FCIT
INTRODUCTION TO THE PC
PREVIEW OF COMPUTER BASICS
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The back of your PC
CAUTION!! It is very important that you
turn off the computer and
everything that is attached to it BEFORE unplugging
any cables.
Not all PCs will look alike, but most will have connection points similar to those shown here.
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What are peripherals?
Peripherals are anything that you attach to your computer. See examples below:
Keyboard
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What gets plugged in here?
The round ports at the top of this picture are for the
keyboard and mouse. The
plugs on the keyboard and mouse will likely be colored to match the color of the port into which they connect. USB ports are another way that keyboard and
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What gets plugged in here?
The long port is called a
25-pin parallel port. Your printer cable goes here.
The smaller black port is a
9-pin serial port. This can be used for joysticks or gaming controls. The smaller blue port is
the port that your monitor
will be plugged into. Notice that it has three
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What gets plugged in here?
These connections are
called USB ports. Many modern peripherals like keyboards, mice, game pads, and scanners have USB plugs that can be connected here.
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The sound card
The sound card has ports to connect speakers and a
microphone.
Often, an icon or word is printed next to each port to describe the type of audio device that should be
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Keyboard Features
NUMLOCK: When NumLock is active it makes the keys
on the numeric keypad function as a 10 key calculator (numbers and mathematical operations). When NumLock is not active, the numeric keypads keys take on secondary roles as arrow
keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End.
CAPS LOCK: When on will cause all of your characters typed to be capitalized in format.
IMPORTANT!!
If you have trouble with a password, make sure that the Caps Lock key is OFF so that lowercase letters in a password are
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not entered as uppercase letters.
Using your mouse Left Button: This mouse button is used to SELECT or CAUSE ACTION when clicked or double-clicked. Right Button This button is used to access MENUS. Right clicking on an object or portion of a screen will display a menu of options and actions. A mouse can have one or more buttons, but on the basic mouse there are two.
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Mouse Exercise: Open MS Word.
Type your name and press ENTER twice. Highlight your name: Place the I-beam cursor at the front of your name.
Click AND HOLD the left mouse button as you drag the
mouse across the entire name. Release the mouse button when the entire name has been highlighted.
Now, right click over the highlighted name one time and
a menu will come up. In the menu click on COPY. Next, press the END key, which is located with the Six grouped keys to the left of the numeric key pad.
Press ENTER three times.
Right click and once again you will see the menu appear. Click on PASTE. Now you have a copy of your name by using both mouse buttons.
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What does it mean to boot?
Booting means causing the computer to start executing instructions. PCs and Macs contain built-in instructions in a ROM or flash memory chip that are automatically executed on startup. These instructions search for the operating system, load it and pass control to it.
The term comes from "bootstrap. Since bootstraps help
you get your boots on, booting the computer helps it get its first instructions. The term is often used erroneously
for application software. You might hear, for example,
"let's boot Excel," but the correct usage is "launch Excel" or "load Excel."
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Understand what you are getting when you buy a new computer: Processor speed RAM (Random Access Memory) Hard drive Type of monitor Operating System Application software
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Operating System: The operating system (OS) serves as the interface between the application programs and the PCs hardware components. The OS manages the processor time and memory by dividing it between all of the peripherals.
The OS controls the actions of any peripherals that are attached to the PC.
The OS begins to run when you turn on the PC. An example of an operating system is Microsoft Windows.
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What and where is the processor:
The processor can be considered the brain of the computer and is located on the motherboard of the PC. It carries out all tasks requested. Processor speed is referred to in Megahertz (MHz) or Gigahertz (GHz). Newer computers are more likely to have speeds measured in Gigahertz. A Gigahertz is one
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billion cycles per second.
What is RAM?
RAM stands for Random
Access Memory
RAM is utilized by programs for temporary storage. RAM is volatile, which means the stored information will be lost when the computer is turned off.
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More on RAM
A group
of memory chips, typically of the
dynamic RAM (DRAM) type, which function as the computer's primary workspace. RAM is different from the Hard Drive. RAM is
where current tasks reside while the computer is
turned on. When the computer is turned off, RAM empties. Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations stay on the hard drive even when the computer is turned off.
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Examples of RAM:
SIMM Stands for Single Inline Memory Module
A SIMM can hold 8 to 64 MB of RAM and can have either 30 or 72 pins
on the connector to the board
DIMM
Stands for Dual Inline Memory Module DIMM can hold 8 to 256MB of RAM and have 168 pins on the edge connector to the board
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So what is the difference?
The principal difference between the two is that on a SIMM, pins on opposite sides of the board are "tied together" to form one electrical contact; on a DIMM, opposing pins remain electrically isolated to form two separate contacts. The DIMM is more common in newer computers.
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How much RAM do you need?
The amount of RAM that you need depends on different things such as: Operating System in use
Usage patterns
Hardware in use
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