Honest Tom's A+ Hardware Notes
(Google key: a+ notes, aplus notes, aplus tutorial, calgary microsoft trainer, please laugh)
Central Processor Unit (CPU)
- The math coprocessor deals with floating-point numeric operations.
- Protected mode is a processor feature that allows 2 or more programs run without interfering with one-another.
- Superscaler - Two chips inside: one for parallel processing and the other for fault tolerance.
- Instructions / clock cycle - 4 instructions, 2 on each path.
- Intel Pentium 2 (166-400 MHz)
- Intel Pentium 3 (400MHz – 1.2GHz)
- Intel Pentium 4 (1.4 - 3.4 GHz)
- Intel Celeron (1.7 - 3.2 GHz)
- Celeron D (to 3.2 GHz)
- Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (3.2, 3.4 GHz)
Cache:
- L1 and L3 - Internal Cache
- L2 - External Cache on board, Northbridge. Part of Front Side Bus (FSB) – “the golden triangle”
- Southbridge looks after AGP and PCI slots
- FSB – CPU, RAM, Northbridge
CPU Connectivity:
- Socket 7 – Earlier Pentium CPUs ZIF contact connector
- Socket 8 - Pentium Pro 387-pin
- Slot 1 - Pentium II 242 SEC contact connector
- Slot A - AMD processor, same with Socket A.
- ZIF Socket - Zero Insertion Force
- Socket 370 - Pentium III and Celeron - Front Bus Frequencies: 66, 100 and 133 MHz
- Socket 423 - Pentium IV (OLGA) - Front Bus Speed: 100 MHz FSB
- Socket 478 - Pentium IV (FC-PGA2)- Front Bus Frequencies: 400 MHz - 800 MHz (100 MHz - 200 MHz QDR)
- LGA - Land Grid Array - 775 Balls.
Sockets:
• Socket 1 - 169 pin holes PGA LIF socket.
• Socket 2 - 238 pin holes PGA ZIF socket.
• Slot 1 - 242 leads. SEC slot.
• Slot 2 - 330 leads. SEC slot.
• Socket 370 - 370 pin holes SPGA ZIF socket.
• Socket 418 - 418 pin holes SPGA ZIF socket, this socket was never released.
• Slot A - 242 leads. SEC slot.
• Socket A - 462 (actually 453) pin holes ZIF socket.
• Socket 423 - 423 pin holes SPGA ZIF socket.
• Socket 478 - 478 pin holes FC-PGA2 ZIF socket.
…………
• Socket T - 775 balls (30x33) FC-LGA4 socket.
• Socket 775 - 775 balls (30x33) FC-LGA6 socket.
• Socket 603 - 603 pin holes (31x25) µPGA ZIF socket.
• Socket 604 - 604 pin holes (31x25) µPGA ZIF socket. For faster bus speeds and Low Voltage Xeons.
• PAC418 - 418 pin holes (2x(19x6)) VLIF socket.
• PAC611 - 611 pin holes (25x28) VLIF socket.
• Socket 754 - 754 pin holes (29x29) µPGA ZIF socket.
• Socket 940 - 940 pin holes (31x31) µPGA ZIF socket.
• Socket AM2 - 940 pin holes (31x31) µPGA ZIF socket.
Memory
ROM (Read-Only Memory):
- ROM is a form of non-volatile memory.
- Contains both POST and SETUP.
RAM (Random Access Memory):
- RAM is volatile memory and does not retain data without power.
- RAM contains any active application, including the operating system.
NVRAM (Non-Volatile Memory):
- Can maintain data without the use of power.
HMA (or high memory area) is the first 64K of extended memory.
VRAM – Video RAM
- Conventional memory is the first 640K of memory.
- Upper memory is the memory between 640K and 1024K.
- UMA used to load DOS drivers to allow applications more conventional memory.
- Extended memory is the memory above 1024K.
- Expanded memory is addressed in pages of 16K.
General DRAM packaging formats
- DRAM chip (Integrated Circuit or IC)
- Dual in-line Package (DIP)
- DRAM (memory) modules
- Single In-line Pin Package (SIPP)
- Single In-line Memory Module (SIMM)
- Dual In-line Memory Module (DIMM)
- Rambus In-line Memory Module (RIMM), technically DIMMs but called RIMMs due to their proprietary slot.
- Small outline DIMM (SO-DIMM). Smaller version of the DIMM, used in laptops. Comes in - 72 pins (32-bit), 144 pins (64-bit) and 200 pins (72-bit) .
- Small outline RIMM (SO-RIMM). Smaller version of the RIMM, used in laptops.
- Stacked RAM chips use two RAM wafers that are stacked on top of each other. This allows a large module (eg:512mb or 1Gig SO-DIMM) manufactured using cheaper low density wafers. Stacked chips draw more power.
- DIP 18-pin (DRAM chip, usually pre-FPRAM)
- SIPP (usually FPRAM)
- SIMM 30-pin (usually FPRAM)
- SIMM 72-pin (so-called "PS/2 SIMM", usually EDO RAM)
- DIMM 168-pin (SDRAM)
- DIMM 184-pin (DDR SDRAM)
- DIMM 240-pin (DDR2 SDRAM)
Power Settings:
S1 is the simplest energy-saving state, often used in older systems whose drivers or hardware won't behave well with more sophisticated levels of power management. A system at the S1 power level simply shuts down the hard drive(s) and monitor, but leaves everything else running normally. Different vendors call S1 by different names, but sleep or standby are perhaps the most common.
S2 offers greater power savings because it not only powers down the monitor and drives, it also cuts power to the CPU and its cache. Confusingly, this level also is sometimes called sleep or standby.
S3 is a deeper power-savings mode that shuts down almost everything except for the barest trickle of power needed to keep the contents of RAM from fading away and to listen for a wake-up action. In a way, you can think of S3 as a "suspend to RAM" state. In fact, many vendors do refer to S3 as "suspend" mode, but others may call it standby, sleep, instant on, on now, and the like.
S4 is fundamentally different from levels S1 to S3. It's hibernation, where the system stops all activity, just as if you had shut it off. But S4 is also different from the simple power-off of level S5 because, before powering down, the S4 hibernation system writes the contents of RAM and some CPU settings to a special file on your hard drive (often called something like "hiberfil.sys").
All these power states are defined in the industry-standard Advanced Configuration and Power Interface specification, developed by Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix, and Toshiba.
PC Ports
Parallel ports:
- 25 Pin female, "D" connector (IEEE-1284 cable)
- Sends and receives 8 bits of data at a time
Serial ports:
- 25 Pin male, "D" connector or 9 Pin male, "D" connector
- Sends and receives 1 bit of data at a time
Video:
- HDA 15 pin female, 3 rows of pins.
-XGA
Cables and Connectors
- Tape, removable, hard, and optical drives along with scanners can all use SCSI connections.
- Up to seven devices can be chained off of a SCSI port.
- 18 feet is the maximum length that a SCSI-1 cable can support.
- Most external SCSI devices have 50,68, 84 pin female ports.
- Most Controller Cards are set to SCSI ID 7.
- Null modem cables (serial cables) are used to transmit data between 2 DTE devices.
- 15 feet (3m) is the maximum length that a serial (RS-232) cable should be.
- Phone lines (few network) cables use RJ11 connectors. Connector resembles a small phone jack.
- Twisted pair cables use RJ45 connectors. Connector resembles a fat phone jack.
COM Ports
- COM1 and COM3 use IRQ4.
- COM2 and COM4 use IRQ3.
- The majority of PC's have only 2 COM port connectors.
Monitors
Dot pitch is the space between pixels in millimeters.
The refresh rate is the number times display is redrawn every second.
Ratio 4:3
SVGA 1024 x 768
Video Cards
AGP 1x - A 32-bit channel operating at 66 MHz resulting in a maximum data rate of 266 megabytes per second (MB/s), doubled from the 133 MB/s transfer rate of PCI bus 33 MHz / 32-bit; 3.3 V signaling.
AGP 2x - A 32-bit channel operating at 66 MHz double pumped to an effective 133 MHz resulting in a maximum data rate of 533 MB/s; signaling voltages the same as AGP 1x;
AGP 4x - A 32-bit channel operating at 66 MHz quad pumped to an effective 266 MHz resulting in a maximum data rate of 1066 MB/s (1 GB/s); 1.5 V signaling;
AGP 8x - A 32-bit channel operating at 66 MHz, strobing eight times per clock, delivering an effective 533 MHz resulting in a maximum data rate of 2133 MB/s (2 GB/s); 0.8 V signaling.
PCI Express - Abbreviated officially with PCIe (PCI-E is also often used) and should not be mistaken for PCI-X, is an implementation of the PCI connection standard that uses existing PCI programming concepts, but bases it on a completely different and much faster full duplex, multi-lane, point to point serial physical-layer communications protocol. PCI Express was formerly known as Arapaho or 3GIO for 3rd Generation I/O.
- PCIe transfers data at 250 MB/s per lane. With a maximum of 32 lanes, PCIe allows for a total combined transfer rate of 8 GB/s.[1] To put these figures into perspective, a single lane has nearly twice the data rate of normal PCI, a four lane slot has a comparable data rate to the fastest version of PCI-X, and an eight lane slot has a data rate comparable to the fastest version of AGP. The full duplex point to point nature of PCIe should further improve its advantage over PCI, particularly in systems with many devices.
PCI-X (Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended) is a computer bus and expansion card standard designed to supersede PCI. It is essentially a faster version of PCI, running at twice the speed, and is otherwise similar in physical implementation and basic design. It has itself been replaced in modern designs by the similar-sounding PCI Express, which features a very different logical design.
- PCI-X was developed jointly by IBM, HP, and Compaq. PCI-X is a revision to the PCI standard that doubles the clock speed (from 66 MHz to 133 MHz) and hence the amount of data exchanged between the computer processor and peripherals. Standard PCI supports up to 64-bit at 66 MHz (though anything above 32-bit at 33 MHz is only seen in high end systems) and additional bus standards move 32 bits at 66 MHz or 64 bits at 33 MHz
IRQ (Interrupt Requests)
IRQ 1 Keyboard
IRQ 2(9) Video Card
IRQ 3 Com2, Com4
IRQ 4 Com1, Com3
IRQ 5 Available (Normally LPT2 or sound card)
IRQ 6 Floppy Disk Controller
IRQ 7 Parallel Port (LPT1)
IRQ 8 Real-time clock
IRQ 9 Redirected IRQ2
IRQ 10 Available
IRQ 11 Available
IRQ 12 PS/2 Mouse
IRQ 13 Math Coprocessor
IRQ 14 Hard Disk Controller
IRQ 15 Available
I/O Ports
COM1 3F8H
COM2 2F8H
COM3 3E8H
COM4 2E8H
LPT1 378H
LPT2 278H
Drives
- A cluster is a group of sectors. Sectors are aligned in tracks and shown as pie shaped.
- The seek time is the time that is takes the head to reach the needed track.
- The latency period is the time that it takes the sector to move under the head.
-The access time is the overall time it takes a hard drive to find data.
- The data transfer rate is how fast the hard drive sends data to the PC.
- FORMAT /S is the fastest way to make a bootable disk. The /S switch tells FORMAT to copy system boot files.
- FDD (Floppy Disk Controllers) controllers use DMA channel 2 in most cases, First DMA available is 4.
- HDI = Head to Disk Interference
- CD, CD-ROM, DVD: Read only storage, WORM, used for mass distribution of digital information
- CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R: Write once unique storage, used for tertiary and off-line storage
- CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM: Rewritable disks. The +/- indicates DVD can operate both standards.
- Blu-ray - blue-violet laser used to read and write a shorter wavelength (405 nm) 25GB vs DVD 4.7GB.
- HD DVD - 15GB and dual 30GB.
Disc BD-ROM HD-DVD ROM 3X DVD ROM DVD ROM
Laser wavelength 405 Nm 405 Nm 650 Nm 650 Nm
Numerical aperture 0.85 0.65 0.6 0.6
Storage capacity single layer 25 GB 15 GB 4.7 GB 4.7 GB
Storage capacity dual layer 50 GB 30 GB 8.5 GB 8.5 GB
Playback time on two layers (Standard Definition) 23 hours 13.8 hours N/A 4 hours
Playback time on two layers (High Definition) 9 hours 5.4 hours 2 hours -
Maximum data transfer rate 54.0 Mbit/s 36.55 Mbit/s 36.55 Mbit/s 11.08 Mbit/s
Networking
- Coaxial, twisted pair, and fiber optic cables are all used in networking.
- A token ring network passes packets of data called tokens to each station in a network.
- LAN - Local Area Network WAN - Wide Area Network MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
- Fiber-Optic - Cables designed for high transfer rates over large distances; carry light pulse
signals through glass core at speeds of between 100Mbps - 200,000Mbps.
- Ethernet use coaxial and twisted pair wiring, and can support speeds of 10mbps -100mpbs.
- 10Base5 - 10 Mbps transfer rate with coaxial wire.
- 10BaseT - 10 Mbps transfer rate, baseband transmission, with twisted pair wire.
- 100BaseT - 100 Mbps transfer rate, baseband transmission, with twisted pair wire.
- 100BaseTX – Two Pairs of Wires, 100BaseT4 – Four pairs of wires or Eight in total.
- 100BaseFL – Fiber Optic.
Printers
Laser Printers:
The order of processes in a laser printer is: Crystal Clear Water Doesn’t Taste Funny
1. Cleaning 2. Charging 3. Writing 4. Developing 5. Transferring 6. Fusing
The primary corona has the highest negative charge in a printer.
Always check where the leading edge of paper is when troubleshooting paper jams, because it can indicate which printer part is causing the jam.
- The photoconductive drum in a laser printer is charged negatively, and loses its charge when light hits it. The transfer corona can cause the print to be too light.
- The ozone filter needs to be replaced on laser printers when performing preventative maintenance.
- For dark spots on a page with a laser printer, it indicates loose toner particles. Running extra paper through will usually resolve it.
- Paper comes out in bunches or smears – high humidity.
Dot Matrix:
A tight ribbon can cause flecks and smudges on the paper. Missing or broken printhead pins causes incomplete characters. Never lubricate the printhead on a printer. If the print density is erratic, then there is probably an error with the ribbon advance.
Modem Commands
Command Function
ATA Answer
ATD Dial
ATDL Redial
ATH Hangs up modem
ATH(1) Hang up (seconds)
ATZ Resets the modem
, (comma) Pause
PCMCIA
Type 1 3.3mm Memory
Type 2 5mm Modems, Network cards
Type 3 10.5mm Hard Disks
Socket Services - BIOS level software interface for hardware information.
Card Services - I/O, IRQ hardware interface with computers.
CIS (Card ID Structure) - Cards describe themselves to other devices.
PCMCIA cards use very little power and can be hot-swapped.
Power Supplies
Yellow: +12
Blue: -12
Red: +5
White: -5
Voltage for motor: +/- 12 volts
Voltage for circuitry: +/- 5 volts
System Boards
Common form factors include AT, Baby AT, ATX, Mini ATX, LPX, Mini LPX and NLX.
- ATX System Board: 90 degrees, CPU closer to Power Fan, Soft Power, PS/2, onboard connectors
- microATX is a small PC motherboard standard, with a maximum size of 9.6×9.6
Expansion Buses:
- PCI - ransfer rate of 532 MB/s compared to PCI-X is 1.06 GB/s. 32-bit or 64-bit bus width
- PCI-X - doubles clock speed from 66 MHz to 133 MHz
- PCIe - 250 MB/s per lane. With a maximum of 32 lanes and a combined transfer rate of 8 GB/s
- USB - 127 Devices, 7 per hub
- HyperTransport (not HyerThreading)
- CSI (Common System Interface expected in 2008 to replace FSB)
- AGP (being phased out)
- VLB (outdated)
- ISA (outdated)
- EISA (outdated)
- Bus Mastering allows a controller connected to the bus to communicate directly with other devices on the bus without going through the CPU
- SATA 1 or SATA/150 run at 1.5 Gbit/s.
- SATA 3.0 Gbit/s run at 2.4 Gbit/s or 300 MB/s for the wire
- USB 2.0 can theoretically operate at 480 Mbits/s, 5Volts, 5 Meters with a max of 30Meters, 5 Hubs.
- FireWire 400 can transfer data between devices at 400 Mbit/s and 4.5 meters (about 15 feet).
- FireWire 800 (1394b) transfer rate of 786.432 Mbit/s up to 100 meters between devices.
The most significant technical differences between FireWire and USB include the following:
1. A USB network use a tiered-star topology, while FireWire networks use a repeater-based topology.
2. A USB uses a "speak-when-spoken-to" protocol; peripherals cannot communicate with the host unless the host specifically requests communication. A FireWire device can communicate with any other node at any time, subject to network conditions.
3. A USB network relies on a single host at the top of the tree to control the network. In a FireWire network, any capable node can control the network.
These and other differences reflect the differing design goals of the two buses: USB was designed for simplicity and low cost, while FireWire was designed for high performance, particularly in time-sensitive applications such as audio and video.
Windows Hardware Requirements
- Before beginning any installation, you should check the Hardware Compatibility List(HCL)
Windows 2000 Professional Hardware Requirements
- 133 MHz
- 32MB of RAM minimum
- 650 MB of Hard Disk Space
- Supports up to 2 processors.
Windows 2000 Server:
- 133 MHz
- 128 MB of RAM minimum (4 GB maximum).
- 2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.0 GB free space
- Windows 2000 Server supports up to four CPUs, Advanced Server (8) Datacenter (32)
Windows XP hardware requirements:
- 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);
- 64 MB minimum supported
- 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space
- XP Home supports 1 CPU, Professional supports 2
Windows 2003 Server hardware requirements:
- 133-MHz processor required
- 128 MB of RAM required – 4GB max
- 1.25 to 2 GB of disk space.
- Windows 2003 Web supports 2 CPU, Standard (4), Enterprise (8), Datacenter (8-64)
Windows 2003 Business Edition:
- 750 MHz
- 512 MB
- 16 GB of available hard disk space
NT Workstation can support 2 CPU's,
NT Server supports 4 CPU's,
OEM version of NT Server can support up to 32 CPU's.
Microsoft Vista and optional Premium version:
- 800 MHz and 1 GHz for Premium
- 512 MB RAM and 1 GB for Premium
- 15-20GB HD and 15-40 GB HD space
- Normal Graphics and 128 MB for Premium
Honest Tom’s A+ Windows Notes
Filing Systems - The following are common hard disk configurations:
- Partition - A partition is a portion of a physical hard disk. A partition can be primary or extended
- Primary Partition - This is a bootable partition. One primary partition can be made active.
- Extended Partition - An extended partition is made from the free space on a hard disk and can be broken down into smaller logical drives. There can only be one of these per hard disk.
- Logical Drive - These are a primary partition or portions of an extended partition that are assigned a drive letter.
- Volume - This is a disk or part of a disk that is combined with space from the same or another disk to create one larger volume. This volume can be formatted and assigned a drive letter like a logical drive, but can span more than one hard disk. A volume set can be extended without starting over, however to make it smaller, the set must be deleted and re-created.
There are various management tools that can be used to configure drives. The Disk Management MMC is a snap-in for the Computer Management Console in Windows 2000. You can create partitions, volume sets, logical drives, format disks, etc. NT 4.0 had a similar tool called the "Disk Administrator". DOS and Windows 9x utilize the FDISK utility.
When discussing Windows file systems you need to understand what File Allocation Tables(FAT) are.
- FAT is a table that an operating system maintains in order to map the clusters(the smallest unit of storage) that a file has been stored in. When files are written to a hard disk, the files are stored in one or more clusters that may be spread out all over the hard disk. The table allows Windows to find the "pieces" of your file and reassemble them when you wish to open it.
- FAT16 - FAT16 table entries are 16 bits in length limiting hard disk sizes to 2GB. Note that even if the OS supports larger partition sizes, the BIOS must also support logical block addressing(LBA) or the maximum partition that you will be able to create will be either 504 or 528 MB.
- FAT32 - Created to allow more efficient use of hard drive space and allowed for partitions up to 8GB using 4KB cluster sizes. In order to format a drive as FAT32, the "Large disk Support" must be enabled when starting FDISK. FAT32 is not compatible with older versions of Windows including Windows 95A and NT. In Windows 9.x, the CVT1.EXE can be used to convert FAT16 partitions to FAT32.
- NTFS4 - NTFS4 is the file system used by Windows NT that provides increased security and reliability over other file systems. On an NTFS partition, you can't boot from a DOS boot disk - this is one of the security features of NTFS. Additionally, a floppy disk cannot be formatted as NTFS. For this reason it might not be a bad idea to have a small partition formatted FAT so that you can boot into DOS for recovery purposes. In order to convert a FAT partition to NTFS, NT includes a utility called convert.exe.
- NTFS5 - This is the native file system for Windows 2000. NTFS5 has many new features as follows:
- Encrypted File System(EFS) - Windows 2K NTFS volumes have the ability to encrypt data on the disk.
- CIPHER.EXE is a command line utility that allows for bulk or scripted file encryption.
- Disk Quotas - Provides the ability to set space limitations on users on a per volume basis.
- Defragmentation - Windows 2K now includes a disk defragmenter that can be used on NTFS partitions.
- Volume Mount Points - Provides the ability to add new volumes to the file system without having to assign a drive letter to them. This feature is only available on an NTFS partition using dynamic volumes.
- Compression - In Windows 2000 files, folders and entire drives can be compressed by right clicking on the item to be compressed and selecting "properties" and then "advanced".
- The CONVERT.EXE utility can be used to convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS. (Convert d: /fs:ntfs)
- HPFS - Stands for High Performance File System and is used with OS/2 operating systems. This file system can only be accessed by Windows NT 3.51 and OS/2.
- Windows 9x operating systems also employ VFAT which is a protected-mode FAT file system that prevents DOS and the BIOS from accessing resources. VFAT is the replacement for SMARTDRV.SYS and uses a driver called VCACHE.
Windows 9x Structure
Windows 9x are 32-bit operating systems.
- Windows 95 had 2 releases - The FAT16 original release and later OSR2 which utilized the FAT32 file system, added personal web server, Active Desktop and several other new features.
- Windows 98 had 2 releases as well - The original version and Windows 98 Second Edition(SE).
Below is an outline of the boot process and the files involved:
- POST – CPU checks power and then goes to BIOS for Hardware tests
- Plug and Play Configuration -Windows 9x is a Plug and Play(PnP) operating system. In order for PnP to work, three things have to be compliant: the BIOS, hardware and operating system/
- Master Boot Record - The MBR is located.
- IO.SYS - This file loads drivers and executes CONFIG.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM
COMMAND.COM - Loads AUTOEXEC.BAT
- WIN.COM - This file begins the loading of Windows 9x system files.
- KERNEL32.DLL/KERNEL386.EXE - These files contain the core operating system and is responsible for loading device drivers.
- GDI.EXE/GDI32.EXE - These files are responsible for loading the basic GUI or graphical user interface.
- WIN.INI - Along with WINFILE.INI and SYSTEM.INI, these files provide backward compatibility with older 16-bit applications and are not required in order for 32-bit applications to run under Windows 9x. Most of the functions of these files are now stored in the registry files.
Windows 9x supports long file names up to 255 characters. Duplicate filenames(8.3 format) are assigned for backward compatibility (i.e. DOS). This is done by taking the first six characters of the filename adding a tilde (~) and then a number. For example, My Documents.doc would become mydocu~1.doc.
The registry is a hierarchical database that contains the system's configuration information. The registry is made up of 2 files that are located in the Windows directory:
- USER.DAT - Contains information about system users.
- SYSTEM.DAT - Contains information about hardware and system settings.
- The backup files are called USER.DA0 and SYSTEM.DA0. Windows 98 backs up SYSTEM.DAT, USER.DAT, SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI as .CAB files that are stored in in the hidden Windows\Sysbackup directory.
MSCONFIG - Windows 98, ME comes with a utility called MSCONFIG.EXE that provides an easy way to edit the config.sys, autoexec.bat, win.ini and system.ini files. This manager also provides the ability to back these files up, modify the start-up environment and configure advanced troubleshooting settings.
SYSEDIT - Provides very similar functionality as MSCONFIG and allows the 4 files plus PROTOCOL.INI to be edited. It also provides a search function and Works in Windows 95/NT/2000.
In Windows NT4, 2000, XP, 2003 the files are called NTUSER.
Windows NT/2000 Structure
- Windows NT and 2000 are 32 bit operating systems that run in 2 different modes which are kernel(protected) and user. Applications use Application Program Interfaces(APIs) to pass threads between the 2 modes. User mode provides no direct access to the system's hardware.
- Multiple execution threads are supported for each process
- Memory Protection - each Win32 application is separated and protected from other applications
- 2GB non-segmented address spaces are assigned to each application
- NT/2000 supports DOS applications via VDMs(Virtual DOS Machines). A VDM is a Win32 application that creates an environment where DOS applications can run. It does this by making the NT Workstation resemble a DOS environment and tricks the DOS applications into thinking that they have unrestricted access to the computer's hardware. NT can only support DOS applications that use VDDs(Virtual Device Drivers) to intercept the applications calls to the computer's hardware.
NT/2000 also supports Win16 applications with the use of a DOS application called WOW(Windows on Windows). WOW runs within a VDM that runs as a 32-bit process. If a Win16 application crashes it will only corrupt the WOW, but will not affect the rest of the NT operating system.
The boot files used by NT/2000 are completely different than Windows 9x and are listed below:
- BOOT.INI - Specifies boot defaults, operating system locations, settings and menu selections.
- BOOTSECT.DOS - A file located in the system partition that allows the option to boot into another operating system such as Win98 or DOS.
- NTDETECT.COM - Hardware detection program that is located on the root of the system partition.
- NTLDR - File that loads the operating system and is located on the root of the system partition.
- NTOSKRNL.EXE - The executable file.
- OSLOADER.EXE - This is the OS loader for RISC based systems.
- NTBOOTDD.SYS - File used when the system or boot partition is located on a SCSI drive and the BIOS is disabled.
The registry editors included with Windows NT/2000 include Regedt32 and Regedit. For Windows 2000, the Regedt32 tool should be used while Windows NT can use either. Most of the registry(the static items) are contained in hive files which are located in the \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG directory. The 5 hives are SAM, security, software, system and default.
In Windows 2000 most system administration tasks are performed in the Computer Management Console that contains all of the various Microsoft Management Consoles(MMCs) in one location. Windows 2000 filenames can be up to 215 characters long and cannot contain the following: <>\/?*"| and Windows 2000 supports PnP while NT does not.
Windows XP – What’s new?
- New desktop Luna Theme with Classic option,
- Fast user switching
- Help and Support Center
- Remote Assistance
- Remote Desktop
- Windows Messenger
- The Search Companion
- Safer driver installations
- Rollback Drivers
Differences between Home and Professional Editions
Windows XP Home Edition
• Contains basic support for security among multiple users.
• Built-in support for peer-to-peer networking, but only for up to five computers.
• The backup utlity is not installed by default, but is included on the CD.
Windows XP Professional Edition
• Includes extended support for security between multiple users on the same machine.
• Better support for peer-to-peer networking, plus support for joining a "Windows NT domain."
• The backup utlity is installed by default.
Windows XP Professional includes the following components not found in the Home edition:
The following features are not present in Windows XP Home Edition.
• Administrative Tools (Start Menu and Control Panel)
• Users and Group Addition in Computer Management Window
• Multi-processor support
• Remote Desktop
• Automated System Recovery (ASR)
• Dynamic Disk Support
• Internet Information Services/Personal Web Server
• NTFS Encryption Utility
• File-level access control
• Domain membership - Home Edition cannot logon to an Active Directory.
• IntelliMirror
• Roaming profiles
• Client-side caching
• Network Monitor
• Offline Files and Folders • Sysprep
• RIS deployments.
• 64-bit Edition
• The user interface for IPSecurity (IPSec)
• SNMP
• SAP Agent
• Client Service for NetWare
• Boot Configuration Manager
• DriverQuery
• Group Policy Refresh Utility
• Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI) add-on
• OpenFiles
• Performance Log Manager
• Scheduled Tasks Console
• Security Template Utility
• Taskkill
• Tasklist
• Telnet Administrator
• Dynamic Disks, Fax.
Troubleshooting:
Emergency Repair Disks commands:
Win9x – Control Panel/Add Remove
NT4 – At the Command Line – RDISK
W2K – ERD – Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Backup
XP – ASR - Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Backup
Creating Boot Disks
- DOS (1) boot disks are created by using the command format a: /s.
- Windows 9X, (1) Add/Remove Programs in control panel, select the "Startup Disk" tab.
- Windows NT4 (3) boot disks can be made from the i386 folder using the WINNT.EXE /OX command.
- Windows 2000 (4) from the installation CD, Bootdisk folder, MAKEBOOT.EXE utility.
- Windows XP (6) use the CD-Rom to boot up or go to Microsoft Website to create boot disks..
Windows Issues
- Windows Protection Errors - Typically caused by the type or speed of the RAM installed in the system.
- Bad or Missing COMMAND.COM - This means that the OS is unable to locate the file COMMAND.COM. To fix this problem use the make sure that the necessary boot files are located on the hard drive. If not, boot with the startup disk and enter the command SYS C:\ which will copy the system files to the hard drive(Windows 9x only).
- HIMEM.SYS not loaded - Check the CONFIG.SYS file and make sure that the line
- Device=C:\HIMEM.SYS exists and that the path specified to the file is where the file actually is.
- Operating system not found - A common cause of this error is booting a system with a non-bootable floppy in the floppy drive
- Short beeps indicate RAM or Video. Usually Video has numbered short long beeps.
Printing Issues
Print Spooler is stalled - Go to the spool folder which is located in C:\Path to system files\spool\printers directory and delete all files in this location and resend any incompleted print jobs.
- Incorrect print drivers - Having an incorrect driver can cause any number of problems from pages coming out as garbled ASCII text to not having access to the full range of features available for that printer. Drivers can be updated by going to the Printers control panel, right clicking on the printer and select properties.
- Out of memory - Print jobs have to be spooled to hard disk space. If there is not enough hard disk space available this error will occur. Try freeing up hard drive space or move the spool folder to a drive with more free space.
Other Troubleshooting Tools
COMMAND – Windows 9x command line window
CMD – Windows NT4, 2K, XP command line window
REGEDIT – 16 bit registry editor, Windows 2000 uses both.
REGEDT32 – 32 bit registry editor, Windows XP uses both but shows only one screen layout.
DEVICE MANAGER – hardware manager
MSCONFIG – Windows configuration tool. Know difference between Win98 and XP version. 2K none.
MSINFO - Used to view installed devices and drivers. - Windows 9x and MSINFO32 in W2K or XP.
DRWATSON - Will generate an error log when certain types of errors occur. Windows 3.x/9x/NT/2000
GPEDIT.MSC – Group Editor tool for Windows XP
CHKDSK – Check Disk
CMDCONS – Command Console installation
ASD.EXE - Automatic Skip Driver Agent identifies devices that can cause Windows 98 or Windows Me to stop responding (hang) when you start your computer, and then disables them so that they are bypassed when you next restart your computer.
TYPES OF BACKUP: Backup command: ‘ntbackup’. Know the different paths to Backup Windows.
- Full - copies all files and marks them as being backed up.
- Incremental - copies only files created/changed since last full backup, marks them as being backed up.
- Differential - copies only files created/changed since last full backup, doesn’t mark them.
- Daily - copies only files created/changed today, doesn’t mark them as being backed up.
Viruses – malicious programming.
There are several different categories of viruses as follows:
Trojan Horse - These are files that claim to be something desirable but are destructive and cause loss or theft of data. Trojans are different from viruses as they do not replicate themselves like viruses do.
Worms - These are programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file.
Boot sector viruses - Boot sector viruses infect the system area of a disk known as the boot record.
Master boot record viruses - Master boot record viruses are memory resident viruses that infect disks in the same manner as boot sector viruses. The difference between these two virus types is where the viral code is located. These can often be fixed by using FDISK /MBR.
Networking
IPX/SPX - The fastest routable protocol and is used on Novell Netware networks.
TCP/IP - TCP/IP open source protocol as it is the foundation for communication over the internet.
NETBEUI - The NetBios Extended User Interface is a non-routable protocol using NETBIOS.
NETBIOS – User friendly names to IP addresses in a local network.
HTTP - Exchanging files and multimedia over the Internet. HTTPS (SSL) it the secure version. Port 80
SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and is used to reliably send mail over the Internet. Port 25
POP3 - Post Office Protocol and is used for the receiving of email. Port 110
Computers are given unique names to help identify them on the network. In Windows 9x the computer name can be up to 15 characters long and cannot use spaces. In Windows 2000/XP, the name can be up to 63 characters and should only contain letters, numbers and hyphens.
Name Servers
- Name servers such as WINS and DNS are used to make finding resources on large network easier without having to memorize IP addresses. They provide a more "friendly" way of locating things.
- WINS is used to register NetBIOS names and resolve them to IP addresses for both local and remote hosts.
- Internet Service Provider (ISP) who provides your connection to the Internet (eg: Shaw, Telus).
- DHCP – Dynamic Host Control Protocol – Provides IP addresses to computers.
- Root Level Domains - The top of the tree.
- Top Level Domains - These are divided into different categories. Com, net, mil, edu, org and gov are the most common.
- Second Level Domains - These domains make up the rest of networks as all sub-domains are categorized under this heading. So if you visit Intel's site, you are visiting the sub-domain intel.com.
- Hosts - Hosts are the final level in the hierarchy as they are the individual computers that occupy or comprise a domain and are where the web pages are located.
- Nodes – Computers in a network
-
IEEE 802 Specifications
802.1 Internetworking
802.2 LLC (Logical Link Control)
802.3 CSMA/CD - Ethernet
802.4 Token Bus LAN
802.5 Token Ring LAN
802.6 MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
802.7 Broadband Technical Advisory Group
802.8 Fiber-Optic Technical Advisory Group
802.9 Integrated Voice/Data Networks
802.10 Network Security
802.11 Wireless Networks
802.12 Demand Priority Access LAN, 100 Base VG - AnyLAN
802.15 Wireless personal area networks (WPANs)
802.16 Metropolitan area networks (MANs)
Wi-Fi Ensures compatibility among 802.11b and interoperability certification by Wi-Fi Alliance
802.11a
• Enhancement to 802.11 that applies to wireless ATM systems
• Used in access hubs
• Enhanced data speed
• Frequency range 5.725 GHz to 5.850 GHz
802.11b
• Enhancement to 802.11 that employs complementary code keying (CCK)
• High data speed
• Low susceptibility to multipath-propagation interference
• Frequency range 2.400 GHz to 2.4835 GHz
802.11d
• Enhancement to 802.11 that allows for global Roaming
• Attributes similar to 802.11b
• Particulars can be set at Media Access Control (MAC) layer
802.11e
• Enhancement to 802.11 that includes Quality of Service (QoS) features
• Facilitates prioritization of data, voice, and video transmissions
802.11g
• Enhancement to 802.11 that offers wireless transmission over relatively short distances
• Operates at up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps)
802.11h
• Enhancement to 802.11a that resolves interference issues
• Dynamic frequency selection (DFS)
• Transmit power control (TPC)
802.11i
• Enhancement to 802.11 that offers additional security for WLAN applications
802.11j
• Japanese regulatory extensions to 802.11a specification
• Frequency range 4.9 GHz to 5.0 GHz
802.11k
• Radio resource measurements for networks using 802.11 family specifications
802.11m
• Maintenance of 802.11 family specifications
• Corrections and amendments to existing documentation
802.11x
• Generic term for 802.11 family specifications under development
• General term for all 802.11 family specifications
TCP Command Line Utilities
arp- Arp.exe is used to resolve an IP address to its hardware (MAC address). Local Arp cache is checked first before initiating an ARP request broadcast
Switches
-a - View the contents of the local ARP cache table
-s - Add a static Arp entry for frequent accessed hosts
-d - Delete a entry
ipconfig - The ipconfig is a command line tool for NT that shows how the computer's IP stack is configured.C:\ipconfig
Windows NT IP Configuration:
Ethernet adapter E100B1:
IP Address: 198.133.234.23
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 198.133.234.2
Switches
/all - Extra information is revealed; IP host name, DNS, WINS server
/release - If DHCP is enabled, you release the lease with this switch.
/renew - The renew switch will update and renew DHCP lease information from the DHCP Server.
Winipcfg - The winipcfg is a GUI version for Windows 95 ipconfig
netstat - The netstat tool displays protocol statistics and the state of current TCP/IP connections
C:\WINDOWS>netstat /?
Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP network connections.
NETSTAT [-a] [-e] [-n] [-s] [-p proto] [-r] [interval]
-a Displays all connections and listening ports.
-e Displays Ethernet statistics. This may be combined with the -s
option.
-n Displays addresses and port numbers in numerical form.
-p proto Shows connections for the protocol specified by proto; proto
may be TCP or UDP. If used with the -s option to display
per-protocol statistics, proto may be TCP, UDP, or IP.
-r Displays the routing table.
-s Displays per-protocol statistics. By default, statistics are
shown for TCP, UDP and IP; the -p option may be used to specify
a subset of the default.
interval Redisplays selected statistics, pausing interval seconds
between each display. Press CTRL+C to stop redisplaying
statistics. If omitted, netstat will print the current
configuration information once.
nbtstat The nbtstat checks the state of NetBIOS over TCP/IP connections and returns NetBIOS session and name resolution statistics. This tool can also be used to update the local NetBIOS name cache.
Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT(NetBIOS over TCP/IP).
NBTSTAT [-a RemoteName] [-A IP address] [-c] [-n]
[-r] [-R] [-s] [S] [interval] ]
-a (adapter status) Lists the remote machine's name table given its name
-A (Adapter status) Lists the remote machine's name table given its IP address.
-c (cache) Lists the remote name cache including the IP addresses
-n (names) Lists local NetBIOS names.
-r (resolved) Lists names resolved by broadcast and via WINS
-R (Reload) Purges and reloads the remote cache name table
-S (Sessions) Lists sessions table with the destination IP addresses
-s (sessions) Lists sessions table converting destination IP addresses to host names via the hosts file.
RemoteName Remote host machine name.
IP address Dotted decimal representation of the IP address.
interval Redisplays selected statistics, pausing interval seconds between each display.
Press Ctrl+C to stop redisplaying statistics.
Note: Netstat works for TCP/IP connections, and Nbtstat works for NetBIOS connections.
nslookup The Nslookup tool is used to trace DNS queries from start to finish
Ping- Ping.exe verifies configurations and tests connectivity If you can ping a hostname but cannot connect to a share point in Explorer, then the LMHOST file does not have an entry for that hostname or WINS is not working. Conversely, if you CAN connect to a share in Explorer yet cannot ping the hostname, then either the HOST file entry is wrong or DNS is not working.
NetBIOS-problems are due to problems with WINS or LMHOST file.
DNS- problems are due to HOST file errors or DNS server problems.
Tracert - The tracert tool shows the route a packet will take over a network from one computer to another.
APLUS Odds-n-Ends
• Automatic Skip Driver – Win98
• ME is better than Win98 due to smart menu/run commands, networking and media
• F0000 – ram bios
• 0a00-0b000 – svga bios
• 1F0h – primary, 170h – secondary ide
• Real video – 16bit, VXD – 32 bit
• SBD stacks, buffers, devices
• DMA goes from 0-7, floppy uses 2
• Know how to do backup in W2K/XP
• ATA/33 – 40ribbon vs ATA/66 – 80 ribbon –each has own ground to cut noise
• 10baseT – twisted, 10base2 is Bus/Coaxial
• EDO vs Fast Page, EDO faster
• Black border on monitor – settings
• EPP (one way) and ECP (two way) cables
• RET (Resolution Enhancement Technology) for lasers…reduce for mem error
• IEEE 1284 or RS-232 is a parallel cable
• ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data) BIOS gets PNP info from here
• ATZ to reset modem, ATH to hang up, ATDT to dail
• Shadowing – Copy BIOS ROM into RAM for faster access
• Wavey images is toner, all black is PC, smudge is fuser, hyrogrif is drivers
• EEPROM use I/O address, Protocol (rules), MAC for NIC cards
• SCSI-2 uses Command queuing
• FRU – RAM, BIOS Battery, and CPU - not ROM, or System Chassis
• Backup- Incremental (fastest), Differential (restore), Copy (fastest of all), Full
• MSCDEX.exe is the CD-Rom boot file
• DR. Watson under c:\winnt\system32 and leaves report in %SystemRoot% folder
• Scanreg for win98
• XP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard found System Settings or on CD
• Utility wizard for magnification under Accessibility
• W2K/XP, .Bin and .Com files are hidden by default
• Print job hangs, restart the spooler
• Profiles: Local on machine, Roaming, Mandatory from Server.
• Firmware, Software, Shareware, Freeware, Adware
• NetBEUI can’t cross routers, but is small and fast
• 4x AGP goes 1056Mbps
• Line Analyzer checks for voltage spikes
• F5 safe, F8 selection mode only
• Use mouse to move around between tabs in System Properties/Device Manager
o AGP Cards are 32bit x255
o Watch for Watts when replacing power
o Video codes7
o Computer reboots often, check power and heat
o 1024x768 uses 4MB ram
o NIC uses IRQ/IO/MAC
o 802.11 uses FHSS/DSSS and CSMA/CA
o WEP is the security setting
o Storage is done in clusters which are groups of sectors
o drwatson
o winmsd same as msinfo32
o NT4 Winnt /b and Winnt /ox
o Vitual Minor?
o MSDOS install run, use full screen
o F5 vs F8 in Win98
o click on a .reg to install into registry
o Shift+F8 refreshes desktop icons
o Learn Boot.ini /sos
o NTBootDD – SCSI
o Recover consol /cmdcons
o winnt32 /checkupgradeonly
o MMC
o NTFS to FAT32 long filenames and attributes are kept
o System Restore needs 12% of HD
o Advanced Tab under Performance button under Advanced Tab under Dev Mgr
o RPC Server down – Print Server or network down
o XP file transfer option
o smartdrv
o know event viewer
