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CompTIA® A+™ Core 1 Exam Notes : Install And Configure Laptop Hardware,Components & Compare Components Within The Display Of A Laptop

3. Laptops

3.1 Install and configure laptop hardware and components

1. Nickel Cadmium battery

  1. a. The nickel cadmium battery, known as NiCad , used to be the most common type of laptop battery. NiCad batteries could easily be ruined by being left on the charger after they had reached full charge, or by being recharged before they were completely dead. The latter problem, called the "memory effect," meant that if you recharged your laptop battery before it had run completely down, it would remember the point at which you put it back on the charger, and only discharge that far the next time you used it.

  2. b. Nickel Cadmium battery is not environmentally friendly and not as efficient as Nickel / Metalhydride or Lithium Ion. Nickel / Metal hydride, though environmentally friendly, not as efficient as Lithium Ion. Lithium Ion battery is environmentally friendly and very efficient.

2. Nickel metal hydride battery: The nickel metal hydride (NiMH) laptop battery could hold considerably more power than NiCad, but they still had something of a memory effect, although to a lesser extent

3. Lithium ion battery : Lithium ion (Li-Ion) is the latest technology for laptop batteries.They are considerably lighter and does not exhibit memory effect. The Li-Ion laptop battery lasts considerably longer than its predecessors. If your laptop supports Li-Ion battery, then it is a recommended choice.

4. Passive matrix displays are most commonly used and cheaper than Active matrix displays. Also, passive matrix displays consume less power. However, the advantages of active matrix display are that they can handle faster screen image transition, and display is clearly viewable, even from slant angles.

5. Laptops most widely use PCMCIA cards, also referred to as PC cards.

6. Normally, desktop processors consume higher power compared to laptop processors. Laptop processors are optimized for lesser power consumption, so that the heat produced is also less. This is to take care of poor ventilation conditions in a laptop computer.

7. While doing any hardware up gradation on a laptop (such as adding more memory, etc), remember to remove the battery in addition to unplugging of AC mains.

8. If the battery of a new laptop is giving less output time when fully charges first check AC adapter.If there is no problem with the AC adapter, the next best choice would be to re-calibrate the battery.

9. ExpressCard is an interface to allow peripheral devices to be connected to a computer, usually a laptop computer. Formerly called NEWCARD, the ExpressCard standard specifies the design of slots built into the computer and of cards which can be inserted into ExpressCard slots. The cards contain electronic circuitry and connectors to which external devices can be connected. The ExpressCard standard replaces the PC Card (also known as PCMCIA) standards.

10. PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards.

11. When installing SODIMM memory chip, one needs to turn off the laptop and unplug the power supply to prevent any damage due to static

12. The second RAM slot is typically located under the keyboard of the laptop.

13. The upgradeable components in a laptop include:

  1. a. Processor: It could be upgraded to a higher speed, but it would be very expensive. You need to check with the manufacturer whether they have a faster compatible processor.

  2. b. Memory: This is easily upgradable. But usually, laptops come with at least 2GB of memory. Note that 32-bit Operating Systems recognize only 2GB and it's not recommended to use higher memory capacity unless you go for a 64-bit laptop.

  3. c. Video card: It almost always not possible to upgrade a video card. Choose the laptop carefully when buying, taking in to consideration your audio/video requirements.

  4. d. Network card: Again, network card is not usually replaceable in a laptop.

  5. e. Hard disk: Yes, you can upgrade the hard disk in a laptop with bigger capacity hard disk. This is relatively easy task.

14. Manufacturer's manual should be consulted before attempting to disassemble a laptop for board upgrade. Usually, the battery, hard drive, DVD drive, memory are among the first to be disassembled.https://www.insidemylaptop.com/disassemble-hp-pavilion-dv4-laptop/

15. Although you can easily pull out a PC Card from the PC slot in your laptop, that's not the best way to treat your laptop's hardware. Instead, follow these steps:

Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon on the system tray, and then pull the PC Card out from its slot. Some times, you have to find a small button to the right of the card. Pushing the button in a little makes it pop out about a half-inch or so. Then press the button back into the laptop to help push out the PC Card.

16. To configure any of the power options, you first have to go to Start, then Control Panel, and then click on Power Options. In the Power Options properties dialog, there are six tabs: Power Schemes, Alarms, Power Meter, Advanced, and Hibernate. In the Advanced tab you will be able to configure the action that would take place when the laptop lid is closed.

17. For accessing the Internet using static IP addressing, you need to configure the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway (if required by the ISP), and DNS server information.

3.2 Compare and contrast the components within the display of a laptop

1. The inverter board is responsible for converting low voltage DC power to high voltage AC, necessary to light up the backlight bulb. If the inverter board is bad, the LCD screen (backlight bulb) will not light up when you turn on the laptop, but you still should be able to see a very dim image on the screen.

2. Most laptop computers require a function key or software command to activate/deactivate the laptop video output signal. Usually, the activation/deactivation command acts as a toggle switch: repeat the command to display the image on the internal laptop display, the external display (projector) or both displays simultaneously. Examples: Acer: Fn+F5, Dell: Fn+F8 will activate/deactivate laptop/external display.

3. Digital displays offer best quality when operated at native resolution.

4. A dim screen can be caused by four things:

  1. a. The LCD inverter which causes the LCD panel to light up

  2. b. The CCFL fluro tube in the LCD panel

  3. c. The motherboard supplying signal & voltage to the inverter

  4. d. A damaged video cable between the laptop and the screen

  5. e. An LCD-LED display uses backlight and not a CCFL bulb. Therefore, the problem is most likey with backlight failure.

5. Most commonly (say 80% of the time) it's the inverter, 10% it's the ccfl tube in the LCD panel, and 10% it's the motherboard or the VGA cable.

6. Dead pixel usually requires replacement of the LCD screen, and it is very expensive. If the laptop is new, check with your manufacturer for warranty replacement.

7. Laptop computer screens are equipped with a "Function" key as well as numerous hot keys for fast adjustments of various features on the computer, such as increasing or decreasing the brightness of the laptop screen. Dimming the screen is desirable when working in direct sunlight or to create a more soothing display that's easier on the eyes. The precise key sequence varies on different laptop models, but involves a combination of the function and arrow keys.

  1. a. Press the Function ("Fn") key on the laptop keyboard and continue holding it down. This key is usually on the lower, left side of the keyboard.

  2. b. Press and release the left arrow key to dim the laptop screen one increment, or hold the key to dim the screen as low as it will go. The arrow key may also be printed with a sunburst icon. Alternatively, on some laptops press one of the numbered F keys on the top row to dim the screen. The correct key will usually be printed with a filled-in sunburst icon, while the F key to brighten the screen will have a hollow sunburst icon.

  3. c. Press the right arrow key to brighten the screen or use the numbered F key at the top of the screen

8. Plasma display panels consume most power because of the inherent architecture of the Plasma panels. On the other hand, OLED displays, which have recently come to market, consumes least power.

9. A disk enclosure is essentially a specialized chassis designed to hold and power disk drives while providing a mechanism to allow them to communicate to one or more separate computers. Drive enclosures provide power to the drives therein and convert the data sent across their native data bus into a format usable by an external connection on the computer to which it is connected. Note that a S CSI adaptor will not solve the problem as it would not supply the power and other signals that may be necessary to proper functioning of the hard drive.

3.3 Compare and contrast laptop features

1. Laptops, being mobile, usually participate on more than one network, and often use a static IP address at one location and a dynamically assigned IP address at another. For example, your computer might use dynamic addressing (DHCP) at the office but need to use a static IP address when at home to connect to a broadband ISP. Windows XP Professional solves this problem by allowing the user to configure the computer to first try DHCP, and then, if the attempt fails, to try alternate static IP address settings.

2. Laptops with wireless networking capabilities usually provide a shortcut key to enable and disable the wireless radio. This feature is usually accessed by using a key combination of the function (Fn) key and one of the F keys at the top of the keyboard.

3. Sometimes this key can also activate and deactivate the Bluetooth function of your computer. If on a clean install Bluetooth is not working instead of reinstalling the OS, it is always better to install the correct driver for the device. Go to device manager, and update the Bluetooth driver. Windows XP SP2 supports Bluetooth and there is no need to update the Operating System to Windows 7.

4. Laptop antenna is almost always located in the display section of the laptop. This is because, the screen is lifted and provides better propagation of rf waves, which is a requirement for 802.11 specification. But the exact location within the laptop display bezel may change from one laptop manufacturer to another.

5. If any HotKey is not working as expected it is recommended to install the Hotkey drivers from the manufacturer’s website.

6. If a notebook cellular card was activated by the cellular operator, but was not recognized by the Operating System then check if feature is supported in laptop BIOS. It is most likely that the cellular card is disabled in the BIOS. Please check the BIOS and enable the card. Note that all notebook computers may not support this feature.

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