Windows Xp Tutorial 11 - Working With Hardware

Front 1

hardware

Back 1

any physical piece of equipment called a device that is both connected to your computer and controlled by your computer

Front 2

device

Back 2

connected to your computer and controlled by your computer

Front 3

external device

Back 3

equipment such as keyboards, printers, and scanners, which remain outside the case of the computer

Front 4

internal device

Back 4

equipement such as disk drives, modems, and network adapter cards, which are placed inside the case of the computer

Front 5

port

Back 5

a way that an external device is connected to your computer

Front 6

serial port

Back 6

one of the older port types, usually used for a mouse, but can be used for some printers - can have up to four different serial ports (COM1) - transmits data one bit at a time

Front 7

parallel port

Back 7

usually reserved for printers - most computers have only one - transmits data eight bits at a time

Front 8

USB (Universal Serial Bus)

Back 8

thin, rectangular slot that sccomodates a high-speed connection to a variety of external devices - transmits data ten times faster than serial port

Front 9

USB Connector

Back 9

small rectangular plug needed to use USB technology

Front 10

USB hub

Back 10

a box that contains many USB ports that you plug into your computer

Front 11

motherboard

Back 11

circuit board inside your computer that contains the microprocessor

Front 12

microprocessor

Back 12

the 'brains' of your cojmputer

Front 13

expansion slot

Back 13

slot you can insert devices such as network adapter cards into

Front 14

expansion cards / adapter cards

Back 14

devices that you insert into expansion slots that expand or adapt your computer

Front 15

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)

Back 15

connection standard that supports high connection speeds and is easy to install and configure

Front 16

device conflict

Back 16

when two devices share a particular resource a conflict can occur rendering one or both of the devices unusable

Front 17

IRQ (interrupt request line)

Back 17

number that signals the microprocessor that the device is requesting an action

Front 18

DMA (direct memory access)

Back 18

information is transferred directly between the device and the system's memory

Front 19

I/O (input/output)

Back 19

section of the computer's memory devoted to the different devices on a computer

Front 20

memory address or memory range

Back 20

the resource some devices need when they require additional computer memory for their own use (not related to communicating with the microprocessor)

Front 21

driver

Back 21

software file that enables Windows XP to communicate with and control the operation of the device

Front 22

legacy device

Back 22

older piece of hardware whose resources must be set manually on the hardware device itself

Front 23

plug-and-play device

Back 23

uses newer technology that allows Windows XP to recognize the new device automatically the first time it is connected to the computer

Front 24

Add Hardware Wizard

Back 24

a series of dialog boxes in which Windows XP prompts you for information about the new device, so you can set up the device properly with Windows XP

Front 25

device manager

Back 25

a tool that makes it easier to manage your devices and the resources they use

Front 26

troubleshooter

Back 26

sequence of dialog boxes that contain suggestions and questions about the source of your hardware trouble

Front 27

local printer

Back 27

one that is connected directly to your computer

Front 28

network printer

Back 28

connected to another computer on your network

Front 29

print server

Back 29

the main printer on a network

Front 30

print spooling

Back 30

creates a temporary file on your hard disk containing the electronic codes that control your particular printer - don't have to wait for the entire document to be printed before you can continue your work at your computer

Front 31

print queue

Back 31

a list of jobs being sent to the printer

Front 32

viruses

Back 32

programs that run on your computer and disrupt its operations

Front 33

defragmenting

Back 33

organizes files on a disk so that they are stored most efficiently

Front 34

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Downloaded program files

Back 34

(Disk Cleanup Options)
files downloaded automatically from the Internet when you view certain Web pages

Front 35

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Temporary Internet files

Back 35

(Disk Cleanup Options)
web pages stored on your hard disk for quick viewing, stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder

Front 36

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Temporary Setup files

Back 36

(Disk Cleanup Options)
temporary files created when you install a program - some programs delete these files when they are no longer neede; others leave them on your hard drive

Front 37

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Offline Web Pages

Back 37

(Disk Cleanup Options)
web pages stored on your computer so you can view them without being connected to the internet

Front 38

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Recycle Bin

Back 38

(Disk Cleanup Options)
files you deleted from your computer, which are stored in the Recycle Bin until you delete them

Front 39

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Old CheckDisk files

Back 39

(Disk Cleanup Options)
files created by CheckDisk when it locates corrupted data

Front 40

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Temporary files

Back 40

(Disk Cleanup Options)
files generated by programs to be used temporarily; usally these are deleted when you close the program, but if the program isn't shut down properly, the temporary files remain on your disk

Front 41

(Disk Cleanup Options)
WebClient/Publisher Temporary files

Back 41

(Disk Cleanup Options)
files maintained by the WebClient service, which maintains a cache of accessed files on the drive

Front 42

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Compress Old Files

Back 42

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Windows XP compresses files you haven't used recently

Front 43

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Catalog Files for the Content Indexer

Back 43

(Disk Cleanup Options)
files left over from the Indexing Service, which speeds up dile searches by building an index of files on a disk

Front 44

(Disk Cleanup Options)
Windows XP Unistall Information

Back 44

(Disk Cleanup Options)
files from a previous version of Windows - these appear only if Windows XP was installed on a computer that used an older version of Windows; they can be safely deleted if you don't intend to revert to the original version

Front 45

tracks

Back 45

series of rings around the circumference of the disk

Front 46

sectors

Back 46

equal parts like pieces of a pie that the track is divided into

Front 47

cluster / allocation unit

Back 47

one or more sectors of storage space - where the file is stored

Front 48

FAT (File Allocation Table)

Back 48

lists the clusters on the disk and records the status of each cluster

Front 49

FAT32

Back 49

improved on FAT16 by using disk space much more efficiently and accessing hard drives up to 2 terabytes in size

Front 50

NTFS

Back 50

file support system that supports file system revovery and can access disk drives up to 2 terabytes in size

Front 51

bad sector

Back 51

damaged sector on a disk

Front 52

lost cluster

Back 52

cluster that contains data that the file allocation table cannot match to a file

Front 53

cross-linked file

Back 53

contains a least one cluster that has been allocated to more than one file in the file allocation table

Front 54

fragmented

Back 54

name used to describe the problem that occurs when a disk contains files whose clusters are not next to each other

Front 55

Processory Time

Back 55

the percentage of time that the processor is executing - used as a measure of the load on the system's processor