Laptops All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies- P7 doc

Getting to the Bottom of the Box 34 Courtesy of Toshiba America, Inc. In addition to the hardware on/off switch for the WiFi system, most lap- tops include wireless control software provided by the wireless system manufacturer; this software may have a feature to enable or disable the transmitter. Shutting off the WiFi system at the software level makes it impossible to use the wireless facilities but might not end the hard- ware’s draw on the battery. Use the on/off switch instead. ✦ Audio input. Depending on the design and capabilities (and any extra sound adapter software you ordered as an option), your machine may have one or more audio input jacks. Most common is a microphone input, used — you guessed this, right? — for recording directly from a microphone. Many laptops use an icon of an old-style microphone to indicate this input; see Figure 2-10. A line input port is another type, used to record from an amplified source such as a tape recorder, digital recorder, or home stereo system. Courtesy of Toshiba America, Inc. Figure 2-10: Many laptops use a drawing of an antique microphone as the symbol for microphone input. Figure 2-9: A version of a WiFi symbol used on modern laptops. 06 140925-bk01ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 34 Book I Chapter 2 Touring a Modern Laptop Getting to the Bottom of the Box 35 ✦ Audio output. Again, you may see one or more output plugs for use with headphones or as an output for use with another electronic device such as a home theater system or a tape recorder. One of the simpler icons on many laptops looks like an earmuff for a housefly: a tiny set of head- phones; see Figure 2-11. Courtesy of Toshiba America, Inc. ✦ USB 2.0 port. This near-miraculous piece of technology when it was introduced is still pretty nifty: The Universal Serial Bus is capable of two- way communication with almost any type of external device. You want to add a mouse? Plug it into the USB port. Need an external hard disk drive? Get one that attaches to a USB port. One commonly used icon for a USB port is meant to indicate its multi- purpose functions; the signal can go directly to a device or to a hub that splits into multiple paths. See Figure 2-12. Depending on your laptop design, you may find only one or two USB ports on the side of the box, with another two on the back. The versatile (and comparatively large) Toshiba Satellite P205 series offers a pair of USB ports on each side of the box. Figure 2-12: One version of an icon for the USB. Figure 2-11: The audio output port, often a set of headphones, can provide a low-power signal to an amplifier for use with external speakers or a stereo system. 06 140925-bk01ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 35 Getting to the Bottom of the Box 36 The first version of the USB standard was quite appropriately called USB 1.0, which was quickly replaced by USB 1.1. As this book goes to press, the much-faster USB 2.0 is state-of-the-art, and that’s what you want to buy. Anything slower is just a waste of good electrons. If you have an old machine that offers USB 1.1, shop for an adapter that plugs into a PC Card or Express Card slot and delivers much-improved USB 2.0 functionality. ✦ iLink, i.Link, FireWire, or IEEE 1394 port. Introduced at about the same time as USB, this other near-miraculous piece of technology (under whichever name you choose to call it) is primarily used by digital video cameras. This technology was originally Apple’s FireWire; Sony was behind a miniaturized version mostly used in connection with video cameras and other home entertainment devices. Don’t feel badly if your laptop doesn’t have one of these ports; if you need one, you can add one . . . with an adapter that plugs into a USB port. The iLink icon is a stylized lowercase i; the icon for FireWire is a stylized Y. If your laptop has one of these ports, you can more easily spot it based on its shape rather than looking for a particular icon; the miniature port looks like a smaller version of a USB rectangle, with a U-shaped indent in the top. It’s like a dented pizza box. ✦ eSATA port. This miraculous piece of technology arrived on PCs in 2007 and laptops in 2008. This port is an extension of the high-speed internal bus that connects hard disk drives, CD or DVD drives, and other such high-demand storage devices. The original ATA standard was a parallel technology, meaning that eight or more wires were required to send a signal to represent a single computer word; the advanced SATA con- verted that to serial technology, with one bit of information moving behind the other and requiring just two wires. Then eSATA brought SATA outside the box to an external port. SATA and eSATA have icons, but you’re just as likely to see the letters themselves on the case near the port. ✦ PC Card slot. Another way to add functions to a laptop is through the use of a credit card–sized circuit board. WiFi cards and broadband cellu- lar modems are among devices you can use in this plug-and-play slot. This older technology is rapidly being replaced by external USB devices, but is still useful for upgrades or as a workaround for certain failed components. Cards have three possible thicknesses: Type I, Type II, and (the least-common) Type III. Most modern laptops with PC Card slots are intended for Type II cards. ✦ ExpressCard slot. The latest incarnation of a plug-and-play upgrade slot for laptops is the ExpressCard, which is a higher-speed, more versatile, and smaller version of the PC Card. Two card sizes are in use today: the 06 140925-bk01ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 36 Book I Chapter 2 Touring a Modern Laptop Getting to the Bottom of the Box 37 ExpressCard/54, which is the same width as a PC Card at 54mm or 2.125 inches (although its depth is shorter and its connector is smaller), and the ExpressCard/34, which is not much bigger than a stick of gum at 34mm wide, about 1.3 inches. See Figure 2-13. As with PC Cards, an ExpressCard slot is a good way to add an internal upgrade or workaround to a laptop computer; devices designed to this specification include eSATA adapters, advanced WiFi cards, and broadband cellular modems. Courtesy of Toshiba America, Inc. A workaround is a way to deal with a broken or outdated element of your laptop without having to replace it or repair it. For example, your laptop may have been delivered with a relatively slow and outmoded 802.11a WiFi system, and you want to use more modern 802.11n communication. (Don’t worry about the alphabet jungle; I’ll define 802 dot whatever in Book VIII, Chapter 2.) A workaround is like this: Disable the built-in WiFi system through Windows or other control software, and install an upgrade in the PC Card or ExpressCard slot. ✦ Media card reader. Some laptops offer a tiny slot capable of accepting one or more types of flash memory as used in audio players, digital cameras, and other devices. The problem here is that these media come in so many different forms, among them CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, Micro Secure Digital, XD, Memory Stick, and others. And each requires its own particular size of slot and internal connectors. If your laptop doesn’t have a direct read slot like the one shown in Figure 2-14, you can add an external card reader that attaches to a USB port or use an appropriate cable to connect the camera or player to a USB or iLink port on the computer. Figure 2-13: Business card or matchbook- sized devices plug into small ExpressCar d slots on many modern laptops. 06 140925-bk01ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 37 Getting to the Bottom of the Box 38 Courtesy of Toshiba America, Inc. Back of the bottom box On most laptops, the back side of the bottom box is for devices that you use for a while — for example, devices that you leave behind on the desktop when you travel. If you’re buying a larger laptop, like the Toshiba Satellite P205 machine I use as an example of a current machine, you may find that the back of the laptop is clean and empty; the large 17-inch LCD screen allows for extra room on the sides of the laptop for ports and connectors. The advantages of this design include protection against breaking off parts attached at the rear. The disadvantages of a larger screen include shortened battery life, extra weight, and a very tight squeeze on an airliner’s tray table. You can expect these sorts of ports on the back of the bottom box on some models: ✦ Power connector. The business end of the AC adapter connects to most laptops on the back plane of the bottom box. One end of the adapter plugs into a wall current and the other end delivers DC voltage to the computer. Be cautious where the power connector protrudes from the back. If the laptop tumbles or tilts too far back, if the power block falls from the table, or if a frozen block of blue ice drops from a jet flying 30,000 feet over your head, the connector can snap off. According to one service company I consulted, this repair is expensive and one of the most common causes of laptop damage. Figure 2-14: Many laptops can directly accept one or more types of flash memory like the ones used in digital cameras and music players. 06 140925-bk01ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 38 Book I Chapter 2 Touring a Modern Laptop Getting to the Bottom of the Box 39 ✦ RGB monitor output. This 15-pin female port mates with a 15-pin male cable that can connect to an external video monitor, an analog LCD dis- play, or an LCD projector. The most advanced of current laptop models (and many coming machines, I expect) add a digital video output for use with external LCDs that receive that sort of signal. ✦ S-video output. This alternate form of video output isn’t common. For most uses and users, the RGB output offers superior performance; if you’ve absolutely got to use an S-video output to send a video signal from your laptop to a particular device . . . well, here’s your connector. ✦ RJ-11 modem port. If your laptop has a built-in dial-up modem, the cable connects here. Most users would rather undergo root canal surgery without Novocain, but if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t possibly connect at high speed over a wired or wireless broadband connection, this may be the route you must take. I suggest you accept the Novocain for the dentistry . . . or for the ssslllooowww dial-up connection. ✦ RJ-45 Ethernet LAN port. The connection for a high-speed wired Ethernet looks confusingly like the one for an ordinary telephone wire for a slow dial-up modem; the difference is that the Ethernet port (and its associated cable) is about 25 percent larger. It’s impossible to squeeze an Ethernet cable into a modem port, but a truly determined user might be able to force a telephone connector into an opening expecting an Ethernet cable. You have been warned! ✦ USB ports. Some modern laptops offer several more USB ports on the back side of the bottom box. They function just like the ones on the sides. 06 140925-bk01ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 39 Book I: Choosing the Best Laptop 40 06 140925-bk01ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 40 Chapter 3: Microprocessors, Memory, and Operating Systems In This Chapter ߜ Meeting the mother of all boards ߜ Delving into a bit of binary ߜ Deciding whether to get the latest operating system Y ou can see the external hardware — the screen, the keyboard, the ports — and you know the software’s name and capabilities. But these things that you can see and touch are mere slaves to three essential masters: the CPU, the memory, and the operating system. The central processing unit (CPU), also known as the microprocessor, is the engine. The bigger, faster, and more efficient it is, the more powerful the computer; think in terms of horsepower under the hood. The memory (also called random access memory or RAM) is the brain, the place where work gets done. Too little memory means the microprocessor either has to make notes on “scratch paper” (by writing things to the con- siderably slower hard disk drive) or that the memory is simply overloaded and likely to throw a temper tantrum, start a petition drive, or otherwise diss you in public. And the operating system: It’s the boss of the hardware. Facing one direction, it tells the microprocessor where to go and helps manage the huge block of memory. Looking the other way, it maintains an index of all data and pro- grams stored on the hard disk drive, and it receives requests from the soft- ware for the use of the display, the disk drive, and anything else attached. The executive team actually has a fourth member, and it’s one that most buyers never see: the motherboard, which holds everything together and paves the pathways between them with streets of gold. Or copper. Or tin and other conductive metals. 07 140925-bk01ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 41 Feeling the Need for Speed 42 Truth: Some motherboards actually use industrial-quality gold plating on some of the electrical contacts. Gold is an excellent conductor and doesn’t rust over time. At one time nearly all motherboards used the magic metal — a little bit can go a long way, but today you’re only likely to find real gold used in machines intended for use in extreme humidity or on mission-critical devices. Laptops and desktops tend to reach the end of their useable life after three to five years, well before rusting should become an issue. Feeling the Need for Speed The more work you expect your laptop to perform in a short period of time, the more horsepower you need under the hood. Today’s modern laptops deliver higher and higher resolutions (details) on their screens, millions of colors (hundreds of thousands of hues at various intensities of brightness), high-fidelity audio and high-definition video, and run an operating system with a graphical user interface (also known as a GUI, and pronounced gooey) that lets you interact with the machine by pointing at almost anything on the screen and clicking a mouse. All this wonderful stuff requires the creation, recording, management, and movement from place to place of billions of 0s and 1s per second. The following principal components deliver the horsepower. Macromanaging the microprocessor Today, nearly all laptops use a CPU designed and built by Intel or AMD. The CPU is where the numbers are crunched, received in one form and con- verted to another; sent out as a command to another piece of equipment or software, or transmitted to a storage device. In general, faster is better than slower. Once you’re past a certain point, though — say a speed of 1 GHz or more — other factors come into play. The CPU has to be matched with a fast bus (a superhighway of wires) that can move data around the machine quickly, and it has to work with memory that can keep up with its demands. Otherwise you’ll be doing the equivalent of trying to load and unload ten pounds of data with a five-pound bucket; it won’t all fit at once and you’re going to quickly develop a huge backlog at each end of the process. Laptops use the same sort of processors that desktop machines use, and sometimes identical models. Because laptops run on batteries and because heat buildup within a closed little box can lead to problems, designers generally use modified CPU designs that use less power, can switch features on/off, or can adjust their speed (and thus power draw and heat generation) as needed. 07 140925-bk01ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 42 Book I Chapter 3 Microprocessors, Memory, and Operating Systems Feeling the Need for Speed 43 Figure 3-1 shows an advanced laptop CPU. One of the most advanced CPUs for laptops, as this book goes to press, the Intel Core 2 Extreme Mobile Processor contains a pair of cores, or processors, each packing 291 million transistors into less than one square inch. The processor runs at a speed of 2.6 GHz and can slow the speed (and power use) when not needed. Bringing binary to the CPU Imagine a building with, oh, 150 million or so on/off switches plus wires that run between them and amongst them. Each switch’s on or off position can be set, read, or changed as fast as two or three billion times per second. And even with all of that activity, this building only con- sumes perhaps 30 or so watts of power. And then imagine that this building is smaller than a postage stamp and about as thick as a slice of pepperoni. There. You’ve got a sense of the size of the microprocessor, the brute force miracle that makes computers possible. Why do I say it is a “brute force” device? Because, in the end, modern computers are very dumb but very, very, very fast. If you spot me in an airport waiting for The Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Stormdoor Company) to patch together an airplane to get me home within two or three days of my sched- uled arrival time, buy me a drink and I’ll explain how binary math works. In the meantime, for your purposes here, you need to know that a computer knows only two numbers: 0 and 1. And it only knows how to add. How does a computer subtract 12 from 15? It converts the numbers to something called a two’s complement and then adds them together. And how does your laptop multiply 7,345 times 15,237? Well, obviously: It adds 7,345 to 7,345 again and again — 15,236 times, to be precise. Like I said, very dumb but very fast. Buy me that drink and we can discuss the elegance and sim- plicity of the world of binary math. What does your laptop do with all of those 0s and 1s? In a word, it makes words out of them. Each of those 0s or 1s is called a bit and in com- puterese, a 0 means none, no, or off while a 1 means one, yes, or on. Depending on where it sits within a computer word, it can indicate (from right to left, not left to right as most of us humans count) either a 0 or a 1 or any other even number. (It only takes a single 1 to convert an even number to an odd number, right? And if the first bit is set at 1, the seventh bit to the left is also set at 1, and all the other bits are 0s, that means this particular word means one 1 and one 64.) You and I might call that 65, but to the computer, 01000001 could mean the number 65. Or, it could mean the alphabetic character A. It could also indicate a very dark and dull shade of blue if that is the value assigned to the blue component of an RGB (Red-Green-Blue) computer color chart. Or it might mean to place your Ultimate Alien Life Form at a spot onscreen that the computer’s memory represents as location number 65. Okay, so maybe you only have to buy me a small drink since I’ve already spilled some of the details. But that’s the general idea of how a computer does the voodoo that it do so well. 07 140925-bk01ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:35 PM Page 43 . box On most laptops, the back side of the bottom box is for devices that you use for a while — for example, devices that you leave behind on the desktop when you travel. If you’re buying a larger. output for use with external LCDs that receive that sort of signal. ✦ S-video output. This alternate form of video output isn’t common. For most uses and users, the RGB output offers superior performance;. Novocain for the dentistry . . . or for the ssslllooowww dial-up connection. ✦ RJ-45 Ethernet LAN port. The connection for a high-speed wired Ethernet looks confusingly like the one for an ordinary