learn hardware

Where can i learn about hardware, and the terms and all. could someone give me a laydown even.

Well actually, what do you want to know? Are there any specifics that you want to know right now?

TwoCables said:

Well actually, what do you want to know? Are there any specifics that you want to know right now?

Okay well 1st... Whats safe to touch and not touch? And what is fragile inside?

Skylais said:

TwoCables said:

Well actually, what do you want to know? Are there any specifics that you want to know right now?

Okay well 1st... Whats safe to touch and not touch? And what is fragile inside?

Everything is safe to touch as long as you're grounded so that you don't give anything a direct static shock. Of course, you want your hands to be clean. You'd be surprised by some people, touching computer parts with food grease on their fingers and whatnot. omg. lol I don't know if this is harmful, but I can't imagine that it's harmless. Generally, I try to avoid touching computer parts too much because I figure that the cleaner they are, the better.

I don't know if I'd call anything fragile except maybe the capacitors because they're soldered on with two thin wires (like little pins) into the motherboard and they can be bent and even broken off.

Oh, and there's the matter of case fans: I haven't learned this first-hand yet, but I've been told to prevent them from spinning when you clean them (or when you run a vacuum by a case fan from the outside of the case). I've also been told to be gentle with the fan blades by not pressing on them too hard. I haven't had any problems, but I've heard that being careless can shorten a fan's life considerably.

I just thought about the process of holding a PCB (like a sound card, video card, motherboard): be careful where you place your fingers on the back of a PCB because those solder points can be like a bunch of little spikes! I don't know if anyone has ever had one of those draw blood, but I wouldn't be surprised.

A more on handling computer pats: don't walk around on carpet while holding one, or don't wear loose-fitting slippery clothing. You're sure to be generating lots of static electricity, especially in the drier seasons like winter.

That's really all I can think of at the moment, so keep asking questions and one of us here on SevenForums will know the answer!

What does pcb stand for? And then what exactly is a capacitor. I believe my dad told me on his pool pumps they store energy but might be different.

Right, hehe he always says not too touch it even if its not on just to be safe. Said once he did accidentally with a screwdriver and it blew up thru him across the homeowners yard and he hit the fence seeing stars. This guys like heavy too. So yea. Hmm i like googling but its better like this cuz u guys often describe it more specifically and i can remember better. Hmm. So heat sinks are just like... Idk. Don't they have a thermal paste? Like SI or something?
Also this is software based but swap, is the same as pagefile, or virtual memory?

Skylais said:

Where can i learn about hardware, and the terms and all. could someone give me a laydown even.

You can learn quite a bit by going to the tutorial page-


https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/;)

You can also go to Youtube and see videos on everything computer related.