The Chemistry of Laptop Batteries Explained
Laptop batteries come in all shapes and sizes also differ in their chemical composition. The chemistry of a battery refers to the chemical make-up of the cells inside the outer casing. This artilce explains the most common chemistries used in laptop batteries. More ...
How to Choose a Computer Case
Computer cases come in many sizes, configurations, and with many features. Which case you need depends upon what you will use your computer for. You might choose a standard mid tower case for a home computer that will be used for word processing and spread sheets. For a game machine or server you might choose a full tower case because of its expansion capability. More ...
Hard Drives - ATA versus SATA
with data rates hitting the 133MB / sec mark the parallel ATA standard is maxing out, thus industry leaders got together and came up with a new standard known as Serial ATA (SATA). More ...
Motherboard Form Factors
The "form factor" of a motherboard defines its dimensions. Make sure that the computer case that you purchase can accommodate the motherboard. It is also wise to select a motherboard with a commonly available form factor in case you need to replace it. Article updated with more information. More ...
PC Technician Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to CompTIA A+ Skills
Hit the ground running with the street-smart training you'll find in this practical book. Using a 'year in the life' approach, it gives you an inside look at the common responsibilities of PC Technicians, with key information organized around the actual day-to-day tasks, scenarios, and challenges you'll face in the field. More ...
Introduction to Operating Systems
An operating system is software that acts as an intermediary between a computer user and the computer's applications and hardware. An operating system can be viewed as a resource allocator. Resources might be CPU time, memory space, file storage space, and input/output (I/O) devices. More ...
The Universal Serial Bus
In 1996 the Universal Serial Bus (USB) was developed to replace the serial and parallel ports. Today, the USB port is used to connect scanners, digital cameras, and external storage devices like CD-RW drives. More ...
Intermediate PC Build-it-Yourself Guide
Before you get out your tool kit and put your anti-static mat on the floor, you have to consider a few factors before embarking on your computer-building odyssey? Now don't panic - it's not as complicated as it seems. More ...
Five Types of HDMI Cables
There are different types of HDMI cables, some are technologically more enhanced and some are designed for specific PCs and TVs, so it's important that you get to know about the various types. More ...
Device Driver Basics
In this article, I'm going to reveal in plain English what a driver is, why we need drivers, and exactly where the drivers are hiding. To give you a basic understanding, I'm going to go back, way back, to the early days of computers. More ...
PC Disk File Systems
The first PC file system, called FAT because it used a File Allocation Table, was developed in the early 1980?s for floppy disks. The File Allocation Table, a map of the location of files on the disk, is located near the beginning of the disk. More ...
Anatomy of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
Color LCD displays have a sandwich-like structure. One layer of the sandwich has liquid crystal between two glass plates. One glass plate has a matrix of thin film transistors on it. Liquid crystals move depending upon the charge applied to a tiny capacitor by its related transistor. More ...
A Definitive Guide on How to Choose Your New PC
There are lots of PC buying guides out there but they're often too high level and only explain the very simplest of specification details and the minute a sales rep gives you other options you're lost. This guide is aimed at the novice to moderately experienced PC user. More ...
Serial ATA Hard Drive
New computers will begin using the SATA (Serial ATA) interface to the hard disk. Some new motherboards come with built-in SATA support. The SATA interface does not use a ribbon cable. Instead, it uses a cable similar to a network cable with only seven wires. More ...
