Wiley Laptops Simplified
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1. Choosing Your Laptop PC Portable computers generally referred to as laptops or notebooks began as a great tool for people who traveled and wanted to bring their computer along Today laptops with high end displays and huge processing power are taking over the desktop as well Although laptop models vary by weight size keyboard configuration and more they share some common traits For example on a laptop the keyboard pointing device and monitor are built in Like their desktop counterparts laptop computers run an operating system OS The most commonly used OS is Windows Computers that run Windows are generally referred to as PCs which stands for personal computers Explore a Laptop Laptop computers are very similar to their desktop much more compact In addition whereas counterparts Both contain a hard drive and other desktops require an external keyboard and hardware Both use an operating system run mouse these features along with a monitor are software and save files And both can be built into laptops although you can plug in a connected to peripheral devices such as printers standard keyboard or mouse if desired Finally Key differences exist however For example laptops can run on a battery whereas desktops laptops which are designed for portability are require an electrical outlet Monitor The monitor on a laptop is typically made of a soft to the touch and some2. PCs instead of using a keyboard and pointing device to input data you write directly on the tablet PC s monitor using a stylus that Is an electromagnetic pen that sends a digital signal through the screen What you write on the monitor can be converted to regular computer font for improved readability CHAPTER Choose the Right Weight Laptops started out as portable computing multimedia features and larger screen sizes In devices for people who traveled regularly fact these models are so full featured many Today you can find ultraportable laptops that people have adopted them for use in lieu of a weigh as little as two pounds These laptops desktop computer offer a smaller display and keyboard size but Choosing the right weight for your laptop have the advantage of a longer battery life involves weighing portability against You can also buy laptops that weigh as much as performance 18 pounds These larger models often include Portability If you need a laptop for use while on the road consider a lighter weight model Be aware however that there can be a trade off in features and price when you buy a very lightweight laptop A two pound laptop may be more expensive and may be less able to handle larger programs or run at faster speeds In contrast a larger portable laptop may offer more speed or features but it may be difficult to carry on long trips Stay at Home Laptops Some people use laptops at home in lieu
3. graphics card should be adequate If however you plan to use your laptop for gaming or working with 3 D graphics an AMD and NVIDIA graphics card may be a better choice These manufacturers offer graphics cards that span from the low end to the very high end CHAPTER Explore Wireless Capabilities With wireless technology you can use your while traveling or at your destination can be laptop to connect to the Internet using a very important wireless network without cable connections When you buy a laptop you should make sure or a phone line These wireless networks exist that it includes the hardware components in many locations including hotels airports necessary to use a wireless network You will libraries schools businesses cafes and more quickly find that a laptop without this capability If you plan to take your laptop on the road is much less useful than one that has it the ability to connect to wireless networks How Wireless Works A special piece of equipment called a wireless router broadcasts a radio based signal which is received by computers in the router s vicinity assuming those computers have the appropriate hardware installed Specifically computers need to have a wireless card installed to access the wireless signal Computers with the necessary hardware can use the signal for two way communication The transmission speed varies depending on the quality of the connection and the quality of the wi
4. of a desktop model Even larger laptops which boast 17 or even 20 inch screens take up less space than a computer tower and plugging external devices into them is easier without having to crawl around on the floor or move a heavy tower With wireless Internet connections and a built in keyboard and pointing device they tend to reduce the clutter of cables that come with standard desktop models Although weight is less of an issue for stay at home laptops consider whether you might want to carry such a computer from room to room or out of the house before you choose the heaviest model Rugged Laptops Some laptops are marketed for their durability If you work in an industry such as construction the military law enforcement archeology or any other industry in which your laptop may be subjected to a harsh physical environment in which heat humidity altitude or depth may be a factor one of these rugged laptops may be for you Their keyboards are sealed to prevent water damage and they can withstand more variation in temperature as well as the effects of shock vibration drops grease and fire They can also function near electromagnetic transmissions such as from power generators Not surprisingly these rugged laptops are somewhat heavier than traditional models Determine Memory and Storage Needs Your computer needs a certain amount of Your computer also needs to be able to store random access memory or RAM to run data You st
5. of time you can run your laptop Learning about these different types before on a charged battery is called the battery life you buy can help you purchase a laptop that Battery life which varies from laptop to laptop will serve you well for years to come represents the number of hours your laptop can Types of Batteries Early laptops featured nickel cadmium NiCd batteries the first rechargeable batteries manufactured for laptops NiCd batteries were heavy could not hold much power and could be recharged only a limited number of times In addition NiCd batteries could not be left on the charger after they had reached full charge and could not be recharged until they were completely dead For these reasons laptop manufacturers have since abandoned NiCd batteries Newer laptop batteries address these issues in addition to being more efficient These include nickel metal hydride NIMH batteries and the more recent lighter more efficient and more expensive lithium ion LION batteries Battery Life Laptop batteries offer a certain number of hours of battery life that is the period during which the battery is capable of operating at or above a given level after it has been fully charged When fully charged the average laptop battery offers anywhere from two to four hours of battery life This number can vary however depending on the type of battery your laptop has how the laptop is being used and what types of hardware components th
6. store data on the head moves over the disk to read or write data disc Other data storage options include Flash on the disk as it spins Data can also be erased drives and portable external hard drives although the magnetic data pattern may remain on the drive after you have erased it How Data Is Stored Data is stored in files as a series of bytes in a sector on your hard drive Each sector on the drive can contain a certain number of bytes When you access data whether by opening a piece of software or opening a file the read write heads move across the hard drive looking for the required bytes These bytes may be located in various sectors of the drive Because bytes in files are soread across multiple sectors those files are said to be fragmented fragmented files take longer to load than files whose bytes are stored in a single segment Partitions You can create partitions on a hard drive that essentially break it up Into two or more hard drives You may do this to run different operating systems on the same computer You may also create a partition to foster the appearance of having multiple hard drives for file management purposes or to accommodate multiple users Creating additional partitions also enables you to separate your data from your operating system that way in the event your operating system is damaged your data remains safe To partition a hard drive in Windows 7 there must be either unallocated disk space or free spa
7. bility to 17 or even 20 choosing a monitor you should keep both size inches These larger monitors are ideal for and image quality in mind handling graphics and animations In addition Note that laptop monitors are notoriously to varying in size laptop monitors can also vary fragile Avoid scratching them or submitting in image quality them to extreme temperatures Which monitor is right for you depends on how many hours you will spend in front of it and Display Size If you mainly need to check e mail or type a few memos on the road a smaller monitor might be adequate However if you spend hours reading reports studying graphs and viewing high end graphics a larger monitor is best Of course monitor size affects portability with larger monitors best suited for stay at home laptops Display Quality Laptop monitors vary widely in quality When researching laptop monitors you will hear various terms such as backlit and reflective active matrix and passive matrix and TFT Generally speaking TFT active matrix backlit displays are superior A monitor s screen resolution indicates the number of pixels that form an image on the screen the higher the numbers are the crisper the display Look for a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768 pixels higher if you use graphics intensive applications Tablet PCs Tablet PCs are a special type of laptop Most tablet PCs look more like legal pads than laptops With some tablet
8. ce on the hard drive Using the Disc Drive As mentioned most laptops include a disc drive into which you can insert various storage media These storage media include compact discs CDs digital versatile discs DVDs and Blu ray discs Depending on your disc drive s setup you may be able to read data on and write data to all three of these types of storage media Storing Data on CD Nearly all disc drives support the use of compact discs or CDs hard plastic disks on which you can store data music or images CDs can typically store up to 700MB of data To read from or write to a CD your laptop must have a CD drive with the appropriate support read write or read write CHAPTER Choosing Your Laptop PC _ _ _ _ _ SSS Storing Data on DVD DVDs are similar to CDs but with more storage capacity A single layer DVD can store 4 7GB of data whereas a dual layer DVD can store twice that DVDs come in several formats including DVD DVD and DVD DVDs also come in readable writeable and read write format Your laptop s disc drive must explicitly support a DVD format for you to be able to use that type of DVD Storing Data on Blu ray The name Blu ray stems from the blue violet laser used to read and write to this type of disc A single layer Blu ray disc can store 25GB of data more than five times the storage capacity of a standard DVD disc and a double layer disc can store twice t
9. ctronic devices worldwide Choose a Microprocessor The microprocessor you choose depends on how you plan to use your laptop For example if you are a power user or you plan to use your laptops to play games then you will want a more robust microprocessor In addition if you plan to travel frequently battery life is a consideration In that case you might opt for a dual core processor designed for mobile computing such as the AMD Turion 64 X2 or the Intel Core Duo processor These use less power while still providing the advantages of a dual processor Whichever microprocessor you choose look for a clock rate of at least 1 GHz Review Graphics Capabilities The graphics card is a circuit board inside your Laptops that can handle the graphics and laptop that controls what appears on your animations that appear in many computer laptop s monitor The graphics card is also games tend to have powerful graphics cards called the video card video adapter display along with large screens with a high resolution adapter graphics accelerator card or graphics a lot of memory and fast processors These processing unit The graphics card is particularly come with a high price tag but for a dedicated important when playing games or running gamer or multimedia designer they may be animations worth it Graphics Cards Graphics cards contain a graphics processing unit a GPU with a specific soeed and amount of memory For most users the g
10. d communications Chips are constantly being improved to include more processing power handle more tasks concurrently and generate less heat The x86 ISA Both Intel and AMD produce processors based on the x86 instruction set architecture The instruction set architecture sometimes called simply the instruction set or the ISA is the portion of the computer architecture that pertains to programming It includes the opcodes or the machine language that specifies the commands used by a particular processor x86 refers to a family of ISAs soawned by the Intel 8086 chip launched in 1978 and to the early successors of that chip which also had names ending in 86 CHAPTER Choosing Your Laptop PC _ Clock Rate The higher the clock rate the faster your computer can operate You will often see a clock rate also known as clock speed expressed in gigahertz to reflect how quickly the processor in your laptop can complete a clock cycle or tick A clock cycle is the smallest unit of time a device recognizes although a microprocessor may execute several instructions in a single clock cycle It can be useful to compare clock rates of processors in the same family the faster the clock rate the more instructions the microprocessor can execute per second Using clock rates to compare processors from different families can be misleading however because the amount of work that different microprocessors can d
11. e laptop has Batteries with higher milliamperes per hour MAH have a longer battery life What Affects Battery Life Various issues affect the life of a battery One is whether the laptop is being used or is on standby mode Another is how long the laptop takes to power down or power up In addition having a larger monitor with higher resolution or one used at a higher brightness setting can drain a battery faster And of course battery life depends on the type of battery you have Fortunately laptop PCs have several tools for prolonging battery life from dimming the screen display to automatically switching to a standby mode when not in use for a prescribed period of time Sleep Mode One way to stretch your battery life is to put your laptop into Sleep mode when you are not using it Sleep mode turns off the screen hard drive and internal fan and generally uses less energy When your laptop comes out of Sleep mode whatever you were doing when the laptop went into Sleep mode is still open and available for you to return to work In addition to using Sleep mode you can use Hibernate mode In Hibernate mode the laptop is completely powered down when you restart the laptop whatever you were doing when the laptop went into Hibernate mode again appears on the Windows 7 desktop CHAPTER Choosing Your Laptop PC Gauging Your Charge Your laptop keeps you informed of your battery charge in a couple of
12. e more programs you need to run the larger capacity hard drive you should get Hard drives with a faster rotational speed can be useful for power users enabling quicker access to files T h e Wi n d OWS Exp ec ri e n C e n d ex Rate and improves pour compter performance Windows 7 supports the use of the Windows Experience cha ac aia Index which evaluates components on a PC including the memory to determine how well that PC will perform running Windows 7 This evaluation is expressed in a measurement called a base score The base score Is derived from the lowest of the subscores that is the scores of each component evaluated Scores range from 1 0 to 7 9 CHAPTER Choosing Your Laptop PC Basic Requirements Windows 7 requires a Windows Experience Index rating of 1 0 to operate that is 1GB of system memory RAM for the 32 bit version of the operating system and 2GB of system memory RAM for the 64 bit version Windows 7 also requires 20GB of available space on the hard drive to function In reality however minimum requirements for operating systems are not adequate for a smooth computing experience If you are purchasing a new laptop you should opt for one with additional RAM and hard drive space how much more RAM and hard drive space you need depends on how you plan to use your laptop Everyday Use If you plan to use your laptop on a day to day basis and if it fits in your budget you sh
13. e spare without even shutting down your system Other laptops require that you power down your computer first Note that the spare battery must fit your laptop model be sure to get the right model battery or it will not work Battery Life Expectancy Different types of batteries have different life expectancies Although lithium ion batteries have the longest life soans about 500 charges even they eventually wear down As batteries wear down they are no longer able to hold a charge for as long as when they were new or they may fail to fully charge If you tind yourself in need of a new battery contact your laptop s manufacturer to purchase one When purchasing a new battery beware of generics Always buy a manufacturer or manufacturer approved battery Be aware that new batteries can be quite expensive
14. hat This storage format designed to enable the recording playback and rewriting of high definition video is expected to supersede the DVD format Flash Drive A flash drive also referred to as a USB stick or pen drive is smaller than a pack of gum but can hold a huge amount of data Plugging a flash drive into a USB port is like adding a second hard drive Flash drives come with differing amounts of storage space from 64MB to 256GB External Hard Drive If you need to store large amounts of data for example to back up your system you can buy an external hard drive External hard drives have storage capacities of many gigabytes or even terabytes An external hard drive can be connected to your laptop via its FireWire or USB port Select a Microprocessor Choosing a microprocessor often referred to as a computer enabling it to perform calculations a processor is an important part of deciding and process data which laptop is right for you The type of The various companies that manufacture microprocessor found in a laptop can make a microprocessors are constantly working to big difference in its performance improve them Newer microprocessors offer A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the more processing power handle multiple tasks functions of a computer s central processing concurrently generate less heat and require unit or CPU The microprocessor is the brain of less power to operate What a Microp
15. o in a single clock cycle varies Dual Core Processors Older laptops featured single core processors That is the silicon wafer or chip on which the processor was housed contained only a single processor In time however computer requirements exceeded the capabilities of these processors That led to the development of dual core processors essentially two processors on a single silicon wafer or chip Just as two heads are better than one dual core processors enable computers to more efficiently start and run several operations at once at fast processing speeds measured in GHz and with lower power usage Recent years have seen the development of quad core processors which are even more efficient than their dual core counterparts Moore s Law Moore s law named for Intel co founder Gordon Moore and coined in 1970 by Caltech professor Carver Mead describes a long term trend in computing in which the number of transistors that can be placed cheaply on an integrated circuit has roughly doubled every two years Gordon Moore observed this trend in a 1965 paper in which he noted that the number of components on integrated circuits had doubled each year since 1958 the year in which the integrated circuit was invented Moore went on to posit that this trend would continue for at least 10 years The result of this trend which is in fact expected to continue until at least 2015 has been the increased use and demand for digital ele
16. ore data on a hard drive In programs and load files More RAM can also addition you can store data on external help your computer run faster Your laptop can storage media such as CDs DVDs flash drives read from and write to RAM more quickly than and external hard drives You will learn more to other types of computer storage about these types of external storage media in the next task RAM The more random access memory RAM your system has the faster items load on your computer RAM exists on an integrated circuit memory chip which is rated by its maximum clock rate how quickly it can request data to appear measured in megahertz MHz and its memory size measured in megabytes MB or gigabytes GB RAM comes in several varieties including static RAM SRAM dynamic RAM DRAM synchronous dynamic RAM SDRAM and double data rate SDRAM DDR SDRAM Note that you may be able to add RAM to your system if it is running too slowly Doing so involves opening a panel on the bottom of the machine to access the motherboard Hard Drive Capacity Hard drives have a certain capacity for storing data measured in gigabytes GB or in recent years terabytes TB When you create or save a file on your laptop the file is saved to your hard drive You should buy a hard drive with enough capacity to handle your day to day data storage needs Today a 100GB hard drive is pretty much the minimum standard The more files you need to store and th
17. ould look for a PC with a Windows Experience Index rating of at least 2 0 and preferably 3 0 Bumping up your RAM to 3GB helps ensure your PC does not get bogged down In addition you may want to opt for a larger hard drive say 200GB especially if you want to store a significant number of photos songs or videos on your PC ae ow 452 2 EEJ a E ee oie Power Users You may need to run several programs at once called multitasking For example you may want to check your e mail while running a PowerPoint presentation and opening a Word document In this case opt for a laptop with a Windows Experience Index rating of at least 3 0 and preferably 4 0 In addition you may want more memory 4GB should do the trick And you will almost certainly want a larger hard drive Graphics and Gaming For the graphics professional or hard core gamer a Windows Experience Index rating of at least 5 0 ensures that any high end games or graphics applications run without a hitch And again you will want yet more memory and an even larger hard drive than a power user would require 5GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive should suffice Understand Drives and Data Storage Laptops store data on an internal hard drive Most laptops also have a disc drive Depending a spinning hard disk inside the laptop via on the type of drive you can insert a CD DVD magnetic recording An arm with a magnetic and or Blu ray disc into it to
18. our local area network LAN through a coaxial or fiber optic cable You can also use an Ethernet jack to establish a high speed connection to the Internet You simply plug the Ethernet cable into the Ethernet jack on your laptop and then connect the other end of the cable to a high speed modem Modem Jack Although most people use an Ethernet cable or a wireless signal to access the Internet there may be times when you must use a phone line In the event you are required to use a phone line to dial up your Internet connection you can plug a phone cable into the modem jack to pick up a signal PC Card Slot The PC card also called the PCMCIA card short for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association the group of industry leading companies that defined and develop the standard was originally another type of storage card but ultimately expanded to house other devices such as network cards and modems Many laptops include slots for PC cards Headphone and Microphone Jacks If you want to use headphones to listen to music from your computer you plug them into the headphone Jack Alternatively you can use this jack to plug in computer speakers You use the microphone jack to plug in a microphone You might use a microphone for example to communicate with others using a video chat application Choose a Monitor Laptop displays range in size from 5 inches what functions you need to perform When perfect for porta
19. raphics card that comes installed on a laptop is sufficient For users who intend to use their laptop for graphics rich applications such as design or animation software or games a graphics card with more speed and memory may be required Considerations If you are a hard core gamer or plan to use your laptop to handle 3 D graphic work a top of the line graphics card is a must However It is not necessary to have a high end graphics card on a laptop that will be used primarily for such tasks as checking your e mail or using a word processing program Note that your graphics card must be a good match for your CPU A very powerful graphics card with a slower or older CPU would be a waste Also be aware that not all graphics cards work on all computers Finally be sure to check the frame rate that is the frequency at which the card produces unique consecutive images called frames because lower rates can slow down video and animations Brands of Graphics Cards Three manufacturers of graphics cards dominate the market Intel AMD and NVIDIA Intel owns the low end category offering a line of graphics cards integrated into the manufacturer s motherboard chipsets Although this can reduce cost power consumption and noise performance takes a hit because both the graphics card and the CPU share use of the laptop s main memory If you plan to use your laptop primarily to check e mail or work with a word processing program this type of
20. reless card installed in the laptop Wireless Protocols There are various wireless technology protocols These include Bluetooth and WiFi also referred to as 802 11 This technology enables you to connect wirelessly to the Internet Within the WiFi protocol are several versions including 802 11a which operates at 54 megabits per second Mbps and has an indoor range of 115 feet 802 11b which operates at 11 Mbps but has an indoor range of 125 feet and 802 11g which operates at 54 Mbps with at an indoor range of 125 feet In addition the most recent version 802 11n operates at 150 Mbps with at an indoor range of 250 feet 802 11n offers significant increases in data throughput and link range without requiring additional bandwidth or transmission power Finding Wireless Networks Many restaurants hotels airports libraries bookstores and other public places offer wireless hot spots that is areas where you can use your laptop to connect to a wireless router and access the Internet for free or for a fee In addition you can subscribe to various wireless services from popular providers such as T Mobile Verizon and so on to pick up their signal when you travel Choose the Best Battery When you take your laptop on the road it operate on a fully charged battery before again needs to carry its power supply with it being recharged specifically a rechargeable battery Laptop batteries come in different types The amount
21. rocessor Does A microprocessor acts as the brain of the computer handling data performing calculations carrying out stored instructions and so on Microprocessors which are integrated circuits composed of millions of transistors can perform many instructions per second such as mathematical equations calibrations data storage display updates and so on A microprocessor is housed on a tiny silicon wafer base or chip where some or all of the functions of a computer s central processing unit CPU are integrated Microprocessor Design A microprocessor incorporates functions of the CPU onto an integrated circuit also called a chip An integrated circuit is a tiny electronic circuit composed of millions of transistors situated on a silicon wafer This circuit consists mainly of semiconductor devices that is components that make use of the electronic properties of various semiconductor materials primarily silicon Brands of Microprocessors The two top manufacturers of microprocessors are Intel Corporation and AMD Inc Intel founded in 1968 produced the first microprocessor in 1971 a four bit processor called the Intel 4004 AMD short for Advanced Micro Devices launched in 1969 as a producer of logic chips In addition to manufacturing microprocessors both companies also produce motherboard chipsets network interface controllers and integrated circuits flash memory graphic chips and other devices for computing an
22. to the docking and ports are located on the sides or back of station to access the peripheral devices the laptop USB Port You can use a universal serial bus USB port to connect a wide variety of devices from a flash drive for data storage to a printer or digital camera Devices that can be connected via USB are generally plug and play that is you need not restart your computer to use them after connecting them via a USB cable And Windows can automatically install many USB devices when you connect them requiring no additional input from you Memory Card Reader A memory card is a small removable digital storage device used in many electronic gadgets such as digital cameras MP3 players and so on Many laptops feature memory card readers small slots into which you can insert a memory card You can then view the contents of the memory card and even use the memory card as an external storage device to save data on your laptop Monitor Port Some laptop computers include a monitor port If you want to connect an external monitor to your laptop for example to show a presentation on a larger screen or if you use a dual monitor system in your workflow you can connect a standard monitor cable into the laptop s monitor port CHAPTER Choosing Your Laptop PC Ethernet Jack You use an Ethernet jack to connect your computer to a router that controls y
23. ways First the Windows 7 taskbar displays a battery meter that shows you how much charge you have left You can also set a low battery alarm to alert you when power is just about to run out To learn how to set a low battery alarm see Chapter 2 Charging Your Battery You will need to charge your laptop battery on a regular basis You do this by plugging your laptop s power cord into an electrical outlet Getting in the habit of keeping your battery charged is essential Unless your laptop has an older battery that requires you to wait until the battery is practically drained to recharge It your motto should be Charge often Run on AC Power If you are using your laptop at your home or office you can plug its power adapter into an electrical outlet and run off of electricity all the time This has the added benefit of recharging your battery and keeping it fully charged If you lose your adapter damage it or it simply stops working you can buy a replacement Note though that you must find an adapter designed to work with your make and model of laptop Add a Second Battery The easiest way to stretch the time you have to work on your laptop with a battery is to double your battery power by carrying a spare When the first one runs low simply swap them out inserting your spare battery to keep using your laptop Some laptops are designed with quick swapping in mind enabling you to simply eject the spent battery and quickly insert th
24. what fragile liquid crystal display Keyboard Keyboard configurations vary based on the size of the laptop with larger laptops having a separate number pad and smaller ones embedding number pad functionality within the regular keys Touchpad Pointing Device Laptops feature a built in pointing device usually a touchpad as shown here You move your finger over the pad to move the mouse pointer on Function Keys ene Most laptops have preassigned functions for these aptly named function keys Typical uses are for muting the speakers or accessing the Internet DVD Drive Most laptops include a DVD drive although some still feature a CD drive The location of these drives varies by model Battery A battery usually slots into the bottom of a laptop This battery needs to be recharged on a regular basis Power Cord Connector To recharge your battery you plug in your laptop using a power cord connector Choosing Your Laptop PC CHAPTER Explore Slots and Ports You can use the various slots and ports built Note that in addition to using the slots and into your laptop to connect peripheral devices ports built into your laptop to connect to it such as a printer a mouse a keyboard peripheral devices you can also connect these an extra monitor headphones a microphone a devices to ports and slots in a docking station digital camera and more Most of these slots You can then plug your laptop in
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