CIT 1100

Upgrading Hardware

In this chapter you will learn how to: Determine when a computer needs

hardware upgrades Explain optimal upgrades to peripherals Discuss the process of upgrading internal

hardware

Upgrading Software

The symptoms calling for an upgrade include: Computer lacks a specific capability that

you know other PCs can perform PC works poorly A normal working computer starts to fail in

some way The computer could use better components Perhaps it runs a little sluggishly after

upgrading software

Recognizing the need for an upgrade

Peripherals with moving parts, such as keyboards, mice, trackballs, hard drives CD DVDs, get dirty and wear out You know you need to replace them when they malfunction in some way, keys on a keyboard might stick, the mouse or trackball might move the cursor across the screen in a jerky fashionThere are several upgrade options available for i/o devices You can trade up for an optical mouse, that doesn't have a ball, possibly upgrading to a wireless keyboard or mouse

Poor Performance

Every OS needs free space to function properly - Windows uses part of the hard drive free space for

automatically saving your files (known as auto-save)

If the computer crashes and data wasn’t saved Windows can recover at least some of it for you

OS will get extremely slow without enough free space

To add more hard drive space, you can exchange your old hard drive for a drive with more capacity

Or you can add a second drive and move some things to the new drive

Either option will require you to open the case and go into the computer

Out of Space

Another method used to add space would be to incorporate an external hard drive that plugs into a port on the back of the computer

Out of Space

This provides an additional advantage to simply adding more space, it can be used to back up important data and store it off site if necessary

External drives connect to one of several types of ports on the back of a computer:• Parallel ports (obsolete and very slow)• USB (USB 3.0 is prefered for speed)• FireWire (being phased out) • eSATA (cutting edge)

Not enough physical RAM in a computer can cause an application to fail to load

Applications running slow

Memory is somewhat reliable, but something that used to work now doesn't that might just be the case

Increasing the amount of RAM in the computer is the most common upgrade made to a computer, and usually makes a noted improvement in performance

Catastrophic errors typically manifest themselves as what is referred to as a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) it stops the computer and puts a message on the screen that says what went wrong Critical or catastrophic errors can cause the computer

to lock up, blue-screen, dra matically slow down, crash, or spontaneously reboot

Hardware-related errors can be caused by faulty drivers or hardware failure

Some failures are spectacular, a graphically intense game may suddenly lose all the colors

Critical Errors

Other failures are simple You might have been able to connect to the Internet

yesterday but find you have no network connection today

The problem could be an electrical storm during the night fried the network card

You can fix some hardware-related critical errors by updating or changing drivers, the software that helps the OS communicate properly with the hardware

Other times the only fix is to replace the faulty hardware

Critical errors

Once it’s been determined that a computer needs or should have a hardware upgrade, it needs to be examined to see what upgrades it can handle

Upgrading External Components

Adding external components, such as an external hard drive, mouse,

keyboard, or monitor, means examining the ports on the back of the computer

Legacy Ports

Legacy PortsUSB Replaces all the older Ports

Serial ports and parallel ports enable you to attach some devices to the PC. The stan dards have been around since the beginning of the PC era. Serial and parallel ports do not offer anywhere near the flexibility of USB or FireWire.Serial ports are male, D-shaped, and have 9 pins, referred to as DB-9 Parallel ports are female, D-shaped, and have 25-pin sockets, referred to as DB-25

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) enables you to add a remarkable variety of peripherals to any computer and is supported by every major OS

USB

• All USB devices are hot-swappable, they can be unplug without turning the power off

• Most devices prefer to be turned off before you remove them In Windows

• Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area

• Use this option to avoid any potential data loss

USB has two standards: USB 2.0 and Hi-Speed USB USB 3.0 is called SuperSpeed USB

USB

A mini-USB port (mini-B) and connector typically used on small devices like cameras

Type A USB

USB 2.0 ports come in three varieties: A, B, and mini. All are female and rectangular shaped. They are keyed so that you can't insert the USB cable improperly

Newer hard drives inside the computer connect to a serial ATA (SATA) port. The connec tion- called a bus- can be expanded to include external devices 

eSATA

Up to 2 meters long eSATA devices are hot-swappable

eSATA runs as fast as internal SATA, either 150 megabytes per second (MBps) or 300 MBps

Ideal for optical drives, such as Blu-ray Disc drives

Connecting peripherals to a computer using radio waves frees your desk of cord clutter. Several technologies compete for wireless market share: The most common technology is used for mice

and keyboards and is simply branded wireless The device has a small receiver that plugs into a

USB port on the com puter Keyboard or mouse has a small transmitter that

connects to the receiver, usually at a standard 2.4 MHz frequency has a range of about 2 meters

Wireless

Connecting peripherals to a computer using radio waves frees your desk of cord clutter. Several technologies compete for wireless market share: A competing standard used for wireless is

Bluetooth Bluetooth extends the range to 10 meters and

is typically used for audio

Wireless

Many hardware upgrades require opening the case Typical upgrades include RAM, hard drives, and

video cards Going inside adds an element of danger to the

system you need to know the risks and how to avoid them

To upgrade internal components, you need to recognize the type of slots or connections provided

The motherboard manual is the best reference

Upgrading Internal Devices

The biggest danger of going inside the case is shocking a computer component with electrostatic discharge (ESD) Use an antistatic wrist strap or touch the bare metal of

the chassis when you go in which will put at the same electrical potential of the components

You need to be careful when handling components to be installed - RAM, hard drives, and video cards are susceptible to ESD damage

You might unknowingly damage a component you're putting into a computer and have it fail at a later time

To avoid this kind of damage, always keep a component inside an antistatic bag when not in use

Avoiding ESD

Motherboards differ both in the number of RAM slots available and in the specific type of RAM used. You need to see what slots the motherboard has available, plus read the manual to determine memory requirements A motherboard might have 4 RAM slots meaning it can handle 4 RAM sticks There's a lot of variation in motherboards, with anywhere from one to eight

RAM slots, you need to see how many are already populated with RAM sticks

Once you know the physical options for a RAM upgrade, you need to know the specifics for that motherboard. The motherboard manual will tell you the following details:

◦ What technology of memory the motherboard uses, such as DDR, DDR2,or DDR3◦ What maximum capacity of stick each slot can handle◦ What total amount of RAM the motherboard can handle◦ What configuration (placement) of sticks optimizes the motherboard configuration

RAM

As people move from Windows XP to Windows 7, the first thing they would may notice is that the new OS runs more slowly than the old one if they didn't upgrade the memory

At a minimum, Windows 7 requires at least 1 GB of RAM

The upgrade path for any two machines can differ considerably-

One computer has 1GB of RAM and requires 2GB◦ You open it up to discover that it has four 128-MB sticks in four slots.

Upgrading requires replacing the existing RAM. Plus, you'll need to check if the motherboard can handle 1GB sticks or whether it tops out at 512 MB sticks

A second computer has 1GB of RAM and requires at least 2GB◦ This system has a single 1GB stick of RAM and two empty RAM slots

RAM

Note that the operating system makes a big difference on upgradeability - Some system having has six RAM slots can

support as much as 12GB of RAM Running a 32-bit version of Windows limits

the usable RAM to only 4 GB To unlock the full 12 GB of the motherboard

requires a 64-bit version of Windows or Ubuntu

RAM

Refer to the Documentation

ASUS M2N68-AM Plus Specs

2 Memory Slots

Dual channel DDR2 1066 memory

Use the Internet

Motherboards can have 2 types of connectors for hard drives, parallel older ATA (PATA) or serial ATA newer (SATA), most support both

To add a SATA hard drive to a computer, you simply need a free SATA port, each SATA drive connects directly to the motherboard

Hard Drives

5 Available SATA Ports 1/drive

Motherboards can have 2 types of connectors for hard drives, parallel older ATA (PATA) or serial ATA newer (SATA), most support both

Adding a PATA drive requires a PATA Cable that can support 2 drives

Hard Drives

To distinguish between the drives, you need to set a small jumperPATA con nections can have only these options

• Master (or standalone)- one drive• Master and slave- two drives• Cable select - one drive• Cable select /cable select - two drives

You can't have two masters or two slaves You shouldn't mix cable select with master and slave it may not work

Computers use dedicated video processors to translate math into pictures to put on the screen. These video processors have various names:

◦ Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)◦ Video Processing Unit (VPU)

Most have a plug in card that holds the video processor as well as its own dedicated memory for video

Some have video processor built onto the motherboard referred to as integrated video

Nearly all motherboards have an expansion slot dedicated to video, even systems with embedded video

Two slot types dominate the market:◦ Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)- nearly obsolete◦ PCI Express (PCIe)- the current standard 

AGP slots where smaller and usually brown PCIe slots are longer, slimmer, and various colors

Video

Once you've finished the physical act of upgrading hardware, you have three tasks left-  1. Install drivers 2. Test the hardware 3. Recycle the old or dead equipment

Completing Internal Upgrades

Use the latest drivers available, typically NOT the one that came with the deviceMost major cit ies have some method of dealing with or

place to take dead electronics equipment