Identify Your Computer Ports

Any self-respecting geek should know these, they do come in handy from time to time:

• Serial Port: A serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time
• PS/2 Connector: Is used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal System/2 series of personal computers
• Parallel Port: Sends several data signals simultaneously over several parallel channels (as opposed to the Serial Port)
• Games Port: The traditional connector for video game input devices on x86-based PCs
• All these ports have been replaced by USB

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Troubleshooting Common problems

Below is a list of common problems experienced while assembling a PC. Please check the list which could have the possible solution to your problems.

Problem: The PC does not boot, the power and HDD LED does not come on, there is no display on monitor.
Solution: Check that your main power cable is plugged into the ATX power supply. Make sure you have connected the ATX power connector to the motherboard. Check if the cable for the power switch at front of the PC is connected to the correct pins on the motherboard.

Problem: The power LED comes on but the PC does not boot, there is no display on monitor.
Solution: Check if the processor is firmly into the socket. Check CPU jumpers to verify if CPU frequency is correctly set.

Problem: The PC does not boot, but is beeping.
Solution: Different BIOS manufacturers use various number of beeps to indicate faults with various hardware. In an Award BIOS motherboard you will get following beeps:
1 long 2 short: Graphics card is not securely into place, or faulty.
1 long 3 short: Graphics card is not securely into place, or faulty video memory.
Continuous beeps: No memory, or memory not securely into place, or could be faulty.
Continuous high/low beeps: No CPU, or CPU not securely into place, or could be faulty.
Please refer to your motherboard manual to confirm what the beeps are trying to tell you.

Problem: The PC boots but the CPU speed is incorrect.
Solution: The CPU frequency jumper setting is incorrect. Refer to your motherboard manual to set it correctly.

Problem: The HDD is not being detected by the BIOS.
Solution: Check if you connected the IDE cable to the motherboard correctly, is pin 1 on the IDE cable connected to pin 1 on the IDE sockets on both motherboard connector and HDD connector. Check if the HDD jumper is set to master and any other device sharing the same cable is set to slave. 

Problem: I can not access my CD/DVD-ROM in DOS mode, hence can not install Windows.
Solution: CD/DVD-ROM device driver is not installed. Install the manufacturer supplied device driver. If you do not have a device driver disk, you can use the windows boot disk which will provide access to your CD/DVD-ROM, so that you can install Windows.

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BIOS - Basic Input Output System

Introduction

The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is the lowest level of software in the PC. It is located on a separate chip on the motherboard and is the first thing that is loaded when we turn the computer on.
The BIOS starts by testing each component to make sure everything is operating as it should and that the computer has everything it needs to load the OS. This starting test is called the Power On Self Test, or POST. If any errors are detected during POST, the BIOS will report them either through a series of beeps or by displaying the error on the screen.
usually when we talk about the BIOS we are really talking about the BIOS setup, and the interface that is used to adjust these settings. The BIOS settings are like to core values of the PC and they are used to dictate how the computer will operate at a fundamental level.
To access the BIOS setup, you must press a particular key during the POST, usually this is the 'DELETE' key or the 'F2' key, depending on your motherboard.
As complicated as all this may sounds, in reality we don't have to do much in the BIOS setup, almost all of the default values are fine. There are a few we need to check and may need to be adjusted before we install our OS, but after that we will rarely or never need to come back to the BIOS (unless you intend to overclock that is).
Below are descriptions of which setting to check within each of the menus.

Explanations

Standard CMOS

Inside the standard CMOS menu, you will find the time and date settings, so ensure that these are correct for your time zone. You will also see a list of connected IDE drives and an option to set your floppy disk drive. Unless you are installing windows XP on a SATA drive then you probably do not have any use for a floppy drive and can set this to 'none'. 

The 'standard CMOS' is where you can set the Time/date and enable floppy disk drive.

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Make Sense of Your Router and Local Network Settings

Quick, define the following: Default gateway, MAC address, and subnet mask. Didn't get all three right? That's OK. Even for seasoned vets who can build a PC blindfolded, networking often ends up being their Achilles Heel, the one area that manages to perplex and frustrate computer users of all skill levels. Blame it on the quirky terminology (Hint: a MAC address has nothing to do with Apple) or a fear of the unknown, but whatever the reason, today is the day you take that first step towards becoming a networking guru.

If you're brand new to networking, considering this your crash course introduction, and if local and wireless LANs are old hat, treat this as a refresher. Let's get started!

Router 101

Routers come in all shapes and sizes, and whether you spend $50 on a basic model or $200+ on a feature-packed unit, they all serve the same basic purpose: direct traffic on your home network. Oversimplified, a router allows PCs on your local network to communicate with each other, as well share an Internet connection with all the computers in your home. To understand how this works, we need to go over the difference between an IP address and a Local IP address: 

• IP Address: In geek speak, this is the logical address for a network adapter. Not unlike your home's physical address, an IP address is a unique identifying number assigned to every device connected to the Internet.
• Local IP Address: You can think of a local IP address as an apartment number. While the apartment complex has a single physical address (the IP address, in this example), each individual residence has its own apartment number, and the same concept applies to home networks. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigned your location a specific IP address, and if you intend to share that connection with more than one device in your home network -- like multiple PCs, your Xbox 360, and your iPad --  your router will assign each one its own local IP address. These aren't visible to the outside world - as far as the Internet and your ISP are concerned, all data flows through a single IP address no matter which of your home PCs, consoles, or other Internet-connected device is surfing the web. Once that information comes in, it's up to your router to direct the traffic to the appropriate device on your network.

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Different types of Hard Disk Drive

Hard Disk Drive - It is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surface. 

Types of HDD :

IDE : Integrated Drive Electronics. IDE drives are also known as PATA drives( Parallel advance technology attachment )

1. SATA : Serial advance technology attachment
2. SCSI : Small Computer System Interface. SCSI is pronounced as scuzzy.
3. SAS : Serial Attached SCSI

IDE / PATA (Integrated Drive Electronics Drive / Parallel Advance Technology Attachment Drive)

• IDE/PATA Drives have usually 40 pins.
• IDE/PATA Drives offer 133 MB/sec transfer rate.
• It sends 8 bit data at a time.
• PATA Cables are used to connect PATA HDD. Two drives can be connected in a single pata cable. One as master and other as slave. The configuration of master and slave is done by different combination of jumpers in the hdd. 

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