update 1 June 2000

This website is a developing course outline, covering the hardware of PCs, MACS, and Unix boxes. I never got to the last two on these pages. This site is unofficial, and has nothing to do with ... College, the ... Department, or the course ... and I removed the homework and answers.

Resources:

There are no end of books, and documentation available. Staying up to date requires reading thousands of pages on a regular basis, especially for software. Internet sources: A starting list of definitions at [http://whatis.com/]; my notes at http://jnocook.net/user (where you are). Also check out the largest "library" of computer books in Chicago at MicroCenter.

The PC is taken as the base, and is as far as I got with these notes.. I'll get to the 150 Mac models later. For Unix it'll be Linux on an intel box, of course.

.. hardware ..

Find additional material (like an look at typical expansion cards) further below.

• How to wake up [sleeping] computers.
• Old computers, what to [keep], what to scrap.
• [Parts], connectors, screws, etc.
• Protect against [shock], heat, power failure.
• A list of expansion [slots] in general use.
• [Plugs] and sockets found on the back of a PC.
• [IRQ] and DMA assignments.
• Questions about [RAM].

  .. testing utilities ..

• Getting some [information] from Windows.
• A set of [test] programs. [Download] (300 K).
• Shortcut uses of Windows98, see the [Win98 Setup] file.
  And a suggested homemade Win98 rescue diskette.

  .. boot ..

  If you are going to fix things and make changes to a computer, you need to know some of the details of the boot-up process -- so you can break in. I'll differentiate the specifics of Win95/98 later.

• The [boot] detailed.
• [Intercepting] the boot process.
• What the [beeps] mean, and why the computer still won't boot up.
• What the [BIOS] screen writes mean, and raw CMOS values.
• The innards of the boot files [IO.SYS] IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS.
• The innards of [COMMAND.COM].
• [Snooping] around the inside, a list.
• [Bypassing] the boot process.
  
  

  .. Binary and Hexadecimal ..

• The [column] method of explanation.
• Why [hexadecimal] is used.
• Doing binary or hexadecimal on an [abacus]

  .. various ..

• The odd [ASCII] codes.
• Keyboard [scan codes].
• Using [ANSI] screen extensions.

  .. a card collection ..

• Not untypical [HDC/FDC] card, 16 bit ISA
• Old B/W [MDA] B/W video card, 8 bit ISA
• A [Hercules] video card, 8 bit ISA
• An [EGA] video card, 8 bit ISA
• A [VGA] video card, 16 bit ISA
• A [SCCI] controller card, 32 bit VLB
• Three [network] cards, 16 bit ISA, and PCI bus

.. more stuff ..

Unsorted files of various sorts are in a subdirectory. Feel free to look through them, [here]

HOST: Outflux.net, http://www.Outflux.net
URL: http://jnocook.net/user/index.htm