Boot Process And Hardware Components Essay, Research Paper

Observing the Boot Process and Hardware Components

1. Carefully watch your computer screen during the boot process (press Pause if necessary), and record which CPU is used by your home or lab computer?

Intel R Celeron TM processor 533 mhz

2. Who is the BIOS vendor and what version of the BIOS are you using?

PHONIX BIOS 4.0 RELEASE 6.0

3. As the computer boots, memory is counted. Observe the memory count and record the amount of memory detected. What number system is used to count this memory?

127 M SYSTEM RAM PASSED 0128 K CACHE SRAM PASSED

4. Open the printer icon in the Windows Control Panel and find out which is the default Windows printer for your home or lab computer.

HP DESKJET 810C SERIES PRINTER

5. Look at the back (or front if the ports are located there) of your home or lab computer and make a drawing. Label on the drawing the purpose of each port and connection you see. If you are not sure what the purpose of the port is, label the port “unknown port.” In later chapters, the purposes of these unknown ports will become clear.

ATTACHED.

Using the Internet for Research

Linux is one of the fastest growing Operating Systems today. What is the official mascot for Linux? Who chose it, and why? Hint: See www.linux.org

PENGUIN LINUS TORVALDS because he thinks they are cuddly.

Using Microsoft Diagnostic with Windows

You should see a screen similar to that of Figure 1-44. Browse carefully through all the menu options of this interesting utility and answer of the following questions about your system:

a. List the following or print the appropriate MSD screen:

Cat IBM P\C AT BIOS VER. AWARD MODULAR BIOS VER. 4.05G twa N ver: 305GNP2 BIOS DATE: 06/20/94 VIDEO VGA CIRUS MOUSE NOT DETECTED.

b. What kind of video card is installed?

VGA

Use the information in Appendix D, “The Hexadecimal Number System and Memory Addressing,” to answer these questions:

a. How much memory is currently installed on this PC?

640 K AND 3072K

b. Look under TSR programs (terminate-and-stay-resident programs, programs currently stored in memory but not running, will be covered in a later chapter) for the MSD.exe program that you are executing. What is the hex address of the beginning of the program? Convert the hex address to a decimal address.

0253 HEX = 595 DEC.

c. What version of DOS are you running?

VER 6.22

d. What CPU are you using?

PROCESSOR 486 DX

Using the Device Manager

Answer these questions about your computer:

1. Does your computer have a network card installed? If so, what is the name of the card? 3 Com Etherlink 10/100 PCI NIC 3C905C-TX

2. What are three settings that can be changed under Device Manager?

View by type

View device by connection

1. What are all the hardware devices that Device Manger recognizes as present?

CD ROM

Disk Drives

Display Adapters

Floppy Disk Controllers

Hard Disk Controllers

Key Board

Monitors

Mouse

Network Adapters

Ports (COM AND LPT)

Sound Video and Game Controller

System Devices

Universal Serial Bus

Using Nuts and Bolts to Examine Your System

Follow the direction in the Preface to install Nuts and Bolts to your hard drive from the CD-ROM accompanying this book. Use Discover Pro to answer the following questions. (To access Discover Pro, click Start, Programs, Nuts & Bolts, Discover Pro.)

1. What CPU are you using?

Celeron TM 500 MHz

2. What CPU speed does the manufacturer claim?

N/A

3. At what actual speed is the CPU running?

500 MHz

4. What is the BIOS manufacturer and production date?

03/20/00 BIOS Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0

5. How much RAM is in the system?

64 MB RAM

6. What version of Windows are you using? What version of DOS?

AMS Windows 98 Ver. 4.10 1998

7. What software is currently running (Discover Pro calls these “tasks”)? 32-bit programs?

32-bit programs

8. What is the size of your hard drive? How much of the drive is in use? How much is free?

Capacity 1.99 GB

Used 1GB

Free 0.98 GB

9. What printers are installed on the computer? (An installed printer means that Windows has the printer device driver installed and available for use.)

HP Laser Jet 4

10. Under Discover Pro Diagnostics, run the teat of memory. Were any memory errors discovered?

Keeps freezing

Where does this go, because I don’t understand?

BIOS Cat IBMP/C AT

BIOS Date

BIOS Version Award Modular BIOS V4.506

Two NVersion: 305GNPZ

Video Unknown

Version Version 1.0

Date Unknown

Mouse Unknown Not Detected 911b

PC has 8 MG and 75 m Free

81 decimal = 51 Hexadecimal

System Date 0253 Hex Address

Decimal Version 595 decimal

Version DOS V6.22 MS-DOS

Processor 486 DX CPU