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Computer Systems Repair Blog
06 February 2006
Installing a second drive or replacing an existing one is a fairly simple procedure, and a good experience for those looking to learn more about how their PC works. With the price of storage at rock bottom, there is no reason not to add a second drive to your set up, which will give you additional space for applications and extend the useful life of your PC. When looking to buy a hard drive, it is important to check a few things first to ensure that it will indeed work with your system. The most important is the interface (Older machines used IDE whereas newer machines lean towards SATA or even SATA2), though you should also take disk space and spindle speed into consideration. Once you have your hard drive, you should do your best to leave it in the packaging until it is required. This will help prevent exposure to static, which can damage electrical circuitry. It is wise to wear an anti static wrist strap whenever doing any work within your PC. First, ensure your PC is switched off at the mains but leave it plugged in. This will earth the case and help prevent static. Next, remove the case screws and slide off either the side panels or entire case housing depending on the design. The hard drive should be fairly easy to spot, and normally sits in a metal cage towards the front of the PC. If you are upgrading your drive, you will need to remove both cables from the back of the drive, undo the four screws holding it in and gently slide the device out. However, if you are installing a second drive, you must check the jumper setting before installing the drive. The jumper settings are dictated by the location of a small plastic sleeve relative to the set of pins located next to the power connection. The drive can be configured in several ways, though the most common are master or slave – your primary or secondary drive. To find out which pins you must connect with the small black sleeve, refer to the sticker on the drive itself or the manufacturers handbook. Once you ...
06 February 2006
Installing a new graphics card can give any machine a boost, particularly if you have been relying on on-board graphics. There is a lot of jargon associated with graphics cards, so you should do a little research before purchasing. The most important thing to note is the interface, which is the slot which your card itself sits in. Older machines may have PCI or AGP slots, whereas newer machines more commonly use PCI-E or AGP slots. To see which your machine uses, consult your motherboard manual or look up its specification on the manufacturers website. Once you have your graphics card, the first thing to do is uninstall your current graphics drivers. Although this may not be an essential step, it will help keep things tidy and avoid any conflicts, so it is worth doing. To uninstall the drivers, click Start – Settings – Control Panel – System – Hardware tab – Device Manager. Expand the ‘Display Adapter’ tree and you should see a graphics card listed. Right click on the card name and se...
06 February 2006
Power supply units are responsible for delivering power to individual components within your PC. Few units offer their own surge protection, and as many components are fairly delicate, it is always advisable to plug your PC into the wall via a surge protection device of some sort. Thankfully, power supply units are fairly reliable, and the majority outlive the working life of the PC. However, with newer components requiring more power than ever, typical supply ratings have increased significantly in line with the demand. Unfortunately, this means more heat, and whilst good quality supplies will still comfortably see your PC through its lifespan, cheap supplies have become synonymous with early failure. When looking for a new or replacement power supply, there are a few things to bear in mind. The first and foremost is the form factor, and the most commonly used are ATX and the newer ATX-2. Older machines still use the AT form factor, though these are becoming less common. To confirm w...
06 February 2006
Sound cards were first introduced in the mid 1980’s, and whilst their feature list was limited and output was far from spectacular, they paved the way for the plethora of technology available on sound cards today. Although choice is always a good thing for the consumer, the sheer volume of technical jargon and acronyms associated with sound cards has made selecting an appropriate model much more difficult than it needs to be. The first thing to do is to think about what you will use your sound card for. Are you a frequent gamer, watch movies or play music via your PC? Do you have a home cinema set up? If this is the case, then you should be considering a mid-high range card that will take advantage of your speaker system and live up to your expectations. However, if you do little more than listen to Windows sounds and play the odd CD through your PC, a budget sound card would be more suited to your requirements. The majority of cards these days come with at least 5.1-channel surround ...
06 February 2006
Just a decade or so ago, LCD monitors were almost unheard of by the vast majority of PC users. High costs and poor performance inhibited early models, leaving CRT based monitors to dominate the market. However, technology has improved dramatically, and now LCD monitors are commonly shipped with new PC’s. Not only do they offer much crisper displays and smaller footprints, but also the cost has reduced to a degree that they are only moderately more expensive than their bulkier CRT counterparts. LCD monitors aren’t without their drawbacks, though, and there are a few things you should bear in mind when looking to purchase one. The first thing you want to consider is the size of monitor you are looking for. A 15” LCD will be on par with a 17” CRT in many respects, so you may not need as large a monitor as you think. The next thing to consider is the response time. Response time indicates the time taken for a pixel to change from black, to white and back to black again, and is essentially...