with
computer systems. If it shows up in the device manager but not under "My Computer" or
"Computer" then the device is recognized, but the partition is not being
Command line (CMD) displayed. You can attempt to run Testdisk on this drive to see if it can
In Microsoft Windows restore the partition. If this does not work, the drive needs to be initialized
NT, 2000, XP, Vista but unfortunately initialization will make it harder to recover the data on the
and Windows 7, CMD
drive. However, there is another option.
is the command line
shell. CMD is one of the
If you go boot into the Windows Recovery Console in Windows XP or go to
command interpreter
versions and provides
the command line in Windows Vista/7 you can run a chkdsk /r on the drive.
additional environment This may take a very long time, as recovering bad sectors can be a slow
variables. process. Once this process is complete, reboot the machine and try to access
the drive. If you cannot, then there is likely not enough complete data
remaining to rebuild the files.
If you are recovering data and you get an access denied error, you may need
to reboot into safe mode and take ownership of the files you are working on.
In order to search for certain types of files you can select Windows Search
or open the top level of the directory and enter your search terms in the bar.
Using wild cards is an effective way to search for all files of a type. Enter
*.(file type) like *.jpg to search for all jpeg files.
9. WINDOWS UTILITIES
Introduction
The Windows Operating System requires periodic maintenance to keep it run-
ning in its most efficient state. Microsoft has provided most of these tools
System restore and a few extras to help us handle exceptional situations such as the corrup-
A component of
tion of system files, a fine grained control of the registry, and several others
Windows XP that allows
the users to manually useful programs. Most of these programs can be found either on the com-
create restore points mand line or by browsing Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools.
or keep restore points
during operations.
Windows System Utilities
System Restore
The system restore is an incremental backup system introduced back in
Windows ME and since then it has received quite a few updates. It uses a
variable amount of hard drive space that can be adjusted by right clicking on
"My Computer" and hitting "Properties". Then click on the "System Restore"
tab in Windows XP. It is here that you can turn it on and off and set how
much space it should be able to use. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 you
can locate the System Protection link inside the right click > properties menu.
Here you can change the settings by hitting the configure link.
Depending on how much space is given to this utility, it will make restores
whenever major system changes are enacted. Either when programs or drivers
are installed or only when major changes are implemented if the utility is on
very low memory. This utility does not affect user files but changes programs
and registry settings back to the way they were when the restore was made.
In order to use System Restore, click the link in the "System Tools" folder.
You will then be presented with a menu with which you can either create
a new restore point or restore to a previous one. Upon clicking next after
selecting restore, you can then select which restore point you would like to
use and hit next. It will then proceed to restore the computer to its settings
at that time. System Restore can also be invoked from the Windows Install
disks when used for repairs.
Backup Defragmentation
The process of consoli-
We talked about the backup utility in the 'Backing Up Data' section, so this
dating fragmented data
will be brief. This utility can make backups and system recovery disks of the on your computer’s hard
installed operating system. You can back up entire hard drives or just specific disk, rearrange the frag-
directories or files. ments and restore them
into fewer fragments.
Defragment
NTFS (NT File System)
The file system in Windows is known as NTFS and it uses free space as cache A standard file system
and scratch room. What this means is that if a certain amount of memory of Windows NT that
is needed for a program and the memory is being heavily cached—that improves support for
free space may not be available. The computer will dump some of its cache metadata and uses ad-
vanced data structures
contents to the hard disk drive and remember where it is for later. The only to improve performance
thing is it won’t remove it when it comes back for it so it stays on the hard and reliability such as
disk drive. This results in a very broken up writing surface for the write heads transaction logs to help
on the drive, as it has to weave data around bits of other data. All in all it’s the system recover from
a rather large mess. The Disk Defragmenter moves files around and lines them disk failures.
up for faster access. If the data is all in a line then the drive can read it off
in a straight shot, instead of the massive slowdown you can get when the
drive tries to read highly fragmented data. Analyzing the hard disk drive will
tell you if it needs to be defragmented or not. Windows XP requires manual
defragmenting where Windows Vista and Windows 7 perform this action
whenever the computers are idle.
— CHAPTER 9: Windows Utilities —
In Windows XP, a defragment cycle is recommended every 1 to 3 months

depending on how full the drive is. The more full the drive, the more likely
the remaining free space has been heavily fragmented.
Cleanup
When I explained defragmenting I told you that the file system was leaving
duplicates all over the place; however, there are other bits of junk lying
around as well. This would include: installation files; temp files; old deleted
pictures that haven’t been overwritten yet; and, many more. Disk Cleanup
helps you remove these by inventorying them all and deleting them when
you ask it to. This can help keep the drive "picked up". It doesn’t necessarily
help with speed but you will run out of space slower.
BitLocker
BitLocker BitLocker is a logical volume drive encryption utility provided by Microsoft for
A security feature in
the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Being
Microsoft Windows
Vista, Windows 7,
that it is a logical volume encryption, it can encrypt full or partial disks. It
Windows Server 2008 uses AES encryption as well as several other techniques. The newer versions
and Windows Server can encrypt removable devices like flash drives as well. If the pre-boot
2008 R2. BitLocker is environment has been tampered with, BitLocker will lock down and require
designed to protect
a recovery key that it had the user save to a USB drive when the encryption
data from unauthorized
access by providing full
was performed.
encryption for entire
volumes. Command Line Utilities
Batch file Batch Files and the Task Scheduler
A set of DOS commands
that automatically Batch files are analogous with "Bash Scripts" in Linux. These are stored
runs in sequence command line procedures that run when the batch file itself is run. The one
once the batch file is I use for instance, is a batch file that contains the words "start firefox.exe
executed. Batch files
are usually created to
www.beyourownit.com/forum" and several more websites. This batch file
execute commands for opens Firefox and opens all of the other websites I frequent, in tabs inside
operations that the user of Firefox. This is how I keep up on my daily reading without having to
has a repeated need. constantly type in website addresses.
In order to create a batch file, you can open up notepad and type the
words "ping www.google.com" and save it as a file named "ping.bat". When
you run this file, your command line will open up and it will ping www.
google.com four times. Congratulations, you’ve just made your first batch
file. As you can imagine, there are several more uses for this. Automatic
backups, defragments, system restore points, and several other things can be
automated in this way.
The Task Scheduler is an accessory that lets you set certain applications to
run at certain times. Many programs, in which this would truly be useful,
already have their own versions such as anti-virus programs. However, there Permission
are still things that this combination could do to make life much simpler. A An authorization to
few years ago (if you were still on dial-up) you wouldn’t have wanted to access a file or directory.
Depending on the
be tying up your phone line all the time, nor would you want to sit around operating system, each
waiting for your email to download when you got home. If you would’ve file may have different
known how to have your computer dial up your ISP and begin the download permissions for different
and then hang up after a half hour or an hour, you could have come home kinds of access and
different users or groups
and your phone would have been clear—and you would have had your email.
of users.
Today this isn’t all that useful, but this is just an example of the level of
automation possible with these utilities. SFC
(System File Checker)
In "Task Scheduler" you can double click, add a scheduled task, and select A utility in Microsoft
from a large number of pre-installed programs. If you have your own files Windows that allows
such as a batch file, you will want to click browse and locate it. You will users to scan for and
then be asked to name it and how often you want it to run. You will then restore corruptions in
Windows system files.
be asked to ‘run’ and be given some more options regarding when to run System File Checker also
the task. Next, you’ll enter the user name and password of your user as the checks and repopulates
process will run with your permissions and identity, even if you are logged off the cache folder.
and someone else is logged on. Upon finishing this, the automated task will
be scheduled. Msconfig
A command utility
System File Checker used to troubleshoot
Windows startup
System File Checker (SFC) is a utility for checking the integrity of the files process which modifies
currently in use by the Operating System. If they have been compromised, programs run at
they are replaced with fresh copies from the OS disk which will be asked for startup, edits certain
configuration files and
if it needs it. You run this utility by clicking the Start Menu and typing "SFC simplifies controls over
/scannow" in the rundialog box. This utility is good for times when you’ve Windows services.
removed a virus that you suspect planted a backdoor in your system files or
you have corrupted some of the runtime files due to a bad installation of Regedit
some software. A powerful tool that
allows users to view
Msconfig and change settings in
the system registry that
Msconfig is a utility included with Windows and it simplifies the registry contains information
entries for most of the startup variables of the system. Msconfig can simplify: about how your
computer runs.
• What runs at startup
• What environmental options are set Background
Refers to processes in
• Access to the boot file the computer system
running automatically
The utility also provides a place to launch common Windows system applications. and continuously
without the need
You run this utility by clicking the Start Menu and typing msconfig in the run for user intervention.
dialog box. Most of the time you will be using this utility to manage startup Background processes
programs. include system
monitoring, logging,
user notification and
scheduling.
— CHAPTER 9: Windows Utilities —
Regedit
Regedit is short for Registry Editor. This program allows you to backup and
restore the registry as well as make changes to the registry directly. If you are
uncomfortable here, I would suggest not playing with it until you are ready.
The registry is a text-based database that contains the values for every
option in the entire computer. What background you are using, where your
hard drive is, what time zone you are in, and much, much more. Think of
it like a giant Excel sheet containing all of the personal information for
everyone in the closest city to you. Then think of it in the way that if the
sheet doesn’t say where they live, they don’t live there. If it doesn’t say
where they work, they don’t work there. If it doesn’t have them listed on the
sheet, then they don’t exist. This is why damaging the registry is so crippling
to a computer. You can make changes in the registry, but you can make most
of those changes on the menus where they are meant to be changed as well.
Third Party Tools

Junk files
Unwanted files Third party tools like Ccleaner and RegCure can be very useful for cleaning
accumulated from up junk files and install files. Personally, I would stay away from using them
sources such as on your registry. Extra entries in the registry can slow down a PC, but not to
data files, text files, the extent where I believe it is worth it to potentially break software in ways
documents, databases
and installed programs.
that cannot be easily fixed—which is what these programs do.
Junk files use
To use these programs, install them from the file you downloaded and ana-
unnecessary hard drive
space, slowing down lyze the computer. You should then be able to select what you would like
computer’s speed and to clean from a check box list and hit clean. The cleanup process has been
decreasing performance. automated for you.
10. SYSTEM UTILITIES

Introduction
In contrast to the utilities that are used to automate some housekeeping tasks within Windows,
there are some that can be run from the command line environment, which can be accessed by
booting from the Windows installation disk. These utilities are intended to help you restore the
machine to an operating state without resorting to complete reinstallations. To start using these
tools, insert the Operating System disc into the ROM drive and set the system to boot from the disc.
Recovery Console
Windows XP’s command line environment is called the Recovery Console. After booting the disc up
you will hit 'R' to enter it. Select your keyboard layout and then enter an admin password if you
have one. If you don’t have an admin password, hit enter. This command line environment allows
you to run several tools to attempt repairs to your installation. If you want Recovery console
to install the recovery console as a startup option instead of using the OS A Microsoft Windows
disc, you can insert the Windows XP CD into the drive. Then click start and command-line interface
that enables users to
click on run. In the open box type d:\i386\winnt32.exe/cmdcons and hit enter. recover or repair their
Replace the 'd' with the drive letter of your ROM drive. After this has been Windows computer
completed, Recovery Console will be available as a boot option when you start system from any serious
the computer. issues.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 have a command line environment that can be
accessed from the install disc as well. The environment provided for these
systems is actually a little cut down from the previous Recovery Console
because of the other features provided. For instance the "Startup Repair"
option in the menu actually runs a full suite of command line tools designed
to repair the installation’s boot options. If you need to access these tools,
insert the OS disc and boot to it. Then when you reach the screen with the
"Install Windows" button, you can look for the link on the bottom left that
states "Repair My Computer". System Restore and memory tests are also
available at this location.
Command Line
Once you come to the command line, there are several commands you can use.
Aside from the tools, there are some basic commands which can help you get
around the command line environment or complete some very simple actions.
Navigation
The command cd stands for Change Directory. This is the basic navigation
command. Assuming you are in the folder "Users", typing cd <name of the
user> will take you to that user’s folder. If you need to back up, typing cd ..
will back you up one level.
The command dir displays the contents of the current directory. This command
line also features an auto complete function you can access by using the tab
key. If you type dir and hit enter the contents will be displayed. If you then
type in the first letter of a directory or file and hit "Tab", it will start to cycle
through things beginning with that letter inside that folder. You can also hit
tab with no text entered and it will go down the list inside the folder.
Copy
The copy command is used for copying a file from one location into another.
The syntax is copy <source> <destination>. When using this command, you
can use absolute paths or a relative path. An absolute path means that you
can specify exactly where the copy file is and where it is going. To use it in
this way you would do something like copy c:\users\Owner\Documents and
— CHAPTER 10: System Utilities —
Automated System Settings\myfamily.jpg e:\Family Photo Backup. In this command, I copied a

Recovery (ASR)
picture to a flash drive I had inserted into the machine before I started it
A functionality offered
by Windows XP and
up. With these being absolute paths, there is no restriction to where I could
lower Microsoft O/S have entered this from.
that can be utilized to
simplify recovery of a Relative paths are when part of the command is assumed from your location.
computer’s system or If you navigate to the E: drive backup folder and typed in something like
boot volumes. ASR only copy c:\users\Owner\Documents and Settings\myfamily.jpg, it would copy the
performs backup of data
file from that location to your location on the E: drive. If you want to copy
needed for restoring the
system configuration
more than one file, you need to use the wild card *. If you are located in a
state, and does not directory with the file you want to copy you can also do it like copy myfamily.
backup user files or jpg e:\Family Photo Backup. That will copy the current file that you selected
other data. to the directory you specified.
CHKDSK In order to copy all files from a location to a location you would use syntax like
A command run utility copy c:\users\Owner\Documents and Settings\*.* e:\Family Photo Backup. This
in DOS, OS/2 and would copy all folders and files inside of the "Documents and Settings" folder
Microsoft Windows
of that user to the flash drive, assuming there is enough space to hold it all.
operating systems used
to check the integrity
The wild card can also be used in different ways. For example, <directory>\*.*
of the file system and
hard drives. The chkdsk is everything in the directory, <directory>\*.jpg is all files ending with that
command can also fix extension in the current directory, <directory>\Bob.* would copy all files
logical file system errors named Bob regardless of their extensions, and <directory>\B*.* would copy
and can also check the all files beginning with "B".
surface of the disk for
physical errors, also
called bad sectors. Tools
Now that we have covered a little about how to use basic command line func-
FixBoot
tions, we can take a look at the actual repair tools given to try and bring the
A Recovery Console
command that writes system back to a useable state. Here are some repair tools to get familiar with:
a new partition boot
sector to the specified ASR
system partition. It is
useful for repairing or Automated System Recovery (ASR) is a restore program that uses a file
replacing important created by the Windows XP backup utility to reinstall a copy of the Operating
operating system files. System from a backup. You will see the ASR option shown during the
Windows XP setup screen. It will ask you to hit F2 before the setup truly
begins. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, this functionality is also included,
but is located in a button on the repair screen.
CHKDSK
If you have ever seen your computer want to run a disk integrity check, it
was the Operating System invoking this tool by itself due to a dirty write
on the drive. When a drive completes an operation properly it finishes with
a "clean" flag. If an operation fails or data is not recovered properly, it will
set a "dirty" flag and request an examination. Chkdsk by itself simply scans
for bad sectors on the drive and is a relatively quick way to tell if your
hard drive is dying. The command chkdsk/r will scan the drive and attempt FixMBR
to restore the data inside of the bad sectors. If these dying sectors are A command using the
written to, they may lose the data again, but for data recovery purposes this Recovery Console that
repairs the master boot
program can work some magic in getting some data back. Run this utility record of the boot disk
and immediately copy any folders you were trying to access. Disks sometimes and writes a new master
have data corruption without having a bad sector due to other problems. boot record to the hard
This utility is good at fixing those as well. disk drive.
FixBoot Master boot record

A small program that
This command writes a new boot sector to the system partition. You can is executed when a
specify which partition it will write it to by including a drive letter after computer boots up.
the command in the style of fixboot d:; however, the default of running It resides on the first
sector of the hard
it without a drive letter will rewrite it to the current partition. This helps disk and contains the
restore the boot sector so that the system can locate the Operating System. necessary codes to start
the boot process.
FixMBR
Diskpart
Fixmbr is a command that repairs the master boot record on a disk level. You
A command-line hard
can specify which drive to write this to by using the output of the "map" disk partitioning utility
command. If you run map and your new drive is \Device\HardDisk0 then included in versions
fixmbr\Device\HardDisk0, it will write a new boot record to that drive. Just of the Windows NT
running fixmbr will assume you want the current device. This utility is operating system line
from Windows 2000.
for rewriting the bootsector if your bootsector was previously located on
It replaces the fdisk
a different drive in the case of dual drive dual boot systems. It can also command used in MS-
replace lost bootsectors. DOS based operating
systems.
DiskPart
ListSVC
DiskPart is the utility command that replaces the old FDISK command in
The listSVC command
previous versions of Windows. DiskPart can add and delete partitions from is a Recovery Console
a drive. The command diskpart/add is for creating a new partition, diskpart/ command that lists the
delete removes a partition. After specifying which command you want to use, services and drivers
you then specify which device you want to perform the action on. This uses available for enabling
or disabling when the
the output of the "map" command again. So the syntax now looks like this:
system is booted.
diskpart/add\Device\HardDisk0 and then you include the partition name. With
the partition name included, it now looks like diskpart/add\Device\HardDisk0\
Repair Installation
Partition1. Then, you can include the size in Megabytes on the end which A Microsoft Windows
would look like diskpart/add\Device\HardDisk0\Partition1 40000. Deleting 7 feature that allows
partitions can be done the same way or you can use the assigned partition users to repair, upgrade
name. Deleting partitions would look like diskpart/delete\Device\HardDisk0\ or reinstall their current
Partition1 or diskpart/delete D: operating system. The
procedure will not affect
the system’s data, user
ListSVC accounts, applications
and system drivers.
This command lists the services and drivers available on the computer. You
use this command with the combination of the enable and disable commands.
Let us suppose that you just installed a new sound driver and it has crashed
— CHAPTER 10: System Utilities —
your computer because there is a bug in it. The computer will not boot with it installed. You can
boot to safe mode and remove it; however, you can also remove it from the command line with
these tools.
You would locate the new audio driver in the output by entering listsvc command line and entering
disable <name> to disable it. If you wanted to enable a service or a driver, you would enter enable
<name of service or drive> <startup type>. The startup options are: SERVICE_BOOT_START, SERVICE_
SYSTEM_START, SERVICE_AUTO_START, and SERVICE_DEMAND_START.
Repair Installation
A repair installation removes the system folders entirely and rebuilds the registry, but keeps the
user folders intact. Most programs will be removed and need to be reinstalled. This is a more thor-
ough version of the Windows Utility sfc/scannow. This can be used to restore a system that has had
serious virus damage after removing the virus from the installation. It can also be used in cases
when a hard drive from one computer needs to be moved to a different computer and the comput-
ers have vastly different hardware.
To run this procedure you would boot to the OS disc in Windows XP and hit enter at the first screen.
The second screen scans for existing installations, and if one is located, it gives the option to hit
esc to perform a fresh install or to press r to start the process to repair the installation.
In Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will boot to the install disc and click Install Windows. When
asked, you will pick an upgrade and you will essentially "upgrade" the computer to itself again.
After the installation is complete you will have completed your repair installation.
11. FACTORY RESTORE

Introduction
Factory restore The factory restore is a computer manufacturer’s way of trying to simplify the
Refers to the full reset
process of reinstalling the Operating System for the home user. This also allows
of a computer system
back to its factory
them to not have to send copies of the Operating System out with the machine.
settings by using the Some restores are simply Operating System discs that have been pre-activated
included restore media. for the machines they are setup for. Some are disc images stored with bootable
imaging programs and some are a combination of the two.
Before Restoring
When you think about restoring your computer due to virus activity or
because it just plain doesn’t have the same snap it had when it was new,
there are a few things you need to check off before proceeding. Be sure
you have backups of your user data. Even though a non-destructive restore
should save those documents on its own, you still should not trust all of your
important documents to a program without any backups. If your restore came Destructive restore
with a driver disk or a set of disks, be sure they are on hand or you may be Method that is
left with a non functional machine if you cannot locate the drivers on your performed when there is
a serious problem with
own. All of the programs you have installed since you last restored or bought your existing software
the machine will be removed. If these programs are important to your basic installation that a
needs be sure you have a way to reinstall them. normal troubleshooting
does not resolve.
How to Invoke the Restore Typically used when a

virus has infected your
computer.
In the case of many computers, the restore is held on a hidden partition
on the hard drive. Computers that use this type of restore typically can
Non-destructive restore
be activated by pressing a key that will either be shown on the splash
The resetting or re-
screen during POST or slightly afterwards. In the case of Compaq’s and installation of system
HP’s, this was F10 or F11 during the post screen. On Gateways, Acers, and files on a computer
Emachine computers, this restore was usually invoked by hitting R or F11 system without
after the POST, but before the Windows Operating System started to load. affecting or deleting
user data, installed
Some restores can be invoked from inside of Windows by locating the
drivers and applications.
restore software in the program list or by using a utility provided by the
manufacturer. For any restores that are held on discs, or if you backed up
your partition based restore like you should have, you can insert disc one
into the ROM drive and set the computer to boot from it. The restores will
likely ask you a few questions before activating fully, but you can follow the
directions for the most part.
Destructive and Non-Destructive

Destructive restores formats the drive and reinstalls all of the system files
from scratch. Non-Destructive restores basically run a repair installation and
retain the user data. If you have a solid backup of your data, feel free to
run a destructive restore as this is generally the better of the two to use.
Use a non-destructive restore if your machine has malfunctioned and you
haven’t had a chance to backup your data. If you are restoring due to a virus
infection, you need to use a destructive restore, as a non-destructive restore
may save the infection as well.
If You Lost Your Disk

If you do not have a restore disc for your machine because you lost it, you
will have two choices. You can locate a Windows install disc and activate
the OS using the key that came with it from the factory, assuming that you
can find the correct version. However, the better option is to contact your
manufacturer and purchase new restore media. This can cost between $10
and $35 plus shipping. If your computer came with a restore on the hard
disk and your disk failed before you backed up the restore, then you are in
the same position.
— CHAPTER 11: Factory Restore
If You Have Replaced Your Motherboard

Most restores that auto activate or check the hardware of the computer they are running on, do
so by looking for a string of information stored in the BIOS of a machine called a "brand". Some
manufacturers do not provide motherboards with this "brand" as a means to warranty repairs.
This effectively disables the automatic activation and the restore software, and the restore will
refuse to work telling you that it only works in "this brand of PC". There are usually directions on
how to brand replacement motherboards on support forums, but if you are having problems with
this process, you should contact your manufacturer’s tech support and ask for help rebranding a
replacement motherboard. Rebranding the motherboard actually involves making a boot disc and
flashing the BIOS of the motherboard with a custom version that includes this brand.
12. UNWANTED PROGRAM REMOVAL

Introduction
Occasionally, when we are installing programs we think we need much more
than we actually will ever use, and end up with some unwanted baggage.
Toolbars, demos, and other accidentally installed programs are examples
of things that we can remove to tidy up a bit. Many computers that are
purchased also come with this "bloatware" preinstalled, because the
companies pay the manufacturers to include their software in their system
image. You should feel free to delete most of these programs and replace
them with your own preferred applications.
Toolbars
Add/Remove Programs
A Microsoft Windows Toolbars are add-ons for web browsers that aim to either increase the
function found in functionality and ease of use of web browsers and websites, or to push
the control panel
that enables users
products to you and give you "advice" about how you should steer your
to modify or delete browsing habits. Some are genuinely useful like a weather toolbar to keep
Windows Installer based you informed about the forecast if you don’t watch the news forecast
applications. regularly, or Google’s IE6 Search toolbar which added a search function to
the aging browser.
Bloatware
Software that is Many however, aim to direct you to certain shopping sites or search engines
overpacked with a lot that promote sites that they are invested in. In the worst case scenario,
of features, requiring some spyware will be its own toolbar and actively subvert paying services
significant amounts of
for theirs. Having too many toolbars can also slow down a computer or even
disk space and RAM.
This kind of software
block a website or make it hard to see.
also leave a larger in-
stallation footprint, but
Most toolbars can either be removed with the Add/Remove Programs Menu or
usually offering little or hidden by right clicking on the toolbar or adjusting the settings in the web
no benefit to users. browser itself.
Bloatware Broken installations

A failed installation at-
Bloatware is any application that came preinstalled on a system that its user tempt of any software or
program application due
is not directly using. Demos of software, web application links, and things
to system conflict or
like the Wild Tangent Game Center are among the offenders. Often certain incompatibility issues. A
anti-virus applications come installed with a 90 day trial. These programs are broken installation also
all removable from the Add/Remove Programs Menu. In the case of the Wind occurs when the instal-
Tangent Game Center, there is a program that can uninstall them all called lation process stops
unexpectedly and only a
Wild Tangent in the list. Instead of uninstalling them all one by one look, for
part of the software has
this program to select them all and remove them. been installed.
Broken Installations
Sometimes applications can break. In the case of complicated programs like anti-virus programs
and frameworks like .Net, you may need to download a cleanup tool. However, for standard
programs that may refuse to uninstall, you can download a tool like RevoUninstaller and use its 30-
day trial to remove standard broken applications from your computer.
13. JUNK FILE REMOVAL

Introduction
During the course of using your computer normally, the computer accumulates files. Many of them
you want such as documents, music, movies and other data; however, other files you don’t want
can accumulate as well. Some of them are temp files from installations, small pictures of widgets
on websites, old restore points, and many others. By removing these types of junk files, you can
help to make extra space and get your computer running faster.
Why Remove Them?

For the most part it isn’t a big deal that they are there, and in some cases like the cached images
it can actually speed up the normal process of web browsing. However, in older machines and
machines with smaller hard drives, it can be more of a burden than it is worth. The NTFS file system
uses free space as scratch data and the less free space it has available, the more fragmented the
drive will become as more data is shuffled around.
Normal Junk
To remove your standard cache files from the computer, you can access them by opening up your web
browsers option menu and locating options to delete them. In IE this is under Tools >Internet options
and click on the Delete button next to browsing history. From there, you can select which files you
want to delete and then hit delete. In Firefox this is in Tools > Options > Privacy. Click on clear your
recent history, and remove individual cookies. You can then select what you want to remove.
— CHAPTER 13: Junk File Removal —
Extra Space
To make some extra space, you can use the "Disk Cleanup Utility". It is located in Start > All
Programs > Accessories > System Tools. You can then select which files you would like to clean up,
and it will show you how much space they are taking up. If you select the More Options tab, it will
let you delete programs, system components, and restore points older than the most recent one.
The old system restore points on an old system can add up to several gigabytes, and if you are
keeping up to date shadow copies they too can add up to quite a lot of space.
Tools
Programs such as CCleaner and Revo Uninstaller can also remove many of these junk files from
your system. If you do not know what an entry is, you should not delete it as these are powerful
programs that can cause system issues if removed improperly. Used correctly, however, they can
save you a lot of time and some disk space.
14. SOFTWARE UPDATES

Introduction
Some programs that are used in everyday situations, but are not part of the list
of programs that Windows Update supports, are the most important to keep
updated. Some of these programs come with their own update applications,
but they can be more of hindrance than a help in some instances.
Administrator
Applications That Need To Be Regularly Updated
An administrator, usu- The biggest applications to keep an eye on are Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash
ally called the systems
Player, Java, your anti-virus, and your Web Browser. If you are using MSE and
administrator, is the
person responsible for Internet Explorer, Windows Update will keep an eye on those for you. Mozilla
the smooth operation Firefox and Google Chrome update themselves when an update is available.
and maintenance of a
computer system or a Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader
network of computers.
The two applications from Adobe are two of the most targeted programs by
Drive-by attack malware developers. Partly because of how they are written and partly because
A program that is auto- of how widespread their use is. They are both designed to display content from
matically downloaded to a third party with little or no verification. PDFs can be an issue because they
your computer with- call remote code which is run with the privilege of the user running the PDF.
out your consent and
If this user is a system administrator then the code can alter system files and
without understanding
the consequences, like provide backdoors for malware.
installing an unknown
ActiveX component or
Flash ads are a huge problem for users because they will run without
Java applet. authorization and take control of a web page display. They can call external
code and tend to be involved in what is known as a "drive-by attack" which is where your computer
is infected just by viewing or mousing over the ad. No clicking involved!
If you open Adobe Reader and click on the "Help" menu item you can find a link that says Check
for Updates. Running this often will keep Adobe Reader up to date. Adobe has its own update
application that can help manage their products, too. If you want to check the flash player version
manually, type Check flash player version in your favorite search engine. The Adobe link will tell
you which version is currently running. You may then go to their download section and click on
get Adobe Flash Player. Compare the number of the current download version to the one you have
installed. If it is newer, install the player.
Security Updates
Some updates are designed to fix security holes. The latest version of Adobe Reader is now
sandboxed, which means it prevents unauthorized code from running outside of the program. The
next version of Flash Player is intended to do the same.
Feature Updates
Sometimes updates are for including features. For example, the release of Flash Player 10.1 exposed
internet flash video to graphics card acceleration. This feature update allowed machines without
enough processor power to leverage their GPU to allow smooth playback of the video at HD
resolutions for anyone with a compatible card running a new enough driver.
Anti-virus
Your anti-virus is pretty good at taking care of itself, you can even schedule its update times
so that it doesn’t interfere with your work. However, it is a good idea to check it manually from
time to time as some virus applications can hide themselves, and the first thing they will do is
prevent your anti-virus from updating. An anti-virus that refuses to update when all other programs
working is a potential sign of an infection.
SECTION
INSTALL AND CONFIGURE

4
WINDOWS OS
In This Section:
15. Windows Installation
16. Drivers Installation
17. Internet Setup
18. Software Installation
15. WINDOWS INSTALLATION

Introduction
Installing a new or fresh copy of an Operating System can be done for a Partition
variety of reasons. Sometimes it is to repair a virus install, sometimes it’s A reserved part of disk
or memory set aside for
to prepare the system to be sold to someone else, and sometimes it is to
some purpose, normally
upgrade to the new OS which offers the new must have features. To begin done for manageability,
installing a fresh copy of the OS, you will start by placing your OS CD in the performance or avail-
ROM drive and setting it as your first boot device in the BIOS. ability reasons.
SATA Drivers Dual boot system

A computer that has
Sometimes when installing the Operating System, you will need to load two operating systems,
third party drivers for the disk controller. This is a problem that has mostly each installed on
separate drive volumes.
disappeared for the average user as motherboard manufacturers discovered
Dual booting permits
how to present SATA interfaces as IDE drives. Before this was done, a users to test a new
motherboard had to have specific drivers to use its SATA ports. If you operating system or to
want to use the advanced functions of a SATA controller such as its RAID run multiple software
functionality, you will also need specific drivers that need to be loaded that cannot otherwise
run simultaneously on a
before the rest of the operating system.
single environment.
In Windows XP this process requires the use of either a floppy drive or you
need to slipstream the drivers into the install. Slipstreaming is the process DOS
of adding things to a Windows install disc and remastering the disc on your The first widely-installed
operating system for
own. If you are intending to use RAID technology on Windows XP, be aware
personal computers.
of this before starting. When the disk boots and you see the message "Press DOS is often used as
F6 to install third party drivers," do so and select the driver from your source. shorthand for MS-DOS or
Microsoft Disk Operating
In Windows Vista and Windows 7 this option is located at the partition System.
manager screen in a small button at the bottom that says "Load Additional
Drivers." Click this button and point it to the drivers for your controller. Floppy disk
Configuring these devices is done through the BIOS. A flexible plastic disk
coated with magnetic
Partitioning material and covered
by a protective jacket
used to save data or
Partitioning the drives is setup based on how you intend to use the computer.
install programs on your
For most users, using a single partition on the drive is fine. If you have a computer.
large amount of data you wish to store and you have many applications
that are constantly updated—you may want to split your drive into a "Data"
partition and an "OS" partition. This will allow you to restore the OS and
keep the images of the Operating System small.
Dual Booting
If you are considering setting up a dual boot system, be sure to split the
drive into at least two partitions when using a single drive. Be sure to
— CHAPTER 15: Windows Installation —
Fig. 15-1 Partitioning the drive
1. Select the drive options link. 2. Deleting the partition will erase it and return the space to
unallocated.
3. Formatting the partition will delete the data on it. 4. Creating a new partition from unallocated will allow you to
use it to store data or install an OS.
install the older Operating System first. The reason for this is that the newer Operating System
can detect the presence of the older OS and automatically include it in its boot loader. This gives
you a choice of which OS to boot into when you turn on the computer. If you install the newer
OS first, the older OS will overwrite the newer one’s boot loader with one that cannot detect the
presence of the newer one and it will be inaccessible.
Setting up Dual Boot

We will now proceed to complete a walkthrough on the standard install procedure for Windows
XP and Windows 7/Vista. There may be slight alterations to the screens you see based on which
version of the Operating System you are using but these are the most common scenarios.
Windows XP
Place the OS disc in the ROM drive and set it to be your first boot device in the BIOS. You may be
presented with a prompt saying press any key to boot from CD, if you see this—do so. The Windows
setup will launch into a DOS mode (blue screen) and will ask you if you need EULA (End User
License Agreement)
to install third- party RAID drivers. If so, hit F6. Windows XP only works with
The legal agreement
floppy disks for this process, so if you need to use it hopefully you bought a between a software or
USB floppy drive. program author and the
end user and/or the
The setup screen will give you a few options. Hit enter to setup Windows purchaser.
XP. If you already had a copy of XP installed, you will need to hit ESC on the
next screen to install a fresh copy of the OS. After this you will be presented Service pack
with a copy of the EULA (end user license agreement) and you will need to A collection of
hit F8 to accept its terms. software updates and
fixes applied to an
Next, you will be presented with the partition menu. It will show your hard installed version of an
drive and a few options. If you are setting up a dual boot environment, you application or operating
system and can also
will create two partitions and install Windows into one of them. I recommend
provide enhancements
they be different sizes so you can tell the difference later. If you are using a for the application or
single partition, create one and set Windows up in that. You should choose software.
to format the partition with NTFS using the quick method when asked.
After some time of copying files, the computer will restart. Allow it to boot
normally and the setup program will load and run. The next screen you will
be presented with will ask you to specify your language and region; if you
want to use a language other than English this can be changed later after
the install is complete.
Next you will be prompted for your name and organization. On older versions
of XP you will now be forced to enter the product key if this is a standard
install disk. On Service Pack 3 versions of XP, the key can be entered
afterwards. You will then be asked for a computer name and an admin
password. The computer name must be unique on the network, but if you are
not on a network do not worry about it. Make sure you remember the admin
password you use.
You will now be presented with a screen to set the date and time as well
as the time zone. The next screen will ask you if you need to use typical or
custom network settings. For most users, typical is just fine. Next you will be
selecting if you need a workgroup or a domain. For the most part if you need
to make changes on this screen you already know about it. If you haven’t
heard anything regarding this, go ahead and hit next.
The next screen will ask you what kind of update setup you want and you
should then turn on Automatic Updates. You can select Skip on the next
screen. If you are presented with an activation screen, you should wait a bit
so hit no and select next. Enter your user name and hit next and finish.
You will now be presented with the desktop to your new Windows OS. You
will then install your drivers and proceed to activate the OS. The reason you
wait until the drivers are installed is if you change too much after activation,
Windows will ask you to register again. If you register too many times in a
short period, your key can become invalid and you’ll need to call Microsoft to
have them reactivate it. If Windows is not activated, you will have an option
Fig. 15-2 Installing Windows XP
1. Boot to the Windows disc to run the installer. 2. Press Enter to begin installation.
3. Accept the EULA. 4. Partition the drive or hit enter on the unpartitoned space.
5. Select the type of partition and quick or long. 6. The computer will restart and boot from the hard drive, do not
boot from CD.
7. Change region settings if you are outside the US. 8. Enter a name and company (if you have one).
9. Enter a computer name and an administrator password (write 10. Select date, time, and timezone.
it down).
11. Select typical for network settings. 12. Select the no for the domain. You can add this later if needed.
in Start > All Programs that says Activate Windows and it has a pair of keys for an icon. You will be
prompted periodically to activate when you restart as well. Select Activate Windows Now and allow
it to activate. You will need to be connected to the internet for this process to succeed. If the
activation process errors out, you will be presented with instructions on how to fix this issue from
the program itself. You may end up calling Microsoft and having to have them manually activate
your install.
Windows 7 and Vista
Place the OS disc in the ROM drive and set it to be your first boot device in the BIOS. You may be
presented with a prompt saying press any key to boot from CD, if you see this—do so. You will be
greeted with a screen saying that Windows is loading files and a progress bar. Once the progress
bar is full, you will see the Windows Start screen.
Next, a screen will popup asking you what language to install, what time and currency format, and
what keyboard style you are using. Select the applicable answers to these questions and hit next.
The next screen will have a button to hit that says Install Now. Hit this button.
The EULA screen will pop up and ask you to accept the license terms. Do so by checking the box
and hitting next. The setup program will then ask you what kind of installation you are going to
perform. The only time you will ever pick upgrade is when you are launching a repair install or you
are going from a similar version of Windows, like Vista Home Premium 32 bit to Windows 7 Home
Premium 32 bit. So select custom if those two cases do not apply to you.
Next you will be presented with the partition manager. It will show your hard drive and a few
options underneath the window. If this drive was previously full and you are not doing an upgrade,
click on drive options. Inside drive options, delete the existing partition and click next. If you are
setting up a dual boot environment on your other OS, you should already have the older OS loaded
and you’ll either create a new partition or select the partition you created for your second OS when
you installed the first. Then click next.
You may be presented with a box telling you that Windows will create additional partitions, click
OK. Windows will now begin copying files and will show you which task it is currently on and the
percentage complete for each one. Once it gets to a certain point, it will restart itself. After it
restarts, let it boot normally and it will restart the Setup Wizard.
The next window that will ask for information will ask you for a user name and the name of the
computer. It will then ask you for a password and a hint for the password. You will then be asked
for the Product Key for your copy of Windows. You can either wait to enter this until the system is
installed or, you can enter it now. If you enter it now, select use recommended settings when Windows
setup asks you about security updates.
You will now have to enter the time and the time zone. The next Window will ask you what kind of
network you are currently connected to. After this is the homegroup setup screen. Homegroup is a
password protected sharing group designed to make file sharing among family computers easier, so
that you can watch videos or listen to music off of other computers on the network. This feature is
only available with Windows 7. After this screen, some more setup steps will continue, and you’ll
eventually be presented with the desktop of your new Windows installation.
After you install the drivers, you can activate Windows by going to Start > Right Click on Computer
> Properties > Bottom of the page. Here at the bottom of the page under a heading called Windows
Fig. 15-3 Installing Windows 7
1. Boot from the disc. 2. The disc will load files.
3. Press install now. 4. Agree to the EULA.
5. Partition the disk or select unallocated space. 6. Setup will copy files and restart. Enter a
username and a computer name.
7. Provide a password if the computer asks.

Change the time and timezone if needed.
— CHAPTER 16: Drivers Installation —
Security updates Activation you will find a link by a pair of keys that says how many days you
Software patches widely have to activate Windows and to activate now. Clicking this link will bring
released to fix known you to the Windows activation screen, which will ask you to activate now or
security-related and
product-specific vulner-
to ask later. If you are connected to the internet and you select activate now,
abilities. it will attempt to contact Microsoft’s servers and activate your installation.
The reason you wait until the drivers are installed is because if you change
too much after activation—Windows will ask you to register again. If you
register too many times in a short period (like in XP), your key can become
invalid and then you need to call Microsoft to have the reactivate it. If you
are having problems activating, you may need to call Microsoft anyhow or
activate by phone. The instructions for how to do this are provided by the
Activation Wizard.
16. DRIVERS INSTALLATION

Introduction
Drivers are the software programs that allow hardware to function. Without the code to run the
hardware and access its functions, it is not able to be used. Drivers also offer varying levels of
performance and features. With simple products like network cards and USB hubs there isn’t much
variation in performance or features. When it comes to general purpose processors like video cards,
video card performance and capability can vary between each software revision.
Plug And Play

Windows uses a system called Plug and Play, which has been around since Windows 95. This system
allows for configuration of devices without user intervention. Previous versions of Windows needed
DOS mode or even BIOS level driver interaction in order for the device to function properly. The
automated prompting for drivers upon the detection of a new device is a feature of this system. If
an acceptable driver is located in the system it will be installed and used. If an acceptable driver
is not located, a generic driver may be used to provide functionality at a reduced level. This is to
facilitate your ability to replace the driver with one that has a more complete feature set.
ACPI
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is a system for controlling the power states of
every piece of hardware on the computer. It is eventually intended to replace systems such as Plug
and Play, Advanced Power Management, and MultiProcessor Specification. Problems with ACPI and
its drivers will prevent the computer from sleeping or hibernating properly.
Installing Devices
When preparing to install a new piece of hardware on your computer, there are a couple of things
you can do to make the process easier on yourself. If you are using hardware that implements
proprietary software, it may be easier to uninstall them while the component

is still installed. Video cards are guilty of this. Uninstalling things like AMD’s, Drivers
Catalyst Control Center, or Nvidia’s stereoscopic 3D driver as well as the video Programs that enable
drive itself, if you are going to replace it with a video card of another type, your computer to
can be helpful. Other examples of this would be wireless cards using their communicate with
peripheral devices such
own software to connect to wireless networks or Logitech’s SetPoint software
as printers, scanners,
when you are replacing your keyboard and mouse. keyboards, mice, tape
devices, microphones
When you prepare to install a new component, remember to take a look at and external modems.
the box and any documentation it may have come with. If there are several
components with multiple pieces of hardware, it can be advantageous to Plug and Play
install the driver files before you insert the device. Now, the important thing The ability of a
to remember is that this is not required. Why it is actually listed this way is computer system to
because the Windows Plug and Play system will attempt to assign a driver automatically configure
to this device unless you directly tell it not to when it asks. You would hit expansion boards and
other devices.
cancel when it asks you to find a driver. Normally installing a subpar driver is
not an issue, but the few times that it is are enough to leave a bad memory
ACPI (Advanced
of the experience with the person installing it. Configuration and
Power Interface)
Locating and Installing Drivers A computer that has

two operating systems,
each installed on
When installing hardware in your computer, there are three typical routes for separate drive volumes.
driver software to use to reach your system. The usefulness of these routes Dual booting permits
depends solely on the type of installation, the availability of the driver, and users to test a new
the time required while installing them. operating system or to
run multiple software
that cannot otherwise
Driver Disk run simultaneously on a
single environment.
When purchasing a new piece of hardware that requires a driver, the hardware
itself will most likely come with a driver disc. In the case of OEM computers,
the entire computer may come with a driver disc if it comes with a restore Uninstall
A feature of a PC’s
disc. When the new piece of hardware has been installed into the computer operating system that is
and the machine restarted, it will prompt you for a driver. You should cancel designed to completely
this prompt. Do not worry if the system automatically installs a driver remove all or parts of
without prompting you. a software application
from the system.
Next, go ahead and insert the driver disc into the machine. When prompted
by the auto-run dialog, run the setup.exe file with auto-run. If this prompt Zip
does not appear, you may need to browse to the root of the disc and run A popular data
compression format
setup.exe on your own. This should start a program that will extract the
wherein one or more
driver files and start the hardware detection process over again. Starting this files can be compressed
process again will cause your new hardware to detect the driver superior to to reduce its file size.
the one that was installed by the Operating System, and it will install the
driver. The system will most likely now require a restart.
Sometimes, especially for cheap and simple parts, you will get a disc with
several small files on it. There is no executable and nothing you have will open
the files. These are the raw driver files and they are covered in the next section.
Device Manager Driver File Download

An administrative tool
that lets you manage Despite this heading title, it is not only about the downloadable driver
your computer. The
files but also about the, files on the driver disc. If you are having problems
device manager is used
to view and change de-
installing the driver with the application, you can use the driver file method
vice properties, update covered in this section.
device drivers, configure
device settings, and Application Download
even uninstall devices.
When you buy a new component or are looking for the driver for existing
Windows Updates hardware you already own, you can head to the manufacturer’s website and
A service provided by download the drivers for that hardware. Typically, this will be the same setup.
Microsoft that provides exe file that comes on the driver disc. Sometimes it includes compressed file
updates online for the
Microsoft Windows
structures that are actually the same files and structures from a driver disc,
operating system and its which it will extract to a location and then install from there. This is normal-
installed components, ly the path that video card and sound drivers tend to take. Downloading files
including Internet from an OEM’s website also typically take this option, as they extract to the
Explorer. root of the hard drive in a folder named after the OEM itself.
Driver rollback File Download
A computer feature that
provides users with an Sometimes you get unlucky and your driver download provides a zip file with
easy way to revert to
some config files that nothing opens inside of. These are the driver files
the previous version of
the driver in question if
themselves. You need to install these with the device manager itself. Right
there are problems with clicking on the "Computer" or "My Computer" entry in the Start Menu ex-
the current version. poses a menu item called "Properties". Click it, and then located the "System
Properties" link or "Hardware" tab. It can also be accessed from the control
Signed driver panel by way of the system link. A third option is to utilize the run box and
A digitally signed type devmgmt.msc and hit enter.
device driver, in which
the driver software is Once the Device Manager is up and running, you can see a list of device types
associated with a digital
certificate that allows
that are hidden in collapsible lists. Click the '+' sign to expand a list and '-'
identification of the to close it. Typical things you might see in this list are: A yellow exclamation
driver’s publisher. point, which means that there is a problem with the device or it has no
driver; a red 'x' which means the device is disabled; or, a blue '’' if the device
Unsigned driver was manually configured.
Drivers that haven’t
been approved or don’t Right clicking on a device brings up a context menu to update the driver,
have an electronic uninstall the device, or disable the device. Clicking update the driver brings
signature placed on it
up the prompt that usually launches when you install a new device. If you
by Microsoft.
want the process to check Windows Update for a driver, you can select yes.
If you do not want to search for drivers in "Update", select no and hit next.
Select browse my computer for software or install from a specific location. In
XP select include this location in the search and browse to the location of
the driver. In Windows 7 you will just be browsing to the location. Once you
locate the driver and if the driver is the correct one, it will install and grant
you full use of the device.
Downloading Drivers from Windows Update

To download drivers, you can do it in one of two ways:
1. Right click on the device in the Device Manager like
you did in the previous section, and instead of browsing
the PC for drivers, select search online for drivers. In
Windows XP this will be on the first screen when you click
the update driver item.
2. Select the Windows Update link from the "All Programs" Fig. 1 Type devmgmt.msc and hit enter
menu. When you get there select "Custom" in Windows
XP or "Optional" in Windows Vista and Windows 7, and
any driver updates will be listed inside. If there is no
driver updates listed for your hardware, this means that
Windows Update does not currently possess a newer driver
for your hardware.
Troubleshooting Driver Problems

Most computer problems are software related. Of these,
many are related to malware and other types of corruption.
Fig. 16-2 Click '+' to expand list and '-' to close
However, a large section is related to driver errors and
missing or improperly installed drivers. Whenever a
component of your computer is not functioning correctly such
as improper screen resolution, your printer is malfunctioning,
or your sound does not work—check the device manager first
and be sure there are no driver conflicts or missing drivers. In
some cases there are no work-arounds for improperly written
drivers. For instance, if your computer’s sound works but
the microphone refuses to transmit sound no matter what
configuration settings you use or driver you try—it may be a
hardware bug. If the drivers are all installed properly, but you
are still having problems you should check for updates at the Fig. 16-3 Select browse my computer for driver
manufacturer’s website.
Rollback
Driver rollback is a function of Windows and it uninstalls
the recently installed driver that may be causing problems
and "rolls back" to the previous driver. To access this feature,
access the Device Manager by typing devmgmt.msc in the run
dialog and hit enter. Right click on a device after expanding
its drop down menu and select "Properties". Roll Back Driver
should be an option on the driver’s property page.
Fig. 16-4 Select the folder containing drivers
Signed and Unsigned

A Signed driver is a driver that contains a cryptographic
security mark to ensure the identity and integrity of the driver and that no one has tampered with
it since it was released. An Unsigned driver is one that does not contain a cryptographic security
mark. 32 bit systems can install Signed and Unsigned drivers where 64 bit Windows systems can
only use Signed drivers for security purposes.
Download Services
Be wary of online services that attempt to provide you drivers at a price. This isn’t to say that all
of them are bad. When working in the computer repair business, we used a combination of a free
service called DriverAgent and an ancient USB 10 MB network card. The USB network card had driv-
ers built in for everything as far back as Windows 98. It saved us a ton of time. If you are working
on a few computers a month or for personal reasons, it most likely isn’t worth using the Driver-
Agent. If you are operating a small shop, however, it can be useful. Also be wary of websites that
let you download drivers they’ve "aggregated" from other websites, because their funding models
may have proven unreliable and many of them may have been bought out by companies trying to
push spam and adware to the end user.
Updating Drivers
For the most part, you shouldn’t choose to upgrade your drivers unless the newer driver is going
to provide a significant gain in features or performance. Stable drivers that give you no issues are
definitely preferable to potentially faster drivers which throw up blue screens often.
Driver Features
Features that upgrade drivers can include things such as support for decoding new video formats,
image quality enhancements, graphics acceleration performance, cooling and bug fixes, and docu-
mentation and compatibility fixes.
17. INTERNET SETUP
Introduction
Being able to connect to the internet is important to many people the world over, for business
and personal reasons. People want to be able to surf the internet and communicate with people all
over the world, and they want to be able to do it quickly. The internet has had a drastic impact on
culture and commerce, and it continues to grow. From its evolution from slow analog based services
to digital, optical and beyond—knowing how to setup internet connections and the differences
between them is important.
Security Advice
Most people hear constantly how you should not write your password down. This is very true in a
business environment where passwords are the keys to the city; however, for a home user this is a
very different situation.
For a home user, it is not really that big of a deal if someone locates your Analog
passwords that are written down. If someone steals your machine they don’t Describes technology
necessarily even need your passwords, as they can use brute force to crack that stores or transmits
data in varying types
your security at their leisure. This means that online security becomes the of signal. The received
foremost problem. Creating difficult passwords using symbols, numbers, and data can be anything
upper and lowercase letters and using no dictionary words allow you to between the ranges of
secure yourself better online, and makes for a higher security overall. the transmission. This is
the opposite of digital
Internet Terms in which the received

data can only be 1 or 0.
Different types of internet services carry with them different attributes and
Brute force attack
features. Explaining some terms common to each type of internet service will
In computer security,
help you understand the differences when we go over them in a moment. this refers to the
exhaustive search of
Upload and Download every possible code key
until the correct key
There are two types of speed ratings when it comes to internet connections; is found. This involves
download and upload. Download speeds are how fast data comes from a trying every possible
remote connection to you. This speed can be hampered by the upload of the code, password or
server you are downloading information from. Even if you have more capacity, combination until the
right one is discovered.
you can only download as much as the remote server can provide. Upload
is how much data you can push to other servers. This is deceptive because
Download speed
not only does upload control how fast pictures get onto Facebook and how
The amount of bytes
fast your email attachments go out, but also how fast the links you click on of data an Internet
register after you’ve clicked them. Think of everything that shows up on your connection can transfer
screen as a download, and everything on a website that changes is based on per second during
an upload. downloading.
Latency Upload speed

The transfer rate of
A third type of speed rating is latency. Simply put, latency is the time a computer system’s
difference between a one-way action and its result. Every networking device connection as it
has latency between it and another device; the further out the location, the transmits or uploads
data on the Internet.
longer the latency. Roundtrip latency is the latency of the whole trip, the
one-way latency from source to destination plus the one-way latency back
Latency
from the destination to the source. Round-trip latency is also called ping
Any delay or waiting
because a command line tool called Ping measures it. If you open up a time that a process, ap-
command prompt and type in "ping www.google.com" you should get your plication or component
round-trip latency to the popular search engine. Latency affects things like consumes while waiting
web browsing, streaming video and music, and online gaming in a very for another process, ap-
plication or component
negative way. Downloading is for the most part unaffected by latency.
to respond.
Guaranteed and Best Effort

Network access comes in several flavors and each has their individual
strengths and weaknesses. They come in two different modes: Symmetrical
and Asymmetrical. Symmetrical internet connections offer symmetrical
bandwidth for uploading and downloading, and they generally cost more.
— CHAPTER 17: Internet Setup —
Roundtrip latency This means that most symmetrical connections are business centered
The latency of the with "guaranteed uptime" which is the promise that your connection will
whole trip, the one-way stay active and will maintain the speeds they are sold at. Asymmetrical
latency from source to
destination plus the
connections is where the uploading bandwidth is lower than the downloading
one-way latency back bandwidth. These connections are generally a best effort connection and are
from the destination to neither guaranteed to reach the advertised speeds or stay up. This is your
the source. Also known general consumer internet connection.
as ping.
Symmetrical Internet
Types of Service
connection
A type of Internet The different types of network connections have their strengths and their
connection that allows weaknesses. Sometimes its value against cost or speed again availability.
users to upload and The descriptions of the various types of available connections should give
download with the same a picture of what is out there and what you can expect from the different
speed simultaneously.
technologies.
Asymmetrical Internet
connection DSL
An Internet connection
in which downstream DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a broadband technology provided over
data (from an Internet telephone cable. It does this by making use of signaling frequencies higher
server to the subscriber) than the ones used by normal voice communications. If you had DSL service
flows over a broadband with phone service on the same line, you had to have high-pass filters on
satellite downlink, while
upstream data (from the
your phone lines. These filters blocked out the frequency noise or the "hiss"
user to the server) is of the DSL frequencies. The DSL modem has a low pass filter built into it to
sent over a twisted-pair filter out the noise of the standard voice data.
telephone line.
DSL availability and range depend quite heavily on the distance to the DSLAM.
DSL
The DSLAM is the termination point for the ISP’s network and the end of
A high-speed Internet their backbone. DSL without extenders can maintain its normal speed up to a
service like cable distance of about one-and-a-quarter miles from the DSLAM. DSL in range can
Internet that transmits currently reach speeds up to 40Mb-a-second where the new VDSL2 standard
digital information on has been rolled out. VDSL2 is the newest standard of DSL designed to support
a copper wire pair. It
provides high-speed
the deployment of triple play services such as voice, data, video, HDTV, and
networking and allows interactive gaming. The older ADSL2+ standard can deliver 24Mb-a-second.
Internet and telephone
service to work Cable
simultaneously.
Cable internet is to cable television lines much the same as DSL is to phone
Modem lines. It is a broadband technology routed over the unused frequencies in the
A device or program coaxial cable used by the cable companies. Distance to the access network
used for transmitting isn’t as big a deal with cable as it was with DSL. Distances of up to 100 miles
digital data from a can be used without issue.
computer to a telephone
or cable line in the form DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) 3.0 currently offers
of analog. There are
speeds up to around 50Mb-a-second in the US with up to 100Mb possible.
two types of modem:
internal and external
Some business connections can reach up to nearly 400Mb-a-second.
modem.
Unlike DSL, which shares core network bandwidth, cable connections share
access network bandwidth. This means that if an ISP oversells its bandwidth
too much, users will be subjected to periods of extreme congestion and low-
ered speeds. Overselling is commonplace and is quite effective at providing DSLAM
more customers with service, as well as providing the cable company with The termination point
more customers-as long as the overselling is not taken to the extreme. for the ISP’s network
and the end of their
Fiber Optic backbone.
When talking about a "fiber" broadband connection we are typically talking Cable internet
about two services (at least in the United States. In some other countries In telecommunications,
other, faster options may be available). Fiber in the US is usually divided into cable internet is a type
FTTN, which stands for Fiber to the Node and FTTP, or Fiber to the Premises. of broadband internet
connection that uses
You might also hear FTTP called FTTH, which is Fiber to the Home or FTTC, the cable television
Fiber to the Curb. system network. Cable
internet provides a
Fiber is in reference to the fiber optic connection being used to transmit much greater bandwidth
data. Instead of electrical signals, fiber uses light to carry data. Fiber is than telephone lines,
advantageous to use because it carries much more data than similarly sized allowing users to
copper cables. It also suffers far less attenuation than electrically based achieve extremely fast
Internet access.
communication mediums. This means that fiber can travel longer distances
without the need for repeaters.
DOCSIS
FTTN A set of specifications
for high speed,
FTTN (Fiber to the Node) is where the ISP pulls a fiber connection to the local full duplex data
access node. The "Last Mile" connection (or the last jump to the customer) is communications over
connected with standard copper cabling methods. The most prevalent version CATV networks that
transport data over a
of this is AT&T’s U-Verse service. U-verse is typically available in speed cable plant that utilizes
ranges between 3 and 24Mb/s down and 1-3Mb/s up. QAM and/or QPSK RF
modulation.
FTTP
FTTP (Fiber to the Premises) is where fiber is pulled directly into the homes Fiber optic connection
of the users. This technique creates a completely fiber based network. This is Uses fiber optic cables
the most future-proof setup, but also one of the most expensive. The speeds to transmit data
of the internet connections available are actually restricted by the limita- and has the highest
data sending rates of
tions of the hardware being used, instead of the limitations of the cabling. any communication
infrastructure.
Verizon’s FIOS service is the major user of this technique and the speeds
available from FIOS currently top out at 150Mb/s down and 35Mb/s up.
FTTN
A broadband network
Satellite term configuration that
uses fiber optic cables
Satellite broadband is used in areas that cannot be serviced by other forms of
to bring data to a node
high speed internet. This includes rural communities with access only to dial in last mile telecom-
up and internet access in countries where the infrastructure has not provided munications and uses
adequate alternatives. Both of these are ideal scenarios for satellite internet copper as the final con-
access. nection.
The quality of the signal depends completely on what type of satellite is

being used to provide the access to your ISP. High altitude Geostationary
Satellites provides the most actual bandwidth, but at latencies approaching
FTTP 900ms for a one-way trip, these connections are unable to provide any
Uses optical fiber to service for latency sensitive applications such as Skype or other internet
replace all or part of voice programs, gaming, and/or streaming video.
the usual metal local
loop to connect the Medium and low-orbit satellites have much lower latencies, but cannot offer
carrier directly to the
subscriber’s home or
nearly the same amount of bandwidth. A proposed satellite group operated
office, providing very by O3b Networks orbiting at 8000km would have a round-trip latency of
high Internet speed and 125ms, and would be designed to handle much higher bandwidth, offering a
quality. real alternative to land based broadband.
Satellite broadband Dial up

Offers two-way Internet
access via a satellite Dial up connections were the de facto standard for internet before the advent
in orbit and is slower of broadband technologies. Dial up tops out between 48 and 56 Kb/s. As
on both the uplink and the popularity of dial up fell, the providers started to provide hardware
downlink, as compared
to a DSL Internet
compression to lower the quality of web pages viewed by the users. The
service. saving grace was that users could choose what pictures and articles to view
at high quality. If you see high speed or "as fast as broadband" dial up
Dial up connection access offered, this is what they are talking about.
A temporary, non-
dedicated Internet
The Opera web browser also supports a feature called Opera Turbo, which
connection from an enacts this compression on its own and can help with slow internet
end user to an Internet connections. Other ways to help mitigate the lack of bandwidth is to use the
service provider made mobile versions of websites that offer it. Popular sites such as Facebook offer
over ordinary telephone
low bandwidth mobile versions that work quite well on dial up.
lines by dialing an
Internet service
provider’s number. Wireless
Wireless broadband is usually a wide area, terrestrial wireless network
accessible by wireless modems from the ISP. The technology is related to, but
differs from, a standard wireless network. Speeds are typically in the range of
3Mb/s down and 700Kb/s up. One of the technologies being standardized for
this use is known as "WiMax".
Another version of wireless internet is mobile phone broadband. This is the
use of a cell phone voice network as a data access point. This is the same
data network the phones themselves use for internet access. Mobile phones
and cell modems can be used to access this network. When a mobile phone
is used for computer access, it is known as tethering. Due to reception
problems, the speed on these connections averages about ten percent of its
rated speed and can drop often. The only time these connections are highly
reliable is in urban areas with extremely strong cell coverage. Devices like
MiFi and competing products connect a small wireless network to this mobile
network for internet access.
Setting Up the Connection

Typically, if you are connecting your broadband to your computer through a
network cable, it will more than likely be automatically configured for you. If
not, you will need to set the connection manually.
Windows XP
Wireless broadband
Start the "New Connection Wizard" by clicking Start > Control Panel > A new technology
Networking and Internet Connections > Network Connections. If "Control Panel" that provides high-
is in classic view, just use "Network Connections". Once this window is open, speed Internet and
locate the "Create New Connection" link on the left hand side. Select Set up data service delivered
through a wireless local
my Connection Manually and hit next. area network (WLAN)
or wide area network
Your modem will usually handle your username and password for you. This
(WAN).
means that you can use the option Connect using a broadband connection
that is always on. Windows has the ability to handle the username and
PPPoE
password in software using the middle option, but the modem or the router PPPoE connection
itself is usually used to handle this function. (Point-to-Point Protocol
over Ethernet) is a
The top option handles dial up connections and selecting it will require you network configuration
to enter your username and password along with the phone number of the ISP. to connect a network
of hosts, over a simple
Windows Vista and Windows 7 bridging access device,
to a Remote Access
Click on Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Networking and Concentrator.
Sharing Center, on the left side locate the "Setup a new connection or
Network" link and select it. At this time a window will popup and you will
select Connect to the Internet. If the computer is connected to the network,
it will attempt to auto connect and if it fails, you will be presented with the
choices to select a dial up connection or a PPPoE connection, which requires
a username and a password. Setting up a dial up connection will require a
username, password, and the ISP phone number.
If you are connecting your machine to the modem with a USB cable, you will
most likely need to setup a connection with PPPoE or you will be using the
disc that the ISP provided. If you are having trouble with the username and
password, you will most likely have to call the support line for the ISP and
have them walk you through it.
Email
Setting up a new email account can be a harrowing experience the first time
you do it, but you will look back on it later and wonder what you were so
nervous about. There are two ways to access a new email account: You can
set it up for web access like Gmail and Hotmail, or you can access it with
Windows Live Mail or Outlook.
Webmail
Setting up a new webmail service is pretty straightforward. Head over to
www.gmail.com and select the create a new account button on the right hand
side. You will then be asked for your first name and last name and desired
login name. Check the availability of the login name, if it is taken you will
need to pick something else.
Fig. 17-1 Setting up an email account Enter your password and check its strength,
and enter it again to confirm. Now when you
are presented with the security question drop-
downs, take a minute to read over them. Security
questions that ask you for recorded facts are bad
questions. What was my first school, or what was
your mother’s maiden name are easy for anyone to
look up. What you want to choose is something
that will be difficult to find.
Surprisingly, what was your first car isn’t too
bad as most people’s first vehicles were in their
parent’s name. What was your favorite pet’s name
1. Choose a new email account.
and what is your favorite color aren’t bad either
as long as you didn’t paste that information all
over Facebook or Myspace. Who was your best
friend in grade school is usually ok as well. If
given the option to write your own questions, do
so, and use the provided ideas to think of a new
security question about yourself that is more
secure.
You can then setup a recovery email, location and
birthday. Then enter the captcha (the distorted
image of letters and numbers used to prevent
2. Enter your username and password. Manually configuring automated use of websites), and agree to the
will allow you to change servers and ports if needed. terms of service.
After these have all been entered properly, it will
forward you to your new Gmail account. Setting
up a new Hotmail or Yahoo account will follow
very similar procedures.
Client Based Email

Windows Live Mail is the replacement for the old
Outlook Express client that you found in Windows
XP; and they setup in very similar ways. The
enterprise version of Outlook also sets up quite
3. The email should display properly. similarly. If you are using Windows XP, Outlook
Express is already installed. If you are using
Windows Vista, Windows Live Mail is already installed. If you are using Windows 7 or you want to
use Live Mail in Windows XP, you will need to go download the Windows Live Essentials pack.
Once the application has been installed, you can open up the accounts page that is under “Tools”
in Outlook Express. Add an email account to the program, which will ask you for the email account
and the password. Outlook and Outlook Express will both require more data to set up, such as the
incoming and outgoing mail servers. Windows Live Mail will attempt to setup the email account
automatically.
If you use Yahoo Mail, and you want to use it in a client-based system, you need to subscribe to
Yahoo Plus for a fee.
Web Browsers
Most versions of Windows come with Internet Explorer (IE) already installed, but there are other
options to consider and each comes with their own strengths and weaknesses. IE’s strengths in-
clude a high level of integration with the Windows system that it resides on. Here’s is a breakdown
of the various strengths and weaknesses of most widely-used web browsers:
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a web browser that is highly customizable and boasts the highest amount of
"add-ons" out of any of the major web browsers. Some of the popular add-ons include script and ad
blockers, news aggregators and website customization applications.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is the youngest of the major browsers and boasts high integration with Google’s on-
line services. It is extremely fast, and is constantly updated at a much faster pace than most other
browsers. Chromes add-ons are called extensions. Individual pages are rendered in separate threads
so a page crash doesn’t bring the whole browser down.
Opera Fig. 17-2 File sharing
Opera is a pioneering browser that actually seems to

invent many of the features that show up in other
browsers, but it seems to get the implementation
slightly off. It is extremely fast and innovative with
many applications and add-ons, as well as a quick
update and development cycle. A weakness of Opera
is that some websites do not properly recognize its
capabilities and web apps, such as Netflix, and a
few others do not run properly in it.
Home Network 1. Right Click on a folder and go to the sharing tab and
click advanced sharing.
Setting up the home network is often the step
after, or the step before, setting up the internet
connection. The use of a router or the combination
of a modem and a wireless router, called a gateway,
provides the ability to split network resources
among multiple computers and other internet
enabled devices like game consoles and internet
enabled media players.
Simple network sharing is the process of sharing
a folder over the network itself. Right clicking on
a folder and selecting sharing options. Enabling 2. Check the "share this folder" checkbox and click apply.
Toolbar the share will place the computer itself in the "Network" or "My Network"
A row of icons on a locations for your computers with those folders available for use.
computer screen where
buttons, menus or Homegroup is a feature of Windows 7 that provides a password for other
other input and output Windows 7 machines to easily share the media libraries of each PC. Adding
elements are placed. It
activates commands or
yourself to the homegroup and entering the homegroup password, adds the
functions when clicked. homegroup to the computers "Computer" link when you are browsing files.
Security
Securing the network can be a tricky task, but securing the most common
means of entry is usually enough on a home network. Your router comes
with a default password that is listed in its documentation for initial access.
You can change the password of the router simply by accessing through
the wireless settings page in its web interface. Make sure to pick a strong
password (even if that means you have to write it down). Do not make it
based on any common words found in the dictionary, and make judicious use
of numbers and symbols if you can.
The next thing you need to secure is the wireless password. This can also be
found in your router under the wireless settings page. The technology used
should either be WPA2 if possible or the newest security protocol available
in your router. Make the password is difficult, and for even more security
disable the SSID broadcast. While this means you will have to type the name
in manually and use the connection setup for connecting to wireless, the
upside is your network will not show up in typical scans when someone is
looking for it.
18. SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Introduction
When setting up a computer for a new user, there are certain expectations of what the machine is
to be able to do. If the user wishes to purchase special software like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft
Office for the machine you can go that route. Or, if a user doesn’t know what they want, they can
possibly be served by available free to use software.
Uncheck Software
When installing these programs, be aware of what you are clicking on and agreeing to. Many of
them have advertising agreements with websites that help pay for their development. When you
are installing them, be sure to uncheck and decline offers to set home pages and install toolbars.
Required Software
This section touches base on the main categories of software and functionality that end users will
expect from their computer. If you can provide these to them they will have a much smoother
experience with their new computer, and if they want a certain piece of software they may ask you
to help them buy and install it.
Browsers
For most users, Internet Explorer will provide most of the functionality they need. If they ask for
another browser, feel free to install it. When you are setting up the system be sure to get the latest
updates for the browser, install Flash Player, and install the newest version of Java. This will ensure
things like YouTube and Facebook work properly.
Office
Microsoft Office is the de facto standard for office tasks in the workplace, and this has translated
into it being the standard for schools and home use as well. Either encourage the user to purchase
a copy if they do not have one, or install OpenOffice for them. OpenOffice is an office suite that is
mostly compatible with Microsoft Office, and will provide most of the features that the user requires.
Security
If the user has their own security suite already purchased, go ahead and install it for them. If they
refuse to purchase one, go ahead and install something like MSE or Avast. These are both free anti-
virus software programs that can be found online. Note that you will need to register Avast to use it.
Media Players
Install something like Media Player Classic or VLC on Windows Vista and Windows XP systems.
Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7 should be able to handle most of the user’s needs well.
These are also free and can be found online.
Photo Editing
MS Paint is included with Windows 7, but the older versions in XP and Vista are lacking. Installing
something like Paint.net will give the user something with a little more power to use. The GIMP
can also be installed but it might be a little complex for a new user. Pain.net is a free program that
can be downloaded online.
Disk Mastering
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 can all burn CDs and DVDs, but only Windows 7 can
burn images of disks back to disks. I recommend downloading CDBurner XP or IMGBurn for the
other two Operating Systems. Both of these are free and can be downloaded online.
PDF Reader
Be sure to install Adobe Reader before you hand the machine back over to the user. This can be
found at www.adobe.com and is a free program.
SECTION
OPTIMIZE
5
USER EXPERIENCE
In This Section:
19. Windows Update
In User
20. ThisAccount
Section:
Customization
19. Windows Update

20. User Account Customization
19. WINDOWS UPDATE

Introduction
Windows Update is the system that helps keep Windows software installed on your system, and
drivers up to date. This helps Microsoft keep your computer free from exploits when they patch the
security issues as they become known. Compatibility issues can also be addressed through system
updates. Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender can also keep themselves updated
through use of Windows Update if they are not updated manually.
Scheduling and Turning them On and Off

You can schedule updates to run at certain times or turn them off and on manually from the
security center in Windows XP or the Windows Update control panel in Windows 7.
Windows XP
Click on Start > Control Panel > Security Center > Automatic Updates. Once you are here, you can
select Automatic and then select when you want them to run. You can also select the Other Options
which includes the option to Turn Off Automatic Updates. Turning off Automatic Updates assumes
you will update them manually. This is not recommended unless you are having compatibility issues
between certain software and the updates that are being automatically installed.

Click the "Start" button and type Update into the search box and click the "Windows Update" link
when it shows up. This can also be reached by Start > Control Panel > Windows Updates. In the left
pane you can click Change Settings and within here you can set the time for automatic updates to
run as well as turn them off. Turning off automatic updates assumes you will update the system
manually; however, it’s not recommended unless you are having compatibility issues between
certain software and the updates that are being automatically installed.
Types of Updates
Updates come in a variety of types, some are system based, some are security based, and there
are other types as well. Windows, however, divides them into two large categories. These two
categories are the same in Windows XP and Windows Vista and Windows 7, even though they are
named differently. Express (Important) and Custom (Optional) are their names. Express (Important)
is going to include things like security and compatibility updates. Custom (Optional) will include
things like software and driver updates. Microsoft Update is another service that provides updates
to Microsoft software such as Office, Visual Studio, and many others. Microsoft Update is accessed
through a website in Windows XP, and can be reached by entering Microsoft Update in your search
engine of choice. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, enter the Update configuration menu by
clicking Start, typing Update in the run box, and selecting Windows Update when it shows up. In
the left pane, select Change Settings and then select Give Me Updates for Microsoft Products. You
may also want to check for new optional Microsoft software when you update the Windows Check
Box. After you’ve made your selections click OK.
— CHAPTER 19: Windows Update —
Service Packs
Service packs are collections of updates and potential changes to the core
functionality of Windows. These changes can be relatively simple things like
changing the security profiles or disabling services by default. They can also
be major changes like rebuilding the entire wireless interface, like Service
Pack 2 for Windows XP did. Most service packs are pushed out through
Windows Update but you can find them on Microsoft’s website as well.
20. USER ACCOUNT CUSTOMIZATION

Introduction
User account User account separation is not only a Windows feature, but a feature of most
A collection of data modern computers and computer-based systems. There are several reasons for
associated with a
user account separation, some of them are: security; separation of documents
particular user of a
computer, network or and interests; performance; and, even ease of maintenance.
information service.
User Roles
A user role is their status within a system or a computer. Standard users
may have access to use all of the system’s resources and add resources to
their own distinct profiles, but may not be able to add resources to the
system. Guest users cannot add resources or make changes to anything, but
can, however, use the system’s resources. Administrators will have complete
access and control over the system and other users.
Security Benefits
The security benefit of user roles on a system are that you can setup a
system with a lower level of access in a standard session. This helps secure
the system because most of the malware out there affects your system by
abusing the permissions of a system. Problems of this nature are called
privilege elevation problems or abuse of power. Using a system in this way
makes it much less likely that a virus can alter significant files because
without abusing an exploit in the system itself. This is because processes
spawned off of a user are restricted to the privilege level of that user. If a
guest user downloads a virus and the virus doesn’t have a way to elevate its
own privilege through an exploit, it cannot change any files on the system
because it does not have any permissions to do so. This method also secures
personal documents and media of a user from other users of the system.
UAC
UAC (User Account Control) was introduced in Windows Vista as a way to User Account Control
A technology that
increase the security level of the system. In Windows XP everything was run
improves the security of
as administrator by default, and many programs required administrator level Microsoft Windows by
access to even function. This approach bypassed most of the built-in security preventing unauthorized
of the Operating System. UAC required that programs requesting admin ac- system changes through
cess, even from the administrator account, obtain real-time verification from an administrator
password before
the user with permission to do so. This system, when used properly and not
performing any action.
turned off, significantly increased the base level of security of the computer.
User switching
User Switching A feature on a computer
operating system that
If you have multiple accounts setup on your computer, you can log off of the allows users to switch
machine and let other people log in. This is called user switching. Setting up between user accounts
"fast user switching" loads part of the profiles of different users and keeps it without quitting
in memory so that the profile switching occurs at a faster pace. applications and/or fully
logging out.
Parental Control
Parental controls in Windows 7 can be accessed by clicking Start > Control
Panel > User Accounts. Under user accounts, look for the option to Set up
Parental Controls. If you are prompted for the admin password, you will need
to provide it to continue. Click the user you wish to setup controls for and
under parental controls click on.
Once they’ve been turned on, you can adjust web restrictions and filter them
by age restriction. You can also adjust how you want to allow downloads,
what content you want filtered, and block specific websites. Time limits allow
you to control when the account is allowed to log into the machine. You
can also control what games the account is allowed to play and what type
of content you want to block. Finally, you can also block or allow specific
programs.
Clearing a Password
In Windows 7 and XP you can remove a user password by logging in as
an administrator and removing the password. If you are setup as the
administrator, you can access the hidden administrator account by logging in
under Safe Mode, hitting F8 before Windows loads (but after the BIOS screen
appears). After this, you can go into the user section in "Control Panel" and
remove the password.
Windows 7 and Vista also have a way to create a password recovery disc. First
click on Start > Control Panel, click User Accounts and Family Safety, and then
click on User Accounts. In the left pane you can click Create a password reset
disc. Be sure to store this disc in a safe place.
— Flow Charts —
Problem:
The Computer Will Not Turn On
Make sure the computer is correctly connected to a power source.
Securely Attach
Computer to No
Is It Connected?
Functioning Power
Source.
Yes
Use the Power Supply Tester on the Power Supply.
No
Replace the Power
Did it Pass?
Supply.
Yes
Check the Power Switch by Manually Bridging the Pins
No
Can You Start The
Replace the Switch.
Computer?
Yes
Disconnect all Components Except for the Motherboard and Processor.
Processor or No Yes Attach Components 1

Motherboard are Will the Computer
by 1 and Power Up Unit
Damaged and Will Need Power Up?
After Attachment.
Replacement.
Problem:
The Computer Will Not Boot
Check Computer Power.
See Flowchart : No
Computer Will Not Turn Does it Turn On?
On.
Yes
Check For Bios Function.
Remove Components
Attached to the No Does the Bios Yes
Test for OS Load
Motherboard Except for Splash Screen
Attempt.
the CPU, PSU, and Appear?
Memory.
No Yes
Test the Memory and Does it Try to Load Test for OS Load
Check for Bios Function With Components Removed
the Hard Drive. the OS? Success.
Remove the Install

No Yes Make Sure the OS Not Found / No
Memory and Does the Bios Components 1 by
Correct Hard Drive Insert System Did the OS Start to
Check for No Splash Screen 1 Until Offending
is Set to the First Disk / NTDLR Load?
Memory Installed Appear? Component is
Boot Device. Missing
Error Beep. Found.
Yes
If the Is the Correct Yes

Yes
Motherboard has Test For a Bad Replace Bad Drive Set to the Test the Hard
Problem Solved.
a Speaker, Did it Memory Stick. Component. First Boot Drive.
Beep? Device?
No No
Replace Yes
Motherboard or Set Primary Drive Does the Drive Replace the
Test Ram in to Boot Device. Return Any Errors? Defective Drive
Another Machine.
No
Run Fixboot and
FixMBR from
Restart at the Top
the Command Line
of the Decision
Environment on
Tree.
the Windows
Install Disk
— Flow Charts —
Problem:
Display Doesn’t Turn On
Check the Monitor Connections
Is the
Attach the Cables and No Monitor
Start Restart at the Top Plugged in and
of the Decision Tree. Connected to the
PC?
Yes
Test the Monitor and the Video Card by Hooking Up a Spare Monitor.
Does the Yes

Test a Spare Video No Other Monitor Show Replace or Repair the
Card In the Machine. Anything When Monitor.
You Test It?
Yes
Does the Spare
Replace the Video
Card Activate the Problem Solved.
Card.
Monitor?
No
See Flowchart:
Computer Will Not Boot.
Problem:
The Computer Restarts During OS Load
Read the Blue Screen Error Code
Disable Automatic No Can You Read the

Reboot. Error Code?
Yes
Search the Error Code in Your Search Engine of Choice.
Hardware Test Hard Drive, Ram,

Test the Ram and the Software
Is it Software or PSU, and any other
Hard Drive, these can
Hardware Related? Indicated Components
Mimic Software Errors.
by Using a Spare.
Replace Failed No Replace Failed No

Components and Did Your Hardware Components and Did Your Hardware
Restart at the Top of the Pass the Tests? Restart at the Top of the Pass the Tests?
Decision Tree. Decision Tree.
Yes
Yes
No
Does Your OS Boot
Boot Into Safe Mode. Boot the OS.
Up?
Yes
Use Recovery Console

No
or Command Line on
Can You Boot Into
the Windows Install Disk Problem Solved.
Safe Mode?
to Remove Drivers With
the ListSVC command.
Yes
Yes
If This Doesn’t Work
Use Safe Mode To
You Will Need to Back
Remove Recently Does Your OS Boot
up Your Data and Run a
Installed Drivers or Up?
Repair Install or Factory
Software.
Restore.
No
— Flow Charts —
Problem:
No Sound From Speakers
Check the Sound Connections.
Are the
Attach the Cables and No Speakers
Start Restart at the Top Connected to
of the Decision Tree. the Computer and
to Power?
Yes
Test the Speakers Themselves. Hook a Pair of Headphones Into the

Speaker Jack.
Open the Mixer by No Yes

Double Clicking the
Do They Produce
Speaker Icon and Replace Your Speakers.
Sound?
Check to See That They
are not Muted.
Yes
Were They Muted?
No
Check to Make Sure

There Is a Sound Driver
Installed. Open the
Device Manager and
Under Sound and Game
Controllers There
Should be a few Entries.
No Yes Visit Your Computer

Was There A
Go Into the Machine’s Manufacturer’s Website,
Yellow Exclamation
Bios and Make Sure the Download and Install
Mark in Audio
Audio Is Enabled. the Audio Driver from
Devices?
their Support Page.
Is this Windows XP? If

so you may Need to Has an Audio Yes
Install the Microsoft Device Appeared in
Problem Solved
UAA Framework. Find the Device
it on Google and Install Manager?
it.
No
Consider Replacing
Audio Card or
Motherboard.
Problem:
The Rom Drive Will Not Open
Check the Drive for Activity.
Check the Drive’s

No Do Drive Lights
Power Connection and
Blink When
Start at the Top of the
Powered Up?
Decision Tree.
Yes
Use a Paperclip to Trip the Manual Release on the Drive.

It is a Small Hole on the Front of the Drive.
No
Does Pressing
Replace the Drive the Access Button
Close the Drive?
Yes
Test Further
Functionality.
No
Does Pressing
the Button Open the
Drive?
Yes
Does the Drive Work?
Yes
No
Does it Show Up
in Windows and Problem Solved.
Read Disks?
— Glossary —
24-pin connector Active heatsink

The main power cable of the ATX motherboard consisting of An active heatsink cooling system is an integral cooling
24 pins. The new ATX motherboard version, the ATX12V 2.0 component in most electronic devices, incorporating a normal
introduced the 24-pin connector to the power supply industry, heat sink with a cooling fan.
providing additional 3.3V, 5V and 12V power supply.
Add/Remove Programs
32-bit A Microsoft Windows function found in the control panel that
A binary file format term in computer architecture where each enables users to modify or delete Windows Installer based
basic unit of information is defined on 32-bits, or 4 bytes. In applications.
Microsoft Windows, 32-bit defines the way on how the system
accesses groups of memory, which is in 32-bit chunks or 4 Administrator
bytes. An administrator, usually called the systems administrator,
is the person responsible for the smooth operation and
4-pin 12 volt connector maintenance of a computer system or a network of computers.
A 4-pin 12 volt connector requires a 4-pin 12 volt cable that
has two black wires and two yellow wires, and is used to Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)
provide power to the motherboard. The 4-pin 12 volt connector See ACPI
powers ATX12V motherboards and also provides the 12V2
Adware
voltage on dual 12 volt rail power supplies.
Also known as "sponsored" freeware, adware is the common
64-bit term used to describe a software package in which advertising
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or banners are displayed while the program is running. It can also
other data units are those that are at most 64 bits (8 octets) be used to describe a type of malware that specializes in popup
wide. The new 64-bit Microsoft Windows can efficiently access ads on the host computer system.
larger amounts of random access memory than the previous
Aero
32-bit system, allowing it to run faster and handle more
Windows Aero is the graphical user interface of Windows
applications and programs simultaneously.
Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. Compared with the
80 plus program previously used theme (Luna), Aero features a much cleaner,
An energy efficiency program that certifies power supplies more powerful and efficient user interface which includes live
which are 80% energy efficient or more when running at 20%, thumbnails, animations, translucent title bars and stylish color
50% and 100% of their rated loads. schemes.
A+ AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)

A vendor-neutral certification overseen by CompTIA. The See Accelerated Graphics Port
certification demonstrates competency as a computer
Algorithm
technician. Previous certifications were good for life but as of
A formula or set of procedures for solving a specific problem,
2011 they will expire every 3 years.
following a set of clear and absolute rules in a finite number of
Abort steps.
Stopping a running application or program before it finishes
AMD
functioning.
AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, is the second largest
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) manufacturer of PC microprocessors after Intel. They also make
An advanced graphics card expansion port designed for video flash memory, integrated circuits for networking devices and
cards and 3D accelerators, which introduces a dedicated point- programmable logic devices.
to-point channel so that the graphics controller can directly
Analog
access the main memory.
Describes technology that stores or transmits data in varying
Access types of signal. The received data can be anything between the
To use, open, or read and write data from digital sources. ranges of the transmission. This is the opposite of digital in
which the received data can only be 1 or 0.
ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
Describes the structures and mechanisms necessary to design Analog switch
operating system-directed configuration, power management Also called bilateral switch, an analog switch is an electronic
and thermal management of mobile, desktop and server component capable of switching or routing analog signals
platforms. It is an open industry specification co-developed by based on the level of a digital control signal. It performs a
HP, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix and Toshiba. function similar to that of a relay.
Anti-spam number of ways, depending on the attacker’s intent. Attacks

Methods that detect e-mail messages that are unsolicited can deny, degrade, disrupt or destroy information residing in
advertisements (spam). Various anti-spam techniques are computer systems and networks.
embedded in products, services and software to ease the burden
on users and administrators. ATX
An industry-wide specification for a desktop computer’s moth-
Anti-spyware erboard developed by Intel in 1995 to improve on the previous
A software designed to combat unwanted spyware program standard (Baby AT form factor) and allow for a more efficient
installations and remove these programs if installed. design, with disk drive cable connectors nearer to the drive
bays and the CPU closer to the power supply and cooling fan.
Anti-static mats
Specially made mats that channel static electricity away from Authentication
sensitive electronic components and onto a proper ground. They The process of identifying users so that they can gain access
are made of static-dissipative material which safely discharges in secure systems. User identities are usually authenticated
static electricity. through usernames and passwords.
Anti-static wrist strap Automated System Recovery (ASR)

A ground bracelet used by a person handling sensitive See ASR
electronic equipment to prevent electrostatic discharge (ESD)
by channeling static electricity to a proper ground. AutoPlay
A Microsoft Windows feature that allows computer’s CD ROMs
Anti-virus to play automatically when inserted. AutoPlay scans any
A software designed to detect, repair, clean, or remove removable device or media and takes appropriate action based
virus-infected files from a computer. It even helps repair the on the nature of the content.
damaged files left behind.
Autotransformer (variable voltage transformer)
Apparent power An electrical transformer with the primary voltage being
A measure of alternating current (AC) power that is computed constant while the secondary voltage is variable. It features a
by multiplying the root-mean-square (rms) current by the root- single winding coil, acting as both the primary and secondary
mean-square voltage. winding.
ASR (Automated System Recovery) Backdoor

A functionality offered by Windows XP and lower Microsoft O/S In computer systems, a backdoor refers to an undocumented
that can be utilized to simplify recovery of a computer’s system method of gaining access to a software application, online
or boot volumes. ASR only performs backup of data needed for service or an entire system. A backdoor is usually created by
restoring the system configuration state, and does not backup the programmer, built-in to the code, that will allow him to
user files or other data. bypass normal authentication and easily access the program or
system.
Asymmetrical internet connections
An Internet connection in which downstream data (from an Background
Internet server to the subscriber) flows over a broadband Refers to processes in the computer system running
satellite downlink, while upstream data (from the user to the automatically and continuously without the need for user
server) is sent over a twisted-pair telephone line. intervention. Background processes include system monitoring,
logging, user notification and scheduling.
ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface)
A special protocol developed for the purpose of connecting Batch file
storage devices such as CD-ROM drives and tape drives to the A set of DOS commands that automatically runs in sequence
ATA interface. once the batch file is executed. Batch files are usually created
to execute commands for operations that the user has a
ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) repeated need.
See ATAPI
Battery backup
Athlon A secondary source of power for the computer system that
AMD’s main microprocessor line developed to compete with serves to protect volatile data from being lost in case the
Intel Pentium CPUs, and was the first processor to be shipped system is disconnected from its primary source of power.
in a 1 gigahertz (one billion clock speed) version.
BD-ROM
Attack Refers to Blu-ray discs, the newest optical storage media that
In computer terminology, an attack is defined as any malicious can store larger amounts of data than DVD. Blu-ray discs store up
intrusion that targets a computer system, affecting it in a
— Glossary —
to 25GB per layer and up to 50 GB on the new dual layer discs. floppy disks and other bootable media such as CDs and DVDs.
Boot sector viruses can cause startup and data retrieval errors.
Binary
A numeric system that uses only two unique digits, 0 and 1, Botnet
to represent real numbers. Computers use the binary numeric A network of computers or software agents that has been
system to perform mathematical operations and processes. remotely and discreetly set up to simultaneously and
automatically forward data transmissions to other computers on
BIOS the Internet.
BIOS, or Basic Input/Output System, is an independent,
built-in software that a computer uses to successfully start Broken installations
operating. A failed installation attempt of any software or program
application due to system conflict or incompatibility issues. A
Bit broken installation also occurs when the installation process
Bit, short for binary digit, represents the smallest unit of stops unexpectedly and only a part of the software has been
digital information. A single bit can hold only one of two installed.
values—0 or 1.
Brownout
Bit rate As an electrical term, brownout is defined as a drop in
Bit rate, measured in bits per second, refers to the number of bits voltage in an electrical power supply. This usually occurs when
that pass a given point on a network in a given amount of time. electrical utilities can’t meet the load demand and must limit
the maximum power by lowering the voltage.
BitLocker
A security feature in Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7, Brute-force attack
Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. BitLocker is In computer security, this refers to the exhaustive search of
designed to protect data from unauthorized access by providing every possible code key until the correct key is found. This
full encryption for entire volumes. involves trying every possible code, password or combination
until the right one is discovered.
Bitstreaming
The process of transferring an entire encoded audio stream to Burn
another device, usually an A/V receiver, which then decodes the In computing, burn is a slang term for optical disc authoring,
audio stream into individual, separate channels. which is the process of recording or writing data onto an
optical disc. The content can be data, audio or video, and these
Bloatware
need to be assembled into the proper logical volume format
Software that is overpacked with a lot of features, requiring
before it can be burned on optical discs.
significant amounts of disk space and RAM. This kind of
software also leave a larger installation footprint, but usually Byte
offering little or no benefit to users. In computing, a byte is the abbreviation for binary term, a
basic unit of digital storage which is equal to eight bits.
Blue screen
The error state of Windows 95/98/NT that displays an error Cable internet
message and causes the monitor’s screen to turn blue. The In telecommunications, cable internet is a type of broadband
computer system also becomes completely unresponsive and internet connection that uses the cable television system
requires the user to reboot the system. network. Cable internet provides a much greater bandwidth
than telephone lines, allowing users to achieve extremely fast
Blu-ray
Internet access.
The new optical storage format that has a storage capacity
more than five times that of traditional DVDs. Blu-ray was Cable select
developed to allow recording, rewriting and playback of high- A drive mode that automatically configures itself as a master or
definition (HD) video. slave, according to its position on the cable. It is an alternate
method of identifying the master and slave devices on ATA/ATAPI
Boot
systems through the master/slave jumpers.
The process of loading the very first software, usually the
operating system, when starting a computer. Cache
In computer engineering, cache is a special high-speed storage
Boot partition
component that transparently stores data so that it can be
A segment of the computer’s hard drive that contains the files
accessed faster when it is needed. The cache can either be
needed by the computer system to startup.
a reserved section of the computer’s main memory or an
Boot sector virus independent storage device.
A computer virus that infects the first sector of hard disks,
Capacitor Clipboard
In electronics, a capacitor is a component that stores electrical A short-term data storage facility where data is temporarily
energy, consisting of two conductors and an insulator, or stored before it is copied to another location. The clipboard
dielectric. Capacitors are primarily used for allowing alternating is usually part of a graphical user interface environment and
current to pass and blocking direct current. is primarily used by word processors for copying and pasting
information.
CAS Latency (CL)
CL, or CAS latency, stands for Column Address Strobe latency Clock
and refers to the delay between the time a memory controller In electronic and synchronous digital circuits, a clock is defined
instructs the memory module to access the correct column of as a signal that oscillates between a low and high state,
the memory matrix to the time the data from the array location and is used as a fixed constant source of signal frequency to
is available on the module’s output pins. coordinate circuit actions.
CD-ROM Clock speed

CD-ROM, or Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, is an optical The rate at which a microprocessor executes instructions, and is
storage medium capable of storing large amounts of data. expressed in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz).
CD-ROMs contains data that can be accessed using a CD-ROM
player on a computer. Clock Multiplier
See CPU Multiplier
Celeron
The brand name of the Intel microprocessor line designed for Clone
low-cost basic computer systems. The Celeron microprocessor is In computing, a clone is a complete and exact copy of a drive,
based on the same architecture as the Pentium II but it lacks software or database environment. Cloning is usually conducted
some high-performance features of the Pentium II line. for backup, testing or development purposes.
Central Processing Unit (CPU) Cloning drive

The CPU, or central processing unit, is the part of the computer The process of copying the entire content of a hard drive to
system that processes the system’s functions and executes the another hard drive. The copy includes all the partition details,
instructions of installed software, programs and applications. boot sector, the file allocation table, the operating system
It’s speed and power are determined by three intrinsic factors: installation and software applications.
clock speed, bandwidth and instruction set.
Cluster
Chipset In computing, a cluster is defined as a set of interlinked
In computer engineering, a chipset refers to a set of integrated computers, working together with the primary objective of
circuits specially designed to work together and perform one or improving system performance and availability.
more computing functions. These are usually specialized chips
CMD (Command line)
mounted on a computer’s motherboard.
In Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7, CMD is
CHKDSK the command line shell. CMD is one of the command interpreter
A command run utility in DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows versions and provides additional environment variables.
operating systems used to check the integrity of the file system
and hard drives. The chkdsk command can also fix logical file CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)
system errors and can also check the surface of the disk for CMOS, or Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor, is a
physical errors, also called bad sectors. semiconductor technology used to construct integrated circuits
of microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM and other
Cipher digital logic circuits.
A series of well-defined steps, that can be used to perform
data encryption or decryption. The purpose of the cipher is Codec
to conceal the readability and meaning of data or reveal the Any technology, whether software or hardware, used for
meaning of the encrypted content. compressing and decompressing data.
Circuit board Command line (CMD)

In electronics, the circuit board is used to mechanically support See CMD
electronic components and provide conductive pathways
Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
through an etched copper layer laminated on a non-conductive
See CMOS
material, such as glass, fiber and epoxy.
Compressed air
CL (CAS Latency)
A gas or a gaseous compound, that has been put under greater
See CAS Latency
pressure than the air in the surrounding environment. It is
— Glossary —
typically used to clean computer systems and dust electronic designed for laptops and had the code-name Yonah.
components.
CPU (Central Processing Unit)
Computer virus See Central Processing Unit
A program, or code on a computer system that can replicate
itself and transfer from one computer to another over a CPU Multiplier
network. Viruses can subvert normal files and can disrupt, Measures the ratio of an internal CPU clock rate to the
degrade and destroy data on computer systems. externally supplied clock. A CPU with a 10x multiplier will see
10 internal cycles for every external clock cycle. Most systems
Computer worm allow the clock multiplier to be changed in the BIOS, and by
A self-replicating computer program that exploits security increasing the clock multiplier the CPU clock speed will increase
vulnerabilities in computer systems and automatically spreads without affecting the clock speed of other components.
itself to other computers, or nodes, over the network.
Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
Config.sys A type of computer security breach typically found in web
A primary system configuration file used by DOS and OS/2 upon applications that enables malicious attackers to inject client-
system startup. It is a specialized text file containing commands, side script into web pages viewed by other users.
configuration and setup instructions for computer systems.
CUDA
Contrast ratio CUDA, or Compute Unified Device Architecture, is the
In reference to computer monitors, the contrast ratio is the computing engine architecture that powers NVIDIA graphics
measurement of the difference in light intensity between the processing units (GPUs). CUDA provides software developers
brightest color (brightest white) to that of the darkest color access to the virtual instruction set and memory of parallel
(darkest black) that the system is capable of reproducing. computational elements in CUDA GPUs.
Control Panel Cursor

In many computer interfaces, the control panel is a system An indicator, usually an arrow, consisting of a movable spot
utility application that lets users modify and configure many of light to show the position on a computer monitor that will
system settings and parameters. respond to input from a text input or pointing device.
Controller Custom updates

In computing, a controller is a device that controls the transfer The process of updating your computer without manual
of data from a computer to a peripheral device, such as a intervention and lets you choose only those updates you want
monitor, keyboard and printer. Controllers are designed to to install. Custom updates are usually conducted through the
communicate with the computer’s expansion bus architecture Internet.
to be able to properly interface the external devices with the
computer. Data buffer
A temporary storage location used when moving data from an
Cooling systems input device (such as a mouse) or just before it is sent to an
Devices that help dissipate heat produced by computer output device (such as a speaker) or between processes within
components and keep them within safe operating temperature the computer.
limits.
Data bus
Core An internal channel that carries data to and from the processor
Refers to the Intel Core brand of various mid-range and high- or to and from the memory.
end personal and business microprocessors. The very first Core
brand was Intel’s 32-bit mobile dual core x86 CPUs derived from Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)
the Pentium M microprocessor line. A set of specifications for high speed, full duplex data
communications over CATV networks that transport data over a
Core 2 Duo cable plant that utilizes QAM and/or QPSK RF modulation.
Refers to Intel’s Core 2 microprocessor line containing two
(2) cores, or individual processors in a single die. The Core DDR (Double Data Rate)
2 Duo microarchitecture provides more execution units and A clocking technique that utilizes clock signals to increase the
efficient decoding stages while increasing processing power and transfer speed of data at twice the speed of regular SDRAM chips
reducing power consumption. by using both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal.
Core Duo DDR2 memory

The Intel Core Duo is one of the products of Intel’s Core The next-generation DDR memory that can send data faster
microprocessor line. The original Core Duo was exclusively and more efficiently on both the rising and falling edges of the
processor’s clock cycles.
DDR2 SDRAM interface number 1) and non-positive (represented by 0).

A high-performance main memory that enables higher clock
and data rate operations along with reduction in power Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
consumption in a smaller package, commonly used in personal A high-speed Internet service like cable Internet that transmits
computers and various digital electronics today. digital information on a copper wire pair. It provides high-
speed networking and allows Internet and telephone service to
DDR3 memory work simultaneously.
A random access memory technology that is being used for
high speed storage of the working data of a computer or other Digital Visual Interface (DVI)
digital electronic device using lower power consumption and A digital interface created by the Digital Display Working Group
heat dissipation. to convert analog signals into digital signals to accommodate
both analog and digital monitors in a single connector.
DDR4 memory
The improved version of DDR3 SDRAM which is said to be released DIMM (Dual In-Line Memory Module)
this 2012. It is currently in its design state but expected to A small printed circuit board that contains several random
perform a lot better and faster than its predecessor. access memory (RAM) chips.
Decryption DirectCompute
The process of decoding data (plaintext) that has been created A general-purpose computing application programming
into a secret format (ciphertext). interface on graphics processing units that runs on both
Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Defragmentation
The process of consolidating fragmented data on your Disk
computer’s hard disk, rearrange the fragments and restore them A round plate memory device consisting of a flat disk covered
into fewer fragments. with a magnetic coating on which data can be encoded. There
are two basic types of disks: optical disks and magnetic disks.
Delete
A computer terminology which means to erase or remove Disk Operating System (DOS)
something that is already written such as files, folders or The first widely-installed operating system for personal
documents from your hard drive. computers. DOS is often used as shorthand for MS-DOS or
Microsoft Disk Operating System.
Density
Spatial property of being crowded together or how tightly infor- Disk readers
mation is packed together on a storage medium (tape or disk). In computing, disk readers refer to external or internal devices
used to read digitized program on disks.
Desktop
Main screen in Windows where you can put icons of commonly DiskPart
used items such as pens, papers and folders that act like A command-line hard disk partitioning utility included in
shortcuts to various programs. versions of the Windows NT operating system line from Windows
2000. It replaces the fdisk command used in MS-DOS based
Destructive Restores operating systems.
Method that is performed when there is a serious problem
with your existing software installation that a normal DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification)
troubleshooting does not resolve. Typically used when a virus See Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification
has infected your computer.
DOS (Disk Operating System)
Device manager See Disk Operating System
An administrative tool that lets you manage your computer. The
Double Conversion on Demand UPS
device manager is used to view and change device properties,
The combination of any two or more network topologies that
update device drivers, configure device settings, and even
operates as an off-line/standby UPS when power conditions are
uninstall devices.
within a certain preset window.
Dial up connections
Double Conversion UPS
A temporary, non-dedicated Internet connection from an end
The best class of UPS available from a technology standpoint
user to an Internet service provider made over ordinary telephone
that constantly conditions and controls AC output during
lines by dialing an Internet service provider’s number.
normal operating conditions.
Digital
Double Data Rate (DDR)
Describes electronic technology that stores, generates and
See DDR
processes data in two states: positive (represented by the
— Glossary —
Double pumped the data being sent. ECC RAM tests the accuracy of data as it
In computing, double pumped refers to a computer bus transfer passes in and out of memory.
technique that effectively doubles the data transfer rate on
both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal. Electromigration
The result of the transfer of momentum from electrons through
Download internet speed the electric field to the ions which make up the interconnective
The amount of bytes of data an Internet connection can material.
transfer per second during downloading.
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)
Drive-by attack The sudden, rapid transfer of electric current between two
A program that is automatically downloaded to your computer objects or surfaces that have come into direct contact with one
without your consent and without understanding the another or are close enough to develop a high electrostatic
consequences, like installing an unknown ActiveX component or field between them.
Java applet.
Encryption
Driver rollback The process of transforming data using an algorithm into non-
A computer feature that provides users with an easy way to readable information which only a recipient with the correct
revert to the previous version of the driver in question if there key can unlock and read.
are problems with the current version.
End User License Agreement (EULA)
Drivers The legal agreement between a software or program author and
Programs that enable your computer to communicate with the end user and/or the purchaser.
peripheral devices such as printers, scanners, keyboards, mice,
tape devices, microphones and external modems. Error Correction and Control (ECC) RAM
See ECC RAM
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
See Digital Subscriber Line ESD (Electrostatic Discharge)
See Electrostatic Discharge
DSLAM
The termination point for the ISP’s network and the end of their EULA (End User License Agreement)
backbone. See End User License Agreement
Dual booting system Exabyte

A computer that has two operating systems, each installed on A massive unit of computer data storage, 2 to the 60th power
separate drive volumes. Dual booting permits users to test a bytes, or one quintillion bytes. Exabyte uses the unit symbol EB
new operating system or to run multiple software that cannot and when used in byte multiples indicates a power of 1,000.
otherwise run simultaneously on a single environment.
Executable file
Dual channel Computer file that is used to perform various functions and
A development in motherboard and chipset design that allows operations according to encoded instructions.
the increase in bandwidth transfer when using two or more
Expansion Cards
memory modules in separate transfer channels.
An expansion card, also called adapter, is a printed circuit
Dual In-Line Memory Module (DIMM) board that can be installed in a computer to provide the system
See DIMM with additional functionalities or capabilities.
DVD disks Expansion Slot

A digital medium optical disc technology with a 4.7 gigabyte Long, narrow sockets located on the motherboard inside the
storage capacity made from polycarbonate substrates with computer that allows expansion cards, or adapters, to be
reflective metallized layer and protective lacquer coating. connected to it.
DVD-ROM (Digital Video Disc) Express updates

Read Only Memory on a compact disk that can hold a minimum Software or operating system feature that will automatically
of 4.7 GB; enough for a full-length movie. check for software updates or newer versions online.
DVI (Digital Visual Interface) External drive

See Digital Visual Interface Device that reads and writes data onto a disk contained in a
separate enclosure from the computer system. Some examples
ECC RAM (Error Correction and Control RAM) of external drives include hard drives, optical drives and
A type of memory that includes special circuitry to validate magnetic disk drives.
External enclosure deleted or damaged. Deleted files can be recoverable but

A specially designed chassis that secures and provides power damaged files can only be recovered if the data has not been
to external hard drives. External enclosures also allow the hard corrupted.
drive to communicate with computer systems.
Fin
External hard drives A metallic alloy, usually an aluminum compound, used in
Stand-alone magnetic disk drive having its own power supply heatsinks to provide a larger coverage area to draw heat away
and fan mounted outside the computer system enclosure and from sensitive electronic components, such as microprocessors.
connected to the computer by a cable. Cooling fans are sometimes used to dissipate heat better and
faster from heatsink fins.
Factory Restore
Refers to the full reset of a computer system back to its factory Firewall
settings by using the included restore media. A system of programs configured at a computer network’s
gateway that protects the resources of that network from other
Fan controller external networks.
Electronic devices used to slow down CPU cooling fans and
precisely select optimum fan speed. Fan controllers use FireWire
an inline diode or resistor to produce fixed fan speeds and A high speed data transfer technology often used for
potentiometers to allow variable fan speeds. connecting digital cameras to computers. FireWire provides a
single plug-and-socket connection on which up to 63 devices
Fans can be attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 Mbps.
Active cooling devices attached to a computer case or a specific
component, such as a heatsink. Computer fans can draw cool FireWire port
air into the CPU chassis or channel warm air from the inside of Serial port connections that transfer large amounts of data
the case. rapidly from one electronic device to another using FireWire
technology. Data transfer rates through FireWire ports can reach
FAT (File Allocation Table) up to 400 Mbps while still providing excellent quality.
Computer file system architecture that is in wide use today due
to its straightforward format and its ability to support many Fishing (phishing)
different system platforms. A phrase used to describe the malicious activities of an
individual or group of individuals that scam users into revealing
Feature updates confidential information, such as credit card numbers or
Online software service that enables users to keep their passwords.
software current and obtain new features for their software or
operating systems. FixBoot
A Recovery Console command that writes a new partition
Ferroresonant transformer boot sector to the specified system partition. It is useful for
Special type of laminated transformer that supplies a regulated repairing or replacing important operating system files.
output voltage or current which remains constant despite
changes in input voltage and load. FixMBR
A command using the Recovery Console that repairs the master
Fiber optic connection boot record of the boot disk and writes a new master boot
Uses fiber optic cables to transmit data and has the highest record to the hard disk drive.
data sending rates of any communication infrastructure.
Flash Drive
Fiber to the Node (FTTN) A small storage device that has a built-in USB connection and
A broadband network term configuration that uses fiber optic can be used to transfer files from one computer to another.
cables to bring data to a node in last mile telecommunications Flash drives act as portable hard drives but they are smaller and
and uses copper as the final connection. more durable, containing no moving parts.
Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) Floppy Disk

Uses optical fiber to replace all or part of the usual metal local A flexible plastic disk coated with magnetic material and
loop to connect the carrier directly to the subscriber’s home or covered by a protective jacket used to save data or install
office, providing very high Internet speed and quality. programs on your computer.
File Allocation Table (FAT) Format

See FAT To prepare a storage device, such as a hard drive, for reading
and writing data. There are two types of formatting procedures;
File recovery
low-level and high-level formatting.
The process of restoring file integrity once a file has been
— Glossary —
Fragmentation Ground
Breakdown of files into pieces scattered around a hard disk Any conductive objective connected to the zero potential, the
that occurs over time as you save, change, or delete files. This common return path for any electrical current.
can eventually cause the computer to slow down as the system
begins to store parts of a file in non-contiguous clusters. GUI (Graphical User Interface)
See Graphic User Interface
Front-side bus (FSB)
The FSB, also called the system bus, is an electrical pathway Hacker
on a computer’s motherboard that connects the computer’s A proficient programmer or engineer with sufficient technical
processor to the system memory (RAM) and other components. knowledge to determine the weaknesses of a security system
and to exploit these weak points and break into computers or
FTTN (Fiber to the Node) networks, either for profit or motivated by the challenge.
See Fiber to the Node
Hard Drive
FTTP (Fiber to the Premises) Non-removable, magnetic data storage device that stores all the
See Fiber to the Premises data where files and folders are physically located. It consists
of nonvolatile, random access memory.
Full coverage warranty
A comprehensive warranty that completely covers the repair or Hard drive cooler
replacement of a consumer product. Cooling device used for any always-on server computers as well
as any computer which experiences a lot of hard drive usage to
Garbage collection protect stored information and increase system stability.
A process to manage the allocation and release of memory
for application. Its purpose is to reorganize or recover system HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)
resources to prevent failure due to resource starvation. Compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed
digital data. HDMI is used to transfer digital video signal from
General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units a source to a TV, converting the digital signal to analog.
(GPGPU)
The technique of using Graphic Processing Units (GPUs), Heat pipes
primarily used for computer graphics, to perform computations Thin, sealed metal tubular devices that combine the principles
of general applications usually handled by the CPU. of both thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently
manage the transfer of heat between two solid interfaces.
Gigabyte (GB)
A measure of computer data storage capacity and is “roughly” a Heat sink
billion bytes, 2 to the 30th power bytes. Device used to transfer heat generated within a solid material
to a fluid medium such as air or water. Heat sinks dissipate
Gigahertz heat away from sensitive electronic components to prevent
Gigahertz is equal to 1,000 megahertz (MHz) and is used as an damage.
indicator of the frequency of UHF and microwave EM signals.
Gigahertz is also used to express microprocessor clock speed. Heat spreader
External casing usually made of aluminum specially designed to
GPGPU (General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing cover an electronic device and dissipate heat.
Units)
See General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units Hertz
A unit of frequency. Specifically, hertz is one cycle per second.
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
Used for computing 2D or 3D graphic display functions. Display Hex
adapters contain one or more GPUs for fast graphics rendering Hex, or hexadecimal, refers to a number system in which the
and for realistic games and video. base used is 16. The system consists of 16 symbols - the
numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to F.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
A program interface that makes use of graphical icons, Hibernate
windows, menus and visual indicators as opposed to text- Power management feature provided in some operating systems.
based interfaces, to make it easy for humans to interact with It allows the operating system to close down automatically
computers. when the computer is not in use and store the data currently in
memory on the hard drive, although the computer itself remains
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) switched on.
See GPU
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
See HDMI
HT (Hyperthreading) Kernel
Technology developed by Intel Corporation that enables a The central module of an operating system that provides all
processing core to execute two or more threads, or sets of the essential functions needed by applications and system
instructions, at the same time. components. The kernel oversees memory management, disk
management and process management.
Hybrid sleep
An improved Windows Vista feature that combines sleep and Key logger
hibernate. This feature puts any open documents and programs A type of surveillance software, either a software or spyware,
in memory or on the hard disk to ensure that system state is that has the capability to record keystrokes on a computer.
preserved in case of power loss.
Keyboard
IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) A hardware device consisting of alphanumeric and command
A standard electronic interface for mass storage devices where a keys used to enter data into a computer system.
parallel ribbon cable is used.
L1 cache
Image The L1 cache, also known as the “primary cache”, is the fastest
In computing, image refers to the visual representation of memory cache built into the CPU chip or microprocessor. The
the contents of a storage device (hard disk) or on the second computer loads frequently used pieces of data into the L1 cache
storage device (network server). enabling it to process requests much faster.
Install L2 cache
In computing, install is a term which means to connect or set The L2 cache, also known as the “secondary cache”, feeds the
in position and prepare for use such as installing software on a L1 cache. Its memory is slower than the L1 cache and resides
computer. on a separate chip from the microprocessor chip.
Intel L3 cache
The world’s largest manufacturer of computer chips and The extra cache built into motherboards that feeds the L2
microprocessors such as Pentium I, II, III, and IV. cache, and its memory is typically slower than the L2 memory.
Internet Protocol (IP) Lanes

The primary protocol that establishes the Internet. It is a Lanes, in the context of this guide, are memory channels for
communications protocol used for transmitting data packets the PCI Express interface. PCI Express interfaces consist of one
through internetworks and is responsible for routing packets to sixteen lanes which provide synchronous transmission and
across networks. reception of data. Version 1 had lanes of 250 MB/s, Version 2
has 500 MB/s, and Version 3 has 1 GB/s per lane.
IP (Internet Protocol)
See Internet Protocol Latency
In a computer system, latency often refers to any delay
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) or waiting time that a process, application or component
A non-governmental organization that is the world’s largest consumes while waiting for another process, application or
developer and publisher of International Standards, for many component to respond.
business and technologies, which include computing and
communications. Li-Ion
Lithium-Ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery
Jumpers composed of lithium, a solid metal element having the highest
A small, plastic-covered block set into a computer’s electrochemical potential. Lithium-Ion batteries are ideal for
motherboard or an adapter card to close a circuit by connecting portable devices such as mobile phones and laptop computers.
a pair of pins together in an electrical circuit.
Limited warranty
Junk files An agreement between a seller and a buyer in which the seller
Unwanted files accumulated from sources such as data files, agrees to pay for damage for a specific product under certain
text files, documents, databases and installed programs. limits, extents and conditions.
Junk files use unnecessary hard drive space, slowing down
computer’s speed and decreasing performance. Line-interactive UPS
A type of standby UPS that dynamically interacts with an AC
kB/s power source to smooth out waveforms and correct the rise and
kB/s, or kilobyte per second, is a unit of data transfer rate fall of voltage.
equivalent to 1,000 bytes per second.
— Glossary —
Linux rate equal to one million bits per second.

The family of Unix-like computer operating systems using the
Linux kernel. It is one of the most prominent examples of free Mechanical hard drives
and open source software. Storage devices that have moving or mechanical parts. The term
mainly refers to hard disk drives,which have rotating platters
ListSVC and read/write heads.
The listSVC command is a Recovery Console command that lists
the services and drivers available for enabling or disabling Megabits
when the system is booted. Refers to one million bits, and is a unit of measure for data
transfer rates.
LiveCD
A CD or DVD that contains a bootable, working copy of an Megabytes
operating system or application that is executed upon boot A unit of data transfer rate equivalent to one million bytes.
without installation on a hard drive.
Memory
Load The temporary storage area of a computer that holds data and
To install or mount a disk in a drive. Load also means to copy a instructions that the CPU, or central processing unit needs.
program from a storage device into the computer’s memory.
Memory bottleneck
Macro keys In computing, memory bottlenecks refer to a state of sustained
Keys typically found on the lower rows of early computer hard page faults, where the system is having difficulties
keyboards, either to the left of the "Z" key or to the right of locating data that an application needs.
the right Control key. These keys are mostly used by gamers as
Memory bus
rapid-fire buttons, to gain an edge over opponents.
The connection path used to transfer memory addresses and
mAh (milliampere-hour) data to and from the system RAM. It is made up of two parts:
An electrical unit used to describe the energy charge that a the data bus and the address bus.
device’s battery will hold and the length of time the device will
Mice
run before the battery needs recharging.
In computing, “mice” is plural for “mouse”, a small device
Main board that you can roll along hard and flat surface that controls the
See Motherboard movement of the pointer, cursor and display screen.
Malware MicroATX
Malware, or malicious software, refers to software programs A standard for motherboard systems that is designed to be
specifically designed to damage or disrupt a computer system. backward-compatible with ATX, a motherboard form factor
specification developed by Intel.
Man-in-the-middle
The phrase “Man-in-the-Middle Attack” is used to describe a Microphone
computer attack during which a cyber criminal funnels com- An electronic device that detects sound signals and produces an
munication between a consumer and a legitimate organization electrical image of the sound.
then retransmits them, substituting his own public key for the
Mini PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
requested one, so that the two original parties still appear to
A credit-card sized module that snaps onto the motherboard. It
be communicating with each other.
allows high-speed transfer peripheral connections in small form
Master factor devices such as laptop computers.
In computer architecture, master refers to a device that
Mini-ATX
controls one or more other devices, or slaves.
Mini-ATX motherboard is a smaller version of the full-sized
Master Boot Record ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) motherboard. It is a
A small program that is executed when a computer boots up. motherboard form factor specification designed with Mobile
It resides on the first sector of the hard disk and contains the on Desktop Technology (MoDT) that generates less heat and
necessary codes to start the boot process. requires less power.
MB/s Mirroring (RAID 1)

Stands for megabyte per second and is a unit of data transfer See RAID 1
rate equal to one million bytes per second.
MLC (Multi layer chip)
Mb/s A type of NAND flash memory that stores more bits per cell
Stands for megabit per second and is a unit of data transfer than SLC. It is cheaper to produce but more likely to have
errors due to the complexity of the manufacturing process. My Video

A Microsoft Windows folder where the system normally stores
Modem downloaded videos.
A device or program used for transmitting digital data from a
computer to a telephone or cable line in the form of analog. Network cards
There are two types of modem: internal and external modem. A piece of hardware or expansion card that allows the computer
to connect to a network. Examples of network cards are Ether-
Molex connector net cards, wireless network cards and Token Ring network cards.
A term used for a two-piece metal pin and socket
interconnection held in place by a nylon shell. It can be NiCd (nickel-cadmium)
arranged to support two to fifteen circuits. It is typically A type of rechargeable battery that uses nickel oxide hydroxide
used for IDE based drives or for adaptors into other types of and metallic cadmium electrodes. There are two types of NiCd
connections. batteries: sealed and vented.
Monitors Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH)

Electronic devices used to display the programs on a computer NiMh is a nickel metal hydride cell that uses a hydrogen-
for data processing. There are two main types of monitors: CRTs absorbing alloy (negative) and nickel hydride (positive). A
and LCDs. NiMh battery has a charge capacity of up to three times of an
equivalent-sized nickel-cadmium battery.
MosFets (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor)
A device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and is NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride)
designed to handle significant power levels. See Nickel Metal Hydride
Motherboard Non-destructive restores

The primary component of a computer that takes the form of In computing, a non-destructive restore refers to the resetting
a large printed circuit board which connects all of computers’ or re-installation of system files on a computer system
essential components such as CPU, controllers, memory, without affecting or deleting user data, installed drivers and
monitor, keyboard and expansion slots. applications.
MSCONFIG (Microsoft System Configuration) Non-volatile flash memory

A command utility used to troubleshoot Windows startup A type of computer memory that can retain stored information
process which modifies programs run at startup, edits certain even when power is removed from the system.
configuration files and simplifies controls over Windows
services. Ns (Nanosecond)
A nanosecond is 1 billionth of a second. Most ram timings and
Multi layer chip (MLC) latencies are measures in this unit.
See MLC
NT File System (NTFS)
Multimeter A standard file system of Windows NT that improves support
A very useful test instrument that measures electrical properties for metadata and uses advanced data structures to improve
such as AC or DC voltage, current, and resistance. performance and reliability such as transaction logs to help the
system recover from disk failures.
Multithreading
The ability of an operating system to create a new thread of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
execution within an existing program in a way that all threads The company that originally manufactured any product or com-
can run simultaneously. ponent which is purchased by another manufacturer or reseller
and retailed it under the purchasing company’s brand name.
My Computer
A section of Microsoft Windows that allows users to explore the Off-line Storage
content of their hard drives and manage files and folders. A storage medium that is removable and must be inserted into
a computer’s storage drive before it can be accessed. Off-line
My Documents storage cannot be accessed by the computer once removed.
A special Microsoft Windows folder on the computer’s hard drive
that stores documents, photos, music, videos downloads and OpenCL
other files. A framework for writing programs and gives any application
access to the graphics processing unit for non-graphical
My Pictures computer systems.
A Microsoft Windows folder where users can store images.
Operating System (OS)
A software consisting of programs that controls and manages
— Glossary —
hardware resources, keeps track of files and directories on the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
disk and handles the execution of software application and See PCI
programs installed on the computer system.
Permission
Optical disk writers In computing, permission is an authorization to access a file
A disk drive that uses laser to write data onto optical discs. or directory. Depending on the operating system, each file may
Optical disk writers also have the ability to read data from have different permissions for different kinds of access and
optical discs, and are called burners or writers. different users or groups of users.
Original Equipment Manufacturer(OEM) Petabyte

See OEM A unit of computer memory or data storage capacity equal to
250 bytes or approximately a thousand terabytes.
OS (Operating System)
See Operating System PF rating (Power Factor Rating)
The ratio of power available in a circuit to the apparent power
Overclock of the circuit. A higher power factor results in more efficient
Overclock occurs when a component runs at a faster clock rate use of energy and a lower factor indicates more wasted energy.
than it was designed or intended for by the manufacturer.
Phishing
PAE (Physical Address Extension) See Fishing
In computing, Physical Address Extension (PAE) is a function
that allows x86 processors to add a level to the page hierarchy Physical Address Extension (PAE)
and handle a larger physical memory address. See PAE
Parallel ATA (PATA) Piezo speaker (Piezoelectric speaker)

PATA, or Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment, is an IDE Small audio output devices frequently used as beepers in
standard for connecting storage devices such as hard drives and watches and other electronic devices, and are also used as
optical drives into computer systems. tweeters in less-expensive devices, such as computer speakers
and portable radios.
Partition
A reserved part of disk or memory set aside for some purpose, Ping (Roundtrip Latency)
normally done for manageability, performance or availability See Roundtrip Latency
reasons.
PIO (Programmed Input/Output)
Password A way of transferring data between two devices in a computer,
A secret string of letters or numbers, or a combination of both in which all data must pass through the processor.
used for authenticating user identity or gain access to a system
or resource. Pipeline
A technique used in advanced microprocessors that allows it to
PATA (Parallel ATA) read instructions in advance before executing them. Through
See Parallel ATA the pipeline, there are several instructions in various stages of
processing or are in line, ready for execution.
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
An interconnection system between a microprocessor and Pixel
attached devices designed by Intel and is used in both PCs and A word derived from “picture element” and describes a single
Macs. point in a graphic image. It is also the basic unit of program-
mable color on a computer display or in a computer image.
PCI Express (PCIe)
A high-speed expansion card format developed by Intel Corp. in Pixel-pitch
2004. It connects a computer system with attached peripheral Pixel-pitch is also known as dot pitch (phosphor pitch). It is a
devices and is abbreviated as PCIe or PCX. measurement that indicates the diagonal distance between like-
colored phosphor dots on a display screen.
Pentium
A widely-used personal computer microprocessor developed by Platter
Intel. First offered in 1993, Pentium is the successor to the A round magnetic plate that is a component of a hard disk.
486 microprocessor line as the microchip-of-choice in personal Each platter provides a top and bottom recording surface.
computer manufacturing.
Plug and Play Power supply

A phrase that refers to the ability of a computer system to Converts AC current to DC required by electronic circuits. It is
automatically configure expansion boards and other devices. a hardware component that supplies power to electrical devices.
The computer automatically recognizes the device, loads new
drivers for the hardware if needed, and begins to work with the Power supply efficiency
newly connected device. The efficiency of a power supply is determined by taking the
DC output of a power supply and dividing it by the AC input.
Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) connection The higher the power supply’s efficiency, the less power the
PPPoE connection (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) is a computer system will consume.
network configuration to connect a network of hosts, over a
simple bridging access device, to a Remote Access Concentrator. Power supply tester
A tool used to check the functionality of a computer’s power
Pointer supply.
In GUI, a pointer is a small arrow or other symbol on the
display screen that moves as you move the mouse or other PPPoE connection (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet)
graphical interface device. In programming, a pointer is a data See Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet connection
type having a value that directs or “points” to another value
Privileges
residing in a different location in the computer memory.
In computing, privilege is the identified right to use computer
Polling rate data or information in some degree or manner.
Polling rate, expressed in Hertz (Hz), is the number of times
Processor
an external, connected device “reports” information to the
See CPU
computer system. A mouse, for example, has a polling rate of
125 Hz. Profiling
A form of dynamic program analysis and investigation of a
Pop-up Menu
program’s behavior using information gathered as the program
An on-screen menu that appears automatically on top of the
executes.
existing text or image when you click the mouse button on a
selection. When a selection is made from a pop-up menu, the Program Files
menu usually disappears. A folder in a Windows computer system that contains
application subfolders. Upon installation, most applications
Port
create a new folder within the Program Files to hold their files.
In programming, port is a logical connection place. In
computer and telecommunication devices, it is an interface on Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
a computer in which a device can be connected. A modulation technique that generates variable-width pulses
to represent the amplitude of an analog input signal. The pulse
Port scanner
duration can be changed relative to fixed, leading or trailing,
A software program that scans a computer host or server
time edges or a fixed pulse center.
searching for open ports. Port scanners can be used as a
security measure, or, inversely, to compromise a system. Quad core
A quad core has four processing cores in a single chip that work
POST (Power-On Self Test)
simultaneously. The quad core is similar to a dual-core CPU, but
The initial set of diagnostic tests that the computer runs to en-
has four separate processors.
sure that essential system components are functioning properly.
Quad pumped
Power conditioner (line conditioner)
Quad pumped (double data rate) is a communication signaling
An electrical device configured between a computer and its
technique that transfers data on both the rising and falling
power supply, typically a wall outlet. Provides surge protection
edges of a clock signal and at two intermediate mid-points.
and maintains a continuous voltage fed to the computer during
brownout. Qualified Vendor Lists (QVL)
A manufacturer’s list of third party services or product vendors
Power-On Self Test (POST)
that have been approved as compatible with the manufacturer’s
See POST
own line of products and services.
Power strip
Quick Launch
Power strip, also known as a power bar, gangplug or multibox,
A customizable toolbar that lets Microsoft Windows users
is an electricity distribution device that turns a single AC wall
display the Windows Desktop or start a program. Users can also
outlet into several multiple units.
add their own shortcuts, files, and folders.
— Glossary —
QVL (Qualified Vendor Lists) Recycle bin

See Qualified Vendor Lists A section of a Windows operating system where the computer
temporarily stores deleted files and folders before they are
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) permanently deleted.
A method of storing data in different places on multiple hard
disks. There are at least nine types of RAID and one non- Refresh rate
redundant array type. The maximum number of times the image on a computer screen
can be refreshed per second, measured in hertz (Hz).
RAID 0 (Striping)
RAID 0 (Striping), or redundant array, is also called Striped Regedit (Registry Editor)
Disk Array without Fault Tolerance, a method of storing data on A powerful tool that allows users to view and change settings
multiple computer storage devices by spreading data to improve in the system registry that contains information about how
system performance. your computer runs.
RAID 1 (Mirroring) Registry cleaning

An arrangement of hard disks called mirroring that creates A software application that is designed to scan the Windows
an exact copy of a set of data on two drives. The RAID 1 disk Registry to look for outdated and invalid registry entries.
subsystem ensures data integrity and readability.
Registry Editor (Regedit)
RAID 10 See Regedit
RAID 10 is RAID 1 + 0 (A Stripe of Mirrors) or mirrored sets
in a striped set that provides fault tolerance and improved Repair Installation
performance but increases system complexity. A Microsoft Windows 7 feature that allows users to repair,
upgrade or reinstall their current operating system. The
RAID 5 procedure will not affect the system’s data, user accounts,
RAID 5 (Speed and Fault Tolerance) is one of the most popular applications and system drivers.
implementations of RAID that provides data striping at the byte
level as well as stripe error correction information. Resistor
An electronic component that limits and regulates the flow of
RAISE current in an electronic circuit.
(Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements)
A label for a RAID-like protection scheme at chip level that Resolution
protects against failure of the entire sector, page or block. The number of pixels (individual points of color) or dots on a
computer screen used to display an image.
RAM (Random Access Memory)
A type of memory device made up of small memory chips that Response
form a memory module. It is used for holding programs and Response, or output, is the result of a telecommunication input
data that will be executed. and can be in printed, audio or video format. Theoretically, a
response is any data exiting a computer system.
Read-Only Memory (ROM)
A non-volatile type of memory that can only be read as Revolutions per minute (RPM)
opposed to Random Access Memory (RAM) which can both be A unit of frequency that is used to measure rotational speed.
read and written. ROM retains all stored information even when It is measured by the number of full rotations in a fixed axis
power is turned off. completed in sixty seconds.
Readyboost Ribbon cable

A function in the Windows Vista operating system that allows A flat, thin, multi-conductor cable that contains many parallel
USB drives to be used as a backup memory. wires used for internal peripheral connections in an electronic
system.
Real power
In alternating current circuits, real power refers to the portion Rip
that results in the net transfer of energy in one direction, A term that means to copy an audio or audio-visual material
averaged over one complete AC waveform cycle. from an optical disc to your computer’s hard drive.
Recovery Console RMA (Returned Materials Authorization)

A Microsoft Windows command-line interface that enables users Aspecial alphanumeric code identifier. It is used by product
to recover or repair their Windows computer system from any manufacturers to monitor transactions and facilitate product
serious issues. returns. The RMA process usually refers to a consumer returning
a defective product within its warranty period.
ROM (Read-Only Memory) SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory)

See Read-Only Memory The generic name for various kinds of dynamic random access
memories (DRAM) that are synchronized with the clock speed of
Rootkit a microprocessor.
A set of software tools that keeps itself, other files, key registry
and network connections hidden from detection. Secure Shell (SSH)
A Unix-based command interface and protocol widely used by
Rotational delay network administrators to access a remote computer over a
The time required for rotating storage devices such as a disk or network securely with encryption.
other random access storage device to reach its position where
the read/write head can be positioned over the desired data. Security based updates
Software or hardware updates that use some form of validation
Roundtrip Latency (Ping) to confirm legitimate product buyers or verify the authenticity
The latency of the whole trip, the one-way latency from of software and hardware products.
source to destination plus the one-way latency back from the
destination to the source. Also known as ping. Security updates
Software patches widely released to fix known security-related
Safe Mode and product-specific vulnerabilities.
A diagnostic mode of a computer system that allows users to
troubleshoot windows and fix most, if not all problems within Seek time
the operating system. In computer hardware, seek time refers to the average time it
takes for a program or device to move the read/write from its
SandForce current location to a particular track on a disk.
A Saratoga, California-based private American Fabless
Semiconductor Company that designs and manufactures SSD Serial Port
processors for solid-state drives. A socket or interface on a computer used for connecting several
peripherals such as mice, gaming controllers, modems, and
SATA (Serial ATA) older printers.
Serial ATA, or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, is a
serial bus link interface that connects host bus adapters to Service pack
storage devices such as optical drives and hard disks. A collection of software updates and fixes applied to an
installed version of an application or operating system and can
SATA drive also provide enhancements for the application or software.
A device in computers used for storing files having a smaller
motherboard cable connection and are significantly faster than SFC (System File Checker)
external USB hard drives. A utility in Microsoft Windows that allows users to scan for and
restore corruptions in Windows system files. System File Checker
Satellite broadband also checks and repopulates the cache folder.
Offers two-way Internet access via a satellite in orbit and is
slower on both the uplink and downlink, as compared to a DSL Shaders
Internet service. A computer program or set of algorithms executed on a special
environment that determines how 3D surface properties of
ScanDisk objects are rendered, and how light interacts with the object
A DOS and Windows utility that detects and repairs different using a 3D computer program.
types of errors on hard disks. ScanDisk also recovers lost
clusters and turns them into .CHK files. Shared directory
A folder of files stored on a computer’s local hard disk made
Scareware accessible to multiple users or groups on a network. Shared
A type of malware designed specifically to disrupt a computer directory is the most common method of accessing and sharing
system and trick victims into purchasing and downloading information on a local area network (LAN).
useless and potentially dangerous software.
Signed driver
Screensaver A digitally signed device driver, in which the driver software is
An animated image that is activated on a computer screen associated with a digital certificate that allows identification of
when no user activity has been sensed for a certain time. It the driver’s publisher.
was originally designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and
plasma computer monitors. SIMM (Single In-Line Memory Module)
A memory module with a small circuit board that can hold six
to nine memory chips per board.
— Glossary —
Single level chip (SLC) brownout or blackout occurs.

A type of NAND flash memory that works by storing one bit
in each cell and offers lower-power consumption and faster Spybot
transfer speeds. A popular spyware and adware removal program that scans the
computer hard disk and RAM for malicious software.
Slave
Any device actuated or controlled by another similar device Spyware
known as master. Any software that aids in gathering user information without
the user’s knowledge, usually for advertising purposes.
SLC (Single level chip)
See Single level chip SSD (Solid State Drive)
See Solid state drive
Sleep
The partial deactivation of a terminal, computer or other device SSH (Secure Shell)
done to save power and can be awakened by sending a code or See Secure Shell
pressing the on button.
Standby Power Supply (SPS)
Small Outline DIMM (SO-DIMM) See SPS
A type of computer memory built using integrated circuits and
Start button
are used commonly in notebook computers.
Allows users to access computer programs or configure
Sniffing Microsoft Windows easily. It provides an easy way to open
A routine or practice in which keystrokes of a user’s computer software applications and start system tasks.
are being monitored by a remote computer.
Static electricity
Social engineering The buildup of electric charge on the surface of objects. A
The act of obtaining or gaining access to secure data by process called triboelectrification causes static electricity.
conning an individual into revealing secure information or
Storage
tricking an individual into breaking normal security procedures.
In computing, storage refers to computer components or
SO-DIMM (Small Outline DIMM) recording media designed to hold digital data. Storage is one of
See Small Outline DIMM the most essential components of a computer system.
Solid state drive (SSD) Stream

A high-performance, all-electronic plug-and-play storage device A technique used to transmit or transfer data in real time,
that stores persistent data on solid-state flash memory and is especially over the Internet.
used as an alternative to a hard disk drive.
Striping (RAID 0)
Sound card See RAID 0
A computer expansion board that enables the computer to
Subdirectory
manipulate the input and output of audio signals to and from a
A folder located directly within a folder, as well as a folder
computer under control of computer programs.
beneath another folder in a graphical user interface.
Spam
Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA)
An electronic junk mail sent to a mailing list or newsgroup for
A set of graphics standards designed to offer greater resolution
commercially advertising a product or service.
than VGA, supporting a palette of 16 million colors and a
Spike resolution of 800x600.
A burst of extra voltage, current or transferred energy in a
Surge protector
power line that lasts only a few nanoseconds.
A device that shields and protects any electronic device
Spoofing connected to it from power surges or transient voltage.
Tricking or deceiving computer systems or other computer users
Suspend states
by hiding one’s identity or faking the identity of another user
The low-power environment that a device is currently in, where
in the Internet.
the RAM is in a self-refresh state and an interrupt can wake the
SPS (Standby Power Supply) device at any time.
An AC back-up power source in which the power line switches
SVGA (Super Video Graphics Array)
to battery power as soon as it detects a problem or when a
See Super Video Graphics Array
Symmetrical internet connection in the transmission of data.

A type of Internet connection that allows users to upload and
download with the same speed simultaneously. Toolbar
A row of icons on a computer screen where buttons, menus
Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) or other input and output elements are placed. It activates
See SDRAM commands or functions when clicked.
System File Checker (SFC) Transfer rate

See SFC The amount of digital data transferred from one location to
another in a given time which is usually measured in bps.
System Restore
A component of Windows XP that allows the users to manually Transformer
create restore points or keep restore points during operations. A device used for transferring electrical electricity from one
circuit to another through inductively wired coils wrapped
System.ini around a core.
A file used by Microsoft Windows to initialize system settings
for the computer such as the keyboard, fonts, language and tRAS (the Row Active Time)
other settings. Defines the minimum number of clock cycles needed to access a
certain row of data in Random Access Memory (RAM), between
Task manager a bank active command and issuing the pre-charge command.
A program included in Microsoft Windows that provides detailed
information about the computer’s performance, processes and Trash
programs as well as the general status of the computer. Trash, or Recycle Bin on Microsoft Windows, is a way an
operating system disposes of unwanted files.
Taskbar
A graphical user interface (GUI) bar displayed on the full edge tRCD (the for Row address to Column address Delay)
of the desktop which allows users to view any open primary The number of clock cycles between the issuing of the active
windows and monitor running applications. command and the read/write command.
TDP (Thermal Design Power) TRIM

Represents the average maximum amount of power a computer’s The TRIM command, when relating to SSDs, is a command that
cooling system can dissipate while running available software. allows the drive controller to erase unused blocks of memory.
This command is used to preserve the drive performance.
Terabyte
A unit of measure of computer storage capacity equal to one Triple channel
trillion bytes. In computer architecture, triple channel is a type of channel
architecture technology that theoretically increases data
Textures throughput speeds, leading to faster system performance.
In computer graphics, texture is defined as the combination of
2D and 3D visual elements and properties such as brightness, Trojan
color, transparency and reflectivity. A software that may seem to perform desirable functions for
users to run or install, but may actually permit the creator to
Thermal compound (thermal grease) steal sensitive information or harm the computer system.
A fluid substance that aids a heat sink in cooling a computer
system’s Central Processing Unit (CPU). tRP (the Row Precharge time)
The number of clock cycles required to terminate access to an
Thermal Design Power (TDP) open row of memory and open access to the next row.
See TDP
UAC (User Account Control)
Thermal expansion A technology that improves the security of Microsoft Windows
The tendency of matter to change in volume in response to the by preventing unauthorized system changes through an
change in temperature. administrator password before performing any action.
Thread Ubuntu
Thread, or Thread of Execution, is the smallest, basic unit of A free and open-source computer operating system based on
processing activity issued by a computer system. Debian GNU/Linux distribution designed primarily for desktop
computer systems.
Timings
A set of clock signals oscillating between the low and high
state. These signals are synchronized and determine the delays
— Glossary —
Uninstall VGA heat sinks

A feature of a PC’s operating system that is designed to A passive cooling device for VGA cards consisting of metal alloy
completely remove all or parts of a software application from fins that help absorb heat from VGA cards and dissipate this
the system. into the surrounding ambient air.
Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) Video Card

An electrical device that provides emergency backup power to An expansion card plugged into a computer that processes
the computer system, monitor and other devices plugged into visual graphics and sends the information to the computer’s
the UPS when the main power source fails. monitor or projector.
Unix Video card memory

The trademarked name used for a computer operating system A RAM installed on a video adapter used for the processing and
certified by the Open Group to use the UNIX trademark and displaying of images on the computer’s screen.
conforming to the Single UNIX Specification.
Video Graphics Array (VGA)
Unsigned driver See VGA
Drivers that haven’t been approved or don’t have an electronic
signature placed on it by Microsoft. Virtual
In computing and information technology, virtual has
Upload internet speed various meanings such as in reference to a simulated gaming
The transfer rate of a computer system’s connection as it environment, computer-generated simulation of reality or
transmits or uploads data on the Internet. software that function as if it were hardware.
UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) Virtual machine

See Uninterruptable Power Supply An operating environment which does not physically exist but
is created within another environment and behaves as if it is a
USB (Universal Serial Bus) separate computer.
A small, removable, rewritable flash memory data storage device
that allows data to be transferred between devices. Virtual memory
An imaginary memory area that increases the available memory
USB port your computer has by enlarging the "address space," or places
A standard cable connection interface or socket on a computer in memory where data can be stored.
into which a USB device can plugged into.
Virus
User Account Control (UAC) A computer program that can degrade or damage the data on
See UAC your hard drives and interfere with the normal operation of
your computer system.
User accounts
A collection of data associated with particular users of a Vista
computer, network or information service. An operating system developed by Microsoft for use on
personal computers. Vista supersedes Windows XP providing
User switching
advancements in security, reliability, ease of deployment,
A feature on a computer operating system that allows users to
performance, and manageability.
switch between user accounts without quitting applications
and/or fully logging out. Volt
The basic unit of electrical potential, used for measuring the
Vampire power
force used to produce an electric current.
Residual electric power consumed by electronic devices even
though they are switched off or in standby mode. Voltage
The electron moving force in electricity and the potential
VGA (Video Graphics Array)
difference in charge between two points in an electrical field
A widely used graphics display system between a computer and
that is responsible for the pushing and pulling of electric
monitor developed by IBM that uses a 15-pin plug and socket
current through a circuit.
and provides a resolution of 720x400 pixels.
Voltage drop
VGA fans
A voltage reduction or loss experienced by electric circuits due
An active cooling device that provides additional cooling
to impedances between the power source and the load.
support to a VGA heatsink to prevent VGA cards from
overheating.
Wallpaper Wireless broadband

Any picture, pattern or digital image displayed on the A new technology that provides high-speed Internet and data
background of a computer screen. service delivered through a wireless local area network (WLAN)
or wide area network (WAN).
Watt
An International System unit of power equal to one joule per Worm
second. A program or algorithm that replicates itself over a computer
network and usually performs malicious actions. It is usually
Wear leveling invisible to the user and uses automatic components of an
A preservation technique to prolong the service life of erasable operating system.
computer storage media such as flash memory and USB flash
drives. Word
A fixed sized group of bits that are handled together by the
Webcam system. Modern computers usually have a word size of 16, 32,
A digital camera designed to take images and videos and feed or 64 bits.
it real-time to a computer which then transmits it to other
networks over the Internet. Xeon
A brand of a 400 MHz Pentium multiprocessing- or multi-
Wi-Fi socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation
Enables devices such as a personal computer, video game targeted at the non-consumer server, workstation and
console, smartphone or digital audio player to connect to the embedded system markets.
Internet and transmit data when within range of a wireless
network connected to the Internet. XSS (Cross Site Scripting)
A type of computer security breach typically found in web
Windows 2000 applications that enables malicious attackers to inject client-
A product of Microsoft for its Windows line of operating system side script into web pages viewed by other users.
designed for use on business desktops, notebook computers,
and servers. The system provided new key features such as the Zip
Windows 9x accessibility features, an enhanced shell, Plug and A popular data compression format wherein one or more files
Play with full ACPI support, Windows File Protection and the can be compressed to reduce its file size.
Encrypting File System (EFS).
Windows 7
The latest release of Microsoft for its Windows line of PC
operating systems, introducing new performance upgrades
such as virtual hard disk support, multi-core performance
enhancements, advances in touch screen technology and
improvements in DirectAccess, boot and kernel performance.
Windows Updates
A service provided by Microsoft that provides updates online
for the Microsoft Windows operating system and its installed
components, including Internet Explorer.
Windows Vista
https://www.facebook.com/CasaLaptopGuide
An operating system developed by Microsoft for personal
computers and includes many new features such as enhanced
visual style and graphical user interface, improved multimedia
tools and redesigned visual, audio and networking sub-systems.
Windows XP
The most popular operating system developed by Microsoft
that succeeded Windows 2000 and Windows ME. Built on the
Windows NT kernel and architecture, it introduced new features
such as an enhanced user interface, device driver rollback,
faster user switching and system state sequences and improved
application compatibility.

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SECTION 1: Getting Started

SECTION 2: Hardware Diagnosis and Replacement

SECTION 3: Software Problems and Solutions

SECTION 4: Install and Configure Windows OS

SECTION 5: Optimize User Experience

In-depth coverage of each topic is provided to present a valuable reference material

It is extremely important to plug every electronic device

Protection During Lightning Storms

Uninterruptable Power Supply

Memory Working Safely

Disconnect Cables Monitors

Liquids and Your Computer Expansion card

2. Flip the Unit Over.

Ways to Backup Data

Windows 2000 Automatic Backup

Where to Place Your Backups

Fig. 2-1 Automatic backup in Win7

1. Open the restore application 2. Choose where to save your backup to

5. Review settings, save them and run the backup

Fig. 2-2 Cloning a drive

3. Select HDClone. 4. Select disk to disk.

7. Select next. 8. Start copying.

9. The cloning process will now proceed.

cool the processor by removing as much heat from it as

Active heatsink Fans

system instability, and even fire risks. Cheap power

Power Factor Correction

Watt Vampire Power

A PWM (pulse-width modulation) controls the output voltage to the CPU,

Applications can be programmed to take advantage of multiple threads HT (Hyperthreading)

32-Bit vs. 64-Bit

DDR-400 and PC-3200 are the Same Thing?

Dual and Triple Channel

Mechanical Hard Drives ECC

Seek time is measured in milliseconds.

Rotational Delay Density

Solid State Drives

SandForce is a type of SSD controller that was developed as the TRIM

CD, DVD, Blu-ray Readers

50GB, respectively. This is why the quality of blu-ray movies is so impressive.

Connections and Audio

The GPGPU processing abilities work on matrix mathematics, which is

Stream is AMD’s implementation of GPGPU for their ATI graphics cards. It

the kind you find in flash drives.

Eyefinity and 3D Sound

KEYBOARDS AND MICE

the mouse more comfortable to use.

MICROPHONES AND WEBCAMS

Computer components get dirty. This is a fact of

What Not to Use

Cleaning the Keyboard

Things to Watch For

How Often Should You Clean Your Computer

Where the PC Should Be Cleaned

Choosing a Diagnostic Suite

Other Diagnostic Types

Warning: Do not open or try to service a power

connectors. This 4-pin 12v plug is one that plugs in

Testing the 4-Pin Floppy Connector

Once we have achieved our base state, be sure

Fig. 5-9 Boot device order

1. Enter the bios. 2. Browse to the boot device menu.