A+ Certification: Part 1 - Computer Hardware, System Boards, and Storage Devices

Course Overview The A+ Hardware Service Technician exam will cover in detail the different hardware components and peripheral components you may experience in a normal technicians daily job. Though you may have extensive experience with troubleshooting computer problems or issues, there are many details that the exam covers which you may not have experienced yet or may need to refresh your knowledge on. This courses will give a broad overview of computer hardware, provide detailed information into the System Board, and provide a detailed look into storage devices. Throughout the course, you may be stopped at different points to be given a "pop" quiz about details in the section you have just learned. You can skip these quizzes and return to them later if you wish to continue studying. In addition, the links on the right can lead you to more study destinations for the exams. Throughout the exam you may see icons which indicate something you need to know for the exam or something from the author's life experience:

When you see this icon, study the topic thoroughly, there is material in this section with specific questions on the exam.

Indicates an example from the Author's experience in the IT world.

TypeSection Objectives After you complete this section you will: Understand the different types of computers. Understand what a PDA is. Understand the different types of PCs. Understand basic safety procedures when working with electronic components. Understand the basic parts of PCs. of Computers There are four basic types of computers: PC (Personal Computer ), Workstations, Laptops, Servers.

The PC, or Personal Computer, is the most common category of computers. This category would include your home PCs and most of your business class PCs. A workstation is a breed of computer which is a high performance version of the PC. Workstation manufacturers took many of the high speed and high availability components normally found in servers and created a workstation PC which is a high performance version of the original. Throughout the rest of this tutorial, you will find the word PC and the word workstation used interchangeably, while technically there is a difference, we will begin using workstation now as a word to describe a PC since the two are category. Laptops are portable computers. Originally, laptops were large, heavy, short Nowadays, laptops (also referred to as notebooks) are light, powerful, have serve as a desktop replacement for many individuals (including myself). A server is a machine developed to allow for file or print serving, application other task usually involving many simultaneous connections. Common features redundancy, multiple drives, large amounts of memory, multiple processors. hosting, or some of servers include battery life beasts. good battery life, and in the same basic

PDAs A Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is a commonplace item in many businesses and homes. Spurred by the success of Palm Pilots, the PDA industry has had tremendous growth in the past few years. A PDA is a device which allows an individual to keep their notes, email, schedule, small documents, and other information with them at all times. It is a useful device for record keeping and usually syncs with your computer to allow your contact list and emails to be "in sync" with each other in your handheld and normal computers.

Palm Pilots are the most prevalent PDAs on the market, with a market share of about 30%. Most PDAs are based on either the Palm operating system or the Microsoft operating system. Palm Pilots present an interesting challenge to IT staff who are trying to firm I worked at, we went through several different policies in regards to Originally, we would not support any PDA, though if a member of to purchase one, we would support them individually. Eventually, we decided if anyone were to buy the standard PDA we would support it. This allowed us expert (which coincidentally happened to be me) on PDAs and be able to develop support specific PDA we would support. Types of PCs There are several types of Personal Computers you should be aware of: small form factor, minitower, midtower, full tower, desktop. A small form factor is the smallest of the non-portable PCs. Typically lacking in many expansion options, SFF computers are useful for situations which require the smallest desktop style PC possible. A minitower PC is a common household and business PC. It usually has some expansion slots available (1-3) and one hard drive slot available. A typical minitower PC has all of the ports built in to allow for more expansion cards. A midtower PC is also a common business class machine. A midtower has more expansion room than a typical minitower machine. A full tower has the most expansion room and usually several hard drive bays open for additional storage drives. A desktop has probably been the most popular type of machine over the years. A typical desktop machine is designed to lay flat on a desk or stand and contains 1-3 additional drive bays and 2-7 additional expansion slots available. PocketPC

support it. At one supporting PDAs. management were on a standard and to designate an procedures for the

Desktop Computer Small Form Factor Computer Minitower Computer Midtower Computer Full Size Tower

Safety and Care Before we launch into a lengthy tutorial on the insides of a computer we should discuss care and safety when working inside a computer. I know youre itching to jump right in and start taking apart a computer at your desk but without the right precautions, you can easily break your computer or worse, hurt yourself. Luckily for you not only do you get to learn about safety and the precautions to take when dealing with electronic equipment but you also get to learn something useful as these items are a portion of the CompTIA hardware service technician exam.

Electro-Static Discharge Electro-static discharge can cause damage to electronic components as you work on them. Note: ESD may be in several questions on the exam. ESD can be caused by static electricity your body picks up as you move, rub against your clothing, or can be picked up by things you touch.

While working on a computer or any components, you should always wear an ESD wrist strap which grounds you. Also, it is recommended that you do not wear synthetic clothing. Synthetic clothing can cause a buildup of static electricity as your body rubs against it. You should also always touch the case of the computer prior to touching components inside, this will help to ground you. The ESD wrist strap should not be used when working on monitors though, the stored voltage can kill you. When shipping or storing electronic components, you should send them in antistatic bags. Antistatic bags do not conduct electricity and can be reused. Generally speaking, if you are disassembling computers, the environment you are in should be relatively dust free. It is also notrecommended you work on electronic devices in a room which is carpeted.

Parts of a PC There are basic parts common to all PCs. Though they may look different, most of these components function similarly among different brands, shapes, and sizes of computers. This is a broad overview of the elements that makeup a PC, the System Architecture course goes into much greater detail. The Case Typically, there are 5 types of cases for computers (from smallest to largest): small form factor, minitower, midtower, desktop, full tower. Depending on your use for the computer, different sizes serve different needs. A full tower has the advantage of a large amount of expansion space. A small form factor, on the other hand, does not have much expansion room, but does fit quite nicely in a small office or area. The case is built to hold all of the components of a computer and protect from the normal elements inside an office. If you pour coffee into your computer, the case will not be able to protect it all that much, though from the normal every day occurrences, a case does provide some protection. A case also is developed to allow for easy cooling of the devices inside. Many elements of a computer become extremely hot when operating and a case must be designed to handle airflow effectively to reduce the temperature of its components. The Power Supply The power supply has the responsibility of converting power and providing it to the components in the computer. The power supply converts 110 volt AC into four voltages: +5 volts DC, -5 volts DC, +12 volts DC, -12 volts DC (ground). The Motherboard

The Motherboard, sometimes referred to as the system board or main board, is the central piece of all computers. The motherboard contains the processor, the RAM, and the expansion devices. Storage Devices A computer is not an effective tool if it doesnt have a method to run software or store data. Storage devices come in all shapes, sizes, and types. The purpose for a storage device is to store and retrieve data. Expansion Cards Expansion cards allow you to expand the computer to add peripherals, communication devices, or other functionality. Monitor/Display The monitor or display device is used to view the software which is running on the computer. CRT Cathode Ray Tube. Most monitors built over the years are CRT monitors. CRT is the standard in most televisions as well. LCD Liquid Crystal Display. LCD monitors have been widely used in laptops and notebooks. Due to their high cost, they have mostly stayed off the desktop until recently. With dropping LCD costs, more people are moving to LCD monitors with the advantages of smaller occupied space, lower power requirements, and what many believe is a higher quality picture (or possibly just easier on the eyes). Previous Page - Next Page

After studying this section, you should: Understand the different types of computers. The difference between a laptop, desktop, and server. Understand what a PDA is. Define the purpose of a PDA and define what PDA represents (Personal Digital Assistant). Understand the different types of PCs. Understand the general differences between a small form factor, a minitower, midtower, full tower, and desktop computer. Understand basic safety procedures when working with electronic components. Understand what ESD is and what device you should use to protect yourself. Understand the basic parts of PCs. A general understanding of the components which are in a PC.

If there is a section you feel you need more studying in, feel free to click on the return and reread that section. Section Objectives After you complete this section you will: Understand the components on the system board. Understand the different expansion bus types. Understand the interrupts and DMA in relation to expansion busses. System Board Overview

button next to the topic to

The system board, also referred to as the main board or motherboard contains all of the elements that are central to the operation of the computer including the CPU, expansion slots, memory, and components which connect to other devices. System Board Components The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the central chip to the operation of the computer. The CPU processes the instructions from the software. A CPU can be from several different manufacturers, examples include a Pentium II, an AMD Athlon, or a PowerPC. CPU speeds are measured in Megahertz. The higher the Megahertz, the faster the chip (generally speaking, CPUs are also measured in how many instructions per second it can perform and so a chip with a lower MHz could work much faster than one with a higher MHz, though on the Intel-compatible side of computing, the higher the MHz number, the faster the chip). For example, a Pentium III running at 800 MHz is faster than a Pentium III running at 700 MHz. Newer chips are measured in GHz (Gigahertz), which is simply 1000 MHz. A 1.2 GHz chip is 1,200 MHz. The expansion bus allows the computer to be upgraded using different modules. Expansion buses are made up with copper slots where a circuit board can plug into it. The motherboard contains a bus clock which controls how fast information flows to the expansion boards and back. Memory, or more specifically RAM (Random Access Memory), is the place for storages of software, computer instructions, and operations while the computer is operating. RAM is a very fast storage location; though it loses all of its information with a loss of power.
The System Board The System Board, or Motherboard, is discussed in great detail in the System Architecture course. For the exam, you need to know the general layout of a motherboard. Become familiar with the general layout of the system board. Here is an example of a motherboard with common components referenced:

Expansion Bus Expansion Bus Speed The different types of expansion busses operate at different speeds. The speed is controlled by a bus clock. The speed is controlled so that the motherboard/CPU only has to receive and transfer the amount of data it can handle or process at a given time. For example, a slow processor may not be able to handle the amount of data a very fast bus could transfer, so the data transfer speed is regulated to ensure the data does not overload the processor.

Interrupts Interrupts are commands from a device to signify to the computer to stop. Basically, the operating system will continue running software code until the code is complete or until it receives an interrupt request. In hardware, the interrupt request (e.g. IRQ) has a value associated with it for each particular device. DMA Channels DMA Channels, or Direct Memory Access Channels, were designed to allow certain devices direct access to the memory. In the original PC, the system was designed so the CPU would control all access and act as the traffic cop. DMA was designed to allow certain expansion cards or devices to bypass the middle man and access memory directly. DMA was only used in ISA and its cousins EISA and VLB. PCI expansion cards do not use DMA. Previous Page - Next Page 8-bit The 8-bit expansion bus operates at a maximum of 4.77 MHz (approx. 5 MHz), has eight interrupts, four DMA Channels, and one large 62 slot card.

8-bit Bus

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ISA Bus

The ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus is a 16-bit bus with a card slightly larger than the 8bit. The 16-bit cards have an extra piece extending beyond the 8-bit card length. This bus has 16 interrupts and 8 DMA channels. ISA also runs at 8 MHz. ISA buses are backwards compatible with the 8-bit cards. ISA Bus

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Vesa Local Bus

EISA Bus

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The VESA Local Bus (VLB) is a local bus type, meaning it is a bus which runs at the same speed as the processor. Typically, it is used for video to gain the advantage of the high speed of transfer of the processor. It is backwards compatible with the ISA, but has an extra slot to make it 32-bits.

VLBus

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PCI Bus PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Bus is the newest and most advantageous type of all of the buses. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit data paths to be compatible with 486 and Pentium class processors. PCI is also processor independent, allowing it to operate in Macintosh, PC, and RISC computers. PCI runs at 33 MHz and has a maximum throughput of 256 megabytes per second.

PCI Bus AGP Bus

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AGP, or Accelerated Graphics Port, is a bus technology developed by Intel to support high speed video cards. The AGP interface uses the RAM in your computer to generate 3-D images and video very quickly.

AGP Bus

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PCMCIA Bus PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Association) is the last type of bus we will discuss. It is mainly used in laptops or other small computers and in some digital cameras. PCMCIA comes in three types, cleverly called Type I, Type II, and Type III. Type I cards are 3.3 mm thick. Type II cards are the most common type and are 5 mm thick. Type III cards are mainly used for hard drives and are 10.5 mm thick. Summary of Expansion Busses

Bus Type 8-bit ISA MCA EISA VESA Local PCI PCMCIA Card

Bus Size 8-bit 16-bit 16-bit or 32-bit 32-bit 32-bit 64-bit 16-bit

Speed (MHz) 4.77 8 (10 in turbo mode) 10 8 Processor Speed Processor Speed 33 MHz

After studying this section you should:

Understand the components on the system board. Understand what the CPU is, what an expansion bus is, and what memory is.

Understand the different expansion bus types. Understand the differences between 8-bit, ISA, MCA, EISA, VLBus, PCI, AGP and PCMCIA.

Understand the interrupts and DMA in relation to expansion busses. Understand what an interrupt is and what DMA allows a device to do.

Section Objectives
After you complete this section you will:

Understand the different of drive connection type: IDE, EIDE, SCSI.

Understand what SCSI is.

Understand the different types of SCSI.

Understand what a partition is.

Understand what tape drives, CD-ROMs, and floppy drives are. Storage Devices There are several types of storage devices you should be aware of for the exam. Hard Drives There are three main types of hard drives (more specifically hard drive connection types): IDE, EIDE, and SCSI. IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) is the original standard for hard drives for PCs. IDE is the interface between the bus and the hard drive, based on the ISA 16-bit bus. Originally, it was designed as a separate interface, but currently most computers support EIDE with a built-in interface on the motherboard. A standard IDE drive supports up to 528 MB of space. The EIDE (Enhanced IDE) interface was developed to overcome the 528 MB limit on hard drive size. The most common type of connector, EIDE also supports faster access, DMA, AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) for CDROM and tape drives, and support for additional drives. EIDE can be added as an expansion board to older systems. Most newer systems come with EIDE functionality built-in to the motherboard.

Previous Page - Next Page SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) is another standard for hard drive connection. SCSI also has a variety of other peripherals and storage devices which can take advantage of it. SCSI comes in three varieties: SCSI 1, SCSI 2, and SCSI 3. SCSI 1 supports up to 8 devices, 1 of which is required to be the controller card (so you can add 7 additional devices to the controller). Unlike normal IDE or EIDE systems, most SCSI devices come in internal or external varieties and most cards can support both. SCSI 2 (also known as Ultra-2), which is more popular than SCSI 1, supports up to 16 devices (one of which has to be the adapter card or controller) and supports a higher transfer speed. SCSI 3 is sometimes referred to as Ultra-3 SCSI. Ultra-3 SCSI increases the throughput rate of the interface from 80 Mbps to 160 Mbps. The new standard for this transfer rate is referred to as Ultra160/M.

SCSI 3 Cable

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SCSI Type

Max Cable Length (meters)

Max Speed (MBps)

Max Number of Devices

SCSI-1 SCSI-2 Fast SCSI-2 Wide SCSI-2 Fast Wide SCSI-2 Ultra SCSI-3, 8-bit Ultra SCSI-3, 16-bit Ultra-2 SCSI Wide Ultra-2 SCSI Ultra-3 (Ultra160/m) SCSI

6 6 3 3 3 1.5 1.5 12 12 12

5 5-10 10-20 20 20 20 40 40 80 160

8 8 or 16 8 16 16 8 16 8 16 16

A SCSI chain (all of devices on a controller) must have a terminator at both ends. The SCSI card often has a built-in terminator and a lot of present day SCSI devices also have a switchable termination on the drive or device. SCSI drives are typically more expensive than EIDE drives, but have higher access speed and allow for more devices on one controller.

SCSI 2 Port

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SCSI 2 Cable

Internal SCSI Cable SCSI Terminator

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Preparing Your Hard Drive The factory does a low level format on the hard drive prior to shipping it out which organizes the hard drive into tracks and sectors. It is possible for you to perform a low level format of a drive but highly not recommended. Low level formatting can damage a hard drive and make it unusable. When you install a hard drive, there are several items you need to be aware of when setting it up. There are three settings on hard drives: Master/Slave/Cable Select. Master is used for the first hard drive, Slave for the second drive when you have two, and Cable Select goes in the order on the EIDE cable. EIDE interfaces allow two drives per channel. Most EIDE controllers have a primary and secondary channel to allow for four total devices. Before the installation of an operating system, you have to partition and format (high level format) the hard drive. When you partition a drive, you setup different virtual drives on the PC. Hard drives can have three primary partitions and 1 extended partition. Extended partitions can have up to 23 logical partitions. On most computers, you are able to setup a single partition if you wish. Commonly this becomes drive "C:" in Windows (A: and B: are typically reserved for floppy disk drives). CD-ROMs CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory) was developed by Sony and Phillips. It has a standard capacity of 650 Megabytes of information and is burned onto a disc using laser light.

CDs have expanded over the years and a typical CD-ROM today can hold 700 MBs of information or 80 minutes of music. Most typical home machines and some business-class PCs come with a CD-R or CD-RW drive. A CD-R drive allows you to write once to a CD-R or CD-RW disc. A CD-RW drive allows you to write once to a CD-R disc or many times to a CD-RW disc. There are many advantages to using CD-Rs and CD-RWs to store data or backup data. Cost per megabyte is very cheap on CD-Rs, most for pennies per megabyte. In addition, CD media is fairly long lasting if you care for it. CD media can become unreadable if you leave discs in sun or heat for too long or if they become scratched. CDFS (Compact Disk File System) is the type of filing system CD-ROMs use to store information. Tape Backup Devices Typical backup drives connect via the parallel port, SCSI, ATAPI, or USB ports. There are several different competing tape formats you should be aware of. QIC (Quarter Inch Format) is a format which either comes in a 3.5 or a 5.25 hard plastic case. It can store from 40 Mb to 25 GB worth of data. Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is an open standard format developed by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Seagate. LTO was developed to provide a standard among normally proprietary tape backup systems. LTO format tapes come in a variety of sizes and types. The positive of tape is a large amount of storage for a low reusable cost. The negatives of a tape are its access time a tape starts at the beginning and moves to the spot where the data is when retrieving information. Tape devices are typically only used for backup situations. Floppy Drives In early home PCs, often the floppy drive was the only way to store and retrieve data (though in my first computer an Atari I

had a tape cassette recorder which stored and retrieved somewhere in the neighborhood of 16K of a normal audio cassette). Over the years, the floppy drive has stayed with us, though more as a leftover from the early days than anything else. A typical system with a floppy drive is a 3.5 drive which holds 1.44 MB.