A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC Fifth Edition Chapter 4 Electricity and Power Supplies

2 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition You Will Learn… How electricity is measured How to protect your computer system against damaging changes in electrical power About different form factors and computer cases How to detect and correct power supply problems About Energy Star specifications

3 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Measures of Electricity

4 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition AC and DC Alternating current (AC)  Cycles back and forth  Economical Direct current (DC)  Travels in only one direction, from hot to ground  Required by most electronic devices Computer power supply functions as both a transformer and rectifier

5 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Computer Power Supply

6 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Hot, Neutral, and Ground

7 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Hot, Neutral, and Ground ( continued )

8 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Hot, Neutral, and Ground ( continued )

9 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Common Electrical Components

10 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Protecting Your Computer System: General Precautions Make notes so you can backtrack Remove packing materials from work area Keep components away from hair and clothing Keep screws and spacers in an orderly place Don’t stack boards on top of each other

11 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Protecting Your Computer System: General Precautions ( continued ) Don’t touch chips on motherboard or expansion cards Don’t touch chip with magnetized screwdriver Don’t change DIP switch settings with a graphite pencil

12 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Protecting Your Computer System: General Precautions ( continued ) Have classroom instructor check your work before putting cover on and powering up Turn off a computer before moving it Keep disks away from magnetic fields, heat, and extreme cold

13 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Protecting Yourself Against Electricity Turn off power and unplug computer Always use a ground bracelet Never touch inside of a computer while it is turned on Never remove cover or put your hands inside monitor or power supply

14 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Static Electricity (or ESD) Can cause catastrophic failure or upset failure Protection against ESD  Ground bracelet or static strap  Ground mats  Static shielding bags

15 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Ground Bracelet

16 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Ground Bracelet with a Ground Mat

17 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Static Shielding Bags

18 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) Caused by magnetic field produced as side effect when electricity flows Protection against EMI  Cover expansion slots  Do not place system close to or on same circuit as high-powered electrical equipment  Use line conditioners

19 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Surge Protection and Battery Backup Surge suppressors Power conditioners Uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs)

20 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Uninterruptible Power Supplies Benefits  Condition line for brownouts and spikes  Provide backup power during a blackout  Protect against very high potentially damaging spikes Considerations  Cost  UPS rating  Degree of line conditioning  Warranty and service policies

21 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition UPS

22 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition The Computer Case and Form Factors Form factor describes size, shape, and general makeup of a hardware component Use same form factor for motherboard, case, and power supply  Decision driven by motherboard

23 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Case, Power Supply, and Motherboard Form Factors AT ATX (most popular) LPX NLX Backplane systems

24 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition AT and Baby AT Form Factors AT Form FactorBaby AT Form Factor Used on older motherboards Difficult to install, service, and upgrade Uses two power connectors: P8 and P9 Problematic position of CPU in relation to expansion slots No longer produced by most manufacturers Industry standard from Small; fits into many types of cases Problematic position of CPU unresolved Drives/devices not close to connections on motherboard

25 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition AT Motherboard

26 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Power Connectors on AT and ATX Boards

27 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition ATX Form Factor Open, nonproprietary spec (Intel 1995) Easier to add and remove components Greater support for I/O devices and processor technology Lower costs Improved positioning of components

28 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition ATX Form Factor ( continued ) Smaller Uses one power connector: P1 Soft switch feature Better air circulation Other types: Mini-ATX, MicroATX, FlexATX

29 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition ATX Motherboard

30 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition NLX Form Factor

31 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Other Form Factors LPX and Mini-LPXBackplane Systems Riser card similar to NLX systems Used in low-cost systems Difficult to upgrade Cannot handle size and operating temperature of processors Proprietary issues Not a true motherboard; board sits against back of proprietary case with slots for other cards Active backplanes Passive backplanes

32 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Types of Cases Desktop cases Tower cases  Minitower  Midsize tower  Full-size tower Notebook cases

33 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Desktop Case

34 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Tower Case

35 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Tower and Desktop Cases

36 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Upgrading Your Power Supply Sometimes necessary when you add new devices Easiest way to fix a power supply you suspect is faulty is to replace it

37 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Introduction to Troubleshooting Isolate the problem  Problems that prevent PC from booting  Problems that occur after a successful boot Learn as much as you can by asking questions of user(s)

38 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition PC Problem Solving

39 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Troubleshooting the Power System: General Guidelines Any burnt parts or odors? Everything connected and turned on? Loose cable connections? Computer plugged in? All switches turned on? Wall outlet good? If fan is not running, turn off computer: Connections to power supply secure? Cards securely seated?

40 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Troubleshooting the Power System: General Guidelines ( continued ) Check for correct wire connections to motherboard Remove nonessential expansion cards one at a time Vacuum entire unit

41 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Troubleshooting an ATX Power Supply

42 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Troubleshooting the Power System Power supply itself Power supply fan Power problems with the motherboard Overheating

43 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Preventing Overheating

44 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Preventing Overheating ( continued )

45 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Energy Star Systems (The Green Star) Satisfy energy-conserving standards of the US EPA Generally have a standby program that switches device to sleep mode when not in use Apply to computers, monitors, printers, copiers, and fax machines

46 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Power Management Methods Advanced Power Management (APM) AT Attachment (ATA) for IDE drives Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) standards for monitors and video cards Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)

47 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Power Management Features Green timer on the motherboard Doze time Standby time Suspend time Hard drive standby time

48 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Power Management Setup Screen

49 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Energy Star Monitors Most adhere to DPMS specifications  Allow video card and monitor to go into sleep mode simultaneously

50 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Changing Power Options

51 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition Summary Measurements of electricity Form in which electricity comes to you as house current The power supply, backup power sources, and how to change a defective power supply Form factors How Energy Star saves energy