In and Out – Connecting Stuff The ports and connections to assemble and repair computers

Introduction We know, roughly, what’s inside a computer Now we need to know how to connect things to it. This presentation will introduce you to the connections both outside and inside, and some of the subtle differences between ports that have changed over time.

Outside connections The motherboard handles all of the external connections. Things plugged into the motherboard expansion ports may supply additional copies of existing connections or brand new ones. A lot of vocabulary is about to come your way, so get ready.

Color Coding On older computers, ports were color coded to keep you from plugging the wrong devices in the wrong places. Understanding the older ports helps to understand the newer ones.

Old-School (Legacy) ports Keyboards and Mice nowadays use USB exclusively, but there used to be dedicated ports for them. They were called PS/2 ports. Not Playstation2 ports. It was first introduced by IBM’s “Personal System 2” in the mid- 80s. They became color coded green for mouse, purple for keyboard.

Old-School (Legacy) ports Another retired port is the Parallel Port, sometimes called the Printer Port or LPT. This port was also retired by the success of USB. It was color-coded pink-ish.

Old-School (Legacy) ports The serial port was one of the most common places to plug in external devices before USB. CD Burners, External Hard Drives, ZIP drives, joysticks, etc The serial port is often color coded teal. Sometimes the serial port is not color coded. You can identify it by its 9 pin connector then. (5/4)

Still in use VGA ports are still in use heavily today. Color coded blue, this is a monitor connection for you to see what’s going on. VGA ports are slowly declining in use on newer computers, replaced by DVI and HDMI.

VGA versus DVI DVI ports are high definition. It uses more pin connections to transmit more pixels of information to your monitor for a better picture. As resolution increases, VGA becomes blurry because it is not digital. DVI does not suffer this at higher resolutions, as it is digital. DVI stands for Digital Visual Interface. DVI looks unique (Square pin holes) and is usually color coded white, although its unique look is hard to miss in any color.

DVI vs HDMI DVI is a digital signal for video, but it is video only. HDMI is the HD standard connection. It carries HD video signals PLUS audio in one, smaller interface.

The almighty USB USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. As an evolution of the serial port, it was designed to shrink the port and introduce the concept of “plug and play” Before USB, devices had to have sometimes- complex software installed to be recognized on the computer. USB made life easier by allowing hardware to transmit what it was to the computer on the cable. The computer could then load generic software to control it.

USB Ports and Cables

USB versions USB has three versions: 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0 1.1 ports and 2.0 are hard to tell apart. They only started color coding USB later on in 2.0’s life span. Easiest way to tell 2.0 from 3.0, is that 3.0 ports are blue. 1.1’s and 2.0’s could be many colors. White, black, red…

Ethernet High-speed internet is delivered through the ethernet port which is the connection to the motherboard’s NIC (Network Interface Card) Ended here tuesday

Audio Jacks Most, if not all motherboard will include audio jacks galore. Below are a few of the many you might see.

Modern Motherboards Modern motherboards contain all the necessary ports for computer operation. What do you see below that you might be able to identify now?

Taking a Look Inside There are several connection ports and hardware slots on the inside of a computer that you need to be able to identify. Let’s jump right in.

The Motherboard (Back of the computer) This is the CPU socket. Depending on your motherboard specifications, different types of CPUs may be installed here. There is a cover plate that lifts, and when the CPU is installed it comes back down to hold the CPU in place. A fan then sits on top of the CPU to keep it cool. (Back of the computer)

The Motherboard (Back of the computer) These are the RAM slots. Depending on your motherboard specifications, different types of RAM may be installed here. RAM is traditionally always installed in either pairs or triplets. Modern motherboards are designed to access two sticks of RAM of the same size at the same time to increase performance. Imagine how hard it would be to run if your legs were two different lengths. (Back of the computer)

The Motherboard (Back of the computer) These are the PCI-e Ports. Most contemporary motherboards have a few of these for specialty upgrade cards. The top “lane” is for graphic cards. These cards are for generating high-quality graphics for gaming and graphic programs. Usually the motherboard graphics are not enough. The remaining “lanes” can support: Extra NICs for more internets Extra ports added to the computer (USB, Thunderbolt, eSATA, etc.) TV capture cards (Back of the computer)

The Motherboard (Back of the computer) This is the CMOS Battery. It delivers constant power to the motherboard so that it can remember settings even when it’s off. Just like RAM, certain things can be forgotten if there is no power. If the computer gives you weird errors such as: Wrong date and time (or constantly reset) PC turns off and won’t start again Drivers stop working (rare) “CMOS Checksum Error” “CMOS Read Error” Computer can’t find mouse, keyboard, or printer (Back of the computer)

The Motherboard (Back of the computer) These are SATA ports. This is the current standard technology for connecting a hard drive, DVD drive or Solid State Drive (SSD) to the rest of the computer. Just like USB shrank the serial port, SATA shrank the IDE port of older hard drives and made more devices capable of using the port than just HDDs. (Back of the computer)

Remember this guy? This is the one port we didn’t talk about back in the day. That is an eSATA port, or External SATA. It allows Hard Drives to be connected externally like USB, but faster. It does not supply power, however, so your device must have its own power connector.

Last But Not Least The PSU or Power Supply Unit delivers electricity to all the parts of the computer.