Systems installation and configuration Essay Example for Free

Systems installation and configuration Essay You can is the up and down arrow keys to move up and down the drop-down menu. To select and option, highlight the item on the drop-down menu and press Enter. An ellipse after a menu item signifies additional options; if you select that option, a dialog box will appear. Toolbars The standard Toolbar The Formatting Toolbar Toolbars provide shortcuts to menu commands. Toolbars are generally located just below the Menu bar. Before proceeding with the lesson, make sure the Toolbars we will use -standard and Formatting- are available. Follow these steps 1. Point to View on the Menu bar 2. Click the left mouse button 3. Press the down arrow and key until Toolbars is highlighted 4. Press Enter 5. Standard and Formatting should have a checkmark next to them 6. If both standard and formatting, have a checkmark next to them, press Esc three times to close the menu. 7. If one or both do not have a checkmark, highlight customize 8. Press Enter 9. Point to the box next to the unchecked word and click the left mouse button. A checkmark should appear. Note: you turn the checkmark on and off by clicking the left mouse button. 10. Point to close and click the left mouse button to close the dialog The Ruler The ruler is generally found below the main toolbars. The ruler is used to change the format of your document quickly. To display the ruler: 1. Point to View on the Menu bar. 2. Click your left mouse button. 3. The option Ruler should have a checkmark next to it. If it has a checkmark next to it, press Esc twice to close the menu. If it does not have a checkmark next to it, continue to the next step. 4. Press the down arrow key until Ruler is highlighted 5. Press the Enter key. The ruler should display below the toolbars. Creating a Template . BIOS Keeping your PC, secure Setting a password on your BIOS is an excellent way to make your computer more secure. A password in Windows only restricts access to Windows and can be bypassed with a little knowledge; a BIOS password protects the computer from the moment it is switched on. There are two kinds of password that you can set in the BIOS. The first and most important password gives permission to change options in the BIOS itself and is commonly called a Setup password. This is particularly useful if you have stopped the computer from booting from CDs or floppy disks and do not want anybody to change this. This would be protecting my user from unauthorized usages. The other password should be typed in as soon as the computer is switched on, even before the option to enter the BIOS appears a User password. This is the first line of defence you can add to your computer and is very effective. A word of warning about getting too overconfident about these passwords, however. It is possible to reset the BIOS if you can access the inside of the computer and it does not stop someone from removing the hard disk to read on another system. If the files on your computer are secret, consider buying a case that can be locked to stop people from changing these options. Get your boots in order A very useful setting the BIOS allows you to change is how your computer boots. When it first starts, the BIOS looks for a disk containing an operating system to boot from. Usually, this is the hard disk but there may be times when you want to boot from a floppy disk or a CD-Rom. Which drives are checked and in what order is determined by the Boot Order in the BIOS. Changing the Boot Order can make your computer more secure as it gives you more control over how it starts. Even if Windows is password-protected, it is possible for someone to start the computer with a floppy disk or a CD. Alternatively, if you want to stop someone messing around with your computer, you can do so by restricting how the computer starts and make your computer look on your hard drive for an operating system first. Enter your BIOS in the usual way and enter the Advanced BIOS Features screen. You will either see a list of the devices the BIOS checks, or an option to change the boot order. To make our computer more secure we are going to change the first boot device to HDD-0, which is short for Hard Disk Drive 0, or the first hard disk, in other words. Move down to First Boot Device and press Enter to see a list of devices the computer can boot from, Move down to HDD-0 and press Enter again. Changing the boot order for troubleshooting is effectively the reverse of this process. You can load many very good troubleshooting tools from CD or floppy disk. If there are problems with the hard drive, you may need to make the computer look elsewhere first. This might be necessary if Windows has a fault that stops it from loading properly or if you want to boot from the Windows CD-Rom in order to reinstall it. Return to the Advanced BIOS Features screen and change the First Boot Device to the media that you want to boot from. Unlike many other manufacturers that stick to BIOS, MSI often prefers BIOS from AMI. Well, there is nothing wrong as the new AMIBIOS versions, unlike the previous ones, offer a wide range of Setup settings and often show better performance than the BIOS versions from Award. And now lets dwell upon the Setup settings. Memory timings located on the separate page of the BIOS Setup come first. You can see that all the key timings in MSI KT4 Ultra can be modified. Besides CAS Latency, you can change Trp, Tras and Trcd settings as well as DRAM Command Rate, Memory Interleaving and DRAM Burst Length. All the parameters can vary in usual ranges, while CAS Latency can even be set to 1. 5, although we couldnt power up MSI KT4 Ultra with such a CAS value in our test lab. As for hardware monitoring, MSI KT4 Ultra keeps track of system and CPU temperatures, rotation speeds of two fans, processor core voltage and six other voltage values. Of course, MSI KT4 Ultra has something to offer over clocking fans. These tools are listed in a separate BIOS page called Frequency/Voltage Control, and deserve a closer look. Here is a list of options an over clocker receives from MSI KT4 Ultra main board: Â  Bus frequency adjustment. You can set any frequency from 100MHz to 280MHz. Well, the top FSB frequency is just an attraction. The maximum working FSB rate you can set on MSI Ultra KT4 is 233MHz. If you choose a frequency above this value, the bus will actually work at half the desired rate. CPU multiplier adjustment. The range is from 6x to 15x. Â  Manual adjustment of the CPU core voltage. The values available are Auto, 1. 625, 1. 650, 1. 675, 1. 700, 1. 725 and 1. 750V. Therefore, the options here are rather scarce (the regular core voltage is usually 1. 65V). Â  DDR DIMM slots voltage adjustment. The values available are Auto, 2. 6, 2. 7 and 2. 8V. It is also possible to set Termination Voltage (Auto, 1. 27 and 1. 29V). Therefore, MSI KT4 Ultra has every right to boast cool means of memory voltage adjustment. Â  AGP voltage can be set to Auto, 1. 6, 1. 7 and 1. 8V. This would be important for my user because it would let he/she know what facts and settings the BIOS have to offer. After checking all the options in practice, we can state that the entire range of FSB frequencies up to 233MHz is working, that is, the mainboard is stable at any FSB frequency up to 233MHz. Overclockers should really enjoy it and continue the AMDs initiative about raising the FSB frequency of their Athlon XP above 166MHz. But at 166MHz FSB, the memory in MSI KT4 Ultra can be clocked only synchronously due to the restrictions in the VIA KT400 chipset. Moreover, the minimum divisor of the PCI bus thats activated at the FSB rate over 166MHz is 1:5. So, when overclocking the FSB above 166MHz, the system may lose some of its stability because of certain problems with the memory or expansion cards. There is one more unpleasant peculiarity I noticed when overclocking the CPU in MSI KT4 Ultra. This mainboard turned to have no means to reset CPU parameters in case of over-overclocking. So, when the mainboard doesnt start up after a change in BIOS Setup settings, the only way to reanimate the system is to use the Clear CMOS jumper. Practical Components and fittings of a PC Motherboard This is the main circuit board of the computer. The motherboard contains connectors for attaching additional boards. The motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices such as the monitor, screen, and disk drive. A motherboard. Fitting the motherboard The case has a slide-out tray, which provides a very elegant way to install the motherboard and all of its components. Cheaper cases will have a mounting case plate fixed permanently to the case. If I had that type of case, I would first lay the case on its side. Next, I screw in the spacer mounts for fixing the motherboard as seen in the photo above. There are usually more holes drilled in the mounting plate than you actually need. There are standard locations for these holes on the mounting plate, which correspond to the holes on the motherboard. How many of these are actually used depends on the board manufacturer. Fitting the Hard disk Photo of a Typical Hard disk The hard drive is secured with four screws, usually the coarse thread type, and the end of the drive with the connectors must point towards the inside of the case. There are usually a couple rows of holes in the cage, make sure the holes you pick let the screws clear the opening at the front of the case when you put the cage back in. Normally, the second set from the cage bottom is used The Ribbon Cable Always install the ribbon cables before replacing the drive cage in the case. As the cage is being installed back in the case, you can see that the ribbon cable is already connected to the floppy drive and has been fed through the opening prior to sliding the cage in. Note also the position of the screws securing the floppy drive to the cage, all the way forward in the slots, which is the norm. The hard drive is mounted in the second set of holes from the cage bottom. Do not forget to reinstall the screws back in the cage, even though it snaps into place. The CD drive has already been installed in the top bay of our mini-tower, though you can wait until after you restore the plastic faceplate to the case, particularly if you are not sure which set of screw holes will align the drive flush with the cover. The ribbon cable has been installed on to the motherboard; with the red key wire in the ribbon towards pin one on the connector.