Computer Hardware & Software Guide

Computer hardware refers to the
physical parts of a computer ,
outside and inside the system
unit. The internal parts of a
system are known as components
While external parts are called
peripherals such as the keyboard ,
mouse , speakers and printers.

ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended)
is a motherboard configuration
specification developed
by Intel in 1995 to improve on
previous de facto standardslike
the AT design. It was the first
major change in desktop
computer
enclosure, motherboard and po
wer supply

design in many years, improving
standardization and
interchangeability of parts. The
specification defines the key
mechanical dimensions,
mounting point, I/O panel,
power and connector interfaces
between a computer case,
a motherboard and a power
supply.

Mini ATX
It is a name used for
various motherboard form factors,
mainly a 15 × 15 cm (or 5.9 ×
5.9 inches) size developed by AOpen
Inc.. This Mini-ATX definition is
slightly smaller than Mini-ITX.
There is no single widely accepted
form factor by this name.

Mini-ATX motherboards were
designed with MoDT (Mobile on
Desktop Technology) which adapt
mobile CPUs for lower power
requirements and less heat
generation, which may be
beneficial for home theater
PCs (HTPC), in-car PCs, or
industrial use.

Mini-ITX
developed by VIA Technologies in
2001. They are commonly used in small-
configured computer systems.
Originally, they were a niche product,
designed for fan-less cooling with a
low power consumption architecture,
which made them useful for home
theater PC systems, where fan noise can
detract from the cinema experience.

The four mounting holes in a Mini-ITX
board line up with four of the holes
in ATX-specification motherboards,
and the locations of the backplate
and expansion slot are the
same(though one of the holes used
was optional in earlier versions of the
ATX spec). Mini-ITX boards can
therefore often be used in cases
designed for ATX, micro-ATX and
other ATX variants if desired.

Motherboard
The main printed circuit board
pcb in a computer that holds the
microprocessor provides sockets
and slots to connect hold the
other peripherals parts of the as
a system board or main board
and allows other electronic parts
connect to a a computer

The interface between
peripheral devices and the
CPU.A port is built on the
motherboard while an
interface card is inserted into
slots on the motherboard.
Sometimes, an interface card
may become a built-in
function on the motherboard.

Computer Ports
Computer ports have many uses,
to connect a monitor, webcam,
speakers, or other peripheral
devices. On the physical layer,
acomputer port is a specialized
outlet on a piece of equipment to
which a plug or cable connects.

The PS/2 port is a 6-pin mini-DIN
connector used for connecting
keyboards and mouse to a PC
compatible computer system. Its
name comes from the IBM
Personal System/2 series of
personal computers, with which it
was introduced in 1987.

Serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial
communication interface through
which information transfers in or
out one bit at a time (in contrast to
a parallel port).Throughout most of
the history of personal computers,
data was transferred through serial
ports to devices such as
modems, terminals, and various
peripherals.

Parallel port
A parallel port is an interface
allowing a personal computer
(PC) to transmit or receive data
down multiple bundled cables to
a peripheral device such as a
printer. The most common
parallel port is a printer port
known as the Centronics port

A parallel port has multiple
connectors and in theory allows
data to be sent simultaneously
down several cables at once.
Later versions allow bi-
directional communications.
This technology is still used
today for low-data-rate
communications such as dot-
matrix printing.

VGA Port
A Video Graphics Array connector
is a three-row 15-pin DE-15
connector. The 15-pin VGA
connector was provided on many
video cards, computer monitors,
laptop computers, projectors,
and high definition television
sets.

USB Port
A USB port is a standard cable connection
interface for personal computers and
consumer electronics devices. USB
stands for Universal Serial Bus, an
industry standard for short-
distancedigital data communications.
USB ports allow USB devices to be
connected to each other with and
transfer digital data over USB cables.

Ethernet port
An Ethernet port (aka jack or
socket) is an opening on
computer network equipment
that Ethernet cables plug into.
Their purpose is to connect
wired network hardware in
an Ethernet LAN, metropolitan
area network (MAN), or wide
area network (WAN)

TRS Port
A stereo/TRS (short for
Tip/Ring/Sleeve) 1/4-inch plug looks
like an analog stereo
headphone plug. The tip is the end of
the plug, the ring is the small middle
section located between the two
plastic dividers, and the sleeve is the
rest of the metal part of the plug.

Slots and Socket
where we connect the
Expension Card Such as LAN
Card, Graphics Card, Video
Card, Sound Card. Ram , CPU ,
Power Connector, SATA Cable ,
PATA(IDE) Cable Power supply
cable.etc.Called Slots & Socket

Ram Slot
A memory slot, memory socket,
or RAM slot is what allows computer
memory (RAM) to be inserted into
the computer. Depending on the
motherboard, there may be two to
four memory slots (sometimes more
on high-end motherboards) and are
what determine the type
of RAM used with the computer.

AGP Slot
AGP. (Accelerated Graphics Port) An
earlier hardware interface from Intel for
connecting a graphics card (display
adapter) to a PC. Introduced in 1997 and
superseded by PCI Express in the late
2000s, a single AGP slot on the
motherboard provided a direct
connection between the card and
memory.

PCI Slots
A Peripheral Component Interconnect
(PCI) slot is a connecting apparatus
for a bit computer bus. These tools
are built into the motherboards of
computers and devices in order to
allow for the addition of PCI devices
like modems, network hardware or
sound and video cards.

CPU Socket
A processor socket (also called a CPU
socket) is the connector on the
motherboard that houses a CPU and
forms the electrical interface and
contact with the CPU.Processor sockets
use a pin grid array (PGA) where pins
on the underside of
the processor connect to holes in
the processor socket.

Expansion card
In computing, the expansion card,
expansion board, adapter card or
accessory card is a printed circuit
board that can be inserted into an
electrical connector, or expansion slot,
on a computer motherboard,
backplane or riser card to add
functionality to a computer system via
the expansion slot.

Firmware
Firmware such as the ROM BIOS of a
personal computer may contain only
elementary basic functions of a device
and may only provide services to
higher-level software. Firmware such
as the program of an embedded
system may be the only program that
will run on the system and provide all
of its functions.

Firewire
Along with USB, Firewire
(Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers also
called IEEE 1394) is another
popular connector for adding
peripherals to your computer.

Firewire is most often used to
connect digital camcorders,
external hard drives, and
other devices that can benefit
from the high transfer rates
(up to 480 Mbps) supported
by the Firewire connection.

CMOS
Alternatively referred to as a Real-
Time Clock (RTC), Non-Volatile RAM
(NVRAM) or CMOS RAM, CMOS is
short for Complementary Metal-
Oxide Semiconductor. CMOS is an
on-board, battery powered
semiconductor chip inside computers
that stores information.

Computer Heat Sink
In computers, heat sinks are
used to cool central
processing units or graphics
processors. Heat sinks are
used with high-power
semiconductor devices.

such as power transitors and
optoelectronics such as lasers
and light emitting diodes
(LEDs), where the heat
dissipation ability of the
component itself is
insufficient to moderate its
temperature

RAM is volatile:- Data is lost
when the power to the
computer is turned off The
instructions and data for
the job performing are
written to RAM and read
from it as needed.

Two operations of RAM
Loading means copying
data from the secondary
storage to the main
memory Saving means
copying data from RAM to
the non-volatile secondary
storage.

Types of RAM
SRAM
(synchronous)
DRAM
(Dynamic)

SDRAM:
(synchronous
dynamic)
DDR-RAM:-
(Double Data)

ROM is non-volatileData are
stored permanently Data can
only be read but cannot be
changed Store instructions
and tells the computer how
to load the operations system
when booting up Basic
Input/Output System (BIOS)

Types of ROM
ROM.
PROM.
EPROM.
EEPROM.
Flash memory.

P ROM:- Programmable read
only memory
EP ROM:- Erasable
Programmable read only
memory
EEP ROM:-Electrically Erasable
programmable read only
memory

Flash memory is an electronic
non-volatile computer storage
medium that can be electrically
erased and reprogrammed.
Toshiba developed flash
memory from EEPROM in the
early 1980s and introduced it
to the market in 1984.

Power Supply Unit
A power supply unit (or PSU) converts
mains AC to low-voltage regulated DC
power for the internal components of a
computer. Modern personal computers
universally use switched-mode power
supplies. Some power supplies have a
manual switch for selecting input
voltage, while others automatically
adapt to the mains voltage

CPU (Central Processing Unit)
It interprets and performs
instructions of a computer
program .The most determining
factor in how powerful a
computer is . A CPU in a common
PC system is known as the
microprocessor.

Different kind of CPU
Intel
Celeron
Pentium 4
Xeon
AMD
Duron
Athlon XP
Sempron
Athlon 64
Common features
Clock rate > 2GHz
Differences
Word Size
Cache Memory Size
Front Side Bus
No. of transistors

Computer Software
Computer hardware is useless
without software.
Software is the set of
instructions and associated
data that direct the computer
to do a task.

There are two types of
software:
system software and application
software.
System software helps the computer to
carry out its basic operating tasks
Application software helps the user
carry out a variety of tasks

System software
Manages the fundamental operations
of the computer, such as loading
programs and data into memory,
executing programs, saving data to
disks, displaying information on the
monitor, and transmitting data
through a port to a peripheral device.

Types of
system software
Operating systems,
Utilities,
Device drivers.

Operating System
Collection of computer programs
that control the interaction of the
user and the computer hardware.
Loading the operating system into
memory is called booting the
computer.
Controls basic input and output.

Types of Operating System
The three most common operating
systems for personal computers are:
 Microsoft Windows.
 Mac OS X.
 Linux.
Modern operating systems use a
Graphical user interface,(GUI)

Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a group
of several graphical operating
system families, all of which
are developed, marketed, and
sold by Microsoft. Such as XP,
Vista, Window 7, Windows 8,
Windows 10.

Mac OS X
graphical operating systems
developed and marketed by
Apple. since 2001. It is the
primary operating system for
Apple's Mac family of
computers.

Linux
Linux is an operating system
software that manages all of the
hardware resources associated
with your desktop or laptop.
It is a family of free and open-
source software operating
systems.

Utilities
System software consisting of
programs for routine,
repetitive tasks ( e.g. copying,
clearing primary storage,
computing a square root, or
sorting), which can be shared
by many users.

Device Drivers
In computing, a device driver is a
computer program that operates or
controls a particular type of device
that is attached to a computer . A
driver provides a software interface to
hardware devices, enabling operating
systems and other computer
programs to access hardware
functions.

Computer Peripherals
A peripheral device is
"an ancillary device used to put
information into and get information
out of the computer.
Three categories of peripheral
devices exist based on their
relationship with the computer:

Input Device
An Input device sends data or
instructions to the computer, such as
a mouse, keyboard, graphics
tablet, image scanner, barcode
reader, game controller, light
pen, light gun, microphone, digital
camera, webcam, dance pad. MICR.
OCR, OMR,

Output device
An Output Device provides
output from the computer,
such as a Computer
Monitor, projector.
Plotter , Printer
and Computer Speaker.

input/output Device
input and output functions,
such as a Computer data
storage device (including
a , USB Flash Drive, Memory
card ,Touch Screen & Modem.

Unit 1.3:
Operating
Hardware System
and
peripherals

Safety Rules, Policies
& Procedures.
As a field technician there are certain
guidelines that must be followed to
ensure own safety and that of the Co
– workers. These guidelines provide
a sound , safe and flexible
environment to work.

Electric Safety
It is of Most importance to remove
the power while disassembling
the computer except while
measuring voltages. Removing
the power not only includes
turning off the power switch but
also unplugging it from socket.

Earthing the Equipment
In an electrical installation an earthing
system or grounding system connects
specific parts of that installation with the
Earth's conductive surface for safety and
functional purposes. The point of reference
is the Earth's conductive surface. The
choice of earthing system can affect
the safety &
Electromagnetic compatibility.

Equipment Grounding
One of the most important reasons
for grounding electrical currents is that it
protects your appliances, your home and
everyone in it from surges in electricity.
If lightning was to strike or the power
was to surge at your place for whatever
reason, this produces dangerously high
voltages of electricity in your system.

System Grounding
In an electrical installation an
earthing system or grounding
system connects specific parts of that
installation with the Earth's
conductive surface for safety and
functional purposes. The point of
reference is the Earth's conductive
surface.

Electro static Discharge
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is the sudden flow
of electricity between two electrically
charged objects caused by contact,
an electrical short, or dielectric breakdown.
A buildup of static electricity can be caused
by tribocharging or by electrostatic induction.
The ESD occurs when differently-charged
objects are brought close together or when
the dielectric between them breaks down,
often creating a visible spark.

ESD Protection
ESD protection is essential
for sensitive components
during assembly of a
device and in the finished
device. It can cause several
damages.

Use the
following
Safety
Equipment

Material Safety Data Sheets
Msds are available with most of
the products which have a
potential to cause damage to the
equipment or some sort of harm
to the humans while dealing
with them. A few examples of
these products are:

• AGP - Early expansion port for graphics
card .
• ATX - Popular motherboard form
factor.
• BIOS - Firmware that tests hardware
and boots operating system.
• CMOS - System configuration data
used by the BIOS.
• CPU - Central Processing Unit
• Crossfire - Combining two ATI graphic
cards into one computer .

• CRT - Old type of computer monitor
• DDR - Type of System Memory
(RAM)
• DIMM - Dual In-line Memory
Module
• DVI - Connects a computer to the
monitor
• FDD - Floppy Disk Drive
• Firewire - Fast data connection
from computer to digital Devices.

Network/Internet:
computers
• Phishing - An attempt to acquire sensitive
information
• Router - Allows several computers to
access network/internet
• RJ-45 - Plug used for network cables
• WEP - Wireless encryption that is weaker
than WPA
• Wi-Fi - Popular wireless networking
technology
• WPA - Secure wireless encryption

• ADSL - Common form of Broadband
Internet
• CAT - Network cable
• Dial-up - Slow form of Internet access
• Ethernet - System for connecting
computers into a network
• Firewall - Network security system
that controls traffic
• ISP - Internet Service Provider
• LAN - Local Area Network - small local
network of

Basic of ElectronicsElectronics is the science of
controlling electrical energy electrically, in
which the electrons have a fundamental role.
Electronics deals with electrical circuitsthat
involve active electrical components such
as vacuum
tubes, transistors, diodes, integrated
circuits, optoelectronics, and sensors,
associated passive electrical components,
and interconnection technologies.

Commonly, electronic devices
contain circuitry consisting
primarily or exclusively of
active semiconductors supplemen
ted with passive elements; such a
circuit is described as
an electronic circuit.

Component and Devices
Active Components &
Devices
Passive Components &
Devices

Active Component
Active components include amplifying
components such as transistors, triode
vacuum tubes (valves), and tunnel
diodes. Passive components can't
introduce net energy into the circuit.
They also can't rely on a source of
power, except for what is available
from the (AC) circuit they are
connected to.

Passive Components
Are electronic components that do
not require a Source of Energy to
perform their intended functions.
The followings are the examples
of Passive Components: Resistors.
They resist the flow of electric
current. The resistance is measured
in Ohms (Ω).

Transformer
A transformer is an electrical device that
transfers electrical energy between two
or more circuits through electromagnetic
induction. A varying current in one coil
of the transformer produces a varying
magnetic field, which in turn induces a
varying electromotive force (emf) or
"voltage" in a second coil.

Power can be transferred between the
two coils through the magnetic field,
without a metallic connection
between the two circuits. Faraday's
law of induction discovered in 1831
described this effect. Transformers
are used to increase or decrease the
alternating voltages in electric power
applications.

Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal
electrical component that stores
potential energy in an electric field. The
effect of a capacitor is known as
capacitance. While some capacitance
exists between any two electrical
conductors in proximity in a circuit,
a capacitor is a component designed to
add capacitance to a circuit

Inductor
An inductor, also called a coil, choke or
reactor, is a passive two-terminal
electrical component that stores
electrical energy in a magnetic field
when electric current flows through it.
An inductor typically consists of an
insulated wire wound into a coil around
a core.

Fuse
In electronics and electrical
engineering, a fuse is an electrical
safety device that operates to provide
overcurrent protection of an electrical
circuit. Its essential component is a
metal wire or strip that melts when
too much current flows through it,
thereby interrupting the current

Electronic Circuit
An electronic circuit is composed of
individual electronic components, such
as resistors, transistors, capacitors,
inductors and diodes, connected by
conductive wires or traces through which
electric current can flow. To be referred
to as electronic, rather than electrical,
generally at least one active component
must be present.

Analog Circuit
Analog circuits are electronics systems
with analog signals with any
continuously variable signal. While
operating on an analog signal, an analog
circuit changes the signal in some
manner. It can be designed to All
operations that can be performed on
an analog signal such as amplification,
filtering, limiting .etc

Series Connection
In a series circuit, the current
through each of the
components is the same, and
the voltage across the circuit
is the sum of the voltages
across each component.

Parallel Connection
In a parallel circuit, the voltage
across each of the
components is the same, and
the total current is the sum of
the currents through each
component.

Digital Circuit
A digital circuit is typically
constructed from small
electronic circuits called logic
gates that can be used to create
combinational logic. Each logic
gate is designed to perform a
function of boolean logic when
acting on logic signals

Logic Gates
OR Gate
AND Gate
NOT Gate

Basic Integrated Circuits
When an electronic array is created by the
fabrication process of different electrical
and electronic components on a silicon
wafer, then that circuit is known as
integrated circuit or simply IC. These
circuits have a operations similar to the
large discrete electronic circuits made of
discrete electronic components.

2.Analog Integrated Circuit
Analog Integrated Circuits. Most
modern computers are digital. But
they function in a world of
continuously varying analog input
such as sound, light, and heat. So,
they must convert
these analog signals into digital ones
and zeros for processing.

1.Digital Integrated Circuit
Digital circuits are circuits dealing with
signals restricted to the extreme limits of
zero and some full amount. ...
The circuits in this chapter make use
of IC, or integrated circuit, components.
Such components are actually networks
of interconnected components
manufactured on a single wafer of
semiconducting material.

3.Mixed Integrated Circuit
A mixed-signal integrated circuit is
any integrated circuit that has both
analog circuits and digital circuits on a
single semiconductor die. In real-life
applications mixed-signal designs are
everywhere, for example, a smart mobile
phone. However, it is more accurate to
call them mixed-signal systems.

General Type of circuit
 These type of circuits include:
Logic Gate.
Comparators.
Switching IC.
Timer IC.
Audio Amplifiers.

Voltage And Power
Voltage:- Electric potential
difference, electric pressure or
electric tension. he voltage between
two points is equal to the work done
per unit of charge against a
static electric field to move a test
charge between two points.

Power:
In physics, power is the rate of doing
work, the amount of energy
transferred per unit time. Having no
direction, it is a scalar quantity. In
the International System of Units,
the unit of power is the joule per
second (J/s)

Computer is an Electronic and
hence it can only operated with a
source of energy. It requires a
standard power and voltage range
for its operation. Every electronic
device or circuit is fed by the
PSU.(power supply Unit)

Computer power supply Voltages
All the hardware components
present in a computer, require
some amount of DC voltage to
run. This amount may differ
component.

Component
Voltage
Requirement(In
Volts)
Mainboard or Mother
board
CPU
Graphics Cards
CPU Fan
USB Ports
12
3.3
12
5
5

PSU
There are different types of
power supply available in the
market , but switch mode
power supplies are globally
used today in personal
computers.

Black wires – These wires are used to
provide grounding.
Every other wire should be paired
with a black wire.
Yellow wire –These wires denote + 12v
Blue wires – These wires denote +5v

Red wires - These wires denote +5v
White wires – These wires denote -5v
Orange wires – These wires denote
3.3v
Green wires – These are control wires
to check the DC voltage.
Purple wires – These wires denote +5
on standby mode

Power supply and computer
can be protected from a
surge and voltage drops by
simply adding a ups
(backup) to the computer

Installing Hardware
And
Software

Reading the product
Manuals
Reading The Product Manuals
Section of a user Manuals

Section of user Manual
Introduction
System Capabilities
Description of system
Function
Operating Instructions
Error handling

Check customer Requirements
A field technician is
responsible for the
installation of
repair/Maintenance of the
computer and its peripherals.
Before going ahead with the
plan of action.

Installation
There are two types of
installation:
1.New Installation
2.Maintenance / Repair

Configuring
and
setting up
Peripherals

Customer Requirements
Understanding the needs of a
customer is one of the foremost
Parts of a technician’s Job role. This
includes the following practices.

Greet the customer and talk
Politely.
Understand the customer’s
Requirement.
Provide the best possible and cost
effective solution to the customer.
Ensure that the customer is
satisfied with the service.

Connecting and installing
the peripherals
After the correct placement of the
peripherals, connect them with
computer . Most printers , scanners,
Speakers, and other peripherals
devices are connected to the system
via USB Ports.

Installing Software
A software is a part of a computer
which helps the hardware to
function properly. It also helps
the input/output devices to
communicate with the CPU. It
comprises of the operating
system along with various
programs of the computer.

A field technician is responsible for
installing the operating system software
on the customer ‘s system. Prior to the
installation process, it is mandatory to
check the system requirements which
include the storage capacity of the hard
disk and random access memory (RAM).
In addition, he/ She should be able
should be able to install addition
software as per standard customer
requirement.

Safety Procedures
The field technician must adhere
to the safety procedures. There
are certain guidelines that must
be followed to ensure own safety
and that of the co-workers.
These guidelines provide a
sound, safe and flexible
environment to work.

Repairing and Replacing Faulty
Modules
Identify the concern of the Customers
A field technician in responsible for
the installation or repair/maintenance
of the computer and its Peripherals.

New Installation
Carry the needed equipment,
the manual and the warranty.
Carry the address and inform
about the time of visit
Carry the bill/Invoice for new
purchase

Maintenance/Repair
Ask about the service, repair ,
maintenance and AMC of the
Equipment.
Carry the required tools and Equipment
Parts.
Confirm the address and inform about
the time of visit.

Note-
•Before visiting the
customer for
installation or repair ,
it is important to
understand the
requirement of the
customer.

Interact with the customer
on Phone
Prior to visiting a customer’s Premises for repairing/servicing a
Computer , It is important to know the details of the problem
and accordingly suggest a corrective measure.

This can be
Achieved by calling the customer and asking about
the
Problem in detail and then suggesting a possible
solution. It is
Also important that the customer should be satisfied
with the
Suggested solution.

204
Baby AT System Board
reserved.

205
A Dual-Processor System Board
reserved.

206
Full-size AT System Board
reserved.

Computer Hardware & Software Guide

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