DOĞUŞ UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF ADVANCED VOCATIONAL STUDIES
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY AND PROGRAMMING PROGRAMME
CTP 209
HARDWARE & TECHNICAL SUPPORT
COURSE INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Instructor : Gökhan Mert Koral
2004 – 2005 (Fall)
Updated Oct 2004
1
Notes on the Course
1. Credits : 3
2. Weekly Course Hours : 4, (Lecture 2 hrs. Lab. Hrs : 2),
3. Prerequisite: None
4. General Definition of The Course: This course will familiarize the student
with the basic concepts and the usage of Databases with emphasis on
application.
5. Purpose of the course: This course introduces the student to the basic
concepts of Computer hardware and peripherals.
6. The Method: The Principles and The Theory of the subject are presented by
the students as seminar assignments in the Class hours and Practical
applications are Presented or Created in The Lab.
7. Main Text : Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 15th Anniversary Edition, By
Scott Mueller, Que Inc, 2003.
8. Additional Readings: Essentials of Computing, H. L Capron,
Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company,Inc.; Bilgisayar Donanımı / Soner
Tezal Pusula Yayıncılık, 2002.
9. Evaluation: Seminars: 20 %, Midterm 1: 20% Midterm 2: 20%, Final %40.
10. How To Study This Course: Because of the special requirements for this
course, the lecture hours will be held in the multimedia room, where the students
will present the application principles and details on a large screen, using a data
projector.
Week 1: Development of the PC
In this week you will learn about:
Computer History—Before Personal Computers
Modern Computers
History of the PC
System Types
System Components
Who Controls PC Hardware?
In the early days of the PC, when IBM was clearly in control of the PC hardware
standard, it hired Microsoft to provide most of the core software for the PC. IBM
developed the hardware, wrote the basic input/output system (BIOS), and then
hired Microsoft to develop the disk operating system (DOS), as well as several
other programs and utilities for the PC. In what was later viewed as perhaps the
most costly business mistake in history, IBM failed to secure exclusive rights to
the DOS it had contracted from Microsoft, either by purchasing it outright or by an
exclusive license agreement. Instead, IBM licensed it non-exclusively, which
subsequently allowed Microsoft to sell the same MS-DOS code it developed for
IBM to any other company that was interested. Early PC cloners such as
Compaq eagerly licensed this same operating system code, and suddenly
consumers could purchase the same basic MS-DOS operating system with
several different company names on the box. In retrospect, that single
contractual error made Microsoft into the dominant software company it is today
and subsequently caused IBM to lose control of the very PC standard it had
created.
System Types
PCs can be broken down into many categories. I like to break them down in two
ways—by the type of software they can run and by the motherboard host bus, or
processor bus design and width.
System Components
A modern PC is both simple and complicated. It is simple in the sense that over
the years, many of the components used to construct a system have become
integrated with other components into fewer and fewer actual parts. It is
complicated in the sense that each part in a modern system performs many more
functions than did the same types of parts in older systems.
Who Controls PC Hardware?
Although it is clear that Microsoft has always controlled PC software by virtue of
its control over the PC operating system, what about the hardware? It is easy to
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see that IBM controlled the PC hardware standard up through 1987. After all,
IBM invented the core PC motherboard design; the original expansion bus slot
architecture (8/16-bit ISA bus); serial and parallel port implementations; video
card design through VGA and XGA standards; floppy and hard disk interface and
controller implementations; power supply designs; keyboard interfaces and
designs; mouse interface; and even the physical shapes (form factors) of
everything from the motherboard to the expansion cards, power supplies, and
system chassis. All these pre-1987 IBM PC, XT, and AT system design features
are still influencing modern systems today.
Many of the top-selling system manufacturers do design and make their own
motherboards. Companies, for the most part, do design and manufacture their
own motherboards, as well as many other system components. In some cases,
they even design their own chips and chipset components for their own boards.
Although sales are high for these individual companies, a larger overall segment
of the market is what those in the industry call the white-box systems.
White-box is the term used by the industry to refer to what would otherwise be
called generic PCs—that is, PCs assembled from a collection of industrystandard, commercially available components. The white-box designation comes
from the fact that most of the chassis used by this type of system are white (or
ivory or beige).
The great thing about white-box systems is that they use industry-standard
components that are interchangeable. This interchangeability is the key to future
upgrades and repairs because it ensures that a plethora of replacement parts will
be available to choose from and will interchange. For many years, I have
recommended avoiding proprietary systems and recommended more industrystandard white-box systems instead.
systems can be broken down into the following hardware categories:




8-bit
16-bit
32-bit
64-bit
What is interesting is that besides the bus width, the 16- through 64-bit systems
are remarkably similar in basic design and architecture. The older 8-bit systems
are very different, however. This gives us two basic system types, or classes, of
hardware:


8-bit (PC/XT-class) systems
16/32/64-bit (AT-class) systems
In this verbiage, PC stands for personal computer; XT stands for an extended
PC; and AT stands for an advanced-technology PC. The terms PC, XT, and AT,
4
as they are used here, are taken from the original IBM systems of those names.
The XT was a PC system that included a hard disk for storage in addition to the
floppy drives found in the basic PC system. These systems had an 8-bit 8088 processor
and an 8-bit Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus for system expansion. The bus is
the name given to expansion slots in which additional plug-in circuit boards can be
installed. The 8-bit designation comes from the fact that the ISA bus found in the PC/XT
class systems can send and receive only 8 bits of data in a single cycle. The data in an 8bit bus is sent along eight wires simultaneously, in parallel.
16-bit and greater systems are said to be AT-class, which indicates that they follow
certain standards and that they follow the basic design first set forth in the original IBM
AT system. AT is the designation IBM applied to systems that first included more
advanced 16-bit (and later, 32- and 64-bit) processors and expansion slots. AT-class
systems must have a processor that is compatible with Intel 286 or higher processors
(including the 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, and Pentium III processors),
and they must have a 16-bit or greater system bus. The system bus architecture is central
to the AT system design, along with the basic memory architecture, interrupt request
(IRQ), direct memory access (DMA), and I/O port address design. All AT-class systems
are similar in the way these resources are allocated and how they function.
Week 2: Microprocessor Types and Specifications
In this week you will learn about:
Pre-PC Microprocessor History
Microprocessors from 1971 to the Present
Processor Specifications
Processor Features
Processor Manufacturing
Processor Socket and Slot Types
Heat and Cooling Problems
Math Coprocessors (Floating-Point Units)
Processor Bugs
The brain or engine of the PC is the processor (sometimes called
microprocessor), or central processing unit (CPU). The CPU performs the
system's calculating and processing. The processor is often the most expensive
single component in the system (although graphics card pricing now surpasses it
in some cases); in higher-end systems it can cost up to four or more times more
than the motherboard it plugs into. Intel is generally credited with creating the first
microprocessor in 1971 with the introduction of a chip called the 4004. Today
Intel still has control over the processor market, at least for PC systems. This
means that all PC-compatible systems use either Intel processors or Intelcompatible processors from a handful of competitors (such as AMD or
VIA/Cyrix).
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Processor Specifications
Many confusing specifications often are quoted in discussions of processors. The
following sections discuss some of these specifications, including the data bus,
address bus, and speed. The next section includes a table that lists the
specifications of virtually all PC processors.
Processors can be identified by two main parameters: how wide they are and
how fast they are. The speed of a processor is a fairly simple concept. Speed is
counted in megahertz (MHz) and gigahertz (GHz), which means millions and
billions, respectively, of cycles per second—and faster is better! The width of a
processor is a little more complicated to discuss because three main
specifications in a processor are expressed in width. They are



Data I/O bus
Address bus
Internal registers
Note that the processor data bus is also called the front side bus (FSB),
processor side bus (PSB), or just CPU bus. All these terms refer to the bus that
is between the CPU and the main chipset component (North Bridge or Memory
Controller Hub). Intel uses the FSB or PSB terminology, whereas AMD uses only
FSB. Personally I usually just like to say "CPU bus" in conversation or when
speaking during my training seminars because that is the least confusing of the
terms while also being completely accurate.
Processor Features
As new processors are introduced, new features are continually added to their
architectures to help improve everything from performance in specific types of
applications to the reliability of the CPU as a whole. The next few sections take a
look at some of these technologies, including System Management Mode (SMM),
Superscalar Execution, MMX, SSE, 3DNow!, and HT Technology.
SMM (Power Management)
Spurred on primarily by the goal of putting faster and more powerful processors
in laptop computers, Intel has created power-management circuitry. This circuitry
enables processors to conserve energy use and lengthen battery life. This was
introduced initially in the Intel 486SL processor, which is an enhanced version of
the 486DX processor. Subsequently, the power-management features were
universalized and incorporated into all Pentium and later processors. This feature
set is called SMM, which stands for system management mode.
SMM circuitry is integrated into the physical chip but operates independently to
control the processor's power use based on its activity level. It enables the user
to specify time intervals after which the CPU will be partially or fully powered
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down. It also supports the Suspend/Resume feature that allows for instant power
on and power off, used mostly with laptop PCs. These settings are typically
controlled via system BIOS settings.
Superscalar Execution
The fifth-generation Pentium and newer processors feature multiple internal
instruction execution pipelines, which enable them to execute multiple
instructions at the same time. The 486 and all preceding chips can perform only
a single instruction at a time. Intel calls the capability to execute more than one
instruction at a time superscalar technology. This technology provides additional
performance compared with the 486.
Superscalar architecture usually is associated with high-output Reduced
Instruction Set Computer (RISC) chips. A RISC chip has a less complicated
instruction set with fewer and simpler instructions. Although each instruction
accomplishes less, overall the clock speed can be higher, which can usually
increase performance. The Pentium is one of the first Complex Instruction Set
Computer (CISC) chips to be considered superscalar. A CISC chip uses a richer,
fuller-featured instruction set, which has more complicated instructions
Processor Socket and Slot Types
Intel and AMD have created a set of socket and slot designs for their processors.
Each socket or slot is designed to support a different range of original and
upgrade processors. Table shows the specifications of these sockets.
Table 3.12. CPU Socket and Slot Types and Specifications
Socket
Number
Pin
Pins Layout
Socket 1
169 17x17
PGA
5V
486 SX/SX2, DX/DX2[1], DX4 April '89
OverDrive
Socket 2
238 19x19
PGA
5V
486 SX/SX2, DX/DX2[1], DX4 March '92
OverDrive,
486
Pentium
OverDrive
Socket 3
237 19x19
PGA
5V/3.3V 486 SX/SX2, DX/DX2, DX4, Feb. '94
486 Pentium OverDrive, AMD
5x86
Socket 4
273 21x21
PGA
5V
Socket 5
320 37x37
SPGA
3.3/3.5V Pentium 75-133, OverDrive
Voltage Supported Processors
Pentium 60/66, OverDrive
Introduced
March '93
Oct. '94
7
Table 3.12. CPU Socket and Slot Types and Specifications
Socket
Number
Pin
Pins Layout
Voltage Supported Processors
486
Introduced
Socket 62 235 19x19
PGA
3.3V
486 DX4,
OverDrive
Pentium Feb. '94
Socket 7
321 37x37
SPGA
VRM
Pentium
75-233+, MMX, Jan. '97
OverDrive, AMD K5/K6, Cyrix
M1/II
Socket 8
387 DPSPGA
Auto
VRM
Pentium Pro, OverDrive
Socket
370
370 37x37
SPGA
Auto
VRM
Celeron/Pentium
PPGA/FC-PGA
Socket
PAC418
418 38x22 S- Auto
SPGA
VRM
Itanium
May '01
Socket
423
423 39x39
SPGA
Auto
VRM
Pentium 4 FC-PGA2
Nov. '00
Socket
(462)
A 462 37x37
SPGA
Auto
VRM
AMD Athlon/Duron FC-PGA
June '00
Socket
478
478 26x26
mPGA
Auto
VRM
Pentium 4 FC-PGA2
Oct. '01
Socket
603
603 31x25
mPGA
Auto
VRM
Xeon (P4)
May '01
Socket
754
754 29x29
mPGA
Auto
VRM
Athlon 64
Sep. '03
Socket
940
940 31x31
mPGA
AMD Opteron
April '03
Slot A
242 Slot
Auto
VRM
AMD Athlon SECC
June '99
Slot
1 242 Slot
(SC242)
Auto
VRM
Pentium II/III, Celeron SECC
May '97
Slot
2 330 Slot
(SC330)
Auto
VRM
Pentium II/III Xeon SECC
April '98
Nov. '95
III Aug. '98
2. Socket 6 was a paper standard only and was never actually implemented in
any systems.
DP-SPGA = Dual-pattern staggered PGA
FC-PGA = Flip-chip PGA
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Table 3.12. CPU Socket and Slot Types and Specifications
Socket
Number
Pin
Pins Layout
Voltage Supported Processors
Introduced
FC-PGA2 = Second-generation flip-chip PGA
mPGA = Micro PGA
PAC = Pin array cartridge
PGA = Pin grid array
PPGA = Plastic PGA
S-SPGA = Split staggered PGA
SECC = Single edge contact cartridge
SPGA = Staggered PGA
VRM = Voltage regulator module
Heat and Cooling Problems
Heat can be a problem in any high-performance system. The higher-speed
processors consume more power and therefore generate more heat. The
processor is usually the single most power-hungry chip in a system, and in most
situations, the fan inside your computer case is incapable of handling the load
without some help.
Heatsinks
At one time, a heatsink, a special attachment for a chip that draws heat away
from the chip, was needed only in systems in which processor heat was a
problem. However, starting with the Pentium OverDrive processors, heatsinks
have been a necessity for every processor since. Several heatsink
manufacturers are listed in the Vendor List on the DVD.
A heatsink works like the radiator in your car, pulling heat away from the engine.
In a similar fashion, the heatsink conducts heat away from the processor so it
can be vented out of the system. It does this by using a thermal conductor
(usually metal) to carry heat away from the processor into fins that expose a high
amount of surface area to moving air. This enables the air to be heated, thus
cooling the heatsink and the processor as well. Just like the radiator in your car,
the heatsink depends on airflow. With no moving air, a heatsink is incapable of
9
radiating the heat away. To keep the engine in your car from overheating when
the car is not moving, auto engineers incorporate a fan. Likewise, there is always
a fan somewhere inside your PC helping to move air across the heatsink and
vent it out of the system. In some name-brand systems, the fan included in the
power supply is enough when combined with a special heatsink design; in most
cases, though, an additional fan must be attached directly over the processor to
provide the necessary levels of cooling. Case fans are also typical in recent
systems to assist in moving the hot air out of the system and replacing it with
cooler air from the outside.
Processor Bugs
Processor manufacturers use specialized equipment to test their own
processors, but you have to settle for a little less. The best processor-testing
device to which you have access is a system that you know is functional; you
then can use the diagnostics available from various utility software companies or
your system manufacturer to test the motherboard and processor functions.
Companies such as Diagsoft, Symantec, Micro 2000, Trinitech, Data Depot, and
others offer specialized diagnostics software that can test the system, including
the processor. If you don't want to purchase this type of software, you can
perform a quick-and-dirty processor evaluation by using the diagnostics program
supplied with your system.
Perhaps the most infamous of these bugs is the floating-point division math bug
in the early Pentium processors. This and a few other bugs are discussed in
detail later in this chapter.
Because the processor is the brain of a system, most systems don't function with
a defective processor. If a system seems to have a dead motherboard, try
replacing the processor with one from a functioning motherboard that uses the
same CPU chip. You might find that the processor in the original board is the
culprit. If the system continues to play dead, however, the problem is elsewhere,
most likely in the motherboard, memory, or power supply. See the chapters that
cover those parts of the system for more information on troubleshooting those
components. I must say that in all my years of troubleshooting and repairing PCs,
I have rarely encountered defective processors.
Week 3: Microprocessor Types and Specifications Continued
In this week you will learn about:
Processor Update Feature
Processor Codenames
Intel-Compatible Processors (AMD and Cyrix)
Intel P6 (686) Sixth-Generation Processors
Other Sixth-Generation Processors
10
Intel Pentium 4 (Seventh-Generation) Processors
Eighth-Generation (64-Bit Register) Processors
Processor Upgrades
Processor Troubleshooting Techniques
Intel P6 (686) Sixth-Generation Processors
The P6 (686) processors represent a new generation with features not found in
the previous generation units. The P6 processor family began when the Pentium
Pro was released in November 1995. Since then, Intel has released many other
P6 chips, all using the same basic P6 core processor as the Pentium Pro. Table
shows the variations in the P6 family of processors.
Table 3. Intel P6 Processor Variations
Pentium Pro
Original P6 processor, includes 256KB, 512KB, or 1MB of fullcore speed L2 cache
Pentium II
P6 with 512KB of half-core speed L2 cache
Pentium
Xeon
II P6 with 512KB, 1MB, or 2MB of full-core speed L2 cache
Celeron
P6 with no L2 cache
Celeron-A
P6 with 128KB of on-die full-core speed L2 cache
Pentium III
P6 with SSE (MMX2), 512KB of half-core speed L2 cache
Pentium IIPE
P6 with 256KB of full-core speed L2 cache
Pentium IIIE
P6 with SSE (MMX2) plus 256KB or 512KB of full-core speed L2
cache
Pentium
Xeon
III P6 with SSE (MMX2), 512KB, 1MB, or 2MB of full-core speed L2
cache
The main new feature in the fifth-generation Pentium processors was the
superscalar architecture, in which two instruction execution units could execute
instructions simultaneously in parallel. Later fifth-generation chips also added
MMX technology to the mix, as well. So then what did Intel add in the sixthgeneration to justify calling it a whole new generation of chip? Besides many
minor improvements, the real key features of all sixth-generation processors are
Dynamic Execution and the Dual Independent Bus (DIB) architecture, plus a
greatly improved superscalar design.
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Week 4. Motherboards and Buses
In this week you will learn about:
Motherboard Form Factors
Motherboard Components
Processor Sockets/Slots
Chipsets
Sixth-Generation (P6 Pentium Pro/II/III Class) Chipsets
Seventh-Generation (Pentium 4) Chipsets
Third-Party Pentium 4 Chipsets
Athlon/Duron/Athlon XP Chipsets
Intel Workstation Chipsets for Pentium 4 and Xeon
Without a doubt, the most important component in a PC system is the main
board or motherboard. Some companies refer to the motherboard as a system
board or planar. The terms motherboard, main board, system board, and planar
are interchangeable, although I prefer the motherboard designation. This chapter
examines the various types of motherboards available and those components
typically contained on the motherboard and motherboard interface connectors.
Several common form factors are used for PC motherboards. The form factor
refers to the physical dimensions (size and shape) as well as certain connector,
screw hole, and other positions that dictate into which type of case the board will
fit. Some are true standards (meaning that all boards with that form factor are
interchangeable), whereas others are not standardized enough to allow for
interchangeability. Unfortunately, these nonstandard form factors preclude any
easy upgrade or inexpensive replacement, which generally means they should
be avoided. The more commonly known PC motherboard form factors include
the following:
Obsolete Form Factors





Baby-AT
Full-size AT
LPX
(semiproprietary)
WTX (no longer
in production)
ITX (flex-ATX
variation, never
produced)
Modern Form
Factors





ATX
micro-ATX
Flex-ATX
Mini-ITX
(flex-ATX
variation)
NLX
All Others

Fully proprietary designs
(certain Compaq, Packard
Bell, Hewlett-Packard,
notebook/portable systems,
and so on)
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Motherboard Components
A modern motherboard has several components built in, including various
sockets, slots, connectors, chips, and so on. This section examines the
components found on a typical motherboard.
Most modern motherboards have at least the following major components on
them:








Processor socket/slot
Chipset (North/South Bridge or memory and I/O controller hubs)
Super I/O chip
ROM BIOS (Flash ROM/firmware hub)
SIMM/DIMM/RIMM (RAM memory) sockets
ISA/PCI/AGP bus slots
CPU voltage regulator
Battery
Some motherboards also include integrated video, audio, networking, SCSI,
Audio Modem Riser (AMR), Communications and Networking Riser (CNR)
connectors, or other optional interfaces, depending on the individual board.
Chipsets
We can't talk about modern motherboards without discussing chipsets. The
chipset is the motherboard; therefore, any two boards with the same chipsets are
functionally identical. The chipset contains the processor bus interface (called
front-side bus, or FSB), memory controllers, bus controllers, I/O controllers, and
more. All the circuits of the motherboard are contained within the chipset. If the
processor in your PC is like the engine in your car, the chipset represents the
chassis. It is the framework in which the engine rests and is its connection to the
outside world. The chipset is the frame, suspension, steering, wheels and tires,
transmission, driveshaft, differential, and brakes. The chassis in your car is what
gets the power to the ground, allowing the vehicle to start, stop, and corner. In
the PC, the chipset represents the connection between the processor and
everything else. The processor can't talk to the memory, adapter boards,
devices, and so on without going through the chipset. The chipset is the main
hub and central nervous system of the PC. If you think of the processor as the
brain, the chipset is the spine and central nervous system.
Because the chipset controls the interface or connections between the processor
and everything else, the chipset ends up dictating which type of processor you
have; how fast it will run; how fast the buses will run; the speed, type, and
amount of memory you can use; and more. In fact, the chipset might be the
single most important component in your system, possibly even more important
than the processor. I've seen systems with faster processors be outperformed by
systems with slower processor but a better chipset, much like how a car with less
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power might win a race through better cornering and braking. When deciding on
a system, I start by choosing the chipset first because the chipset decision then
dictates the processor, memory, I/O, and expansion capabilities.
Week 5. Motherboards and Buses Continued
In this week you will learn about:
Chipsets for Athlon 64
Super I/O Chips
Motherboard Interface Connectors
System Bus Types, Functions, and Features
Types of I/O Buses
System Resources
Resolving Resource Conflicts
Motherboard Selection Criteria (Knowing What to Look For)
Chipsets for Athlon 64
The Athlon 64 processor requires a new generation of chipsets, both to support its 64-bit
processor architecture and to allow for integration of the memory controller into the
processor (the memory controller has traditionally been located in the North Bridge chip
or equivalent). AMD, VIA Technologies, NVIDIA, ATI, and ALi Corporation have
developed chipsets for the Athlon 64.
Table 4.44 lists the major features of the first chipsets developed for the Athlon 64.
Table 4.44. Chipsets for Athlon 64
Vendor
Chipset
Model
AMD
8151
ALi
Opteron
Support
Yes
Memory
Support
Video
Support
ATA/Serial
ATA Support
DDR200/266/333 AGP 8x
ATA-133,
SATA
M1687/M1563 Yes
DDR266/333
ATA-133
ATI
IGP 380
No
DDR200/266/333 AGP 8x,
ATA-133
Radeon 9000
VIA
K8T400
Yes
DDR200/266/333 AGP 8x
ATA-133,
SATA
VIA
K8M400
Yes
DDR200/266/333 SavageXP
integrated
graphics
ATA-133,
SATA
VIA
K8T400M
Yes
DDR200/266/333 AGP 8x
ATA-133
AGP 8x
14
Table 4.44. Chipsets for Athlon 64
Vendor
Chipset
Model
Opteron
Support
Memory
Support
Video
Support
ATA/Serial
ATA Support
NVIDIA Crush K8
No
DDR200/266/333 AGP 8x
ATA-133
NVIDIA Crush K8G
No
DDR200/266/333 AGP 8x,
GeForce4
MX
ATA-133
Many of these chipsets introduce enhanced versions of features seen in previous
chipsets. For example, the ALi M1687/M1653 is the first PC chipset to support
the 16-bit/800MHz version of the HyperTransport interconnect. HyperTransport
16x8 has a maximum bandwidth of 3.2GBps to help prevent data-transfer
bottlenecks.
Types of I/O Buses
Since the introduction of the first PC, many I/O buses have been introduced. The
reason is simple: Faster I/O speeds are necessary for better system
performance. This need for higher performance involves three main areas:



Faster CPUs
Increasing software demands
Greater multimedia requirements
Each of these areas requires the I/O bus to be as fast as possible.
One of the primary reasons new I/O bus structures have been slow in coming is
compatibility—that old catch-22 that anchors much of the PC industry to the past.
One of the hallmarks of the PC's success is its standardization. This
standardization spawned thousands of third-party I/O cards, each originally built
for the early bus specifications of the PC. If a new high-performance bus system
was introduced, it often had to be compatible with the older bus systems so the
older I/O cards would not be obsolete. Therefore, bus technologies seem to
evolve rather than make quantum leaps forward.
You can identify different types of I/O buses by their architectures. The main
types of I/O buses are detailed earlier in this chapter.
The main differences among buses consist primarily of the amounts of data they
can transfer at one time and the speeds at which they can do it. The following
sections describe the various types of PC buses.
15
Week 6. BIOS
In this week you will learn about:
BIOS Basics
BIOS Hardware/Software
Motherboard BIOS
Upgrading the BIOS
CMOS Setting Specifications
Plug and Play BIOS
BIOS Error Messages
The BIOS itself is software running in memory that consists of all the various
drivers that interface the hardware to the operating system. The BIOS is unique
compared to normal software in that it doesn't all load from disk; some of it is
preloaded into memory chips (read-only memory, or ROM) installed in the
system or on adapter cards.
The BIOS in a PC comes from three possible sources:



Motherboard ROM
Adapter card ROM (such as that found on a video card)
Loaded into RAM from disk (device drivers)
The motherboard ROM BIOS is most often associated with hardware rather than
software. This is because the BIOS on the motherboard is contained in a ROM
chip on the board, which contains the initial software drivers needed to get the
system running. Years ago, when only DOS was running on basic PCs, this was
enough, so no other drivers were needed—the motherboard BIOS had
everything that was necessary. The motherboard BIOS usually includes drivers
for all the basic system components, including the keyboard, floppy drive, hard
drive, serial and parallel ports, and more. As systems became more complex,
new hardware was added for which no motherboard BIOS drivers existed. These
included devices such as newer video adapters, CD-ROM drives, SCSI hard
disks, USB ports, and so on.
Week 7. Memory
In this week you will learn about:
Memory Basics
RAM Types
Memory Modules
Installing RAM Upgrades
Troubleshooting Memory
The System Logical Memory Layout
16
Memory is the workspace for the computer's processor. It is a temporary storage area
where the programs and data being operated on by the processor must reside. Memory
storage is considered temporary because the data and programs remain there only as long
as the computer has electrical power or is not reset. Before being shut down or reset, any
data that has been changed should be saved to a more permanent storage device (usually
a hard disk) so it can be reloaded into memory in the future.
Memory often is called RAM, for random access memory. Main memory is called RAM
because you can randomly (as opposed to sequentially) access any location in memory.
This designation is somewhat misleading and often misinterpreted. Read-only memory
(ROM), for example, is also randomly accessible, yet is usually differentiated from the
system RAM because it maintains data without power and can't normally be written to.
Disk memory is also randomly accessible, but we don't consider that RAM either.
RAM Types
The speed and performance issue with memory is confusing to some because memory
speed is usually expressed in ns (nanoseconds) and processor speed has always been
expressed in MHz (megahertz). Recently, however, some newer and faster types of
memory have speeds expressed in MHz, adding to the confusion. Fortunately, you can
translate one to the other.
A nanosecond is defined as one billionth of a second—a very short time indeed. To put
some perspective on that, the speed of light is 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per
second in a vacuum. In one billionth of a second, a beam of light travels a mere 11.80
inches or 29.98 centimeters—less than the length of a typical ruler!
Chip and system speed has been expressed in megahertz (MHz), which is millions of
cycles per second, or gigahertz (GHz), which is billions of cycles per second. During
2004, systems will exceed 4GHz or 4 billion cycles per second.
Week 8. Review & Midterm Exam
In this week we will review what we have learned so far by doing some
examples for the first two hours; the next two hours will be taken up by the
Mid Term exam. The mid term exam will take place in the computer lab.
Week 9: Hard Disk Storage/ Audio & Video Hardware
In this week you will learn about:
Definition of a Hard Disk
Hard Drive Advancements
Hard Disk Drive Operation
Basic Hard Disk Drive Components
Hard Disk Features
Video Display Technologies
17
Monitor Selection Criteria
Maintaining Your Monitor
Video Display Adapters
3D Graphics Accelerators
Upgrading or Replacing Your Video Card
Video Cards for Multimedia
Adapter and Display Troubleshooting
Definition of a Hard Disk
To many users, the hard disk drive is the most important and yet the most
mysterious part of a computer system. A hard disk drive is a sealed unit that a
PC uses for nonvolatile data storage. Nonvolatile, or semi-permanent, storage
means that the storage device retains the data even when no power is supplied
to the computer. Because the hard disk drive is expected to retain data until
deliberately erased or overwritten, the hard drive is used to store crucial
programming and data. As a result, when the hard disk fails, the consequences
are usually very serious. To maintain, service, and upgrade a PC system
properly, you must understand how the hard disk functions.
A hard disk drive contains rigid, disk-shaped platters, usually constructed of
aluminum or glass . Unlike floppy disks, the platters can't bend or flex—hence the
term hard disk. In most hard disk drives, you can't remove the platters, which is
why they are sometimes called fixed disk drives. Removable hard disk drives are
also available. Sometimes this term refers to a device in which the entire drive
unit (that is, the disk and the drive) is removable, but it is more commonly used to
refer to cartridge drives, where the platters are contained in a removable
cartridge.
Audio Concepts
The color-coding can vary on some audio adapters (or not be present at all).
Regardless, the basic set of connections included on most audio cards is as
follows:

Stereo line, or audio, out connector (lime green). The line-out connector is used
to send sound signals from the audio adapter to a device outside the computer.
You can hook up the cables from the line-out connector to stereo speakers, a
headphone set, or your stereo system. If you hook up the PC to your stereo
system, you can have amplified sound.
 Stereo line, or audio, in connector (light blue). With the line-in connector, you
can record or mix sound signals from an external source, such as a stereo
system or VCR, to the computer's hard disk.
 Rear out or speaker/headphone connector (no standard color). Older sound
cards often provided an amplified jack supplying up to 4 watts of power for use
with unpowered speakers or headphones along with the line-out connector.
Today, you are more likely to find this jack used for rear speakers in four18
speaker setups. The rear out jack often is disabled by default; check your audio
adapter properties or setup program to see whether you need to enable this
port when you connect rear speakers.
 Microphone, or mono, in connector (pink). The mono-in connector is used to
connect a microphone for recording your voice or other sounds to disk. This
microphone jack records in mono—not in stereo—and is therefore not suitable
for high-quality music recordings. Many audio adapter cards use Automatic
Gain Control (AGC) to improve recordings. This feature adjusts the recording
levels on-the-fly. A 600ohm–10,000ohm dynamic or condenser microphone
works best with this jack. Some inexpensive audio adapters use the line-in
connector instead of a separate microphone jack.
 Game port (gold). The game port (also called the joystick connector) is a 15pin, D-shaped connector that can connect to any standard joystick or game
controller. Sometimes the joystick port can accommodate two joysticks if you
purchase an optional Y-adapter. Many computers already contain a joystick
port as part of a multifunction I/O circuit on the motherboard or an expansion
card. If this is the case, you must note which port your operating system or
application is configured to use when connecting the game controller. Some of
the latest sound cards and systems with onboard sound omit this connector
because most recent game controllers support USB connectors.
 MIDI connector (gold). Audio adapters typically use the same joystick port as
their MIDI connector. Two of the pins in the connector are designed to carry
signals to and from a MIDI device, such as an electronic keyboard. In most
cases, you must purchase a separate MIDI connector from the audio adapter
manufacturer that plugs into the joystick port and contains the two round, 5-pin
DIN connectors used by MIDI devices, plus a connector for a joystick. However,
high-end sound cards might use 5-pin MIDI ports connected to a daughtercard
or a breakout box (see Figure 16.3, later in this chapter). Because their signals
use separate pins, you can connect the joystick and a MIDI device at the same
time. You need this connector only if you plan to connect your PC to external
MIDI devices. You can still play the MIDI files found on many Web sites by
using the audio adapter's internal synthesizer.
Video Display Technologies
Along with the mouse and keyboard, the video display is a vital part of the user
interface of any computer. Actually, it is a latecomer to computing; before CRT
monitors came into general use, the teletypewriter was the standard computer
interface—a large, loud device that printed the input and output characters on a
roll of paper. The first CRT displays used on computers were primitive by today's
standards; they displayed only text in a single color (usually green), but to users
at the time they were a great improvement, allowing real-time display of input and
output data. Over time, color displays were introduced, screen sizes increased,
and LCD technologies moved from the portable computer to the desktop.
Today, PC video displays are much more sophisticated, but you must be careful
when selecting video hardware for your computer. A slow video adapter can slow
19
down even the fastest and most-powerful PC. Incorrect monitor and video
adapter combinations can also cause eyestrain or be unsuitable for the tasks you
want to accomplish.
The video subsystem of a PC consists of two main components:


Monitor (or video display). The monitor can be either a CRT or an LCD
panel.
Video adapter (also called the video card or graphics adapter). On many
recent low-cost systems, video might be built into the motherboard or
included as part of this motherboard's chipset.
This chapter explores the range of PC video adapters on the market today and
the displays that work with them. The remainder of this section covers the
various types of display technologies.
Week 10: Input Devices & I/O Interfaces from Serial and Parallel to IEEE1394 and USB
In this week you will learn about:
Keyboards
Keyboard Technology
Keyboard Troubleshooting and Repair
Keyboard Recommendations
Pointing Devices
Input Devices for Gaming
Wireless Input Devices
Introduction to Input/Output Ports
USB and IEEE-1394 (i.Link or FireWire)
Standard Serial and Parallel Ports
Serial Ports
Parallel Ports
Introduction to Input/Output Ports
This chapter covers the primary peripheral input/output ports on a modern PC
system. This includes a discussion of both the so-called "legacy" serial and
parallel ports that have been standard on PCs since the beginning, as well as a
discussion of the more current Universal Serial Bus (USB), which is replacing
both serial and parallel ports, and IEEE-1394 (i.Link or FireWire) interfaces.
(IEEE stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.) Although
SCSI and IDE are also I/O interfaces, they are mainly used as internal interfaces
and are important or complicated enough to warrant their own chapters for more
specific and detailed coverage.
20
Why Serial?
The recent trend in high-performance peripheral bus design is to use a serial
architecture, in which 1 bit at a time is sent down a wire. Because parallel
architecture (used by SCSI, ATA, and LPT ports) uses 8, 16, or more wires to
send bits simultaneously, the parallel bus is actually much faster at the same
clock speed. However, increasing the clock speed of a serial connection is much
easier than increasing that of a parallel connection.
Parallel connections in general suffer from several problems, the biggest being
signal skew and jitter. Skew and jitter are the reasons high-speed parallel buses
such as SCSI (small computer systems interface) are limited to short distances of
3 meters or less. The problem is that, although the 8 or 16 bits of data are fired
from the transmitter at the same time, by the time they reach the receiver,
propagation delays have conspired to allow some bits to arrive before the others.
The longer the cable, the longer the time between the arrival of the first and last
bits at the other end! This signal skew, as it is called, prevents you from running
a high-speed transfer rate or a longer cable—or both. Jitter is the tendency for
the signal to reach its target voltage and float above and below for a short period
of time.
With a serial bus, the data is sent 1 bit at a time. Because there is no worry about
when each bit will arrive, the clocking rate can be increased dramatically. For
example, the top transfer rate possible with EPP/ECP parallel ports is 2MBps,
whereas IEEE-1394a ports (which use high-speed serial technology) support
transfer rates as high as 400Mbps (about 50MBps)—25 times faster than parallel
ports. USB 2.0 supports transfer rates of 480Mbps (about 60MBps), which is
about 30 times faster than parallel ports, and the new IEEE-1394b (FireWire 800)
ports reach transfer rates as high as 800Mbps (or about 100MBps), which is
about 50 times faster than parallel ports!
Week 11. The ATA IDE & SCSI Interface
In this week you will learn about:
An Overview of the IDE Interface
ATA Standards
ATA Features
ATA Upgrades
Serial ATA
ATA RAID
Small Computer System Interface
ANSI SCSI Standards
SCSI-1
SCSI-2
SCSI-3
SCSI Cables and Connectors
21
SCSI Cable and Connector Pinouts
SCSI Drive Configuration
Plug and Play SCSI
SCSI Configuration Troubleshooting
SCSI Versus ATA (IDE)
An Overview of the IDE Interface
The interface used to connect a hard disk drive to a modern PC is typically called
IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics). An interesting fact is that the true name of the
interface is ATA (AT Attachment), which refers to the fact that this interface
originally was designed to connect a combined drive and controller directly to the
bus of the 1984 vintage IBM AT (Advanced Technology) computer, otherwise
known as the ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) or AT bus. IDE is a term
originated by the marketing departments of some drive manufacturers to
describe the drive/controller combination used in drives with the ATA interface.
Integrated Drive Electronics refers to the fact that the interface electronics or
controller is built in to the drive and is not a separate board, as with earlier drive
interfaces. Although technically the correct name for the type of IDE interface we
most commonly use is ATA, many persist in using the IDE designation today. If
you are being picky, you could say that IDE refers generically to any drive
interface in which the controller is built in to the drive, whereas ATA refers to the
specific implementation of IDE that is used in most PCs.
Today, ATA is used to connect not only hard disks, but also CD and DVD drives,
high-capacity SuperDisk floppy drives, and tape drives. Even so, ATA is still
thought of primarily as a hard disk interface, and it evolved directly from the
separate controller and hard drive interfaces that were used prior to ATA. This
chapter covers the standard (parallel) ATA and new Serial ATA interfaces in
detail, as well as the original interfaces from which ATA and Serial ATA evolved.
Because the ATA interface is directly integrated into virtually all motherboard
chipsets, ATA is the primary storage interface used by most PCs.
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
SCSI (pronounced "scuzzy") stands for Small Computer System Interface and is
a general-purpose interface used for connecting many types of devices to a PC.
This interface has its roots in SAS I, the Shugart Associates System Interface.
SCSI is the most popular interface for attaching high-speed disk drives to higherperformance PCs, such as workstations or network servers. SCSI is also very
flexible; it is not only a disk interface, but is also a systems-level interface
allowing many types of devices to be connected, including scanners and printers.
SCSI is a bus that supports as many as 7 or 15 total devices. Multichannel
adapters exist that can support up to 7 or 15 devices per channel.
The SCSI controller, called the host adapter, functions as the gateway between
the SCSI bus and the PC system bus. Each device on the bus has a controller
22
built in. The SCSI bus does not talk directly with devices such as hard disks;
instead, it talks to the controller that is built in to the drive.
A single SCSI bus can support as many as 8 or 16 physical units, usually called
SCSI IDs. One of these units is the SCSI host adapter card in your PC; the other
7 or 15 can be other peripherals. You could have hard disks, tape drives, CDROM drives, a graphics scanner, or other devices attached to a single SCSI host
adapter. Most systems can support up to four host adapters, each with up to 15
devices, for a total of 60 devices! There are even dual-channel adapters that
could double that figure.
SCSI is a fast interface, generally suited to high-performance workstations,
servers, or anywhere the ultimate in performance for a storage system interface
is needed. The latest Ultra4 (Ultra320) SCSI version supports transfer speeds of
up to 320MB per second (MBps)! An even faster version is being developed,
called Ultra5 (Ultra640), which will transfer at 640MBps. By comparison, parallel
ATA (also known as IDE) transfers at speeds up to 133MBps, whereas the new
Serial ATA transfers at 150MBps.
Week 12. Review & Midterm Exam
In this week we will review what we have learned so far by doing some
examples for the first two hours; the next two hours will be taken up by the
Mid Term exam. The mid term exam will take place in the computer lab.
Week 13. Building or Upgrading Systems & PC Diagnostics, Testing, and
Maintenance
In this week you will learn about:
System Components
Hardware and Software Resources
System Assembly and Disassembly
Motherboard Installation
Troubleshooting New Installations
Installing the Operating System
Disassembly/Upgrading Preparation
System Components
In these days of commodity parts and component pricing, building your own
system from scratch is no longer the daunting process it once was. Every
component necessary to build a PC system is available off the shelf at
competitive pricing. In many cases, the system you build can use the same or
even better components than the top name-brand systems.
23
There are, however, some cautions to heed. The main thing to note is that you
rarely save money when building your own system; purchasing a complete
system from a mail-order vendor or mass merchandiser is almost always less
expensive. The reason for this is simple: Most system vendors who build
systems to order use many, if not all, of the same components you can use when
building your own system. The difference is that they buy these components in
quantity and receive a much larger discount than you can by purchasing only one
of a particular item.
In addition, you pay only one shipping and handling charge when you purchase a
complete system instead of the multiple shipping charges you pay when you
purchase separate components. In fact, the shipping, handling, and phone
charges from ordering all the separate parts needed to build a PC through the
mail often add up to $100 or more. This cost rises if you encounter problems with
any of the components and have to make additional calls or send improper or
malfunctioning parts back for replacement. Many companies charge restocking
fees if you purchase something and then determine you don't need it or can't use
it.
Troubleshooting New Installations
At this point, the system should reset and attempt to boot normally from either a
floppy disk or hard disk. With the operating system startup disk in drive A:, the
system should boot and either reach an installation menu or an A: prompt. If any
problems exist, here are some basic items to check:






If the system won't power up at all, check the power cord. If the cord is
plugged into a power strip, make sure the strip is switched on. Usually, a
power switch can be found on the front of the case, but some power
supplies have a switch on the back as well.
Check to see whether the power switch is connected properly inside the
case. There is a connection from the switch to the motherboard; check
both ends to ensure that they are connected properly.
Check the main power connector from the supply to the board. Make sure
the connectors are seated fully, and if the board is a Baby-AT type, ensure
that they are plugged in with the correct orientation and sequence.
If the system appears to be running but you don't see anything on the
display, check the monitor to ensure that it is plugged in, turned on, and
properly and securely connected to the video card.
Check the video card to ensure it is fully seated in the motherboard slot.
Remove and reseat the video card, and possibly try a different slot if it is a
PCI card.
If the system beeps more than once, the BIOS is reporting a fatal error of
some type. See the BIOS Error code listings in Chapter 5 and on the DVD
accompanying this book for more information on what these codes mean
because they depend on the type and version of BIOS you have. Also,
24

consult your motherboard documentation—look in the BIOS section for a
table of beep codes.
If the LED on your floppy drive, hard drive, or CD/DVD-ROM drive stays
on continuously, the data cable is probably installed backward or is off by
some pins. Check that the stripe on the cable is properly oriented toward
pin 1 on both the drive and board connector ends. Also, check the drive
jumpers for proper master/slave relationships.
When you are sure the system is up and running successfully, power it off and
screw the chassis cover securely to the case. Now your new system should be
ready for the operating system installation.
Week 14. File Systems and Data Recovery
In this week you will learn about:
File Systems
File Allocation Table
NTFS
Disk and File System Structures
VFAT and Long Filenames
FAT32
FAT File System Errors
FAT File System Utilities
New Technology File System
High Performance File System
Data Recovery
Common Drive Error Messages and Solutions
General File System Troubleshooting for MS-DOS, Windows 9x, and
Windows Me
General File System Troubleshooting for Windows 2000/XP
File Systems
Physically, the hard disks and other media provide the basic technology for
storing data. Logically, however, the file system provides the hierarchical
structure of volumes and directories in which you store individual files and the
organizational model that enables the system to locate data anywhere on a given
disk or drive. File systems typically are an integrated part of an operating system
(OS), and many of the newer OSes provide support for several file systems from
which you can choose.
Several file systems are available from which to choose in a modern PC. Each
file system has specific limitations, advantages, and disadvantages, and which
ones you use can also be limited by the operating system you choose. Not all
operating systems support all the file systems.
25
The primary file systems to choose from today include


File allocation table (FAT), which includes FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32
New Technology File System (NTFS)
Although other file systems, such as OS/2's High Performance File System
(HPFS), are in use on PCs, these are the two you're most likely to find on a
Windows-based PC. Consequently, this chapter focuses mainly on FAT and
NTFS.
File Allocation Table
Until the release of Windows XP, the most commonly used file systems were
based on a file allocation table (FAT), which keeps track of the data stored in
each cluster on a disk. FAT is still the most universally understood file system,
meaning it is recognized by virtually every operating system that runs on PCs,
and even non-PCs. For example, FAT is even recognizable on Apple Mac
systems. For this reason, although NTFS (covered later in this chapter) is usually
recommended with Windows XP, for greater compatibility across systems and
platforms, most external hard disks and removable-media drives use FAT as
their native file systems. Also, if you want to dual-boot Windows XP and
Windows 9x/Me, you need to use FAT-based file systems even on your main
drives.
Three main varieties of the FAT system exist, called FAT12, FAT16, and
FAT32—all of which are differentiated by the number of digits used in the
allocation table numbers. In other words, FAT16 uses 16-bit numbers to keep
track of data clusters, FAT32 uses 32-bit numbers, and so on. The various FAT
systems are used as follows:



FAT12. Used on all volumes smaller than 16MiB (for example, floppy
disks).
FAT16. Used on volumes from 16MiB through 2GiB by MS-DOS 3.0 and
most versions of Windows. Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows
XP support FAT16 volumes as large as 4GiB. However, FAT16 volumes
larger than 2GiB cannot be used by MS-DOS or Windows 9x/Me.
FAT32. Optionally used on volumes from 512MiB through 2GiB, and
required on all FAT volumes over 2GiB, starting with Windows 95B (OSR
2.x) and subsequent versions.
Data Recovery
Recovering lost data can be as simple as opening the Recycle Bin, or it might
require spending hundreds of dollars on specialized data recovery software or
services. In the worst-case scenario, you might even need to send your drive to a
data recovery center. Several factors affect the degree of difficulty you can have
in recovering your data, including
26






How the data was deleted
Which file system was used by the drive on which the data was stored
Whether the drive uses magnetic, optical, magneto-optical, or flash
memory to store data
Which version of Windows or other OS you use
Whether you already have data-protection software installed on your
system
Whether the drive has suffered physical damage to heads, platters, or its
circuit board
The Windows Recycle Bin and File Deletion
The simplest data recovery of all takes place when you send files to the Windows
Recycle Bin (a standard part of Windows since Windows 95). Pressing the
Delete key when you have a file or group of files highlighted in Windows Explorer
or My Computer or clicking the Delete button sends files to the Recycle Bin.
Although a file sent to the Recycle Bin is no longer listed in its normal location by
Windows Explorer, the file is actually protected from being overwritten. By
default, Windows 95 and above reserve 10% of the disk space on each hard disk
for the Recycle Bin (removable-media drives don't have a Recycle Bin). Thus, a
10GB drive reserves about 1GB for its Recycle Bin. In this example, as long as
less than 1GB of files has been sent to the Recycle Bin, a so-called deleted file is
protected by Windows. However, after more than 1GB of files has been sent to
the Recycle Bin, Windows allows the oldest files to be overwritten. Thus, the
quicker you realize that a file has been sent to the Recycle Bin, the more likely it
is you can retrieve it.
27