A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e Chapter 6 Supporting Processors

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e2 Objectives Learn about the characteristics and purposes of Intel and AMD processors used for personal computers Learn about the methods and devices for keeping a system cool Learn how to install and upgrade a processor Learn how to solve problems with the processor, the motherboard, overheating, and booting the PC

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e3 Types and Characteristics of Processors Processor –Installed on motherboard –Determines system computing power Two major processor manufacturers –Intel and AMD Figure 6-1 An AMD Athlon 64 X2 installed in socket AM2+ with cooler not yet installed Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e4 Types and Characteristics of Processors (cont’d.) Features affecting processor performance and motherboards –System bus speeds the processor supports –Processor core frequency –Motherboard socket and chipset –Multiprocessing ability –Memory cache –Amount and type of DDR, DDR2, DDR3 memory –Computing technologies the processor can use –Voltage and power consumption

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e5 How a Processor Works Three basic components –Input/output (I/O) unit Manages data and instructions entering and leaving the processor –Control unit Manages all activities inside the processor –One or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs) Performs all logical comparisons, calculations

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e6 Figure 6-2 Since the Pentium processor was first released in 1993, the standard has been for a processor to have two arithmetic logic units so that it can process two instructions at once Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e7 How a Processor Works (cont’d.) Processor internal memory caches (L1, L2, L3) –Holds data and instructions to be processed by ALU Busses –Front-side bus (FSB) –Internal –Back-side bus (BSB)

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e8 How a Processor Works (cont’d.) Processor frequency (speed) –Speed at which processor operates internally Motherboard firmware –Automatically detects processor speed, adjusts system bus speed accordingly

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e9 How a Processor Works (cont’d.) Three methods to improve performance –Multiprocessing Processor contains more than one ALU –Multiple processors Installing more than one processor on a motherboard –Multi-core processing Processor housing contains two or more cores operating at same frequency, independently of each other Dual core, triple core, quad core, octo core

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e10 Figure 6-4 Quad-core processing with L1, L2, and L3 cache and the memory controller within the processor housing Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e11 How a Processor Works (cont’d.) Memory cache (L1, L2, or L3) –Holds anticipated data and instructions needed by controller –Improves performance –Static RAM (SRAM) Holds data as long as power on Lets processor bypass slower dynamic RAM (DRAM) Memory controller –Included in processor package –Significant increase in system performance

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e12 Figure 6-5 Cache memory (SRAM) is used to temporarily hold data in expectation of what the processor will request next Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e13 Intel Processors Table 6-1 Current Intel processors

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e14 Intel Processors (cont’d.) Table 6-1 Current Intel processors (continued)

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e15 Intel Processors (cont’d.) Processor identification –Processor number Example: Core 2 Quad processors Use five-character value beginning with “Q” –eSpec number printed on processor Intel Processor Spec Finder site identifies exact processor Centrino technology improves laptop performance –Processor, chipset, wireless network adapter interconnected as a unit

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e16 AMD Processors Table 6-2 Current AMD processors

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e17 Cooling Methods and Devices Processor overheating results –Processor damage and instability Entire system overheating results –Sensitive electronic component damage Devices used to keep system cool –CPU fans, case fans, coolers, heat sinks, liquid cooling systems, dust-preventing tools Important –Keep processor and entire system cool

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e18 Coolers, Fans, and Heat Sinks Cooler sits on top of processor Maintains 90–110 degrees F temperature –Consists of fan, heat sink –Made of aluminum, copper, combination of both –Bracketed to motherboard using wire, plastic clip –Thermal compound eliminates air pockets –Fan power cord connects to 4-pin fan header Figure 6-9 A cooler sits on top of a processor to help keep it cool Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e19 Coolers, Fans, and Heat Sinks (cont’d.) Figure 6-9 A cooler sits on top of a processor to help keep it cool Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e20 Figure 6-12 A cooler fan gets its power from a 4-pin PWM header on the motherboard Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning Figure 6-11 Thermal compound is already stuck to the bottom of this cooler that was purchased boxed with the processor Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e21 Dealing with Dust Dust insulates PC parts like a blanket –Causes overheating Dust inside fans –Jams fans, causing overheated system Ridding PC of dust –Make it a part of regular preventive maintenance –Tools Antistatic vacuum Compressed air

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e22 BIOS Power Management Settings for the Processor Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) –Current power management standards Used by BIOS, hardware, and OS –Four modes indicate power-saving function levels S1 state: hard drive, monitor turned off and everything else runs normally S2 state: hard drive, monitor, processor turned off S3 state: everything shut down except RAM and enough of the system to respond to a wake-up call S4 state: everything in RAM copied to hard drive file, then system shuts down (hibernation)

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e23 Memory Technologies Random access memory (RAM) –Holds data and instructions used by CPU –Static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM (DRAM) Both volatile memory Figure 7-1 RAM on motherboards today is stored on DIMMs Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e24 DIMM Technologies DIMM (dual inline memory module) –64-bit data path –Independent pins on opposite sides of module –Older DIMMs Asynchronous with system bus –Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) Runs synchronously with system bus Two notches Uses 168 pins

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e25 DIMM Technologies (cont’d.) Double Data Rate SDRAM –Also called DDR SDRAM, SDRAM II, DDR Two times faster than SDRAM –DDR2 SDRAM Faster than DDR and uses less power –DDR3 SDRAM Faster than DDR2 and uses less power –DDR2 and DDR3 Use 240 pins Not compatible: use different notches –Several factors affect capacity, features, and performance

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e26 DIMM Technologies (cont’d.) Single-sided DIMM –Memory chips installed on one side of module Double-sided DIMM –Memory chips installed on both sides of module Memory bank –Memory processor addresses at one time –64 bits wide DIMMs can always be installed as single DIMMs on a motherboard

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e27 Figure 7-3 Three identical DDR3 DIMMs installed in a triple-channel configuration Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e28 DIMM Technologies (cont’d.) DIMM Speed –Measured in MHz or PC rating PC rating –Total bandwidth between module and CPU –DDR2 PC rating Usually labeled PC2 –DDR3 PC rating Usually labeled PC3

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e29 DDR3 Example Motherboard using DDR3 triple-channel DIMMs Figure 7-11 Four DDR3 slots on a motherboard Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e30 Inside a Hard Drive Hard disk drive (HDD) or hard drive sizes –2.5" size for laptop computers –3.5" size for desktops –1.8" size for low-end laptops, other equipment Hardware technologies inside the drive –Solid state or magnetic Support technicians need to know about: –Solid state and magnetic technologies –Data organization inside a hard drive

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e31 Solid State, Magnetic, and Hybrid Drives Solid state drive (SSD) or solid state device (SSD) –No moving parts –Built using nonvolatile flash memory –Expensive technology Magnetic hard drive –One, two, or more platters, or disks Stacked together, spinning in unison inside a sealed metal housing Firmware controls data reading, writing and motherboard communication Hybrid hard drives use both technologies

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e32 Figure 8-2 Inside a hard drive Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning Figure 8-3 A hard drive with two platters Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e33 How Data Is Organized On a Hard Drive Hard drive disk surface divided into concentric circles (tracks) –Track divided into 512-byte segments (sector, record) –Cylinder All tracks are the same distance from platters center Figure 8-4 A hard drive or floppy disk is divided into tracks and sectors; several sectors make one cluster Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e34 How Data Is Organized On a Hard Drive (cont’d.) Drive housing circuit board firmware responsibilities –Writing and reading data to tracks and sectors –Keeping track of data storage on the drive BIOS and OS –Use logical block addressing (LBA) to address all hard drive sectors

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e35 Figure 8-5 The bottom of a hard drive shows the circuit board that contains the firmware that controls the drive Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e36 How Data Is Organized On a Hard Drive (cont’d.) Hard drive installation –Windows initializes and identifies drive as a basic disk Writes Master Boot Record (MBR) –High-level formatting performed Specifies partition size and file system used –Partition can be primary or extended Extended can be divided into one or more logical drives –File system Overall structure OS uses to name, store, organize files on a drive

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e37 How Data Is Organized On a Hard Drive (cont’d.) Cluster: smallest unit of disk space for storing a file –Contains one or more sectors Figure 8-6 A hard drive with four partitions; the fourth partition is an extended partition Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e38 How Data Is Organized On a Hard Drive (cont’d.) Primary and extended partition creation –When drive or OS is first installed –After existing partition becomes corrupted Disk Management tool File system choices –Windows XP FAT32, NTFS exFAT if Service Packs 2 & 3 installed with download –Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 or later FAT32, NTFS, exFAT

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e39 The ATA Interface Standards Define how hard drives and other drives interface with a computer system Standards –Developed by Technical Committee T13 –Published by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Categorized into two groups –PATA: older, slower standard –SATA: faster, newer standard

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e40 The ATA Interface Standards (cont’d.) Parallel ATA or EIDE drive standards or Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) –Allows one or two IDE connectors on a motherboard Each use 40-pin data cable –Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface Required by EIDE drives (e.g., CD or DVD) Types of PATA ribbon cables –Older cable 40 pins and 40 wires –80-conductor IDE cable 40 pins and 80 wires –Maximum recommended length of either is 18 inches

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e41 Figure 8-12 A SATA hard drive subsystem uses an internal SATA data cable Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e42 SCSI Technology Small Computer System Interface standards –System bus to peripheral device communication –Support either 7 or 15 devices (standard dependent) –Provides better performance than ATA standards SCSI subsystem –SCSI controller types: embedded or host adapter –Host adapter supports internal and external devices –Daisy chain: combination of host adapter and devices –Each device on bus assigned SCSI ID (0 - 15) –A physical device can embed multiple logical devices

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e43 Figure 8-14 Using a SCSI bus, a SCSI host adapter card can support internal and external SCSI devices Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e44 SCSI Technology (cont’d.) Terminating resistor –Plugged into last device at end of the chain –Reduces electrical noise or interference on the cable Various SCSI standards –SCSI-1, SCSI-2, and SCSI-3 Also known as regular SCSI, Fast SCSI, Ultra SCSI –Serial attached SCSI (SAS) Allows for more than 15 devices on single chain Uses smaller, longer, round cables Uses smaller hard drive form factors, larger capacities Compatible with serial ATA

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e45 SCSI Technology (cont’d.) Fibre channel SCSI technology Advantages –Connects up to 126 devices on a single Fibre Channel bus –Faster than other SCSI implementations when more than five hard drives strung together Disadvantage –Expensive and has too much overhead Except when used in high-end server solutions

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e46 Selecting a Hard Drive Hard drive must match OS and motherboard BIOS uses autodetection to prepare the device –Drive capacity and configuration selected –Best possible ATA standard becomes part of configuration Selected device may not be supported by BIOS –Troubleshooting tasks (if device not recognized) Flash the BIOS Replace controller card Replace motherboard

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e47 Selecting a Hard Drive (cont’d.) Considerations: –Drive capacity –Spindle speed –Interface standard –Cache or buffer size –Average seek time (time to fetch data) –Hybrid drive –Manufacturer warranty (keep receipt) –Price range

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e48 Steps to Install a Serial ATA Drive Step 1: Prepare for installation Step 2: Install the drive –Turn off the computer and unplug it –Decide which bay will hold the drive –Slide drive in the bay and secure it (both sides) –Use correct motherboard serial ATA connector –Connect a SATA or 4-pin power connector from the power supply to the drive –Check all connections and power up the system –Verify drive recognized correctly

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e49 Steps to Install a Serial ATA Drive (cont’d.) Step 3: Use Windows to partition and format the drive –Boot from Windows setup CD or DVD Follow directions on the screen to install Windows on the new drive –If installing a second hard drive with Windows installed on first drive use Windows to partition and format the second drive

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e50 Steps to Install a Serial ATA Drive (cont’d.) Installing a SATA drive in a removable bay –Turn handle on each locking device counterclockwise to remove it –Slide the bay to the front and out of the case –Insert hard drive in the bay Use two screws on each side to anchor the drive in the bay –Slide the bay back into the case –Reinstall the locking pins

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e51 Figure 8-31 The removable bay has a fan in front and is anchored to the case with locking pins Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning Figure 8-32 Install the hard drive in the bay using two screws on each side of the drive Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e52 Steps to Configure and Install a Parallel ATA Drive Configurations for four EIDE devices in a system: –Primary IDE channel, master device –Primary IDE channel, slave device –Secondary IDE channel, master device –Secondary IDE channel, slave device Figure 8-33 A motherboard supporting PATA has two IDE channels; each can support a master and slave drive using a single EIDE cable Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e53 Steps to Configure and Install a Parallel ATA Drive (cont’d.) Master or slave designations are made by: –Setting jumpers or DIP switches –Use special cable-select data cable –Color-coded connectors Blue end connects to motherboard; black end connects to drive Figure conductor cable connectors are color-coded Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e54 Steps to Configure and Install a Parallel ATA Drive (cont’d.) Motherboard color-coding –Primary channel connector: blue –Secondary channel connector: black –Ensures ATA/66/100/133 hard drive installed on the primary IDE channel Figure 8-35 The primary IDE channel connector is often color-coded as blue Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e55 Steps to Configure and Install a Parallel ATA Drive (cont’d.) Step 1: Open case, decide how to configure drives Step 2: Set the jumpers on the drive Figure 8-36 A PATA drive most likely will have diagrams of jumper settings for master and slave options printed on the drive housing Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e56 Table 8-4 Jumper settings on a parallel ATA hard drive Figure 8-37 Jumper settings on a hard drive and their meanings Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e57 Steps to Configure and Install a Parallel ATA Drive (cont’d.) Step 3: Mount the drive in the bay –Remove bay from case and insert hard drive in bay –Securely mount drive in the bay –Decide whether to connect data cable before or after inserting bay inside the computer case –Place bay back into position, secure bay with screws –Install a power connection to each drive –Connect data cable to motherboard IDE connector –Connect hard drive light wiring if necessary –Before replacing case cover verify installation

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e58 Installing a Hard Drive in a Wide Bay Use universal bay kit to securely fit drive into the bay Figure 8-45 Use the universal bay kit to make the drive fit the bay Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning Figure 8-46 Hard drive installed in a wide bay using a universal bay kit adapter Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e59 Summary Processor: most important motherboard component –Basic CPU components: I/O unit, control unit, ALUs –Registers: high speed memory used by ALU –Internal cache: holds frequently used instructions –CPU bus: internal and external

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e60 Summary (cont’d.) Multiprocessing, multiple processors, and multi-core processing improve CPU performance Memory cache (L1, L2, or L3) –Holds anticipated data and instructions –Made of static RAM chips Instruction set –Microcode used for basic operations Various Intel and AMD processors available Many cooling options available Match processor to system, install and troubleshoot