Computer Spot » hardware

How to buy a Motherboard

Edy — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:59:27 +0000

Is there any reason anyone should go to the trouble of building their own computer from the ground up – buy a motherboard and all those components, snap all the parts together, install the operating system and so on?

Well, you could do that if you are really particular about performance and getting a good deal. The kind of motherboard you get has a great deal to say about what kind of performance you get. And who’s to tell what kind of motherboard Dell and HP and Lenovo use?

Not to mention, there are so many little things you could control if you built your own PC – you could get the latest kind of USB port (SuperSpeed 3.0), you could get exactly the right kind of graphics card that you wanted – no more, no less, and you could buy exactly the kind of monitor you wanted.

You just won’t be locked some impractical configuration that the geniuses of the computer company put together. And of course, you’ll save some money this way.

Okay, now that you’re clear that building your own computer makes a lot of sense, let’s talk a little about how exactly you buy the most important component of your own hand assembled computer – the motherboard.

Most people don’t seem to realize this, but if there’s one part of the computer that you could point to and say – “That’s the soul, the main part of my computer”, it would have to be the motherboard. It’s not the processor or anything else.

For this reason, if you’re building your computer, you need to buy a motherboard first of all. Everything else that you buy, you buy to suit the motherboard you bought.

Picking a motherboard, of course, you do want to think about what kind of stuff you would like to plug into it.

Most parts that you stick into the motherboard – the hard disk, the graphics card, the sound card, the memory – happen to work to standard requirements no matter what motherboard you buy.

If there’s one kind of part, the most important, that requires that the motherboard be specifically built for it, it’s the processor.

The processor and motherboard need to be built for each other. Basically, you have a choice in two different standards when you’re talking about the motherboard-processor match.

There’s the standard adopted by Intel, and there is the standard adopted by its rival AMD. Both are mutually incompatible even if you could get very good performance with either. The first thing you need to do is to choose which standard you want to go with.

Intel is widely considered to be somewhat better when it comes to performance. AMD on other hand, while it does offer nearly the same kind of performance, is often far cheaper.

Once you make a choice of standard here, your next step is to choose how powerful a processor you need. If you’re going with Intel, you want to know how powerful the processor you’re planning on buying will be – the i3, the i5 or the i7.

Once you do that, you’re pretty much set for what kind of motherboard you want to buy.

How to buy a Motherboard is a post from: Computer Spot

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Find out all about Computer Engineering Now

Edy — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:08:23 +0000

Computers are among the most fascinating pieces of technology and the main reason for this is that they can do so many things at once and this has really helped very many people.

Just the way people are fascinated with the different things that a computer can do there are some who are equally fascinated about what goes into their making and maintenance and it is this group that needs to know all about computer engineering.

Basically, computer engineering is a study that entails computerized solutions to every problem that is associated with computer processing like manufacturing troubles, research problems and system control.

It helps to save the above problems by merging the knowledge of computer science and electronic engineering.

Included in the average computer engineering course are courses such as instrumentation, the theory of control system, analog and digital electronics and robotics.

For one to learn all they need to about computer engineering, they will have to make a very informed decision about the university or college that they want to join. This will in the long run help them get quality education that will make them greatly advance in their careers.

The first of great tips when looking for the right college to attend is to choose a major then look for a college that offers the major.

When one chooses the college according to the majors they want they will have several options to choose from and here they can further narrow down the numbers by using several specifications among them quality of education offered, costs and the reputation of the college.

This will leave the aspiring engineer with several institutions to choose from and the best route to take here will be to get as much information as they can get about the institutions.

Among the other basic things a person should know about computer engineering is that their job is crucial in all industries where computers are needed for business to operate.

In such businesses a computer engineer will be required to come up with new systems that can meet the ever evolving requirements in a business as well as improve and maintain the set-ups.

Compared to the other specializations in the field of engineering, computer engineering is among the ones with the highest remuneration in terms of salary.

Most of the modern conveniences we have today were made through computer engineering and they include alarm systems, x-ray machines and mobile phones.

When it comes to software and hardware, it is not a must that computer engineers make a choice as they enough to will be skilled enough to handle both.

There are also many specializations for computer engineers and they can make a choice in areas such as artificial intelligence, computer architecture, computer systems, integrated circuits and computer networks. With all the above options there is almost no reason why anyone would not make it in the field.

Find out all about Computer Engineering Now is a post from: Computer Spot

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Activation Problems with Windows XP if the hardware changes

computertips — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:53:02 +0000

Windows XP includes a feature called anti-piracy Windows Product Activation or more commonly the activation process. This is to prevent you from installing a copy of Windows XP already activated on another PC. This procedure provides that, after installing the operating system to run an online activation within 30 days.

Through this activation, Windows XP sends an encrypted file that is used to identify the key components in the system. These data are stored in Wpa.dnl, a file in the folder% System-Root% System32. In short, this file determines whether, in case of hardware changes, we need a new activation. If you need to reinstall Windows XP after you have already activated, you should create a copy of Wpa.dnl.

If the hardware has not changed appreciably over the initial activation can be restored Wpa.dnl and skip the activation process. The same boot Windows makes a backup of the file, called Wpa.bak very useful in case of problems due to hardware changes. In case Windows will not boot because the new hardware has triggered the activation code, you can use a remedy to restore the old hardware, start the computer in safe mode with networking and rename Wpa.bak as the Wpa.dbl . In this way the system is reactivated.

Activation Problems with Windows XP if the hardware changes is a post from: Computer Spot

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Hardware Hacking-Legal, But is it Moral?

Edy — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:26:21 +0000

The release of the Xbox Kinect came in a flurry of excitement. Owners of the Xbox 360 were anxious to buy the new controller system, and some people who didn’t have one already went out and bought the games system as well as the controller.

This controller was seen to be so different as to be a revolution in games play, because it actually has no controller, instead using the movements of your body to control the game.

The fact that it only worked with the Xbox 360 was seen as a challenge by some people. A lot of people who didn’t have the Xbox 360, and didn’t want it, were still interested in the new Kinect controller. This led to a challenge being set.

It was started by Adafruit Industries, and called the Open Kinect Project. The best part was that the challenge carried a $1000 prize, an exciting challenge for anyone in the know!

The challenge was met, and very quickly by a man who was working on programming drivers before the challenge was even announced.

Within a matter of hours of the release of Kinect, a basic set of drivers were created that would run the Kinect through a PC running a Linux distro.

This of course angered Microsoft, who made threats of legal action-threats that led to an increase in the reward being offered for an open source driver set that would run Kinect through other devices.

However Microsoft soon dropped their case. It turned out that they didn’t have a legal case against the man who created the drivers and their legal team realized that they could go no further.

The hardware itself was unaltered, and that is an important point, and it hasn’t been reverse engineered to create a clone, or copy of the device.

All that has been done is that a set of software drivers were made that allow Kinect to run on other devices-and there is nothing illegal about that.

Whether it is moral is another matter. The Xbox is an incredibly expensive device, and it was intended that the two be used together.

By hacking the device in this way, potentially sales for Microsoft may be lost, costing them in profit lost because people don’t need to buy the Xbox 360 in order to play games with the Kinect.

Yet, looking at this from another angle, this move could be a real boon for Microsoft. Previously, people who couldn’t afford the Xbox 360, Kinect combo had to simply go without either.

With the new drivers, anyone who owns a PC can run the Kinect-meaning that Microsoft could potentially manage to sell the device to anyone who owns a PC.

More, it shows that it should be possible to use the Kinect controller on many different devices once the drivers that allow it to interface with the device are created.

This opens up a massive potential for Microsoft, not only in selling the Kinect device but also, it seems, in making software for the Kinect that runs on other platforms.

The question is whether Microsoft will choose to do that, or try again to litigate against the people who are making this possible.

Hardware Hacking-Legal, But is it Moral? is a post from: Computer Spot

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Device Driver

Edy — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:20:07 +0000

A device driver or a software driver is a specific type of computer software typically developed to allow interaction with hardware devices such as a mouse or a printer.

This software causes an interface for communicating with the device through the specific computer “bus” or communication subsystem that the hardware is connected to.

The software provides commands to and receives data from the device and, on the other end, the requisite interfaces to the operating system and software applications.

In plain English, a device driver is a program that allows various hardware to work on your system. The driver will allow your hardware to communicate with your operating system making the devices operable in the proper way. The user installs the driver and then the program allows the hardware to operate transparently without user input.

Computers and their operating systems cannot be expected to know how to control every device both now and in the future. To solve this problem, operating systems basically dictate how every type of device should be controlled.

The device driver then translates these operating system mandated function cells into device specific calls. In theory, a new device which is controlled in a new manner should function correctly is a suitable driver is available.

This new driver will insure that the device appears to operate as usual from the operating system’s point of view.

Depending on the specific computer architecture, drivers can be 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and more recently 64-bit. This corresponds directly to the way the operating system is set up for which those drivers were developed.

For example, in 16-bit Windows 3.11, most drivers were 16-bits which most drivers for 32-bit Windows XP are 32-bit.

New computers will often have device drivers already loaded into the system to make it easier for the user to just open the box and use their new system.

But if you should happen to buy a separate component for your system such as a joystick, you will most likely need to install a device driver. The driver will come with the system, usually on a storage device like a CD-ROM.

They will give you instructions on how to install the software and it is really quite easy if you follow the directions.

You cannot operate your computer system with separate components like a mouse without a device driver for that mouse. If you find that any part of your computer is not running properly, you may need to update your device drivers.

Simply go to the website of the manufacturer of your hardware and they will usually have updated drivers available free for download.

Device Driver is a post from: Computer Spot

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What Computer Hardware Magazines Are Out There

Edy — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:27:26 +0000

Because there are many different kinds of computer hardware and products in the industry it makes sense that there are various different computer hardware magazines to choose from also.

These computer hardware magazines can be used by computer users to get good ideas of what computers are going to be better for one to use.

These magazines include ones that can be used for information on hardware that can be used for business or for fun. Apple computer hardware is also covered in magazines tailored for Apple users too.

Here is a look at some of the many computer hardware magazines that are on the market right now.

For those who are new to the world of computers First Glimpse is one of the best computer hardware magazines to use. This features information on not only the best types of computers to use but also other forms of electronics that are used in society today. This is great for those who are looking to learn more about computer hardware and how it works for a particular computer.

People who are interested in computer hardware for business purposes should know that there are also computer hardware magazines that cater to their needs. InfoWorld, for instance, is a magazine that works with information technology hardware. This includes data and news on products in the IT industry.

EWeek is another of the computer hardware magazines for those who are looking for computer hardware for business. This magazine is famous for its lab tests of software and hardware that is used for enterprise purposes. It also covers products in the IT industry.

There are also computer hardware magazines that work with computers for entertainment purposes. Maximum PC is one of the country’s top computer hardware magazines.

Known for its interest in entertainment services from computers and its sense of humor, this works especially with hardware that can be used for entertainment programs on the computer.

This includes information on how to make top performing computers and how to make computers that perform very well without having to spend lots of money. Inspections of various different types of computer hardware are also featured.

PC Gamer is another big name product in the world of computer hardware magazines. While this magazine does more to cover computer games as a whole computer gaming hardware and other pieces of hardware for entertainment purposes can be found in this magazine too.

This includes video cards, monitors and audio systems that will work great for computers. These technology products can be used not only for games but also for entertainment products and for home theater systems based out of a computer.

There are also computer hardware magazines that are for Apple users. Macworld is the most widely produced and famous of these magazines. This includes information on hardware that can be used with Apple computers and comparisons of various different Apple products and hardware that can be used in the line of computers. Information on tuning up an Apple computer for maximum hardware performance is also included.

MacAddict is also for those who use Apple computers. This features information on hardware that is included in new Apple products and on upgrades that can be used with Apple computers. Details of other products in the Apple universe and even software demos of new programs that can be used on Apple computers are also featured here. Full video previews of the hardware featured here is included in video discs that come with issues of MacAddict.

Those are some of the many computer hardware magazines on the market. Whether it be for a first time user, one who is interested in information technology hardware, a person who wants to improve the entertainment quality of the computer or even an Apple user there’s a magazine for everyone. These magazines can be found at a typical bookstore that sells magazines or at a computer product store.

What Computer Hardware Magazines Are Out There is a post from: Computer Spot

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What To Do When Your Hard Drive Fails

Edy — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:56:03 +0000

How many times have you experienced that sickening feeling when your hard drive suddenly fails?

How many times have you experienced that your hard disk just does not boot and all the data may be gone forever?

A hard drive failure is one of the most common problems and worst nightmares faced by computer operators all over the world.

Precious data is lost either at home or in big corporate environments. What can be done in these situations?

Well, there are certain solutions that can be performed by you in order to revive your hard drive. We will talk about the solution later. First, let us discuss why a hard drive fails.

Whether the data on the hard drive can be recovered or not depends on the extent of the problem. A hard drive can be damaged due to firmware corruption, electronic failure, mechanical failure or a logical failure.

Many times your hard drive may lose data due to the combination of the above mentioned factors. A hard drive may also develop bad sectors due to which the data on those sectors is lost or becomes unreadable.

Firmware refers to the information used by the computer to interact correctly with the hard drive. If the firmware fails or becomes corrupted, then important data on the hard drive is lost.

In case of an electronic failure there maybe occur an electrical surge that can knock out the controller board on the hard drive and make it unusable.

However data can be recovered by data recovery experts who use special data recovery software. Swapping the controller board with another one can prove to be dangerous as the information on the controller board is unique to the hard drive on which it is fitted.

In comparison to electronic failure a mechanical failure can turn out to be worst as data recovery can almost become impossible.

Mechanical failure includes head crash and also read/write head failure. Head crash can occur due to physical shock, power surges and movement of the computer.

Next come the logical errors. Logical errors have nothing to do with the hardware part. Logical errors can occur due to corruption of the file system on the hard drive or improper entries in the file allocation table.

In case of hard drive failure it is vital to call the data recovery experts. In most cases, the information on the hard drive is important and you cannot bear to lose it.

The experts enhance the possibilities of hard drive recovery in the case of failure of hard drive due to software malfunction, virus attacks and other reasons mentioned above.

Data can be recovered on any type of operating system including all versions of Windows as well as Apple Macintosh, Novell, Linux, Unix and also on all types of file systems like FAT, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5, HFS, HFS+, NWFS, EXT2 and EXT3.

The experts may take the hard drive to their workshop in order to recover the lost data and then return it to you in a few days.

Most of the data recovery experts have their own laboratories that are involved in testing the hard drives and repairing them.

Loss of data is the last thing that you as the customer would ever want. This is where the data recovery experts come into the picture.

They cannot extract only data from hard drives, but recover data also from tape drives, cds, dvds and other important storage media.

You as the consumer can take up some preventive measures like backing up all your important data at least once a week.

Windows has its own feature rich backup program. There are other backup software programs available in the market that can avert a possible disaster.

Besides the concern of recovering your data, another problem is the time it may take for an expert to help. This can be a slow and tedious process.

I recommend having a second complete computer source such as a laptop (for portability) that you can continue your work. This way you are never completely down and you can share important data between the two.

What To Do When Your Hard Drive Fails is a post from: Computer Spot

History of Operating Systems

Edy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:03:14 +0000

The earliest of computers didn’t have an operating system. By the early 1960’s, commercial computer vendors were supplying quite extensive tools for streamlining the development, scheduling and execution of jobs on batch processing systems.

Through the 1960’s, several concepts were developed which drove the development of operating systems.

The IBM System 360 produced a family of mainframe computer that served consumers with differing capacities and prices.

A single operating system was planned for these computers rather than developing generic programs for every individual model.

This concept of a single OS that will fit an entire product line was crucial for the success of System 360.

In fact, IBM’s current mainframe operating systems are distant relatives of this original system. The advantage to this is that applications written for the OS 360 can still be run on modern machines.

The OS 360 system also contained another important advance affecting today’s computers: the development of a hard disk permanent storage device which IBM called DASD.

A second key development was the concept of time sharing. Time sharing involves sharing the resources of expensive computers among multiple computer users interacting in real time with the system.

That essentially means is that all of the users have the illusion of exclusive access to the machine. The most famous of time sharing system was called Multics.

Multics served as an inspiration to a number of operating systems developed in the 1970’s. Most notably was the Unix system. Another commercially popular mini-computer operating system was VMS.

The first microcomputers did not have the capacity or need for the elaborate operating systems that had originally been developed for mainframes and minis. Smaller operating systems were developed and often loaded from ROM and known as Monitors.

One notable early disk-based OS was CP/M which was supported on many early micro-computers and was largely cloned when MS-DOS was created. MS-DOS became wildly popular as the operating system chosen for the IBM PC.

The successive operating systems that came from MS-DOS made Microsoft one of the most profitable companies in the world with the development of Windows.

The only other alternative throughout the 1980’s was Mac OS which was tied intimately to the Apple McIntosh computer.

By the 1990s, the microcomputer had evolved to the point where it became increasingly desirable. Everyone wanted a home computer.

Microsoft had already come out with Windows 95 and 98, but people longed for more power and more options.

Microsoft’s response to this change was the development of Windows NT which served as the basis for Microsoft’s desktop operating system line that launched in 2001.

Apple was also rebuilding their own operating system on top of Unix core as Mac OS X also released in 2001 developing one of the business world’s greatest rivalries.

Today, our operating systems usually have a graphical user interface (GUI) which uses a pointing device such as a mouse of stylus for input in addition to the keyboard.

Older systems – and we mean REALLY OLD – use a command line interface asking for commands to be entered via the keyboard.

History of Operating Systems is a post from: Computer Spot

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10 Tips on Buying a Used Computer

Edy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:04:23 +0000

Used computers are still useful. They can help you save money and with that, you can spend your money wisely on other things.

If you are planning to buy a computer for personal use at home or for your kids, and want to consider buying a used computer, this article is for you.

You might want to consider the ten tips below on buying a used computer.

If you are not a tech-savvy, ask your tech-savvy friends to shop with you. They can help you choose the right specifications for your computing needs.
Search online computer stores that sell used or second hand computers. Make sure to search to at least 3 or 5 stores for price, specifications and warranty comparison. Read the reviews to help you give ideas in choosing and buying wisely.
If you are buying a used computer at a local computer store, make sure to give a thorough physical inspection on the used computer unit. This is to ensure that the computer is not damage and all functions are working. Insist on testing the computer yourself rather than watching the seller to do it for you.

Make sure that the used computer has the original operating system software discs, manuals and driver installer discs. Do not forget to get the discs, manuals or licenses for any software or applications installed on the used computer.
Bargain the price reasonably with the seller. It doesn’t matter how much the seller paid for the computer. Remember that computers depreciate fast so don’t overpay.
Do not buy used printers, scanners or hard disks unless you are sure that they are actually still working. These peripherals have parts that may easily break down or get damaged.
Make sure that the used computer is upgradable like there are expansion slots, extra RAM can be added, or the processor can be upgraded.
Ask if the computer parts have been replaced or repaired. Major computer components that have been replaced add to the machine’s life longevity.
Make sure that the computer’s operating system is compatible with the application or software you have or need to add now or in the future.
Ask if the seller has a transferable warranty or service agreement of the used computer. That would give you peace of mind that the used computer still has warranty that you can avail of.

10 Tips on Buying a Used Computer is a post from: Computer Spot

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Brief Introduction of Computer Printer

Edy — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:46:58 +0000

Printer is a peripheral used to produce or print hard copy of documents (text or illustrations) stored in an electronic form or soft copy to paper or transparencies.

It is one of the most essential computer peripherals because it helps users to have a hard copy of any documents they want to have.

A printer is connected to a computer through a printer cable (LPT1) or USB cable. There are also network computers that have built in network interfaces to enable printing services for network users.

Modern network printers have the all-in-one capability to scan, print, convert to .PDF documents, photocopy, fax and email documents to users connected on the network.

These kinds of printers are used in medium to enterprises businesses. There are also all-in-one printers that can be used in home and small business networks.

Some of the commonly used printers are the following:

Dot-matrix printer – this kind of printer creates characters by striking pins against an ink ribbon. Each pin creates a dot, and combination of dots form characters and illustrations.
Ink-jet printer – it uses ink to print texts and illustrations. It produces high quality text and graphics. This kind of printer is usually used in home and offices.
Laser printer – this kind of printer produces very high quality text and graphics. Its technology is similar to copy machines. It can be used also in home, offices, and photo printing business.

Brief Introduction of Computer Printer is a post from: Computer Spot