+ All Categories
Home > Documents > CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing...

CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing...

Date post: 04-Apr-2018
Category:
Upload: ledieu
View: 216 times
Download: 0 times
Share this document with a friend
130
Transcript
Page 1: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books
Page 2: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

ISBN 0-7645-8531-2

,!7IA7G4-fifdbj!:p;K;s;T;t

Get more atwww.cliffsnotes.com

Things change. To stay up to date, visit the CliffsNotes Web site and take advantage of:

for many subject categories

■ Additional references with links

■ Interactive tools for selected topics

Plus:■ The entire CliffsNotes catalog, including

titles you can sample or download

Personal FinanceMystified by mutual funds? Unsure about insurance? LetCliffsNotes simplify the world of personal finance — and show you how to start building wealth. Titles include:

Balancing Your Checkbook with Quicken®

Creating a BudgetGetting a LoanGetting Out of DebtInvesting for the First TimeInvesting in 401(k) PlansInvesting in IRAsInvesting in Mutual FundsInvesting in the Stock MarketManaging Your MoneyPlanning Your RetirementUnderstanding Health InsuranceUnderstanding Life Insurance

CareersOn a quest for the perfect career? Pursuing a better position?Let CliffsNotes show you how to land the job of your dreams.Titles include:

Delivering a Winning Job InterviewFinding a Job on the WebGetting a JobWriting a Great Resume

Visit cliffsnotes.comfor a complete catalog of CliffsNotes titles.

sp=.2882”

8531-2 Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.F: lw 10.22.99 • .rb: dr 10.5.99

Perfect Bind • Trim: 5.25”x 8.25” • Bleed: .25” • spot colors: 2 over 1100% yellow process, Pantone 6C black over pan 6c black • Gloss UV coat

E-mail "tip-of-the-day" newsletters

Page 3: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Upgrading and Repairing

Your PCBy Jim McCarter with Brian McCarter

IN THIS BOOK

■ Deciding if you should upgrade or repair your PC

■ Upgrading your PC’s memory

■ Updating your system software

■ Solving printer problems

■ Reinforce what you learn with CliffsNotes Review

■ Find more upgrading and repairing information in CliffsNotesResource Center and online at www.cliffsnotes.com

IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.

An International Data Group Company

Foster City, CA • Chicago, IL • Indianapolis, IN • New York, NY

Page 4: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published byIDG Books Worldwide, Inc.An International Data Group Company919 E. Hillsdale Blvd.Suite 400Foster City, CA 94404www.idgbooks.com (IDG Books Worldwide Web site)www.cliffsnotes.com (CliffsNotes Web site)Copyright © 2000 IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design, and icons, may be repro-duced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 99-66715ISBN: 0-7645-8531-2Printed in the United States of America10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 11O/RZ/RR/ZZ/INDistributed in the United States by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.Distributed by CDG Books Canada Inc. for Canada; by Transworld Publishers Limited in the United Kingdom; by IDG Norge Books for Norway; by IDGSweden Books for Sweden; by IDG Books Australia Publishing Corporation Pty. Ltd. for Australia and New Zealand; by TransQuest Publishers Pte Ltd. forSingapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Hong Kong; by Gotop Information Inc. for Taiwan; by ICG Muse, Inc. for Japan; by Intersoft for South Africa;by Eyrolles for France; by International Thomson Publishing for Germany, Austria and Switzerland; by Distribuidora Cuspide for Argentina; by LR Interna-tional for Brazil; by Galileo Libros for Chile; by Ediciones ZETA S.C.R. Ltda. for Peru; by WS Computer Publishing Corporation, Inc., for the Philippines;by Contemporanea de Ediciones for Venezuela; by Express Computer Distributors for the Caribbean and West Indies; by Micronesia Media Distributor, Inc.for Micronesia; by Chips Computadoras S.A. de C.V. for Mexico; by Editorial Norma de Panama S.A. for Panama; by American Bookshops for Finland. For general information on IDG Books Worldwide’s books in the U.S., please call our Consumer Customer Service department at 800-762-2974. Forreseller information, including discounts and premium sales, please call our Reseller Customer Service department at 800-434-3422.For information on where to purchase IDG Books Worldwide’s books outside the U.S., please contact our International Sales department at 317-596-5530or fax 317-596-5692.For consumer information on foreign language translations, please contact our Customer Service department at 1-800-434-3422, fax 317-596-5692, or e-mail [email protected] information on licensing foreign or domestic rights, please phone +1-650-655-3109.For sales inquiries and special prices for bulk quantities, please contact our Sales department at 650-655-3200 or write to the address above.For information on using IDG Books Worldwide’s books in the classroom or for ordering examination copies, please contact our Educational Sales depart-ment at 800-434-2086 or fax 317-596-5499.For press review copies, author interviews, or other publicity information, please contact our Public Relations department at 650-655-3000 or fax 650-655-3299.For authorization to photocopy items for corporate, personal, or educational use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, or fax 978-750-4470.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS INPREPARING THIS BOOK. THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THEACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIESOF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES WHICH EXTEND BEYOND THEDESCRIPTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS PARAGRAPH. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVESOR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN AND THEOPINIONS STATED HEREIN ARE NOT GUARANTEED OR WARRANTED TO PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR RESULTS, AND THE ADVICEAND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY INDIVIDUAL. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR AUTHORSHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TOSPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES.

Note: The author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, tax, accounting, investment, real estate, or similar professional services. Although legal,tax, accounting, investment, real estate, and similar issues addressed by this book have been checked with sources believed to be reliable, some material maybe affected by changes in the laws and/or interpretation of laws since the manuscript in this book was completed. Therefore, the accuracy and completenessof the information provided herein and the opinions that have been generated are not guaranteed or warranted to produce particular results, and the strate-gies outlined in this book may not be suitable for every individual. If legal, accounting, tax, investment, real estate, or other expert advice is needed orappropriate, the reader is strongly encouraged to obtain the services of a professional expert.

Trademarks: Cliffs, CliffsNotes, and all related logos and trade dress are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cliffs Notes, Inc. in the United States andother countries. All other brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of theirrespective owners. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. and Cliffs Notes, Inc. are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

is a registered trademark under exclusive license to IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. from International Data Group, Inc.

About the AuthorJim McCarter is an Information Technology Consultant for his Greenfield, Indiana, based consulting firm.

Publisher’s AcknowledgmentsEditorial

Project Editor: Nicole HaimsAcquisitions Editor: Steven HayesCopy Editors: Jerelind Charles, Tonya MaddoxTechnical Editor: James Marcum

ProductionIndexer: York Production Services, Inc.Proofreader: York Production Services, Inc.IDG Books Indianapolis Production Department

Note: If you purchased this book without a cover youshould be aware that this book is stolen property. It wasreported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, andneither the author nor the publisher has received anypayment for this "stripped book."

Page 5: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Why Do You Need This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Don’t Miss Our Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Chapter 1: Taking Care of Your PC’s Needs Up Front . . . . . . . . . .3

Deciding to Upgrade, Repair, or Replace Your PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3Figuring Out Your Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5An Ounce of Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Protecting your computer from power surges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Making sure you have clean power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Protecting your computer from heat and sunlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Keeping Your Hard Disk Happy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Defragmenting your hard disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Checking for errors with ScanDisk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11Scanning for viruses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Chapter 2: Adding to and Adjusting Your Computer’s Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Adding a Mouse, a Trackball, or a Touchpad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15Upgrading Your Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Chapter 3: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Modems . . . . . . . .22

Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22Gathering your tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23Playing the safety game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23Removing a stubborn computer cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Understanding the Different Types of Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24Internal and external modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24Standard (56K) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26ISDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26DSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27Satellite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Troubleshooting Modem Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29Installing a New Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Page 6: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

iv CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Chapter 4: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Adapters . . . . . . . .33

Understanding the Different Kinds of Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33Video adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Sound adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Knowing which type of adapter to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Troubleshooting with Your Sound or Video Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36Installing a New Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Chapter 5: Expanding Your Computer’s Memory . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Understanding the Different Types of Computer Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42Knowing How Speed and Size Affect RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43Determining How Much Memory Your PC Has . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Memory Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Installing More Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Chapter 6: Fiddling with Your Computer’s Drives . . . . . . . . . . .51

Understanding Your Computer’s Storage Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51Floppy drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52Hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52CD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52CD-R and CD-RW drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53DVD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53DVD-RAM drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54Zip drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54Tape backup drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

Removing and Replacing Your Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55Installing a CD-ROM Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57Installing a Tape Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59Installing a Zip Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Chapter 7: Modernizing Your Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Changing Your Computer’s System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64Replacing a Dead Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65Upgrading the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

Using software to upgrade your BIOS: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68Upgrading the BIOS the old-fashioned way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Upgrading the CPU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

Page 7: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Chapter 8: Monitors and Scanners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

Maintaining Your Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73Adjusting your monitor’s display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74Adjusting your monitor’s colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

When Your Monitor Needs to Be Replaced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78Deciding on a new monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78Replacing your monitor with a new one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Adding a Digital Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Chapter 9: Updating Your System Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

Updating Application Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85Knowing when to upgrade any type of software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85Installing application software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87Removing (uninstalling) application software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

Updating Operating System Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92Upgrading to Windows 95 and 98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92Upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Chapter 10: Priming Your Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

Selecting a New Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96Impact printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97Inkjet printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97Laser printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97Which type of printer should you choose? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Connecting a Printer to Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99Adding and Removing a Printer Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101Fixing Common Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

If your printer won’t print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104If your printer won’t stop printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

CliffsNotes Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108

Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110Consider This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111Practice Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112

CliffsNotes Resource Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115Magazines & Other Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115Send Us Your Favorite Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

Table of Contents v

Page 8: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

vi CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 9: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

INTRODUCTIONEvery PC eventually becomes less than state-of-the-art. Some-times simply replacing the parts that don’t measure up is morecost-effective than buying a new system. This book helps youtroubleshoot problems, decide whether to upgrade, andchoose and install new accessories.

Why Do You Need This Book?

Can you answer yes to any of these questions?

■ Do you need to learn how to upgrade and repair yourPC fast?

■ No time to read a 500-page repair and upgradingmanual?

■ Are you considering adding new hardware, software, orRAM?

If so, then CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC isfor you!

How to Use This Book

You’re the boss here. You decide if you want to read the bookfrom cover to cover. You can choose to read chapters as youneed them because I organized the book to help you trou-bleshoot your PC’s problems one at a time.

Flip through the book until you find the information youneed or use the Index and Table of Contents to find areas ofparticular interest to you. The short introduction at the

Page 10: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

beginning of every chapter tells you if it has the informationyou need today; check out the Resource Center for moreinformation and the Review section to test your knowledge.

To find important information quickly, look for the iconsdescribed below, which are strategically placed in the text:

If you see a Remember icon, make a mental note of this text.

If you see a Tip icon, you know that you’ve run across a help-ful hint.

The Warning icon alerts you to something that could be dan-gerous, requires special caution, or should be avoided.

Don’t Miss Our Web Site

Keep up with the changing world of personal computing byvisiting the CliffsNotes Web site, www.cliffsnotes.com.Here’s what you find there:

■ Interactive tools that are fun and informative

■ Links to interesting Web sites

■ Additional resources to help you continue your learning

At www.cliffsnotes.com, you can register for Cliffs-Notes Daily, which offers you newsletters on a variety of top-ics that arrive every business day in your e-mail. See you atwww.cliffsnotes.com!

2 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 11: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 1

TAKING CARE OF YOURPC’S NEEDS UP FRONT

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Knowing when not to do it yourself

■ Calculating the cost of upgrading

■ Performing preventative maintenance

Maybe you’ve had your computer for a while now and you’rebeginning to notice that it’s getting a little gray around theedges. Or maybe your computer isn’t very old and you wantto protect your investment. In this chapter, I show you howto decide when to add the new components your computerlacks and when to bite the bullet and buy a new computer. Ialso give you some basic advice for extending the life of yourcomputer by doing preventative maintenance.

None of the information I give you in this chapter requiresa Mechanical Engineering degree, but I do tell you some ofthe basic tools you need for any additional upgrades orrepairs you may make. For important safety information, seeChapter 3.

Deciding to Upgrade, Repair, or Replace

Your PC

The bad news is that your computer is either broken or doesn’thave the features and components that you’ve come to need,but the good news is that the toughest aspect of fixing com-puters is deciding whether to repair or upgrade at all.

Page 12: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Sometimes replacing the old beast with a newer model justmakes the most sense.

You should repair or upgrade your system if one or more ofthe following examples is oh-too familiar to you:

■ You want to run some new software, but your currentcomputer configuration doesn’t support this software.

■ You don’t have enough memory or hard disk space to runnew software that you’ve installed.

■ Your hard disk has failed, but the other components arein good working order. Buying an inexpensive hard driveprobably makes more sense than shelling-out for a wholenew system.

■ Your computer seems to take forever to perform dailytasks, but the investment of a new computer simply isn’tin the cards.

■ Some part or other on your computer has stopped work-ing. Perhaps your mouse has lost its zip or your floppydrive refuses to read diskettes.

Of course, sometimes upgrading doesn’t pay. Don’t performan upgrade today if

■ A computer store runs a special, offering free installationof components that you buy.

■ It’s 10:00 p.m. on a Tuesday and you need to have thatbudget forecast for the boss by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

■ Your computer is a 486 or older. You may end up spend-ing more to upgrade these older machines than to buy anew one. Consider purchasing a new computer.

4 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 13: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

■ A part of your computer fails while still under warranty.If your computer is under warranty, you can have it fixedfree of charge by the manufacturer.

■ A part of your computer fails and you’ve been lookingfor an excuse to buy a new system.

If your computer has a problem that’s covered by a warrantyand you attempt to upgrade or repair the computer yourself,you could void the warranty. This means that if somethinggoes wrong at any time (during or after you tinker with thePC), the manufacturer can refuse to honor the warranty.

Read your warranty documents carefully so that you under-stand specifically what is covered and don’t hesitate to callthe manufacturer if you have any questions.

Figuring Out Your Costs

Before you make a final decision about whether you shouldupgrade, repair, or replace your computer, figure out yourcosts. If you are going to perform the repair or upgrade your-self, the cost will be the price of the components and parts,so be sure to shop around to find the best prices possible. Ifyou have access to the Internet, you can quickly compareprices from a variety of vendors by using a shopping guidesuch as PriceScan (www.pricescan.com).

If you are going to have the upgrade or repair done by a pro-fessional, be sure to obtain a firm price quote. With hourlyservice fees ranging from $50 to $70 or more, service fees canend up costing more than the components themselves. Makesure that you deal with a reputable shop with trained servicetechnicians who are authorized by the manufacturer of yourcomputer.

Chapter 1: Taking Care of Your PC’s Needs Up Front 5

Page 14: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

If you are going to upgrade or repair several components atone time, add up the cost of the components and service fees,if any. Then consider the cost of buying a new computer. Asof this writing, new, name-brand computers range in pricefrom $500 to $2,500.

The most important thing you can do for your computer isnarrow down the possible causes for your computer’s dis-gruntled behavior. Look for warning signs that your com-puter may have a problem that needs to be fixed and thinkabout the actions you want the computer to perform in thefuture so that you’re not suddenly hit with the notion thatyou have a report to do and a PC that has quit on you. Youcan do a lot to give your PC plenty of TLC so that you canstave off some of the problems that come with a computer’sold age.

An Ounce of Prevention . . .

You can do some things to improve your computer’s per-formance that don’t require you to take the computer apart.Here are some pointers for making sure that your computersystem stays happy and healthy. You may never avoid upgrad-ing or performing repairs, but following these easy tasks candefinitely extend your PC’s life.

Protecting your computer from power

surges

Obviously, your computer needs electrical power to run. Thepower company obligingly sends the power you need (if youpay the bill), but sometimes you can get too much of a goodthing. Every now and then the power company sends just a

6 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 15: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

little too much juice down the line. This doesn’t harm mostelectronics that you plug into a wall outlet, but surges can bedeadly to your computer.

You can protect your computer from power surges by plug-ging your computer into a surge suppressor. Don’t confuse apower strip with a surge suppressor. They may look alike, buta standard power strip won’t protect your computer frompower surges. Also, surge suppressors do wear out over time.Spend a couple of extra dollars to buy a surge suppressor withan indicator that tells you if the surge suppression is work-ing. If the box doesn’t actually say “Surge Suppressor,” it isprobably just a power strip.

Making sure you have clean power

If you have the opposite problem — drops in power insteadof surges — you may want to consider buying an uninter-ruptible power supply. An uninterruptible power supply orUPS makes sure that your computer receives just the rightamount of power, no more, no less. For example, if the volt-age drops, or you experience a power outage, your computerresets or turns off, meaning that you lose any unsaved workand possibly damage your files. The UPS, as shown in Fig-ure 1-1, prevents these problems because the UPS suppliespower from a built-in battery. The battery probably won’t lastlong enough to run your computer until the power comesback on, but it does provide enough power for you to shutdown the computer in an orderly manner.

Protecting your computer from heat and

sunlight

Computers don’t have very many moving parts, and com-puter components rarely suffer from mechanical failure. Thecomputer’s biggest enemy is heat build-up.

Chapter 1: Taking Care of Your PC’s Needs Up Front 7

Page 16: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 1-1: A generic UPS.

The easiest way to keep your computer from burning out isto make sure that your computer has adequate ventilation.Here are some easy tips:

■ Don’t place boxes or other items in front of the com-puter’s vents.

■ Make an effort to keep dust out of your computer. Youcan take the cover off and blow any dust from the com-puters innards using a can of compressed air that you canbuy at an office supply or computer store.

■ Avoid placing your computer in direct sunlight. Sunlightcan make the monitor difficult to read, and it can heatup the computer. Remember, cooler is better.

8 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 17: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Keeping Your Hard Disk Happy

When I talk about keeping your system clean, I’m not talk-ing about keeping the cat hair off the keyboard (althoughthat is important, too). I’m talking about keeping the harddisk clean and healthy. If you are running Windows 95 orlater, you have some built-in tools that you can use to helpmaintain your computer. If you are running MS-DOS or anolder version of Microsoft Windows, you also have some harddisk maintenance utilities available to you, but they arebeyond the scope of this book. You may want to grab a copyof DOS For Dummies, 3rd Edition, by Dan Gookin or Win-dows 3.11 For Dummies, 4th Edition, by Andy Rathbone.Both titles are published by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.

Defragmenting your hard disk

After you put a file on your hard disk, your computer dumpsthe file in the first available spot. If that spot isn’t large enoughto hold the entire file, the system splits the file up into pieces,sticking the pieces wherever they will fit. This becomes a realissue if you want to access those files. Your computer has tolook all over the hard disk to pick up and assemble those scat-tered pieces, which takes a while.

You can clean up all those pieces and put them back togetherby defragmenting (or, if you really know the lingo, defragging)your hard disk. When you defrag, your computer picks upall those loose pieces and puts them in the same area on yourhard disk. To access the Disk Defragmenter program fromWindows 95 or later:

1. Click Start➪Programs➪Accessories.

2. Select System Tools➪Disk Defragmenter. The SelectDrive dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-2.

Chapter 1: Taking Care of Your PC’s Needs Up Front 9

Page 18: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 1-2: The Select Drive dialog box.

3. If the hard disk that you want to defragment isn’t the Cdrive, select the drive from the drop-down list.

4. Click OK to start defragmenting the disk. Figure 1-3shows the defragmenting progress.

Figure 1-3: The Defragmenting dialog box.

The Disk Defragmenter program shows you a status bar,which tells you the percentage of the disk that has beendefragmented. After it reaches 100 percent, you’re finished.

Defragment your drives when you know that you won’t beusing the computer for at least a couple of hours.

10 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 19: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Checking for errors with ScanDisk

You can use a tool called ScanDisk to check your drive forlogical and physical errors. ScanDisk automatically repairsmost of the errors that it finds.

Run ScanDisk if you get a message telling that you have aproblem with your disk. You can also run ScanDisk as pre-ventativeive medicine. Running ScanDisk on a regular sched-ule helps make sure that your computer doesn’t accidentallyplace a file into a defective area of the disk where the file canbecome damaged, making you lose data.

To run ScanDisk

1. Click the Start button and go to Programs➪Accessories.

2. Select System Tools➪ScanDisk. Figure 1-4 shows theScanDisk dialog box in action.

Figure 1-4: The ScanDisk dialog box.

Chapter 1: Taking Care of Your PC’s Needs Up Front 11

Page 20: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

3. In the ScanDisk dialog box select the drive that you wantto check by clicking it.

4. Pick the type of test that you want to run by clickingeither Standard or Thorough. The Standard scan checksfor corrupt files, while the Thorough test checks for bothcorrupt files and physical problems on the disk. If you arehaving disk troubles, try the Standard scan first. If thatdoesn’t fix your problem you can try the Thorough test.

5. Make sure to check mark the Automatically Fix Errorscheck box.

6. Click the Start button to begin scanning the disk. AfterScanDisk is finished checking your disk, a report pres-ents ScanDisk’s results. See Figure 1-5.

Figure 1-5: The ScanDisk results.

7. After you read the report, close it, and then exit the Scan-Disk program by clicking the Close button.

Personally, I don’t waste my time checking floppy disksbecause they are so inexpensive that if they give me troubleI have no problem tossing them.

12 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 21: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Scanning for viruses

The good news is that you can’t catch the flu from your com-puter. The bad news is that your computer can catch a virusfrom another computer. A nasty virus can cause you to losedata or damage your computer. Now that can make you feelsick.

A virus is a malicious, unauthorized computer program thatis capable of replicating itself. While most viruses don’t causeany real harm to your computer, some can delete files or evenformat your entire hard drive. This can be very bad news,especially if you don’t have a current backup of your files.Even if you do have a good backup, the time and work ittakes you to recover from a virus can be significant.

Some common symptoms of a virus-infected computer are

■ Applications behaving erratically

■ A system that slows down for no apparent reason

■ Frequent system crashes

■ Unexplained file size increases

With over 45,000 known viruses in existence, your chancesof encountering one sooner or later are pretty high. If youhave access to the Internet you can find lots of informationabout viruses at www.teamanti-virus.org.

What should you do if you suspect that your computer isinfected with a virus? If you don’t have virus-scanning soft-ware, you definitely need to buy some. A couple of the morepopular packages are McAfee VirusScan, found atwww.mcafee.com, and Norton Anti-Virus, which is atwww.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html.

Chapter 1: Taking Care of Your PC’s Needs Up Front 13

Page 22: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Most antivirus software manufacturers offer periodic updatesfor a small fee. New viruses crop up all the time. Make surethat you update your virus scanning software at least everysix months.

Virus scanning software offers many different featuresdepending on the software that you buy. Your softwareshould

■ Automatically scan floppy disks after you access filesfrom them

■ Automatically scan your system periodically in the back-ground

■ Scan files downloaded from the Internet

■ Scan files attached to e-mail that you receive

Scan your system for viruses on a regular basis. If your soft-ware doesn’t automatically scan your hard disk when you turnthe computer on, remember to run the virus scanning soft-ware manually. I recommend scanning your system at leastonce a day — more often if you frequently exchange fileswith others.

14 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 23: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 2

ADDING TO ANDADJUSTING YOURCOMPUTER’SACCESSORIES

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Adding a mouse, trackball, or touchpad

■ Adding a new keyboard

If your computer’s essential components aren’t working theway you’d like them to — your mouse doesn’t seem to be ableto keep up with you or your keyboard is goofed up — youmay discover that instead of replacing your computer entirely,all you need are the right accessories.

This chapter can help you add some of those bells and whis-tles to your system. I know that adjusting some of these com-ponents sounds like neither a bell nor a whistle, but you mayfind the information helpful anyway.

Adding a Mouse, a Trackball, or a

Touchpad

Your mouse probably takes more abuse than just about anyother part of your computer. After your mouse finally givesup the ghost, just go to your favorite computer store andbuy a mouse of the same type. Prices can vary widely for amouse — anywhere from about $5 to over $50. Before youspend that money, make sure that the mouse is truly dead.

Page 24: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Sometimes it is just a matter of the mouse cord coming loosefrom the back of the computer. Other times you just needto remove the ball from the underbelly of the mouse andclean out the cat hair. My experience has been that the miceon the bottom rung of the ladder don’t work very well orlast very long.

There are three options available to you if you’re interestedin replacing your machine’s pointing device. You can buy a

■ Traditional mouse, which is about the size of the palmof your hand. You roll the mouse around at your com-puter’s side to move your pointer and use the two con-trol buttons to make choices on-screen.

■ Trackball, which is essentially an upside down mouse.The trackball device remains stationary while you manip-ulate the ball to move the cursor on the screen. Track-balls, like mice, can come with either a serial or PS/2 typeconnector. Trackballs have two buttons, just like a mouse.

■ A touchpad, which is a device with a square of pressure-sensitive material and two buttons. You slide you fingeraround on the pad to move the cursor on the screen. Youmost commonly find touchpads on laptop computers,but they are also available for desktop computers. (SeeFigure 2-1.)

Trackballs and touchpads tend to cost a bit more than meremice. Some computer stores put these items on display sothat you can try them out before you buy. If your computerstore doesn’t, ask to try the model in which you’re interested.I have tried trackballs and touchpads, and I definitely preferto use a mouse. I even plug a mouse into my laptop despitethe fact that it has a built-in touchpad. Go with what feelsbest to you.

16 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 25: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 2-1: A trackball and touchpad.

Before you replace your pointing device, you need to knowwhich of the two basic varieties of plugs your current mousehas, PS/2 or Serial type. Keep the following in mind:

■ Serial mouse plugs are trapezoidal in shape and have abunch of little pins (Nine, to be exact, as shown in Fig-ure 2-2.) They plug in to your computer through a serialport (or socket) that’s shaped like the letter D.

■ PS/2 mouse plugs are easy to spot because they are smalland round and they plug into a circular mouse port.

■ If you’re replacing one of the above with another just likeit, buy a device with the same kind of connector (serialor PS/2).

■ If you have a mouse port buy a pointer with a PS/2 typeconnector.

■ If you have only a serial connector on the back of yourcomputer, get a serial type.

Chapter 2: Adding to and Adjusting Your Computer’s Accessories 17

Page 26: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 2-2: Serial ports on the back of your computer.

Be careful not to plug the new mouse into the keyboardport — it won’t cause any damage, but your mouse won’twork either. Most computers have a little mouse symbolnext to the mouse port so that you can easily identify it.

Here’s how to add or replace a mouse, trackball, or touchpad:

1. Turn off your computer to avoid damaging it when you plug the pointer in. Get in the habit of turning offyour computer whenever you connect or disconnectcomponents.

2. Plug the pointer’s connector into the mouse port or serialport on the back of the computer.

3. Turn the computer on.

Serial port 1(9 hole, female)

Serial port 2(25 hole, female)

18 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 27: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

If you are replacing a mouse, trackball, or touchpad with thesame type of device, the new device will work fine with nofurther action on your part unless you’ve plugged it into theincorrect port.

If you’re replacing a pointing device with another, differenttype of device (for example, you’re replacing a mouse with atrackball or a trackball with a mouse) and the new devicedoesn’t work, you may have to install some software for it.

You know instantly that you need to install software becausethe software comes with the package. Just locate and run thedevice’s installation program and follow the directions. Youwill probably have to reboot your computer after running theinstallation program before the device will work.

Upgrading Your Keyboard

If you don’t already have a keyboard, it’s a safe bet that youaren’t using your computer. However, the keyboard you dohave may have sticky keys or may be causing your wrists painwhen you type. If so, you may want to upgrade to a new keyboard.

Keyboards come with either a large, round, AT style con-nector (for older computers) or a small, round, PS/2 styleconnector (for newer computers). When you shop for areplacement keyboard, make sure that you buy one with thesame type of connector as your current keyboard.

While most keyboards are the standard rectangular type,many new computers come with Windows 95 compatiblekeyboards, which have a couple of extra keys:

Chapter 2: Adding to and Adjusting Your Computer’s Accessories 19

Page 28: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

■ The Windows key opens the Windows Start menu justas if you had clicked the Start Menu button with yourmouse.

■ The other key opens the Context menu for the currentlyselected object just as if you had right-clicked the object.

Don’t feel like you have to buy a Windows compatible key-board. These keyboards provide no extra advantage — Ihardly ever use either of these keys and feel no worse for it.

Not long ago, Microsoft made a foray into the hardwareworld and introduced the Microsoft Natural Keyboard. Thiskeyboard, with its swoopy lines and Windows keys, is sup-posed to be more comfortable and make you less susceptibleto repetitive stress injuries. The keyboard is split down themiddle and curved to better accommodate the angle of yourarms and includes built-in wrist rests. Today, most keyboardmanufacturers offer keyboards similar to the Microsoft Nat-ural Keyboard. These types of keyboards are often referred toas ergonomic because they are designed for ease-of-use.

Some keyboards have built-in trackballs and even stereospeakers. New “Internet ready” keyboards have programma-ble keys that can automatically dial your connection to theInternet, launch your web browser or e-mail software. Butexpect to pay a premium for these keyboards.

Be sure to try out any keyboard before you buy it. Each key-board has a different feel. On some keyboards you have topress firmly to type. On others you barely have to touch thekeys. Find one that is comfortable for you.

Here is how to install a new keyboard:

1. Turn off your computer to avoid damaging it.

2. Unplug the old keyboard.

20 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 29: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

3. Plug in the new keyboard. Be sure that you don’t plugthe keyboard into the mouse port by mistake. It won’tcause any damage, but the keyboard won’t work either.

4. Turn the computer on.

If you are replacing your keyboard with the same type ofkeyboard, you are finished. If you are installing a newtype of keyboard — one that has additional functional-ity — proceed to Step 5 to run the keyboard’s installa-tion program.

5. Put the keyboard’s floppy disk or CD into the drive andrun the installation program. You may need to restartyour computer before you can use the new keyboard.

Chapter 2: Adding to and Adjusting Your Computer’s Accessories 21

Page 30: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 3

UPGRADING ANDTROUBLESHOOTINGMODEMS

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Gathering tools and resources

■ Understanding modems

■ Troubleshooting modems

■ Understanding adapter cards

■ Troubleshooting sound and graphics cards

In this chapter, I show you how to handle any kind ofmodem malfunction and I give you the latest word on thehigh-tech alternatives to the modems you may be used to. Ialso walk you through the process of installing the hardwaredevices you need to get your modem running.

Before You Begin

Before you can make these additions to your computer, readthe information in this section very carefully.

Your computer has several slots — the exact number varieswith different computer models — that can accept this newhardware. The collection of slots is known as the computer’sexpansion bus. The hardware devices that you install in theslots are known as expansion cards — they expand the capa-bilities of your computer. Expansion cards are often called

Page 31: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

adapter cards, or simply, adapters. This chapter explains whatyou need to know — and the tools you need — to installthese expansion cards.

Gathering your tools

You are going to need some tools. But you don’t need to rushout to Sears and buy the 400-piece Craftsman MasterMechanic set. A standard (slot head) screwdriver and aPhillips (cross head) screwdriver usually do the trick. If youhave a Compaq computer, a Torx (you know, that funny star-shaped screw head that you only find on old Macintosh andCompaq computers) driver set comes in very handy, as well.

If you plan on working on computers often, you may con-sider purchasing a computer toolkit. These are readily avail-able just about anywhere computers are sold and they costaround $15 to $20 dollars. You can buy more expensivetoolkits, but you will never use most of the tools in them.

Playing the safety game

Most people probably think of the danger of electrocutionwhen they consider making repairs or upgrades. If youunplug the computer before taking the cover off, you runvery little risk of zapping yourself.

Computers have a lot of wires and sharp edges — just aboutevery time I reach my chubby little hands into a computer,I end up with a scratch that invariably gets infected. Whileyou need to be careful as you poke around inside your com-puter, the biggest risk you face is damaging your computer(and the component you’re installing) by making a mistake.

Chapter 3: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Modems 23

Page 32: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Removing a stubborn computer cover

Some computer covers require you to get out the screwdriverand remove a bunch of screws, which is fine — but you needto be careful not to remove the screws that hold the powersupply in place. On some systems, especially tower config-urations, removing these screws can cause the power supplyto fall into the computer and damage some of the internalcomponents. If you have any doubts about how to removeyour computer’s cover, be sure to check your system documentation.

Understanding the Different Types

of Modems

The number one reason new computer purchasers want anew computer is so that they can connect to the Internet.Most new computers either come with a modem as standardequipment or offer a modem as an option. If you don’t havea modem, or if your modem isn’t working, this section dis-cusses the differences between types of modems, as well asoffering troubleshooting tips and installation information.

If you’re not familiar with the term, a modem is a device thatallows your computer to connect to the Internet (and to othercomputers) over telephone lines. The modem’s job is to trans-late digital information from your computer into a continu-ous wave form that your telephone’s POTS — Plain OldTelephone System — can transmit. The modem attached tothe computer on the other end of the telephone line trans-lates the continuous wave form signal back into digital form.

Internal and external modems

Several different types of modem services are available, butno matter which type of modem you choose, you have toattach the modem either internally or externally.

24 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 33: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Here are some pros and cons about internal modems:

■ Pros: Internal modems plug into a slot in your com-puter’s expansion bus, which means that you won’t betripping over any power cord. Also, they don’t take upvaluable desktop real estate, and you never have to dustthem.

■ Cons: You have to match the internal modem to yourcomputer’s expansion bus type. Internal modems are moredifficult to install because you have to remove the coverfrom your computer. You also can’t use an internal modeminterchangeably between two or more computers.

If you are unsure about which type of internal modem to buy,consult your computer’s documentation or contact your com-puter’s manufacturer.

If you have a laptop or notebook computer, you can still usean internal modem. Just be sure to buy a PCMCIA cardmodem.

Here are some pros and cons about external modems:

■ Pros: External modems are easy to install and move fromone computer to another. They also have cool lights onthe front that let you know what the modem is up to.

■ Cons: External modems have their own power cord anda data cable, which connects to your computer’s serialport or Universal Serial Bus Port (USB). Make sure thatyou have a place to plug it in and don’t forget to keep thecord in a place where you won’t trip over it. Externalmodems tend to cost a few dollars more, too.

Your modem choice isn’t quite as simple as deciding betweeninternal and external models. Because the demand to getconnected to the Internet is so high, the technology has

Chapter 3: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Modems 25

Page 34: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

advanced by leaps and bounds. You have a ton of optionsthat can fit your need for a speedy connection, as well asyour pocketbook.

You are likely to encounter several different types of modems.Some of them aren’t really modems at all, but I tell you aboutthat shortly.

Standard (56K)

The most common type of modem in use today is the stan-dard 56K modem. Early versions of 56K modems used oneof two competing standards: X2 or Kflex. These two stan-dards were not compatible and eventually gave way to theV.90 (pronounced vee-dot-ninety) standard. You don’t needto worry about what these different standards mean — theyjust represent differing methods of connecting computers.Try not to be surprised when your shiny new 56K modemconnects at somewhat less than 56K. The 56K modems arestill the fastest modems that you can plug into your telephoneline without having the telephone company install specialequipment. 56K modems are available in both internal andexternal models.

If you are buying a modem to connect to the Internet, checkwith your ISP to find out what type of modem they support.

If you are installing a standard modem for the first time, don’tforget that you still have to pay for your Internet service.

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network, or ISDN, is integratedbecause it supports simultaneous voice and data and is digi-tal because, well, it’s digital. The phone company uses all-digital lines and equipment to provide you with the service.ISDN can provide a connection as fast as 128K, which is

26 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 35: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

twice the speed of a 56K modem. But ISDN is not currentlyavailable everywhere. Check with your telephone companyfor availability and pricing. ISDN connections require spe-cial ISDN modems, and you still need to pay for an ISP.

DSL

Strictly speaking, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service doesn’tprovide a modem connection at all, but is a digital device thatconnects your computer to the phone company’s network.Currently, (DSL) service is even more limited than that ofISDN, but that will improve over time. DSL provides nor-mal voice service with simultaneous Internet access at highspeeds using a new technology that runs over standard phonelines. Current DSL technology requires you to be withinthree miles of your telephone company’s central office. MostDSL connections require external modems.

DSL service is fast but expensive, ranging from about $90 to$300 per month for service. In addition to the monthly serv-ice fees, expect to pay $150 or more for installation. Contactyour telephone company for availability in your area.

Cable

Cable modems aren’t really modems at all. They are networkdevices that connect your network, usually consisting of yourcomputer with an Ethernet card, to the cable television com-pany’s network. The device uses the same cable that bringstelevision programming into your home to bring you accessto the Internet. Of course, just because you have cable tele-vision doesn’t mean that you can get cable modem access tothe Internet. Check with your local cable company for moreinformation, and remember that the speed of your connec-tion may vary depending on the number of other cablemodem users in your neighborhood. Most cable modemservice requires an external modem.

Chapter 3: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Modems 27

Page 36: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Cable modem Internet access costs anywhere from $40 permonth and up. In addition, you must purchase a cablemodem (about $300) and an Ethernet card (about $50).Installation usually costs $150 or more.

When you research the cable modem Internet access avail-able from your local cable company, you will find that thetechnology comes in two flavors: half-duplex and full-duplex.Half-duplex service uses the cable modem to download infor-mation from the Internet and a regular modem and phoneline to upload information to the Internet. Full-duplex serv-ice uses the cable modem for both downloading and upload-ing information, freeing up your telephone line for thoseimportant calls from the President. Your cable serviceprovider determines whether you have full-duplex or half-duplex service. You don’t have any say in the matter.

In my opinion, cable modem access offers the best combi-nation of price and performance.

Satellite

Talk about high tech! You can connect to the Internet usinga satellite dish. Hughes Network Systems allows you to down-load information from the Internet using a small satellite dishat speeds up to 400K. You still need an additional modemand telephone line to upload information.

The satellite dish and receiver cost about $200. Service fromHughes Network Systems starts at about $20 per month for25 hours of connection time. Satellite access is available any-where that you have a clear line of sight to the southern sky.

Which kind of modem you choose is pretty much a matterof personal preference. Just don’t buy a USB modem if youare using Windows NT 4.0, even if your computer has a USBport. Windows NT 4.0 doesn’t support USB devices.

28 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 37: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Troubleshooting Modem Problems

Here are some things to check if your modem doesn’t workthe way you expect it to:

■ Check all the cables. Make sure the telephone cord isplugged into the phone jack on the wall and the line jackon the modem.

■ For external modems, ensure that the serial or USB cableis securely connected to both the modem and the com-puter. Also, make sure that the modem has power and isturned on.

■ Verify that the phone line is working. Plug a telephoneinto the line and dial a number.

■ Try using a different telephone cord. The one you areusing may be damaged even if you can’t tell by lookingat it.

■ Be sure that you are dialing the correct number. If youare calling the wrong number, having a perfectly work-ing modem won’t do you any good.

■ Disable call waiting by dialing *70 before the number.Don’t worry. As soon as you disconnect, call waiting isonce again activated.

■ Make sure that no one picks up an extension phonewhile your modem is in use.

Installing a New Modem

If you can’t get your modem to do what it should be doing,or if your PC doesn’t have a modem and you want one, allthe information you need about installing one is right here.

Chapter 3: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Modems 29

Page 38: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Installing a new modem involves two separate procedures:

■ First, you must physically install the internal modem orconnect the external modem.

■ Second, you have to introduce the modem to Windowsby installing the appropriate software.

To install an internal modem

1. Turn off and unplug your computer.

2. Remove your computer’s cover.

3. Remove the cover from the expansion slot where youintend to install the modem.

4. Insert the modem into the expansion slot.

5. Replace the computer’s cover.

6. Attach the telephone cord from the telephone jack to theline port on the modem.

7. Plug in and turn on the computer.

To install an external serial port modem

1. Turn off your computer.

2. Connect the serial cable to the modem and to the serialport on the back of the computer.

Some inexpensive modems have the serial cable perma-nently attached to the back of the modem.

3. Connect the phone cord from the phone jack on the wallto the line jack on the modem.

4. Connect the modem’s power cord.

5. Turn on the modem and computer.

30 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 39: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

To install an external USB port modem:

1. Plug in the modem’s power cord and turn on themodem.

2. Connect the USB cable to the modem.

3. Connect the other end of the USB cable to the USB porton the computer.

Most computers have the USB port located on the backof the computer, but a few have the USB port locatedon the front.

After you have installed and/or connected your modem, youhave to tell Windows what you have done:

1. Click Start➪Settings➪Control Panel. The Control Panelcomes to the screen.

2. Double-click the Add New Hardware icon to start theAdd New Hardware wizard. The first screen of the AddNew Hardware wizard informs you that you should closeall programs before continuing.

3. Save your work, close any open programs, and clickNext. The Add New Hardware wizard informs you thatit will search for new devices.

4. Click Next.

5. Windows displays a list of new devices that it found.Click the name of the device that you just installed andthen click Next.

6. Click the Finish button and Windows sets up your newmodem. You will probably have to restart your computerafter it is finished.

Chapter 3: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Modems 31

Page 40: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

7. If you didn’t see your modem listed, select the No, thedevice isn’t in the list radio button and clickNext. Windows offers to search for new hardware thatisn’t Plug and Play.

8. Make sure the Yes (Recommended) radio button isselected and click Next. Then click Next again to beginthe search.

9. If Windows finds the new modem, you are finished. Ifit doesn’t find it, Windows tells you so and instructs youto click Next to manually install the device. Click Next.

10. The Add New Hardware wizard displays a list of hard-ware types for you to choose from. Select Modem andclick Next.

11. Select the manufacturer and model of your modem andclick Next.

12. Click Next again to install the software for your modem.

13. If your manufacturer or model is not listed, click theHave Disk button.

14. Insert the floppy or CD-ROM that came with yourmodem. If you inserted a floppy, click OK to install thesoftware. If you inserted a CD-ROM, you must type thename of the CD-ROM drive (usually D:) and click OK.Be prepared to restart your system after Windows fin-ishes installing the software for your modem.

32 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 41: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 4

UPGRADING ANDTROUBLESHOOTINGADAPTERS

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Understanding adapter cards

■ Troubleshooting adapter cards

■ Troubleshooting sound and graphics cards

In this chapter, I tell you all about the adapters you can add tojazz up your computer and teach you how to figure out whichtype of adapter you should use. I also show you how to fix anyproblems you may have with a sound or graphics adapter, aswell as how to install a new adapter card to your PC.

If you want to know how to install or troubleshoot yourmodem, see Chapter 3. Also see Chapter 3 for importantinformation you need before you make any additions to yourcomputer.

Understanding the Different Kinds of

Adapters

All adapters are not created equal. Adapters come in variousshapes and sizes with varying features and functions. Thissection helps you sort them out.

Page 42: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Adapters are often called adapter cards, or just plain cards.Some short, mean people even refer to them as expansioncards. These terms are all referring to the same thing: a pieceof hardware that plugs into the computer’s innards and addsto the computer’s capabilities.

Video adapters

Video adapters take the 0s and 1s that your computer likesto sling around and translate them into text and pictures thatcan be displayed on your monitor. Most computers comewith either a built-in video adapter — a set of computer chipssoldered onto the motherboard — or a video adapter installedin one of the computer’s expansion bus slots. (See Figure 4-1.)Prices for video adapters start at about $50.

Figure 4-1: A generic video adapter card.

Sound adapters

Most computers built in the last few years include a soundcard, which allows your computer to play sounds and music.You also need a pair of speakers to plug into the sound card,as shown in Figure 4-2. If your computer didn’t come witha sound card or if your computer has a sound problem, youcan add a new sound card. You can purchase a bottom-of-the-barrel sound card for as little as $10.

34 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 43: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 4-2: A generic sound card and speakers.

Knowing which type of adapter to use

Before you buy a video adapter or sound adapter, make surethat the card will work with your computer by matching thecard to the type of connector that your computer has.

You need to have one of these three types of connectors inorder to add a graphics or sound adapter to your computer:

■ If you bought your computer in the last couple of years,the computer probably has a mixture of Peripheral Com-ponent Interconnect (PCI) bus connectors and IndustryStandard Architecture (ISA) bus connectors. You can usethese connectors for both sound and graphics cards.

■ Some new computers have a special graphics card portcalled an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) slot. This con-nector only accepts an AGP video card.

Chapter 4: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Adapters 35

Page 44: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

■ If you have an older computer, it may not have a PCI orAGP connector. You will probably have to install anIndustry Standard Architecture (ISA) type video or soundcard.

Sounds cards are available with either ISA or PCI type con-nectors. Make sure that you buy the correct type for yourcomputer. If you are unsure of the type of sound card thatyou need, check your computer’s documentation. If thatdoesn’t provide the information you need, you may have tocontact the computer’s manufacturer.

If you are unsure about this connector business, check yourcomputer’s documentation.

Troubleshooting with Your Sound or Video

Adapter

Here are some things to check if your sound adapter isn’tworking the way you expect it to:

■ Check all the cables. Make sure the speaker cables areplugged into the proper port on the back of the soundadapter.

■ Turn up the volume on the speakers if they have an exter-nal volume control. Also, turn up the volume with theon-screen control located in the lower right-hand cornerof the screen.

■ Double-click the volume control in the lower-right cor-ner of your screen and drag CD volume slider up. If yoursound adapter won’t play your music CDs but otherwiseseems to function, you probably have the CD volumeturned down.

■ If none of these solutions solves your problem, reinstallthe software that came with the sound adapter.

36 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 45: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Here are some things to check if your video adapter isn’tworking as you expect it to:

■ Make sure that the monitor cable is securely attached tothe video adapter. A loose cable can cause distorted video.

■ Try adjusting the brightness and contrast controls on themonitor.

■ Check the settings in the Display Properties dialog box.You may have set the display incorrectly.

■ Reinstall the software that came with the video adapter.

Installing a New Adapter

As soon as you have the correct new video or sound card, youcan install it. If your computer already has a video adapter orsound adapter built in to the motherboard, you have to dis-able the old adapter before installing the new one. Refer tothe documentation that came with your computer forinstructions on disabling the built-in adapter.

To install a new video or sound adapter:

1. Turn off the computer. Disconnect the monitor from theback of the computer. Unplug the power cable andremove the computer’s cover.

2. Find and remove the old video or sound adapter. Removethe retaining screw that holds the adapter card in placeand gently pull it from the slot.

3. If the adapter card that you are installing is the same typeas the one you just removed, insert it into the same con-nector. Otherwise, find an empty connector that matchesthe connector tabs on your new adapter card and removethe retaining screw and slot cover. Insert the adapter cardinto the slot.

Chapter 4: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Adapters 37

Page 46: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

4. Install the retaining screw to secure the adapter card tothe computer’s case.

5. Replace the computer’s cover and plug in the computer’spower cord.

6. Connect the monitor’s signal cable to the connector onthe video adapter.

7. Turn on the monitor and the computer.

With a little luck, Windows recognizes the new adapter cardand sets the card up for you. If Windows doesn’t, you needto properly introduce your new adapter card to Windows:

1. Click Start➪Settings➪Control Panel. The Control Panelcomes to the screen.

2. Double-click the Add New Hardware icon to start theAdd New Hardware Wizard.

3. The first screen of the Add New Hardware wizardinforms you that you should close all programs beforecontinuing. Save your work and close any open programs.

4. Click Next. The Add New Hardware wizard politelyinforms you that it will search for new devices.

5. Click Next.

6. Windows displays a list of new devices that it finds. Clickthe name of the device that you just installed and thenclick Next.

7. Click the Finish button. Windows sets up your newadapter card. You will probably have to restart your com-puter after it is finished.

8. If you didn’t see your video or sound adapter card listedunder Devices, select the No, the device isn’tin the list radio button and click Next.

38 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 47: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

9. Windows offers to search for new hardware that isn’tPlug-and-Play-compatible. Make sure the Yes (Rec-ommended) radio button is selected and click Next.Click Next again to begin the search. If Windows findsthe new video or sound adapter card, you are finished.

10. If it doesn’t find the card, Windows tells you so andinstructs you to click Next to manually install the device.Click Next.

11. The Add New Hardware wizard displays a list of hardwaretypes for you to choose from, as shown in Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3: Types of hardware to install.

12. Select Display Adapters and click Next.

13. Select the manufacturer and model of your new videoadapter card and click Next, as shown in Figure 4-4.

Chapter 4: Upgrading and Troubleshooting Adapters 39

Page 48: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 4-4: The manufacturers and models lists.

14. Click Next again to install the software for your newvideo adapter card.

15. If your manufacturer or model is not listed, click theHave Disk button.

16. Insert the floppy or CD-ROM that came with yourvideo adapter card. If you insert a disk, click OK toinstall the software. If you insert a CD-ROM, you musttype the name of the CD-ROM drive (usually D:) andclick OK.

17. Be prepared to restart your system after Windows fin-ishes installing the software for your video adapter card.

40 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 49: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 5

EXPANDING YOURCOMPUTER’S MEMORY

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Understanding memory types

■ Figuring out how much memory you have

■ Memory requirements

■ Installing memory

Your computer needs memory to get its work done. Thinkof memory as you would your desk. On your desk you layall the paperwork you’re working on. As you know (especiallyif you have a lot of paperwork), the bigger the desk, the morestuff you can put on it. Same with your computer — themore memory (Random Access Memory, or RAM) you installin your computer, the more room you have to run programsand save your work.

Three factors affect the amount of RAM that your computerneeds:

■ Your operating system. If your operating system takesa lot of memory to run, you may need more RAM tokeep it running optimally.

■ The type of programs you run. If you run programsthat take up a lot of memory (like graphics programs),you may need more RAM.

■ The number of programs you run simultaneously. Ifyou expect your computer to run several different pro-grams at a time, you may need more RAM.

Page 50: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Having a lot of RAM can give you a number of benefits:

■ You can do more. You can run multiple programs, evenprograms that are large and complicated, at the sametime.

■ You can help your computer run faster, because the moreroom the computer has to work, the less time it wastesshuffling information between RAM (which is very fast)and your hard disk, which is relatively slow compared toRAM.

Understanding the Different Types

of Computer Memory

Memory comes in various shapes and sizes. When you go tothe computer store, you might hear the word DRAM, whichis short for Dynamic Random Access Memory, the most com-mon type of RAM used in desktop computers. DRAMcomes in two varieties:

■ SIMMs, or Single Inline Memory Modules. A SIMM is acomputer card that generally has RAM chips soldered toone side of it. You put it in your computer to increaseyour RAM. Older computers use SIMMs.

■ DIMMs, or Dual Inline Memory Modules. A DIMM isa computer card that has RAM chips soldered to bothsides of it. DIMMs have a higher capacity to hold RAMthan SIMMs and are found in newer computers.

If you have an older computer, it probably uses 30-pinSIMMs, while newer computers, like Pentiums, use a 72-pin configuration. Pin configuration is simply the number ofpins on the SIMM needed to connect the SIMM to yourPC’s motherboard. Figure 5-1 shows you a SIMM.

42 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 51: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 5-1: Older computers have RAM installed on SIMMs.

If you have the newest and fastest Pentium II and PentiumIII computers, your PC uses Synchronous Dynamic RandomAccess Memory, otherwise known as SDRAM. SDRAM isconfigured with 168-pin DIMMs.

Knowing How Speed and Size Affect RAM

When you think about RAM, you must also consider thespeed of your computer’s memory chips. The older your com-puter, the slower your RAM.

RAM speed in older computers is measured in nanoseconds(ns) and in newer computers is measured in megahertz(MHz). Just to put things in perspective, a nanosecond is onebillionth of a second. Megahertz refers to millions of cyclesper second.

Table 5-1 shows you the RAM speeds you find in variouscomputers.

Typical SIMM

Chapter 5: Expanding Your Computer’s Memory 43

Page 52: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Table 5-1: RAM Configuration, Speed,

and Upgrading

Computer # of Pins Speed How to Upgrade

386 30- or 72-pin 70 – 80 ns Slow RAM; install SIMMs 30-pin SIMMs in

banks of four; install72-pin SIMMsindividually

486 30- or 72-pin 60 – 70 ns Slow RAM; install SIMMs 30-pin SIMMs in

banks of four; install72-pin SIMMsindividually

Pentium 72-pin 50 – 70 ns Faster RAM; install SIMMs or SIMMs in matched 168-pin pairs; DIMMs can DIMMs be installed

individually

Pentium II/III 168-pin 100 MHz Very fast RAM; SDRAM DIMMs can be

installed individually

Your computer may run erratically or refuse to function if youinstall memory that is too slow or too fast. If you put newer,faster memory in an older computer that is designed to useslower memory, the memory may work, but I don’t recom-mend it because the older computer isn’t capable of takingadvantage of the new memory’s full potential — you will havepaid more money for the memory you can’t really use. Theconverse is also true. If you put slow memory in a fast com-puter, it may work, but it will slow down the computer.

Don’t mix and match the speed of the memory chips. Yourcomputer probably won’t like that very much. Instead, matchthe correct memory speed to your computer’s current mem-ory speed.

44 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 53: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Determining How Much Memory

Your PC Has

If you’re wondering how much memory your computer has,the answer is simple: probably not enough. Your computershould have a minimum of 32 to 64 megabytes of RAM. Amegabyte is approximately a million bytes. A byte is the basicunit of storage measurement in the computer world. Storinga single letter of the alphabet requires one byte of RAM.

One of the easiest ways to find out how much RAM yourcomputer has is to turn on the computer and watch it countits memory. After you turn on the computer, you will see arapidly changing number in the top-left corner of the screen.After this number stops changing, you have the amount ofRAM installed in your computer.

Another way to discover the amount of RAM in your com-puter is to ask Windows. Right-click the My Computer iconon the Windows Desktop and choose Properties. You see theamount of installed RAM listed on the General tab of theSystem Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 5-2. Clickthe Cancel button to close the System Properties dialog box.

Memory Requirements

The amount of memory that you should have installed inyour computer depends on several factors:

■ The operating system you are running

■ The types of programs that you run

■ The number of programs that you want to runsimultaneously

Chapter 5: Expanding Your Computer’s Memory 45

Page 54: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 5-2: The System Properties dialog box.

Table 5-2 shows you the minimum amount of RAM requiredto run your PC effectively.

Table 5-2: Memory Requirements

for Optimum Use

If You’re You Need You’re Better Running Off With

Windows 95 8MB of RAM A minimum of 12MB – to run basic 16MB of RAM to run applications applications effectively

46 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 55: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

If You’re You Need You’re Better Running Off With

Windows 98 16MB – 32MB 48MB – 64MB of RAM of RAM to run if you want to run your basic applications web browser while

working onspreadsheets or wordprocessing documents

Windows 2000 32MB to 64MB An additional 64MB of of RAM to run RAM if you run basic applications memory-intensive

applications such asphoto editing ormultimediapresentations

Installing More Memory

Make sure that you buy the correct type of memory for yourcomputer. If you have any doubt about the type of memory(discussed in the section in this chapter called “Knowing howspeed and size affect RAM”) that you need to buy, removeone of the old memory chips and take it with you to the com-puter store. If the friendly folks at your computer store can’ttell you what type of memory you need to buy from thatsample, you are probably shopping at the wrong computerstore.

Don’t get upset when you find out that you need to take outyour old memory before you can install the new memory. Ifyour computer has 16MB of RAM installed and you wantto upgrade to 32MB of RAM, you may have to buy 32MB,not just an additional 16MB. You may have to add morememory than you think you need if your computer currentlyhas a 4MB SIMM installed in each of its four memory slots.You have to remove the 4MB SIMMs and replace them withfour 8MB SIMMs.

Chapter 5: Expanding Your Computer’s Memory 47

Page 56: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Before you decide to install new memory in your computer,consider having it installed by a professional. Some computerstores offer free installation. If you decide to do it yourself,see Chapter 3 for important safety information.

Memory chips are very sensitive to static electricity. Beforeyou install memory in your computer, consider spending acouple of dollars on a grounding strap. You don’t have to shellout big bucks for one — unless you plan on getting into thememory installation business. You should be able to buy adisposable grounding strap for a dollar or two from the storewhere you purchase the memory. If you don’t use a ground-ing strap, the static electricity from your body or from shuf-fling on the carpet can ruin your PC’s new memory.

If you decide that you really do want to install the memoryyourself, follow these steps:

1. Turn off and unplug the computer.

2. Remove the computer’s cover. You may have to refer toyour computer’s documentation for this.

3. If necessary, remove the old memory. You usually haveto pry the metal or plastic tabs from both ends of thememory card. Pay attention to the way the old memorycard was installed.

4. Plug in the new memory. Be careful to plug the mem-ory cards correctly. The memory cards are notched at oneend. Gently place the memory card into the slot at anangle and slowly stand the card up until it clicks intoplace.

5. Replace the computer’s cover.

6. Plug the computer in and turn it on. Your computer shouldrecognize the new memory. If the computer doesn’t, youneed to run the computer’s BIOS setup program. You run

48 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 57: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

the BIOS setup program by pressing Del or F2 duringthe POST (Power On Self Test) that is performed afteryou turn the computer on. If you aren’t sure how to startyour computer’s BIOS setup program, refer to your sys-tem documentation or check out Chapter 7.

Not sure which of those whatsits are the memory cards? Theyusually hang out in pairs or groups of fours:

■ 30-pin SIMMs are about 3 1⁄2 inches long by about 3⁄4 inch high and have 8 or 9 memory chips attached tothem.

■ 72-pin SIMMs are about 4 1⁄4 inches long by about 1 inchhigh and have 8 or 9 memory chips attached to them.

■ 168-pin DIMMs are about 5 1⁄3 inches long by about 1 inch high and have 9 memory chips attached to eachside.

Most computers have either four or eight memory card slots.These slots may be divided into pairs or groups of four calledbanks. When you install memory, you have to fill in an entirebank. Your computer has two memory banks if there are fourmemory card slots divided into pairs. You have to completelyfill a memory bank or leave the memory bank empty. Youcannot install one memory card in memory bank A and onememory card in memory bank B. Likewise, you cannotinstall memory cards of differing capacities in the same mem-ory bank. You can, however, install memory cards of differ-ing capacities in different memory banks. Figure 5-3 showsyou what SIMM slots look like. If you have any questionsabout how many banks and slots your PC has, refer to yoursystem documentation.

Chapter 5: Expanding Your Computer’s Memory 49

Page 58: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 5-3: SIMM slots filled with SIMMs.

SIM 8SIM 7

SIM 6SIM 5

SIM 4SIM 3

SIM 2SIM 1

50 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 59: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 6

FIDDLING WITH YOURCOMPUTER’S DRIVES

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Understanding different drive types

■ Replacing a hard drive

■ Installing a CD-ROM drive

■ Adding a Zip drive

Computers can have a variety of storage devices. Some arefaster than others; some have a greater capacity to store filesthan others. No matter what type of storage device your com-puter has, all storage devices have one thing in common: Yourstorage drive doesn’t lose its contents when you turn off thecomputer — well, hardly ever.

Understanding Your Computer’s

Storage Drives

No matter what types of drives your computer has, all drivesfunction in essentially the same way. Drives store your wordsand pictures in bunches of 0s and 1s. Unlike RAM, discussedin Chapter 5, the information that you store on your com-puter’s drives doesn’t disappear into the ether after you turnoff the computer. The information remains stored on yourdrive until you choose to delete it. This section takes a brieflook at the various types of storage drives.

Page 60: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Floppy drive

The floppy drive is the oldest and slowest of the drives foundon today’s computers. The floppy drive uses a 3 1⁄2-inch remov-able disk that can hold up to 1.44MB of information. In theancient days of computing, computers had 5 1⁄4 -inch floppydrives that held even less information — up to 1.2MB. If youhave a problem with a floppy drive, most of the time theproblem is that the disk is defective, but the drive itself is fine.If your floppy drive does go on the blink, you can buy areplacement for about $25. Floppy drives are handy for stor-ing and exchanging small files.

Hard drive

The hard drive is a non-removable device hidden away inyour computer’s nether regions. Hard drives are very fast andcan store thousands of times more information than floppydisks can. The smallest hard drives available today hold about3.2GB of information and cost about $125. The largest harddrives can store 50GB of information and cost about $1,500.Hard drives are the main storage devices for personal com-puters. They hold your operating system and application pro-grams, as well as your data. Hard drives store informationpermanently, unlike RAM, which is erased each time youturn the computer off.

CD-ROM drive

CD-ROM drives — or Compact Disc Read-Only Memorydrives — are read-only devices. Read-only means that theCD-ROM drive can read information that has been placedon a CD-ROM, but the drive cannot change or delete theinformation. In other words, you can’t save information ontoa typical CD-ROM, but you can use your CD-ROM driveto read a lot of information (about 650MB-worth), which ishandy. The CDs look just like the CD-ROMs that you play

52 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 61: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

in your stereo’s CD player. In fact, most computer CD-ROMdrives are capable of playing music CD-ROMs. You can buya CD-ROM drive for as little as $50, but take a look at thefollowing paragraph before you do. Most new computer pro-grams are sold on CD-ROMs.

CD-R and CD-RW drives

CD-R (or CD Recordable drives) and CD-RW (or CDReWriteable drives) can not only read CD-ROMs like theirsimpler CD-ROM drive cousins, but these two drives canalso write information to special CDs.

CD-R drives can write to a CD only one time. After that,the CD effectively becomes a CD-ROM, meaning that theinformation on it is read-only and can’t be modified. CD-Rdrives are available starting at about $200. Also, you can’trecord to just any CD-ROM. You have to buy special CDslabeled CD-R.

On the other hand, CD-RW drives can write to a CD manytimes over, just as floppy disks can be used again and again.CD-RW drives are available starting at about $300. CD-RWdrives can read from both regular CDs as well as CD-Rs, butrequire special CD-RW discs for actual rewriting. CD-Rdrives are great for making permanent copies of largeamounts of information. Once created, they can’t be over-written. CD-RW drives are handy for making copies of largeamounts of information that changes frequently. A CD-RWdisc can be overwritten up to 1,000 times.

DVD-ROM drive

The DVD-ROM (or Digital Versatile Disk Read-Only Memory)is the newest type of compact disk drive available. It can holdup to 5.2GB of information on a disc that looks just like aCD-ROM, but isn’t. DVD-ROM drives can also read

Chapter 6: Fiddling with Your Computer’s Drives 53

Page 62: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

regular CD-ROMs. The most popular use of DVD-ROMdrives is watching full-length feature movies. DVD-ROM drives are available for as little as $100.

DVD-RAM drive

This is the rewriteable version of the DVD-ROM drive. Likeits read-only sibling, the DVD-RAM drive can hold up to5.2GB of information. DVD-RAM drive prices start at about$500.

Zip drive

Zip disks look like floppy disks on steroids. Zip disks comein two different capacities: 100MB and 250MB. The 250MBmodel is capable of reading from and writing to 100MB Zipdisks. You can buy internal or external Zip drives. The exter-nal models usually connect to your computer’s parallel printerport, but USB (Universal Serial Bus) and SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) models are available. Many com-puter manufacturers offer internal Zip drives as an option.Prices for Zip drives start at about $100. Zip drives are pop-ular for exchanging large amounts of information.

Tape backup drive

As the name implies, tape backup drives are useful for mak-ing backup copies of your computer files. Tape backup drivescome in various sizes and capacities, from a low end of a cou-ple of hundred megabytes to a high end of up to 70GB.Prices range from about $100 for low-capacity tape backupdrive to thousands of dollars for the high-capacity systems.

54 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 63: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Removing and Replacing Your Hard Drive

When you need to replace your computer’s hard drive, don’tforget that you should already have a backup of the infor-mation on your old hard drive. If you are replacing a drivebecause you need more capacity, be sure to make a backupcopy of all the files on the drive. A tape backup unit providesthe easiest and fastest method of backing up your hard drive.If you don’t have a tape backup unit, you might considerbacking up to a CD-RW, to a Zip drive, or to some otherremovable media drive. Backup to floppy only as a last resort.Floppy drives are slow and don’t hold much information. Youneed a lot of floppies to back up your hard disk.

If you must back up your hard drive to floppy disk, considerbacking up only your data files. You can install your operat-ing system and application programs from the original disks.This saves you a lot of time.

If you are replacing a drive that has failed, you already knowthat it’s too late to worry about creating a backup.

To replace your computer’s hard drive, follow these steps:

1. Turn the computer off and unplug it.

2. Remove the computer’s cover. You may need to refer toyour documentation for this step.

3. Unplug the old hard drive’s ribbon and power cables.The ribbon cable is the flat gray cable with the black con-nector. The power cable is the cable with the four col-ored wires.

4. Remove the mounting screws that hold the drive inplace. Some computers have, instead of screws, little tabsthat you have to press in order to release the drive.

Chapter 6: Fiddling with Your Computer’s Drives 55

Page 64: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

5. Remove the drive from the computer. Most hard drivesslide out the front of the computer. Others drives slideout toward the back of the computer. Still other drivesjust lift out.

6. Insert the new hard drive in the computer. If your driveuses mounting rails, make sure you install them. You mayhave to remove the rails from the old drive if your newdrive didn’t come with rails.

7. Connect the data cable to the hard drive. Most driveshave a notched connector so that you can’t accidentallyplug the data connector in upside down. If your drivedoesn’t have this notched connector, make sure that theside of the data cable with the red stripe matches up tothe side of the connector marked with a 1.

8. Connect the power cable to the hard drive. You can’t gowrong fitting the power cable because you can fit thecable in one way only.

9. Secure the drive with the mounting screws.

10. Replace the computer’s cover. Be sure not to pinch thedrive cables as you put the cover back on.

11. Plug in the computer and turn it on.

Well, you’ve done the hard part. Now you have to make surethat your computer and the new hard drive are properlyacquainted. In most cases, you simply place the installationdisk that came with your new hard drive into the floppy driveand turn on the computer. The installation program makesthe introductions for you and tells your computer’s CMOSchip (a little computer chip that keeps track of the variouscomponents installed in your computer) the type and capac-ity of the drive you just installed. The program also partitionsthe drive so that you can format the new drive with the oper-ating system of your choice.

56 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 65: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

After the drive’s installation program finishes, you can installyour operating system. The operating system is almost cer-tainly some version or other of Microsoft Windows. Placethe Windows boot disk in the floppy drive and restart thecomputer. Follow the on-screen instructions to install theoperating system.

Installing a CD-ROM Drive

If you don’t have a CD-ROM drive, or if your originalCD-ROM drive has failed you, you can purchase and installeither an internal or external CD-ROM drive to your PC.External drives usually plug into the computer’s parallelprinter port, but some newer models plug into the USB port.

Installing an external CD-ROM drive is a snap — just fol-low these directions:

1. Turn off the computer and unplug it.

2. Unplug the printer cable, if necessary, from the back ofthe computer.

3. Plug one end of the CD-ROM’s cable into the printerport on the back of the computer. Plug the other end ofthe cable into the CD-ROM drive.

4. Plug the printer cable into the printer pass-through porton the CD-ROM drive.

5. Plug in the CD-ROM drive’s power cable and turn it on.

6. Plug in the computer and turn it on.

7. Run the installation program that came with theCD-ROM drive.

Chapter 6: Fiddling with Your Computer’s Drives 57

Page 66: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

If you are installing a USB external CD-ROM drive, youdon’t have to shut off the computer. Just plug in theCD-ROM drive and turn it on. Then connect the USB cableto the CD-ROM drive and to the computer. The computerrecognizes the fact that a new USB device has been connectedand prompts you for the installation disk.

Installing an internal CD-ROM drive is a little more com-plicated than installing an external CD-ROM drive, but notgreatly so:

1. Turn off the computer and unplug it.

2. Remove the computer’s cover.

3. Slide the CD-ROM drive into an empty drive bay. Onsome systems you must remove a piece of plastic thatcovers the empty drive bay. The empty drive bay is theslot at the front of the computer just a little bigger thanthe CD-ROM drive. If you are unsure where to installthe CD-ROM drive, check your computer’s documen-tation.

4. Connect the floppy controller cable to the CD-ROMdrive. This cable looks just like the hard drive cable butis narrower.

5. Connect a power cable to the CD-ROM drive.

6. Secure the CD-ROM drive in the drive bay with screws.

7. Replace the computer’s cover. Be sure not to snag thecover on any cables.

8. Plug the computer in and turn it on. Windows recog-nizes the new CD-ROM drive and prompts you for theinstallation disk that came with the drive. If Windowsdoesn’t prompt you, put the installation disk in thefloppy drive and run the installation program.

58 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 67: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Installing a Tape Backup Unit

Tape backup units are great devices for making copies ofimportant information. If something happens to the origi-nal files on your hard disk — the drive may fail or the filesmay be inadvertently erased — you can restore the files fromthe copy you stored on tape. Installing a tape backup unit isvery similar to installing a hard disk or CD-ROM drive. Ifyou have a USB drive, just plug it in and feed the computerthe installation disk when asked for it.

Follow these steps to install an external parallel printer porttape backup unit:

1. Turn off the computer and unplug it.

2. Unplug the printer cable, if necessary, from the back ofthe computer.

3. Plug one end of the tape backup unit’s cable into theprinter port on the back of the computer. Plug the otherend of the cable into the tape backup unit.

4. Plug the printer cable into the printer pass-through porton the tape backup unit.

5. Plug in the tape backup unit’s power cable and turn it on.

6. Plug in the computer and turn it on. Run the installa-tion program that came with the tape backup unit.

Installing an internal tape backup unit is very similar toinstalling an internal CD-ROM drive:

1. Turn off the computer and unplug it.

2. Remove the computer’s cover.

Chapter 6: Fiddling with Your Computer’s Drives 59

Page 68: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

3. Slide the tape backup unit into an empty drive bay. Onsome systems you must remove a piece of plastic thatcovers the empty drive bay.

4. Connect the floppy controller cable to the tape backupunit. This cable looks just like the hard drive cable butis narrower. Make sure that the red stripe on the cablematches up with pin 1 on the connector.

5. Connect a power cable to the tape backup unit.

6. Secure the tape backup unit in the drive bay with screws.

7. Replace the computer’s cover. Be sure not to snag thecover on any cables.

8. Plug the computer in and turn it on. Windows recog-nizes the new tape backup unit and prompts you to feedit the installation disk that came with the drive. If Win-dows doesn’t prompt you for the installation disk, putthe installation disk in the floppy drive and run theinstallation program.

Installing a Zip Drive

If you have a lot of information (up to 250MB) that youwant to back up or move from one computer to another, aZip drive can be a very useful tool. Most Zip drives are exter-nal and connect to either the parallel printer port or the USBport. Figure 6-1 shows you an external Zip drive.

To install the USB version, just plug in the Zip drive’s powercord and connect the USB cable to both the Zip drive andthe computer. The computer recognizes that a USB devicehas been connected and prompts for the installation disk.Insert the disk and follow the on-screen prompts.

60 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 69: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 6-1: A Zip drive can back up and compress your information quickly.

Follow these steps to install an external Zip drive with theparallel printer port version:

1. Turn off the computer and unplug it.

2. Unplug the printer cable, if necessary, from the back ofthe computer.

3. Plug one end of the Zip drive’s cable into the printer porton the back of the computer. Plug the other end of thecable into the Zip drive.

4. Plug the printer cable into the printer pass-through porton the Zip drive.

5. Plug in the Zip drive’s power cable and turn it on.

6. Plug in the computer and turn it on.

7. Run the installation program that came with the Zipdrive.

Follow these steps to install an internal Zip drive:

1. Turn off the computer and unplug it.

2. Remove the computer’s cover.

Chapter 6: Fiddling with Your Computer’s Drives 61

Page 70: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

3. Slide the Zip drive into an empty drive bay. On somesystems you must remove a piece of plastic that coversthe empty drive bay.

4. Connect the floppy controller cable to the Zip drive.This cable looks just like the hard drive cable but is nar-rower. Make sure that the red stripe on the cable matchesup with pin 1 on the connector.

5. Connect a power cable to the Zip.

6. Secure the Zip drive in the drive bay with screws.

7. Replace the computer’s cover. Be sure not to snag thecover on any cables.

8. Plug the computer in and turn it on. Windows may rec-ognize the new Zip drive and prompt for the installationdisk that came with the drive. If it doesn’t, put the instal-lation disk in the floppy drive and run the installationprogram.

62 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 71: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 7

MODERNIZING YOURMOTHERBOARD

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Changing system settings

■ Upgrading the BIOS

■ Replacing a dead battery

■ Upgrading the CPU

Your computer’s motherboard holds all the important com-ponents that make your computer run, including the SIMMsockets (discussed in Chapter 5) that hold the PC’s RandomAccess Memory. These items are also on the motherboard:

■ The BIOS, or Basic Input Output System, which houses —among other things — your computer’s system settings.

■ The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, otherwise knownas the brain of any computer system.

Figure 7-1 shows a motherboard for a 386 PC.

If your motherboard is older than a 486, the CPU may notbe able to keep up with any new programs that you add. Themost cost-effective solution may be to replace the entiremotherboard. See “Upgrading the CPU,” in this chapter, formore information.

Page 72: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 7-1: If you have 386 motherboard, you should replace it.

Changing Your Computer’s

System Settings

If you add or remove hardware from your computer, youmust tell your computer what changes you have made. Tochange the settings stored in your computer’s CMOS chip(the chip that monitors all of your computer’s activities), youmust access your system’s BIOS (the group of chips that setsup your system’s programs and makes sure that they run).

How you start the setup program depends on the make andmodel of your computer. When you first turn on your com-puter, look for a message telling you how to start the setupprogram. You may see a message such as

Press F2 to enter Setup or Press Del Setup

Some computers have you press Ctrl+Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Alt+Ins,Ctrl+Alt+Enter, or F1 to enter the setup program. If none ofthese methods brings the setup screen to life, you need to hit

Keyboard port

8-bit slots16-bit slots

BIOS chips

SIMM sockets

CPU

Math coprocessor

64 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 73: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

the books. Look in your computer’s manual for more infor-mation on your PC’s BIOS setup.

As soon as you get into the setup program, here are some ofthe features that you need to set:

■ Date: To tell your computer what day it is.

■ Boot Sequence: To tell your computer where to find theoperating system. On most systems, you want to set thisto Floppy and then to Hard Disk.

If your computer is capable of booting from theCD-ROM drive, set this drive last so that your computerwon’t try to boot from the CD-ROM drive if you leavea CD in the drive.

■ Diskette Drives: To tell the computer what type offloppy disk drives it has.

■ Hard Disk: To tell the computer what type and size harddisk is installed. Usually the type is 47, but check thedocumentation for the hard disk.

■ Memory: To tell the computer how much memory it has.

■ Time: To tell the computer what time it is.

■ Video Card: On some systems, you have to tell the com-puter what type of video card is installed. If you installa video card in a computer that has a built-in video card,you have to tell the computer which card to use.

Replacing a Dead Battery

Your computer has a special chip called the CMOS (Com-plimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) that stores all theimportant information about the your PC’s RAM, hard drives

Chapter 7: Modernizing Your Motherboard 65

Page 74: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

and floppy drives, and anything else installed in your system.In order to remember all this stuff, especially when the com-puter is turned off, the CMOS needs a source of electricalpower. That is where the battery comes in. If the battery goesdead — most batteries last for three or more years — theCMOS loses all its settings. After you turn off the computer,the CMOS forgets how much memory the computer has,what type of drives, and so on. Follow these steps to locate thebattery on your system board:

Your computer’s battery may look like a circular, flat disc —sort of like an overgrown watch battery. Or it may look moreoblong (as shown in Figure 7-2), like two AA batterieswrapped together in plastic.

Figure 7-2: One of the types of batteries that your computer may have.

1. Turn off the computer and unplug it.

2. Remove the computer’s cover.

3. Locate the battery on the motherboard.

4. Remove the existing battery by gently prying the retain-

66 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 75: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

ing clips apart. If your computer has AA-type batteries,disconnect the cable from the motherboard. Note theconnector where you disconnected the cable.

5. Install the new battery. If your computer uses one of thewatch-type batteries, install the battery with the plus signup. If your computer uses the AA-type battery, connectthe cable to the motherboard.

6. Replace the computer cover.

7. Plug in and turn on the computer.

After you install the battery and turn the computer on, don’tbe surprised that the computer suffers from amnesia. TheCMOS won’t remember the date and time, or what kind ofhardware it has until you run the BIOS setup program. Seethe section earlier in this chapter for information on runningthe setup.

Upgrading the BIOS

Who is this BIOS guy and why would you need to upgradehim? The BIOS is a set of computer chips that provide thebasic instructions necessary for your computer to function,including the following:

■ The BIOS allows your computer to boot, or start up.

■ This system is also responsible for performing the com-puter’s Power On Self-Test, or POST, which checks tomake sure that your computer’s hardware componentsare functioning.

■ Probably the most important function of the BIOS isthat it acts as the interface between your computer’s oper-ating system (for example, Windows 95) and its hard-ware (for example, your printer).

Chapter 7: Modernizing Your Motherboard 67

Page 76: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

You may need to upgrade your computer’s BIOS so that itcan communicate with new hardware devices that weren’tavailable when the BIOS was created. For example, if yourBIOS is older, it may not be able to cope with dates beyondDecember 31, 1999 because of the so-called Y2K bug.

Using software to upgrade your BIOS:

Most computers have a flash BIOS. A flash BIOS is simply aset of BIOS chips that can be upgraded by running a soft-ware program. You can usually get the software you need tocomplete the upgrade from the manufacturer of the com-puter. If you don’t have any luck getting the software fromthe computer manufacturer, try going directly to the BIOSmanufacturer — almost certainly AMI (www.ami.com) orAward (www.award.com).

Upgrading the BIOS the

old-fashioned way

If you have an older BIOS that you can’t upgrade with soft-ware, you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and getunder the hood of your computer and perform the upgrademanually.

You need some tools to upgrade the BIOS the old-fashionedway, but don’t worry, the work isn’t difficult. Check Chapter3 for some safety tips, and have these tools ready:

■ A screwdriver to remove your computer’s cover.

■ A chip puller to remove the old BIOS chips. If you havea computer toolkit, you probably already have a chippuller, which is the tool that resembles a pair of tweezers.

68 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 77: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

If you don’t have a computer toolkit, you can buy a basicset for about $20. You can also use a small screwdriverto gently remove the old BIOS chips.

■ Of course, you also need new BIOS chips. You can pur-chase these from your computer’s manufacturer or froma BIOS manufacturer such as AMI or Award.

To upgrade your BIOS and manually replace BIOS chips:

1. Turn off your computer, unplug it, and remove its cover.

2. Locate the BIOS chips on the motherboard. The BIOSis probably contained on a single chip with the wordBIOS printed on it. The BIOS may consist of up to fivechips, labeled BIOS-1 through BIOS-5.

3. Make a note of the location and orientation of the BIOSchips so you can install the new chips in the same way.

4. Gently pry out the old BIOS chips, as shown inFigure 7-3.

Figure 7-3: Use a scewdriver to gently pry old chips out of the sockets.

5. Carefully insert the new BIOS chips in the vacated chipsockets. Be sure not to bend the pins on the BIOS chips.

6. Replace the computer’s cover.

7. Plug in the computer and turn it on. The computer dis-plays the new BIOS version on start-up.

Chapter 7: Modernizing Your Motherboard 69

Page 78: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Upgrading the CPU

The CPU, or Central Processing Unit (shown in Figure 7-4),is your computer’s brain. CPUs must be made of very hardystuff, because the CPU is one of the least likely componentsin your computer to fail. In fact, your CPU is more likely tooutlive its usefulness than it is to die on you.

Figure 7-4: The CPU is your PC’s brain.

But a day may come when you find some shiny new programthat you just have to have, but you realize that your agingcomputer’s CPU isn’t up to the task. Should you ditch thatfaithful computer for a newer, fancier model? Maybe. But ifyour computer is otherwise healthy, has lots of RAM andhard disk space, you may consider replacing the PC’s centralprocessor instead.

Currently, if your computer has a 486 or newer CPU, youcan probably install a faster processor. I say “probably”because some older computers have a CPU that is perma-nently attached to the motherboard. These CPUs cannot beeasily removed and are not good candidates for an upgrade.

68 pin package (80286 microprocessor)

70 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 79: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

If you have any questions about the CPU of a specific com-puter model, be sure to check with the vendor selling theprocessor upgrade, or consult the following list.

Three of the best sources for processor upgrades are Intel,Kingston Technologies, and Evergreen Technologies. Theyprovide processor upgrades for a wide variety of computersystems.

Here’s a list of the types of PC processors that you canupgrade:

■ 486 system: You can upgrade the system to the equiva-lent of a Pentium 75 MHz by installing an AMD 5x86133 MHz. This chip costs about $100.

■ Pentium 75 MHz or faster system: You have severalchoices for upgrading. Intel makes an Overdrive proces-sor for Pentium 75 MHz based systems that upgradesthem to Pentium 150 MHz. Evergreen Technologiesmakes a 200 MHz processor upgrade for these systems.Kingston Technologies has an upgrade for systems basedon Pentium 75 MHz or faster processors that uses anIntel Pentium 233 MHz processor.

■ Pentium 90, 120, or 150 MHz system: You canupgrade to the Intel Pentium Overdrive 180 MHzprocessor. Or you can install the Evergreen Technologies200 MHz processor upgrade or the Kingston Technolo-gies Pentium 233 MHz processor upgrade.

■ Pentium 100 MHz or 133 MHz system: You caninstall the Intel Pentium Overdrive 166 MHz or 200MHz processor upgrade. Or you can install the Ever-green Technologies 200 MHz processor upgrade orKingston Technologies Pentium 233 MHz processorupgrade.

Chapter 7: Modernizing Your Motherboard 71

Page 80: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

■ Pentium 166 MHz system: You can upgrade to the Intel200 MHz Pentium Overdrive processor. Or you caninstall the Evergreen Technologies 200 MHz processorupgrade or the Kingston Technologies Pentium 233MHz processor upgrade.

■ An AMD or Pentium CPU running at 166 MHz orfaster: You have the option of upgrading to KingstonTechnologies’ new TurboChip 366. This TurboChip 366is an AMD K6-2 processor running at 366 MHz. (AMDis the chief rival of Intel in the CPU market).

Be sure before attempting to install a new processor to yourcomputer that you check with the processor’s manufacturerto make sure that the new processor will work in your system.

72 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 81: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 8

MONITORS ANDSCANNERS

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Maintaining your monitor

■ Choosing and installing a new monitor

■ Installing a scanner

Your monitor is your computer’s window. Do you spend allyour time in front of the computer staring at the keyboard?No! Well, maybe if you type as poorly as I do. You spend thegreat majority of your computer time looking at the moni-tor, so keeping you monitor properly adjusted pays.

Of course, having a finely tuned monitor is no fun if youdon’t have anything pretty to see on it. A digital scanner is agreat, inexpensive tool for getting pictures into your com-puter without having to spend hundreds of dollars on a dig-ital camera.

Maintaining Your Monitor

Several monitor problems can easily be solved with the rightadjustments. The hardest part is making the correct diagno-sis. You can make several small changes to your display with-out spending a ton of money or buying any extras, but if youdo discover that your monitor is shot, I show you how toreplace it in the next section.

Page 82: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Adjusting your monitor’s display settings

If you have a small computer screen, you may be surprisedto learn that you can change the amount of information thatyour screen displays. No, you can’t make the screen bigger —without replacing it, that is. But you can make everything onthe screen a bit smaller so that you can fit more on-screen.

All you have to do is adjust the monitor’s resolution. Resolu-tion is the term for the number of dots of color (called pix-els) that your monitor displays. Resolution is displayed in thefollowing format: 640-x-480. The first number refers tonumber of pixels displayed horizontally across the screen andthe second refers to the number of pixels displayed verticallydown the screen. The higher the numbers, the more infor-mation is displayed on your computer screen. The moreinformation displayed on your computer screen, the smallerthe information has to be. Refer to Table 8-1 to see how res-olution affects your computer’s display.

Table 8-1 Monitor Resolutions

Number of Relative Size of Readability Pixels Information

640-x-480 Large Less information, but easyon the eyes

800-x-600 Medium A compromise betweenamount of information andsize

1024- x-768 Small More information, but canbe tough on the eyes

1600-x-1200 Tiny Only suitable for 19-inch orlarger screens

How attractive a resolution looks on your computer dependsa lot on the size of your screen. Unless you have eagle eyes,any setting higher than the ones listed in Table 8-2 are toosmall to read comfortably.

74 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 83: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Table 8-2 Screen Size and Resolution Settings

Screen Size Resolution Setting

14-inch 640-x-480

15-inch 800-x-600

17-inch 1024-x-768

To change your screen’s resolution:

1. Right-click (click with your right mouse button) anyblank area of the desktop and select Properties from thecontext menu that appears.

2. Click the Settings tab from the Display Properties dia-log box.

3. In the Screen Area box, drag the slider control to the leftor right to decrease or increase the resolution, respec-tively. (Refer to Figure 8-1.)

4. Click OK.

5. After you see a dialog box informing you that you mustrestart your computer, close any open applications thatyou have running and click Yes. Your computer restartswith the new resolution setting.

Depending on your video adapter card, you may have theoption of changing the settings without restarting. If you seean option labeled Apply Setting without Restarting, you canselect it to change your display setting without having toshutdown and restart the computer.

The larger your monitor is, the greater the resolution you candisplay without the items on-screen being too small to seeeasily.

Chapter 8: Monitors and Scanners 75

Page 84: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 8-1: Use this dialog box to adjust colors and resolution.

Adjusting your monitor’s colors

In addition to the resolution, you can adjust the number ofcolors that the screen displays. The number of colors rangesfrom 16 to over 4 billion (yes, billion) depending on yourvideo card and monitor. So if your computer’s reds aren’t sored and its blues aren’t so blue, try making some minoradjustments before you replace it.

The greater the resolution and the more colors you display,the more video memory is required.

76 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 85: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

To change the number of colors that your screen can display:

1. Right-click any blank area of the desktop and selectProperties from the menu that appears.

2. In the Display Properties dialog box that appears, asshown in Figure 8-1, click the Settings tab.

3. Select the number of colors to display from the Colorsdrop-down list (refer to Figure 8-1) and then click OK.(Remember, the colors that you can see on your com-puter depend on your video card and monitor; Table 8-3shows you how many colors you get with each option.)Unless you are working on photo-realistic images, the16-bit setting works just fine

4. If you see a dialog box, such as the one shown in Fig-ure 8-2, informing you that you must restart your com-puter, close any open applications that you haverunning and click Yes. Your computer restarts with thenew color setting.

Figure 8-2: The System Settings Change dialog box.

Chapter 8: Monitors and Scanners 77

Page 86: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Table 8-3 Number of Color Options

Setting Number of Colors

16-bit 65,000

24-bit 16 million

32-bit 4 billion

When Your Monitor Needs to Be Replaced

Maybe your monitor is too small and your colors look terri-ble, or perhaps it clashes with your office décor. If you decideto replace your monitor for any reason, you have a lot ofchoices on what kind of monitor you should get. The goodnews is that the technology is great, and your colors andgraphics will look good. Also, getting rid of your old moni-tor and replacing it with a new one is one of the simplestupgrades you can do.

Deciding on a new monitor

If you’re thinking about buying a new computer monitor,you have the following choices:

■ A traditional CRT monitor runs about $125 for thecheapest 14-inch models to thousands of dollars for 21-inch and larger models.

■ A newer flat panel LCD screen. LCD monitors start offat about $1,000 for a 15-inch model and go up fromthere.

■ A short-depth or short-neck monitor. Recently intro-duced, this type of monitor works just like a CRT mon-itor, but it takes up less desk space. Expect to pay apremium for this feature.

78 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 87: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

You may as well buy the best-looking monitor you can affordbecause every time you use the computer you have to stare atit. LCD technology is improving all the time, and these screensare becoming popular — despite their hefty price tags —because they provide crisp, clear, and distortion free imageswhile taking up very little desktop real estate. LCD screens alsoconsume less than half the energy of their CRT counterparts.

Replacing your monitor with a new one

Your old monitor has passed on to a better place, and you’vejust purchased your new one. Here’s how to get the old onedisconnected and install the new one.

To disconnect an old monitor:

1. Turn off your computer and monitor.

2. Unplug the power cord and disconnect the monitor cablefrom the back of the computer.

3. Remove the old monitor from your work area. (You cantake the old monitor to a computer equipment recycler.)

To install a new monitor, make sure your computer is off andthen do the following:

1. Place the new monitor where the old one has been.

2. Connect the new monitor’s signal cable to the video port on the back of the computer, using the 15-pin D-connector shown in Figure 8-3.

3. Plug in the monitor’s power cord.

Chapter 8: Monitors and Scanners 79

Page 88: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 8-3: A 15-pin D-connector plug.

4. Turn on the monitor and computer.

If your new monitor comes with any special features, makesure that you install the software. Follow these steps to installthe new monitor’s software to introduce the monitor toWindows:

1. Right-click any blank area of the desktop and chooseProperties from the context menu and click the Set-tings tab.

2. Click the Advanced button in the bottom right cornerof the Display Properties dialog box.

3. From the dialog box that appears, click the Monitor tab,as shown in Figure 8-4, and then click the Change button

4. Select the manufacturer of your monitor from the Man-ufacturers list of the Select Device dialog box, as shownin Figure 8-5.

5. Select the model of your monitor from the Models list.

6. Click the Close button.

7. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box.

80 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 89: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 8-4: The Monitor tab.

Chapter 8: Monitors and Scanners 81

Page 90: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 8-5: The Select Device dialog box.

Adding a Digital Scanner

A scanner, as shown in Figure 8-6, is a device that capturesimages of pictures, documents, or any fairly flat object —and saves those images in electronic format. Additionally,Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software is available toconvert images of text documents into editable text files.

Most scanners built for use at home connect to your com-puter’s printer port. You can also make sure that your scan-ner has a printer pass-through port, which allows you toconnect both the scanner and your printer at the same time.

Some new scanners connect to your computer’s UniversalSerial Bus (USB) port. USB ports can support up to 127devices, whereas your parallel port can support only one ortwo. USB ports can transfer information at a faster rate thanparallel ports. If your computer has a USB port, considerbuying one of these devices.

82 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 91: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 8-6: A digital scanner.

Here is how to connect your new parallel scanner:

1. Turn off the computer.

2. If you have a printer, turn it off and disconnect theprinter cable from the back of the computer.

3. Connect the scanner’s data cable to the back of the scan-ner and to the printer port on the computer.

4. Plug in the scanner’s power cable.

5. Plug the printer into the scanner’s printer pass-throughport, which allows you to print to your printer withouthaving to disconnect the scanner and reconnect theprinter.

6. Turn on the printer, scanner, and computer.

7. Install your scanner’s software.

Chapter 8: Monitors and Scanners 83

Page 92: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

You have to refer to the scanner’s documentation for specificinstructions on installing the software. Most scanners includesoftware to tell the computer how to communicate with thescanner as well as some software for manipulating thescanned images. Be prepared to restart your computer afterinstalling the software.

Installing a USB scanner is a bit more straightforward — noneed to turn off the computer or disconnect the printer. Con-nect the USB cable to the scanner and to the computer’s USBport and install the software that comes with the scanner.

84 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 93: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 9

UPDATING YOURSYSTEM SOFTWARE

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Knowing when to upgrade your software

■ Removing applications

■ Installing applications

■ Upgrading Windows

Software companies are continually updating their products.Some software is updated once and even twice a year. Othercompanies may update their software products as often asevery month. This chapter helps you decide whether or notyou should install those upgrades.

Updating Application Software

Software manufacturers seem always to have new versions oftheir programs waiting in the wings. Sometimes you’re barelyused to the current version when the company that makesthe software comes out with a new and improved version.Should you stick with your current version? Or bite the bul-let and purchase the upgrade?

Knowing when to upgrade any type of

software

If you are the type of person who must have the latest andbest of everything and the cost isn’t an issue, go ahead andupgrade your applications. (I have a brother like that.) Most

Page 94: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

of us, however, either don’t have the money to spend on everynew version of software that comes along, or we have betterways to spend the money.

To me, software is kind of like a car. I tend to keep a car anddrive the wheels off of it. When the car wears out, I buy anew one. I know software doesn’t really wear out, but it doeshave a useful life span, and when that life span comes to anend, the software is less useful and more of a nuisance.

Take these tips from someone in the know so that you candetermine when to upgrade:

■ Upgrade your software when the current version nolonger does the things that you need it to do. If the newversion of the software has some new feature that youneed or that you think will make life a little easier, thenbuy the upgrade.

■ Another scenario that may prompt you to upgrade yourapplication software is when people that you work withand exchange files with decide to upgrade. If you don’tupgrade your application software to the same version aseveryone else’s, you may not be able to share your datafiles with others.

Some good news about upgrading your software is that whilethe upgrades are almost never free, they are usually offeredat a substantial discount for users of the current version ofthe software. And some software upgrades are even free.

Sometimes, a software manufacturer may discover a flaw inthe software. Occasionally the software manufacturer ignoresthese flaws, or bugs. But usually the company offers a fix forthe bugs free of charge. In most cases you can downloadthese fixes — sometimes referred to as patches or programupdates — from the software manufacturer’s Web site.

86 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 95: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Smaller companies may require you to call to request the fixbe placed on a diskette or a CD-ROM and be sent to youby mail. I recommend that you install these free updates.

One way to avoid some of the hassles of having to installupdates to your software is to wait six months or so after thenew software is released before you purchase it. This allowstime for the manufacturer to identify and fix some of thebugs that always seem to crop up.

Installing application software

Before you can use that shiny new version of your favoritesoftware package, you must first install it. Be sure to read theinstallation instructions that come with the new software.

Some software upgrades require that you uninstall the cur-rent version before installing the new version of the software,while others may insist that you install the upgrade over thecurrent version. The next section covers uninstalling software.

If you are using Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows2000, installing new software is very straightforward. Sim-ply place the CD in the CD-ROM drive and wait a few sec-onds. On many systems the installation program will startautomatically. If it doesn’t, you can follow these basic stepsto install just about any software package:

1. Click Start➪Settings➪Control Panel. The Control Panelleaps to the screen, as shown in Figure 9-1.

Chapter 9: Updating Your System Software 87

Page 96: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 9-1: The Control Panel with the Add/Remove Programs icon highlighted.

2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon to revealthe Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box, shownin Figure 9-2.

3. Click the Install button. The Install Program FromFloppy Disk or CD-ROM window appears and instructsyou to insert the software application’s first installationfloppy disk or CD-ROM into the disk or CD-ROMdrive. Then click Next.

4. Windows scurries off to check your floppy andCD-ROM drives for a program named setup or install.After Windows finds the program, it displays the nameand drive location of the installation program in the RunInstallation Program window, shown in Figure 9-3. Clickthe Finish button to start installing the program.

If it seems odd to you that you click the Finish buttonto start installing your program, join the club. After yournew program’s installation program appears, follow theon-screen instructions to set up the program.

88 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 97: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 9-2: The Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box.

If you are running MS-DOS or Windows 3.11, pick up acopy of DOS For Dummies, 3rd Edition, by Dan Gookin, orWindows 3.11 For Dummies, 4th Edition, by Andy Rathbone.Both are published by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.

Chapter 9: Updating Your System Software 89

Page 98: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 9-3: The Run Installation Program dialog box.

Removing (uninstalling) application

software

Before you install that new software application upgrade,removing the current version of the program is usually a goodidea. Be careful, however, that the software application thatyou are installing doesn’t require the existence of the currentversion. Check the installation instructions that come withyour software application to see if you should remove the cur-rent version.

Follow these instructions to remove software applicationsfrom systems running Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows 2000:

1. Click Start➪Settings➪Control Panel. The Control Panelleaps to the screen. (Refer to Figure 9-1.)

90 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 99: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon to revealthe Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box. (Referto Figure 9-2.)

3. Click the name of the software application that you wantto remove and then click the Add/Remove button. Ifyour software application doesn’t show up in the list,consult the application’s documentation for removalinstructions.

In most cases you see the Confirm File Deletion dialogbox asking if you really want to remove the softwareapplication in question. Click Yes to remove the softwareapplication. See the uninstaller dialog box shown in Fig-ure 9-4.

Figure 9-4: The Micrografx Uninstaller dialog box.

4. Some software applications — especially the big, expen-sive ones — may pop up their own installation program.Look for a button labeled Remove or Uninstall and clickit. Check out Figure 9-5 for an example of the Removefeature of Microsoft Office 2000.

5. After you are finished removing the software application,click OK.

Chapter 9: Updating Your System Software 91

Page 100: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 9-5: Add or Remove Features for Microsoft Office 2000.

Updating Operating System Software

If you aren’t currently running Windows 95 or later, it isprobably time to upgrade unless you never share files withanyone else, and you’re perfectly content with all your cur-rent applications. Windows 95 is very user-friendly comparedto DOS and Windows 3.x. Also, if you don’t have at leastWindows 95 on your system and you decide to install a newprogram, you’ll have to upgrade anyway.

Upgrading to Windows 95 and 98

Unless you inherited a copy of Windows 95 from dearlydeparted Uncle Cosmo, don’t bother upgrading to Windows 95. I recommend that you consider upgrading toWindows 98. Windows 98 is easier, faster, and more stableto use than Windows 95, and it’s less likely to crash justbefore you save that PowerPoint presentation you spentseven hours preparing.

92 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 101: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

If you are upgrading to Windows 98 from Windows 95,chances are that your computer is already up to the task. Ifyou are upgrading from Windows 3.x, you may need toupdate your hardware in order to be able to run Windows98. If I haven’t talked you out of upgrading to Windows 95or Windows 98 by now, Table 9-1 shows you what you needto perform the upgrade.

If you have the hardware that you need, performing theinstallation is a snap. If you don’t have the minimum hard-ware requirements to upgrade, do a little research to find outwhat the upgrades will cost and compare your numbers withthe price of a new computer. You may find that it makesmore sense to buy a new computer with Windows 98 alreadyinstalled than to upgrade.

Table 9-1: Upgrading to Windows 95 or 98

You want to For Windows Explanation SeeUpgrade 95 and 98 you your must have

Operating MS DOS 3.31 Windows 95 Chapter 1system or Windows 3.x and 98 charge

$100 more if you don’t meet this minimum. You have no choice — unless you want to buy a new PC

Processor 386 DX for A Pentium Chapter 6Windows 95; processor is 486 at 66 MHz best or higher for Windows 98

Hard Drive 45 MB Bare minimum. Chapter 5Don’t upgrade unless you have 100 – 200 MB hard drive space

Continued

Chapter 9: Updating Your System Software 93

Page 102: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Table 9-1: Upgrading to Windows 95 or 98

(continued)

You want to For Windows Explanation SeeUpgrade 95 and 98 you your must have

Random 4 MB RAM Bare minimum. Chapter 5Access 16+ MB RAM Memory for Windows

95 and 32+ MB for Windows 98 is better

Alternative CD-ROM drive Windows 95 Chapter 6Disk Drive and 98

installation takes forever on floppy diskettes

Adapter VGA card You need some Chapter 4fun toys, don’t you?

Monitor 19-inch Everything Chapter 8looks even better on an LCD or a 19-inch CRT

Mouse You need one Not having one Chapter 2(or other defeats the pointing purpose of the device) whole point

and click thing

Keyboard You need one You can’t Chapter 2function without a keyboard

To install Windows 95 or 98:

1. Put the CD in the CD-ROM drive. The setup programprobably starts automatically. If it doesn’t, you have tostart the setup program manually.

94 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 103: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

2. In Windows 3.x, select File➪Run, type d:\setup (if yourCD-ROM drive uses a letter other than D, substitutethat letter for your drive) and click OK.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the upgrade.

If you are upgrading from Windows 95 or 98 from anotherMicrosoft Windows operating system, double-click the MyComputer icon on the desktop, double-click the icon foryour CD-ROM drive, and find and double-click the Setupicon. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the upgrade.

Upgrading to Windows 2000 Professional

Windows 2000 is the replacement for Windows NT 4.0. Justlike Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 comes in two flavors,Professional and Server. Unless you’re upgrading a networkof servers, you want the Professional version. Here is whatyou need to get up and running with Windows 2000 Professional:

■ 166 MHz Pentium processor: I have found that Win-dows 2000 runs well on a Pentium II 300 MHz or faster.

■ 32MB RAM: More is better when it comes to memory.

■ VGA card and color monitor: A standard monitorworks fine, but all the better if you want to upgrade toa big screen.

■ 2GB hard drive with at least 650MB available: Just aswith memory, more is better.

■ 4X or faster CD-ROM drive. This is no longer a choice!

■ Mouse and keyboard. Pretty basic stuff.

Chapter 9: Updating Your System Software 95

Page 104: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CHAPTER 10

PRIMING YOURPRINTER

IN THIS CHAPTER

■ Choosing a printer

■ Connecting a printer

■ Installing printer software

■ Troubleshooting printers

No doubt about it: The much-touted paperless office isnowhere in sight. The Internet is now a very popular meansof sharing information, but there seems to be no replacementfor the convenience of the printed page. Of course, you’llneed a printer to create those printed pages. This chapterhelps you select and install the printer that’s right for you andprovides troubleshooting information for when youencounter printing difficulties.

Selecting a New Printer

You can purchase one of any number of types of printers,each with different features, depending on your printingneeds. But before you run out and buy a printer, you needto understand the types of printers that are available and theiruses. The three basic printer types are impact, inkjet, andlaser.

Page 105: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Impact printers

Impact printers create an image on the paper by striking aribbon with a set of wires, similar to the way a typewriter’skeys hit paper. The most common type of impact printer isthe dot-matrix printer.

Dot-matrix printers are most useful for printing multipartand continuous-feed forms (those pages that are attached withperforations) and are also capable of printing rudimentarygraphics, though they do so slowly and noisily.

Inkjet printers

Inkjet technology is the newest printer technology. Inkjetprinters create text and graphics by spraying ink onto thepaper. The speed of inkjet printers ranges from a low of about2 pages per minute to a high of about 12 pages per minute.Most inkjet printers available today are capable of printingin color. Some models can produce photo-realistic outputusing special ink cartridges and paper.

The inkjet printer is the most common type of printer forhome computer users, and they can be purchased for as lowas $80. Of course, you can buy more expensive models.

Laser printers

Laser printers use the same technology that copy machinesuse to deliver the highest quality and fastest output of thevarious printer types. The slowest laser printers can printabout 4 pages per minute, and the fastest, most expensivemodels can print up to about 40 pages per minute. Theseprinters excel at printing both text and graphics.

Chapter 10: Priming Your Printer 97

Page 106: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Most laser printers are monochrome printers — they print inblack and shades of gray, but color laser printers are available.Prices for the least expensive color laser printers start at about$1,200. If you only need to print the occasional color docu-ment, consider a laser for your everyday printing and pur-chase an inexpensive color inkjet printer for color output.

Because of their high price tag, laser printers were once usedmainly by businesses with offices and networks that can ben-efit by being shared by many users. Today you can purchasea laser printer for home use for as little as $250.

Which type of printer should you choose?

If you’re stumped on what kind of printer you should pur-chase for your upgrade, think about the types of documentsyou print (or would like to print) on a daily basis.

Use this price range format, along with Table 10-1, to makean educated choice on which kind of printer is best for you:

■ $ Fairly inexpensive

■ $$ Moderately inexpensive

■ $$$ Fairly expensive

■ $$$$ Expensive

■ $$$$$ Very expensive

Table 10-1: Choosing a Printer

Activity Print Price Printer Volume Range Choice

Printing lists low $$ dot matrix and continuous forms

98 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 107: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Activity Print Price Printer Volume Range Choice

Printing lists moderate- $$-$$$ monochrome and high lasercontinuous forms without color

Printing text moderate- $-$$ inkjetand color highgraphics

Printing good low- $-$$ inkjetquality moderategraphics

Printing text high $$$-$$$$ monochromedocuments laseronly

Printing color high $$$$ monochromeand text laser anddocuments inkjet

Printing highest moderate- $$$$$ color laserquality color high printergraphics along with text

I use a monochrome laser printer for most of my text print-ing, but I also have an inexpensive inkjet printer that I usewhen I need to print in color.

Connecting a Printer to Your Computer

Back in the Dark Ages of personal computing, connectingprinters to the computer’s serial port was common. Today,printers almost invariably connect to the computer’s parallelprinter port. The parallel printer port is the 25-pin D-shapedconnector on the back of your computer. However, some newprinters connect to the computer’s USB.

Chapter 10: Priming Your Printer 99

Page 108: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Connecting the printer to the computer is pretty simple. Forprinters that have a parallel port follow these steps:

If you have a scanner connected to the computer’s parallelport, plug the printer cable into the scanner’s pass-throughprinter port. A pass-through port is simply a printer port onthe back of the scanner. You can plug the printer into thescanner and plug the scanner into the back of the computer.This lets you use both your scanner and printer without hav-ing to disconnect/reconnect cables. If your scanner doesn’thave a pass-through printer port, you must disconnect yourscanner before connecting your printer.

1. Turn off the computer and existing printer if you haveone.

2. Disconnect the printer cable from the back of the com-puter and remove the existing printer.

3. Connect the new printer’s cable to the printer port onthe back of the computer and the centronics printer porton the back of the printer. The centronics printer portfound on the back of the printer is about the same sizeas the printer port on the back of the computer, butinstead of having 25 holes, it has little gold teeth thatlook sort of like a zipper.

4. Plug in the printer’s power cable.

5. Turn on the printer and computer.

After you connect the printer and turn on the printer andcomputer, you must tell Windows about your new printer.Refer to the next section on adding and removing printerdrivers.

Installing a USB printer is easier yet. No need to turn off thecomputer — just connect the USB cable to the printer andto the computer’s USB port. Windows usually recognizes the

100 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 109: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

printer and attempts to install the software for the printerautomatically.

If Windows can’t install the software automatically, you needto install it yourself. Refer to the next section on adding andremoving printer drivers.

If you already have devices connected to all your USB ports —many computers have two USB ports — you can purchase aUSB hub that lets you connect additional USB devices.

Adding and Removing a Printer Driver

Before you can use a printer that you connect to your com-puter, the printer and computer must be properly introduced.You accomplish this feat by installing a bit of software, knownas a printer driver, that tells Windows how to control theprinter.

Make sure that you have handy your Windows installationCD-ROM, along with any other disks or CD-ROMs thatcame with your printer. Follow these steps to install a newprinter driver:

1. Click Start➪Settings➪Printers. The Printers windowappears.

2. Double-click the Add Printer icon to fire up the AddPrinter Wizard.

3. Click Next. The Add Printer Wizard wants to know ifthe printer is attached to your computer or some othercomputer on the network. Select the Local printer optionand click Next.

Chapter 10: Priming Your Printer 101

Page 110: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

4. You tell Windows what kind of printer you have byselecting the manufacturer and model of your printerfrom the Manufacturers and Printers lists, then clickingNext. (See Figure 10-1.)

Figure 10-1: The Manufacturers and Printers lists.

5. Windows asks where the printer is connected. Make surethat you select the LPT1: port option, as shown in Fig-ure 10-2, and click Next.

6. Accept the suggested name for your printer or type a newname as shown in Figure 10-3. Click the Yes option toset the printer as the default and click Next. Setting theprinter as the default printer lets Windows know thatthis is the printer you will always print to unless you tellit otherwise.

102 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 111: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 10-2: Choosing the port for your printer.

Figure 10-3: Giving your printer a name.

Chapter 10: Priming Your Printer 103

Page 112: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

7. Accept the default option to print a test page and clickFinish.

8. Windows may ask for your Windows CD-ROM. If so,insert your Windows CD-ROM and click OK.

9. Windows installs the printer driver and prints a test page.If the test page prints properly click Yes in the dialog boxthat appears. That’s it — you’re finished!

If the test page doesn’t print as expected, click No to start thePrint Troubleshooter. Printer problems are discussed in thenext section.

Fixing Common Printer Problems

If you have a printer, sooner or later you will have some typeof printer problem. These problems generally fall into twocategories:

■ The printer doesn’t print anything

■ The printer prints nonsensical garbage

If your printer won’t print

If you see an error window, such as the one in Figure 10-4,or if you the printer just plain refuses to print anything Fig-ure 10-4: The printer error window.

■ Make sure that the printer is plugged in and turned on.

■ Check the connections between the printer and the com-puter. Some times they work loose just enough to pre-vent the computer from talking to the printer.

■ Many printers have an Online button. Press it to makesure the button’s on.

104 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 113: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

■ Check to see if the printer has paper. If the printer haspaper, but still won’t print, the printer may be jammed.Open the cover and remove any paper stuck inside.

■ Make sure that you have told your application the cor-rect printer to print to. If you are on a network, you maybe merrily printing away to a printer in another location.

If your printer won’t stop printing

Occasionally, printers have just the opposite problem. Theyprint plenty, but everything that comes out looks like hiero-glyphics. Here are some things to try:

■ Verify that you have selected the correct brand of printerin your applications Print dialog box. If you tell yourprogram that you have a Stoneprinter III if you reallyhave a PaperEater Deluxe connected to your computer,the program won’t know how to communicate withprinter.

■ Try printing from another program, such as WordPad.If that works, you probably have a problem with yoursoftware. Check your printer setup in the software thatwon’t print. You may have to dig out your software doc-umentation for this one.

If these hints don’t solve your problem, you can try the Win-dows troubleshooter for help.

Here is how to fire up the printer troubleshooter in Win-dows 95:

1. Click Start➪Help.

2. Click the Index tab.

3. Type printer problems and press Enter.

Chapter 10: Priming Your Printer 105

Page 114: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

4. The print troubleshooter jumps into action and guidesyou through the process of diagnosing and fixing printerproblems.

Here is how to get started with the Print Troubleshooter inWindows 98:

1. Click Start➪Help.

2. Click the Contents tab.

3. On the Contents tab, click Troubleshooting. The Trou-bleshooting topic expands.

4. Click Windows 98 Troubleshooters. The Windows 98Troubleshooters topic expands even more.

5. Click the word Print. The Windows 98 Print Trou-bleshooter comes to life in the right side of the window.(See Figure 10-5.) Have the Print Troubleshooter guideyou through the process of fixing your printing woes.

106 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 115: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Figure 10-5: Specific printing problem options.

Chapter 10: Priming Your Printer 107

Page 116: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CLIFFSNOTES REVIEWUse this CliffsNotes Review to practice what you’ve learnedand to build your confidence in doing the job right the firsttime. After you work through the review questions, the prob-lem-solving exercises, and the practice projects, you’re wellon your way to achieving your goal of knowing how andwhen to upgrade or repair your PC.

Q&A

1. UPS stands for

a. UnPlugged System.b. Uninterruptible Power Supply.c. Unstable Power Source.

2. What is the benefit of defragmenting your hard drive?

________________________________________________

3. The ScanDisk program

a. Checks your drives for errors and automatically fixes them.b. Scans pictures that you can save to a disk.c. Erases all the information on you drives.

4. What is the result of increasing your monitor’s resolution?

________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. LCD monitors are desirable because they

a. Use less space and electricity.b. Cost less than CRT monitors.c. Don’t require a video adapter.

Page 117: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CliffsNotes Review 109

6. USB stands for

a. Uninterruptible Supply Bus.b. Upstream Source Byte.c. Universal Serial Bus.

7. What is the primary reason you should buy a modem for your PC?________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. A cable modem

a. Lets you watch TV on your PC.b. Provides the fastest Internet access using your cable TV

system.c. Connects two or more PCs using a special cable.

9. The newest and most popular standard for 56K modems is

a. X2b. Kflexc. V.90

10. ISP stands for

a. Internet Service Provider.b. Internal System Processor.c. Intermediate Storage Point.

11. What three things affect the amount of memory your PC needs?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Page 118: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

110 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

12. SIMM stands for

a. Single Inline Memory Module.b. System Integrated Memory Module.c. Sealed Internal Math Module.

13. What device should you use to avoid static electricity damageto your PC?________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. What type of printer provides the fastest, highest quality output?________________________________________________________________________________________________

Answers: (1) b. (2) It improves hard disk performance. (3) a. (4)You can fit more information on screen. (5) a. (6) c. (7) To con-nect to the Internet. (8) b. (9) c. (10) a. (11) Your operating sys-tem, the type of programs you run, the number of programs yourun simultaneously. (12) a. (13) A grounding strap. (14) Laserprinter.

Scenarios

1. Your PC performs just fine when you are using your spreadsheetprogram, but everything slows down if you try to run both thespreadsheet program and the word processing program. Youshould _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

2. You have a great monitor, but everything on-screen is just a lit-tle too small to see comfortably. You should ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Page 119: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CliffsNotes Review 111

3. Lately, you notice that your PC has been taking longer andlonger to load your favorite programs. You should ________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

4. Your trusty desktop publishing package has all the features andease of use that you could desire. However, everyone you dobusiness with has upgraded to the latest version of the softwarefrom Software Central. You should ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

5. You PC is old and slow, and it doesn’t have much memory oravailable hard disk space. It doesn’t have a sound card orCD-ROM drive. You should ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Answers: (1) Check your PC’s RAM to see if it needs to beupgraded. (2) Change your display settings to decrease the resolu-tion. (3) Run Disk Defragmenter. (4) Consider upgrading yoursoftware. (5) Keep using it as long as it serves your purposes, butwhen you need a change, buy a newer model — don’t upgrade.

Consider This

■ Did you know that most PC manufacturers maintain Web sitesthat provide customer and technical support? Check your PCdocumentation for the address of the company’s Web site.

■ Did you know prices for PC components can vary widely? Besure to browse several sources before spending your money.

Page 120: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Practice Project

1. Run your Disk Defragmenter program to defragment your harddisk.

2. Run your ScanDisk program to find and fix hard disk errors.

3. Change your PC’s display properties to display a screen area of800-x-600. If your system is already set for 800-x-600, changeit to 640-x-480.

112 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 121: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

CLIFFSNOTESRESOURCE CENTER

The learning doesn’t need to stop here. CliffsNotes ResourceCenter shows you the best of the best — links to the bestinformation in print and online about upgrading and repair-ing PCs. And don’t think that this is all we’ve prepared foryou; we’ve put all kinds of pertinent information atwww.cliffsnotes.com. Look for all the terrific resourcesat your favorite bookstore or local library and on the Inter-net. When you’re online, make your first stop www.cliffsnotes.com, where you find more incredibly useful infor-mation about upgrading and reparing PCs.

Books

This CliffsNotes book is one of many great books aboutupgrading and repairing PCs published by IDG BooksWorldwide, Inc. If you want some great next-step books,check out these other publications:

Upgrading & Fixing PCs For Dummies(r), 4th Edition,by Andy Rathbone, helps you save money by showing youhow to fix what’s broken and install all kinds of new hard-ware. This book guides you through the troubleshootingprocess so that you can discover why your computer is mis-behaving. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. $19.99.

PCs For Dummies(r), 7th Edition, by Dan Gookin,explains the mysteries of the personal computer in no-non-sense, plain-English terminology. This is a great book for first-time computer users. Find quick answers to computerproblems or get advice on installing new hardware. IDGBooks Worldwide, Inc. $19.99.

Page 122: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Fix Your Own PC, 5th Edition, by Corey Sandler, showsyou how to maintain your personal computer, from diag-nosing problems to performing upgrades. This book coversprocessors, memory upgrades, connections, hard drives,removable media, multimedia, peripherals, and much more.IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. $29.99.

PC Upgrade and Repair Simplified, by Ruth Maran, pro-vides a step-by-step guide to computer maintenance andrepair. The helpful illustrations and troubleshooting tips helpyou keep your computer in top shape. IDG Books World-wide, Inc. $24.99.

Troubleshooting Your PC, 4th Edition, by Jim Aspinwalland Mike Todd, is the tool you need to help diagnose and fixwhatever ails your computer. This book also includes aCD-ROM with troubleshooting utilities. IDG Books World-wide, Inc. $39.99.

Building a PC For Dummies, by Mark Chambers, takesyou beyond fixing and repairing computers and shows youhow to build a custom computer suited to your needs. Thisbook includes a CD-ROM that contains tools and utilitiesto help you get the most out of your computer. IDG BooksWorldwide, Inc. $24.99.

It’s easy to find books published by IDG Books Worldwide,Inc. You find them in your favorite bookstores (on the Inter-net and at a store near you). We also have three Web sites thatyou can use to read about all the books we publish:

■ www.cliffsnotes.com

■ www.dummies.com

■ www.idgbooks.com

114 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 123: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Internet

Check out these Web sites for more information aboutupgrading and repairing PCs and more:

Hardware Central, www.hardwarecentral.com, pro-vides information about anything and everything hardwarerelated. This site includes product reviews, discussion groups,and tutorials.

Hardware Usenet Group, news:comp.hardware,provides a forum for computer users to post and respond tocomputer hardware questions.

Ask Jeeves, www.ask.com. Have a question about com-puters — or anything else, for that matter? Just ask Jeeves.Type your questions in plain English.

TipWorld, www.tipworld.com. Sign up to receive dailytips on a variety of computer subjects direct to your e-mail’sinbox.

Next time you’re on the Internet, don’t forget to drop bywww.cliffsnotes.com. We created an online ResourceCenter that you can use today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Magazines & Other Media

In addition to the books and Web sites mentioned here, youhave several choices of periodicals that you may want to check out:

PC World Magazine is a monthly publication that providesgreat information for both the novice and experienced com-puter user. It has product reviews and information on devel-oping technologies as well as troubleshooting tips for bothhardware and software.

CliffsNotes Resource Center 115

Page 124: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Byte Magazine is also a monthly publication that focuses onthe needs of personal computer users.

The Kim Kommando Radio Show is a daily broadcast talkshow. Listeners can call in and discuss computer issues andrequest answers to problems they are having. Visit Kim’s Website at www.kimkommand.com for the show’s schedule anda list of stations that carry the show.

Send Us Your Favorite Tips

In your quest for learning, have you ever experienced thatsublime moment when you figure out a trick that saves timeor trouble? Perhaps you realized you were taking ten steps toaccomplish something that could take two. Or you found alittle-known workaround that gets great results. If you’ve dis-covered a useful tip that helped you upgrade and repair yourPC more effectively, and you’d like to share it, the CliffsNotesstaff would love to hear from you. Go to our Web site atwww.cliffsnotes.com and click the Talk to Us button.If we select your tip, we may publish it as part of CliffsNotesDaily, our exciting, free e-mail newsletter. To find out moreor to subscribe to a newsletter, go to www.cliffs-notes.com on the Web.

116 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 125: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Aadapters

installing new, 37, 38, 39, 40problems with, troubleshooting, 36

adapters, types of, 33, 35, 36sound, 34, 35, 37video, 34, 36, 37

Add New Hardware icon, 31Add New Hardware wizard, 31,

32, 38Add Printer Wizard, 101Add/Remove Programs Properties

dialog box, 88, 91AGP (Advanced Graphics Port)

slots, 35AMD, 71, 72Ask Jeeves, 115

Bbatteries, 66BIOS

basic description of, 63flash, 68setup program, 49understanding, 67, 68upgrades, 67, 68, 69

books, recommended, 113boot sequence, 65

Ccable modems. See modems,

types ofcables, 29, 36, 100CD-R drives, 53CD-RW drives, 53CD-ROM drives, 57, 58clean power, 7CliffsNotes Daily, 116CliffsNotes Resource Center, 113

CliffsNotes Web site, 2CliffsNotes Web site XE , 116CMOS chip, 56, 64color settings, 76Colors drop-down list, 77Compaq, 23Confirm File Deletion dialog

box, 91Contents tab, 106Context menu, 20continous feed forms, 97Control Panel, 31, 38, 87, 90covers, removing, 24CPU (Central Processing Unit), 63,

70, 72crashes, 13

DDefragmenting dialog box, 10Desktop, 45DIMMs (Dual Inline Memory

Modules), 42, 43, 49Disk Defragmenter, 9Display Properties dialog box,

37, 75, 80dot matrix printers, 97, 98DRAM (Dynamic Random Access

Memory), 42drivers, 101, 102DSL. See modems, types ofDSL (Digital Subscriber Line), 27DVD-RAM drives, 54DVD-ROM drives, 53

Index 117

Page 126: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Ee-mail, 14, 20, 115, 116Evergreen Technologies, 71, 72

FFinish button, 38flash BIOS, 68floppy controller cable, 58floppy disks, 14, 21, 52, 65floppy drives, 52

GGeneral tab, 45

Hhard disks

basic description of, 52checking, for errors, 11, 12defragmenting, 9, 10maintaining, 9, 10, 11, 12removing/replacing, 55, 56scanning for viruses, 13, 14understanding, 51, 54

Hardware Central Web site, 115Hardware Usenet Group, 115Have Disk button, 32, 40Hughes Network Systems, 28

Iimpact printers, 97Index tab, 105inkjet printers, 97, 99Internet, connecting to the, 24ISA (Industry Standard Architec-

ture) bus, 35, 36ISDN. See modems, types of

K

keyboardsergonomic, 20ports for, 18, 19upgrading, 19

keyboards, installing, 20Kim Kommando radio show, 116Kingston Technologies, 72

Llaser printers, 97LCD screens, 78LPT ports, 102

MMacintosh, 23McAfee VirusScan, 13megahertz (MHz), 43memory

how speed and size affect, 43, 44installing more, 47, 49, 50quantity of, determining, 45, 46requirements, 4, 41, 42, 46, 95types of, 42, 43

Micrografx Uninstaller dialog box, 91

Microsoft Natural Keyboard. See keyboards, ergonomic

modemsexternal, 24, 25, 29installing new, 29, 30, 31, 32internal, 24, 25tools for, 22troubleshooting, 29types of, 24, 25

118 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 127: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

modems, types ofcable, 27, 28DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), 27ISDN (Integrated Services Digital

Network), 26satellite, 28standard (56K), 26

Monitor tab, 80monitors

display settings for, 74, 75maintaining, 73, 74, 76, 77replacing, 78, 79, 80

monochrome laser printers, 99monochrome printers, 98motherboard

items on, 63, 64replacing a dead battery on, 66system settings and, 64upgrading the BIOS on, 67, 69upgrading the CPU on, 70, 72

mouseadding, 16, 18ports, 17

My Computer, 45, 95

Nnanoseconds, 43newsgroups, 115Norton Anti-Virus, 13

OOffice 2000 (Microsoft), 91Online button, 104

Ppass-through ports, 100patches, 86

PCI (Peripheral Component Inter-connect) bus, 35, 36

PCMCIA cards, 25Pentium processors, 44, 71, 95pixels, 74Plug-and-Play, 39POST (Power On Self Test), 49, 67power surges, 6PowerPoint (Microsoft), 92preventative maintenance, 6, 8Print dialog box, 105Print Troubleshooter, 106printers

connecting, 100drivers for, 101, 103, 104ports for, 59, 61problems with, fixing, 104,

105, 106selecting new, 96, 98

Printers window, 101

Rradio shows, 116RAM (random-access memory).

See memoryRemember icon, 2repairs

cost of, 5deciding to make, 4

resolution, 74Resource Center, CliffsNotes, 113,

114, 115, 116Review, CliffsNotes, 108, 109,

110, 112

Ssafety, maintaining your, 23satellites. See modems, types

of: satelliteScanDisk, 11, 12

Index 119

Page 128: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

ScanDisk dialog box, 11scanners

adding, 82, 84ports for, 83, 84

Screen Area box, 75SCSI (Small Computer Systems

Interface), 54SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic

Random Access Memory), 43, 44

Select Drive dialog box, 9serial ports, 17, 30Settings tab, 75, 77Setup icon, 95SIMMs (Single Inline Memory

Modules), 42, 43, 44, 47, 49software

installing, 87, 88knowing when to upgrade, 85,

86, 87operating system, 93, 94, 95requirements for upgrading, 93uninstalling, 90

sound adapters, 36. See adapters,types of

Start menu, 20Start Menu button, 20static electricity, 48System Properties dialog box, 45

Ttape backup drives, 54, 59telephone cords, 29Tip icon, 2TipWorld Web site, 115tools, 23

touchpads, 15, 16adding, 18

trackballs, 15, 16adding, 18

TurboChip, 72

Uupgrades

basic description of, 3, 5cost of, 5

USB (Universal Serial Bus), 28, 30,54, 60, 99

Vvideo adapters, 65. See adapters,

types ofviruses, 13, 14volume control, 36

WWarning icon, 2warranties, 5Web sites, 2, 86, 111, 114, 115Windows 2000 (Microsoft), 47Windows 2000 Professional

(Microsoft), 95Windows 95 (Microsoft), 87, 92Windows 98 (Microsoft), 87, 92Windows key, 20Windows NT (Microsoft), 95WordPad, 105

YY2K bug, 68

ZZip drives, 54, 61

120 CliffsNotes Upgrading and Repairing Your PC

Page 129: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Computers and Software Confused by computers? Struggling with software? LetCliffsNotes get you up to speed on the fundamentals — quickly and easily. Titles include:

Balancing Your Checkbook with Quicken®

Buying Your First PCCreating a Dynamite PowerPoint® 2000 PresentationMaking Windows® 98 Work for YouSetting up a Windows® 98 Home NetworkUpgrading and Repairing Your PCUsing Your First PCUsing Your First iMac™

Writing Your First Computer Program

The InternetIntrigued by the Internet? Puzzled about life online? Let CliffsNotes show you how to get started with e-mail, Web surfing, and more. Titles include:

Buying and Selling on eBay®

Creating Web Pages with HTMLCreating Your First Web PageExploring the Internet with Yahoo!®

Finding a Job on the WebGetting on the InternetGoing Online with AOL®

Shopping Online Safely

Page 130: CliffsNotes: Upgrading and Repairing Your PCsman78-jkt.sch.id/ebooks/Books/Upgrading and Repairing Your PC.pdfCliffsNotes™ Upgrading and Repairing Your PC Published by IDG Books

Recommended