Video Cards

A graphic card is often known as the video card or the display adapter. As a hardware component it outputs the images to a display. The video card is independently plugged into the motherboard as as an expansion card. This graphics card is separate from the Integrated Graphics Processor which is integrated into the motherboard chipset.

Video cards as opposed to the general view are not exclusively used for video games and have a broader applicability. To dissipate heat a heat sink, computer fan or a water block is used. IBM first introduced graphics card in 1981. The minimum standard for latest video cards is VGA or Video Graphics Array that allows 256 colors. As opposed to this the most advanced form of card displaying millions of colors at resolutions up to 2040*1536 resolutions is the QXGA or the Quantum Extended Graphics Array.

OUTPUT Devices

Output devices receive as well as displays output of information from computer. Printer monitor, projector, speakers are few examples of output devices. Printer takes data from the computer and creates a hardcopy of the same for users. The data can be text as well as images. Laser, Inkjet and Dot Matrix are some of the commonly used printers.

Monitors are image display hardware devices. The common forms available includes standard displays, LCDs, Flat panels, The most pricy part inside a monitor is the CRT or the cathode ray tube. Problems like no display, skewed images, black borders etc often baffle PC users.

Independent speakers when attached to the computers can really make listening music or playing multimedia games a really good experience. Different types of speakers include the standard 2-speakers, 2.1 speakers with 1 sub-woofer, 4.1 speakers, and 5.1 speakers.

Input Devices

The input devices of a computer can be of may types viz keyboard, mouse, webcam, microphone etc. The keyboard is the main input peripheral used by all computers. It allows for user input and interaction with the computer. Like your conventional typewriters, the keyboard has all the letters of the alphabet, numeric keys from 0 - 9 and additional special keys.

Computer mouse is a navigational input for users who want an alternative for keyboard. Invented by Douglas Englebart in 1963, it was first widely used in the Apple Lisa computers. The evolution of mouse technologies have led to several variants of mices like the mechanical mouse, optical mouse, optical-mechanical mouse. The latter one is the most commonly used one in all computers and Macintosh and is much more accurate than the mechanical mouse. More recent varieties include the Trackball, Touchpad, and Joysticks.

Webcam is a camera connected to a PC or server allowing the users to share pictures or videos across the internet. Below is an example of how a webcam looks:

A microphone allows you to record sounds and voices to your personal or office computer. The sound card back plate is used to connect the microphone component to the computer. These days integrated microphones come in all laptops and certain desktop models.

Networking

Networking involves having a set of computers connected to one another with ability to exchange data. Computer network is an integral part of our daily lives, with the most important reason being that of communication. The use of computer networking is to share resources like fax machines, printers, modems, files etc., and its other uses are database server, computer server, email, chat, internet etc. The computer to which the resources are attached is called the server and the other computers that access the resource are called clients. In peer-to-peer computer networks there are no servers.

The computer networks are classified, depending upon the size, as Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) and Personal Area Networks (PAN).

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Sound card

The sound card is an audio board that makes it possible for computer to send out audio signals through speakers or headphones. Sound cards come as a standard option with PCs today.

The major functions of the sound card include the following:

Audio CDs.

Audio conferencing.

Business presentations.

Creating and playing Midi.

Educational software.

Games.

Record dictations.

Voice recognition

Watch movies.

Storage Controllers

These are basically devices which retain digital data for computing and mainly include Hard Disk, CD-ROM drive, Zip drive and Floppy drive. RAM or Random Access Memory functions as primary storage while hard disks are commonly used as secondary storage alongside floppy disks, zip drives, flash memory.

A Hard Disk Drive is a fixed drive resulting in non-volatile storage on fast rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. It was introduced in 1956 as data storage for an IBM accounting computer. As times have evolved, applications for hard disk drive have expanded to include personal digital assistants, video-gaming consoles, digital audio players, digital cameras and digital video recorders. We can Fix Video Card Problems for you and will provide you the best PC Tech Support Experts to make you relex.

Data is primarily stored in a location called hard disk drive. Chassis, head arm, head actuator and platters form the main components of the hard drive of a computer. Computer interface is used to send and receive information via hard disk. There are various types of interfaces for hard drive like ATA, IDE. EIDE, RAID, SATA, SCSI, Serial ATA, Ultra ATA. Hard drive crashes are one area that pose a hurdle to PC users.

Hard drive capacity is usually measured in megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes. The hard drives even due to normal usage led to eventual failure as the at times breakdown is inevitable in the inner fragile device.

The CD-ROM drives are used to read the compact disc read-only memory discs. A CD is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible by a computer minus the writable option. The CD-ROM drive is connected to the PC via and IDE or USB interface. All CD-ROM drives come with a capacity to play audio and video cds with the help of right software.

The Zip Drive is an intermediate capacity removable disk storage system that was introduced by Iomega in the late 1994. Zip disks of 100 MB or higher capacity are run on these drives. With passage of time, rewritable CDs and DVDs replaced Zip drives

Floppy drives have been around since the time computing began. It is basically a data storage medium made up of a thin magnetic storage disk or floppy cased in a plastic shell.

Power supply

The Power Supply unit is a key component that transmits power to the computer. The Advanced Technology Extended (ATX) based power supplies have a switch that goes to the motherboard making it easy to turn the system on or off. A faulty or underperforming power supply unit often causes various problems like failure to power on, failure to boot, reboots, and Hardware Failures

Basic Input Output System

The BIOS stands for Built In Operating System or Basic Input Output System. A software program, BIOS is used to get the PC started on being turned on. Management of data flow between a computer’s operating system and devices like hard disk, mouse, keyboard, video adapter and printer is also handled by BIOS. It is made available to the microprocessor on an EPROM (Erasable programmable read-only-memory) chip.

In a conventional bootup session, the BIOS first ascertains whether all the attached devices are operational and in place. Thereafter, it loads up the operating system (OS) on the random access memory (RAM) of the PC.

BIOS CMOS Screenshot

In theory Although BIOS is theoretically always the intermediary between the microprocessor and I/O device control information and data flow, in some cases, BIOS can arrange for data to flow directly to memory from devices (such as video cards) that require faster data flow to be effective.

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Random Access Memory

Random Access Memory or RAM is an essential type of internal memory. The reason why it is termed “random access” is because the processor or computer can access any location in memory as against sequential access devices, which must be accessed in order.

Reed relays, integrated circuits, transistors, magnetic core, or anything that can hold and store binary values go into the making of RAMs. However, many of the modern versions of RAM are made from integrated circuits. There was a time when the most common form of memory in Mainframes was magnetic core, which is why various older programmers still refer to main memory as core memory even when the RAM is made from more advanced technology.

Static RAM is termed so because it continues to hold and store information even when power is removed. Reed relays and Magnetic core are good examples of static memory.

Dynamic RAM is described as dynamic because it loses all data when the power source is removed. Some good examples of Dynamic Memory are transistors and integrated circuits.

Motherboard

Sometimes abbreviated as ‘mobo’, a motherboard is basically the main circuit board of a computer. On Apple computers, a motherboard is known as the logic board. It contains various connectors for attaching additional boards. Generally, a motherboard contains the CPU, memory, mass storage interfaces or Storage Controller Problems, BIOS, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices like the display screen, keyboard & disk drive. Cumulatively all the various chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard's chipset.

The motherboards available today usually include:

• Slots or sockets in which one or more microprocessors are installed
• Slots into which the system's main memory is installed as DIMM modules containing dynamic RAM chips
• Chipset which forms an interface between the CPU's main memory, front-side bus, & peripheral buses
• Non-volatile memory chips like the Flash ROM containing the system's BIOS or firmware
• Clock generator which emits system clock signal to synchronize the various components slots for expansion cards
• Power connectors flickers that accept electrical power from the computer power supply and distribute it to the CPU, main memory, chipset and expansion cards

The majority of motherboards available today are designed for IBM-compatible computers, which currently account for around 90% of global personal computer sales. Memory chips can be directly added to the motherboard on most of the computers. An upgrade to a faster PC is possible by replacing the CPU chip. However, in order to make available additional core features, the motherboard itself needs to be replaced entirely.

Motherboards if not properly cooled can led to crashes. One important reason why they are normally air cooled with heat sinks often mounted on larger chips, such as the northbridge, in most motherboards.

Central Processing Unit

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is that component of a computer that carries out the computations. The CPU is sometimes called an MPU or Main Processor Unit).

A processor characteristically contains an arithmetic logic unit or ALU, control unit including processor flags, status register or flag register, internal buses, and sometimes special function units. The customary special function unit is a floating point unit for floating point arithmetic. The arithmetic and logic functions along with shift and rotate functions are performed by ALUs.

When computers have more than one processor, it is called multi-processing. CISC, RISC, DSP and Hybrid are amongst major kinds of digital processors. CISC stands for Complex Instruction Set Computer. Minicomputers and Mainframe computers were CISC processors, with manufacturers jostling to offer the most useful instruction sets. Several of the first two generations of microprocessors were based on CISC processors.

RISC or Reduced Instruction Set Computer came about as a result of IT research that showed that a small, well-designed instruction set running compiled programs at high speed could perform more computing work than a CISC running the same programs.

DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing and these processors are used mainly in dedicated devices, such as digital cameras, graphics cards, modems and other specialty devices. In contrast Hybrid processors mingle elements of two or three of the major classes of processors.

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