SURYA ENGINEERING COLLEGE, ERODE Department Of Computer Science and Engineering PC Hardware and Troubleshooting Question Bank 2 Mark

Questions with Answer

UNIT I 1. Define instruction cycle. Instructions are fetched and executed by the control unit one by one. The sequences involved for the fetch of one instruction and its execution are known as instruction cycle. 2. What is word size? Each memory location is known as one memory word. The number of bits in each location is known as 'word length' of the memory. Usually the word size of memory is 8 bits, 16 bits or 32 bits. 3. Define memory cycle time? The memory access time plus the additional recovery time is known as the memory cycle time. It is the minimum time interval necessary between two successive memory accesses. 4. How will define the ALU size? The performance of a computer is dependent on the ALU size. The ALU size need not be the same as memory word length. In the original IBM PC, we have a 16 bit ALU. 5. Define Interrupt. To react to some special or urgent situation. In other words, there may be a need to execute some other program or a different portion of the current program. Such a situation is called an interrupt. 6. Define ISR. The service to be performed for each interrupt is different. For an overflow interrupt, the current program should be aborted. For power fail interrupt, saving of CPU status in some backup memory can be done. For an interrupt due to unsuccessful I/O completion, the previous I/O operation can be retried. All the actions can be achieved by programs. These programs are known as interrupt service routines. 7. What is non-maskable interrupts? There are some interrupts which are like emergency operations, the servicing of which should not be delayed. These interrupts are known as Non-Maskable Interrupts(NMI). These can occur at any time, irrespective of whether IE is or . Similarly, these cannot be masked off by a program. Two different types of NIM are given below: * Power failure * Hardware error

8. Define device controller. Any I/O device is connected to the CPU through a controller called device controller. 9. Define parity. The sending and receiving end hardware follow a simple protocol called ODD PARITY SYSTEM or EVEN PARITY SYSTEM. In odd parity system, the sending end counts the number of 1 bits in the data being sent to the receiving end. If the number of 1's in the data is odd, then the sending end generates the parity bit as 0. The sending end sends the data and the parity bit to the receiving end. 10. Define instruction fetch. The microprocessor puts an instruction address on the address bus. The microprocessor issues a memory read signal on the control bus. The microprocessor waits for sometime to account for the memory access time. The microprocessor now takes the data bus contents and loads it in the instruction register. 11. What is Bus multiplexing? To reduce the pin count and cost, the data bus and the address bus are usually multiplexed. In this scheme, instead of dedication separate pins for the address bus and data bus, the same pins are used for both the address bus and data bus. At a given time, either address or data is sent on this multiplexed bus. 12. Define multitasking. Multitasking is a method by which multiple tasks, also known as processes, share common processing resources such as a CPU. Multitasking solves the problem by scheduling which task may be the one running at any given time, and when another waiting task gets a turn. Even on computers with more than one CPU, multitasking allows many more tasks to be run than there are CPUs. 13. Differentiate multitasking and multiprogramming. Multitasking Multiprogramming 1) There are different tasks running concurrently. Each task is independent routine. 2) The different tasks may be parts of a program or parts of different programs executed by a single user. 1) There are different programs run concurrently. 2) All programs may be that of single user or each program may belong to a different user.

14. Define virtual memory. Virtual memory is preferred to the following two cases, to run larger programs exceeding physical memory size. 1. The main memory space for a CPU is not sufficient to run large program. 2. The Physical main memory is kept small in order to reduce the cost though the CPU has large logical memory space. 15. Define cache memory. A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations. As long as most memory accesses are cached memory locations, the average latency of memory accesses will be closer to the cache latency than to the latency of main memory. UNIT II

1. List the printer characteristics. They differ in different aspects like performance, price and quality. The main characteristics are Speed, Quality, Character set, Interface, Buffer size, Print mechanism, Print mode, Print size, Print direction. 2. Define Draft, LQP and NLQ printers. The print character is formed by closely spaced dots, creating character shape. Though the character is visible, it is not impressive because of the presence of dots. The dot matrix printer is an example of a draft printer. In a LQP a whole character is formed as a letter, like a typewriter. It is pleasant to read and hence LQP is widely used in office environments. A NLQ printer also prints characters as patterns of dots. But each character is printed twice. The heads are offset by a minute distance during the second time. Hence the character is more impressive. 3. Differentiate parallel interface and serial interface printer. Parallel interface In a parallel interface printer, the printer receives all 8 bits of a character simultaneously from the computer. Serial interface In a serial interface printer, the printer receives the 8 bits of character one after the other, in serial fashion.

Hence there are 8 wires between the There are only one wire between the computer and printer. computer and printer. 4. Classify the Magnetic storage devices. Magnetic storage devices Magnetic drum Magnetic tape drive Magnetic disk drive

tart/Stop tap drives

Streaming tape drives Floppy disk Hard disk

5. Differentiate FM and MFM recording format. Frequency Modulation A clock pulse is written at the beginning of each bit cell. The data pulse is written at the centre of bit cell. If the data is 1, the data pulse is present. If the data is 0, there is no data pulse. Each bit cell is of 4 s duration for floppy disk. Modified Frequency Modulation The clock pulse is not presently at the beginning of every bit cell. When the data is 1, there is no clock pulse. Only the data pulse is present at the centre of the bit cell. When the data is 0, following a 1 in the previous bit cell, neither clock pulse nor data pulse is written. Each bit cell is of 2 s duration for floppy disk.

6. What is the use of write protect feature?

There is a facility to use a diskette only for reading previously stored information and to prevent any attempt to write new information on it. For this purpose, two different techniques are followed. In 5 '' disk write protect notch and 3 '' disk write protect window. 7. Differentiate hard and soft sectoring. Hard sectoring The sector size is fixed. It followed only in 8 inch floppy disks. Soft sectoring It has no control over the sector size. The sector size is chosen by the the OS. There are several standards for soft sectored disks. These differ in the formatting parameters like number of sectors per track, no. of bytes / sector.

8. Define head coils. The read / write head consists of two R/W coils and one erase coils to perform the read, write and erase functions. 9. Differentiate Winchester and Non-Winchester disk drive. Winchester Non-Winchester Sealed enclosure The head coils very close to the disk The disk surface was lubricated No need for preventive maintenance Open position Head coils long distance No lubrication Need preventive maintenance

10. Define size and capacity. The HDD size is usually referred to in inches. For example an 8 inch HDD implies that the disk platters diameter is 8 inches. The capacity of the HDD depends on the size and technology. In 1965. A 14`` HDD offered hardly20 MB capacity, currently even a 2.5`` HDD offers 40 GB capacity. 11. Define MODEM. A modem (modulator-demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from light emitting diodes to radio. The most familiar example is a voice band modem that turns the digital data of a personal computer into modulated electrical signals in the voice frequency range of a telephone channel. These signals can be transmitted over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data. 12. What is Pit and Land? CD data are stored as a series of tiny indentations known as "pits", encoded in a spiral track molded into the top of the polycarbonate layer. The areas between pits are known as "lands". Each pit is approximately 100 nm deep by 500 nm wide, and varies from 850 nm to 3.5 m in length. The distance between the tracks, the pitch, is 1.6 m. The pits and lands themselves do not directly represent the zeros and ones of binary data. Instead, non-return-to-zero, inverted encoding is used: a

change from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a series of zeros. There must be at least two and no more than ten zeros between each one, which is defined by the length of the pit. This in turn is decoded by reversing the eight-to-fourteen modulation used in mastering the disc, and then reversing the Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Coding, finally revealing the raw data stored on the disc. 13. Define DV D. DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions. Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD. Such discs are known as DVD-ROM, because data can only be read and not written nor erased. Blank recordable DVDs (DVD-R and DVD+R) can be recorded once using a DVD recorder and then function as a DVD-ROM. Rewritable DVDs (DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM) can be recorded and erased multiple times. DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring AVCHD discs. DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs. 14. Define MO drives. A magneto-optical drive is a kind of optical disc drive capable of writing and rewriting data upon a magneto-optical disc. Both 130 mm (5.25 in) and 90 mm (3.5 in) form factors exist. The technology was introduced commercially in 1985.[1] Although optical, they appear as hard disk drives to the operating system and do not require a special filesystem; they can be formatted as FAT, HPFS, NTFS, etc 15. Define data recording. A data storage device is a device for recording (storing) information (data). Recording can be done using virtually any form of energy, spanning from manual muscle power in handwriting, to acoustic vibrations in phonographic recording, to electromagnetic energy modulating magnetic tape and optical discs. UNIT III 1. Define the hardware-BIOS-DOS interaction. In most of the application, the PC is used in three ways. a) For running programs written in higher level languages like BASIC, java etc. b) For running programs which use application packages like ERP, Tally etc. c) For simple operations through packages like WORD etc. 2. What is mean by three tier communication in a PC?

3. Define CPU. The central processing unit (CPU) is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the functions of the computer or other processing device. The central processing unit carries out each instruction of the program in sequence, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. This term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s.[1] The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed dramatically since the earliest examples, but their fundamental operation remains much the same. 4. Define product engineering. Almost all PCs have three box structures as the minimum configuration. The three boxes are the system box, CRT monitor and keyboard.

5. List the components available inside the system box. 1. SMPS 2. Mother board 3. Daughter boards 4. Floppy disk drive 5. Hard disk drive 6. Speaker 7. Power on indicator 8. Reset switch 9. Keyboard lock 10. Controls and cables 6. List the components available in the mother board. Microprocessor Interrupt controller Timer Clock generator Bus controller DMA controller DMA page register

DRAMS EPROMS Buffer ICs Latch ICs Jumpers Connectors 7. Define PC expansion boards. There are a variety of PCB types in the market for the PC family. In modern PCs practically the mother board is an AIDC(all in one computer) eliminating expansion boards. 8. Define unique designs. Most of the clones follow a standard pattern in h/w engineering, there are clones offering non standard models. In case clone, the system board is not a MB but a daughter board. The MP, ROM, RAM and other support circuits are in the daughter boards. The motherboard contains no electronics but only a back panel with connectors. 9. Define RAM parity logic. The RAM parity logic has two sections 1. Parity generator 2. Parity checker The parity generator generates an odd parity bit while writing data into RAM. This parity bit is written in RAM. The parity checker checks for the odd parity in the data and parity bit read from RAM. 10. Define wait state logic. The wait state logic introduces WAIT states in the cpu bus cycle or the DMA bus cycle in order to synchronize the cpu or DMAC with the memory or I/O ports. 11. Define CPU logic. The CPU logic includes microprocessor and supports chips. It provides system address bus, data bus and control bus. It services interrupt request INTR and NMI. It also forces a wait state as per signals from wait state logic and bus arbitration logic. 12. Define DMA logic. The DMA logic includes the DMA controller and support chips. It receives data transfer requests from the floppy disk controller and the hard disk controller. It gets bus controller by making a request to BAL and then conducts a bus cycle for transferring data b/w m/y and the i/o controllers. 13. Differentiate serial interface in OG and NG. Serial interface OG Serial interface NG 2 serial i/f support RS232c COM1 & COM2 USB IRDA 5 pin header connector

14. Differentiate Post sequence in OG and NG. Post sequence in OG Post sequence NG 8088 test BIOS ROM test Timer 1 test CMOS Ram test 8042 (KBC) test CMOS battery test Coprocessor test

DMA channel 0 test Base 16K RAM test CRT controller test RAM test

Protected mode test

15. Differentiate peripheral interfaces in OG and NG. Peripheral interface in OG It used daughter boards The s/w controls the h/w Peripheral interface in NG All interfaces are located as on-board features. UNIT IV 1. Define system configuration. A System Configuration (SC) in systems engineering defines the computers, processes, and devices that compose the system and its boundary. More general the system configuration is the specific definition of the elements that define and/or prescribe what a system is composed of. Alternatively the term System Configuration can be used to relate to a model (declarative) for abstract generalized systems. In this sense the usage of the configuration information is not tailored to any specific usage, but stands alone as a data set. 2. Define reliability. In computer networking, a reliable protocol is one that provides reliability properties with respect to the delivery of data to the intended recipient(s), as opposed to an unreliable protocol, which does not provide notifications to the sender as to the delivery of transmitted data. A reliable multicast protocol may ensure reliability on a per-recipient basis, as well as provide properties that relate the delivery of data to different recipients, such as e.g. total order, atomicity, or virtual synchrony. Reliable protocols typically incur more overhead than unreliable protocols, and as a result, are slower and less scalable. This often is not an issue for unicast protocols, but it may be a problem for multicast protocols.

3. List the steps involved in the Pre-Installation planning. Pre-installed software commonly suffers from one of more of the following problems: Pre-installed software is usually licensed for use only on the computer on which it was pre-installed, and is not transferable to other computers.[1] Pre-installed software is often functionality or time limited, in an effort to get the user to purchase the "full" version.

Pre-installed software often does not come with any media, should the user need to reinstall it. Pre-installed software sometimes modifies or replaces the default browser or system settings, in an effort to target specific advertisements to the user; or may otherwise contain functionality the user might consider to be malware. Pre-installed software often consumes system resources, even if not actively being run by the user, adversely affecting system responsiveness and startup time. Pre-installed software is sometimes difficult or impossible for users to remove, such as via the standard uninstall utility provided by the system.

4. What are the steps to be followed in Routine checks? FDD jumper: driver select FDD cable : twist FDD terminator Memory Jumpers Cable connectors orientation Processor heatsink/cooling fan 5. List the steps involved in assembling preparatory. Collecting hardware and software modules Collecting tools Choosing a non metallic surface work area and a moisture free environment 6. What is assembling sequence? System box preparation Mother board stuffing Mother board installation IDE drives preparation Drive installation Daughter board installation Cables connection Power connection BIOS setup Loading software: OS and I/O drives 7. How do you select the boot sequence? In computing, booting (also known as "booting up") is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. A boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the computer performs when power is switched on. The boot loader typically loads the main operating system for the computer. 8. What are features available in BIOS. Standard CMOS setup Advanced BIOS features setup Advanced chipset features setup Power management setup

PNP/PCI configurations Load BIOS defaults Integrated peripherals Supervisor password User password IDE HDD auto detection HDD low level format Save & exit setup Exit without saving 9. Define engineering versions and compatibility. A compatibility layer is a term that refers to components that allow for non-native support of components. In software engineering, a compatibility layer allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With some libraries for the foreign system, this will often be sufficient to run foreign binaries on the host system. Hardware compatibility layers involve tools that allow hardware emulation. 10. Define preventive maintenance. The care and servicing by personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment and facilities in satisfactory operating condition by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects. Maintenance, including tests, measurements, adjustments, and parts replacement, performed specifically to prevent faults from occurring. 11. Define DOS. DOS, short for "Disk Operating System",[1] is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition. Related systems include MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, FreeDOS, PTS-DOS, ROM-DOS, Caldera DOS, Novell DOS and several others. 12. List the versions of DOS.
MS-DOS 1.0 MS-DOS 2.0 MS-DOS 3.2 MS-DOS 4.0 MS-DOS 6.0 MS-DOS 7.0 (Windows 95A) MS-DOS 1.1 MS-DOS 3.0 MS-DOS 3.3 MS-DOS 5.0 MS-DOS 6.22

MS-DOS 7.1 (Windows 95B/OSR2, 95C/OSR2.5, 98, and 98SE) MS-DOS 8.0 (Windows Me)

13. Define Virus. A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Most viruses are too small to be seen directly with a light microscope. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea. Since the initial discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, about 5,000 viruses have been described in detail, although there are millions of different types. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most abundant type of biological entity. The study of viruses is known as virology, a sub-speciality of microbiology. 14. Define Data recovery. Data recovery is the process of salvaging data from damaged, failed, corrupted, or inaccessible secondary storage media when it cannot be accessed normally. Often the data are being salvaged from storage media such as internal or external hard disk drives, solid state drives (SSD), USB flash, storage tapes, CDs, DVDs, RAID, and other electronics. Recovery may be required due to physical damage to the storage device or logical damage to the file system that prevents it from being mounted by the host operating system. 15. What are the tools available from third party data recovery? Backup processes are monitored by a third party monitoring center. This center alerts users to any errors that occur during automated backups. Monitored backup requires software capable of pinging the monitoring center's servers in the case of errors. Some monitoring services also allow collection of historical meta-data, that can be used for Storage Resource Management purposes like projection of data growth, locating redundant primary storage capacity and reclaimable backup capacity. The Wizards Storage Portal is an example of a solution that monitors IBM's well known Tivoli Storage Manager(TSM) solution. UNIT V 1. Define computer faults. A fault in a computer system affects the normal operation of the computer, the computer malfunctions. The symptoms of malfunction are almost unlimited and vary with the nature of the fault. 2. List the symptoms for fault. A program has given wrong results A program is looping continuously The CPU has lost control There is a junk display on the CRT monitor The printer prints suddenly 3. Define intermittent fault. When there is an intermittent fault in a computer, the computers behaviors is not consistent. Sometimes it works properly and suddenly it malfunctions. After a certain period of time, it recovers from the fault automatically and again starts functioning properly. 4. Define diagnostic programs and tools.

Computer manufactures supply special diagnostic programs. These programs contain test routines to verify the various functions of the computer hardware. 5. List the available tool for troubleshooting. Nodal testers System testers 6. Define firmware. In every microcomputer, there is a firmware packed in ROM. A service engineer must have a clear idea about the functions and the sequence of execution of various firmware routines. 7. Define programmable LSIs. Programmable LSIs such as PIT, PIC, PPI, DMAC, etc all are intelligent ICs. They interact with the MP and act according to the sequence of commands received from the MP. Each IC can be programmed for different modes of operation. 8. Define bus faults. Bus related faults are the toughest faults. Since several subsystems are connected together on a common bus, any subsystem can corrupt the total bus. 9. Define dead system. A computer is said to be dead when an absolutely essential signal is absent. It is easy to confirm whether a system is dead or alive. Also it is relatively simpler to give life to a dead system than rectifying a sick system. 10. Define spurious problems. Sometimes the computer malfunctions randomly. Logical and systematic troubleshooting may not yield any clue. In such cases the engineer should look for symptoms of spurious problems. 11. Define security failures. Computer security compromised by hardware failure is a branch of computer security applied to hardware. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to remain accessible and productive to its intended users.[1] Such secret information could be retrieved by different ways. This article focus on the retrieval of data thanks to misused hardware or hardware failure. Hardware could be misused or exploited to get secret data. This article collects main types of attack that can be lead in a data thief. Computer security can be comprised by devices, such as keyboards, monitors or printers (thanks to electromagnetic or acoustic emanation for example) or by components of the computer, such as the memory, the network card or the processor (thanks to time or temperature analysis for example). 12. Define heart Beats. We have seen some of the symptoms of a dead system earlier. These are general symptoms applicable to any computer. In addition, there are some more check points which are the heart beats of PCs. By sensing these, the engineer can predict the problem type and determine how to proceed with diagnosis. 13. Define systematic troubleshooting.

A computer h/w engineer importance is felt only when the computer is down. The duration of down time reflects on the performance and capability of the h/w engineer. Ad hoc techniques of troubleshooting do not always help an engineer. It is the systematic troubleshooting technique which is the most powerful tool in the hands of an engineer. 14. What are the troubleshooting levels? 1. Post behavior analysis 2. Running diagnostics 3. Probing with tools 4. Using emulator or ATE 15. Define HDD problems. Mechanical failures Electronic problems Data failures Wake up diagnostics Controller diagnostics

Part B Unit I
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Explain in detail about ALU with diagram. Explain in detail about CU with diagram. Explain the concept of ISR. Explain the concept of DMA mode data transfer. Explain the Virtual memory mechanism.

Unit II
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Explain in detail about printer types. Explain the concept of Magnetic storage devices. Explain the HDD in detail. Explain the concept of mouse and trackball. Explain the special peripheral devices.

Unit III
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Discuss how the hardware -BIOS-DOS interact with PC. Classify the PC hardware OG. Explain the system box with components available inside. Explain the memory space OG and NG. Explain peripheral interfaces and controllers OG and NG. Explain OG and NG post sequence.

Unit IV
1. Explain in detail about pre installation planning. 2. Discuss BIOS setup.

3. Discuss Preventive Maintenance. 4. Explain DOS and its versions. 5. Discuss How to recover the DATA.

Unit V
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Explain the concept of systematic troubleshooting Explain microprocessor and firmware Explain types of faults Explain fault elimination process Explain diagnostic programs and tools