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INGLEWOOD TECH CTR - Hardware |
WHA T'S UNDER
THE HOOD?:The computer consists of circuits all wired together to pass a desired electrical charge through each of the components. (That is the simple explanation) Every computer has a MOTHERBOARD. The motherboard contains ports or slots into which the CPU, and all of the other components plug into. When you turn on the PC, electricity activates the BIOS which is hard coded into the motherboard. That coding will first go through a brief POWER ON SELF TEST (POST). It will check to see if there is a Keyboard, and stop if it does not find one - since you would be unable to do anything without one. It will look for MEMORY or RAM. It will look for a Video Card, and a Storage device - such as a Floppy or Hard Drive. POST will stop if it cannot find any of these components. Next it will start loading your Operating system (typically DOS, WINDOWS or APPLE O/S), The O/S takes over control from the BIOS, and then proceed to load drivers for any other components that it may find, connected to your machine. (printers, USB Devices - Cameras, etc) . |