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Things to know about the slots
PCI-X and AGP – (Advanced Graphics Port) - Special slots for graphics cards
PCI – (Peripheral Component Interconnect) – Most common on newer PCs. Used for Graphics, Network, Firewire, and any other add-on card for a newer PC. Roughly 10 times faster than ISA
ISA – (Industry Standard Architecture ) – Common on older PCs (Over 8 yrs old) – Slower Bus speed than PCI
Riding the Bus
Lines of communication within the PC Capability measured in speed and width Modern PCs usually have a bus speed of 133-
533 MHz – Older PCs have 66 or 133 MHz– Important when buying additional RAM, RAM must run
at the same speed as the Motherboard– Main Bus vs. Front side Bus
Bus width – amount of data that can be sent over the same wire at the same time
– Modern PCs – Maximum 64 Bits Bus Width
Internal and External Bus
Internal Bus – On the board itself (Processor, RAM)
External Bus – leads outside of the box (USB, Keyboard connections, PCI etc)
Can have different speeds
CMOS Battery
Lithium Battery that backs up the System BIOS Needs replacing every so often Signs it needs to be replaced
– Clock does not keep time between reboots– Computer “loses” hard drives, floppies, and other
devices that are installed on the computer– Other assorted weirdness
BIOS (Basic Input Output System)
A power-on self-test (POST) for all of the different hardware components in the system to make sure everything is working properly
Activating other BIOS chips on different cards installed in the computer - For example, SCSI and graphics cards often have their own BIOS chips.
Providing a set of low-level routines that the operating system uses to interface to different hardware devices - It is these routines that give the BIOS its name. They manage things like the keyboard, the screen, and the serial and parallel ports, especially when the computer is booting.
Managing a collection of settings for the hard disks, clock, etc.– Thanks Howstuffworks.com
BIOS Updates
Newer mobo's often have updates Adds functionality, fixes bugs, speeds things
up Methods:
– Making a boot floppy– Boot CD-ROM– Program that re-boots and updates
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