Welcome to Part I, where I introduce you to the PC, piece by piece. Here you'll find a visual tour, personal introductions, basic understandings, and a hint of what's to come as you uncover the basics of the ever-useful personal computer.

What You See: Basic Hardware

A computer is really the sum of its parts more than it is a single gizmo. The parts all have official, technical names, which you may know already. Some parts live inside the box; some dwell outside. Connecting everything are cables - vast, tangled, and ugly. All together, the pieces, parts, and cables make up your computer system.

The central item in the computer system, the hive of high-tech wonderment, the PC's bosom (as it were), is the console. Other items surround the console and connect to it. Those things are peripherals.

Despite the common elements, each computer system is quite unique, sporting different internals, different types and amounts of storage, and different software to make things go. I suppose that's why the things are personal computers and not generic computers. The basic PC setup - console and peripherals - is illustrated in Figures 1-1 and 1-2.

Here are some of the basic components you should recognize and know by their official names:

A computer system can include a variety of other devices and gizmos beyond the basic items mentioned here. These peripherals include scanners, digital cameras, external disk drives, modems, and a host of other gadgets various and sundry.

What You See: Console - the Front

The console is the sun of your computer's solar system, the central hub of activity. Every other device, gizmo, or gadget in the computer system plugs into the console in one way or another. The console is also home to many of your PC's most important, secret, and forbidden parts.

Figure 1-3 shows important items on the front side of the console. These are things you should be able to locate and identify on your own computer, although their specific locations may be different from what you see here:

Power button: This button is used to start up the computer, turn the computer off, or do other power-related things. See also Part IV.

Reset button: This button lets you take control during times of woe, by essentially forcing the computer to stop and start in one swift punch. It's a powerful button, although not every console has one.

Sleep button: This button appears mostly on laptop PCs and is used to put the system into a special suspended, or Stand By, mode. Few consoles have such a button, yet the sleep icon may appear as a light on the console, to indicate that the computer is not off, but, rather, is "asleep."

Hard drive light: This festive light flashes as the hard drive is being accessed. Because hard drives are often buried internally, the light provides a visual clue to whether the drive is alive or dead.

Power light: This is merely a light on the console that is on when the computer is on. If your computer doesn't make much noise, this light is often your only clue that the sucker is turned on.

This list doesn't cover everything you could possibly find on the front of your computer. For example, your console may also have an infrared port for communicating with a laptop or handheld computer. Even so, become familiar with those few items mentioned in the list. Many computer manuals and software instructions assume that you know where everything is and what it's called.

What You See: Console - the Back

Forget the pretty face: When it comes to the important stuff, you need to look at the console's ugly rump (see Figure 1-4). That's where most of the computer's components connect to the console.

Other items are worth noting as well:

The I/O panel may be in one location, as shown in the illustration, or it may be split up into separate areas. For example, you can have one location for the mouse and keyboard connectors, plus another location for other items that attach to the console.

When the video connector (for the monitor) is on both the I/O panel and an expansion card, use the connector on the expansion card.

What You See: Console - the I/O Panel

I/O is computer-talk for input and output. The computer's world is all about input and output, and the console, because it's the center of your computer's world, plays a major role in that input/output thing. To accommodate all that input and output, an I/O panel is provided, replete with a variety of connectors. (See Figure 1-5.)

Here are a few items you can find on the I/O panel:

For more information on plugging stuff in, see also Part II.

I/O Symbol Table

Connectors, connectors everywhere! They can look similar, or they can be confusing as all get-out. Fortunately, the computer industry understands how confusing connectors can be. To make things easier, many connectors on a PC console not only have unique shapes, but are also color coded and often flagged with specific icons, as shown in the handy nearby table.

Note that the colors aren't an established standard, so some PCs may sport a different color scheme than what's indicated. Also, not every connector is color coded.

Also note that different icons or symbols may be used on different PCs.

The Basics: What Is a PC?

PC is an acronym for Personal Computer, so any type of personal computer, from a handheld or palm computer to a laptop to a desktop and, yes, even the Apple Macintosh, is a personal computer. As long as one person is using the computer, it's a personal computer, or PC.

Specifically, the type of computer now labeled a PC is the direct ancestor of the original IBM PC, introduced back in the early 1980s. Although there were other personal computers at that time, they were referred to as microcomputers and were used mostly by computer enthusiasts and home hobbyists.

Microcomputer was a play on words for mini-computer, but also on the name of the main piece of hardware, the microprocessor. (More on that in the next section.) The largest, most powerful computers available were mainframe systems, used by the government and large corporations. Mini-computers were used by small businesses and universities. Both the mainframes and minis had one central computer with multiple people using the system at once. The microcomputer, on the other hand, lacked such power and therefore was a one-person system.

When IBM introduced its own version of the microcomputer, it legitimized the microcomputer, making it "safe" for use in a business environment. Because of the IBM PC's tremendous popularity, it became the standard for all microcomputers.

Knockoffs and imitations were referred to as PC clones or PC compatibles. Those systems could run the same programs as the original IBM PC, but because the hardware wasn't made by IBM, manufacturers dared not use the term PC by itself. Over time, however, the terms clone and compatible were dropped, and any microcomputer that could use the same hardware and run the same software as the IBM PC was dubbed a PC.

The PC is now the standard computer platform around the world, so much so that being PC- or IBM-compatible is no longer an issue. Unless the computer says Macintosh or Sun on its case, it's a PC.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from PCs For Dummies Quick Referenceby Dan Gookin Copyright © 2007 by Dan Gookin. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.