Routine tasks

Automatic scheduling

step 1. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative tools

step 2. Double click on the task scheduler

step 3. select new task and fill in all information. The boxes are self explanitory

Backup

1. In the control panel, select backup and restore

2. Select create a system image and follow the onscreen instructions

Improvements that could be made

D2

The first improvement that could be made to the computer is a new graphics card, the cost of this is around £36.62 for a Nvidia GeForce GT 520. The potential benefits of this include

·         Better rendering of graphics

·         Increased Graphical Performance

·         Faster picture loading.

The second improvement that could be made is internal, and it is defragmenting the hard drive. There is no cost to defragment, but the potential benefits include;

·         Faster loading of documents due to them being near each other in the memory

·         Faster speeds

The final improvement that could be made is formatting the hard disk. The cost of doing this is loss of data, but the benefit is more hard drive space, which could be essential depending on what the computer is being used for.

Report on how changed made the system more appropriate

CS3

M3

The modifications that I made in task 2 made the system more appropriate to the user’s specified purpose because by

·         changing the mouse buttons, I allowed the user to be more comfortable in using the computer, since there are a number of left-handed users.

·         changing the theme, I allowed the users to add a bit of personality to the computer, and with the options available, they can customise it even further

Test Plan and Results

I was testing my computer for functionallity. I came up with this test plan

I decided to do the desktop shortcuts first.

Step 1. I right clicked on the shortcut and selected properties, and look note of the file path

The file path is "C://ProgramFiles/AudioFreeFilesConvert

Step 2. I navigated to the folder specified, and found the program

I then did the time and date


Step 1. I went to the control panel and entered the time and date section

Step 2. I noticed that the time and even the date were wrong, so according to the test plan, I altered them to the correct settings



Before



After

Changing the mouse buttons

Step 1. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Mouse

Step 2. Tick the box at the top to change the default mouse buttons i.e. if left button was open then it will now be the right mouse button

Installing Software

Installing software

The software that is being installed is Audio free files convert.

1.      Double click on the installer (Highlighted)

2.      Click Next

3.      Agree to the licence agreement and click next

4.      The program will be installed

5.      Untick the run when finished box and click finish

Removing a Hard drive

Taking out a hard disk drive

1.    Set up all anti-static measures that you are going to use

Anti-Static setup

2.    Disconnect the 4-pin power plug by squeezing the sides of the plug and gently pulling it out

3.    Mark the pin so that you know which plug to insert.

4.    Remove the 16-pin power connector by gently pushing the sides of the plug and gently pulling it out of the slot.

Mark the pin so you know which one to insert

5.    Uscrew the two screws holding the hard disk in place and put them somewhere safe

6.    Gently remove the hard drive from the slot by gently removing in, being careful not to bash it hard against any surface.

To Insert a hard drive, reverse the directions and remember to firmly push in the plugs.

Expansion slots

Expansion slots allow the user to add or remove expansion cards, such as graphic or sound cards. There are a variety of expansion slot types these include;

• PCI (Pheripheral Component Interconnect)

• PCI Express (Pheripheral Component Interconnect express)
• ISA (Industrial Standard Architecture
• AGP (Accelerated Graphics port)

An AGP slot is used to support a graphics card, while the PCI slots are used to support various other cards like radio cards, TV tuner cards and Sound Cards.

We might have onboard graphics but we use a graphics card because it allows for better graphics on computers whose onboard might not have enough power to perform some tasks such as 3D rendering or image editing.

How can software utilities improve the performance of computer systems

Software Utilities help to improve the perfromance of your computer by helping to optimize it. There are a number of different utilities that are provided with the basic operating system, these are:

Disk Check

By running the disk check, it scans the main hard disk and check for any errors that may have occured due to a power outage for example. This improves performance because it is cleaning any errors that may have occured, and is allowing the computer to pick up files that may have been corrupted.

Disk Defragment

The disk defragmenter essentially put files that are stored in different parts of the hard disk back together, thus freeing disk space while speeding up your computer, as what power it was using to find and put the files back together when opening them is now not being used.

Web page cleaner

Often, when you are surfing the web, the computer saves the browsing history to the main disk, this results in slowing the computer down whenever you start up internet explorer, as it is loading all of the previous history, by running this utility, you are removing all of the history that is one week or older, thus there is less history to load, and internet explorer will load quicker.

Temporary file cleaner

When you are looking at web pages, or even working on files in microsoft office, the computer can store temporary files, these could be pasted images, and cookies on the internet. By running the disk cleanup, you can remove these temporary files, and cause the speed of your computer to increase.

Windows Update

Windows Update is normally used to install critical updates, but if you set it to install all updates, and to do it automatically, it can install updates that actually increase the computers speed. This is because they are normally low priority updates, and are not normally installed.

Software Utilities

Software Utilities are programs that help you to maintain a computer. they are normally shipped with the operating system , and can help to optimize the system. There come in a variety of forms, such as clean up and disk defragment tools.

Disk defragment tools

Occasionally, your computer's hard disk will become fragmented, which is when files that have been there that the user has deleted, and has saved new files in it's place, but if the file is bigger than the file that was previously deleted, then the computer will fragment that file, and place it in available empty slots on the hard disk. The disk defragmenter will consolidate those fragmented files and put them next to their counterparts while at the same time freeing up disk space.

To run the disk defragment, you go to

START-> Control Panel->System and Security-> Defragment your hard drive

Once in, you either analyze or defragment the disk, if you select defragment, the computer will automatically analyze the hard disk before defragmenting.




This is the analysis screen for the disk defragmenter, it is showing in the top bar what the fragmentation state would be before defragmentation

 After this the user has the option to defragment or view the report, if the user chooses to defragment, the following screen will appear




In this screen the top bar remains the same as defined in the top screenshot, while the bottom bar shows what the disk will look like after defragmentation.

 After the defragmentation the defragmentation report will come up.



This screenshot shows the defragmentation report, which gives details of the performed defragmentation



System Clean Up

This software utility is used to clean up disks of files that are not nessecary and just take up disk space. To run this utility the user must

START->CONTROL PANEL->SYSTEM AND SECURITY-> FREE UP DISK SPACE

This utility will first scan to see how much space you can gain,



This is a screenshot showing the clean up utility scanning and calculating how much space I can gain


and you can select what type of files are to be deleted using the checkboxes at the side of the program



This is a screen of what happens after the utility has scanned, as you can see, the amount of space you will save is displayed to the right of the item with the total amount gained is displayed underneath


When you select the "ok" button, the following screen will appear



This screenshot shows that the utility is deleting the files types that i selected in the second screenshot



Health and Safety

Health and safety is paramount when installing and changing computer components.

the main danger is static electricty, there are a number of ways to protect yourself, one way is the

ANTI-STATIC MAT

This is a mat that has 4 metal point on it for attaching a;
A) Wristband that you put on
B) A crocodile clip that you attach to the computer case
C) A plug that connects to the mains

A ANTI-STATIC PLUG

This plug connects directly to the power supply of the computer, thus preventing static electricity

The final method SHOULD ONLY BE USED AS A LAST RESORT

Place your thumb on the power supply and on the computer case, this equalizes the charge between the power supply and the computer case

Input/Output Panel

The input/output panel is located on the back of the computer and connects to many different pheriphals. The Panel tends to contain a VGA port, 2-4 USB ports, Sound ports for audio in/out, parralel ports, an ethernet port and a mouse and keyboard PS2 port.

A VGA (Visual Graphics Adapter) port is where the monitor plugs into. It is a 14 pin port with 2 screw connectors to hold it in place. A Parallel port is used to attach a printer to a computer. It is connected via a 25 pin connector. The PS2 ports are for use by a wired keyboard and mouse, wireless versions use a USB port. The Ethernet port uses an RJ42 connector.

Storage Devices

Storage Media

Storage Media is a place to save data to. The storage media can be in a variety of objects, such as  Internal Hard Drives, External Hard Drives, USB pens, Portable Hard Drives and CD and DVD disks.

HARD DRIVES

Hard drives are drives that store data in a computer, unlike external and portable drives, Hard drives are located internally, i.e inside the computer. An Hard Drive can have different capacities, such as 250 or 500 GB (Giga-Byte), and can go up to 1.5 TB (Tera-Byte) in size. The are normally connected by a 4-pin connector to a ribbon (See Power supply for details). To Remove a Hard drive, first unscrew the connector screws on the side that hold the hard drive in place, then remove the 4-pin connectior gently, you should also remove the 20-pin power connector. Then gently pull the hard drive out of the computer casing. To reconnect the hard drive, carefully slide the hard drive into the computer casing, then re-attach the screws to make sure that it doesn't slide out. After this carefully re-attach by gently inserting the 20-pin power cable into the slot on the hard drive and the 4-pin cable into it's slot.

External hard Drives

External hard drives are just that, the same as an internal hard drive with the same capacity but are located outside. To attach an external hard drive connect the USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 Plug into the external hard drives slot and connect the power cord to the external hard drive.

Portable Hard Drives
Portable hard drives are like external hard drives, but do not require a power supply, instead they run off the computers own power. All you need to use a portable hard drive is a USB2.0 cable, and attack it into a USB2.0 slot on the computer. They have a maximum size of 500GB, any higher and they would be a external hard drive.

USB Pens

USB Pens are a easy way to carry media. To use just insert the pen into the USB 2.0 Connector on the computer. USB pens vary in size, up to 32GB

CD/DVD Disks

CD (Compact Disks) are mainly a form of storage media for music file formats while DVD's (Digital Versitile Disks) can be used to store video, music or just plain data formats. These disks that can be written using a CD/DVD burning program and are affixed with RW at the end, for example CD/RW means that it is a Compact Disk and can be Written too, overwriting any other data on the disk.

Features and functions of different operating systems

Since there are a number of different operating systems around, I will compare the Linux kernel OS with the latest version of Windows along with MAC's


Linux is a freeware operating system that has been provided in a number of different systems, that are all based around the basic "kernel" that is at the centre of all linux systems. Each different system has a different interface depending on what the developer decides it wants it to be closer to, for example, the "Puppy" version of linux has a interface that is similar to windows, while the "Ubuntu" version has a interface that is closer to the Mac operating system. When Linux when it first started it was closer to a MAC system, so in it's early days it was essentially a freeware version of MAC.

Windows, in comparision is firmware, and as such offers more functionality such as a on-screen keyboard. It's interface is a basic desktop, and each application runs in a seperate "window". There have been many different versions of windows, from windows 95, up to windows millenium , which was a special edition that was released from october 1998, while another version windows 2000, was released from febuary 2000, these 2 were the last kind of the old windows interface, as when windows xp was released, the interface was totally re-designed to include a new windows start button, but retained the option to revert the start menu and the task bar back to the old windows format. The interface was again redesigned when windows vista was released, with the start button being re-designed again to a simple round button with the windows logo on.

Overall, both operating systems have their individual advantages and disadvantages, with Linux being at a disadvantage over drivers, since it is not what people would call a 'mainstream' operating system, while Windows has the advantage of being a 'mainstream' operating system, but has it's disadvantages in that it has major rivals to contend with, and as a result, they tend to rush development of operating systems, Windows Vista is an example of this, as it was well publisised, but had so many bugs, that people avoided using it, this was fixed by the release of Windows 7, which is what Vista was supposed to be.

Macintosh computers which are produced by Apple.inc are the main rival to Windows, and it's computers tend to focus on the graphical edting of images, and as such are used in all of the major corperations, however software for MAC computers tends to expensive, whereas software for Windows is average. In terms of the Price of software, Linix is the real winner since most of it's software is free, but again does not have the specilised aspect that paid for software has, for example , Linux cannot support Adobe Photoshop.

In terms of ease of use, there is no clear winner, as users of each system say that there's is the easiest to use, while other people may differ.

Operating Systems

An operating system is a system that directly controls all of the basic operations and hardware within a computer, while also providing a basic foundation on which to run applications, and as a result they are the first thing that is loaded when the computer is started up. They normally come with pre-loaded programs. Overall  there are 2 different types of operating systems, command driven and graphical driven. Command driven is when the user inputs commands into a terminal. This type of operating system is easy to use provided that you know all of the commands. The second type, the graphic driven is what we are most used to, this type of operating system uses a graphical user interface that uses windows. Some examples of graphic operating systems are;

Windows 7
Windows Vista
Mac OSX leopard
Linux
Sun Solaris

There is also the option of a command driven interface for Linux.


Mac OSX

The Mac Operating System is provided by Apple and is mainly used for graphics work. It is a main competitor to Microsoft Windows.

Along the bottom of the screenshot is the quick access toolbar that lists the most used applications while along the top is the menu that contains various options to help the user, such as file, edit, view, window and help.


Linux

Linux is a freeware operating system loosly based of the Mac OS system, and as such contains many of the features of the same system. It is however based around a central Kernel. Linux comes as both a command driven and Graphic driven interface

This is the command driven interface for the Linux OS system, as you can see. Depending on the user, the command driven interface can be very fast to use but for new users, it is quite difficult to use.

This is the graphic user interface for linux, depending on the version they differ, in this version, the user interface looks more like windows but in other versions it will look like MAC but it depends on the type of linux being used, some examples of Linux are Ubuntu, Puppy, Kubuntu.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista

These two versions of Windows are produced by Microsoft, and are the main contender to the MAC OSX system. they use a graphical user interface using the concept of windows for each application. It is one of the main operating systems.

ROM

The ROM stands for read only memory, which can only be read, not written to. Unlike RAM, ROM keeps it's memory after the computer is shut down. ROM generally contains the operating system infomation, along with user folders and system infomation. ROM cannot be removed as it is soldered onto the motherboard. ROM is programed at the factory with pre-determined infomation, and as such cannot be modified to add or remove infomation.


ROM is also found in other electrical objects, such as GPS, SatNav and Gaming Consoles.

ROM

BIOS

The BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is a small chip that makes sure that all of the other chips and cards are functioning correctly. There are a few different types of BIOS, such as the soldered ones, which are soldered directly to the motherboard, there are also catched BIOS, where there is a small catch holding the BIOS in. The BIOS is also involved in helping to boot the Operating System up. It has it's own power supply coming from the CMOS battery, which keeps track of time and other infomation

The only reason as to why you would need to replace the BIOS is if it fails, otherwise the BIOS does not need replacing. The BIOS performes a POST (Power on self test) test during the start up sequence on all of the components such as the Hard drive and any disk drives and also activating any other BIOS chips such as those that can be found on the Graphics card.

When you initially start the computer, the BIOS does the following;

1. Check the CMOS Setup for custom settings
2. Load the interrupt handlers and device drivers
3. Initialize registers and power management
4. Perform the power-on self-test (POST)
5. Display system settings
6. Determine which devices are bootable
7. Initiate the bootstrap sequence

When you need to update the BIOS, you need to go to the manufactuers website and download the upgrade along with a small utility to install it.

Power supply

The power supply is used to supply power to the motherboard and disk drives. The power supply varies depending on the power of the computer, although the standard volts that it provides are 3.3, 5 and 12 volts. The 3.3 volts, along with the 5 volts are used for digital circuts while the 12 volt is used to power the fan and drive motors  It converts the home AC (Alternating Current) current into DC( Direct Current) current which is what the computer requires. When the computer is in standby, it runs 5 volts so that when the power button is pressed, it then tells the power supply to start up

The power supply connects to the motherboard and disk drives via a number of wires called a ribbon. This ribbon uses a 20-pin and 4-pin connector. The 4-pin connector connects to the hard drive and disk drives while the 20 pin connector connects to the motherboard, while also enabling the link so that the motherboard can identify the primary and slave hard drives.

There are a variety of reasons as to why you would want to replace the hard drive, such as if you have a powerful graphics card, or have a powerful computer

Types of motherboard

There are 2 different types of motherboard, integrated and non-integrated, integrated is when all of the compnents such as a video card and sound card are diectly attached to the motherboard, and example of this type of motherboard is in a laptop. A non-integrated motherboard is when you can add additional cards to the motherboard. This type of motherboard can be shown via it's expansion slots. This type of motherboard can usually be found in a standard tower, or desktop computer. Motherboards can also be two different forms, AT and ATX. AT motherboards have different slots than what ATX motherboards have. AT motherboards have "PCI, VESA, EISA, ISA " (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/400143) slots while ATX have "PCI, AGP and PCI-Express" (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/400143)slots. There are also different sizes of motherboard, such as Micro-ATX, which is a smaller version of the ATX motherboard. They are also found in smart phones and GPS (Global Positioning Systems).

When choosing a motherboard, make sure that it is the right type for the computer, as the wrong type may not fit the casing.

A picture of a motherboard detailing all of the components

The Processor

The processor is the heart of the computer, it controls all instructions that are sent to the RAM and ROM. The processor speed is also the same speed at which the memory cache runs, meaning that for some programs, it does not have to wait for the RAM to send the infomation to it. It can have various speeds ranging from 8x all the way up to 20x speed. It is connected to the mother board by pins which connect into a slot

                                                 The Pins on a processor chipset

To take out the Processor, you need to carefully remove the heatsink, then you should see the processor and a small lever on the side, what you need to do is to carefully lift the lever up, then gently lift the processor off. To re-insert the processor, you need to align the small triangle with the one on the motherboard, then gently press down on the processor to push it in, after this you then need to lower the lever and lock it in position.

When choosing a processor to install, take note of the speed of it , as this will affect what speed the Cache RAM will run at.