PC Maintenance

Chassis/Case
A computer case, also known as a computer chassis, tower, system unit,cabinet, base unit or simply case, is the enclosure
that contains most of the components of a computer (usually excluding the display, keyboard and mouse).
Cases are usually constructed from steel (often SECC — Steel, electrogalvanized, cold-rolled, coil)
or aluminum. Plastic is sometimes used, and other materials such asglass, wood and even Lego blocks have appeared in
home-built cases.
The chassis is the housing that helps protect and organize all the components that make up a desktop computer. The
picture is an empty computer chassis.
Why do we need a computer case?

Most people overlook the computer case as just a box, but it does provide the below important features.
• Structure - The case is what holds everything together in a compact and organized fashion.
• Protection - Without the case, each of the sensitive components within the computer would be vulnerable to dirt,
foreign objects, kids, animals, as well as electrical interference (EMI / RFI).
• Cooling - The case helps keep the air properly flowing over all components, which keeps everything cool and
running properly.
• Noise - Many computers and components have fans that generate noise. Having those components within a
confined case reduces the overall noise.
• Aesthetics - Although some may disagree, most people would rather look at the case instead of all the circuit
boards, wires, and all the components of a computer.
Components found within a chassis

• Expansion card
• Heat sink and Fans
• Internal drives (e.g. hard drive, CD drive)
• Memory (RAM)
• Motherboard
• Power supply (PSU)
• Processor (CPU)
Tower cases are often categorized as mini-tower, midi-tower, mid-tower or full-tower. The terms are subjective and
inconsistently defined by different manufacturers.
Full tower cases are typically 56 cm (22 in) or more in height and intended to stand on the floor. They have anywhere
from six to ten externally accessible drive bays. The ratio of external to internal bays is shifting, however, as computing
technology moves from floppy disks and CD-ROMs to large capacity hard drives, USB flash drives, and network-based
solutions. The full tower case was developed to house file servers which would typically be tasked with serving data
from expensive CD-ROM databases which held more data than the hard drives commonly available. Hence many full
tower cases include locking doors and other physical security features to prevent theft of the discs. This is a high-end
case intended for desktop systems and doesn't include security features.
Mid-tower cases are smaller, about 46 cm (18 in) high with two to four external bays.
A mini-tower case will typically have only one or two external bays.[2]
Recently the marketing term midi-tower has come into use, seemingly referring to (based on anecdotal evidence) cases
smaller than mid-tower but larger than mini-tower, typically with two to three external bays. Outside of the United States
the term is often used interchangeably with mid-tower.
The computer case is sometimes erroneously referred to as the "CPU" or "hard drive".

Power supplies
A power supply unit (PSU) converts mains AC to low-voltage regulatedDC 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.
Most modern desktop personal computer power supplies conform to theATX specification, which includes form factor
and voltage tolerances. While an ATX power supply is connected to the mains supply, it always provides a 5 V standby
(5VSB) voltage so that the standby functions on the computer and certain peripherals are powered. ATX power supplies
are turned on and off by a signal from the motherboard. They also provide a signal to the motherboard to indicate when
the DC voltages are in spec, so that the computer is able to safely power up and boot. The most recent ATX PSU standard
is version 2.31 of mid-2008.

Functions
The desktop computer power supply changes alternating current from a wall socket to low-voltage direct current to
operate the processor and peripheral devices. Several direct-current voltages are required, and they must be regulated
with some accuracy to provide stable operation of the computer.

First-generation microcomputer and home computer power supply units used a heavy step-down transformer and a
linear power supply. Modern computers use switched-mode power supplies (SMPS) with a ferrite-cored frequency
transformer. The switched-mode supply is much lighter and less costly, and is more efficient, than an equivalent linear
power supply.

Computer power supplies may have short circuit protection, overpower (overload) protection, overvoltage protection,
under voltage protection, overcurrent protection, and over temperature protection.

Power Connectors:

Power supplies to the PC have the connectors that are vital hardware cables and buses for transferring power to various
components in the computer. PC Main is the power connector, also called P1; it connects to the motherboard and powers
it. 12 Volts only P10 for system monitoring is responsible for supplying power to the Power Supply Unit's fan. ATX12V
4-pin cable is the second one to connect to the motherboard. The 4-pin connector is for the powering of disk drives. 4
pin power is for the Accelerated Graphics Port graphical cards. Auxiliary cables are additional power supply units. SATA
cable connectors are for the hardware devices that SATA plugs into for power. 6-pin connector powers the computer for
PCI Express audio-video cards. 6+2 pin for the function of reverse compatibility of the PCI Express card. An IEC 60320
C14 cable uses a C13 cord to connect the PSU to the native power grid.

Motherboard:
The computer Motherboard or shortly MOBO is one of the most important part of the Personal computer (PC).It is a
hardware of the computer installed inside the system unit(CPU).This MOBO hardware act as the main board or the
central or core assembly of the computer system unit. In other words inside of the CPU case there are a lot of other
hardware's connected to the MOBO, namely
: Hard Disk Drive (HDD), CD/DVD ROM, USB Card reader, FDD Drive, processor, RAM, LAN card, Wireless
LAN card, USB expansion board, VGA Card, and the Power Supply Unit (PSU).These are all types of hardware's
inside the system unit of the Personal Computer.
Computer motherboard designed to take advantage of the most demand application of a program. Just like the movie
games as high innovative applications of computer programming. As the form factor of motherboard as a series of
versions of the MOBO from AT, ATX, BTX, LPX, and NLPX. Compatible words being broadcast, that's why it is the
MOBO will synchronize the speed of processor, RAM, and Video Card (VGA). Unlike only if the MOBO is built-in
through the Input/output ports.
So, let’s talk about the Motherboard parts and function to enable you to familiarize the parts and function. This is the
most practical approach of the technician. (See the picture above).
1. I/O ports- This is located in the rear panel of the CPU, this use to connect the outside hardware or peripherals of the
computer.
• PS/2 ports- These are used to connect the mouse (green color) and the keyboard (purple color)
• DB 25 female connector (printer port)-This is use to connect the impact printer, one of that the DOT MATRIX
printer, ex. the Epson LX 300 +
• DB 9 male connector (Serial or com1 port)-This use to connect a serial device of the computer, such as the
serial mouse and external modem.
• VGA port (built-in)- This is use to interface the DB cord of the monitor screen or to connect the monitor screen
of the computer. The fastest video card versions are based on the standard of the VGA slots, ex: the AGP and PCI’e card.
• USB 2.0 × 2 ports- These are the ports of the USB devices of the computer. Attached externally of the system
unit, one of that are the USB flash drives. As of now the versions or speed of the USB are the 1.0 and 2.0 compatible.
• LAN port- This called as Local Area Network of the computer. This is use to connect the numbers of node or
workstations (PC) to form a local area network of the computer with in their area. Using type of communication media
such as the network switch and router.
• Audio Port- This is use to connect the speaker, mike, and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) device of
the computer.
2. ATX Power connector(4 pin)- This is use to connect the 4 pin of the power supply unit(PSU) .This is separate of the
20 or 24 pin of ATX power supply to provide DC voltage of computer processor.
3. Processor’s ZIF Socket- Part of MOBO use to hold the processor or CPU chip (Zero Insertion Force).The
compatibility of the socket depends of the computer processor type. Such as the AM2 socket of the AMD and the socket
775 of the Intel company.
4. Memory slot (DIMM) - This is called as Dual Inline Memory Module, this is the slot of computer memory or what
we called RAM. The memory slot depends of the type of the memory. Such as the PC 133 SDRAM and PC 400 SDRAM-
DDR 1.
5. ATX Power connector (24 or 28 pin) - A group of connector of the MOBO. This is separate of the 4 pin power
assignments. It provides a DC power output to the system board (SB) from the output of the Power Supply Unit.
6. Name of the Vendor- this is the manufacturer name. This is important to know the manufacturer or vendor. So you
can download through the internet site the driver software of the MOBO.
7. CMOS/BIOS BATTERY- In this part, the CMOS/BIOS battery is hold, so that it can provide 3 volts direct
current/voltage to the CMOS IC. To preserve the BIOS settings of the computer. Such as the time module, hardware
information and settings/parameter, etc.
• CMOS-Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
• BIOS - Basic Input/output system. Is a set of a program stored in CMOS IC, use to preserve the BIOS
configuration of the computer
• CMOS BATTERY PART NUMBER- lithium dry cell CR 2032 3 volts.
8. IDE connector (Intergrated Drive Electronics)- This connector is use to connect the IDE cable of the HDD(Hard
Disk Drive) or CD/DVD ROM to the Mother Board IDE.
9. Front panel connectors(F-Panel)- This is use to connect the Power LED,HDD LED, Power Switch, and Reset switch
of the computer system unit(CPU).
10. SATA connector-This is Serial Advance Technology Attachment. The new standard of the IDE connection array of
the computer HDD (SATA HDD) to the motherboard system.
11. CMOS/BIOS jumper- This is use to disable the BIOS default setup. Such as to disabled the
supervisor password of the BIOS.

• How to disable password before the BIOS setup

• Turn off CPU
• Change jumper to clear
• Remove the CMOS battery
• Reinsert the BIOS battery
• Change jumper to normal
• Power up computer
• Press “del” or “F2” to enter BIOS setup.

12. USB connector (header) - This is use to connect the USB port of the front panel USB 2.0 x 2 port.
13. FDD connector- The connector of the FDD cable through the system board. Normally
there are 34 pins out of it to connect the 3.5” 1.44mb Floppy Disk Drive.
14. PCI slots- a part of the computer motherboard use to connect the I/O cards of the computer. Such as LAN card, WIFI
card, USB expansion card, and sound card.
15. Motherboard Version number- here you can get the version of the motherboard driver software. So that you can
download it exactly to the manufacturer website.
16. CMOS/BIOS IC- This is the type of BIOS IC being use by the computer MOBO.A set of a program being installed
in this IC to preserved the BIOS configuration settings of the computer. Such as the speed of the CPU chip and RAM,
etc.
17. AMR slot- This is the AUDIO Modem Riser. Being use to demodulate and modulate the analog audio of the
computer.
18. PCI express slot- A part of the computer that hold the computer video card (VGA), the PCI’e card. The latest and
the fastest card being installed and most compatible with 3d and 4g gaming of the computer. The old video card type is
the AGP or Accelerated Graphic Ports and
the standard of the PCI’e.
19. North Bridge IC- Is a passion name as being north of the PCI buses or the PCI slots of the MOBO. The true name
of the north bridge is MCI or Memory Controller Hub. Assigned to manage and control the computer memory before
the processing of the CPU chip.

20. South Bridge IC- Is a passion name as being south of the PCI buses or PCI slots. The true name of the south bridge
is I/O Controller HUB (ICH). It is a type of microchip task to control all the Input and output devices of the computer.
Such as the keyboard and mouse. And the monitor screen of the computer that commonly found at the rear back of the
CPU or system unit.
▪ Expansion Bus Slots:
o Expansion buses are special connections on the motherboard that enable you to add hardware to the computer
that didn’t come with it (p. 111).
o Buses carry four types of “cargo”:
▪ Electrical power
▪ Control activity
▪ Memory addresses
▪ Data
o These expansion devices (sound card, video card, etc.) connect to the expansion buses at connections called
expansion slots.
o Expansion slots allow any compatible type of device and brand of device to work. In other words, we can
install virtually any device without regard to brand name (p. 111).
o Expansion buses are dependent on the clock chip for their speed. In other words, the same clock chip that
controls the speed of the processor also controls the speed of the expansion buses, and thus the devices
plugged into the expansion slots (p. 112).
▪ However, be aware that the speeds of expansion buses are not the same.
▪ An expansion bus connects to the Northbridge before connecting to the processor.
o There are different types of expansion buses. Each type of expansion bus has a different number of wires
and run at different speeds (p. 113).
o One measure of quality for a bus is throughput. Throughput is the same amount of data transferred or
processed within a specified amount of time. Usually expressed as MB/sec.
▪ There are two factors that apply to throughput. One is data width (number of bits transferred at
a time) and the other is speed (how fast the data is moving).
▪ Types of Expansion Slots:
o 8-bit ISA (p. 121):
▪ ISA = Industry Standard Architecture
▪ Dates back to the early 1980s
▪ Data width = 8 bits
▪ Speed = 7 MHz
▪ Throughput = 1 MB / sec

8-bit ISA slots

o 16-bit ISA (p. 121-122):

▪ Redesign of the 8-bit ISA slot (has a small extension on the end)
▪ Data width = 16 bits
▪ Speed = 7 MHz
▪ Throughput = 8 MB/sec
▪ The original 8-bit and 16-bit ISA cards had to be manually configured.
o ISA met its demise when it could no longer take advantage of the faster Pentium processors (p. 125).

16-bit ISA slots

o MCA (pp. 122-123):

▪ MCA = Micro Channel Architecture
▪ Data width = 32 bits
▪ Speed = 12 MHz
▪ Throughput = 40 MB/sec
▪ Device automatically configured itself.
▪ IBM patented MCA bus so that other manufacturers had to pay for it.
o EISA (pp. 123-124):
▪ EISA = Extended Industry Standard Architecture
▪ Data width = 32 bits
▪ Speed = 8.33 MHz
▪ Throughput = 32 MB/sec
▪ Formed by IBM competitors
▪ Device automatically configured itself
▪ Maintained backwards compatibility with 8-bit and 16-bit ISA bus
o 32-bit expansion buses did not catch on in the late 1980s because the devices were too slow to take advantage
of the extra throughput.
o PCI (pp. 125-126):
▪ PCI = Peripheral Component Interconnect
▪ Data width = 32 bits
▪ Speed = 33 MHz
▪ Throughput = 264 MB/sec
▪ The PCI bus is actually mezzanine bus. A mezzanine bus is an expansion bus that does not have
to be the only expansion bus on the motherboard. In other words, it is coordinated to work with
other buses on the motherboard.
• Data traffic on the ISA bus is passed to the PCI bus and “stepped up” to run at the speed
of the PCI bus.
▪ The PCI bus connects to the Northbridge chip through the PCI expansion bus.
▪ PCI cannot handle the greater video requirements of today’s graphically intense games.
o

PCI slots

o AGP (pp. 126-127):

▪ AGP = Accelerated Graphics Port
▪ Data width = 32 bits
▪ Speed = 66 MHz and above
▪ Throughput = 528 MB/sec
▪ Designed to provide fast access to video
▪ Directly connected to the motherboard.
 AGP Slot

o USB (pp. 138-140):

▪ USB = Universal Serial Bus
▪ Data width = 1 bit
▪ Speed = 3 MHz
▪ Throughput:
• USB 1.1 = 12 MB/sec
• USB 2.0 = 60 MB/sec
▪ USB is hot swappable. Hot swappable means that devices can be added and removed easily
while the computer is still running without having to reboot.
▪ USB devices may be daisy chained. 127 devices can be connected through a single USB port.
• This is done by plugging a multi-port USB hub into a USB port on the back of the
computer. Then plug other USB devices into the hub.

USB Ports

o FireWire (p. 141):

▪ FireWire = IEEE 1394
▪ Data width = 1 bit
▪ Throughput = 50 MB/sec
▪ FireWire is hot swappable and daisy-chain 63 devices.
▪ FireWire was designed primarily for multimedia devices.
CPU:
▪ CPU consists of the following features:
▪ CPU is considered as the brain of the computer.
▪ CPU performs all types of data processing operations.
▪ It stores data, intermediate results and instructions program.
▪ It controls the operation of all parts of computer.
CPU itself has following three components.
Memory or Storage Unit
Control Unit

▪ ALU Arithmetic Logic Unit

Memory or Storage Unit
This unit can store instructions, data and intermediate results. This unit supplies information to the other units of the
computer when needed. It is also known as internal storage unit or main memory or primary storage or Random access
memoryRAM.
Its size affects speed, power and capability. Primary memory and secondary memory are two types of memories in the
computer. Functions of memory unit are:
It stores all the data and the instructions required for processing.
It stores intermediate results of processing.
It stores final results of processing before these results are released to an output device.
All inputs and outputs are transmitted through main memory.
Control Unit
This unit controls the operations of all parts of computer but does not carry out any actual data processing operations.
Functions of this unit are:
It is responsible for controlling the transfer of data and instructions among other units of a computer.
It manages and coordinates all the units of the computer.
It obtains the instructions from the memory, interprets them, and directs the operation of the computer.
It communicates with Input/Output devices for transfer of data or results from storage.
It does not process or store data.
ALU Arithmetic Logic Unit
This unit consists of two subsections namely:
Arithmetic section
Logic Section
Arithmetic Section
Function of arithmetic section is to perform arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. All
complex operations are done by making repetitive use of above operations.
Logic Section
Function of logic section is to perform logic operations such as comparing, selecting, matching and merging of data.

Main Memory (RAM)

Computers employ many different types of memory (semi-conductor, magnetic disks and tapes, DVDs etc.) to hold data
and programs. Each type has its own characteristics and uses. We will look at the way that Main Memory (RAM) is
organised and very briefly at the characteristics of Register Memory and Disk Memory. Let’s locate these 3 types of
memory in an abstract computer:
 CPU Main Memory

Registers
Control RAM RAM
Unit
Arithmetic & Logic
Unit

I/O
Controller(s)

Disk Drive Disk Drive Disk Drive

Register Memory

Registers are memories located within the Central Processing Unit (CPU). They are few in number (there are
rarely more than 64 registers) and also small in size, typically a register is less than 64 bits; 32-bit and more
recently 64-bit are common in desktops.
The contents of a register can be “read” or “written” very quickly 1 however, often an order of magnitude faster
than main memory and several orders of magnitude faster than disk memory.
Different kinds of register are found within the CPU. General Purpose Registers2 are available for general3 use by the
programmer. Unless the context implies otherwise we’ll use the term "register" to refer to a General Purpose Register
within the CPU. Most modern CPU’s have between 16 and 64 general purpose registers. Special Purpose Registers
have specific uses and are either non-programmable and internal to the CPU or accessed with special instructions by the
programmer. Examples of such registers that we will encounter later in the course include: the Program Counter register
(PC), the Instruction Register (IR), the ALU Input & Output registers, the Condition Code (Status/Flags) register, the
Stack Pointer register (SP). The size (the number of bits in the register) of
the these registers varies according to register type. The Word Size of an architecture is often (but not always!)
defined by the size of the general purpose registers.
In contrast to main memory and disk memory, registers are referenced directly by specific instructions or by encoding a
register number within a computer instruction. At the programming (assembly) language level of the CPU, registers are
normally specified with special identifiers (e.g. R0, R1, R7, SP, PC)
As a final point, the contents of a register are lost if power to the CPU is turned off, so registers are unsuitable for holding
long-term information or information that is needed for retention after a power-shutdown or failure. Registers are
however, the fastest memories, and if exploited can result in programs that execute very quickly.

Main Memory (RAM)

If we were to sum all the bits of all registers within CPU, the total amount of memory probably would not exceed 5,000
bits. Most computational tasks undertaken by a computer require a lot more memory. Main memory is the next fastest
memory within a computer and is much larger in size. Typical main memory capacities for different kinds of computers
are: PC 512MB, fileserver 2GB, database server 8GB. Computer architectures also impose an architectural constraint
on the maximum allowable RAM. This constraint is normally equal to memory locations.
RAM (Random Access Memory) is the most common form of Main Memory. RAM is normally located on the
motherboard and so is typically less than 12 inches from the CPU. ROM (Read Only Memory) is like RAM except that
its contents cannot be overwritten and its contents are not lost if power is turned off (ROM is non-volatile).
Although slower than register memory, the contents of any location in RAM can still be “read” or “written” very quickly.
The time to read or write is referred to as the access time and is constant for all RAM locations.
In contrast to register memory, RAM is used to hold both program code (instructions) and data (numbers, strings etc).
Programs are “loaded” into RAM from a disk prior to execution by the CPU.
Locations in RAM are identified by an addressing scheme e.g. numbering the bytes in RAM from 0 onwards. Like
registers, the contents of RAM are lost if the power is turned off.

SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM

There are many kinds of RAM and new ones are invented all the time. One of aims is to make RAM access as fast as
possible in order to keep up with the increasing speed of CPUs.
SRAM (Static RAM) is the fastest form of RAM but also the most expensive. Due to its cost it is not used as main
memory but rather for cache memory. Each bit requires a 6-transistor circuit.
DRAM (Dynamic RAM) is not as fast as SRAM but is cheaper and is used for main memory. Each bit uses a single
capacitor and single transistor circuit. Since capacitors lose their charge, DRAM needs to be refreshed every few
milliseconds. The memory system does this transparently. There are many implementations of DRAM, two well-known
ones are SDRAM and DDR SDRAM.
SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) is a form of DRAM that is synchronised with the clock of the CPU’s system bus,
sometimes called the front-side bus (FSB). As an example, if the system bus operates at 167Mhz over an 8-byte (64-bit)
data bus , then an SDRAM module could transfer 167 x 8 ~ 1.3GB/sec.
DDR SDRAM (Double-Data Rate DRAM) is an optimisation of SDRAM that allows data to be transferred on both the
rising edge and falling edge of a clock signal. Effectively doubling the amount of data that can be transferred in a period
of time. For example a PC-3200 DDR-SDRAM module operating at 200Mhz can transfer 200 x 8 x 2 ~ 3.2GB/sec over
an 8-byte (64-bit) data bus.
BIOS / CMOS / Firmware
BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. It contains basic instructions to interact with various hardware modules
such as Motherboard controllers or that of interface cards. BIOS is the software that is run by a computer when first
powered on.
A computer motherboard inevitably contains a BIOS chip in the form of an onboard PROM, EPROM or flash
memory. When the computer is powered on, it performs diagnostic tests on the computer hardware devices such as hard
drive, FDD, and memory. It searches for other BIOS's on the plug-in boards, and takes care of them. It then loads the
operating system and passes control to OS. The BIOS accepts requests from the drivers as well as the applications as
shown in the figure below.
BIOS is also known as PC firmware because it is an integral part of the motherboard.
Firmware on adapter cards: A computer can contain several BIOS firmware chips. The motherboard BIOS is normally
used to access basic hardware components such as the keyboard, floppy drives, and hard disk controllers. Adapter cards
such as SCSI, RAID, and video boards may include their own BIOS software.
Firmware generally available in different forms:
1. EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM), for updating a BIOS firm using EPROM, you may need to get a new chip
from the manufacturer.
2. EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM), you can update a BIOS firmware using EEPROM using
"boot to floppy", and running the Firmware update program.
3. Flash ROM - faster at rewriting the chip
A typical BIOS chip used on motherboards is shown in the figure below. Though it is a square-type PLCC package,
BIOS chips come in different forms. Figure 2 shows the BIOS after insertion into the socket.:
 BIOS chip BIOS chip after insertion into a socket.

Chipset:
A chipset forms an integral part of any Computer motherboard .It is either one chip or a pair of chips that allows
communication between the CPU and other components. If there are two chips one is called the northbridge and the
other southbridge.
The northbridge connects directly to the processor through the front side bus and lets it talk to the memory, AGP, and
PCI Express controllers. The Northbridge/Southbridge chipset architecture has been widely used in personal PCs.
The southbridge connects to the processor indirectly via the northbridge and controls slower devices such as the hard
drive, USB, audio, video, LAN, and PCI. If there is one chip, then everything is controlled by that chip.
The motherboard is useless without a chipset. Unlike the CPU, it is integrated into the motherboard, so it can't be
removed. When a new processor is developed, a new chipset has to also be developed to accommodate its technology.
The two main manufacturers are nVIDIA and Intel.

Video System & Video Controller:

A Video Adaptor card is an internal circuit board that provides signals to external display device for displaying images
and text in an orderly manner. A video card is also known as video controller card or a video board. Sometimes, video
card may be an integral part of a motherboard, and connect directly to the video monitor using appropriate cable.
Usually, for high-end applications, a video adapter card interface is available on most of the motherboards. The adapter
card may use any of several available interfaces including PCI, AGP (Advanced Graphic Port), PCIe, or others. :

PCI: The PCI slot was developed prior to AGP, and inferior in performance compared to AGP. A PCI adapter card is
usually cheaper than its AGP counterpart.

S-Video (Separate Video) - An S-Video port is a small, round, black connector that lets you attach a monitor or TV. It
is sometimes labeled TV Out. With S-video, brightness and color are transmitted along separate wires (hence the term
Separate Video), reducing interference with each other and thus providing a better image. S-Video is analog.

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) - HDMI is the latest digital technology and is replacing DVI. Unlike
DVI, HDMI delivers audio as well as video on one cable. In addition, video data is transmitted uncompressed, meaning
it is not "shrunk" into a smaller file before being sent over the internet, resulting in even better quality images. The
connector kind of resembles a USB port, but is more trapezoidal in shape.

AGP: The AGP slot was developed later, and offers as much as 8X improvement over PCI in terms of performance.
There are several different versions of the AGP slot. Most AGP video cards are designed to work only with the newer
AGP 2.0 and 3.0 versions.AGP version 1.0 is obsolete.
PCI Express (x16): The PCI Express is more recent standard, and uses different slot type. PCIe (x16) offers
performance much faster than the AGP 8X slot. Recently, PCs are coming with at least one PCI Express slot type.
Although the names are similar, PCI Express is separate and different from PCI. They are physically different shapes
and use different standards of data transfer. A PCI Express video card will not fit into a PCI slot and vice-versa.
Video cards provide additional functions beside the ability to render 3D graphics for gaming. The video card interface
to monitor may include:
• DVI: DVI is a higher-definition output used with some newer monitors as well as some high-end TVs. If you
are using an older monitor, you can convert the DVI signal to VGA using a DVI-to-VGA adaptor.
• S-Video and/or TV-Out: Most video cards provide the ability to send the video signal from your PC to your
TV. This feature is labeled as "TV-Out" on the video card package. In most cases, the TV-out jack is an "S-
video" type jack designed to send a high-quality s-video signal to TV's.
• Dual Monitor Support: Dual monitor support refers to splitting your video signal to go across two monitors
instead of one. This is very useful for designers, engineers, and others who need to view large files on their
desktop and still have other windows open.

Resolution:
Resolution refers to the number of individual pixels contained in a screen display. Resolution is expressed by
identifying the number of pixels on the horizontal axis (rows) and the number on the vertical axis (columns),
such as 1024x768. Monitor size and screen resolution work together to determine the physical size of objects
displayed on the screen. Commonly used screen resolutions include 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864,
1280x1024, and 1600x1200.
To change your screen resolution (Windows 2000 OS)

1. Open Display dialog box in Control Panel.

2. On the Settings tab, under Screen resolution, drag the slider, and then click Apply.
3. When prompted to apply the settings, click OK. Your screen will turn black for a moment.
4. After making the changes, you have 15 seconds to confirm the change. Click Yes to confirm the change;
click No or do nothing to revert to your previous setting. If you see "Out of Sync" message, and nothing else
on the screen, just keep quiet. The previous settings will be restored.

IDE:
Short for Integrated Drive Electronics or IBM Disc Electronics, IDE is more commonly known as ATA or Parallel
ATA (PATA). It is a standard interface for IBM compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. IDE is different than
SCSI and Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) because its controllers are on each drive, meaning the drive can
connect directly to the motherboard or controller. IDE and its updated successor, Enhanced IDE (EIDE), are common
drive interfaces found in IBM compatible computers. Below is a picture of the IDE connector on the back of a hard drive,
a picture of what an IDE cable looks like, and the IDE channels it connects to on the motherboard.
Enhanced IDE (EIDE) is the enhanced version of IDE technology, and supports faster access to the hard disks.
Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI): SCSI is commonly used with server grade machines. IDE supports only
two drives (one master drive and one slave drive) per channel, whereas SCSI can support 8 or more hard drives. There
are different versions of SCSI available today. Different versions of SCSI include the following:

1. SCSI-1
 2. SCSI-2
3. SCSI-3
4. Ultra-2
5. Ultra-3
6. Ultra-320
7. Ultra-640
8. iSCSI
9. Serial SCSI
The various SCSI bus standards primarily differ in the following:
• Maximum throughput (MB/sec)
• Maximum cable length, and
• Maximum number of devices that could be connected.
For example, SCSI-I has a throughput of 5MB/sec, where as SCSI-3 can go up to 40MB/sec.

Serial ATA (SATA):

Serial ATA (SATA) is a next generation technology based on ATA, and for transfer of data to and from a hard disk. Earlier, ATA
was used to mean parallel transfer of bits between the motherboard and the hard drive. However, with the advent of SATA,
traditional ATA was named as PATA (Parallel ATA). IDE/EIDE is usually associated with PATA.

Discs:
A CD (compact disc) stores data or audio, the audio which can be played in a regular CD player in your
home or car. There are two types of discs for recording: CD-R (CD Recordable), which are the most popular,
and CD-RW (CD Rewritable). Recordable dics can be written to only once. The content is permanently
stored. Rewritable discs can be erased and rewritten to repeatedly. CDs store up to 700 MB of data or 80 min
of audio.

DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc (or Video Disc). Its primary function is to store video, but just as
easily records other data. Like Cds, they are either recordable or rewritable, but store a tremendous amount of
data. The various formats and they're capacities are on the next page.

Formats:
These are the standard DVD media formats:
• DVD+R (plus R) and DVD-R (dash R) - These two are the record once formats.
• DVD+RW and DVD-RW - These are the rewritable formats and can be rewritten over 1000 times.

DVD Storage Capacity:

DVDs have various storage capacities. They're determined by the number of layers a disc has and whether or
not it can be written to one or both sides. The original and still very popular is the single-sided, single layer
(DVD-5). Data is written to one side only. These hold 4.7 GB of data or 2 hrs. of video. Supported by
DVD+/-R and DVD +/-RW formats. Other DVD sizes are listed below.
• Double-Sided Single Layer (DVD-10): Data can be written to both sides-like a cassette tape. Stores
8.75 GB or about 4.5 hrs of video. Also supported by DVD+/-R and DVD +/-RW.
• Single-Sided Dual Layer (DVD-9): Records to one side but that one side has two layers built into it.
Stores 8.5 GB of data or 4 hrs. of video. Supported by DVD+R and DVD-R. They are normally
termed DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL.
• Double-Sided Double Layer (DVD-18): Stores 15.9 GB of data or over 8 hrs. of video.

In order to play or record these formats a DVD burner must support them. Fortunately, most DVD writers
support multiple formats. In addition to a DVD burner, all these formats need some kind of burning software
to write DVDs.

DVD-RAM:
DVD-RAM discs can be rewritten over 100,000 times and are either single-sided or double-sided - single-
sided having a capacity of 4.7 GB and double-sided a capacity of 9.4 GB. Unlike the aforementioned
formats, DVD-RAM does not require burning software-they function like hard drives and are available with
or without a cartridge. However, they are not as compatible as the other types and are a bit more expensive.
Drives:
Optical disc drives store data on a flat disc using a laser. CD and DVD writers (a.k.a. CD/DVD burners) are
two examples of these types of drives and allow you to make your own data, music, or video disc. This process
is referred to as "burning a disc". These drives can be installed internally or externally. Since DVD burners can
also record and play CDs, CD writers are now practically obsolete.

Basic Components of USB System Architecture

Previous Article: Brief USB Overview and USB History
The USB System Architecture consists of the following main components:
• Host Computer
• One or more USB Devices
• A physical bus represented by the USB Cable that links the devices with the host computer
USB Host
The main responsibility of the host computer is to control the communications between the host system and USB devices.

USB Host Computer

The host computer contains two layers: a USB host controller hardware layer, and a software layer, which includes USB
device drivers for a wide range of USB devices such as keyboards, mice, digital still cameras, scanners, mass storage
devices etc. The drivers convert data between the format that is used by the host computer and the format used by the
USB devices.
USB hardware layer is responsible for:
• Detecting the attachment and removal of USB devices
• Monitoring device status and collecting activity statistics
• Providing power to attached USB devices
• Managing control and data flow between the USB host and USB devices
• Checking the basic validity of bus transactions
USB software layer is responsible for:
• Handling USB devices and their connectivity
• USB devices enumeration and configuration
• Loading appropriate device drivers
• Managing the power on the bus and bus bandwidth
• Managing the data transfer between the software and hardware

USB Connectors:

Fig:Types of USB Port

The type-A plug has an elongated rectangular cross-section, inserts into a type-A receptacle on a downstream port on a
USB host or hub, and carries both power and data. Captive cables on USB devices, such as keyboards or mice, will be
terminated with a type-A plug.

A type-B plug has a near square cross-section with the top exterior corners beveled. As part of a removable cable, it
inserts into anupstream port on a device, such as a printer. On some devices, the type-B receptacle has no data
connections, being used solely for accepting power from the upstream device. This two-connector-type scheme (A/B)
prevents a user from accidentally creating an electrical loop.[61]

USB Devices
The USB Devices are peripherals that use the USB protocol for two way communication with the host computer.

USB Flash Drive USB MP3 Player USB Image Still Camera USB Video Camera

The main responsibility of the USB Device is to provide the end user with various specific functions, such as a keyboard,
a data/fax modem device, a digital microphone, or a video camera. For this reason the official USB Specification uses
the term "function" to refer to USB peripheral devices. To provide the user with additional attachment points to connect
more peripherals there is a special type of USB device called USB Hub.

7-port USB Hub

USB Hub is just a device with multiple USB ports for plugging in the USB devices and other hubs. Internal root hub on
the host controller and the external hubs are functionally the same.
USB Cable
USB Cable is a cable to connect between host computer and USB device.

USB A - USB mini

The USB specification limits the maximum length of a standard USB cable between full- and high-speed devices to 5
meters. For a low-speed device the limit is 3 meters. The primary reason for USB cable's length limit is the maximum
allowed delay of a signal. In practice, some USB devices may work with longer than specified cable. However, using a
longer cable lowers the signal quality provided by the USB bus below the specification tolerance limit. This may prevent
USB devices from working properly or even from working at all. Using USB devices over a greater length require one
or several USB hubs or USB Active Extension Cable (USB Repeater Cable) that contains active electronics which
regenerate the USB signal for maximum reliability and performance over extended distances. With powered USB hubs
or USB active extension cables USB connections can be extended to maximum theoretical distance of about 30 meters.

USB Host Controller

A USB Host Controller is the hardware either on the computer motherboard or PCI card. It provides an interface for
transferring streams of data between the host computer and the USB devices. The host computer may have one or multiple
USB host controllers with different types of interface.
USB Host Controller Interface
A Host Controller Interface (HCI) is a register level interface which allows host controller hardware to communicate
with the operating system of a host computer. There are three types of USB host controller interface:
• Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI)
• Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI)
• Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI)
• eXtensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI)
Host controller interface standards are not defined in the USB specification itself. There are separate specifications for
each type of HCI:
• OHCI Specification
• UHCI Specification
• EHCI Specification
• xHCI Specification
With USB revision 1.0 and 1.1, there were two HCI specifications, OHCI specification developed
by Compaq, Microsoft and National Semiconductor and the UHCI specification developed by Intel. Both HCI standards
provide the same capabilities and work with all USB devices but do not support high-speed transfers. The differences
however is that the OHCI places more of the burden on a hardware and makes for simpler software and the UHCI's
hardware implementation is simpler and cheaper, but requires a more complex software and thus puts more load onto
the CPU. The dueling implementations forced vendors to develop and test the hardware and software on both HCI
implementations which increased cost. With the introduction of USB revision 2.0 a new Enhanced Host Controller
Interface specification was developed by Intel, Compaq, NEC, Lucent and Microsoft. The single integrated EHCI
specification eliminates many of the problems that existed because of competing OHCI and UHCI standards. EHCI used
by all USB 2.0 devices and the only HCI that can support high-speed transfers. The xHCI specification was defined by
Intel with a greatly expanded industry contribution. The xHCI host controller supports super-speed (USB 3.0) devices
but is fully backwards compatible with high-speed, full-speed, and low-speed devices.
Using USBlyzer - Identifying the USB Host Controller Type
You can see whether a particular host controller is OHCI, UHCI, EHCI or xHCI compliant by opening USBlyzer and
checking for the word "Open", "Universal", "Enhanced" or "eXtensible" in host controller's description in the Device
Tree panel.

USB Host Controllers

Also note that selecting root node in the Device Tree panel brings up the statistics regarding the number and type of
installed USB host controllers, hubs and devices on your USB system in USB Properties panel.
USB Host Controller is a Bus Master
The Universal Serial Bus is a host controlled bus. All data transfers are initiated and controlled by the host on a scheduled
basis. All USB peripherals are slaves responding to host commands with the only exception of "remote wakeup"
command which USB device can issue to make the suspended host active.
Since only one master controls the bus, two USB devices cannot communicate directly with each other. However, USB
On-The-Go (OTG) extension enables direct data exchange between peripheral USB devices, where one USB Device acts
as the master and the other as the slave. There is also a device on the market called the "USB Bridge" that allows you to
link two USB devices together to transfer data without the need of a host computer. In this case USB bridge is itself
works as a master.

Delkin USB Bridge

Two USB hosts also cannot communicate directly as they both are masters on the bus. To connect two PCs to each other
you need a special USB Data Cable (also known as a "USB to USB Adapter"). There is a device in the cable that acts as
a slave for both connected computers.

USB to USB Adapter

The host computer may have one or multiple USB Host Controllers and each host controller contains an implicit USB
Hub, called the Root Hub. A USB Root Hub is an internal device that is directly attached to the USB Host Controller
and provides a number of initial attachment points called USB Ports for connecting USB devices and external USB hubs
to the host computer.

Nowadays typical computer motherboards have many USB ports.

Normally two or four of them reside directly on the motherboard, at its
back, others are available through connector.

Most of the newer computer cases have frontal USB Ports which can
be connected to the motherboard.
 Another possibility to extend the number of USB Ports is to install a
USB PCI Card.

To connect the USB device to a computer one has to find a free USB port connector on the back or front of the machine
and plug the USB device into it.

Operating System Installation Guidelines

The following document guides you step-by-step through the process of installing the operating systems so
they are properly configured for boot camp.

The document is divided into 3 parts:

1. Windows XP Installation
2. Linux Installation
3. VMWare Installation

Option 1:
If you are going to use a bootable Knoppix CD for the Linux portion, you only need to install Windows XP and follow
section 1. For Windows XP you want to perform a full default install of all components. It is critical that you use
Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition will NOT work. You also want to make sure that Service Pack
2 is installed. For Knoppix, please download and boot off of the Knoppix CD prior to coming to class to validate that
Knoppix supports your hardware. The version of Knoppix that we will use for class can be found at http://www.knoppix-
std.org/.

Option 2:
If you are going to use VMWare for Linux follow steps 1 and 3. For Windows XP you want to perform a full
default install of all components. It is critical that you use Windows XP Professional as Windows XP Home
Edition will NOT work. You also want to make sure that Service Pack 2 is installed. It is critical that you install
and test VMWare with Knoppix prior to coming to class. The version of Knoppix that we will use for class can
be found at http://www.knoppix-std.org/.

Option 3:
If you are going to use a dual boot system and install both Windows XP and Linux, follow steps 1 and 2. For
Windows XP you want to perform a full default install of all components. It is critical that you use Windows
XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition will NOT work. You also want to make sure that Service Pack
2 is installed. For Linux you want to make sure you install all components. Prior coming to class install and
run Nessus to confirm that all of the components have been properly installed for Linux.
If you do not install the proper configuration, some of the exercises might not work.

Windows XP Installation
It is important to understand that this guide was specifically designed for a lab environment. There are a lot of operating
system vulnerabilities that are intentionally left unpatched in these installation steps. This is intentionally done to give
you the best results when completing the labs and tutorials in this book. If you are interested, a great reference for
building a Windows XP Professional box that is secure enough for a production environment is Windows XP Security:
Step By Step by SANS.
To create a properly configured laptop for the Security Essentials Boot Camp, follow the detailed steps in this
document—from the initial setup screen to the final login. This guide was designed for use on a system that doesn't
already have a Windows platform installed on it. If your machine does not have a blank hard drive, some of the
screens you see at the beginning of the installation may be different from what you see in this chapter. If different
screens appear, it is important that you always choose the option to replace, or overwrite. Do not choose to upgrade.
The Windows install should also be placed in the default c:\windows directory.

Creating Boot Disks

If your system does not support the capability to boot off of a CD-ROM, you can use the Windows XP boot
disk to boot. If you do not have a set of the four disks, you need to use a machine that already has Windows
XP Professional installed on it. The following steps show you how to create the four boot disks:

1. Label four blank, formatted, 3.5-inch, 1.44-MB floppy disks as: Setup Disk One, Setup Disk Two, Setup
Disk Three, and Setup Disk Four.
2. Insert Setup Disk One into the floppy disk drive of a Windows or DOS system.
3. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.
4. Click Start, and then click Run.
5. In the Open box, type D:\bootdisk\makeboot a: (where D: is the drive letter assigned to your
CD-ROM drive), and then click OK.
6. Follow the screen prompts.
7. After you have completed the screen prompt requests, insert Setup Disk One into the floppy disk
drive of the lab PC and power the PC on.

Booting from the CD-ROM

If your system supports booting off of the CD-ROM, you do not need to use the disks previously discussed.
Instead, follow these steps:

1. Simply start by placing the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD tray and power on your
machine. The first non-blank screen you should see is the one shown in the following
illustration.

2. If the previous screen does not appear, reboot your machine and open up the BIOS. You need to make the system
boot to the CD-ROM first. The following screen is one of several different BIOSes you could have on
your system. You need to navigate to a screen that allows you to change
the Boot Order. This is where you tell it to boot off of the CD-ROM.
 2. Now your system should boot off of the CD-ROM. After a period of time (typically 30-45 seconds), the
following screen appears. Because we are doing an initial install, you only need to press Enter to continue.

4. Hit Enter at the next screen to continue installation.

 4. The Microsoft Windows XP Licensing Agreement appears next, as shown in the following
screen. It is important that you read and understand this agreement before continuing with the
installation. After you have read and agreed to the contents of the license, press F8 to continue.

Defining Drive Partitions

You now need to define the drive partitions. Defining your drive partitions is used instead of FDISK.
When defining your drive partitions, it is extremely important that you leave enough space for your
Linux partition! Following are the steps:
1. Press C to create a partition for your Windows install.
2. You need a minimum of 2Gb of space for each of your operating systems.
When you are prompted for the size of the partition, enter a number that is equal to 50 percent of your
available hard drive space. Then, highlight the partition, which should be labeled Unpartitioned space
(see the following illustration), and press C.
Note: If partitions already exist they should be deleted. However you should realize that this will
permanently remove any data that is currently on your system.

Now create your new partition to be at least 2 Gb. In the provided space type 2047 and
press Enter

20
You should now see two partitions. Verify that the new 2047 partition is highlighted and
press Enter.

Formatting Drive Partitions

The next step is to format your partition. For security reasons, you should format your partitions using
NTFS. NTFS is a Windows partition type that allows you to assign permissions at the folder level. This
level of granularity is not the same for FAT partitions. NTFS also allows for lager partition sizes
compared to the 2Gb limit that comes with FAT16. The steps for formatting your partition follow:
1. Highlight the NTFS <Quick> partition option as shown in the following screen, and press Enter.

21
2. After you press Enter, the system formats the partition, as shown in the following screens. Depending
on the size of the partition, this step can take from 5 minutes to an hour. This is a great time to refill your
caffeine laced beverage of choice. (You may need it because you have a long way to go.)

Since this will take a while you should just wait while this process continues.

When you return to your machine, you may see one of the following screens. Don't be alarmed. The
system has completed the formatting process and has automatically rebooted. After this occurs, you have
to answer the remaining install questions.

22
Customizing Your System
Now Windows presents a series of questions, which, when answered, customize your system. The
following steps walk you through the process of customizing your system:
1. Typically, you only need to make changes during the next step (see the following screen) if you are
located outside of the United States or if you use a non-standard keyboard. If you are in the United States
and you are
using a standard QWERTY keyboard, press the Next button. If you are located outside of the United
States, you should change your locale settings.

2. Enter your name and the organization you work for in the Name and Organization fields. For the
purposes of this course, have some fun making up fictional names. Click the Next button when you are
done.

23
3. In the next screen, enter the Product Key number that came with your software (find it on your CD).
If you make a mistake when you enter the key, you receive an Invalid Key message and the system
gives you
another opportunity to enter it. Once you enter in the valid key, press the Enter key.

4. Now enter a name in the Computer name field to name your computer. If you are part of a
corporation’s domain, you need to follow your corporation’s guidelines for naming systems. For our
purposes, name your machine whatever you desire. Then, type in a password in the
Administrator password field. You also need to confirm the password, as shown in the following
screen. Then, click the Next button.
Warning: A common mistake many administrators make at this stage is to leave the Administrator
password field blank. It is highly advisable that you enter a password that matches your company’s
password policy for local passwords. You don't want to forget to change the password after you have
completed the installation. Also, make sure you remember this password. You will need it to login.

24
Note: Depending on your configuration, you might receive the Modem Dialing Information Screen. Just
cancel out of this or click Next to get to the next screen.
5. In the screen that appears, enter the current time, and then fill in the Date
field and Time Zone field. Click Next.

6. After you make the previous configurations, the system installs your networking components, as
shown in the following screen.

25
Customizing Network Settings
Now you need to set up your system so that it can be networked with other systems.Following are the
steps:
1. First, you must choose the type of settings you are going to use. Note that it is rarely a good idea to
use Typical settings when configuring an application or operating system. It is always a good idea to
choose Custom settings, as shown in the following screen. When you use this option, you only install
options you need. You won't end up installing something you aren't aware of because you chose an
option that automatically does this. After you select the Custom settings option, click Next.

2. Windows no longer tries to install IPX/SPX, so there is nothing in the custom settings that you need
to remove. This is a great time to setup your local IP address if you are not using a DHCP server in your
environment.
The assumption here is that you are not going to plug this test machine into a production environment,
so it's safe to add your own IP address. Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click the Properties
tab.

3. The following screen appears, which allows you to enter your own IP address. For the purposes of
this exercise, use a non-routable IP address.Select ‘Use the following IP address’. Enter 192.168.1.2 in
the correct

26
fields. Then, enter a standard 24-bit subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. To make the entire section complete,
enter a default gateway setting of 192.168.1.1. Enter the appropriate DNS server IP addresses for your
environment into the fields shown in the following paragraph. You can leave your DNS sever fields
blank for this system. Click OK. Click Next.

4. As previously stated, you are not joining a network or a domain, so just enter a name of your choice
and leave the first No option enabled (see the illustration that follows). After you have the information
entered, click
Next.

5. Windows completes the networking portion of the installation and moves on to its final tasks.
This step takes a long time, so take the opportunity to grab another caffeine-laced beverage.

27
6. If you get the following screen, shout for joy. Congratulations, you have successfully installed
Windows XP. Click Finish, and then remove the Windows CD-ROM before the system reboots so
that you don’t accidentally start the install process again. If you accidentally leave the CD-ROM in,
and the install process starts again, simply remove the CDROM and hard-boot the machine (restart it).
9. After the next screen comes up, click the OK button.
10. As shown in the next screen, you now need to log in using the Administrator account and the
password you entered earlier during the install. After you have entered the appropriate credentials,
click OK.
Note: Depending on your version of the software you might get several screens about connecting to
the Internet and registering Microsoft before you get the login screen.

Note: At this stage, the base installation of Windows XP is installed. The instructions that
follow show you how to upgrade to Service Pack 2, which is recommended for this class.
Installing Service Pack 2
If you do not have SP2 on a CD, you need to get Internet access setup, so that you can patch this box
to SP2. SP2 provides several functional patches, which is why you want to upgrade to it.
The first thing you need to do is verify that your NIC (Network Interface Card) is working and that
you have connectivity. Ensure that your system has the NIC plugged into a switch or hub that is
connected to the Internet. If you have a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server on your
network, you should be able to automatically pull an IP address. Otherwise, you need to statically
assign the appropriate IP address for your system.

28
Note: You will need to change the address scheme you entered earlier if you need to connect to the
Internet to download SP2.
Following are the steps for upgrading to SP2:
1. Left click on the Start button located in the lower left portion of your screen. Then highlight and left
click Control Panel.

2. Now click on Network and Internet Connections. The following screen should appear. Left click
on Network Connections.
3. The following screen should appear. If you do not see a Local Area Connection, you do not have a
NIC (Network Interface Card) installed or properly working. If this is the case you will need to check
with your NIC
vendor’s documentation on getting your particular card installed in Windows XP. Most modern NICs
are fully compatible with Windows XP.
4. Right click on Local Area Connection and then left click on Properties in the menu that appears.
This screen shows you the different configuration items that this particular interface uses. To exit this,
click on OK.

5. After the Hardware Manager is properly setup, you need to validate that the IP address we initially
configured is on your system. Click on Start, Run, and then type cmd. Type ipconfig. If you see an
IP address next to the NIC, you can proceed.
If you do not see an IP address, or you see the address with 169.254.30.x, you didn't pull an IP address
from your DHCP server or the IP configuration step we preformed earlier was not successful. You will
need to manually add an IP address by repeating the steps described during the installation of
Windows XP. If you need to repeat these steps to add an appropriate IP address for your network, do
so now.

6. Next, you need to verify connectivity to the Internet. To make sure your local IP stack is functioning
correctly, you can PING the loopback adapter. To do this, open another command window by
selecting Start,Run, and then type cmd. Then, type ping 127.0.0.1, as shown in the following screen.

29
7. As you can see, there is connectivity to the local IP stack. This shows that the TCP/IP stack is
functioning correctly. To verify Internet connectivity and that the DNS settings are working correctly,
ping a web site. The IP
address used in the following screen is not valid. You need to ping a valid IP address. For example,
pinging www.sans.org should work.
Note: If you are not on a network that is connected to the Internet this step will not work. Also, if you
are properly connected to an Internet accessible network and you used the IP address we supplied, and
it does
not match the network information of your network, this step will not work. If the later is the case,
please change your IP address to match the information that is appropriate for your environment.

8. If you get an Unable to resolve name message, you need to validate that you have entered your
DNS servers into the TCP/IP properties of your NIC correctly.
9. To get your browser functioning, double-click the Internet Explorer icon on your desktop and
follow the wizard's instructions. In the first window click on Cancel since we will not be using a
modem.
10. In the next window choose the appropriate option for your home environment. If you are part of a
LAN (Local Area Network), choose the first option (Connect to the Internet). Then, click

30
Next.
11. In the next screen, choose Set up my connection manually. Click Next.
12. Do not change any options for the next screen. Leave it alone, and simply click Next.
13. You have now setup Internet Explorer for web surfing, so click Finish. You can now go to
Microsoft’s web site to download and install Service Pack 2.
14. The last thing we need to do prior to installing anything on our system,including the Service Pack,
is to create a folder that we will be storing all of the installation executables throughout this book.
Click on Start then My Computer. Double click on C. Now right click anywhere in the window and
left click New then Folder. Name the new folder tools as shown below
15. To install Service pack 2, go to the following URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx
16. Ensure that English is the Selected Language and click Go.
17. You can now select either Express or Network Installations. Both options work, but you should
choose the Network Installation option.Next, you should download Service Pack 2 into the tools
directory you
created earlier or a different directory that you create.
18. After the download is completed, double-click the SP2 executable and follow the given prompts
for installation.
19. Read the License Agreement carefully. When you understand and agree with it, click on the button
next to I Agree then click Next.
20. Because you do not need to uninstall this Service Pack, you can check the
Do Not Archive Files… option.
21. Now you get to wait and watch. It is important to note that this process can take an extremely long
time, even if it seems your system has locked up, it most likely has not. After the Service Pack is
completely installed, reboot
your machine and you are ready to move on to the next section.
You have now successfully completed the installation of Windows XP.

Linux Installation
Now you are going to install Red Hat 9.0. The first step is to insert the Red Hat 9.0 Disc
1 into your CD-ROM drive. Next, power on the system. The system boots off of the CDROM
and begins the Red Hat installation program. Follow these steps to complete the installation of Red
Hat:
1. When the Red Hat Installation screen appears (the first screen) type linux text at the boot: prompt
and press Enter, as shown in the following screen.

3. Press the Tab key until Skip is highlighted, and then press Enter.

31
 4. The “Welcome’ screen appears. Press Enter.

4. The ‘Language Selection’ screen appears. Ensure that the language is set
to English. Press the Tab key until OK is highlighted, and then press Enter.

5. The ‘Keyboard Selection’ screen appears. Accept the default keyboard us.
Press the Tab key until OK is highlighted and press Enter.

32
6. The ‘Mouse Selection’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until the box next to Emulate 3 Buttons
is selected and press Space Bar to place an asterisk in the brackets [*]. Next, press the Tab key until
OK is highlighted and then press Enter.

7. The ‘Installation Type’ screen appears. Use the arrow keys to highlight
Custom. Press the Tab key until OK is highlighted and then press Enter.

8. The ‘Disk Partitioning Setup’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until Disk Druid is highlighted,
and then press Enter.
Note that the values used to partition the hard drive may need to be altered based on the memory and
hard drive size of the system that you are using.

33
9. The ‘Partitioning’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until New is highlighted, and the press Enter.

10. The ‘Add Partition’ screen appears. In Mount Point: type /. Press the Tab
key until the cursor is in the Size (MB): field. Enter 5800. Press the Tab
key until OK is highlighted, and then press Enter.

11. The ‘Partitioning’ screen reappears. With the arrow and Tab keys,
34
highlight Free Space, as shown in the following screen. Afterwards, press
the Tab key until New is highlighted, and then press Enter.

12. The ‘Add Partition’ screen appears. Press the Tab key once to select the
File System type: field. Using the arrow keys, highlight swap. Press the
Tab key until the Size (MB): field is selected. Enter 256. Press the Tab
key until OK is highlighted, and then press Enter. These fields and
selections are shown in the following screen.

13. The ‘Partitioning’ screen reappears. Press the Tab key until OK is highlighted. Press Enter.

14. The ‘Boot Loader Configuration’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until
OK is highlighted, and then press Enter.

35
15. The ‘Boot Loader Configuration’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until
OK is highlighted, and then press Enter.

16. The ‘Boot Loader Configuration’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until
OK is highlighted, and then press Enter.

17. The ‘Boot Loader Configuration’ screen appears. Use the Tab and arrow keys to highlight DOS
and then press the Tab key until Edit is highlighted, and then press Enter.

36
18. The ‘Edit Boot Label’ screen appears. Change the Boot Label field to Windows XP. Press the
Tab key until OK is highlighted and press Enter.

19. The ‘Boot Loader Configuration’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until OK is highlighted and
press Enter.

20. The ‘Boot Loader Configuration’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until OK is highlighted and
press Enter.

37
21. The ‘Network Configuration for eth0’ screen appears. Press the Spacebar to remove the *
(asterisk) in the following [ ] Use bootp/dhcp option.
Press the Tab key to select the IP address field.
Enter the following parameters:
 IP address: 192.168.1.50
 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
 Default gateway (IP): 192.168.1.2
 Primary nameserver: 192.168.1.4
After you enter the parameters, press the Tab key until OK is highlighted,and then press Enter.

22. The ‘Hostname Configuration’ screen appears. Enter linux-lab in the Hostname field. Press the
Tab key until OK is highlighted, and then press Enter.

38
23. The ‘Firewall Configuration’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until ( ) No Firewall is selected.
Press the Spacebar to insert an asterisk (*), as shown in the screen. Then, press the Tab key until OK
is highlighted and press Enter.

24. The ‘Language Support’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until OK is
highlighted, and then press Enter.

25. The ‘Time Zone Selection’ screen appears. Press the Tab key until OK is
highlighted, and then press Enter. (If you are in a different time zone, use
the Tab and arrow keys to select the appropriate time zone.)

26. The ‘Root Password’ screen appears. In the Password: field, type a
strong password to use for the root account. Confirm the password by

39
typing it in the Password (confirm): field. Press Tab until OK is
highlighted and press Enter.

27. The ‘Authentication Configuration’ screen appears. Press the Tab key
until OK is highlighted, and then press Enter.

28. The ‘Package Group Selection’ screen appears. Press End to highlight
Everything and then press Space Bar to select it. (an asterisk identifies
the option as selected) Press the Tab key until OK is highlighted and
press Enter.

40
Features and Internal Architecture and components of
LAPTOP
Features of LAPTOPS:
Portability is usually the first feature mentioned in any comparison of laptops versus desktop
PCs.[45] Physical portability allows a laptop to be used in many places—not only at home and at the
office, but also during commuting and flights, in coffee shops, in lecture halls and libraries, at clients'
locations or at a meeting room, etc. Within a home, portability enables laptop users to move their device
from the living room to the dining room to the family room. Portability offers several distinct
advantages:

• Productivity: Using a laptop in places where a desktop PC cannot be used can help employees and
students to increase their productivity on work or school tasks. For example, an office worker
reading her work e-mails during an hour-long commute by train, or a student doing her homework
at the university coffee shop during a break between lectures.[46]
• Immediacy: Carrying an laptop means having instant access to information, including personal and
work files. This allows better collaboration between coworkers or students, as a laptop can be flipped
open to look at a report, document, spreadsheet, or presentation anytime and anywhere.
• Up-to-date information: If a person has more than one desktop PC, a problem of synchronization
arises: changes made on one computer are not automatically propagated to the others. There are
ways to resolve this problem, including physical transfer of updated files (using a USB flash memory
stick or CD-ROMs) or using synchronization software over the Internet, such as cloud computing.
However, transporting a single laptop to both locations avoids the problem entirely, as the files exist
in a single location and are always up-to-date.
• Connectivity: In the 2010s, a proliferation of Wi-Fi wireless networks and cellular broadband data
services (HSDPA, EVDO and others) in many urban centers, combined with near-ubiquitous Wi-Fi
support by modern laptops[47] meant that a laptop could now have easy Internet and local network
connectivity while remaining mobile. Wi-Fi networks and laptop programs are especially
widespread at university campuses.[48]
Other advantages of laptops:

• Size: Laptops are smaller than desktop PCs. This is beneficial when space is at a premium, for
example in small apartments and student dorms. When not in use, a laptop can be closed and put
away in a desk drawer.
• Low power consumption: Laptops are several times more power-efficient than desktops. A typical
laptop uses 20–120 W, compared to 100–800 W for desktops. This could be particularly beneficial
for large businesses, which run hundreds of personal computers thus multiplying the potential
savings, and homes where there is a computer running 24/7 (such as a home media server, print
server, etc.).
• Quiet: Laptops are typically much quieter than desktops, due both to the components (quieter,
slower 2.5-inch hard drives) and to less heat production leading to use of fewer and slower cooling
fans.
• Battery: a charged laptop can continue to be used in case of a power outage and is not affected by
short power interruptions and blackouts. A desktop PC needs anUninterruptible power supply (UPS)
to handle short interruptions, blackouts, and spikes; achieving on-battery time of more than 20–30
minutes for a desktop PC requires a large and expensive UPS.[49]

41
• All-in-One: designed to be portable, most 2010-era laptops have all components integrated into the
chassis (however, some small laptops may not have an internal CD/CDR/DVD drive, so an external
drive needs to be used). For desktops (excluding all-in-ones) this is divided into the desktop "tower"
(the unit with the CPU, hard drive, power supply, etc.), keyboard, mouse, display screen, and
optional peripherals such as speakers.

In general, laptop components are not intended to be replaceable or upgradable, with the exception of
components which can be detached, such as a battery or CD/CDR/DVD drive. This restriction is one of
the major differences between laptops and desktop computers, because the large "tower" cases used in
desktop computers are designed so that new motherboards, hard disks, sound cards,RAM, and other
components can be added. In a very compact laptop, such as laplets, there may be no upgradeable
components at all]
Intel, Asus, Compal, Quanta, and some other laptop manufacturers have created the Common Building
Block standard for laptop parts to address some of the inefficiencies caused by the lack of standards and
inability to upgrade components.The following sections summarizes the differences and distinguishing
features of laptop components in comparison to desktop personal computer parts.
Display
Most modern laptops feature a 13 inches (33 cm) or larger color active matrix display based
on LED lighting with resolutions of 1280×800 (16:10) or 1366×768 (16:9) pixels and above. Models
with LED-based lighting offer lesser power consumption, and often increased brightness.
Netbooks with a 10 inches (25 cm) or smaller screen typically use a resolution of 1024×600, while
netbooks and subnotebooks with a 11.6 inches (29 cm) or 12 inches (30 cm) screen use standard
notebook resolutions. Having a higher resolution display allows more items to fit onscreen at a time,
improving the user's ability to multitask, although at the higher resolutions on smaller screens, the
resolution may only serve to display sharper graphics and text rather than increasing the usable area

42
Motherboard of LAPTOP

Since the introduction of theMacBook Pro with Retina display in 2012, there has been an increase in the
availability of very-high resolution (1920×1080 and higher) displays, even in relatively small systems,
and in typical 15-inch screens resolutions as high as 3200×1800 are available. External displays can be
connected to most laptops, and models with a Mini DisplayPort can handle up to three.
Central processing unit
A laptop's central processing unit (CPU) has advanced power-saving features and produces less heat
than one intended purely for desktop use. Typically, laptop CPUs have two processor cores, although 4-
core models are also available. For low price and mainstream performance, there is no longer a
significant performance difference between laptop and desktop CPUs, but at the high end, the fastest 4-
to-8-core desktop CPUs still substantially outperform the fastest 4-core laptop processors, at the expense
of massively higher power consumption and heat generation; the fastest laptop processors top out at 56
watts of heat, while the fastest desktop processors top out at 150 watts.
There have been a wide range of CPUs designed for laptops available from both Intel, AMD, and other
manufacturers. On non-x86architectures, Motorola and IBM produced the chips for the
former PowerPC-based Apple laptops (iBook and PowerBook). Many laptops have removable CPUs,
although this has become less common in the past few years as the trend has been towards thinner and
lighter models. In other laptops the CPU is soldered on the motherboard and is non-replaceable; this is
nearly universal in ultrabooks.
Graphical processing unit:
On most laptops a graphical processing unit (GPU) is integrated into the CPU to conserve power and
space. This was introduced by Intel with the Core i-series of mobile processors in 2010, and
similar APU processors by AMD later that year. Prior to that, lower-end machines tended to use graphics
processors integrated into the system chipset, while higher end machines had a separate graphics
43
processor. In the past, laptops lacking a separate graphics processor were limited in their utility for
gaming and professional applications involving 3D graphics, but the capabilities of CPU-integrated
graphics have converged with the low-end of dedicated graphics processors in the past few years.
Higher-end laptops intended for gaming or professional 3D work still come with dedicated, and in some
cases even dual, graphics processors on the motherboard or as an internal expansion card. Since 2011,
these almost always involve switchable graphics so that when there is no demand for the higher
performance dedicated graphics processor, the more power-efficient integrated graphics processor will
be used.
Memory:
Most laptops use SO-DIMM (small outline dual in-line memory module) memory modules, as they are
about half the size of desktop DIMMs. They are sometimes accessible from the bottom of the laptop for
ease of upgrading, or placed in locations not intended for user replacement. Most laptops have two
memory slots, although some of the lowest-end models will have only one, and some high end models
(usually mobile engineering workstations and a few high-end models intended for gaming) have four
slots. Most mid-range laptops are factory equipped with 4–6 GB of RAM. Netbooks are commonly
equipped with only 1–2 GB of RAM and are generally only expandable to 2 GB, if at all. Due to the
limitation of DDR3 SO-DIMM of a maximum of 8 GB per module, most laptops can only be expanded
to a total of 16 GB of memory, until systems using DDR4 memory start becoming available. Laptops
may have memory soldered to the motherboard to conserve space, which allows the laptop to have a
thinner chassis design. Soldered memory cannot be upgraded.
Internal storage:
Traditionally, laptops had a hard disk drive (HDD) as a main non-volatile storage, but these proved
inefficient for use in mobile devices due to high power consumption, heat production, and a presence of
moving parts, which can cause damage to both the drive itself and the data stored when a laptop is
unstable physically, e.g. during its use while transporting it or after its accidental drop. With the advent
of flash memory technology, most mid- to high-end laptops opted for more compact, power efficient,
and fast solid-state drives (SSD), which eliminated the hazard of drive and data corruption caused by a
laptop's physical impacts.[27] Most laptops use 2.5-inch drives, which are a smaller version of a 3.5-inch
desktop drive form factor. 2.5-inch HDDs are more compact, power efficient, and produce less heat,
while at the same time have a smaller capacity and a slower data transfer rate. Some very compact
laptops support even smaller 1.8-inch HDDs. For SSDs, however, these miniaturization-related trade-
offs are nonexistent, because SSDs were designed to have a very small footprint. SSDs feature a
traditional 2.5- or 1.8-inch or a laptop-specific mSATA or M.2 card's form factor. SSDs have a higher
data transfer rate, lower power consumption, lower failure rate, and a larger
capacity[28][29][30][31] compared to HDDs. However, HDDs have a significantly lower cost.
Most laptops can contain a single 2.5-inch drive, but a small number of laptops with a screen wider than
17 inches can house two drives. Some laptops support a hybrid mode, combining a 2.5-inch drive,
typically a spacious HDD for data, with an mSATA or M.2 SDD drive, typically having less capacity,
but a significantly faster read/write speed. Theoperating system partition would be located on the SSD
to increase laptop I/O performance. Another way to increase performance is to use a smaller SSD of 16-
32 GB as acache drive with a compatible OS. Some laptops may have very limited drive upgradeability
when the SSD used has a non-standard shape and/or requires a proprietary daughter card.[32] Some
laptops have very limited space on the installed SSD, instead relying on availability of cloud
storage services for storing of user data; Chromebooks are a prominent example of this approach. A
variety of external HDDs or NAS data storage servers with support of RAID technology can be attached
to virtually any laptop over such interfaces as USB, FireWire, eSATA, or Thunderbolt, or over a wired
or wireless network to further increase space for the storage of data. Many laptops also incorporate
a card reader which allows for use of memory cards, such as those used for digital cameras, which are
typically SD or microSD cards.
Removable media drive:

44
Optical disc drives capable of playing CD-ROMs, compact discs (CD), DVDs, and in some cases, Blu-
ray Discs (BD), were nearly universal on full-sized models in the 2010s. A disc drive remains fairly
common in laptops with a screen wider than 15 inches (38 cm), although the trend towards thinner and
lighter machines is gradually eliminating these drives and players; these drives are uncommon in
compact laptops, such as subnotebooks and netbooks. Laptop optical drives tend to follow a standard
form factor, and usually have a standard mSATA connector
Inputs:

touchpad on an Acer laptop

An alphanumeric keyboard is used to enter text and data and make other commands (e.g., function keys).
A touchpad (also called a trackpad), a pointing stick, or both, are used to control the position of the
cursor on the screen, and an integrated keyboard[33] is used for typing. An external keyboard and/or
mouse may be connected using a USB port or wirelessly, via Bluetooth or similar technology. With the
advent of ultrabooks and support of touch input on screens by 2010-era operating systems, such
as Windows 8.1, multitouch touchscreendisplays are used in many models. Some models
have webcams and microphones, which can be used to communicate with other people with both
moving images and sound, via Skype, Google Chat and similar software. Laptops typically have USB
ports and a microphone jack, for use with an external mic. Some laptops have a card reader for reading
digital camera SD cards.
Input/output (I/O) ports:
On a typical laptop there are several USB ports, an external monitor port (VGA, DVI, HDMI or Mini
DisplayPort), an audio in/out port (often in form of a single socket) is common. It is possible to connect
up to three external displays to a 2014-era laptop via a single Mini DisplayPort, utilizing multi-stream
transport technology
Although being common until the end of the 2000s decade, Ethernet network port are rarely found on
modern laptops, due to widespread use of wireless networking, such as Wi-Fi. Legacy ports such as
a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port, serial port, parallel port, or Firewire are provided on some models, but
they are increasingly rare. On Apple's systems, and on a handful of other laptops, there are
also Thunderbolt ports, but Thunderbolt 3 uses USB Type-C. Laptops typically have a headphone jack,
so that the user can connect external headphones or amplified speaker systems for listening to music or
other audio.
Expansion cards:
In the past, a PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) or ExpressCard slot for expansion was often present on
laptops to allow adding and removing functionality, even when the laptop is powered on; these are
becoming increasingly rare since the introduction of USB 3.0. Some internal subsystems such as:
ethernet, Wi-Fi, or a Wireless cellular modem can be implemented as replaceable internal expansion
cards, usually accessible under an access cover on the bottom of the laptop. The standard for such cards
is PCI Express, which comes in both mini and even smaller M.2 sizes. In newer laptops, it is not
uncommon to also see Micro SATA (mSATA) functionality on PCI Express Mini or M.2 card slots
allowing the use of those slots for SATA-based solid state drives.
Battery and power supply[edit]
Main article: Smart Battery

45
Almost all laptops use smart batteries
2016-era laptops use lithium ion batteries, with some thinner models using the flatter lithium
polymer technology. These two technologies have largely replaced the older nickel metal-
hydride batteries. Battery life is highly variable by model and workload, and can range from one hour
to nearly a day. A battery's performance gradually decreases over time; substantial reduction in capacity
is typically evident after one to three years of regular use, depending on the charging and discharging
pattern and the design of the battery.
A laptop's battery is charged using an external power supply which is plugged into a wall outlet. The
power supply outputs a DC voltage typically in the range of 7.2—24 volts. The power supply is usually
external, and connected to the laptop through a DC connector cable. In most cases, it can charge the
battery and power the laptop simultaneously. When the battery is fully charged, the laptop continues to
run on power supplied by the external power supply, avoiding battery use. The battery charges in a
shorter period of time if laptop is turned off or sleeping. The charger typically adds about 400 grams
(0.88 lb) to the overall transporting weight of a laptop, although some models are substantially heavier
or lighter. Most 2016-era laptops use a smart battery, a rechargeable battery pack with a built-in battery
management system (BMS). The smart battery can internally measure voltage and current, and deduce
charge level and SoH (State of Health) parameters, indicating the state of the cells.
Cooling [edit]
Waste heat from operation is difficult to remove in the compact internal space of a laptop. Early laptops
used heat sinks placed directly on the components to be cooled, but when these hot components are deep
inside the device, a large space-wasting air duct is needed to exhaust the heat. Modern laptops instead
rely on heat pipes to rapidly move waste heat towards the edges of the device, to allow for a much
smaller and compact fan and heat sink cooling system. Waste heat is usually exhausted away from the
device operator towards the rear or sides of the device. Multiple air intake paths are used since some
intakes can be blocked, such as when the device is placed on a soft conforming surface like a chair
cushion.

46