Planning and Preparing Computer Hardware Assembly

Background Information for Learners:

After reading this information, you must be able to identify and apply OHS policies
and procedures in Computer Systems Servicing.
Occupational Health and Safety Policy
The occupational safety and health policy define the goals for the occupational health
and safety work in the workplace and for activities that promote the working capacity of the
staff. The policy also describes occupational health and safety responsibilities and the way of
organizing the cooperation measures. The preparation of the occupational safety and health
policy is based on the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The policy is employer-specific
and applies to all employers.
Safety practices should be learned early and always adhered to when working with
any electrical device, including personal computers and peripherals. This is for the protection
of not only the people working with them, but also for the devices themselves. The basis for
this process begins with your Occupational Health and Safety Policies.

Personal Safety While Working Along with PC’s

While working inside your computer, do not attempt to service the computer except
as explained in this guide and elsewhere in the product documentation. Always follow the
instructions closely.
Computer equipment can be dangerous, and you or others can be injured or even
killed if you do not follow proper safety guidelines when working along PC’s. The following
are some precautionary measures to take before working with any computer equipment:
Before you start to work on the computer, perform the following steps in the
sequence indicated:
1. Turn off the computer and all peripherals.
2. Touch an unpainted metal surface on the computer chassis, such as the metal around
the card-slot openings at the back of your computer, before touching anything inside
your computer.
3. Disconnect the computer and peripherals from their electrical outlets. Doing so reduces
the potential for personal injury or shock. Also, disconnect any telephone or
telecommunication lines from the computer. Note that before disconnecting a
peripheral from the system or removing a component from the system board, verify
that the standby power light-emitting diode (LED) on the system board has turned off.

While you work, periodically touch an unpainted metal surface on the computer
chassis to dissipate any static electricity that might harm internal components.

Also, it is recommended that you periodically review the safety instructions in your
System Information Guide.

Occupational Health and Safety Policies and Procedures

OHS or Occupational Health and Safety refers to the legislation, policies, procedures,
and activities that aim to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all people at the workplace.
1. Do not work alone so that there is someone who can take care of you in case of
emergency.
2. Always power off the computer and unplug the computer before working on it.
3. Take away any liquid near your working area to avoid getting electrocuted or
accidentally damaging computer parts.
4. Be careful with tools that may cause short circuit.
5. Always ground or discharge yourself before touching any part of the computer.
6. Do not use excessive force if things do not quite slip into place.
7. Clean the area before and after using it to maintain sanitation and prevent accidents.
8. Hold the components on the edges and do not touch the Integrated Circuit (IC) parts.
9. Always wear personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with the
organization's OHS procedures and practices.
10. Make sure that the pins are properly aligned when connecting a cable connector.
11. Contingency measures during workplace accidents, fire and other emergencies are
recognized.
12. Use brush, compressed air or blower in cleaning the computer system.
13. Wear shoes with non-conductive rubber soles to help reduce the chance of being
shocked or seriously injured in an electrical accident.
14. Do not work on components that are plugged into their power source.
15. Do not remove expansion cards from a computer when it is turned on.
16. Remove all jewelry when working inside any computer related equipment.
17. Be sure not to mix electronic components and water.
18. When you shut down your computer, be sure to shut it down properly.
19. Do not turn it off with the case switch.
20. Do not eat or drinks while working.

Learning Competency with Code: Assemble Computer Hardware. (TLE_IACSS9-12ICC_Ia-

e-28)

 Plan unit assembly to ensure OHS policies and procedures are followed in accordance
with systems requirements.
 Prepare unit assembly to ensure OHS policies and procedures are followed in
accordance with accordance with systems requirements.

Identifying and Obtaining Materials Necessary in Computer

Hardware Assembly
Background Information for Learners:

After reading this information, you must be able to identify the Basic Terms,
Concepts, Functions, and Characteristics of PC Hardware Components.
 Types of Computer Systems
IMAGE
DESCRIPTION
1. A workstation is a high-end personal computer
designed for technical or scientific applications.
Intended primarily to be used by one person at a
time, they are commonly connected to a local area
network and run multi-user operating systems.

2. Desktop computers come in a variety of styles

ranging from large vertical tower cases to small
form factor models and usually intended to have the
display screen placed on top to save space on the
desktop. Most modern desktop computers have
separate screens and keyboards

3. Nettop is a subtype of desktop that was introduced

by Intel in February 2008 and described as low-
cost, lean-function desktop computers.

4. A laptop computer is sometimes called a

notebook computer, it usually comes in small size
and designed for portability.

5. Netbooks are mini notebooks that are rapidly

evolving category of small, light, and inexpensive
laptop computers suited for general computing and
accessing web-based applications. These are often
marketed as "companion devices," that augment a
user's other computer access.

6. A tablet PC is a notebook or slate-shaped mobile

computer that was first introduced by Pen
computing in the early 90s with their Peng Tablet
Computer and popularized by Microsoft. Its
touchscreen allows the user to operate the computer
with a stylus or digital pen, or a fingertip, instead of
a keyboard or mouse.
7. The ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) is a small form
factor of tablet PCs that was developed by
Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung. It typically features
the Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or
Linux operating system and low-voltage Intel Atom
or VIA C7-M processors.

8. A home theater PC (HTPC) is a convergence

device that combines the functions of a personal
computer and a digital video recorder. It is
connected to a television or a television-sized
computer display and is often used as a digital
photo, music, video player, TV receiver and digital
video recorder.
9. All-in-one PC also known as all-in-one desktops,
integrate the computer case and system components
into the monitor so that the entire PC is contained
all in one unit. All-in-one (AIO) desktop PCs offer
the advantage of a smaller form factor than desktop
PCs, but they often come with several drawbacks as
well, including higher cost, weaker performance,
and limited upgrade options.
The all-in-one computer design debuted with the
Apple iMac in 1998. While the early all-in-one PC
computers were expensive and bulky, all-in-one
PCs have become much slimmer, lighter, and
cheaper with the advent of LCD monitors and
smaller, less
expensive desktop system components.

10. A pocket PC is a hardware specification for a

handheld-sized computer (personal digital assistant)
that runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating
system. It may have the capability to run an
alternative operating system like NetBSD or Linux.
It has many of the capabilities of modern desktop
PCs.
Computer Hardware and Peripherals

An exploded view of a modern personal computer and peripherals:

Scanner Speakers

CPU (Microprocessor) Monitor

Primary storage (RAM) System Software

Expansion cards (graphics cards, etc.) Application Software

Power supply Keyboard

Optical disc drive Mouse

Secondary storage (Hard disk) External Hard Disk

Motherboard Printer

Computer case
A computer case is the enclosure that contains the main components of a
computer. Cases are usually constructed from steel or aluminum, although
other materials such as wood and plastic have been used. Cases can come
in many different sizes, or form factors.
Processor
The central

Motherboard
The motherboard, also referred to as
system board or mainboard, is the
primary circuit board within a personal
computer.

processing unit, or CPU, is that part of a

computer which executes software program
instructions. In older computers this
circuitry was formerly on several printed
circuit boards, but in PCs is a single
integrated circuit. Nearly all PCs contain a
Hard disk drive
Mass storage devices store programs
and data even when the power is off;
they do require power to perform read
and write functions during usage.
Although flash memory has dropped in
cost, the prevailing form of mass
storage in personal computers is still the
type of CPU known as a microprocessor. hard disk.
with a fan attached via heat sink.
Main memory
A PC's main memory is fast storage that is
directly accessible by the CPU and is used to
store the currently executing program and
immediately needed data.

Video Card
The video card - otherwise called a graphics
card, graphics adapter or video adapter -
processes and renders the graphics output
from the computer to the computer display,
and is an essential part of the modern
computer.
Visual display unit
A visual display unit (or monitor) is a
piece of electrical equipment, usually
separate from the computer case, which
displays viewable images generated by
a computer without producing a
permanent record.
Keyboard
In computing, a keyboard is an arrangement
of buttons that each correspond to a
function, letter, or number. They are the
primary devices of inputting text.

Mouse
A Mouse on a computer is a small,
slidable device that users hold and slide
around to point at, click on, and
sometimes drag objects on screen in a
graphical user interface using a pointer
on screen.

Other Components

Mass storage
All computers require either fixed or
removable storage for their operating
system programs and user generated
material.
Formerly the 5¼ inch and 3½ inch floppy
drive were the principal forms of
removable storage for backup of user files
and distribution of software.

Computer Communications
 Internal Modem Card
 External Modem
 Network Adapter Card
 Router
 Wifi Router
LAN Card – is a network interface
card. This is a computer circuit board or
card that is installed in a computer so
that it can be connected to a network.

MODEM - (MOdulator-DEModulator)
The modem is a device that allows a given
computer to share data or otherwise a
device which let computers exchange
information
A wireless router is a device that
performs the functions of a router and also
includes the functions of a wireless access
point. It is used to provide access to the
Internet or a private computer network.
Depending on the manufacturer and
model, it can function in a wired local area
network, in a wireless-only LAN, or in a
mixed wired and wireless network.

Common peripherals and adapter cards

 Headset  Printer  Speakers

 Joystick  Scanner  Webcam
 Microphone  Sound Adapter

Scanner - it is an input device that read

text or illustration printed on paper,
translates the information into a form
that a computer can use.

Printer - it is a piece of hardware that

produces a paper copy (also known as
‘hardcopy’) of the information
generated by the computer.

RAM – Random Access Memory, is a

primary memory. This memory is used
inside the computer to hold programs
and data while it is running.

Basic Input/output System, chip that

controls the most basic functions of the
computer and performs a self-test every
time

USB – Universal Serial Bus, a

hardware interface for low-speed
peripherals such as the keyboard,
mouse, joystick, scanner, printer and
telephony devices.
 Flash drive – is a small, ultra-portable
storage device which, unlike an optical
drive or a traditional hard drive, has no
moving parts. Flash drives connect to
computers and other devices via a built-in
USB Type-A or USB-C plug, making a
flash drive a kind of combination USB
device and cable.

Video Camera - camera using

videotape: a camera that records onto
videotape

Sound Card - enhances the computers

sound generating capabilities by allowing
sound to be output through speakers.

Power Cables – it supplies power from the power supply to

the drive. The power cables are red, yellow and black. The yellow wire furnishes 12 volts of
power, the red wire furnishes 5 volts of power, the two black wire are ground wire for each

IDE And Floppy Disk Ribbon Cable – IDE stands for Integrate Device
Electronics. It shows how to connect an IDE cable to two devices namely
the top device (master) and the bottom device (slave).

Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial AT Attachment) is a computer

bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as
hard disk drives and optical drives

Headset - combines a headphone with a microphone. Headsets are made with either
a single-earpiece (mono) or a double-earpiece (mono to both ears or stereo).
Headsets provide the equivalent functionality of a telephone handset but with hands
free operation.
Webcam - is a video camera that feeds or streams an image or video in real time to or
through a computer to a computer network, such as the Internet

Barcode reader - (or barcode scanner) is

an optical scanner that can read printed
barcodes, decode the data contained in
the barcode and send the data to a
computer. Like a flatbed scanner, it
consists of a light source, a lens and a
light sensor translating for optical
impulses into electrical signals.

There are still other peripherals or hardware that can be attached to computer
systems. You can also attach smartphone or other gadgets wirelessly to computer
systems.

Learning Competency with Code: Assemble Computer Hardware. (TLE_IACSS9-

12ICC_Ia-e-28)
 Identify materials necessary to complete the work in accordance with
established procedures and check against system requirements
 Obtain materials necessary to complete the work in accordance with established
procedures and check against system requirements.
 Power Cables – it supplies power from the power supply to the drive. The power cables are
red, yellow and black. The yellow wire furnishes 12 volts of power, the red wire furnishes 5
volts of power, the two black wire are ground wire for each.

Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that
connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical
drives.

Webcam - is a video camera that feeds or streams an image or video in real time to or
through a computer to a computer network, such as the Internet.

Important Entrepreneurial Traits

The following are the fundamental characteristics of an entrepreneur:
1. Hard working: If you are determined to run your own business, you must concentrate on your
work either as a producer or a seller. The success of your business depends on how much time and
effort you will spend on it.
2. Self- Confidence: You must have a strong faith in your ability despite the problems that you will
encounter along the way.
3. Future-Oriented: Once a person enters in a line of business, you must understand that you are in a
non-stop contract that an entrepreneur should understand. It may take several years to build up a
business to a reasonable standard. The goal for most successful business people is to build a secure
job and stable income for themselves based on their own ability.
4. Profit-Oriented: When you enter into the world of business, obviously, you are looking for income
because you know that this will be your bread and butter not only for you but also for your family.
Therefore, you must see to it the business can generate income. Another plan of action is to expand
your own business through the use of your generated income.
5. Goal-Oriented: An entrepreneur is forward looking. You have an advanced preparation for your
business. You set a long-term goal for the activities that are needed, an extensive preparation for the
production process and procedures that you need to go through to acquire, human and non-human
resources. Everything in your business will have to be set clearly, organized, and planned
depending on the goal you want to achieve.
6. Persistence: Differences in opinion and judgment. Your opponent can be a part of the rejection on
what you intend to do for your endeavor. As an entrepreneur, you must be firm, strong-willed, and
stick or follow your own belief.
7. Copes with Failure: “Learn from your mistakes”. As an entrepreneur, you must learn how to deal
with the frustrations and failures instead, turn these into productive learning experiences.
8. Responds to Feedback or Open to Feedback: You must be concerned to know how well you are
doing and keep track of your performance. You must obtain useful feedback and advice from
others.
9. Take the Initiative: A successful entrepreneur takes the initiative. You must put yourself in a
position where you personally are responsible for the failure or success of your business.
10. Willing to Listen: Take time to listen to the advice, suggestions, and recommendations of fellow
entrepreneurs. It will help your business grow.
11. Set your Own Standards: This involves developing and using logical, step-by-step plans to reach
the goals, or offering evaluation alternatives, monitoring progress, and switching to successful
strategies for the goal you want to achieve. To be a successful entrepreneur you must take into
consideration that sales and production depend on your own standards.
12. Copes with Uncertainty: Pursue your vision to be a successful entrepreneur, you should know
how to handle unusual events that may happen in the business which include problems in
managing the workers, problems on the delivery of goods and services, and the problems on
demand and production. You must be patient in dealing with these uncertainties.
13. Committed: You should know that in your business, personal needs, attachment to your friends,
families and relatives are set aside. You must separate the money for your business from the
amount that you need to spend for personal obligations and lifestyles.
14. Builds on Strengths: Successful business people base their work on strengths. Use your manual
skills, knowledge in creating products or services, knowledge in trade and industry, ability to make
and use of a wide network of contacts to build your business.
15. Reliable and has Integrity: An entrepreneur must build a good reputation, possess the courage to
do the right thing, do what you say, walk your talk, be loyal, and be fair in dealing with the
subordinates and costumers.
16. Risk-Taker: Risk sometimes cannot be anticipated. When misfortunes happen, consider these as
challenges and work them out and set good alternatives. Risks may result to loss of your business
or even bankruptcy.

UNDERSTANDING COMPUTER
A computer is one of the most brilliant inventions of mankind. Thanks to the computer technology, we
were able to achieve storage and processing of huge amounts of data; we could rest our brains by
employing computer memory capacities for storing information. Due to computers, we have been able
to speed up daily work, carry out critical transactions and achieve accuracy and precision in work.
Computers of the earlier years were of the size of a large room and were required to consume huge
amounts of electric power. However, with the advancing technology, computers have shrunk to the
size of a small watch. Depending on the processing power and size of computers, they have been
classified under various types. Let us look at the classification of computers.

Different Types of Computers

Based on the operational principle of computers, they are categorized as analog, digital and hybrid
computers.

Analog Computers: These are almost extinct today. These are different from a digital computer
because an analog computer can perform several mathematical operations simultaneously. It uses
continuous variables for mathematical operations and utilizes mechanical or electrical energy.
Digital Computers: They use digital circuits and are designed to operate on two states, namely bits 0
and 1. They are analogous to states ON and OFF. Data on these computers is represented as a series of
0s and 1s. Digital computers are suitable for complex computation and have higher processing speeds.
They are programmable. Digital computers are either general purpose computers or special purpose
ones. Special purpose computers, as their name suggests, are designed for specific types of data
processing while general purpose computers are meant for general use.
Hybrid Computers: These computers are a combination of both digital and analog computers. In this
type of computers, the digital segments perform process control by conversion of analog signals to
digital ones.
Classification of Computers
The following are the classification of the different types of computers based on their sizes and
functionalities:
Mainframe Computers: Large organizations use mainframes for highly critical applications such as
bulk data processing and ERP. Most of the mainframe computers have the capacities to host multiple
operating systems and operate as a number of virtual machines and can substitute for several small
servers.
Minicomputers: In terms of size and processing capacity, minicomputers lie in between mainframes
and microcomputers. Minicomputers are also called mid-range systems or workstations. The term
began to be popularly used in the 1960s to refer to relatively smaller third generation computers.
Servers: They are computers designed to provide services to client machines in a computer network.
They have larger storage capacities and powerful processors. Running on them are programs that serve
client requests and allocate resources like memory and time to client machines. Usually they are very
large in size, as they have large processors and many hard drives. They are designed to be fail-safe and
resistant to crash.
Supercomputers: The highly calculation-intensive tasks can be effectively performed by means of
supercomputers. Quantum physics, mechanics, weather forecasting, molecular theory are best studied
by means of supercomputers. Their ability of parallel processing and their well-designed memory
hierarchy give the supercomputers, large transaction processing powers.

Microcomputers: A computer with a microprocessor and its central processing unit it is known as a
microcomputer. They do not occupy space as much as mainframes do. When supplemented with a
keyboard and a mouse, microcomputers can be called personal computers. A monitor, a keyboard and
other similar input output devices, computer memory in the form of RAM and a power supply unit
come packaged in a microcomputer. These computers can fit on desks or tables and prove to be the
best choice for single-user tasks.
Personal computers come in different forms such as desktops, laptops and personal digital assistants
(refer to Figure 3). Let us look at each of these types of computers
Desktops: A desktop is intended to be used on a single location. The spare parts of a desktop computer
are readily available at relatively lower costs. Power consumption is not as critical as that in laptops.
Desktops are widely popular for daily use in the workplace and households.
Laptops: Similar in operation to desktops, laptop computers are miniaturized and optimized for
mobile use. Laptops run on a single battery or an external adapter that charges the computer batteries.
Netbooks: They fall in the category of laptops, but are inexpensive and relatively smaller in size. They
had a smaller feature set and lesser capacities in comparison to regular laptops, at the time they came
into the market.
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): It is a handheld computer and popularly known as a palmtop. It
has a touch screen and a memory card for storage of data. PDAs can also be used as portable audio
players, web browsers and smart phones. Most of them can access the Internet by means of Bluetooth
or Wi-Fi communication.
Tablet Computers: Tablets are mobile computers that are very handy to use. They use the touch
screen technology. Tablets come with an onscreen keyboard or use a stylus or a digital pen. Apple's
iPod redefined the class of tablet computers.
Wearable Computers: A record-setting step in the evolution of computers was the creation of
wearable computers. These computers can be worn on the body and are often used in the study
of behavior modeling and human health. Military and health professionals have incorporated
wearable computers into their daily routine, as a part of such studies. When the users' hands and
sensory organs are engaged in other activities, wearable computers are of great help in tracking
human actions. Wearable computers do not have to be turned on and off and remain in
operation without user intervention.