PRACTICAL NO – 1

AIM:~ To study soldering and desoldering of various components.

 INTRODUCTION:
Once a defective component needs to be isolated from the given faulty
equipment, it is required to remove the defective component from the PCB & all this
require a good practice of soldering & desoldering.

 SOLDERING PROCESS:
Soldering is the process of joining two or more metals at temperature below there
melting points using filler metal (solder) having melting point below 450`c. The solder
binds the metal together by chemical & physical processes. Chemically solder reacts
with small part of each metal to be joined or soldered, thus forming a new compound.
Physically the liquid solder alloy then enters the exposed pores of the metals. Solder on
cooling solidifies and forms a continuous metallic bond. If the metals are not heated
properly, solder will not penetrate into the metal pores. As a result solder will solidify
over the top of the pores in the metal & this result in defective joint known as cold
solder joint

 SOLDER :
Most of the soldering in electronics is done using tin lead alloy. Pure lead melts
at 327`c where as tin melts at 232`c and their mixture at 188`c when ratio of tin & lead
is 60/40.

The tin lead ratio at which the solder alloy goes directly to liquid stage is called
ELECTRNONIC COMPOISITION & resultant alloy is known as EUTECTIC
ALLOY. This alloy is generally referred to as 63/37 .The addition of antimony to this
alloy increases the strength. The tin lead alloy is drawn into hollow wire whose centre is
fixed with flux. This is known as ROSIN CORE SOLDER. For general soldering 18
gauge wire solder is used.

 FLUXES:
The soldering process requires that the surface should be totally clear so that
metal to metal contact can be established. Most of the metals in the air form an oxide
layer which prevents wetting. To maintain a clean surface flux is used. It dissolves

1
 oxides and allows good soldering. The flux will also assist in the transfer of heat from
the soldering iron tip t the joint area. Flux is imbedded in solder (rosin core solder). It is
also available in paste or liquid form.

A flux should have the following properties:

1 It must be sufficiently active at room temperature to remove oxides.
2 It must be mobile enough to allow the solder to flow at this temperature.
3 It must remove fingerprints, dirt, grease etc.

Traditionally fluxes can be grouped as:

1. Rosin based fluxes.
2. Water soluble fluxes.
3. Solvent removable synthetic fluxes.
4. Low solid fluxes.

Of these rosin based fluxes are generally used for repair work. These consist of
rosin dissolved in some solvent.

 TINNING:
The component leads may get rusted during storage. It will be difficult t solder
such leaded components. Thus leads of such components or wires need to be tinned.
Tinning consist of the application of the thin layer of solder to the surface of
metal which could be lead of a component or copper track on PCB.

The two chief methods are :

1. Hot dip tinning.
2. Using soldering iron.

Before tinning a wire, the insulation must be removed with wire strippers. The
first method consists of immersing the metal surface to be tinning in to hot solder bath,
after application of flux. This method is not used for repair work.
During repair or rework, tinning is done using soldering iron. First of all flux is
applied to the surface to be tinned.

 SOLDERING IRONS :
Soldering iron is used during soldering process to supply sufficient heat to melt
solder by transfer of heat from soldering iron tip. The tip of the soldering iron is applied
to a connection which is to be soldered
.
There are generally three classes or types of soldering irons:
1. Resistive soldering irons.
2. Soldering gun.
3. Temperature controlled soldering gun.

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 RESISTIVE SOLDERING IRON:
It is cheapest soldering iron. These can not be used for precision work as heat
produced is in excess then required to melt solder. The excessive heat can be very
damaging PCB,S and semiconductor devices. This should be used in emergency and
when used should be applied for minimum of time to prevent damage of devices due to
overheating.
This consists of a copper tip which is heated electrically by resistive coil. This tip
acts a heat store and heat conductor.

SOLDERING GUN
Soldering gun is used for soldering heavy wiring. It is not recommended for use
on PCB’S. This operates on the principle of resistive heating of low resistance copper
tip. Heavy currents flow through the copper tip. Because of the current involved
corrosion of attachments nut will result in slow or no heating of the tip. It has trigger
switch to control the application of the a.c. power to resistive element. The working
Temperature s reached instantaneously.

TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED SOLDERING GUN

The soldering irons are most suited to maintenance purposes especially when
dealing with semiconductors components which are likely to be damaged by
overheating. This iron operates much slowly as compared to uncontrolled iron.

 SELECTION OF SOLDERIONG IRON :

Soldering irons are available in variety of sizes, shapes and wattages. In standard
iron, the input voltage is fixed; this resulting temperature depends on capacity of the
heating unit and size of the tip. Generally, soldering irons are selected on the basis of
the input wattage or the tip, idling, temperature neither of these is valid criterion for
matching the right to iron to the job. Ideal tip working temperature is defined as the
temperature range between appox 600 to 700 for most electronic assembly.

 SOLDERING IRON TIP CLEANING :

Iron plated tips should be cleaned while hot with metal brush or with cellulose
sponge (wet) and while cold with a wire brush to remove oxide film. These should not
be cleaned with files, sand paper or emery cloth.

 DESOLDERING:
This operation is frequently required during maintenance for replacing a
component. It consists of removal of solder from a previously soldered joint.
The following techniques are often used for this purpose.

1. USE OF DESOLDERING PUMP

Desoldering pump is a mechanically operated, hand held desoldering tool,. This
tool consist of a outer shaft, piston handle and release pin and Teflon pin. It is
designed to be held and operated in one hand. The pump can be disassembled and
cleaned as required
.
The step by step procedure for desoldering is:
• Load the pump
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 • Heat the solder connected with soldering iron until solder melts.
• Hold desoldering pump lightly against the melted solder.
• Press the pin to vacuum solder from connection.
• Reload and repeat as necessary to clean the area of solder.

2. USE OF DESOLDERING BRAID

Desoldering braid is loosely woven, flux impregnated, stranded braid of copper
wire. The joint to be desoldered is not heated using soldering iron. The braid (wick) is
heated first. The solder is sucked into the braid due to capillary action when it is brought
near joint. The used portion is cut and thrown away. In this method soldering iron never
touches the solder so prevents over heating of components.

3. USE OF DESOLDERING BULB

This also operates on vacuum principle. The rubber is simply a hollow rubber
ball with heat resistant Teflon tip. It can be used with any soldering iron.
The iron is held in one hand and used to melt the solder. The bulb held in second hand
is then squeezed to create vacuum. The tip is next applied to the reheated solder.
Connection action that sucks the solder up through hollow tip into bulb.

4. USE OF DESOLDERING TIP AND DIP EXTRACTOR

This method is used for desoldering IC’S. Here clips of the extractor are fixed
over the chip and DIP chip is applied at the other side of the PCB. All connection will
melt simultaneously. As the extractor is spring loaded , the IC chip will automatically
come up once the solder melts.

 SOLDERING DEFECTS:
The defects can be classified according to their nature into major or minor
defects.
Some of the defects encountered during soldering are:
DEWETTING- It occurs due to contaminated base metal surface. Dewetting of
solder film as water on greasy surface.
PARTIAL WETTING- This is due to incomplete coverage of the surface by
solder film. This is usually a result of an inadequate time temperature cycle or of
insufficient flux activity.

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 OTHER SOLDERING DEFECTS MAY OCCUR DURING
SOLDERING PROCESS ARE:
• EXCESS SOLDER
• ICICLES
• BRIDGING
• POROSITY
• OVER HEATED JOINTS

 COMPONENT PREPRATION AND MOUNTING.

Components are generally on one side of PCB. In double sided PCB’s, the
component are generally mounted usually opposite to the major conductor pattern
side depending upon design.
Before mounting any component it is essential to clean the surface to be
soldered with some braided cleaning tool. Component leads are bent so that
component properly fit into the circuit. Bending of component should be done with
minimum stress. The bent leads should fit into the holes perpendicular to the board
.
• Horizontally mounted components should touch the board surface to avoid
lifting of solder joint.
• Vertically mounted components should not be flush to the board to avoid
strain on solder joint.
• Sealed components should be mounted in such a way to provide a certain
distance from the board as insulation coating on component is extended to a certain
length along the leads.

5
 PRACTICAL NO – 2

AIM: To check and measure various power supply voltages of pc.

 Theory:
The PC power supply is primarily designed simply to take AC from the
wall outlet & convert into the much lower DC voltages needed by the system.
When system shut down, it must prevent any voltage overshoot & fluctuations so
that none of sensitive circuits are exposed to any damaging voltage fluctuation .It
must include some way of providing cooling air flow, because of the conversion
process always has some heat by product.

 Converting AC to DC power:
The switching mode power supply used in a PC is much lighter & more
efficient then the more common linear mode power supplies. Often used in the past
systems, & therefore is a good choice for a power supply. The first part of PC
switching power supply is rectifier. Next is the switches circuit which chops up
.the input voltage at a frequency much higher than the AC supply. Further more,
any load fluctuation are fed back to the input in such away as to cause switcher
circuit to adjust the input power to the transformer so that it can maintain the
output voltage to final regulator. The switcher circuitry it self generate EMI, which
can feed back into the building AC power & contribute to problems elsewhere.

6
 Output voltage supply voltage lines:
The voltages delivered by the power supply to the motherboard must
remain stable in spite of a wide range of input AC voltage and varying load
conditions

+5 volt supply:
This is the basic supply voltage for nearly all-electronic components. The
5V supply is now sometimes used by motors, but usually only in smaller drives,
such as “2.5inch” & some 3.5inch drive. The +5V supply wires should always be
red in any standard PC system.If regulated voltage is adjustable, the jumpers or
switches will probably be found near regulator circuit.

+12V power supply:

This line supplies most if not all, motors in the system, from drive motor
to cooling fans. Because motors often used up to 50% more power on start up then
while running ,the +12V supply may show adequate operation while running , but
be in an over loaded condition during the 5 seconds or so immediately .after the
system or a particular drive is turned on .

-12 V power supply:

This supply line is usually used for some of the same communications
circuits that use +12 V line.

-5 V power supply:
This voltage is no longer used by any device and is retained only the
purpose of backward compatibility with the older ISA slots. Originally, this
voltage was used by some DRAM memory chips in original PC design. Micro
channel system omitted this voltage from the power supply entirely

+3.3V power supply:

Starting with the ATX designed in 1995 any system with ATX compatible
power supplies include a 3.3 volt supply line from the power supply to the
motherboard. Currently most CPUs & DRAM used 3.3V as well as some PCI
adapter cards.

 Power Supply Control Signals:

Although the primary function of the power supply is indeed to supply
clean electrical power to systems, the power supply also interacts with the
motherboard to perform an increasing number of functions, including CPU startup,
system power down, voltage and temperature detection and other functions.

Power Good Signal:

The signal is actually a logic level signal designed as a power supply
output signal to the CPU circuitry, to start the CPU running.

7
Power On:
Prior to the ATX standard, AT compatible power supplies either had the
power switch mounted on the back or side of power supply itself ,or had a remote
switch mounted on the front panel.
The power on signal wire is apart of ATX standard and carries only a low
voltage logic level signal from the motherboard to the power supply, telling it
when to turn on and when to turn off.

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 PRACTICAL NO – 3

Aim: To make comparative study of mother boards: 386, 486, Pentium-I ,

Pentium-II, Pentium-III.

 Theory:

 PENTIUM 1

Pentium (3.1M transistors in 273 pin pkg.)

 Super scalar: multiple execution units, each pipelined with multiple stages
as opposed to Super pipeline (single execution unit with several pipeline stages)
 Super scalar arch with 3 exec units: 2 for Integer data (5 stages ea), 1 for
FPU (8 stages)
 64 bit (8B) data bus.
 Internal register size same as 386 and 486 ie 32 bit
 32 bit adders bus (A31-A3)
 8 BE (byte enable) pins (BE0, .., BE7) to access 8B data
 8 DP (Data Parity) pins (DP0, .., DP7) pins to error-check 8B data
 16KB on-chip cache: 8KB for code, 8KB for data
 Cache org: 2-way set assoc, 8KB=128 sets of 64B, ea set = 2 lines, ea
line=32B
 Code cache is R-only
 Data cache is R/W; uses write-though or write-back
 Replacement policy for both caches is LRU
 Branch prediction predicts a branch and loads it into pipeline units ahead of
time.
 Pentium uses 4KB, and optional 4MB pages. 386/486 has 4KB for page
size.
 Uses 2 sets of TLBs: one for code & one for data. Data TLB has 64 entries
for 4KB pages & 8 entries for 4M pages. Code TLB has 32 entries for 4KB pages
& 32 entries for 4M pages 386/486 has 32 TLB entries.
 Pentium has both bursts read and burst write.

 PENTIUM 2
1
 Is in same family (P6) as Pentium Pro except it incorporates MMX
 Dual Independent Bus Arch. (dedicated 64B cache bus)
 32K (16K+16K ) L1 cache
 512K L2 cache

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  Up to 4GB of addressable memory space.
 Ease of Multiprocessing same as in Pentium Pro.

Feature 8086/88 286 386 486

# Addr. lines 20b (1MB 24b (16MB 32b (4GB Addr. 32b (4GB
Addr. Space Addr. space space) Addr. space)
# Data lines 16b/8b 16 32b 32b
Register Sizes 16/8 16/8 32 32b
# clks per bus 4 2 2 1 via
cycle pipelining
Multiplexed Yes No No
Addr/Data?
No Yes. Protected to Yes. Protected to Yes.
Protected real mode real mode switch by Protected to
Mode? requires software real mode
hardware switch by
resetting software
Yes with Yes: Real Yes Yes
Virtual segmentation Mode=1MB,
Memory? protected mode
= 16MB
Paging/ Segmentation Seg Only Yes Yes
segmenting? only
No No Yes. External Cache. 8KB on-chip
Address Cache (TLB) cache for data
on-chip. TLB with 32 + instructions;
Cache? entries. 2-way set
assoc. with
write-through
update
14b seg. Regs 14b seg. Regs
allow addr allow addr space
Virtual Address space of 214 . of 214 . 232 = 246 B
Space 232 = 246 B = 64 = 64 TeraBytes
TeraBytes
No No No Yes. 4 pins
Parity Pins? one for each
data byte:
DP0, …, DP3
Math No No Yes. Separate 387 Yes. On-chip
Coprocessor? chip
2 pins: BRDY
(Burst RDY to
MPU and
Extra Pins BLAST (Burst
10
 Last from
MPU)

Virtual 8086 Default Yes Yes

Mode?

ISSUE PENTIUM PENTIUM PRO (P6 code

name)
Year Introduced 1993 1995
# transistors 3.3X 106 5.5X106
#pins 273 387
Ext data bus 64 64
Address bus 32 36
Phys Memory (MAX) 4GB 64GB
Virtual Memory 64TB 64TB
Data types (Reg size) 8, 16, 32 8, 16, 32
Cache1 (L1) 16KB (8K code, 8K data) 16KB (8K code, 8K data)
Cache2 (L2) External On same pkg, but different
die (256KB/512KB)
Superscalar 2-way 3-way
#exec units 3 5
No (5 stages) Yes (12 stages. Due to
Super pipeline? instructions being broken
into RISC-like pieces called
micro Ops.
Branch Prediction Yes Yes
No Yes. With results stored in
temporary regs. They are
released as needed. Can go
Out-of-Order Exec 20-30 instructions deep.
Retire Unit provides results
in programmer visible regs
(eg. EAX, EBX,)
Ease of Multiprocessing No yes

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 PRACTICAL NO – 4

Aim: Study the various cables, connections and parts used in computer
communication.

 Theory:
 Male vs. Female Connector: I’m not going too far into this, but a male
connector is the side of a connection that has the prongs--like the power plug on
your computer monitor. The side that goes from your monitor into the wall is the
male. The outlet is the female side of the connector.
 DB: This term you will see in the context of DB-25 or DB-9. What this is
describing is the shape of the connector. The connector has a definite shape like a
capital D (also could be called a trapezoid with rounded angles).

Now let's take a look at some of the various cable types.

 Serial Port
Standard : RS-232

Connector Name : DB-9 (most common) sometimes DB-

25
Transfer mode : Asynchronous
Sometimes called : COM ports
Number found on a system : 2 possible of 4
IRQ : 3(Com 1&3) and 4(Com 2&4)
I/O range : COM 1=03f8-03ff COM 2=02f8-02ff
COM 3=3E8-3EF and COM

Max length : 50 feet

Max data rate : 1.5 Mbps (with 16550A UART)
Normally used with : This is normally seen on older mice and
modems. Two computers can be
networked together using a null modem
cable. This is a serial cable that has its
send and receive crossed over so the 2
computers are not trying to send
information to the other's send port.

 Parallel Port
Standard : IEEE-1284
Connector Name : DB-25(on PC), Centronics

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 Transfer mode : Synchronous
Sometimes called : LPT
Number found on a system : 1 (up to 2)
Max length : 10 Meters (approx. 30 feet) absolute
Maximum
Max data rate : 4 Mbps

Normally seen on : You usually see this on printers and

scanners. This is being replaced with
USB.

 DIN 6
Connector Name : DIN 6 (6 pin)
Sometimes called : PS/2 port, Mouse port, keyboard port,
mini DIN 6
Number found on a system :2

DIN 5
Connector Name : DIN 5
Transfer mode : N/A
Sometimes called : old keyboard connector
Number found on a system :1
IRQ :1

 USB 1.1
Standard : USB 1.1 (by USB-IF)
Connector Name : USB A/B
Transfer mode : Asynchronous
Number found on a system : 2-5
Maximum number of Devices : 127
IRQ : 11
Max length : 3-5 meters
Max data rate : 12 Mbit/sec (1.5 MB/sec)
Power : 2.5w

Features: To connect many devices, you can use a USB hub. This is a box
that you connect into your computer through one of your USB ports and
then you can plug many other devices into it. Also, the speed of each USB
chain is shared between all devices on that chain. So the more devices you
have operating at once, the slower they all will go.

 USB 2
Standard : USB 2 (by USB-IF)
Connector Name : USB

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 Transfer mode : Asynchronous
Sometimes called : USB 2
Number found on a system : Still being determined
IRQ : 11
Power : 2.5w

 Firewire (IEEE-1394)
Standard : IEEE-1394
Connector Name : IEEE-1394 A B
Transfer mode : Asynchronous/Isosynchronous

Sometimes called : Firewire, IEEE-1394 or iLink (Apple

computers has trademarked the term
“Firewire.” So, if you see it called that,
someone is paying for that ability. iLink
is what Sony calls IEEE-1394).

Number found on a system :2

Max length : 4.5m (between devices)
Max data rate : 100Mbps, 200Mbps, 400Mbps
(12.5MB/sec 255MB/sec 500MB/sec).
Most computers support 400Mbps but
most devices are only 200Mbps
Max # of devices : 63

Features: Some on the added features are that you do not need a PC to
connect them together. You could conceivably have a video camera
connected to a DVD-R and burn your movies without needing a computer
connected to it. They can talk to one another without using up the bandwith
to the computer and back. You can daisy chain them together so there is no
need for a hub as in USB. Also there is more power supplied. So, for
example, you have enough to have a hard disk drive running without power
coming from the wall. Some companies have set it up so you can connect
an MP3 player to your computer using IEEE-1394 and transfer the data plus
recharge the player's internal batteries off the firewire cable.

Video
In this section we are not so worried about things like transfer rates
and IRQs. The monitor will only refresh so fast and IRQs would affect your
video board not your monitor. The point of this part is so that you can
intelligently find and talk about these.

Standard : VGA (Video Graphics Array)

Connector Name : DB-15

14
 Quick recognition on a computer:
This is our old standby and by far the most common of our video
connectors. It is easy to find. It is the only small three-rowed DB connector we
will find on a PC. It is usually away from the other connectors because it is on a
replaceable card. There are, however, motherboards that do have video built in. If
so, then this connector will be close to the other connectors.

 Power
The power connector is almost completely standard. This looks almost
exactly like an extension cord with the exception of the ground being a slot
instead of a round hole. Not much more to say. Make sure that the power
switch on the back of your computer is set for the correct voltage (115 or
230) for your location. Be careful with laptops and some newer Apple
Macintosh computers that may have different looking power connectors on
the computer.

 Minijack

Connector Name : 1/8 minijack

Sometimes called : headphone jack
Number found on a system : 1-5
Telephone cable : RJ-11 is a common telephone cable.
The end is called an RJ-11 connector and the
cable is called category 1 (Cat 1).

 Ethernet cable

Standard : Conectors EIA/TIA 568a/b Cables

Category 3, 4, 5 or 5e
Connector Name : RJ-45
Transfer mode : Serial
Sometimes called : Unshielded twisted pair (UTP) Shielded
twisted pair (STP just UTP with some
more shielding), 10BaseT, 100BaseT,
1000BaseT.Crossover cable
Number found on a system : 1 (sometimes more)
IRQ : Would be assigned to the Network
interface card.
Max length : 100 meters (328 ft.)
Min length : 1 Meter (3 ft.)
Max data rate : 10/100/1000 Mbp/sec

There is also a Plenum-grade Ethernet cable. This is a cable that is

necessary for fire code. The issue is that if there is a fire and the PVC outer
coating of non-Plenum grade cable catches on fire, it will release deadly
gasses. In that case, if you have an enterprise grade network where you

15
 have literally thousands of these cables running through the walls, this can
cause deadly results in a fire. Before wiring a building, check with the Fire
Marshall about needing this cable.

SCSI

Connector Name : DB25, IDC50, Centronics 50, HDI30,

DB50, HPDB50, HPDB68, HP
Centronics 60, HP Centronics 68, SCA 80-
Pin, and VHDCI68
Number found on a system : SCSI devices can be daisy chained, so
the number connected to a system will vary
Max length : 1.5 meters to 25 meters depending on
the type
Max data rate : 360 MB/sec max
50 Pin Centronics : This is connector is at the device end of
some peripherals

 25 Pin D Sub:
This one you have to look out for. You can plug a parallel connector into
this and they will match up perfectly. But this is found on an Apple
Macintosh. To help you out, you will not find a parallel connector on a Mac
making this easy. If you are working on a Mac, it is a SCSI interface not a
parallel connector.

 DB-50:
This is a rare connector that has 3 rows of pins. It was used on HP and DEC
computers. It is not very common.

 50 Pin MicroD (High Density): This is a connector that has 2 rows of

squared off holes. It is used on 8-bit fast SCSI.

 68 Pin MicroD: This looks like the 50 Pin MicroD but longer and with
more pins. This interface is used on all SCSI Wide connectors.

16
 PRACTICAL NO – 5

AIM: To study various cards used in a system.

DISPLAY CARD :-
Three components in a video card
The video card is just as important as the screen – and more often overlooked.
During the years 1999-2001 the overall quality of video adapters has been
improved. Earlier there were some very lousy products in the market. Follow my
articles to know more of the video adapter. A video card is typically an adapter, a
removable expansion card in the PC. Thus, it can be replaced. The video card can
also be an integral part of the system board this is the case in certain brands of PCs
and is always the case in lap tops. I have a clear preference for a replaceable video
card in my stationary PC. However modern motherboard may include good
integrated video chip sets. You just have to know which ones!

Regardless of whether it is replaceable or integrated, the video adapter consists of

three components:

 A video chip set of some brand (ATI, Matrox, Nvidia, S3, Intel, to
name some of the better known). The video chip creates the signals,
which the screen must receive to form an image.
 Some kind of RAM (EDO, SGRAM, or VRAM, which are all variations
of the regular RAM). Memory is necessary, since the video card must be
able to remember a complete screen image at any time. Using AGP, the
video card may use the main memory of the motherboard.
 A RAMDAC - a chip converting digital/analog signals. Using Flat
panel monitors, you do not need a the function of a RAMDAC.
 Video cards always have a certain amount of RAM. This RAM is also
called the frame buffer. Today video cards hold plenty of RAM, but
before it was more important:
 How much RAM? That is significant for color depth at the highest
resolutions.
 Which type RAM? This is significant for card speed.
 Video card RAM is necessary to keep the entire screen image in
memory. The CPU sends its data to the video card. The video processor
forms a picture of the screen image and stores it in the frame buffer.
This picture is a large bit map. It is used to continually update the screen
image.

17
The Amount of RAM
Older video cards were typically available with 1, 2, 4 or more MB RAM. How
much is necessary? That depends primarily on how fine a resolution you want on
your screen. For ordinary 2D use, 16 bit colors are "good enough." Let us look at
RAM needs for different resolutions:

Note that the video RAM is not utilized 100% for the bit map. Therefore, 1 MB is
not enough to show a 800 x 600 picture with 16 bit colors, as the above
calculation could lead you to believe. Today video cards come with 4 MB, 8 MB
or more RAM.

Using ordinary RAM, you saw speed improvements of the graphics card using 4
MB instead of 2 MB, if the resolution only was 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768. In this
case data can be written to and read from the RAM simultaneously - using
different RAM cells. With only 2 MB RAM, data sometime had to wait for a free
cell.

SOUND CARDS:-
Sound cards have a minimum of four tasks. They function as:

The synthesizer
The synthesizer delivers the sound. That is, the sound card generates the sounds.
Here we have three systems:
 FM synthesis, Frequency Modulation
 Wave table
 Physical modeling

The A/D conversion:

You need a A/D conversion, when analog sound signals are recorded, i.e. from a
microphone. The other way around, the D/A-converter is used when the digital
sounds have to be reproduced into a signal for the speakers amplifier.The acoustic
waves are collected by the microphone and lead to the sound card. Here it is
converted into series of digital pulses, which eventually are saved in a file. This
way a sampling is an analog-to-digital conversion:

Sampling
As mentioned is the basic concept of digital recording of sound is called sampling.
You can record any sound you want into a sample (a Wav file) if you have a sound
card and a microphone. The sampling can be done in various qualities:
 8 bit or 16 bit sampling
 11, 22 or 44 KHz (kilohertz)
 Stereo or mono

The number of kilohertz tells how many thousand times per second the sound will
be recorded.
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 LAN CARDS :-

LAN card is used in networking. It accepts the analog signal from one pc and
transfers it to another through a cable. This cable is generally twisted pair or
category 5.

LAN card works on the voltage of +12 volts it mount in the two slots, in the latest
configuration these are mounted in the PCI slots, on the receiving end it receive
the data in the analog form and convert it into the equivalent digital form which
will be stored in the buffer of the system. The connector of the cable generally in
round shape female connector the data transfer speed of the LAN card generally
vary according to the models. The clock used by the LAN card control on its own
level.

19
 PRACTICAL NO – 6

AIM: To remove, study and replace floppy disk drive.

 Theory:

The floppy disk drive (FDD) was the primary means of adding data to a computer
until the CD-ROM drive became popular. In fact, FDDs have been a key
component of most personal computers for more than 20 years. Basically, a floppy
disk drive reads and writes data to a small, circular piece of metal-coated plastic
similar to audio cassette tape.

Very few PC's are without a floppy drive. Diskettes were developed as a low cost
alternative to hard disks. In the 60's and 70's, when hard disk prices were
exorbitant, it was unthinkable to use them in anything but mainframe and mini
computers. The first diskettes were introduced in 1971. They were 8" diameter
plastic disks with a magnetic coating, enclosed in a cardboard case. They had a
capacity of one megabyte. The diskettes are placed in a drive, which has read and
write heads. Conversely to hard disks, the heads actually touch the disk, like in a
cassette or video player. This wears the media.
Later, in 1976, 5.25" diskettes were introduced. They had far less capacity (only
160 KB to begin with). However, they were inexpensive and easy to work with.
For many years, they were the standard in PC's. Like the 8" diskettes, the 5.25"
were soft and flexible. Therefore, they were named floppy disks.

In 1987 IBM's revolutionary PS/2 PC's were introduced and with them the 3½"
hard diskettes we know today. These diskettes have a thinner magnetic coating,
allowing more tracks on a smaller surface. The track density is measured in TPI
(tracks per inch). The TPI has been increased from 48 to 96 and now 135 in the
3.5" diskettes.
Here we see the standard PC diskette configurations:

Diskette size Name Tracks per Number of sectors Capacity

side per tracks

5.25" Single SD8 40 8 40 X 8 X 512 bytes = 160

side KB

5.25" Double DD9 40 9 2 X 40 X 9 X 512 bytes =

20
 side 360 KB

5.25" Double DQ15 80 15 2 X 80 X 15 X 512 bytes =

side 1.2 MB
High Density

3.5" DD DQ9 80 9 2 X 80 X 9 X 512 bytes =

720 KB

3.5" HD DQ18 80 18 2 X 80 X 18 X 512 bytes =

1.44 MB

3.5" XD DG36 80 36 2 X 80 X 36 X 512 bytes =

( IBM only) 2.88 MB

Diskette drives turn at 300 RPM. That results in an average search time (½
revolutions) of 100 ms.

 The floppy controller

All diskette drives are governed by a controller. The original PC controller was
named NEC PD765. Today, it is included in the chip set, but functions like a 765.
It is a programmable chip. It can be programmed to handle all the various floppy
drive types: 5.25" or 3.5" drives, DD or HD etc.

The controller has to be programmed at each start up. It must be told which drives
to control. This programming is performed by the start up programs in ROM (read
module 2a). So you don't have to identify available drive types at each start up,
these drive parameters are saved in CMOS RAM. The floppy controller reads data
from the diskette media in serial mode (one bit at a time like from hard disks).
Data are delivered in parallel mode (16 bits at a time) to RAM via a DMA channel.
Thus, the drives should be able to operate without CPU supervision. However, in
reality this does not always work. Data transfer from a diskette drive can delay and
sometimes freeze the whole PC, so no other operations can be performed
simultaneously.

 Parts of a Floppy Disk Drive:

The Disk

1. A floppy disk is a thin plastic base material coated with iron oxide. This oxide is
a
ferromagnetic material, meaning that if it is exposed to a magnetic field it is
permanently magnetized by the field.
2. It can record information instantly.
3. It can be erased and reused many times.
4. These are very inexpensive and easy to use.
21
 The Drive:- The major parts of a FDD include:

Read/Write Heads: Located on both sides of a diskette, they move together on

the same assembly. The heads are not directly opposite each other in an effort to
prevent interaction between write operations on each of the two media surfaces.
The same head is used for reading and writing, while a second, wider head is used
for erasing a track just prior to it being written. This allows the data to be written
on a wider "clean slate," without interfering with the analog data on an adjacent
track.

Drive Motor: A very small spindle motor engages the metal hub at the center of
the diskette, spinning it at either 300 or 360 rotations per minute (RPM).

Stepper Motor: This motor makes a precise number of stepped revolutions to

move the read/write head assembly to the proper track position. The read/write
head assembly is fastened to the stepper motor shaft.

Mechanical Frame: A system of levers that opens the little protective window on
the diskette to allow the read/write heads to touch the dual-sided diskette media.
An external button allows the diskette to be ejected, at which point the spring-
loaded protective window on the diskette closes.

Circuit Board: Contains all of the electronics to handle the data read from or
written to the diskette. It also controls the stepper-motor control circuits used to
move the read/write heads to each track, as well as the movement of the read/write
heads toward the diskette surface.

Tools You May Need :

Depending on the design of you computer, you may need the following tools to
complete the installation

 A Flat blade screwdriver

 A Phillips screwdriver
 Needle-nosed pliers
22
Handling the 1.44” Floppy Drive :
Your 1.44 drive must be handled with care. Avoid applying undue force or
abnormal strain to the spindle motor, stepping motor or printed circuit board.
Avoid placing your fingers on the printed circuit board. It is best to hold the 1.44
drive by the diecast frame, as indicated by the arrows in Figure A. Never loosen
the fixing screw of the printed circuit board, etc.

 Applications:
Floppy disks, while rarely used to distribute software (as in the past), are still used
in these applications:

1. For software recovery after a system crash or a virus attack

2. When data from one computer is needed on a second computer and the two
computers are not networked.
3. In bootable diskettes used for updating the BIOS on a personal computer
4. In high-density form, used in the popular Zip drive.

 Procedure:

1. Switch off the main power supply.

2. Take out the data bus & the power supply from the FDD, gently.
3. Unscrew the FDD & take it out with extreme care.
4. Now put the FDD back in & screw up.
5. Plug in the data bus & power supply & make sure that the connections are
precise.

23
 PRACTICAL NO – 7

AIM: To remove, study and replace Hard disk drive.

 Theory:
Hard disks were invented in the 1950s. Hard disks have a hard platter that holds
the magnetic medium, as opposed to the flexible plastic film found in tapes and
floppies. At the simplest level, a hard disk is not that different from a cassette tape.
Both hard disks and cassette tapes use the same magnetic recording techniques.
Hard disks and cassette tapes also share the major benefits of magnetic storage --
the magnetic medium can be easily erased and rewritten, and it will "remember"
the magnetic flux patterns stored onto the medium for many years.

A modern hard disk is able to store an amazing amount of information in a small

space. A hard disk can also access any of its information in a fraction of a second.
A typical desktop machine will have a hard disk with a capacity of between 10 and
40 gigabytes. Data is stored onto the disk in the form of files. A file is simply a
named collection of bytes. The bytes might be the ASCII codes for the characters
of a text file, or they could be the instructions of a software application for the
computer to execute, or they could be the records of a data base, or they could be
the pixel colors for a GIF image. No matter what it contains, however, a file is
simply a string of bytes. When a program running on the computer requests a file,
the hard disk retrieves its bytes and sends them to the CPU one at a time.

There are two ways to measure the performance of a hard disk:

24
  Data rate - The data rate is the number of bytes per second that the drive
can deliver to the CPU. Rates between 5 and 40 megabytes per second are
common.
 Seek time - The seek time is the amount of time between when the CPU
requests a file and when the first byte of the file is sent to the CPU. Times
between 10 and 20 milliseconds are common.

The platters typically spin at 3600 or 7200 rpm when the drive is operating. These
platters are manufactured to amazing tolerances and are mirror-smooth. In order to
increase the amount of information the drive can store, most hard disks have
multiple platters.

Annotated illustration of a typical PC actuator assembly, showing the major

components. The platters have been removed from the drive to provide a better
view of the actuator arms and heads. There are four sliders but only
one of each pair is visible. The spindle motor is visible at the top right.

The arm that holds the read/write heads is controlled by the mechanism in the
upper-left corner, and is able to move the heads from the hub to the edge of the
drive. The arm and its movement mechanism are extremely light and fast. The arm
on a typical hard-disk drive can move from hub to edge and back up to 50 times
per second.

Data is stored on the surface of a platter in sectors and tracks. Tracks are
concentric circles, and sectors are pie-shaped wedges on a track. A sector contains
a fixed number of bytes -- for example, 256 or 512. Either at the drive or the
operating system level, sectors are often grouped together into clusters.
The process of low-level formatting a drive establishes the tracks and sectors on
the platter. The starting and ending points of each sector are written onto the
platter. This process prepares the drive to hold blocks of bytes. High-level
formatting then writes the file-storage structures, like the file-allocation table, into
the sectors. This process prepares the drive to hold files.

The data bus connecting hard disk to the motherboard is of 32 bits & 39 pins. The
power supply from the SMPS is a 4 pin supply that goes into the hard disk. Jumper
settings for the various configurations of the hard disk are shown below:

 Jumper setting
IDE/ATA hard disks are fairly standard in terms of jumpers. There are usually
only a few and they don't vary greatly from drive to drive. Here are the jumpers
you will normally find:
 Drive Select: Since there can be two drives (master and slave) on the
same IDE channel, a jumpers is normally used to tell each drive if it should
function as a master or slave on the IDE channel. For a single drive on a
channel, most manufacturers instruct that the drive be jumpered as master,
while some manufacturers (notably Western Digital) have a separate setting
for a single drive as opposed to a master on a channel with a slave. The

25
 terms "master" and "slave" are misleading since the drives really have no
operational relationship.
 Slave Present: Some drives have an additional jumper that is used to
tell a drive configured as master that there is also a slave drive on the ATA
channel. This is only required for some older drives that don't support
standard master/slave IDE channel signaling.
 Cable Select: Some configurations use a special cable to determine
which drive is master and which is slave, and when this system is used a
cable select jumper is normally enabled.
 Size Restriction Jumper: Some larger hard disk drives don't work
properly in older PCs that don't have a BIOS program modern enough to
recognize them. To get around this, some drives have special jumpers that,
when set, will cause them to appear as a smaller size than they really are to
the BIOS, for compatibility. For example, some 2.5 GB hard disks have a
jumper that will cause them to appear as a 2.1 GB hard disk to a system that
won't support anything over 2.1 GB. These are also sometimes called
capacity limitation jumpers and vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

The most common interface for PC hard disks is called IDE, which in fact stands
for Integrated Drive Electronics. This name is something of a misnomer today.
When it was introduced, IDE was distinguished from the other interfaces of the
day by having the integrated electronics on the drive, instead of on the controller
card plugged into the system bus like older interfaces. However, the term really
refers to where the control logic is and not the interface itself, and since all hard
disks today use integrated electronics the name doesn't mean anything any more,
despite the fact that everyone continues to use it. The other popular PC hard disk
interface today, SCSI, also uses drives that have integrated controllers. The more
correct name for the IDE interface is AT Attachment or ATA.

Spindle speeds

Average
Spindle
Latency (Half Typical Current Applications
Speed (RPM)
Rotation) (ms)
Former standard, now
3,600 8.3
obsolete
4,200 7.1 Laptops
4,500 6.7 IBM Microdrive, laptops
4,900 6.1 Laptops
5,200 5.8 Obsolete
5,400 5.6 Low-end IDE/ATA, laptops
High-end IDE/ATA, Low-end
7,200 4.2
SCSI

26
 10,000 3.0 High-end SCSI
12,000 2.5 High-end SCSI
15,000 2.0 Top-of-the-line SCSI

 Procedure:
1. Switch off the main power supply.
2. Take out the data bus & the power supply from the hard disk, gently.
3. Unscrew the hard disk & take it out with extreme care.
4. Now put the hard disk back in & screw up.
5. Plug in the data bus & power supply & make sure that the connections are
precise.

 Fitting the Hard Disk Drive

Unpack the HDD. Make sure at this stage that you have your anti-static measures
in place, and even briefly make contact with both hands on the metal of the case to
make sure.
Locate the IDE Configuration Pins on the HDD. These can usually be found next
to the power and data connections, and will be a group of six or eight small pins
with a small plastic 'jumper' attached between two of the pins. If this is to be the
only HDD in your PC, then set this to Master. Alternatively, if this is to be an
additional HDD then it must be set to Slave.
The Hard Drive differs from the Floppy Drive in that it is usually inserted from
within the PC case. On one end of the Hard Drive will be the sockets for
connecting the cables. This end must point into the case such that the cables can be
connected later on. Gently slide the Hard Drive into the bay that now holds the
floppy drive above. Move the drive around until you find the fixing points and use
the standard screws to secure it. Clear any obstructions to this insertion from inside
the case if necessary.

27
 PRACTICAL NO – 8

AIM: To remove, study and replace CD ROM drive.

 Theory:
 The Optic Medias (CD ROM's and DVD)

CD ROM and DVD are optic readable media, contrary to hard disks, floppy disks
and tapes, which are magnetic. The optic storage media are read with a very thin
and very precisely aimed laser beam. They supplement the magnetic media. They
have clear advantages in the areas of data density and stability: Data can be packed
much more densely in an optic media than in a magnetic media. And they have
much longer life span. It is presumed that a magnetic media, such as a hard disk or
DAT (digital audio tape) can maintain their data for a maximum of five years. The
magnetism simply fades away in time. Conversely, the life span of optic media is
counted in tens of years.

 The Compact Disk

The compact disk (CD) was introduced by Philips and Sony in 1980 to replace LP
records. It is a small plastic disk with a reflecting metal coating, usually aluminum.
Myriad's of tiny indentations are burned into this coating. These indentations
contain the music in millions of bits. The CD is organized in tracks. Each track is
assigned a number.
The big advantage of the CD is its high-quality music reproduction and total
absence of back ground noise as well as a great dynamic. During operation, the
software in the drive can correct errors caused by such things as finger marks on
the disk. All in all, the CD is an excellent music storage media.

 The CD-ROM
The CD-ROM (Read Only Memory) came as an extension of the CD in 1984. In
principle, the media and the drives are the same. The difference is in the data
storage organization. In a CD-ROM, the data are stored in sectors, which can be
read independently -
Like from a hard disk.
The CD-ROM has become an important media in the PC world. It can hold 650
MB of data, and it is very inexpensive to produce. Today, there are three types of
CD drives and DVD drives are on their way:

Drive Type Name The Drive Can

CD- ROM Compact Disk Read Only Read CD-ROM and CD-

28
 Memory R
CD-ROM Multithread --/-- Read CD-ROM, CD-R
And CD-E
CD-R Compact Disk Recordable Read CD-ROM and CD-
R. Write once on special
disks named CD-R
CD-E or CD-RW Compact Disk Erasable or Read CD-ROM and CD-
Compact Disk Rewritable R. Write once on special
disks named CD-E
DVD RAM Digital Versatile Disk Reads all CD formats.
Random Access Memory Read DVD ROM. Read
and write DVD disks

Let us start by look at the CD-ROM construction. To facilitate understanding, it

will be easiest to compare it with other disk types, especially the hard disk. The
CD-ROM is a plastic disk of 4.6" diameter. It is placed in a CD-ROM drive, which
is like a drawer in the PC cabinet :

When the CD-ROM disk is placed in the drive, it starts to spin the disk. It reaches
operating speed in one to two seconds. Then the drive is ready to read from the
disk.

 About Optic Data Storage

The CD-ROM can be compared to a floppy drive, because the disks are
removable. It can also be compared with a hard drive, because of similar data
storage capacity. Actually, a CD-ROM disk can hold up to 680 MB of data. This
equals the capacity of 470 floppy disks. However, the CD ROM is neither a floppy
nor a hard disk! While floppy and hard disks are magnetic media, the CD-ROM is
an optic media. The magnetic media work in principle like an audio cassette tape
player. They have a read/write head, which reads or writes magnetic impressions
on the disk. The magnetic media contains myriads of microscopic magnets, which
can be polarized to represent a zero or numeral one (one bit).
In the optic readable CD-ROM, the data storage consists of millions of
indentations burnt into the lacquer-coated, light-reflecting silver surface. The burnt
dents reflect less light than the shiny surface. A weak laser beam is sent to the disk
through a two-way mirror and the sensor registers the difference in light reflection
from the burnt and shiny areas as zero's and one's.

 Rotation speed and data transmission

29
 There are different generations of CD-ROM drives. Here you see their data.

CD-ROM Type Data Transfer Speed RPM Outmost-innermost Track

1X 150kb/sec 200-530
2X 300 kb/sec 400-1060
4X 600 kb/sec 800-2120
8X 1.2MB/Sec 1600-4240
12X-24X 1.8 – 3.6 MB/Sec 2400-6360

The new drives are 24X and 32X spin. When you see their rotation speeds, you
wonder how much further this technology can be advanced. The hard disk can spin
at high speeds, because it operates in sealed box. The CD does not.

 Procedure:
1. Switch off the main power supply.
2. Take out the data bus & the power supply from the drive, gently.
3. Unscrew the CD ROM & take it out with extreme care.
4. Now put it back in the cabinet from the front & screw up.
5. Plug in the data bus & power supply & make sure that the connections are
precise.

30
 PRACTICAL NO – 9

AIM: To study the monitor, its circuitry and various presets and some
elementary fault detection.

 MONITOR ABCs
The monitor is a hardware device which physically connects to your CPU. The
monitor allows information and current status be be visually outputted similar to a
TV. Like most TVs the computer monitor has a CRT or Cathode Ray Tube which
found inside the computer monitor as illustrated in the above picture. The CRT is
the main component and most expensive part within your computer monitor.
Within the CRT are three electron guns, Red, Green and Blue. Each of these guns
streams a steady flow of electrons left to right for each line of your monitor. As the
electrons hit the phosphors on the CRT the phosphor will glow certain intensities.
As a new line begins the guns will then begin at the left and continue right, these
guns will repeat this process sometimes thousands of time until the screen has been
completely drawn line by line. Once the phosphors on the CRT have been hit with
an electron they will only glow for a short period of time, because of this the CRT
must be refreshed which means the process will be repeated as explained above. If
the video cards refresh rate is not set high enough you may encounter a flicker or a
noticeable steady line scrolling from the top to the bottom of your screen. If you
are encountering this issue, resolutions have been described on our video card
page.

 DOT PITCH

The dot pitch is a measurement; measured in millimeters which is the amount of

space between the phosphors on a computer monitor screen. The smaller the
number of dot pitches the sharper the image.

 GHOST / BURN

If monitors especially older CGA / EGA monitors are left on for long duration's of
time as the electron beams cause the phosphors to glow. If the electron guns
continue to do this for thousands of hours refreshing the same images this can
cause the images to be burnt into the CRT surface causing a ghost image to appear.
This image will become permanently displayed on your monitor for the duration
of its life.A resolution to this problem is screen savers, which is a program which
generates a random set of images, lines or other methods of allowing the image to

31
 not remain static while the computer is not being used.While new monitors (VGA /
SVGA) do not have this issue screen savers are still commonly used today, you
can find screen savers in our screen saver download section.

 MONITOR CONTROLS

The following is additional information on the likely monitor controls on your

monitor. Using these controls you can help improve the quality and layout of the
picture on your monitor for better viewing pleasure. Please keep in mind that not
all

Monitors will have all of the available buttons.

Power - Turns the monitor on / off.

Brightness - Using this button or wheel the user can increase and decrease the
brightness on the screen.
Contrast - Using this button or wheel can increase and decrease the amount of
contrast on the screen.
Horizontal Size - Allows for the picture on the screen to be stretched to the
horizontal edge of the monitor.
Vertical Size - Allows the picture on the screen to be stretched to the vertical
edges of the monitor.
Horizontal Position - Allows the picture to move moved horizontally, once in the
center the user can then use the Horizontal size to stretch it to have an equal
amount of black border on each side.
Vertical Position - Like the Horizontal Position, using this button or wheel the
user can move the picture up or down to center the picture more appropriately.
Full Screen - Sets monitor to full screen
Degauss - This button will demagnetize the CRT restoring possible color
impurities. After this button has been pressed the degaussing circuit will be
activated and then deactivated after a few seconds. Pressing and holding this
button for a few seconds may cause your computer monitor to reset all data.
Corner / Trapezoid Correction - Using this button or wheel the user can either
round the edges of the picture or move the picture inward like an hour glass or
outwards.
Vertical Linearity - Sets the width of the vertical lines.
Moiré - Removes or reduces the effect if any.
OSD Controls - If the monitor contains OSD controls allows for the OSD menus
to be adjusted.
Power Management - Allows the user to define the power management settings
through the monitor itself and not the software.
Monitor Status - Displays the current monitor settings such as refresh rate and
other settings.
Language - Sets the language on the monitor.

 MINIMUM RESOLUTION

32
The size is an important factor of the computers running resolution. When picking
the resolution try basing it off the monitor’s size for best use.

13-inch 640 x 480

15-inch 800 x 600
17-inch 1,024 x 768
21-inch 1,280 x 1,024

Resolution Bit map size with 16 bit colors Necessary RAM on the video card
640 x 480 614,400 bytes 1 MB
800 x 600 960,000 bytes 1.5 MB
1024 x 768 1,572,864 bytes 2 MB
1152 x 864 1,990,656 bytes 2.5 MB
1280 x 1024 2,621,440 bytes 3 MB
1600 x 1200 3,840,000 bytes 4 MB

33
 PRACTICAL NO – 10

AIM: To study printer assembly and elementary fault detection of LASER

and DMP.

How Laser Printer Works

Copiers and laser printers have a lot in common. The major difference is in how
the image is formed on a photosensitive drum:

 A copier uses a bright light and lens to focus an image of the original
(actually, a strip at a time which is scanned in most modern low to medium
performance copiers) onto the drum. Adjusting the lens-to-original and
lens-to-drum distance is used to vary the reduction or magnification.
 A laser printer uses a low power sharply focused laser beam to scan
one line at a time on the drum. Modern laser printers use infra-red solid
state laser diodes similar to those used in CD players and optical disk drives
while older ones used helium neon lasers.

LED printers use a large array of LEDs as the image source but are
otherwise similar to laser printers.

Beyond this, copiers and laser printers are nearly identical (at least in principle)
except that copiers use a positive process (dark areas in the original result in marks
on the paper) and laser printers commonly use a negative process (a spot of light
results in a dark mark on the paper).

All of the following takes place as a continuous process as the drum rotates.
Note that the actual photosensitive drum in most copiers and laser printers has a
circumference that is much smaller than the length of the printed page. Therefore,
only a portion fits at any given time and the charging, exposure, transfer to the
paper, cleaning, and erasing is a continuous process: The drum's surface is charged
to a high positive voltage (typically 5 to 6 kV) by a set of charging corona wires in
close proximity to the drum.

The exposure process differs for copiers and laser printers:

 For laser printers, the negative image of the page stored in the
printer's buffer memory (the laser is turned on where the print is to be
black) is read out and scanned onto the drum one line (i.e., 1/300th or
1/600th of an inch) at a time.

Where the light hits the drum's surface, its resistance drops dramatically and the
charge in these areas is dissipated.

34
At this point, a swath of the image of your ultimate copied or printed page resides
as areas of electrostatic charge on the drum. This is a 'latent' image and must be
'developed'.

 As the drum continues to turn, the latent image rotates past the 'developer
unit' which contains a mixture of developer and toner. For the most part,
developer is not really used up during the printing process but some is lost
and may need to be replenished from time-to-time (depends on design).

 Developer is a material which includes powdered iron or other

powder which is attracted by a magnet.
 Toner is the actual 'ink' and consists of very finely powdered thermo
plastic particles. These are 'fixed' in the fuser by literally melting the image
onto the paper.

Depending on design, the developer material may be separate or actually combined

with the toner.

A magnet in the developer unit which is as long as the page is wide causes the
developer along with trapped toner to stand out following its lines of force off of
its long N-S pole pieces. This forms a kind of brush of toner and developer
material which is in contact with the drum as it rotates with its latent image.
Normally, the developer material brush is C-shaped, and toner particles are carried
in the C-shape (the back of the 'C' is against the drum).

Here is where the developing processes of copiers and laser printers differ:

 For copiers, the relative charges of the drum and toner are set up so that
toner is drawn to the unexposed (dark parts of the original) portions of the
drum resulting in a positive image on the paper.
 Depending on the manufacturer of the machine, you may or may not
have a third corona, the 'separation corona'. This is needed to separate the
paper from the drum, but not disturb the toner on the paper (the separation
corona is usually 4 or 5 kV AC (if it was DC, you would separate the paper,
but have *very* smeared toner all over the page as to make it unreadable).
The separation corona usually has guides over it to keep the paper from
'dipping' down too far into the corona shell.
 Now that all the toner has been scraped off the drum, there is still some
residual charge on the drum from the previous exposure process. You can't
scrape the static charge off the drum, so the cleaned drum is now fully
exposed to a bright light to discharge the drum surface and prepare it again
for a new charge, which comes right after the discharge lamps.

That is the basic process. Many variations are possible and depending upon the
machine and manufacturer, some of this may be a little different. Where a
(disposable) toner cartridge is used, many of these components are replaced with
the cartridge - typically the drum, toner itself and developer (usually combined

35
 into a single powder), developer magnet (really neat!), cleaning blades, some of
the corona wires.

How Dot Matrix Printers Works

Ever since the Digital era started, the Dot Matrix printing method is in vogue.Like
atom being the smallest indivisible entity in an element ,a dot in the dot matrix
printing is the smallest entity. In the digital era, the printing method evolved
around 2 types-Impact and Non-Impact Printing.

In an Impact printing a mechanical force is exerted on the printing media to form a

character whereas in the Non-impact printing the character formation on the media
is achieved through non-mechanical means like light(Laser), heat(Thermal),
liquid(Inkjet)etc.

In Dot-Matrix printing, each character is divided into dots of rows and columns
and stored into computer memory. By suitably placing the dots, any character can
be formed. With this method just by changing the program, character shapes and
sizes can be changed at will. This is a major advantage over the other method that
has made it so popular among the printing methods.

In multi-linguistic countries like us , the same printer can be used to print in any
language with only a program change. Dot-matrix printing method is used in both
Impact and Non-Impact form of printing. In the market worldwide popularly
known as DMPs use Impact type of Dot-Matrix printing where as thermal printers,
Laser printers and Inkjet printers use Non-Impact type of Dot-Matrix printing.
Even though all the above printers use dot matrix method, the acronym DMP is
always synonymous with Impact dot-matrix printer because of its popularity and
older technology. This means that nobody calls Laser or Inkjet printers as DMP's
even though they are DMP's.

Worldwide DMPs evolve around 9 pin and 24-pin printer heads to form
characters .The pins are activated serially through a printer ribbon to form
character on the paper.

 The Key specification and details of a typical DMP is as follows :

No of Pins

9 or 24. 9 pin is used for transactional/internal document printing where

Quality is not the key criteria. On the other hand, 24pin DMP offers better quality
printing.

80col/136cl
Represents the paper size the printer can print -A4 size on 80col and A3
size on 136col.
300cps speed

36
 Represents the printing speed of the DMP expressed in no of characters per
second. Normally speed in cps is mentioned against size of the character in
character per inch, cpi.
Push/Pull tractor
How the continuous stationary is transported for printing in the DMP.Push
tractor is the normal one where in the tractor pushes the paper in to the
printer. In a Pull tractor printer, the tractor is situated after the print head
and pulls the printer paper out of the printer. A convertible push-pull tractor
is a tractor which can function both as push as well as pull tractor by
changing its position. Dual tractor printers are those which have two
tractors. Dual tractors are usually found in multiple paper path printers, ie.
front, top/rear & bottom paper paths.

Interface
Printer interfaces are Centronics parallel or RS232/422 serial or both. It is
the port through which PC and Printer are connected thru a cable. Some
printers are also have the option of USB interface.

AutoShare
Some printers with both serial & parallel interfaces can be connected to 2
PCs simultaneously, one through parallel port and the other through serial port.
The printer senses which PC is sending data and switches to the corresponding
port. This feature is called AutoShare and is widely used to share 1 printer across
2 PCs. AutoShare is a special feature and not all printers with both serial &
parallel port come with it.

Paper Path
There are various ways by which you can load/eject paper and park your
different types of stationary on the printer for switching between them. One
is friction mode for cut sheets, another is tractor more for continuous sheets.
These can be from the rear, front, top or even bottom. More the no of paths,
better is the flexibility of the printer's paper handling.

Language Printing capability

Normal DMP's understands only ASCII and indian language standard is in
ISCII.Any non ascii character is printer as graphics in DMP and due to this
the speed of printing drops dramatically.In language DMP,the font of the
language is built in to the printer and hence even ISCII is printer in
character mode and not in graphic mode.Language printers are either
bilingual or multilingual.In bilingual DMP,one language other than english
can be printed in text mode.In bilingual DMP,more than one language can
be printer in text mode along with english.

 Key Application areas for DMP :

1. Bill,Invoice,PO printing
2. Transactional document printing
3. Label and Barcode printing

37
 4. Correspondence,Presentation and Report Printing
5. Desktop publishing
6. Utility bills printing -english and language

 Advantages of a DMP over other Print technologies :

1. Lowest cost per page-less than 5 paisa/page

2. Multi-part printing capability in one go-typically from 2 to 8 copies
3. Lowest cost of ownership
4. Rugged and reliable
5. Acceptable print quality in text

 Disadvantages of DMP over other Print technologies:

1. No multi color print capability

2. Poor print quality in graphics
3. Noisy since it is impact printer compared to laser and inkjet
4. Requires higher shelf space
5. Slower print speeds in Letter quality printer.

38
 PRACTICAL NO - 11

AIM: To observe and study various cables, connections used in computer

communication.

 What is Network Cabling?

Cable is the medium through which information usually moves from one network
device to another. There are several types of cable which are commonly used with
LANs. In some cases, a network will utilize only one type of cable, other networks
will use a variety of cable types. The type of cable chosen for a network is related
to the network's topology, protocol, and size. Understanding the characteristics of
different types of cable and how they relate to other aspects of a network is
necessary for the development of a successful network.

 Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable

Twisted pair cabling comes in two varieties: shielded and unshielded. Unshielded
twisted pair (UTP) is the most popular and is generally the best option for school
networks .The quality of UTP may vary from telephone-grade wire to extremely
high-speed cable. The cable has four pairs of wires inside the jacket. Each pair is
twisted with a different number of twists per inch to help eliminate interference
from adjacent pairs and other electrical devices. The tighter the twisting, the higher
the supported transmission rate and the greater the cost per foot. The EIA/TIA
(Electronic Industry Association/Telecommunication Industry Association) has
established standards of UTP and rated five categories of wire.

Buy the best cable you can afford; most schools purchase Category 3 or Category
5. If you are designing a 10 Mbps Ethernet network and are considering the cost
savings of buying Category 3 wire instead of Category 5, remember that the
Category 5 cable will provide more "room to grow" as transmission technologies
increase. Both Category 3 and Category 5 UTP have a maximum segment length
of 100 meters. In Florida, Category 5 cable is required for retrofit grants. 10BaseT
refers to the specifications for unshielded twisted pair cable (Category 3, 4, or 5)
carrying Ethernet signals. Category 6 is relatively new and is used for gigabit
connections.

 Unshielded Twisted Pair Connector

The standard connector for unshielded twisted pair cabling is an RJ-45 connector.
This is a plastic connector that looks like a large telephone-style connector (See
fig. 2). A slot allows the RJ-45 to be inserted only one way. RJ stands for
Registered Jack, implying that the connector follows a standard borrowed from the

39
 telephone industry. This standard designates which wire goes with each pin inside
the connector.

 Categories of Unshielded Twisted Pair

Type Use

Category 1 Voice Only (Telephone Wire)

Category 2 Data to 4 Mbps (Local Talk)

Category 3 Data to 10 Mbps (Ethernet)

Category 4 Data to 20 Mbps (16 Mbps Token Ring)

Category 5 Data to 100 Mbps (Fast Ethernet)

 Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable

A disadvantage of UTP is that it may be susceptible to radio and electrical

frequency interference. Shielded twisted pair (STP) is suitable for environments
with electrical interference; however, the extra shielding can make the cables quite
bulky. Shielded twisted pair is often used on networks using Token Ring topology.

 Coaxial Cable

Coaxial cabling has a single copper conductor at its center. A plastic layer provides
insulation between the center conductor and a braided metal shield (See fig. 3).
The metal shield helps to block any outside interference from fluorescent lights,
motors, and other computers.

Although coaxial cabling is difficult to install, it is highly resistant to signal

interference. In addition, it can support greater cable lengths between network
devices than twisted pair cable. The two types of coaxial cabling are thick coaxial
and thin coaxial.Thin coaxial cable is also referred to as thinnet. 10Base2 refers to
the specifications for thin coaxial cable carrying Ethernet signals. The 2 refers to
the approximate maximum segment length being 200 meters. In actual fact the
maximum segment length is 185 meters. Thin coaxial cable is popular in school
networks, especially linear bus networks.Thick coaxial cable is also referred to as
thicknet. 10Base5 refers to the specifications for thick coaxial cable carrying
Ethernet signals. The 5 refers to the maximum segment length being 500 meters.
Thick coaxial cable has an extra protective plastic cover that helps keep moisture
away from the center conductor. This makes thick coaxial a great choice when
running longer lengths in a linear bus network. One disadvantage of thick coaxial
is that it does not bend easily and is difficult to install.

 Coaxial Cable Connectors

40
 The most common type of connector used with coaxial cables is the Bayone-Neill-
Concelman (BNC) connector (See fig. 4). Different types of adapters are available
for BNC connectors, including a T-connector, barrel connector, and terminator.
Connectors on the cable are the weakest points in any network. To help avoid
problems with your network, always use the BNC connectors that crimp, rather
than screw, onto the cable.

 Fiber Optic Cable

fiber optic cabling consists of a center glass core surrounded by several layers of
protective materials (See fig. 5). It transmits light rather than electronic signals
eliminating the problem of electrical interference. This makes it ideal for certain
environments that contain a large amount of electrical interferenceFacts about fiber
optic cables:

• Outer insulating jacket is made of Teflon or PVC.

• Kevlar fiber helps to strengthen the cable and prevent
breakage.
• A plastic coating is used to cushion the fiber center.
• Center (core) is made of glass or plastic fibers.

 Fiber Optic Connector

The most common connector used with fiber optic cable is an ST connector. It is
barrel shaped, similar to a BNC connector. A newer connector, the SC, is
becoming more popular. It has a squared face and is easier to connect in a confined
space.

 Installing Cable - Some Guidelines

When running cable, it is best to follow a few simple rules:

• Always use more cable than you need. Leave plenty of slack.
• Test every part of a network as you install it. Even if it is
brand new, it may have problems that will be difficult to isolate later.
• Stay at least 3 feet away from fluorescent light boxes and
other sources of electrical interference.
• If it is necessary to run cable across the floor, cover the cable
with cable protectors.
• Label both ends of each cable.
• Use cable ties (not tape) to keep cables in the same location
together.

 Network Communication devices

41
A LAN comprises of different communication devices across the network such as
the following :

 Repeater : A Device that amplifies and regenerates signals , so that they

can travel for longer distance on the cable.
 Router : The basic function of the router is to route the traffic from one
network to another network efficiently. It provide intelligent redundancy
and security required to select the optimum path. Usually routers are used
for connecting remote networks.
 Hub : A typical hub is a multi-port repeater. The signals received at the
backbone is regenerated and transmitted to all other ports.
 Switch : This is a device with multiple ports which forwards packets from
one port to another. In case of 10Mbps Ethernet switch, each port supports
dedicated 10Mbps bandwidth. Ethernet switch is fast emerging as a
replacement of the traditional thick backbone and best way to improve
performance of the network

 Ethernet Cable Summary

Specification Cable Type Maximum length

10BaseT Unshielded Twisted Pair 100 meters

10Base2 Thin Coaxial 185 meters

10Base5 Thick Coaxial 500 meters

10BaseF Fiber Optic 2000 meters

100BaseT Unshielded Twisted Pair 100 meters

100BaseTX Unshielded Twisted Pair 220 meters

42
 PRACTICAL NO – 12

AIM: To study parts of the keyboard and mouse.

The part of the computer that we come into most contact with is probably
the piece that we think about the least. But the keyboard is an amazing piece of
technology. For instance, did you know that the keyboard on a typical computer
system is actually a computer itself? At its essence, a keyboard is a series of
switches connected to a keyboard matrix that monitors the state of each switch and
initiates a specific response to a change in that state

 Inside the Keyboard

The processor in a keyboard has to understand several things that are important to
the utility of the keyboard, such as:

 Position of the key in the key matrix.

 The amount of bounce and how to filter it.
 The speed at which to transmit the typematics.

The key matrix is the grid of circuits underneath the keys. In all keyboards except
for capacitive ones, each circuit is broken at the point below a specific key.
Pressing the key bridges the gap in the circuit, allowing a tiny amount of current to
flow through. The processor monitors the key matrix for signs of continuity at any
point on the grid. When it finds a circuit that is closed, it compares the location of
that circuit on the key matrix to the character map. The character map is basically
a comparison chart for the processor that tells it what the key at x, y coordinates in
the key matrix represents. If more than one key is pressed at the same time, the
processor checks to see if that combination of keys has a designation in the
character map. For example, pressing the a key by itself would result in a small
letter "a" being sent to the computer. If you press and hold down the Shift key
while pressing the a key, the processor compares that combination with the
character map and produces a capital letter "A."

The character map in the keyboard can be superseded by a different character map
provided by the computer. This is done quite often in languages whose characters
do not have English equivalents. Also, there are utilities for changing the character
map from the traditional QWERTY to DVORAK or another custom version.

Keyboards rely on switches that cause a change in the current flowing through the
circuits in the keyboard. When the key presses the key switch against the circuit,
there is usually a small amount of vibration between the surfaces, known as
bounce. The processor in a keyboard recognizes that this very rapid switching on

43
 and off is not caused by you pressing the key repeatedly. Therefore, it filters all of
the tiny fluctuations out of the signal and treats it as a single key press.

If you continue to hold down a key, the processor determines that you wish to send
that character repeatedly to the computer. This is known as typematics. In this
process, the delay between each instance of a character can normally be set in
software, typically ranging from 30 characters per second (cps) to as few as two
cps.

 Keyboard Technologies

Keyboards use a variety of switch technologies. It is interesting to note that we

generally like to have some audible and tactile response to our typing on a
keyboard. We want to hear the keys "click" as we type, and we want the keys to
feel firm and spring back quickly as we press them. Let's take a look at these
different technologies:

 Rubber dome mechanical

 Capacitive non-mechanical
 Metal contact mechanical
 Membrane mechanical
 Foam element mechanical

Probably the most popular switch technology in use today is rubber dome. In
these keyboards, each key sits over a small, flexible rubber dome with a hard
carbon center. When the key is pressed, a plunger on the bottom of the key pushes
down against the dome. This causes the carbon center to push down also, until it
presses against a hard flat surface beneath the key matrix. As long as the key is
held, the carbon center completes the circuit for that portion of the matrix. When
the key is released, the rubber dome springs back to its original shape, forcing the
key back up to its at-rest position.

Rubber dome switch keyboards are inexpensive, have pretty good tactile response
and are fairly resistant to spills and corrosion because of the rubber layer covering
the key matrix. Membrane switches are very similar in operation to rubber dome
keyboards. A membrane keyboard does not have separate keys though. Instead, it
has a single rubber sheet with bulges for each key. You have seen membrane
switches on many devices designed for heavy industrial use or extreme conditions.
Because they offer almost no tactile response and can be somewhat difficult to
manipulate, these keyboards are seldom found on normal computer systems.

 From the Keyboard to the Computer

As you type, the processor in the keyboard is analyzing the key matrix and
determining what characters to send to the computer. It maintains these characters
in a buffer of that is usually about 16 large. It then sends the data in a stream to the
computer via some type of connection.

44
 The most common keyboard connectors are:

• 5-pin DIN (Deustche Industry Norm) connector

• 6-pin IBM PS/2 mini-DIN connector
• 4-pin connector
• Internal connector (for laptops)

 MOUSE

A mouse is a hardware device which allows the user to control a cursor to

manipulate data without complicated commands. The mouse or mice was invented
by Douglas Englebert in the 1960s, who at the time was working at the Stanford
Research Institute, which was a think tank sponsored by Stanford University. The
Mouse was originally referred to as an “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display
System”. Later applied the mouse to its revolutionary Alto computer system in
1973. However because of Altos unfortunate success was first widely used in the
Apple Lisa computer. Today the mouse are now found on every Apple and PC
computer and used with various different GUIs.

 MOUSE TECHNOLOGIES

Mechanical Mice - Mechanical Mice requires that the mouse be set on a flat
surface. The distance and the speed of the rollers inside the mouse determines how
far the mouse cursor moves on the screen depending on the software configuration.

Optical Mice - Optical Mice require a special mouse pad which has a grid pattern.
A sensor inside the mouse determines the movement by reading the grid as the
mouse passes over it while emitting a light from an LED or sometimes a laser.
This type of mouse is much more accurate than the ordinary optical mechanical
mouse which relies on the traction between the mouse ball and the rollers. One
drawback to an optical mouse is they can have problems in bright lights.

New Optical Mice no longer have the disadvantages of earlier mice and are
capable of being utilized on any surface. In comparison to the traditional Optical-
Mechanical mouse the Optical is a much better solution for a computer mouse.

Optical-Mechanical - The optical-mechanical hybrid consists of a ball which rolls

a wheel inside the mouse. This wheel contains a circle of holes and or notches to
read the LED by a sensor as it spins around when the mouse is moved. This mouse
is much more accurate than the mechanical mouse. This mouse is now the most
commonly used mouse with PC and Macintosh computers.

45
 PRACTICAL NO - 13

AIM: To Assemble A PC.

 Theory: For assembling the system follow the steps given below:

1) Unpack.
1.1 Open the cover the
cabinet.
1.2 Unscrew the metal
sheet on the right side
of cabinet ( on to which
motherboard is to be
mounted ).
1.3 Unpack all the spates
from their boxes.
1.4 Collect all manuals and
CD’s/Floppies and
other accessories
provided with the
spares.

2) Motherboard.
2.1 Place the motherboard
on the metal sheet properly and mark the holes which match with
motherboard holes.
2.2 Fix the risers on the metal sheet and push the spacers in the holes o
motherboard.
2.3 Fix the screws at the proper places where you have placed risers on the
motherboard.

3) CPU Installation.
If the CPU is of SEC type.
3.1 Fix the CPU supporting stands on either ends of the slot.
3.2 Push the CPU in the slit and lock the CPU to the supporting stands.
3.3 Connect one end of power cable (a pair of twisted thin wire with two pin
connectors at the both ends ) to CPU fan and other end to the CPU fan
connector on the motherboard .
If the CPU is of PGA (Pin grid Array) type.

46
3.1 Unlock the socket by lifting the locking lever.
3.2 Place the CPU in socket (match the pins with the holes).Gently press the
CPU
3.3 Lock the CPU in the socket by pushing down the lever.
3.4 Apply a thin layer if Heat Sink Compound in the central portion of CPU.
( Optional but recommended).
3.5 Place the coding over the CPU end lick it with metal clips in the either side.
3.6 Connect the power cord to the fan.

4) Memory Module Installation.

Always prefer lower number if slit for installing memory module.
If the RAM is SDRAM.
4.1 Just tilt the plastic locking levers outwards in the both ends of slots.
4.2 Push the memory module and press firmly so that the plastic levers stand
straight and lick the module.

If the RAM is EDO.

4.1 Place the module in a tilted manner in the slit and push it forward, so that
the locking clips make a click sound. Then fix the metal place in the cabinet
along with motherboard, CPU, and RAM.

 Fixing the connectors.

5) Before pushing any card or fitting an other device such as hard disk or
floppy drive, connect the COM1( 9 pin D-type male ) and COM2( 25 pin
D-type male ) connectors in their proper place. Also connect LPT( 25 pin
D-type female ) port connector in its proper place. Also connect the extra
connectors if any such as display connector (15 pin D-type female ) or
sound connector (line out or speaker, line in, microphone and game port )
etc. if all things are on board.

6) Fit these connectors at the back panel in such a way that it will not
preferably come in front of the slots provided for cards i.e. in the top.

7) Fit floppy drive in its proper place and connect the data cable and supply to
the drive. If the cabinet has a fashionable slot for floppy ensure that the
drive exactly matches the slot, check this inserting and removing several
times. If you find any problem align it properly.

8) Fit CD-ROM in its proper place ( preferably in bottom most slab provided
this makes it easy for operating the CD-ROM ) connect data cable, power
supply and analog audio cable before tightening the screws.

9) Fit Hard Disk ensure that it is not too close to the SMPS ( the electrostatic
field produced from the SMPS may prove fatal to Hard-Disk ) or even do
not keep the speaker near the Hard-Disk( magnetic field of speaker may
damage the Hard-Disk ).While fitting the Hard-Disk do not tighten the
screw too much.

47
10) At last push all the cards in proper slots.

11) Connect all the connectors such as HDD led, Reset switch, Power led,
Power ON switch (in case of ATX power supply).

 NOTE:
While fitting the motherboard :- While fitting the motherboard on the
metal plate do not place the paper sheet below it because the paper sheet
gets heated also sheet holds electrostatic charges thus reducing the life of
motherboard.

While fitting CPU:- In case of SEC type of CPU generally the CPU id
placed on the motherboard in such a way that the fan blows air over the
motherboard.

48
 PRACTICAL NO – 14

AIM: Troubleshooting of the printers, memories, monitors and hard

disk.

 HARD DRIVES

Modern IDE hard drives are among the more reliable system components,
they should run for years, then fail with a whimper or a bang. Most of the
problems that creep up with a hard drive are actually operating system problems.

Physical errors should be easy to spot with any decent diagnostic program
that runs a variety of hard drive tests (including butterfly read). Factory low level
or "rescue" formatters will scrub a drive and prepare it for FDISK no matter how
bad the software problems get. The most common reasons for returning hard
drives at burn-in are; excessive noise, failure to allow partitioning with FDISK,
failure to remain FDISKed, and various incarnations of dead (doesn't spin up,
doesn't seek, system reports HDD controller failure, etc.).

The most important thing to remember about working with IDE hard drives
is to RECORD THE BIOS TRANSLATION PARAMETERS AT BUILD TIME.
These parameters are sometimes incorporated in the drive label. SCSI drives are
set up as not present in the CMOS setup and are operated through the controller
BIOS. Read the manual. The only jumpers to worry about on IDE hard drives are
the Master/Slave jumpers, which aren't always consistent even from the same
manufacturer.

New systems come with an "Auto detect Hard Drive" option in the CMOS setup,
which will restore the drive parameters automatically, and can be used to
rediscover parameters for drives from older machines.

Older hard drives are not worth repairing, due to the availability of faster, larger
drives costing the same as the repair. The challenge with old hard drives is trying
to recover data that was never backed up before recycling them as bookends.

Old drives that spin up but don't seek are often stuck in park.

Tapping on the drive cover with a screwdriver handle may unstuck the heads and
get the drive going long enough to get the data off.

49
Drives that hum or display a lit LED and that don't spin up may be suffering from
failure of the permanent lubrication.

Often moving the machine to a warm place or even putting it in direct sunlight
may get the drive going temporarily.

Sometimes a drive appears to be functioning mechanically, but has had its master
boot record so corrupted that disk utilities cannot access it.

If an identical IDE drive is available, try booting that drive and then moving the
ribbon connector to the bad drive without powering down the machine. This may
give the disk utility access to the data on the disk. As with all "live power"
procedures, employ extreme caution and watch for falling screws!

When attempting any of these last ditch recovery attempts, have your backup
media (floppy, tape, or direct computer link) connected and ready, because it may
not work a second time.

 MONITORS

The most common monitor problem is total failure, power status LED fails to
come on. This can be due to something as simple as a blown fuse, or something
serious as a popped CRT. Most out of warranty repairs of 14" and under monitors,
cost more than half of the wholesale cost of the monitor new, and are backed by
only a 30 or 90 day warranty. A new SVGA NI 14" monitor is currently about
$200 in the mail order market. Monitors over 14" may well be worth repairing, but
this must be decided on a case by case basis.

Radical changes in screen size or brightness may be compensated for by hidden

pots, but this will normally require working on the monitor live with the cover off
around lethal voltages. Larger monitors may also come with a de-gaussing switch,
which may clear up some slow developing display problems.

Loss of a primary color that can be attributed to the monitor electronics is one of
the problems out of warranty repair may be sensible for.

About half the problems with new monitors or systems that have been moved
prove to be connections or electrical environment. A partially mated connector on
either end of the cable can result in loss of colors or sync. A bent pin inside the
connector shell can cause any problem ranging from no display to a scrolling
screen. Long cable extensions can result in diminished brightness and loss of focus
on the monitor. Wavy images are usually due to monitors being located near
transformers, air-conditioning units, and hidden power lines.

Troubleshooting these problems involves moving the system to another location,

or showing that the failures coincide with the operation of the other equipment.

50
 Monitors that are placed close together will often produce scan line interference on
one another. Increasing monitor separation by a few feet or changing their
orientation with one another will usually clear up the problem.

TROUBLESHOOTING IN MEMORY

MEMORY NOT DETECTED:-

When a computer system fails to detect memory on boot up, one of two things will
happen.
Either the speeker will emit a series of beeps and the system will fail to boot, or the
system will fail to boot, or the system will boot fine, but report an incorrect
amount of memory.

There may be following reasons of this type of problem

(1) The module is not fixed properly into the system.
(2) Expansion slots are not supporting the memory.
(3) Compatibility between the system and the memory is not found.

DISPLAYED MEMORY IS LESS:-

If the displayed memory is less then there may be the reason that the video
memory of the system is not working properly and the memory is using some part
of RAM as video memory.

This not a major problem. If programs are not running or running too slowly due to
insufficient RAM, It might be necessary to allocate a smaller amount of memory
for video. Some boards allow as much as 16MB (or more) of system memory to be
used for video. This can be a problem if the computer only has a small amount of
memory to begin with.

51