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Over the last couple of decades, computers have become an integral, if not indispensable, part of our lives. We use them to create documents, play games and music, research topics of interest on the Internet, communicate with others via email, online forums, and chat, and develop brochures or flyers, and much more.
The dilemma that every computer user ultimately faces is whether to repair, upgrade, or replace their computer system. Of course, there’s no right answer to this question, as there are many variables and individual situations to consider. The good news is that it’s always a good time to purchase a new system.
One of the most overlooked computer maintenance tasks is that of cleaning the computer components and peripherals. While this may seem like a task that is largely cosmetic in nature, in fact failing to keep our computer systems clean can cause devices to operate erratically or to fail completely.
Here’s a scenario most of us are familiar with. We’ve just gone out and bought ourselves a new PC. It’s sleek and fast, and we wonder how we were able to tolerate that old clunker for so long. Our new computer is running so much faster than on our old system – installing, opening, and [...]
In the previous section of this tutorial, we made reference to the device drivers required by the installation of a new hardware device – in that case, an expansion card (specifically, the graphics card).
One of the easiest improvements you can make to your computer is to install a new expansion card. The phrase ‘expansion card’ refers to any of the specialized circuit boards that are inserted into slots in the motherboard. Some examples include graphics (or video) cards, sound (or audio) cards, network cards, and so forth.
There are two types of information storage on your computer: primary and secondary. Primary storage is provided by devices referred to as memory or more specifically, Random Access Memory (RAM). Secondary storage is provided by such devices as hard drives, floppy drives, and CD-ROM drives.
Of all of the devices inside your computer, the hard drive is the single device that requires the most maintenance. It is in constant bidirectional communication with the CPU, saving data and retrieving data.
With the BIOS setup now complete, the hard drive must be prepared to accept data. This is done through the disk management utilities known as partitioning and formatting. With these utilities, you can divide the drive into logical sections, assign drive letters, and physically prepare the disk to accept data.
In this section you are going to learn how to install a hard drive into your computer system. There are a couple of reasons for doing this.