Motherboards and Connectors
What is a motherboard?
A motherboard is the main circuit board inside a computer that connects and allows communication between all hardware components, including the CPU, memory (RAM), storage devices, power supply, and expansion cards.
A component that supplies electrical power to all internal computer parts.
power supply unit (PSU)
What is BIOS?
It is a firmware that initialises hardware during the startup process, and loads the operating system.
What is a switch?
A switch is a networking device that connects multiple devices within a Local Area Network (LAN) and intelligently forwards data only to the intended destination device.
This protocol automatically assigns IP addresses to devices on a network, what is it?
DHCP
What is ATX?
ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended) is a standard form factor for computer motherboards, power supplies, and computer cases. It defines the physical size, mounting points, power connections, and layout of components inside a desktop computer.
This type of memory is volatile and loses data when power is removed.
RAM
What is POST?
POST (Power-On Self-Test) is a diagnostic process performed by the BIOS or UEFI when a computer is powered on. It checks that essential hardware components are functioning correctly before the operating system loads.
What is a LAN?
This network type covers a small geographic area such as a home, school, or office.
What is DNS?
This protocol translates domain names into IP addresses.
What is an IDE/PATA cable?
IDE/PATA (Integrated Drive Electronics / Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment) cable is a flat ribbon cable used in older computers to connect storage devices such as hard disk drives (HDDs) and optical drives (CD/DVD drives) to the motherboard.
What is a heat sink?
A heat sink is a metal component that is mounted directly on the CPU to absorb and dissipate heat away to prevent overheating.
What is the possible cause of display failure?
A display failure (no image or blank screen) can be caused by several hardware or software issues. It is usually related to power, connection, graphics hardware, or monitor faults.
What is Cat 6?
This twisted-pair cable category supports speeds up to 10 Gbps over short distances.
What is ICMP (Ping)?
This TCP/IP protocol is used to test connectivity between two devices.
What is CMOS?
CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) is a small amount of memory on the motherboard that stores important system configuration settings, such as the date, time, boot order, and hardware settings.
This storage device uses flash memory and has no moving parts.
SSD
How to troubleshoot display issues?
Display issues are troubleshooted by checking power connections, verifying video cables, testing the monitor on another system, reseating the graphics card and RAM, checking BIOS settings, and updating or reinstalling display drivers.
What is 802.11ac?
This wireless networking standard operates exclusively in the 5 GHz band and is known as Wi-Fi 5.
What is Network Address Translation (NAT)?
This technology allows multiple private IP addresses to share a single public IP address when accessing the internet.
What is PCIe x16?
PCIe x16 (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express x16) is a high-speed expansion slot on a motherboard that provides 16 data lanes for connecting devices that require high bandwidth, such as graphics cards.
What is Hyper-Threading (SMT)?
Hyper-Threading (HT), known more generally as Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT), is a CPU technology that allows a single physical processor core to function as two logical cores, enabling it to process multiple threads at the same time.
what is blue screen of death?
The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is an error screen displayed by the Microsoft Windows when the system encounters a critical error that it cannot recover from, causing the computer to stop (crash) to prevent damage or data loss.
This is a networking device that connects different networks together and directs data between them, usually between a local network (LAN) and the internet (WAN).
Router
What is 255.255.255.0 (/24)?
255.255.255.0 (/24) is a subnet mask used in IP networking to define how many bits of an IP address belong to the network portion and how many belong to the host portion.