PC

MODULE 5
 Assembly and Maintenance of PC: Introduction to Computer - Difference
between Hardware & Software, Booting concept, Different input and
output devices/ cables, connectors, different types of motherboard,
controller cards, Ethernet cards, Different types of RAM used in PC’s.
 Installation: BIOS setting, Formatting of Hard Disk, Installation of
Windows, Off-line drive installation / online drive installation / Windows
file repairing / BIOS password break / Administrative password break /
Data recovery. Application Software Installation, Dual Booting Installation
 Assembly and dismantling: Assembly and dismantling of PCs front panel
connection, servicing of computer, Type of Backup, Taking Backup files
and fine tuning the system, running diagnostics tool, running of virus
protection program.
Computer Hardware
 Hardware of a computer is made up of complex electronic circuits
 For a user the details of the circuitry are not important
 However, the hardware units with which a user has to interact must be
clearly understood
 For convenience, the hardware of a computer can be classified in the
following categories:
1. Input Devices
2. Output Devices
3. Central Processing Unit (CPU)
4. Memory or Storage
5. Motherboard
1. Input Devices:
 The form in which data is available to a user is not always in the same format as is
accepted by computer hardware
 Input devices are hardware equipment that receive data and instructions from users,
convert the data and instructions into a form that can be processed by the computer
and passes the same to the computer
 Hence, if you have to enter employees’ names into the computer you do not have to
write it on a piece of paper and shove the paper inside the computer
 You will need some input device for this
 Example: A keyboard is an example of input device
2. Output Devices:
 The result, produced by a computer after processing, is not always in
user readable form
 An output device is hardware equipment that translates this non-
readable result into a form understood by the users
 Example: A VDU (Visual Display Unit) or monitor is an example of
output device.
3. Central Processing Unit (CPU):
 Central processing unit is to computer what brain is to our body. It is the
master organ of a computer
 No computer can exist without a CPU
 It is composed of two simpler hardware units - Arithmetic Logic Unit
(ALU) and Control Unit (CU)
 CU controls all the activities of other hardware units while ALU performs
all the calculations
 Computer CPUs are very fast in their calculations and swift in control
4. Memory or Storage:
 This hardware is the place where a computer stores all the data and
instructions given to it
 The results of the processing are also stored here
 A computer has many types of memories
 Some memories are directly connected to the CPU and are extremely fast
as far as storage and retrieval of data is concerned
 These memories are called primary memory - RAM (Random Access
Memories) and ROM (Read Only Memories) belong to this category of
memories
 The CPU takes data and instructions stored only in the primary memories
5. Motherboard:
 Motherboard, also called as System Board, is the most important hardware
component of a microcomputer
 Motherboard is so called as all the other boards (printed circuit boards
having chips or other electronic components) of the computer are
connected to this board, hence it is like the mother of all other boards.
 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
 Computer Hardware:
 Hardware refers to the physical components of a computer
 Computer Hardware is any part of the computer that we can touch these
parts
 These are the primary electronic devices used to build up the computer
 Examples of hardware in a computer are the Processor, Memory Devices,
Monitor, Printer, Keyboard, Mouse, and the Central Processing Unit. 
Computer Software: 
 Software is a collection of instructions, procedures, and
documentation that performs different tasks on a computer system
 we can say also Computer Software is a programming code
executed on a computer processor
 The code can be machine-level code or the code written for an
operating system
 Examples of software are Ms Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google
Chrome, Photoshop, MySQL, etc
 Hardware Software
Hardware is a physical part of the
Software is a set of instructions that tells a
computer that causes the processing of
computer exactly what to do.
data.
It is manufactured. It is developed and engineered.
Hardware cannot perform any task without The software can not be executed without
software. hardware
Electronic and other materials are used to Created by utilizing a computer language
create hardware.  to write instructions.
Hardware is tangible as hardware is a
Software is intangible as we can see and
physical electronic device, that can be
also use the software but can’t touch them
touched
 Hardware Software

Hardware typically wears out over

The software does not wear out with time.
time
However, it may contain flaws and glitches

It has four main categories: input

It is mainly divided into system software and
devices, output devices, storage, and
Application software
internal components

Hardware is not affected by computer

Software is affected by computer viruses
viruses
It cannot be transferred from one
place to another electrically through It can be transferred via a network means
the network.
 Hardware Software

The program accepts human-readable input,

Only machine-level language is
interprets it in machine-level language, and
known to be understood by hardware
sends it to hardware for additional processing

If hardware is damaged, it is replaced If the software is damaged, its backup copy

with a new one can be reinstalled

Dust, overheating, dust, and other Overloading, systematic error, major-minor

factors are commonly responsible for version error, and other factors are commonly
hardware failures  responsible for software failures
Ex: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor,
Ex: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop,
Printer, CPU, Hard disk, RAM,
MySQL, etc
ROM, etc
Computer Software
 Software is the term used to describe the set of instructions that tells the
hardware how to perform a task
 They include
 operating system software
 application software
 utility software
 Software is a collection of computer programs that allows the users to use
the computer for a specific purpose
 Without software the hardware can do nothing useful
 By creating appropriate software a computer may be made to do almost anything
under its capability
 Software, loaded into the primary memory, is lost the moment power supply to the
memory is switched off
 Therefore, software is usually stored on secondary storage devices so that you do not
have to enter it into the computer’s memory each time through an input device
 A software is a program or set of instructions, which is required to use the computer
 Many types of software are available for various applications
 The software development field is so advanced that day by day existing software are
becoming outdated and new software are coming in the market
 Software can be classified on a number of different bases
 On the basis of the purpose served, they can be classified as follows:
1. System software
2. Application software
 Booting
 In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system (BIOS) , also
known as the system BIOS
 The BIOS is boot firmware, designed to be the first code run by a PCwhen powered
on
 Firmware is software that provides basic machine instructions that allow the
hardware to function and communicate with other software running on a device
 Firmware provides low-level control for a device's hardware.
 The initial function of the BIOS is to identify, test and initialize system devices such
as the video display card, hard disk, floppy disk and other hardware
 The BIOS sets the machine hardware into a known state, so that software stored on
compatible media can be loaded, executed, and given control of the PC
 This process is known as booting, or booting up, which is short for bootstrapping
 Functionsof BIOS:

BIOS contains read only software (Firmware) and will be used to

1) Start the Computer
2) Performs POST (Power On Self Test)
3) IPL (Initial Program Load- The process of getting the operating system
started)
4) Stores drivers software for basic input / output devices like Keyboard,
Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, serial, parallel ports etc..
5) Used to change system setting / configuration
Loading of operating system into main memory is called as
Booting
How does a System Boot?
 When we press the power button, all the components of system get power and they get
initialized. Once the CPU is initialized, it needs instruction to be executed.
 The small set of instructions called BIOS are being loaded from ROM.
 After the successful completion of Power-On-Self-Test (POST) BIOS find the bootable
sequence from CMOS.
 Based on the bootable sequence, it finds the first bootable device.
 From the first bootable device, it loads instructions present from Master Boot Record which
is present in logical Sector 0.
 This set of instructions contains the information about the Boot Loader which can load the
Operating System.
 This boot loader information is Operating System specific, for example the boot loader for
Linux is GRUB ( GRand Unified Bootloader).
 The boot loader then load the operating system into the memory.
 Lastly all the important system files and drivers are loaded into memory and the control is
being passed to operating system.
Computer booting sequence
BIOS is loaded

Power on self test

(POST) is completed

Operating system is
loaded

System configuration is
accomplished

System utilities are

loaded

User is authenticated
 Loading of BIOS: The small set on instructions present in the ROM is
loaded into the computer memory and CPU executes those instruction.
 Power-On Self Test (POST): In order to check the operability of all the
hardware connected to our computer system, BIOS carries out POST which
will check the hardware components and if any problem is found user is
alerted with POST beeps and POST screen messaged.
 Loading of Operating System:
 After the successful completion of POST, the bootable sequence present
in CMOS (Common Metal Oxide Semiconductor) is read by BIOS.
 Based on the bootable sequence it will search for Master Boot Record
(MBR) in bootable device like floppy disk, CD-ROM and hard disk.
 If MBR is not found in any of them, the system will halt by displaying
“No Boot Device Found”.
 if MBR is found, the BIOS will load the special application program
called Boot Loader, that will eventually load the Operating system.
 System Configuration is Accomplished: After the OS is loaded, device
drivers are loaded into the memory so that our devices can function
correctly.
 System Utilities are Loaded: System utilities like antivirus, volume
control etc. are loaded into the memory in this step
 User Authentication: If any user authentication is being set, the system
will ask the user to enter the credentials and on receiving the correct
credentials the computer system will run GUI shell (in most cases) or CLI
shell.
Type of Booting:
There are two types of Booting available:
1) Cold Booting/ Hard Booting: 
Cold booting is the process when our computer system moves from shut
down state to the start by pressing the power button
The system reads the BIOS from ROM and will eventually load the
Operating System
2) Warm Booting/ Soft Booting:
Warm booting is the process in which the computer gets restart due to
reasons like setting the configuration for newly installed software or
hardware
Warm booting is called as rebooting
Different input and output devices
 Input device Output device

It shows the data after processing to the

Data is accepted from the user of the
user
device
It accepts the user’s data and transmits
It receives the data from the processor
it to the processor for saving in the
and returns it to the user.
secondary memory or processing.

More complex designing Less complex designing

These devices are used to accept the These devices are used to display or
data show the data

Example: Keyboard, mouse, etc. Example: Monitor, Printer, etc.

Motherboards
 Motherboards are described using form factor called Advanced
Technology eXTENDED (ATX)
 This form factor is invented by INTEL company
 ATX not only describes motherboard layout but also lays specification for
power supply and PC cabinets and different connectors for compatibility
purposes
 There are three main types of sizes :
1. Standard ATX
2. Micro ATX
3. eXtended ATX
 Standard ATX – This motherboard comes in 305*244mm
(length*breadth) dimensions, these dimensions can vary with different
manufacturer
 This motherboard offers more expansion slots, up to four slots for RAM,
Two or sometimes more than two PCIe slots for dual graphics cards and
more USB and other ports for connectivity, also its size gives space in
between components for airflow to keep heat in control
 This size of motherboard is used by those who want more expansion slots
and different connecting ports and deal with heavy workloads
 This motherboard will only fit in cases which support full ATX or
Extended ATX motherboards
 Micro ATX – This motherboards come in 244*244 mm (length*breadth)
dimensions (these dimensions can vary with different manufacturer)
 This Motherboard has less ports and slots as compared to Standard ATX
board
 This type of motherboard is more suitable for those who don’t want to
much connectivity and later upgrades like adding more ram and additional
GPU or Graphics card and adding PCI cards
 This board can fit any case which has enough room 244*244 mm of space
and can also be fit in bigger cases which accept Standard ATX and
eXTENDED ATX motherboards
 eXtended ATX – This motherboard is 344*330 mm dimensions (these
dimensions can vary with different manufacturer)
 This motherboard is designed for both dual CPU and single configuration
and has up to 8 ram slots and has more PCIe and PCI slots for adding PCI
cards for different purposes
 It is used for workstations and servers
 Some EATX motherboards are also designed for desktop computing, and
there is ample space for cooling and attaching peripherals
CONTROLLER CARD

 A controller card is a hardware component that works as an interface

between the motherboard and other computer components
 It is a built-in component found in most computers
 A controller card is installed in the computer's PCI slot and is integrated
with the motherboard
 A controller card may also be known simply as a controller
HARD DRIVE CONTROLLER CARDS
 The storage controller cards come in handy when adding storage,
connecting to legacy storage devices, and replacing damaged storage ports
 We have all new controller cards that connect through Thunderbolt and
PCI Express to allow connection to internal and external storage options.
SATA CONTROLLER CARDS
 The SATA controller cards will help you address the need for more hard
disk space by adding internal Serial ATA (SATA) and external SATA
(eSATA) options to your computer
 We have all types of SATA controller cards that interface through
ExpressCard, PCI slots, PCIe, and Thunderbolt to get faster transfer
speeds.
RAID CONTROLLER CARDS
 Choosing a RAID controller card specific to your needs should not be a difficult
task
 Keep in mind that the best RAID controller for a home server that uses
inexpensive hard drives may not be best suited for SSD disks
 Ensure that you fully understand the RAID setup and are aware of future needs
when choosing a controller card
 Most RAID controller cards have an upper limit of storage devices that can be
supported
 The onboard RAID in a powerful CPU is sufficient for RAID 0 or 1 configuration
 On the other hand, a RAID controller with a multicore processor and inbuilt cache
memory is needed for RAID 50 or 60 setups
 These high-end cards will increase write speeds and read speeds.
SAS CONTROLLER CARDS
 The SAS controller also referred to as an HBA (host bus adapter) is used in
scenarios where you want to present disks to the server independently. It is
the work of the operating system to identify the disks. A SAS controller
has no RAID ability.
 The SAS HBA controller cards are also used to support non-disk based
devices such as tape drives, which is not possible with RAID controllers.
Typically, a SAS HBA is all that you require if you are using modern
storage software such as Windows Storage Spaces and ZFS. The SAS
controller just like the RAID controllers are backward compatible with
SATA disks. The ability to mix SATA and SAS on a single card is
dependent on the type or model of card chosen
 Ethernet cards
Purpose of NIC 
 Network Interface Cards allows computers to be joined together in a
network, usually through Local Area Connection (LAN)
 The NIC acts as an interpreter, allowing the computer to send and receive
data from a LAN
The role of the NIC is to: 
 Prepare data from the computer for the network cable
 Send the data to another computer
 Control the flow of data between the computer and the cabling system
 Receive incoming data from the cable and translate it into bytes that can be
understood by the computer's CPU
How it works
 An Ethernet network interface card is installed in an available slot inside
the computer, typically on the motherboard
 The NIC assigns a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address to the
machine, which is used to direct traffic between the computers on a
network
 Network cards also change data from a parallel format, used by computers,
to a serial format necessary in data transfers; and then back again for
received information.
Preparing the Data
 Before data can be sent over the network, the NIC must change it from a
form the computer can understand to a form that can travel over a network
cable
 Data moves through a computer along paths called busses
 These are actually several data paths placed side by side
 Because the paths are side by side (parallel), data can move along them in
lateral groups instead of in a single (serial) data stream
 The Transceiver converts the parallel data to serial data on the network
 This is accomplished through the translation of the computer's digital
signals into electrical or optical signals that can travel on the network's
cables
Sending and Controlling Data 
 Before the sending NIC actually sends data over the network, it carries on an
electronic dialog with the receiving NIC so that both cards agree on the following:
 The maximum size of the groups of data to be sent
 The amount of data to be sent before confirmation of receipt is given
 The time intervals between sending data chunks
 The amount of time to wait before confirmation is sent
 How much data each card can hold before it overflows
 The speed of the data transmission
 When newer, more sophisticated cards communicate with older, slower cards, both
find a common speed at which to communicate
 After all the communication details have been determined, the two cards begin to
send and receive data.
 Different types
1) 100/1000 Ethernet-
 These are networking cards that are utilized often in home or small office setting
 As name implies, they are able of speeds up to 100 or 1000 megabits per second, not to be
confused with megabytes per second
2) Gigabyte Ethernet-
 Gigabit Ethernet NICs give network transfer speeds of up to one Gigabit per second
 These NICs are more frequently created to use fiber optic cables for utilize in enterprise
solutions like web servers or data storage centers
3) Fiber Optic-
 They can achieve speeds of 10 gigabits per second, with a requirement
below review to push this limit to 100 gigabits per second
 These NICs are frequently, though not always, exterior devices that
attach to servers or workstations
 These NICs are a significant financial investment and need much
service and maintenance
4) Wireless NICs –
Wireless NICs give similar networking capabilities as wired counterparts,
though they have their own transfer capabilities
Speeds of 54 Mb/s are usually available to wireless NICs without teaming
some NICs together

5) Wireless Dongles-
There is a wireless networking device utilized by individual machines that
have access to a main PC that is attached to a wireless router
These are the usb NICs that you use to connect to your wireless network
with your PC
Different types of RAM used in PC’s
 RAM(Random Access Memory) is a part of computer’s Main Memory
which is directly accessible by CPU
 RAM is used to Read and Write data into it which is accessed by CPU
randomly
 RAM is volatile in nature, it means if the power goes off, the stored
information is lost
 RAM is used to store the data that is currently processed by the CPU
 Most of the programs and data that are modifiable are stored in RAM
 Integrated RAM chips are available in two form: 
 SRAM(Static RAM)
 DRAM(Dynamic RAM)
 The block diagram of RAM chip is given below
SRAM :
1. The SRAM memories consist of circuits capable of retaining the stored
information as long as the power is applied
2. That means this type of memory requires constant power
3. SRAM memories are used to build Cache Memory
 SRAM Memory Cell
 Static memories(SRAM) are memories that consist of circuits capable of
retaining their state as long as power is on
 Thus this type of memory is called volatile memory
 The below figure shows a cell diagram of SRAM
 A latch is formed by two inverters connected as shown in the figure
 Two transistors T1 and T2 are used for connecting the latch with two-bit
lines
 The purpose of these transistors is to act as switches that can be opened or
closed under the control of the word line, which is controlled by the address
decoder
 When the word line is at 0-level, the transistors are turned off and the latch
remains its information
 For example, the cell is at state 1 if the logic value at point A is 1 and at
point, B is 0
 This state is retained as long as the word line is not activated 
Read operation
 the word line is activated by the address input to the address decoder
 The activated word line closes both the transistors (switches) T1 and T2
 Then the bit values at points A and B can transmit to their respective bit
lines
 The sense/write circuit at the end of the bit lines sends the output to the
processor 
Write operation
 the address provided to the decoder activates the word line to close both
the switches
 Then the bit value that is to be written into the cell is provided through
the sense/write circuit and the signals in bit lines are then stored in the
cell
DRAM :
 DRAM stores the binary information in the form of electric charges applied to
capacitors
 The stored information on the capacitors tends to lose over a period of time and
thus the capacitors must be periodically recharged to retain their usage
 The main memory is generally made up of DRAM chips
DRAM Memory Cell: 
 Though SRAM is very fast, but it is expensive because of its every cell requires several
transistors
 Relatively less expensive RAM is DRAM, due to the use of one transistor and one
capacitor in each cell, where C is the capacitor and T is the transistor
 Information is stored in a DRAM cell in the form of a charge on a capacitor and this
charge needs to be periodically recharged
 For storing information in this cell, transistor T is turned on and an appropriate voltage
is applied to the bit line
 This causes a known amount of charge to be stored in the capacitor
 After the transistor is turned off, due to the property of the capacitor, it starts to
discharge
 Hence, the information stored in the cell can be read correctly only if it is read before
the charge on the capacitors drops below some threshold value
Types of DRAM :
 There are mainly 5 types of DRAM: 
 Asynchronous DRAM (ADRAM) –
The DRAM described above is the asynchronous type DRAM
 The timing of the memory device is controlled asynchronously
 A specialized memory controller circuit generates the necessary control
signals to control the timing
 The CPU must take into account the delay in the response of the memory. 
Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) –
 These RAM chips’ access speed is directly synchronized with the CPU’s
clock
 For this, the memory chips remain ready for operation when the CPU
expects them to be ready
 These memories operate at the CPU-memory bus without imposing wait
states
 SDRAM is commercially available as modules incorporating multiple
SDRAM chips and forming the required capacity for the modules
Double-Data-Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) –
 This faster version of SDRAM performs its operations on both edges of the
clock signal, whereas a standard SDRAM performs its operations on the
rising edge of the clock signal
 Since they transfer data on both edges of the clock, the data transfer rate is
doubled
 To access the data at high rate, the memory cells are organized into two
groups
 Each group is accessed separately 
Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) –
 The RDRAM provides a very high data transfer rate over a narrow CPU-
memory bus
 It uses various speedup mechanisms, like synchronous memory interface,
caching inside the DRAM chips and very fast signal timing
 The Rambus data bus width is 8 or 9 bits 
Cache DRAM (CDRAM) –
 This memory is a special type DRAM memory with an on-chip cache
memory (SRAM) that acts as a high-speed buffer for the main DRAM
Setting BIOS Configurations
 For the BIOS to be able to start the computer, you’ve seen that it must find an
operating system on a hard disk or floppy disk drive
 Floppy disk drives and hard disk drives are two of the most important items that must
be configured in the BIOS
 If the drive types are not correctly identified in the BIOS, the BIOS will not be able to
start the system
 Whenever you build a system or change major components, you need to run the BIOS
setup program to check or change settings
 ROM-based setup programs are normally started by pressing one or more keys in
combination within the first few seconds after turning on the computer
 Although these keystrokes vary from system to system, the most popular keys on
current systems include the escape (Esc) key, the Delete key, the F1 key, and various
combinations of Ctrl+Alt+ another specified key
 Most computers display the correct key(s) to press during the initial startup
screen
 Check with your system vendor for the appropriate keystrokes or to see if you
need to run a program from MSDOS or Windows to configure your system
 Because the settings you make in the BIOS setup program are stored in the
nonvolatile RAM of the CMOS chip, the settings are often called CMOS settings
 To start the CMOS setup process, press the correct key(s) during the bootstrap
process or run the setup program from hard disk or floppy disk after the computer
has started
 On virtually all systems built since the early 1990s, you’ll start with a menu screen,
as shown in Figure 5.5
 This menu, as well as the contents of the screens listed, will vary according to your
BIOS brand, version, and motherboard type
 Select the menu item from this CMOS Setup menu to examine or change settings
 Select Standard CMOS Setup to begin
 Other systems will immediately display the Standard CMOS Setup screen, which is
typically used to configure drive, date, and time settings.
a) Standard CMOS Configuration
 The standard CMOS configuration screen (see Figure 5.6) includes
settings for items such as:
 Date
 Time
 Floppy disk drive types for drives A: (first floppy disk drive) and B:
(second floppy disk drive)
 Hard drives connected to the IDE interface
b) Automatic Configuration of BIOS/CMOS Settings
 Many versions of the BIOS allow you to automatically configure all screens
except the Standard setup screen with a choice of these options from the
main menu:
 BIOS Defaults (also referred to as Original/Fail-Safe on some systems)
 Setup Defaults (also referred to as Optimal on some systems)
 Turbo
 Use BIOS defaults to troubleshoot the system because these settings are
very conservative in memory timings and other options
 Normally, the Setup defaults provide better performance
 Turbo, if present, speeds up the memory refresh rate used by the system
 As you view the setup screens, you’ll note these options are listed. If you
use either automatic setup after you make manual changes, all your manual
changes will be overridden!
 Appropriately, the graphical AMI WinBIOS uses a tortoise, a hare, and an
eagle for these three options
 With many recent systems, you can select Optimal or Setup Defaults, save
your changes, and exit, and the system will work acceptably
 However, you might want more control over your system. In that case, look
at the following screens and make the changes necessary.
C)Advanced CMOS Configuration
 The advanced CMOS configuration screen, shown in Figure 5.7, allows
you to adjust optional details about the computer
 In this screen, you can adjust the NumLock setting, type of video,
keyboard repeats speed, settings for cache memory, and other special
features
 Most systems built since the early 1990s include this screen.
 A typical Advanced CMOS Configuration screen, also known as the BIOS
Features screen—use this screen to enable or disable anti-virus hardware
features, adjust boot sequence, and adjust memory options such as cache
and parity checking
 Depending on the system, you might be able to boot from CD-ROM, ZIP,
or LS-120 drives in addition to the floppy disk drives and hard drives
traditionally available as boot devices, as shown in Figure 5.8
 Depending on the BIOS version, you might need to press the ESC key, as
in Figure 5.8, to return to the main menu, or use cursor keys to move
directly to another menu screen.
 This recent Pentium-class system offers a variety of boot options
 To view the settings for any Notes CMOS configuration option, either use
the help key (F1) as shown here, or press the correct key to step through
the options for the setting
 D) Advanced Chipset/Chipset Features Configuration
 The Advanced Chipset/Chipset Features Configuration screen, like the one shown
in Figure 5.9, offers many advanced options that vary by the system
 The following are some typical features of this menu:
  Memory types, speed and timing—Adjust the values here to match the memory
installed in the system (such as parity, non-parity, SDRAM, EDO, and so on)
  Cache adjustments—Some Cyrix CPUs require the user to disable pipelining
for proper operation
  Configuration of USB ports—If you upgrade a system to Windows 98 or
Windows 2000, you might need to enable the USB ports; systems with older
versions of Windows (which didn’t support USB) might not have the USB ports
enabled. The USB Keyboard Support feature must be enabled if a USB keyboard
is installed to allow the keyboard to operate outside of Windows
  Configuration of the AGP slot—Depending on the specific AGP video card
installed (if any), you might need to set the size of the memory aperture used to
transfer data between the system and the AGP port and select the AGP mode (1x,
2x, and 4x).
 This recent system’s USB (Universal Serial Bus) and AGP (Advanced
Graphics Port) options are located on the Chipset Features configuration
screen, along with the usual system and memory timing options
E) Power Management Configuration
 Virtually all systems built since the mid-1990s are designed to allow power
management; watch for the EPA “Energy Star” logo when you start the
computer
 After a user-defined period of inactivity, devices such as the monitor, the
hard drive, or even the CPU will go into different low-power modes:
  Standby mode—Shuts off the hard drive and blanks monitor screens that
use Display Power Management Signaling
 Move the mouse or press a key to “wake up” the system.
  Suspend mode—Turns off the CPU clock to save even more power
 Systems that fully support suspend mode allow you to choose a special
shutdown option that “remembers” what programs and files were open, and
can bring the system back to that state when the power is restored
 Early power-management systems require that you, the user, keep working with the
mouse or keyboard to prevent the system from going into power-saving modes,
which can cause modem or network transfers to be interrupted, losing data
 On most newer systems, such as the one featured in Figure 5.10, you can prevent
the system from going into power-saving modes, or to wake up when activity takes
place, by setting these options by either the device name or by the device’s IRQ
 Power management is always considered a great idea that does not always work
well in practice
 This recent system has support for both ACPI power management (used by
Windows 98) and APM (used by earlier versions of Windows). To make
power management work, you need to make sure that –  Devices such as
hard drives and monitors can be powered down and powered back up
without loss of information.  Power management is set to monitor
network and Internet devices, such as modems and network cards, for
activity to prevent the connection from being dropped.  All devices
installed in a system are monitored for activity to prevent data loss.
  Users understand how power management works. Normal signs of
power management in use include:  Monitors with blinking power lights,
or power lights a different color than normal, while the screen remains
blank  Keyboards that seem “dead” for a few seconds after you start
typing (because the hard drive must spin up) Users who are unfamiliar
with power management might panic and reboot the computers (losing
their data!) or demand that you “fix” their systems. Sometimes, the best fix
is to disable power management completely or to use Windows to
configure power management settings through its Power icon in Control
Panel. For systems that have ACPI- compatible BIOS chips that also run
Windows 98 or Windows 2000, Windows should be used to manage
power. Adjust the system to the user’s requirements, and continue
F) PnP (Plug-and-Play) Configuration
 Screen Plug-and-Play (PnP) configuration allows either the operating
system or the system BIOS to select hardware settings for PnP-compatible
cards when first installed and to change those settings when new cards are
installed
 PnP BIOS support has been part of virtually all systems shipped with
Windows 95 or newer versions of Windows, and virtually all add-on cards
and other devices (such as printers, monitors, modems, and so on) also
support PnP configuration
 Early versions of the Plug-and-Play Configuration screen (see Figure 5.11) were
introduced with the first Pentium-based systems with PCI slots, because PCI cards
could configure themselves. PnP can be used with PnP-compatible ISA cards as well as
with PCI and AGP cards. If you are using Windows 95, 98, or 2000, set Plug and Play
Operating System to Yes. Unless you have problems with installing cards, that is
normally all you need to set. If you are having problems adding cards, you can set IRQs
to be available to PnP devices (add-on cards that are set by Windows) or to ISA/Legacy
devices (ports built into the motherboard or ISA cards you must set manually). Some
systems, as in this example, also allow you to enable or disable IRQ use for USB,
VGAvideo, and ACPI power management. You can disable IRQ usage for any or all of
these devices, but some devices might not work if no IRQ is assigned.
G)Peripherals Setup
 You can enable or disable most ports built into recent systems with the
Built-in Ports/Peripherals Setup screen, shown in Figure 5.12. (Some
systems with PS/2 mouse ports require that you adjust a jumper block on
the motherboard.)
 On some systems, this screen also lets you adjust advanced hard disk
options, such as PIO mode and block mode
 By changing PnP options for IRQs and DMA channels to Legacy, you can
reserve selected IRQs and DMAs for non-PnP cards.
 This system’s COM 2 port (UART 2) is disabled to allow an internal
modem to be installed as COM 2. Generally, you disable a built-in port if
you add a card containing a port that will conflict with it
H) Security/Passwords
 You can enable two types of passwords on many systems: a power-on
password that must be entered to allow any use of the system, and a
setup password that must be entered to allow access to the
BIOS/CMOS setup
 If you don’t have all the settings recorded (with screen printouts or by
writing them down), this can be dangerous to enable
 Why? If the passwords are lost, users are locked out of the system, and
you would need to remove the battery or use the “clear CMOS” jumper
on the motherboard to erase the CMOS record of the passwords—and
all other settings
 This would require reconfiguring the system BIOS from scratch!
 Because passwords are useful to prevent tampering with system
settings, record the system information first, before you enable this
feature.
I) Saving and Recording BIOS/CMOS Settings
 Most BIOSes allow you to save your changes, or discard changes you might
have made accidentally, when you exit the main menu and restart the system
 A few old BIOSes automatically save any changes, even bad ones. In either
case, be sure to review the standard CMOS setup screen and any others you
viewed to make sure the settings are acceptable before you save and exit
 You should record critical BIOS settings, such as drive type information and
any other changes from a system’s default settings
 Many technicians find it useful to add a sticker with drive type and other
information to the rear of a system or to the inside of the system cover
 Formatting of Hard Disk
 Disk formatting is a process to configure the data-storage devices such as hard-drive,
floppy disk and flash drive when we are going to use them for the very first time or we
can say initial usage
 Disk formatting is usually required when new operating system is going to be used by
the user
 It is also done when there is space issue and we require additional space for the storage
of more data in the drives
 When we format the disk then the existing files within the disk is also erased
 We can perform disk formatting on both magnetic platter hard-drives and solid-state
drives. 
 When we are going to use hard-drive for initial use it is going to search for virus
 It can scan for virus and repair the bad sectors within the drive
 Disk formatting has also the capability to erase the bad applications and various
sophisticated viruses. 
 As we know that disk formatting deletes data and removes all the
programs installed with in the drive
 So it can be done with caution
 We must have the backup of all the data and applications which we require
 No-doubt disk formatting requires time
 But the frequent formatting of the disk decreases the life of the hard-drive
1. Low-level Formatting : 
 Low level formatting is a type of physical formatting
 It is the process of marking of cylinders and tracks of the blank hard-disk
 After this there is the division of tracks into sectors with the sector markers
 Now-a-days low-level formatting is performed by the hard-disk
manufactures themselves. 
 We have data in our hard-disk and when we perform low-level formatting
in the presence of data in the hard-disk all the data have been erased and it
is impossible to recover that data
 Some users make such a format that they can avoid their privacy leakage
 Otherwise low-level will cause damage to hard-disk shortens the service-
life. 
 Therefore, this formatting is not suggested to users. 
2. Partitioning : 
 As suggesting from the name, partitioning means divisions
 Partitioning is the process of dividing the hard-disk into one or more
regions
 The regions are called as partitions. 
 It can be performed by the users and it will affect the disk performance
3. High-level Formatting : 
 High-level formatting is the process of writing
 Writing on a file system, cluster size, partition label, and so on for a newly
created partition or volume
 It is done to erase the hard-disk and again installing the operating system
on the disk-drive.
 Firstly High-level formatting clears the data on hard-disk, then it will
generate boot information, then it will initialise FAT(File location table)
after this it will go for label logical bad sectors when partition has existed
 Formatting done by the user is the high-level formatting 
 It does not harm the hard-disk
 It can be done easily with the Administrator, Windows snap-in Disk
Management tool, diskpart, etc
 We can use such a format to fix some problems like errors in the file
system, corrupted hard-drive and develop bad sectors
Installation of Windows
 Before installation Windows 7 on your PC, make sure you have a
Windows 7 DVD and your hard drive has enough space and well formatted
 Now follow the following steps to install Windows 7 on your computer:
A)Boot-up your PC form the Windows DVD
  At first, insert the Windows DVD into DVD ROM/RAM
  When the computer will start up, press F8 or F10 or F11 or DEL key to
enter the BIOS setup
  Configure boot options by selecting DVD-ROM drive as the First Boot
Priority
  Now, your computer will try to boot-up from the DVD ROM and the
following screen will be appeared.
B) Select Language, Time, Currency and Keyboard
 Wait for some time and then a Install Windows screen will be appeared
 Select the language to which you want to install Windows 7 operating system
 Later select the time and currency format
 At last, you have to select the keyboard. Now, press the Next button. It looks like the
above figure
C) Install button
 Install now button window will be appeared and click that button to start the
installation of Windows 7
 You will see the message Setup is starting.... It means, the installation of Windows 7 is
started
D) License Terms Aggrement
  Click on the check-box I agree the license terms to agree Microsoft
software license terms and to install Windows 7 on your PC
  Click on the Next button
E)Installation Method Selection
 You can install Windows 7 by upgrading a newer version of Windows or by installing a
new copy of Windows
 The second choice is preferred
 But if you have many programs on installed, then you may use the first method.
F) Installation Location Selection
 It’s time to select the location of your hard drive to install Windows 7
 If your hard drive is a brand new there will be no partition
 You may create several partition and then select any partition to install Windows 7
 After selecting partition, click on the Next button.
 The installation of Windows 7 will be started
 It will do the following tasks one by one:
 Copying Windows files
 Expanding Windows files
 Installing features
 Installing updates
 Completing installation
 Before finishing the above steps, your PC will be restarted several times. You don’t
need to do Notes anything until you see the follwoing screen.
 Now, you will see the message Setup is checking video performance. Windows 7 will
automatically adjust the video performance.
G) Creating User Name and Computer Name
 Choose an user name
The user name will be used to use the computer
 Type your computer name
Computer name will help to distinguish your PC on the network
 Click Next button to advance
 Give a password of your PC in the Type o password text box which helps protect
your user account from unwanted users
 You have to retype your password. This password must be same as the previous
entered password
If don’t match, you will see an error message
 Type a password hint field helps you to remember your password if you forget
your password
It is always recommended to not to fill up this field
 After doing the above steps, click on Next button
 H) Password Setting
I) Product Key Installation
 Take you have to insert the product key of Windows 7
You can find it on a label included with the package that came with your
copy of Windows
Sometimes, the label might also be on computer case
Just find it and type it in the PRODUCT KEY box
 Click on the Next button to move forward
 J) Choosing the form of Installation
  You will see the message Help protect your computer and improve
Windows automatically. The first one is recommended i.e. Use
recommended settings. If you do this all things will be updated and
installed. You may update later. Then you can select Ask me later.
K) Time Settings and Network Settings
 Set your time and date settings
 Select your computer’s current location
 It is preferred select Public network
 It will help you easy installation
 Later you can set up your network easily.
L) Defining your PC location
  Your computer may be connected to a network
 So, Windows will try to apply the current network settings based on
network’s location
M) Finalizing Settings
  Very soon Windows will finished installing everything and you will see the screen
with the message Windows is finalizing your settings.
 N) Opening the desktop
  Now, wait for a few minutes and you will see that the desktop of Windows 7 is in
front of you.