Computer Fundamental Module 2

Introduction to Hardware Engineering

A Practical Study Guide Module 2 Prepared by OLADOSU John Babalola Computer Science and Engineering Department Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomoso Nigeria

This Study guide is organized into three Chapters Chapter One Computer Hardware Identification

Chapter Two Computer System Assembly Chapter Three Computer System Troubleshooting and Maintenance

Chapter One

Computer Hardware Identification A computer system contains the following componentsdevices

Tower or Desktop case

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Modem amp NIC

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

A desktop or tower case is required to hold all your components together It is your personal preference on which one you decide choose The desktop or tower cases come two in form factor AT and ATX Nearly all the cases made nowadays are ATX as the motherboard manufacturers make majority of their motherboard in the ATX form

ATX Tower Casing

Motherboard

A motherboard is a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that connects your processor memory and all your expansion cards together to assemble a PC

The processor The processor also known as CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain of a computer

Memory Memory is the name given to silicon chips that stores volatile computer data Volatile means that the contents of memory will be lost if the power of the computer is switched off

Graphics card

Graphics card provides display output to your monitor Your graphic device will most likely come on your motherboard

Sound card

If you require sound for your PC then you will need a sound card Sound controllers also come with system board nowadays

Modem stands for Modulator Demodulator It converts digital signals to analogue so that it can travel via your telephone line and vice-versa A modem is an essential item if you are intending to connect your PC to the internet using dial-up access It is also on the board of most computers

Ethernet Cards Ethernet cards are usually purchased separately from a computer although many computers (such as the Macintosh) now include an option for a pre-installed Ethernet card

FDD You need a FDD to access floppy disks

Hard disk drive

Hard disk drive stores all your data including operating system applications user files and documents

CD-ROM drive

Nearly all operating systems and applications software comes on CD It is therefore essential to have a CD-ROM drive for installing your applications

PC speakers

Monitors

CD Writer DVD Writer

CD Writer DVD Writer is a very good option for a backup device

ZIP drive

If you need to transfer large files from one PC to another you will find floppy disks quite useless due to their limited storage capacity A ZIP drive could be your answer as ZIP disks can store 100 or 250 MB depending on which model you choose

TV card

A TV card gives you the option of watching TV on your monitor

Chapter Two

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO COMPUTER SYSTEM ASSEMBLY

If you are thinking of building your own PC or need practical information about PC hardware or software you have come to the right place With easy to follow step by step guide combined with many images even a beginner can build configure and setup their own PC

This section gives you an opportunity to learn more about Personal Computer hardware and software We provide clear easy to follow step by step instructions on how to build your own PC according to your own specification By building your own PC you get exactly what you need and can save yourself allot of money compared to buying a new manufactured PC

At the end of the guide you will have a fully functional PC that should hopefully meet your individual needs We also provide advice and instructions on installing a specific hardware this can be useful if you already have a PC and want to upgrade or add certain hardware

The information is placed under appropriate category The Hardware section provides information about all the required PC hardware such as motherboard CPU memory etc It provides guidance to help you decide which hardware is suitable for your needs Our illustrated step by step guide shows you how to assemble a PC from scratch

The software section shows you how to setup a new hard disk using appropriate software so its ready for installing an operating system Installation guide for Windows XP is provided so that your system is up and running quickly and smoothly If you encounter any problems the troubleshooting section should take care of things So what are you waiting for start building a PC today

Hardware Information

To build your PC from scratch you will need to purchase all the necessary hardware The first thing you must consider before you start to shop around for your PC hardware is the specification of the hardware You should think about what you are going to use your PC for before buying fancy expensive hardware Otherwise you will end up buying hardware which offers advance features that may not be necessary for your needs and end up wasting your money For example you may be using your PC for word-processing spreadsheet and browsing the web You would not gain much benefit by purchasing an advance 3D graphics card or having a top of the range processor A simple graphics card and a mid-range processor will satisfy your needs

Below is a list of all the hardware required to build your system except the obvious requirement keyboard and mouse The purpose of each is hardware is explained along with some guidance to help you choose your hardware Select the required hardware for more information

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Desktop or Tower Case

A desktop or tower case is required to hold all your components together It is your personal preference on which one you decide choose The desktopor tower cases come two in form factor AT and ATX Nearly all the cases made nowadays are ATX as the motherboard manufacturers make majority oftheir motherboard in the ATX form All cases come with PSU (Power Supply Unit) space to mount your FDD CD-ROM HDD etc The case that I wouldbe using for demonstration is an ATX Midi Tower case as shown below

Motherboard

A motherboard is a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that connects your processor memory and all your expansion cards together to assemble a PC Most motherboards made nowadays are ATX An ATX motherboard has the standard IO (InputOutput) connectors such as PS2 ports parallel ports serial ports etc built onto the motherboard Old AT motherboard on the other hand uses IO cards and cables which needs to be plugged into the motherboard which gets a bit untidy AT motherboard requires AT keyboard and AT power supply ATX motherboard fits into an ATX case and comes with an ATX power supply The following is a pictures of an ATX motherboard

As you have seen from the enlarged image the motherboard comes with various expansion card slots and connectors It comes with 3 different expansion slots 1 AGP 5 PCI and 1 ISA slot The AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is where you would connect and AGP graphics card The PCI slots is where you would connect cards such as sound card modem tv card etc The ISA slot is quite an old type of bus which is handy if you got some old hardware such as an old ISA modem or sound card The other connectors includes the Intel socket 370 CPU connector the DIMM slot for SDRAM IDE connector for connecting your HDD CD-ROM or other IDE devices and FDD connector

The processor

The processor also known as CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain of a computer The faster the processor the faster it will executeinstructions and run your programs The leading CPU manufactures are Intel and AMD Whichever manufacturer you decide to choose you will have to make sure that you purchase a compatible motherboard

Before buying your CPU consider what the system is going to be used for If you are going to use your system for word-processing browsing the web or other basic tasks it may be sufficient for you to use an Intel Celeron or an AMD Duron processor both of which are available at avery competitive price

If the system is going to be used for spreadsheet databases graphics and playing advance games then you should consider an Intel Pentium 4 Pentium D or an AMD Athlon 64 Athlon 64 X2 processor Pentium D and Athlon 64 X2 are both Dual Core Which means they have twoCPU in one Chip They are also 64 Bit and will support the new Windows Vista Operating System These processors are very fast and arecapable of handling most of your computing needs For building our demonstration PC we will be using an Intel Pentium III 866Mhz Socket 370processor as shown on the following image

Memory

he name given to silicon chips that stores volatile computer data Volatile means that the contents of memory will be lost if the power of the switched off Memory stores some of your operating system and application data while it is being run The more memory you have in yourmore application you can run simultaneously and will provide an overall better system performance

Memory comes in many form The older system uses SDRAM while the current system uses DDR-SDRAM (Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) Depending on your CPU bus you have to use SDRAM to match your CPU bus speed For example PIII 750 runs at the bus speed of 100Mhz therefore you need SDRAM that run at 100MHz known as PC100 SDRAM However if you are going touse PIII 866 you will require PC133 SDRAM which runs at 133Mhz bus speed You also have to make sure that your motherboard can support these speeds New generation of memories are currently out Intel P4 use rambus memory known as RDRAM and the new AMD processorsuse DDR2 SDRAM Some of the well known memory manufactures are Crucial Kingston and Samsung

The following is an image of an PC133 SDRAM that will be used for our demonstration PC

Graphics card

Graphics card provides display output to your monitor There are many graphics card manufactures out there who release a new card into the market nearly every three to six months as it is one of the most competitive hardware market While choosing a graphics card consider what you would be using it for For 2D applications such as word-processing spreadsheet etc a basic graphics card with around 8MB or 16MB graphics memory will be sufficient for your needs It will also allow you to run your monitor at various resolutions However if you require 3D functionality for running 3D applications or playing 3D games you will require a 3D graphics card with at least 128MB or even 256MB of video memory

You can buy graphics card with a PCI AGP or PCI-Express bus However most current motherboards have AGP or PCI-E slot and you should therefore use an AGP or PCI-E graphics card if your motherboard has an AGP or PCI-E slot PCI Express graphics card offers much higher graphics bandwidth which results in higher performance The current top end graphics card are made by Nvida (Geforce cards) and ATI (Radeon cards) The graphics card that we will use for our demonstration PC is a GEFORCE II 64MB AGP card as shown below

Sound card

If you require sound for your PC then you will need a sound card As basic sound cards are very cheap it is recommended that you consider a sound card It offers many benefits such as running multimedia applications with sound listening to wave midi and MP3 music files or even play your audio CDs If you are thinking of playing games on your PC then having a sound card is a must Most current motherboards also have basic built in sound One of the most popular sound cards are the Creatives soundblaster range We will use a Creatives Sounblaster Live 1024 for our demonstration PC as shown below

Modem stands for Modulator Demodulator It converts digital signals to analogue so that it can travel via your telephone line and vice-versa A modem is an essential item if you are intending to connect your PC to the internet

There are many kinds modems out there based on the RockwellConnexant v90 chipset There are two kinds of modem software and hardware Software modems uses your CPU resources to perform its tasks and is run on a virtual COM port Hardware modem performs its tasks using the onboard chipset and therefore does not take up the

CPU resources It also runs on a physical COM ie communication port 3 Software modems which are also known as winmodem can only run on a windows operating system while the hardware based modem can run on other operating systems like linux External modems are mostly hardware based and connect to the serial port You can also get external modems that connect to the USB port however most of these are software based

Analogue modems are currently on the decline as they are being replaced by Digital modems which are used for high speed broadband internet Also known as ADSL modem or ADSL routers ADSL modems are mostly external although you can get Internal ADSL modems Many people are also using Wireless ADSL routers as it offers an excellent way to share internet connections with multiple PCs Some common ADSL Router suppliers are Netgear Belkin and D-Link

I have decided to use a Connexant 56K v90 software modem for our demonstration PC as it performs quite well in terms of download

Ethernet Cards

Ethernet cards are usually purchased separately from a computer although many computers (such as the Macintosh) now include an option for a pre-installed Ethernet card Ethernet cards contain connections for either coaxial or twisted pair cables (or both) (See fig 1) If it is designed for coaxial cable the connection will be BNC If it is designed for twisted pair it will have a RJ-45 connection Some Ethernet cards also contain an AUI connector This can be used to attach coaxial twisted pair or fiber optics cable to an Ethernet card When this method is used there is always an external transceiver attached to the workstation (See the Cabling section for more information on connectors)

You need a FDD to access floppy disks Although floppy disks are limited in capacity only 144 mb every old PC is almost guaranteed to have a FDD Floppy disk drives and now coming the end of their life span as some current PCs are built without a floppy drive This is due to the popularity of USB Flash drives Floppy disk is ideal for storing small files and documents creating boot disks and transferring small files It really does not matter which make of FDD you purchase as they are cheap and performs the same task

Hard disk drive

Hard disk drive stores all your data including operating system applications user files and documents It is a non-volatile storage which means the contents of the HDD is not lost if the PC is switched off

There are three different types of HDD which are IDEATA SCSI SATA (Serial ATA) Majority of home PCs are equipped with IDE Hard drives SCSI hard drives are mostly included in servers and powerful workstations as they offer better data transfer rate which results in better performance than the IDE drives However modern SATA drives are not far behind SCSI drives in terms of performance with the introduction of the newer SATA 300 drives

The price of IDESATA drives have fallen quite dramatically in the recent years You can buy a very large drive for a competitive price It is better to buy a drive which is quite large as it works out cheaper A recommended entry level drive would be 80 GB to 120 GB The major HDD manufacturers are IBM Seagate Maxtor Western Digital and Fujitsu For our demonstration PC I have chosen use an IBM ATA100 drive as shown below

CD-ROM drive

Nearly all operating systems and applications software comes on CD It is therefore essential to have a CD-ROM drive for installing your applications Certain programs requires the CD to be in the CD-ROM drive for that program to run For example various encyclopedia and games CD-ROM can also be used for playing standard audio CDs on your PC

If you are intending to watch DVD movies on your PC then you would require a DVD-ROM which can perform all the tasks of a CD-ROM as well as play DVD movies

CD-ROMs come in various speeds the faster drive the faster it will install your applications DVD drives specifies two types of speeds one for the software installation and other for the DVD extraction For example a DVD drive with 16x32x specification means that it is a 16 speed DVD and 32 speed CD Some of the CDDVD-ROM manufacturers include Toshiba Poineer Hitachi LG and Samsung

PC speakers

A quality sound card would not be much of a benefit without a decent pair of PC speakers Most PC speakers are magnetically shielded so that it does not interfere with your monitor but there are some budget speakers out there that are not shielded so check before you buy If you are just going to use the speakers for basic sound and music and are not one of those people who play CDs on a PC then you can get away with a budget PC speaker However if you play games and CDs then you should consider a speaker system with a sub-woofer These would produce high quality sound suitable for most tasks

Monitors

It is important that you get a quality monitor that is comfortable to view Monitors come is various sizes and refresh rate 17 monitor are becoming entry standard monitor 15 monitors are OK if you are running it at a low resolution and not using it for long hours As monitor prices have dropped in the recent months it is recommended that you consider a 17 or 19 monitor You can run these monitors at higher resolution and refresh rate which means they are more comfortable to view and you can work with them for long hours Monitors are measured diagonally If a monitor is 17 it does not mean that it is the actual viewable area Some 17 comes with a viewable area of 16 which is good where as others can be as low as 156 Monitors consist of thousands of pixels (the tiny dots you see on the screen) Smaller pixels produces high definition sharp display Settle for something which is at least 025 mm dot pitch If you purchase a 17 monitor make sure it can handle refresh rate of at least 85 Hz at 1024 768 resolution A 19 monitor should handle at least 1280 1024 at 85 Hz

Currently the most popular viewing device are TFT Flat panels They are now more affordable than before Most people prefer TFT Flat panels as they save lot of desk space They are also more comfortable view

CD Writer DVD Writer is a very good option for a backup device It allows you to backup the contents of your HDD onto a CD-R CD-RW amp DVD-R disc It also allows you to backup your existing application CDs As blank CDs are very cheap it is an affordable backup device

Like all other PC hardware a CDDVD Writer comes in various speed A 32 speed drive can write a full 650MB CD in around 4 mins and a 52 speed drive can write it in around 3 mins and so on CD-ReWritables are available in IDE and SCSI interface You will require a SCSI card if choose to get a SCSI model

CD DVD Writer is more than just backup device you can use it to create your own Audio CD Photo CD Video CD etc You can also use your CD or DVD meida just the way you use hard drive using the usual drag and drop file copy Most CDDVD writers are bundled with software which can perform all the tasks I have mentioned

ZIP drive

If you need to transfer large files from one PC to another you will find floppy disks quite useless due to their limited storage capacity A ZIP drive could be your answer as ZIP disks can store 100 or 250 MB depending on which model you choose ZIP disks look similar to floppy disks but are slightly larger Data can be written and read from a ZIP disk much quicker than a floppy disk ZIP disks can be used in the similar manner to floppy disks which makes it a simple easy to use backup device

Zip drives have now become obsolete due to writ able CD and DVD A much more popular option is to use USB Flash drive also know as Pen Drive

TV card

A TV card gives you the option of watching TV on your monitor TV cards are quite useful as it offers more than just watching TV You can connect your VCR to the TV card so that you can watch videos too One of the useful things

about having a TV card is that you can use it for capturing Video Using the necessary software you can capture video in various format such AVI or MPEG files One of the popular TV card is Haupauge WinTV PCI as shown below

Older TV cards were all analogue device Now you can get Digital TV cards which allows you to view Digital terrestrial TV channels You can even get Digital Satellite and Cable TV cards

Assembling the Hardware

If you have purchased all the necessary hardware your are ready assemble your PC Before unpacking your components from its original anti-static bags you must put on your anti-static wrist strap which will discharge your self It is important that you discharge yourself or there is a danger that you can damage your components by anti-static shock by touching the components If you dont have an anti-static wrist strap you can discharge your self by touching the metal edges of your ATX case although this is not recommended

Now you can proceed to the first step Motherboard Installation

The first thing you should do is unpack your ATX case Take off the cover of your case so that you can access the inside Place the case on a desk so that you are looking down towards the open case Your case should come with motherboard mounting screws If your ATX back plate it not already fitted you can fit it by placing your plate near the ATX back plate cut out and pushing the plate outwards it should clip on

Now place your motherboard on top of the mounting screw holes Make sure your ATX devices on the motherboard such as PS2 and parallel port are facing towards ATX back plate cut out Gently push your motherboard towards the cut out every devices should fit easily into its corresponding cut out as shown below

The screw holes on your motherboard should align with the screw holes on your case Place your screws that came with the case into the appropriate holes and gently screw it on using a screw driver

The motherboard is now securely mounted to the case You can now place the ATX power connector to the motherboard Your ATX case should come with a power supply unit (PSU) and should already be mounted to the case The ATX power connector is shown on image below

Place the ATX power connector on top of the power socket on the motherboard Push down the power connector and it should clip onto the socket If you try to fit the power connector the wrong way round it wont fit it will only fit one way So if the power connector does not go in it should go in the other way round

Next - Processor (CPU) Installation

Locate the processor socket on your motherboard I am installing an Intel PIII 866 processor on a socket 370 as shown on the following image The installation would be slightly different if you have a different processor ie Slot1 PIII CPU P4 CPU AMD Slot A Socket A CPU etc

Raise the brown lever on the socket and slowly put the processor in place You have to make sure the pin 1 of your CPU goes into the pin 1 of your CPU socket otherwise the CPU would not get into the socket so dont try to force it in It will go in gently if you fit it correctly Now close the brown lever which will securely hold the CPU in place If you bought a retail boxed CPU it would include a heatsink + fan If you bought an OEM CPU make sure you got a fan that is correct for the speed of your CPU otherwise your CPU will overheat and behave abnormally or could be damaged Take off the plastic cover from the bottom of the CPU fan that covers the heat transfer pad Now place the CPU fan on top the CPU and push down the metal clips on the fan so that it clips onto the CPU socket

CPU fan has a power connector which needs to be connected to CPU fan power socket on your motherboard as shown on the image above

Finally you have to specify what frequency (speed) your CPU is running at This can be done using jumper settings or on some modern motherboard it can be done in the BIOS or your motherboard may have automatic detection for your CPU frequency Please refer to your motherboard manual for more details The motherboard I am using (Abit BX133) has a dip-stick jumper setting and it can be setup in the BIOS I have left the jumper setting to default as I will use the BIOS to specify the CPU frequency The CPU runs at the bus speed of 133Mhz therefore I will use the settings 133 65(multiplier) under the BIOS which will the run the CPU at 866Mhz

Next - Memory Installation (SDRAM)

Installing memory is quite simple Find the SDRAM or DDRAM banks on your motherboard they should look similar to the banks below Notice the memory banks has a white clip on each side Make sure you release the clips so it bends to each side

Hold each corner of the SDRAM placing it on top of the bank 1 You will notice that the SDRAM has a cut at the bottom side it is there to prevent the memoy going in the wrong way round If you are holding the SDRAM the incorrect way you will not be able insert it Gently push down the SDRAM and it should clip on to the memory bank The two white clips will now become straight holding each corner of the memory If you have more that one SDRAM perform same steps as above but placing the SDRAM in memory bank 2 and so on

Next - Hard Disk Drive Installation

If you look at the rear side of an IDE hard drive it should look similar to the image below

The IDEATA connector is on the left hand side which consists of many pins Next to the IDE connector is the jumper setting for the drive The jumper should be set to Master which is the default setting for a new HDD Any other device sharing the same IDE cable should be set to Slave Different HDD has different jumper settings please refer to your HDD manual for more information On the right hand side next to the jumpers is the power connector Every device except FDD uses this type of power connector Figure 1 and 2 below shows what an ATA 66 and a power cable looks like The ATA 66 cable which is also known as UDMA 66 cable is an advance IDE cable which offers higher performance and data integrity than the standard IDE cable ATA 66 cable consists of 80 conductor cable where as the standard IDE cable consists of 40 conductor cable I am using an ATA 66 cable because the above HDD is an ATA 100 drive which requires an ATA 66 cable

Figure 1 - ATA 66 Cable

Figure 2 - Power cable

Place your hard drive into the HDD mounting slot of your case make sure the IDEATA connector is facing outwards Screw the HDD to the case using screws provided with the HDD or the ATX case

Insert the ATA 66 cable into the ATA connector of the HDD Make sure the pin 1 on the cable is connected to pin 1 on the HDD connector Pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of an ATA cable Most new IDEATA cables are designed so that it will only go in one way which will correspond to pin 1

Push the power cable into the power connector as shown The power cable is designed to go in one way so you shouldnt have any problems

Connect the other end of the ATA 66 cable to the primary ATA socket of your motherboard as shown Make sure the pin 1 on the cable connects to the pin 1 on the ATA socket

Thats it you have successfully installed a HDD

Next - Floppy Disk Drive Installation

The rear side of a floppy drive looks similar to the following image

The black connector on the left hand side is the floppy disk connector It is different from the IDE connector and uses a different cable The small white connector on the right hand side is the power connector for the floppy drive Figure 1 and 2 below shows what a floppy drive cable and floppy drive power connector looks like

Figure 1 - Floppy drive cable

Figure 2 - Floppy drive power cable

Place the floppy drive into the FDD mounting slot as shown Screw the drive securely into place

Insert the floppy drive cable into the floppy drive connector Make sure the pin 1 on the cable connects to the pin 1 on the floppy drive connector As you already know by now that pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of the floppy drive cable Most floppy drive cables are designed so that it will only go in on way so you can not connect it incorrectly

Push the floppy drive power cable to the power connector This will only go in on way

Finally connect the other end of the floppy drive cable to floppy drive connector on your motherboard Make sure pin 1 on the cable connects to pin 1 on the connector

Next - CD-ROMDVD-ROM Installation

If you look at the rear side of your CD DVD-ROM it should look similar to image shown on figure 1

Figure 1

On the right hand side you have the power connector Next to power connector you have the IDE connector On the left hand side near the IDE connector you have the jumper settings for the DVD-ROM The jumper is set to Master by default I am connecting the DVD-ROM on a separate IDE cable therefore I will leave the jumper setting to Master However if you are sharing an IDE cable with another device like HDD then you would have to set jumper to Slave as your HDD would be set to Master Next to the jumpers you have the CD Audio-Out socket One side of your audio cable connects to this socket and other side connects to the sound card cd-in socket This would allow you to listen to Audio CDs on your computer

Figure 2

Mount your CDDVD-ROM drive into its mounting slot Use the supplied screws to screw the drive into position

Figure 3

Connect the IDE cable to the drives IDE connector Make sure the pin 1 on the cable is connected to pin 1 on the drives IDE connector Pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of an IDE cable Connect the other end of the IDE cable to the IDE socket on your motherboard as shown in figure 4 Again make sure you conncet the cable to pin 1 The IDE socket could be your primary or secondary socket depending which socket you choose If your HDD is on the primary IDE socket and your secondary IDE socket is free then it is better to use your secondary IDE socket for the CDDVD-ROM

Figure 4

Finally connect the power cable to power connector and connect the audio cable to the CD Audio-Out socket as shown on figure 3

Next - Graphics card installation

Most modern graphics cards are AGP based and connects to the AGP bus of the motherboard An AGP bus (slot) looks like the following image The brown slot is where you connect your AGP graphics card

Place your AGP card on top of the slot and gently push it down The card should firmly sit into position

All you need to do now is to screw the metal plate on the front of the card to the ATX case Use the screws supplied with case and screw the card to the case

Next - Sound card Installation

Most modern sound cards are designed with the PCI interface and connects to the PCI slot of your motherboard A PCI slot looks like the slots on the following image

Place your sound card on top of a chosen slot Gently push down the card so it sits into position Once the card is seated correctly into position screw the card on to the case

Finally insert the audio cable into the CD-IN socket The other end of the cable should be connected to Audio-out socket on your CDDVD-ROM drive

Next - Modem Installation

Find a free PCI slot on your motherboard (assuming your modem is a PCI modem) Place your modem card on top of the slot and gently push it down into position

Once the card has seated correctly into position screw the card to the case using the screws supplied with the case

Now you have installed all the prerequisite hardware devices You can either proceed to the finalising stage or you may want to install optional devices like a ZIP drive CD-RW drive or a TV-Card If you do not want to install these devices you can now proceed to the finalising stage

Next Finalising stage

Now that you have installed all the necessary hardware there are still few more things you need to do before switching on your PC for the first time Your ATX case has a power switch which turns the PC on a reset switch for resetting the system a power LED which comes on when the PC is switched on and a hard drive LED which flashes when data is being written or read from your hard drive You also have an internal speaker

Figure 1 - Power and Reset switch

The switches and LEDs need to be connected to its corresponding connectors on the motherboard Please refer to your motherboard manual to locate where the connectors are Different motherboards place the connectors in different locations The connectors for the switches and LEDs are normally grouped together They should look similar to the image below

Figure 2 - Switch and LED connectors

Every cable is normally labeled they are normally named as follows but could be slightly different on your system

Power switch Power PWR-SW Reset switch Reset Power LED Power LED PWR-LED Hard drive LED HDD-LED IDE LED Speaker SPK Speaker

The connectors on the motherboard are also labeled but may be too small to see Instead refer to your motherboard manual which would provide details on which pins you should connect the cables to The image below shows how the pins may be organised on your motherboard

Once you have connected all the cables to the correct pins on the motherboard you are ready to switch the PC on At this point you can close the cover of your ATX case but dont screw it on just yet as you might have possible problems that needs rectifying Connect all the cables to back of ATX case These includes the main power cable that connects to the power supply PS2 mouse and keyboard that connects to the PS2 ports Monitor cable that connects to the graphics card port etc Finally the moment has arrived Switch on your monitor first Your ATX power supply might have a main power switch at the back so make sure that is switched on Now switch the PC on by pressing the power switch on the front of the ATX case If you have performed all the tasks without any mistakes and providing that none

of the main components are faulty the PC should boot When the PC boots you should see the name of the BIOS manufacturer such as AWARD BIOS displayed on your monitor Your CPU type speed and the amount of memory should be displayed as shown on image below

If your motherboard has a plug and play BIOS and is set to automatic device detection by default then you would see your IDE devices being detected followed by a prompt complaining about missing operating system If your motherboard does not detect the hardware then you need to proceed to the BIOS setup screen by pressing DEL or F1 or F2 depending on your motherboard Congratulations you have completed building your own PC You now need to proceed to the software section which explains how to setup the BIOS Hard disk and install an operating system

If things did not go smoothly and your PC does not switch on then go to the troubleshooting section for possible solutions

Software

After assembling your PC you need to setup the BIOS hard disk and load an operating system to get your PC up and running The tasks required are as follows

1 BIOS Setup 2 Hard disk partition and format 3 Installing Windows 98 ME 4 Installing Windows XP

Award BIOS Version 600PG Setup

This is the BIOS setup for Award BIOS v600PG If you have a different version of the Award BIOS their would be a lot of similarities If your BIOS is AMI or Phoenix then the common BIOS features would have some similarities Whatever BIOS you have this setup guide should give you an idea about how to setup a BIOS Please note that setting up BIOS incorrectly could cause system malfunction therefore it is recommended that you also follow the BIOS guide provided on your motherboard manual

Click on any of the BIOS setup options below to setup that feature

Softmenu III Setup PC Health Status

Standard CMOS Features Load Fail-Safe Defaults

Advanced BIOS Features Load Optimized Defaults

Advanced Chipset Features Set Password

Integrated Peripherals Save amp Exit Setup

Power Management Setup Exit Without Saving

PnPPCI Configurations

Softmenu III

Softmenu III is where you can setup up the CPU without setting jumpers on the motherboard You can setup the CPU simply by selecting the speed ie Pentium III 750 from the list This ensures that the CPU bus multiplier voltage etc is correctly set for that particular CPU However you can manually setup each feature if required Once you have finished with the setup press ESC to return the previous menu See figure 1

Figure 1 SoftMenu III Setup

Standard CMOS Features

Here you can setup the basic BIOS features such as date time type of floppy etc Use the arrow keys to move around and press enter to select the required option You can specify what IDE devices you have such as Hard drive CD-ROM ZIP drive etc The easiest way to setup the IDE devices is by leaving it set to auto This allows the BIOS to

detect the devices automatically so you dont have to do it manually At the bottom it also displays the total memory in your system See figure 2

Figure 2 Standard CMOS Features

As you can see from figure 3 there are numerous advance settings which you can select if required For most cases leaving the default setting should be adequate As you can see the first boot device is set to floppy This ensures that the floppy disk is read first when the system boots and therefore can boot from windows boot disk The second boot device is the Hard disk and third is set to LS120 If you want to boot from a bootable CD then you can set the third boot device to CDDVD-ROM See Figure 3

Advanced Chipset Features

Here you can setup the contents of the chipset buffers It is closely related to the hardware and is therefore recommended that you leave the default setting unless you know what you are doing Having an incorrect setting can make your system unstable If you know that your SDRAM can handle CAS 2 then making changes can speed up the memory timing If you have 128MB SDRAM then the maximum amount of memory the AGP card can use is 128MB See Figure 4

Figure 3 Advanced BIOS Features

Figure 4 Advanced Chipset Features

Inegrated Peripherals

This menu allows you to change the various IO devices such as IDE controllers serial ports parallel port keyboard etc You can make changes as necessary See figure 5

Figure 5 Integrated Peripherals

Power Management Setup

The power management allows you to setup various power saving features when the PC is in standby or suspend mode See figure 6

Figure 6 Power Management Setup

This menu allows you to configure your PCI slots You can assign IRQs for various PCI slots It is recommended that you leave the default settings as it can get a bit complicated messing around with IRQs See figure 7

Figure 7 PNPPCI Configurations

PC Health Status

This menu displays the current CPU temperature the fan speeds voltages etc You can set the warning temperature which will trigger an alarm if the CPU exceeds the specified temperature See figure 8

Figure 8 PC Health Status

Load Fail-Safe Defaults

If you made changes to the BIOS and your system becomes unstable as a result you can change it back to default However if you made many changes and dont know which one is causing the problem your best bet is to choose the option Load Fail Safe Mode Defaults from the BIOS menu This uses a minimal performance setting but the system would run in a stable way From the dialog box Choose Y followed by enter to load Fail-Safe Defaults

Load Optimized Defaults

Like the Fail-Safe mode above this option loads the BIOS default settings but runs the system at optimal performance From the dialog box Choose Y followed by enter to load Optimized Defaults

Set Password

To password protect your BIOS you can specify a password Make sure you dont forget the password or you can not access the BIOS The only way you can access the BIOS is by resetting it using the reset jumper on the motherboard

Save and Exit Setup

To save any changes you made to the BIOS you must choose this option From the dialog box choose Y

Exit without Saving

If you dont want to save changes made to the BIOS choose N from the dialog box

Hard Disk Setup - Partition and Format

This procedure explains how to setup a new hard disk Warning - if you are setting up a hard disk which contains data the following procedure would completely erase your hard disk and the data would be unrecoverable

Before a new hard disk can be used it needs to be setup This involves partitioning and formatting the hard disk Windows 98 or ME boot disk contains the required software to perform this procedure FDISKEXE and FORMATCOM are the files required in your bootable floppy disk Start the partition and format procedure by booting your PC using a Windows boot disk Make sure you set the BIOS so that the boot sequence is set to detect the floppy disk first If your system has no problems booting you will be presented with a Windows boot disk menu This gives you the option to start the system with or without CD-ROM support At this stage you do not need the CD-ROM support so choose the option to boot without CD-ROM support You should end up in the MS DOS prompt A (A drive) From A command prompt type fdisk You will be presented with following message

Choose Y to enable large disk supportYou will now be presented with the FDISK main menu as shown below

From the menu choose option 1 - Create DOS partition or Logical DOS drive Another menu will present the following options

Choose option 1 - Create primary DOS Partition FDISK verifies the integrity of your drive and will ask you if want to use the maximum available size of your hard disk to create the primary partition and set it active To keep things simple we will create one large partition Choose Y to use maximum available space When the partition has been created successfully you will be notified by the system Your drive is now known as C (C drive) Press Esc to return to the menu Press Esc again to exit FDISK You need to restart your system for the changes to take affect Leave boot disk in the driveWhen the system reboots choose start without CD-ROM from the boot disk menu While booting from floppy disk you might get error message like Invalid media type reading drive C this is OK for this stage as the hard disk is not formatted

From A command prompt type format cYou will get a message saying WARNING ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C WILL BE LOST Proceed with Format (YN)

Dont worry about the message as you do not have any data in the new hard disk Choose Y The format will proceed and would show you a progress indicator The time it takes to format a hard disk depends on the size and speed of the drive This could be around 5-30 minutes Once the format is complete you need to reset your system You are now ready to install an operating system

Installing Windows 98ME Operating System

This procedure demonstrates how to install Windows ME operating system The procedure to install Windows 98 is very similar to ME Since Windows ME is the latest Windows 9x family operating system it will be used to demonstrate the installation procedure

Boot your system with Windows 98 or ME boot disk When the system starts you will be presented with a menu which gives you the option to boot with or without CD-ROM support Select the option to boot with CD-ROM support This would create a RAM drive and load a device driver to support your DVDCD-ROM The RAM drive is assigned to D (D drive) and your CD-ROM should be assigned to E (E drive)

Place the Windows ME CD into the drive At A command prompt type E and press enter Then type setup At his stage Windows runs DOS based scandisk to verify if your hard disk has any problems If there are no problems Windows proceeds with the setup and launches the Windows ME setup wizard as shown in figure 1

figure 1 Windows ME Setup Wizard

After agreeing to the license agreement Windows will ask you to type in your product key The default directory to install windows is cwindows I recommend that you leave it as default Next you would be given four types of installation options which are Typical Portable Compact and Custom Choosing typical would install the most common components and is suitable for most people If you want to specify which components to install then choose custom You would be presented with few other dialog boxes such entering your name and company name option to create a Windows ME boot disk before file copy process begins After completing the copying process Windows restarts and boots from the hard disk make sure you remove your floppy disk from the drive It will detect your plug and play devices and would present a few more dialog boxes Just read the instructions on dialog boxes and proceed as required Windows would restarts again after completing final setup stage This does not mean everything is completely setup Some of your hardware device may have conflicts or may not have drivers loaded as Windows does not contain those drivers

From device manager you can check if all the drivers has been loaded or if there are any conflicts From the start menu select Start -gt Settings -gt Control Panel Click on the System icon and then from the System Properties window select the Device Manager tab This lists all the devices as shown in figure 2

Figure 2 Windows Device Manager

If there are any yellow exclamation mark next to any of the listed device it means that no drivers or incorrect drivers has been loaded for that device Your hardware should come with manufacturer supplied drivers You need to install these drivers using automatic setup program provided by the manufacturer or you need to manually install these drivers If you do not have the drivers check the manufacturers website to download them

To install a driver manually use the following procedure

1 From the device manager double click on the device containing the exclamation mark 2 This would open a device properties window 3 Click on the Driver tab 4 Click Update Driver push button The Wizard for updating device driver pops up as shown in figure 3 5 You now get two options The first option provides an automatic search for the required driver The second

option allows you to specify the location of the driver If you dont know the location of the driver choose the automatic search which would find the required driver from the manufacturer supplied CD or Floppy disk Windows would install the required driver and ask you to restart the system for the changes to take affect Use this procedure to install drivers for all the devices that contain an exclamation mark Windows is completely setup when there are no more exclamation marks in the device manager

Figure 3 Installing Device Driver

Installing Windows XP Professional

This procedure demonstrates how to install Windows XP Professional The procedure to install Windows XP home edition is very similar to the professional edition Since Windows XP Pro is more advance operating system it will be used to demonstrate the installation procedure

The best way install Windows XP is to do a clean install It is not difficult to perform a clean installation Before you perform the installation I recommend that you check Windows XP Compatibility List to ensure that your hardware is supported by XP If your hardware is not on the compatibility list you can check your hardware manufactures website to download the drivers for Windows XP Save all the necessary drivers onto floppy disks or CD before you start the installation

All versions of Windows XP CD are bootable In order to boot from CD-ROM you need to set the boot sequence Look for the boot sequence under your BIOS setup and make sure that the first boot device is set to CD-ROM If you have an older PC and your BIOS does not support boot from CD-ROM then you need to create boot disks using 6 floppy disks You can download the following program from Microsoft which will create the 6 floppy setup disks

Windows XP Home Edition - httpwwwmicrosoftcomdownloadsreleaseaspreleaseid=33290

Windows XP Professional - httpwwwmicrosoftcomdownloadsreleaseaspreleaseid=33291

If your computer can boot from CD-ROM then you can perform the following steps to install Windows XP

1 Start your PC and place your Windows XP CD in your CDDVD-ROM drive

2 Your PC should automatically detect the CD and you will get a message saying Press any key to boot from CD

3 Press a key to boot from CD and Windows setup will begin Windows will start copying preliminary setup files to your computer

4 You will be asked if you want to perform a new installation repair an existing installation or quit In this case you will be performing a new installation

5 You will be presented with the End User Licensing Agreement Press F8 to accept and continue

6 Select the partition where you want install windows You will have the opportunity to create andor delete partitions or just allocate the available disk space to one partition

7 The next screen asks if you wish to use the NTFS file system This is the recommended file system If you choose to use FAT32 you will not have all the security and stability features of Windows XP

8 Choose to format the partition to either FAT32 or NTFS Youll also see two additional choices to perform a quick format of each option Stick with doing a full format When asked to start the format press the F key The formatting process may take quite a bit of time depending on the size of your HDD

9 The setup program will automatically start copying files after the partition is formatted and you will see a setup progress bar

10 After this is complete the computer will restart Leave the XP CD in the drive but this time DO NOT press any key when the message Press any key to boot from CD is displayed In few seconds setup will continue

11 Windows XP Setup wizard will guide you through the setup process of gathering information about your computer

12 Choose the region and language

13 Type in your name and organization

14 Enter your product license key

15 Name the computer and enter an Administrator password Dont forget to write down your Administrator password

16 Enter the correct date and time

17 Choose workgroup or domain name

18 Register Windows XP if youve installed all the current hardware on your machine

19 Add users that will sign on to this computer

20 Log in to your PC for the first time You now need to check the device manager to confirm that all the drivers has been loaded or if there are any conflicts From the start menu select Start -gt Settings -gt Control Panel Click on the System icon and then from the System Properties window select the Hardware tab then click on Device Manager This lists all the devices as shown in figure 1

figure 1 Windows XP Device Manager

(a) From the device manager double click on the device containing the exclamation mark

(b) This would open a device properties window

(c) Click on the Driver tab

(d) Click Update Driver push button The Wizard for updating device driver pops up as shown in figure 2

figure 2 Installing Device Driver

You now get two options The first option provides an automatic search for the required driver The second option allows you to specify the location of the driver If you dont know the location of the driver choose the automatic search which would find the required driver from the manufacturer supplied CD or Floppy disk Windows would install the required driver and may ask you to restart the system for the changes to take affect Use this procedure to install drivers for all the devices that contain an exclamation mark Windows is completely setup when there are no more exclamation marks in the device manager

Troubleshooting

Below is a list of common problems experienced while assembling a PC Please check the list which could have the possible solution to your problems

Problem The PC does not boot the power and HDD LED does not come on there is no display on monitor

Solution Check that your main power cable is plugged into the ATX power supply Make sure you have connected the ATX power connector to the motherboard Check if the cable for the power switch at front of the PC is connected to the correct pins on the motherboard

Problem The power LED comes on but the PC does not boot there is no display on monitor

Solution Check if the processor is firmly into the socket Check CPU jumpers to verify if CPU frequency is correctly set

Problem The PC does not boot but is beeping

Solution Different BIOS manufacturers use various number of beeps to indicate faults with various hardware In an Award BIOS motherboard you will get following beeps

1 long 2 short Graphics card is not securely into place or faulty

1 long 3 short Graphics card is not securely into place or faulty video memory

Continuous beeps No memory or memory not securely into place or could be faulty

Continuous highlow beeps No CPU or CPU not securely into place or could be faulty

Please refer to your motherboard manual to confirm what the beeps are trying to tell you

Problem The PC boots but the CPU speed is incorrect

Solution The CPU frequency jumper setting is incorrect Refer to your motherboard manual to set it correctly

Problem The HDD is not being detected by the BIOS

Solution Check if you connected the IDE cable to the motherboard correctly is pin 1 on the IDE cable connected to pin 1 on the IDE sockets on both motherboard connector and HDD connector Check if the HDD jumper is set to master and any other device sharing the same cable is set to slave Please refer to Hard disk installation section for more details

Problem I can not access my CDDVD-ROM in DOS mode hence can not install Windows

Solution CDDVD-ROM device driver is not installed Install the manufacturer supplied device driver If you do not have a device driver disk you can use the windows boot disk which will provide access to your CDDVD-ROM so that you can install Windows

Chapter Three

Computer System Troubleshooting and Maintenance

There are two types of people who need to learn computer problem troubleshooting

1 PC users who want to troubleshoot their computer problems

You may be having a computer problem which you need to do a quick computer troubleshooting and fix it This is a vast area

2 Those who want to learn computer troubleshooting in-depth

Probably you want to start from very basic and learn up to advance techniques and do computer troubleshooting like a pro Then below information is for you

Computer Hardware Troubleshooting

This computer hardware troubleshooting section will help you if you have a computer problem and need a quick fix It is hard to separate computer hardware with the Operating System So this section will also have tips for computer software troubleshooting

The computer hardware troubleshooting steps listed below are only for PCs with Windows Operating System

Basic Computer Hardware Troubleshooting Guidelines

Ideally once you have installed your hardware you can simply use itmdashover and over againmdashwithout any need to dig into the Windows settings and make changes Unfortunately all too often this ideal falls somewhat short of what actually happens Sometimes you have to reconfigure your hardware Other times you must reinstall it in order to get it to work At still other times you dont have a problem at all you simply want to upgrade the software components to take advantage of new or improved features Windows XP offers a number of wizards and dialog boxes to help you work with your hardwares drivers and settings The most important tool Device Manager provides a central focus for this chapter

Windows XP also contains a number of tools for maintaining your system Because your hard drives constitute the single most important hardware component to maintain this chapter also covers hard disk maintenance tools Between the Device Manager and the hard drive utilities you can keep the hardware on your system working smoothly

What is Device Manager and how to use it for computer hardware troubleshooting

Without a doubt the Windows Device Manager serves as your best friend in uncovering and solving hardware problems Device Manager displays a list of all your hardware arranged in categories with each item accessible by locating the correct category and expanding it by clicking the plus sign (+) to its left Device Managers usefulness comes to the fore when a device malfunctions To open Device Manager (in Windows XP) click start button right-click My Computer and choose Properties From the resulting System Properties dialog click the Hardware tab In the Device Manager section of the dialog box click the Device Manager button After a brief delay the Device Manager utility will open

Your first survey of hardware status takes place immediately according to the following views

If all categories display closed with no individual devices showing Device Manager does not know of any malfunctioning hardware The device still might not work but from the standpoint of Windows XP it works just fine

If Windows XP sees any device as malfunctioning Device Manager opens with that devices category automatically expanded to reveal the problem hardware After upgrading to Windows XP or installing it for the first time you should expect one or more devices to display as nonfunctioning awaiting drivers

REPAIRING HARDWARE DEVICES

Device Manager gives you two major options for configuring your hardware devices configuring the resources it uses and changing the drivers associated with it Of these two updating the driver happens more frequently because Windows XP has proven itself notably adept at managing system resources Still you can adjust system resources manually if you come across conflicts with the result that you can solve virtually all hardware problems from within Device Manager except those in which the hardware itself does not work because of mechanical malfunction

Tip If a hardware device stops working completely and you cant solve the problem in just a few minutes you might have a mechanical problem instead of an electronic one Consider removing the hardware device and installing it in another PC if one is available If the hardware still doesnt work and you still get no response from it you can assume that it has bitten the dust and can be discarded or in the case of expensive hardware devices such as printers or monitors sent to a repair shop

Computer hardware troubleshooting Step by Step Troubleshooting RAM (Memory)

Its rare but RAM modules can cause problems Unfortunately its not always certain that the memory errors being reported by your system is actually due to problems with the RAM modules Even worse is that an unstable system can be due to many problems including RAM failure

Step 1 Back up all important files and data You should be doing this on a regular basis anyway but if your computer is showing signs of failure dont wait any longer to perform this job

Step 2 Start simple and analyze the problem

bull Have you added or replaced RAM

bull Is it installed properly

bull Have you moved the computer RAM modules can come loose

bull Is it a new computer RAM modules might not have been inserted properly

bull Have you installed any new hardware upgrades

bull Have you installed new software or might there be a virus problem

bull Have you changed or installed patches for your operating system

bull Do you have the correct RAM type

bull Is the RAM module connectors tin or gold

bull When your computer starts (boots) does it report the correct amount of RAM

bull Does your system properties report the correct amount of RAM

bull Are there any POST messages that indicate RAM problems

bull Does the system report Parity errors or address failures whilst the system is running

bull Do you get a Windows error message exception error OE atgtgt0137BFF9z5d0 or something similar

bull Youve tried everything else

Any one of these can indicate a problem with the RAM module or something connected with it

WARNING Before you start troubleshooting remember that you are dealing with electricity that can KILL Only work inside the computer case when the power has been switched off and disconnected Never open the power source

Step 3 Start by reading through this article to establish some ideas about what the problem might be and how to resolve it There is no absolute order for diagnosing problems its equal parts science and magic If its hardware then you are probably going to have to open the computer case (steps 5 - 10 amp 13) You may prefer to eliminate other problems first (steps 11-12) Or even run diagnostic software (step 14)

Step 4 Gather all the documentation that came with your computer memory modules or MOBO (motherboard) You need information on make and model numbers together with installation guides If you are missing anything visit the PC or MOBO manufacturers web site Most have excellent online documentation

Step 5 Do you have the correct RAM Check the MOBO or computer documentation for the type of memory module you should be using Compare this with the memory module you have purchased Look at the memory module does the information on the module match with the sales invoice (have they sent you the correct product) If you bought a name brand computer has the RAM purchased been tested on that particular computer This can be an issue with Dell and other computers You can check compatibility issues online through useful tools on wwwkingstoncom wwwcrucialcom or the MOBO manufacturers own web site

NOTE Before the computer case is opened make sure that power is switched off and disconnected press and hold the power button for 30 seconds to ensure residual power is lost and make sure that you are grounded to avoid damage due to static electricity Use a grounding wrist strap or touch the metal case to discharge static electricity Now open the computer case to check the following

Step 6 Is the RAM installed correctly Some MOBOs must have their slots filled in a special sequence Sometimes DIMMs must be in a specific sequence

Step 7 Remove the memory modules from their slots Take the opportunity to clean the slots on the motherboards and the memory module connectors Use compressed air to blow dust away and clean contacts with a soft cloth Dont use a vacuum cleaner if it touches any component it may create a short and cause damage to the motherboard or other components Dont use solvent that may attract dust and never poke things like cotton buds in to slots Check the memory module and memory slot contacts They are either tin or gold The color will tell you which they are Mixing tin and gold can result in corrosion that prevents proper contact Look for any sign of physical damage to the memory module memory slots or the motherboard With the last two you are looking at replacing the motherboard

Step 8 Reseat the memory modules You should hear an audible click when they are in place Do not use too much force to reseat the memory module in to the slot this can cause damage to the module slot or motherboard If you are still experiencing trouble try the following

Step 9 Swap modules in to different slots If you have more than one memory module try different combinations or one at a time This might identify a faulty component

Step 10 If you have changed or upgraded the memory modules try taking your system back to its original configuration Does it still work If yes then suspect a fault or compatibility problem If no Sorry but you may have damaged the motherboard

Step 11 If your compute isnt recognizing all of your RAM it might be a problem with the BIOS Check with the motherboard or PC manufacturers web site for possible BIOS upgrades

Word of WARNING - BIOS upgrades can seriously damage your wealth Make double sure that you have the correct BIOS update for your motherboard Flash the wrong upgrade can result in needing a new motherboard

Step 12 Check for viruses with an up to date virus checker Some viruses cause problems that look like memory errors

Step 13 Try removing recently installed hardware or software Sometimes operating systems misinterpret problems as memory related

Step 14 If you have tried everything and still suspect a faulty RAM module there are several good programs that will test your computer Typically you must create a boot disk to use when restarting your computer This helps eliminate the possibility that its operating system or other software problems Three options are -

old memory (wwwgoldmemorycz) Memtest86 (wwwmemtest86com) PCTechnician (wwwwindsortechcom)

If you have a Dell computer they have their own computer hardware troubleshooting software that is worth using

Step 15 If finally you need to use a computer technician or phone a technical support line make sure you have written down everything you did and the result It can save you time and money

Printer Troubleshooting Guide

With most printers over 50 of all problems are customer fixable This guide was created to help bail you out when you get stuck on tough printing problems

NOTE If you need specific information or help with a particular printer please contact the printer manufacturer

You troubleshoot printing issues like you would any other computernetwork related problem You start at a general point and rule out the possibilities until you have the specific cause The first question that you need to answer is Is the problem hardware software network or performance related

Hardware

First make sure that the printer is on and that it is in ready position Make sure that there are no error messages on the LEDs or LCD if applicable Now complete the following steps

Any printer worth owning can print an internal test or configuration page This is absolutely the first thing that you want to do even if you think that the hardware is not the issue Make sure that the page will print and it looks good If it prints go to step 3 - If it wont print go to step 2

Step 2 Test page didnt print Any error messages Try cycling power on the printer and try again If it still doesnt print many printers have a special reset often referred to as an NVRAM reset NVRAM stands for Non-volitile RAM and is where a printer may store a variety of information including network settings ripped print jobs and more Sometimes a piece of corrupted information from a bad print job can confuse a printer and cause it to hang Sometimes an NVRAM reset will flush this bad information and restore the printer It may also wipe all of your networkprinter settings so you should contact the printer manufacturer before doing this If this procedure doesnt fix the problem then call for service

Step 3 Your test page printed Good Take a good look at it and see if there are any print quality problems(ie spots streaks etc) If the test page looks fine then you are probably dealing with a network or software problem If there are visible problems then keep reading Before doing anything else consult your manufacturersrsquo documentation for a list of recommended cleaning procedures before moving to the next step Almost all printers have consumable items or CRCs Customer Replaceable Components) These are parts of the printer that are customer replaceable and have a lifespan which means that they arent intended to last forever On a laser printer these may include a fuser photo-receptor scorotron charger toner cartridges and more It is a good idea to keep spares of these parts on hand for

troubleshooting reasons You can save a lot of time and headache waiting for a technician by swapping these parts one at a time and seeing if it cures the problem Make sure that you run about 20 test pages after inserting a new CRC and see if there is improvement Sometimes hardware failures can leave messes that have to be mopped up with quite a few test pages If these steps do not cure the problem then contact the manufacturer for further assistance

Network

When troubleshooting networking problems with printers you will typically follow the same lines of reasoning that you would troubleshooting a PC networking issue especially with newer models of printers The very first thing to do is narrow down the scope of the problem Is it only an issue for 1 PC multiple PCs or all of them Once you have answered this question the following steps should get you on your way

ISSUES AFFECTING ONE OR SOME PCs

Step 1 If it is just one PC make sure that the PC is functioning properly on the network Can it see file servers print to other printers ping other devices etc If the answer is no then it is not a printer issue If the answer is yes continue reading Do print jobs make it to the printer Most printers have an LED or LCD message that will signify that the printer is processing a job Try the driver test page that can be printed from the properties dialogue box for the printer Does this print If no go to step 2 If yes then it is probably a problem

Step 2 If you are at this step it means that nothing will print from 1 PC This is most likely a configuration problem Make sure that you can communicate with the printer at a protocol level

For example if the printer has an IP address can you ping it If it is Appletalk does it show up in the chooser Many printers have an internal configuration page that can be printed that will list the network addresses and available protocols This can often be found on an LCD when applicable If the answer is no go to step 3 Find out what is acting as the print server for the printer Some printers act as their own print server and others will print through a Novell queue Windows LPR port or jet direct box Try sending the test page and see if it makes it to this device Does the job show up in the Novell queue Does it appear in the NT queue If the job doesnt appear in the queue go to step 4 If the job is making it to the queue but not to the printer Make sure that this is the same queue that the other PCs are printing to If so then quite frankly there is something very goofy going on if this is the only PC having the problem Get the classifieds and look for another job

Step 3 If you are at this step it is because the PC cannot communicate with the printer at a protocol level but can communicate with all other devices and other devices can communicate with the printer Not sure what to tell you here May be a routingaddressing issue of some kind Consult your local network guru

Step 4 If you are at this step it is because the print jobs are not making it into the queue on the print server We will assume that the PC is able to connect to the print server via an appropriate protocol(if not then it is not a printer issue) This is almost always a driver configuration issue It usually means that the driver is not pointing to the correct port print server or queue Go to another PC and check the network settings for the printer in question Go back to the ailing PC and delete the printer Reinstall the printer and insert the correct network path port or queue depending on how you are connected

Sometimes permissions problems can cause weird printing behavior Make sure that this user has appropriate permissions to use this resource

ISSUES AFFECTING EVERYONE

Make sure that you can communicate with the printer at a protocol level For example if the printer has an IP address can you ping it If it is Appletalk does it show up in the chooser

Step 1 Many printers have an internal configuration page that can be printed that will list the network addresses and available protocols This can often be found on an LCD when applicable Make sure that these settings are correct If you are able to communicate with the printer go to step 2 If not then make sure that the printer is on the network Check cabling network addressingconfiguration etc Check the cabling by connecting a known working device to the network drop that the printer is on and see if you are able to communicate with it If not then get a new cable If you can see another device on this drop their may be a hardware problem with the printer Although it is rare network cards do fail

Step 2 Find out what is acting as the print server for the printer Some printers act as their own print server and others will print through a Novell queue NT port or jet direct box Send a test page from the print server to the printer Does this print If yes go to step 3 If no continue reading If the test page doesnt print from the print server it means that the print server probably isnt properly configured for that printer which would obviously prevent anyone else from being able to print to it Check the type of printer port or queue that you have configured and make sure that it is correctly pointing at the printer

Step 3 If you are at this step it is because nobody can print to the printer except for the print server Make sure that the printer is shared on the server and appropriate permissions have been set Try sending the test page and see if it makes it to the queue on the print server Does the job show up in the Novell queue Does it appear in the NT queue If the job appears in the queue go back to step 2 as something is either wrong at the print server or all of the PCs are pointing to the wrong queue on the print server

Software

This tends to be the most complicated of the 3 types of problems and we would have to write a novel to cover everything Unfortunately we just dont have that kind of time so we are going to try to give you some tips to get you headed in the right direction When investigating software printing problems there are many useful techniques and questions that need to be asked The first one is to find out which Page Description Language(PDL) is being used The 2 most common are PostScript(by Adobe) and Printer Control Language(PCL by HP) Below are some of the fundamental questions that should be asked early in a problem investigation

POSTSCRIPT TECHNIQUESQUESTIONS

Is it actually a PostScript file that you are sending If the printer prints out an endless stream of ASCII text the printer is receiving PCL data Get the correct PostSript driver for your printer

Reprint the job this time selecting print to file in the print dialogue box It will create a prn file Open it using Notepad and make sure that the first line of the file starts with This signifies that it is PostScript

What printer driver was the PostScript file created with Make sure you have the latest and greatest one Consult your printer manufacturer

What application was used to create this file Do all applications do this

Have you tried an alternative printer driver And what were the results

Has this exact same file been printed on a second PostScript printer What were the results

Was there a PostScript Error page What did the error page say Look up errors at httpwwwprepressurecompsdbaseoverviewerrorshtm

Try to distill the original file using Acrobat Distiller If a PDF file is created you should be able to print it otherwise you will probably get a PS error

PS errors can often be caused by corrupt graphics When trying to distill the file see which page it faults on Go to that page in the document and try removing all of the graphics

Have you tried recreating the PostScript and resubmitting the file

HPPCL TECHNIQUESQUESTIONS

What printer driver was the pcl file created with Make sure you have the latest and greatest one Consult your printer manufacturer

What application was used to create this file Do all apps do this

Has this exact same pcl file been printed on a second PCL printer What were the results

What are the specific image errors viewed by the customer A PCL file will continue printing incorrectly and will not leave an error page

Have you tried recreating the PCL and resubmitting the file

Performance

Performance related issues are usually the result of incorrect customer expectations There are actually 3 parts to print performance The time that it takes the job to get to the printer the time that it takes for the printer to process the job(RIP) and the time that it takes for the printer to actually print the job once it has received it Lets look at each of these separately

TRANSFER TIME

This really has nothing to do with the printer at all If jobs are taking a long time to get to the printer check your network traffic You may have to get a network sniffer or network monitoring software to check this If you are using an external print server such as a Jet Direct box consider the fact that you actually have a parallel connection to the printer which has a slower transfer rate than a network connection The parallel connection from the print server to the printer is a bottleneck Some printers are now supporting 100baseT connections which may help in this area

PROCESSING TIME

The processing that occurs on a printer is called Raster Image Processing(RIP) This is the process of the printer converting the file sent into image data that the printer uses to paint a picture on the page If this process appears to be slow the first thing to consider is the size of the file being sent If you are sending a 5mb file it is going to take some time to process Note In order to view the true size of the file being processed by the printer you must print to file and then find the size of the file after it has been run through the driver

PostScript files can be as much as 3x larger than the original file Send over a simple notepad file with the word test on it and see if there is a significant difference Find out if the printers memory is upgradable This can help with processing times Most printers have different print quality settings specified by dots per inch(DPI) File sizes will typically be larger when higher resolutions are selected

PRINT TIME

The print speed that is quoted by the manufacturer does not include transfer or processing time It only includes print engine speed once the job is processed If the printer handles multiple paper sizes the print speed probably is referring to the speed for the smallest paper size If you are printing on pages larger than 85x11 inches the print speed will be slower If it is a color printer find out if there are different speed capabilities for color and monochrome Most printers have different print quality settings specified by dots per inch(DPI) Printers will typically print slower in higher resolutions

Computer hardware troubleshooting - how to troubleshoot your power supply

The Power Supply converts your regular household current into low DC voltage used by the computer When this component fails there is simply no activity going on with your computer Remember to do the easy troubleshooting first Inspect the Power Supply for any damage Double-Check all connections

Learning how to check your power supply and how to replace it when needed can be a life saver if youre a computer buff or in business with the trusted PC Dont take for granted the simple pleasure of turning on your PC and everything works just fine

We turned on one of our computers recently and in about one hour it just re-booted itself And it continued doing so about 10 times a day until we found out the power supply was the culprit Things to look for when your power supply is going bad or just dies on you are the following

NO POWER TO THE COMPUTER

Here you must first check the wall outlet for power by connecting another device such as a radio or lamp to be sure power is present If the computer is connected through a surge protector check it as well

If the wall out has power check the power cable going to the PC to see if AC voltage is making its way to the system unit Do this with the use of a multimeter If there is power you will have to open the PC and check for power from the power supply to the motherboard

When using a multimeter to check voltage be sure you have a good ground for the black lead of the multimeter

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

One main problem you may face with an ailing Power Supply is that it may re-boot the computer without any warning All information is lost and it seems as though this happens at the worst possible time

Booting errors when the computer first starts up is another indicator of this component going on the blink

POWER DISTRIBUTION PROBLEMS

When the power supply begins to fail you may receive power at one device and not another For example the Hard Drive may receive power but the CDROM Drive has nothing at all

Another headache which would cause re-booting is the intermittent power going to the drives or the motherboard itself Follow the steps below to check your power supply should you experience some of the above problems

CHECKING THE POWER SUPPLY

If the wall outlet and the power cord are good make sure the connection at the motherboard is secure Then you may have to face the fact that the power supply itself is bad If you have a Multimeter you can test the power supply output before purchasing a new one Simply follow these steps

Turn off the PC but do not unplug it open the system unit Set the multimeter to read DC volts in the next range higher than 12 volts Locate a power connector similar to the hard drive or cdrom drive connector that is unused and turn on the PC

You can also unplug a drive connector and use it as well Turn on the PC and insert the BLACK probe into the power connector on one of the BLACK wires Touch the RED probe to the YELLOW wire on the power connector

The multimeter reading should be +12 volts Now touch the RED probe to the RED wire and the reading should be +5 volts If no readings or different readings occurred youll have to replace the power supply If the readings were correct you should check the P8 or P9 connectors at the motherboard These connectors may also be named P4 and P5

To check these connectors perform the following

Insert the BLACK probe into P8 at one of the BLACK wires Insert the RED probe into the P8 connector at the RED wire The reading on the multimeter should be +5 volts

Check the power going to the Motherboard connections by inserting the RED probe into P8 at the YELLOW wire and you should get +12 volts Leave the BLACK wire touching the black wire at the P8 connector Check the BLUE wire and the reading should be a -12 volts

Now move the BLACK probe to the BLACK wire on the P9 connector Test the WHITE wire by inserting the RED probe and the reading should be -5 volts Check the RED wires on the P9 connector and you should get +5 volts on each red wire You wont get exactly 5 or 12 volts but the readings will be very close such as 502 volts

If the Power Supply is a couple of volts off in either direction such as when the RED wire should be reading -5 volts but it reads -8 volts or if there are no readings replace the power supply

DO NOT remove the power supply from the system unit case when performing these tests DO NOT perform these tests if you do not feel comfortable Be sure to remove any and all electrical static build-up from your clothes and body BEFORE touching any parts inside the system unit And NEVER open the power supply case for any reason since high voltage may be present

Advance Computer cleanup and Repair Tools

There are advanced computer cleanup and maintenance tasks which you may have to do sometimes as a routine maintenance task or to fix errors Special computer repair tools are available for these tasks Some of these tools are available in Windows but you may have to use 3rd party tools in some cases

MSCONFIG

MSCONFIG is a Windows utility which can be used for advance computer maintenance and fix Windows startup problems

What is MSCONFIG and how to use it Microsoft System Configuration utility MSCONFIG is a tool available in some Windows versions (98 98SE ME XP) which is very helpful to maintain and troubleshoot Windows startup programs This utility provides various maintenance tasks but the most important one is the ability to control programs loading to your Computer memory when starting up your PC

Why Microsoft system configuration utility is useful

PC users install different type of software for various purposes Some of these software loads automatically to your computer memory each time you start your PC This is not easily visible and hidden in the background Some of the programs are necessary to load at the start but some are not necessary Loading unnecessary programs at the startup can lead to various problems such as

Taking unnecessary space of the computer memory

Slow down startup process

Slow down the computer speed

Startup problems due to corrupted files

System crash

How to use MSCONFIG utility for computer maintenance and troubleshoot Windows startup problems

Click Start button and select Run

Then type MSCONFIG

It should open a screen similar to below depending on your Windows version I am using screens from Windows XP

There are few panels (tabs) available for various tasks But the most useful one for a normal PC user is Startup tab

When you select Startup tab you will see various programs loading to your computer memory every time when you turn on your PC The list of programs can vary from PC to PC However few programs are essential to load at the startup such as

Firewall and antivirus programs

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

So do not disable these programs

You can disable others by un-ticking Please ensure that you can recognize the program before un-ticking

Click OK button to save the changes The system will prompt you to restart the PC

MSCONFIG is not available in Windows 95 NT and 2000

Computer Hardware Tools

This section gives a brief list of Computer Engineering tools

Star tipped screw driver ndash Used to screw and unscrew Computer components

Multimeter ndash Used to carry out various electrical and electronics measurementtesting

Network Monitor - Tracks usage of network resources(good for establishing a network baseline)

Performance Monitor - Tracks usage of various resources over time(good for establishing a general baseline)

Tone Generator - Used to test cabling Identifies which cable or wire is being tested by generating different tones

TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer) Sends a signal down a cable and measures the distance that the signal travelled before bouncing back(like sonar) Used to find opens and shorts in cables

Oscilloscope - Tests cable by determining where there are shorts crimps or attenuation

Protocol Analyzers - This tool is used to monitor network traffic and display packet and protocol statistics and information

Optical Testers - A tool used to monitor and troubleshoot the performance of a fiber optic network

Crimping Tools - Crimping tools are used to connect cabling to their appropriate connectors There are different crimping tools for different types of connections

Punch Down Tool - A punch down tool is used to connect cabling such as telephone and ethernet to wall jacks

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

What is MSCONFIG and how to use it

Chapter One

Computer Hardware Identification A computer system contains the following componentsdevices

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Modem amp NIC

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

ATX Tower Casing

Motherboard

Graphics card

Sound card

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

ATX Tower Casing

Motherboard

Graphics card

Sound card

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

ATX Tower Casing

Motherboard

Graphics card

Sound card

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Graphics card

Sound card

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Graphics card

Sound card

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

ZIP drive

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

TV card

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Chapter Two

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Floppy Disk

Hard Disk

CD-ROM DVD ROM

PC Speakers

Monitor

Optional Extras

CD-Writer

ZIP Drive

TV-Card

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Motherboard

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

The processor

Memory

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Graphics card

Sound card

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Ethernet Cards

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hard disk drive

CD-ROM drive

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PC speakers

Monitors

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

ZIP drive

TV card

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Figure 4

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Software

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Softmenu III

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PC Health Status

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Set Password

Save and Exit Setup

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Exit without Saving

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Troubleshooting

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Hardware

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Network

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Software

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Performance

TRANSFER TIME

PROCESSING TIME

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

PRINT TIME

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

MSCONFIG

System crash

Then type MSCONFIG

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Scan registry

Load power profile

System tray

Task monitor

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Ethernet Cards

Chapter Three

Computer Fundamental Module 2

Documents