{"id":264,"date":"2020-08-18T19:23:47","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T20:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/?page_id=77"},"modified":"2020-08-22T19:26:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T20:26:39","slug":"this-is-the-page-title-toplevel-99","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/?page_id=264","title":{"rendered":"The Computer Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"\nThe Computer Itself<\/title>\n<p>\nDuring the several years I spent on the phone in tech support, it\nwas common for people to call in with no idea of what kind of computer they had.\nI remember one conversation with a customer in which he answered “I don’t\nknow” to every questioned I asked about his hardware. Finally, he got so\nfrustrated and said, “Look! Im not a computer person. I just want you to\ntell me what’s wrong with my system.”<\/p>\n<p>\nImagine calling your mechanic to\nsay there is something wrong with your car. He asks you whether the car has four\nor eight cylinders, whether it has fuel injection, whether it is automatic or\nmanual, and whether it uses unleaded or leaded gas. You finally get frustrated\nand say, “Look. I’m not a engine person. I just want you to tell me what’s\nwrong with my car.”\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe solution is to drive your car to the\nmechanic to have it checked. However, you can’t always do that with your computer\nsystem. Dozens of people rely on it to do their work. Without it, the business\nstops. To better track down and diagnose hardware problems, you need to know\nwhat to look for.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThis section should serve as a background for many\nissues I’ve covered elsewhere. This chapter is designed to familiarize you\nwith the concepts rather than make you an expert on any aspect of the hardware.\nIf you want to read more about PC hardware, an excellent book is the\n<book isbn=0789728591>Winn Rosch Hardware Bible<\/book> from Brady Books (its more than 1000 pages and, as of\nthis writing (March 2005), it’s in it’s sixth edition).\n<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0789728591\/jimmouserservice\"><\/a>\n<p>\nIn the following sections, I will be\ntalking primarily about PC hardware. Many of the concepts are the same as on\nAlpha machines or Macs, but when I talk about specific interactions with the\nhardware, they probably only apply to the PC, for two reasons. Despite the fact\nthat Linux runs on several platforms, it was first developed on the PC and only\nrecently successfully ported to the other architectures. The second reason is\nthat my expertise is in PCs. I have several of them myself and have worked with\nthem for years, so I have the experience to know what I am talking about.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nIn addition, the first commercial port to the Alpha is fairly recent.\nTherefore, there are not as many people using them. However, keep in mind that\nalthough the DEC Alpha is a different processor, the rest of the hardware is\nusually the same.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Computer Itself During the several years I spent on the phone in tech support, it was common for people to call in with no idea of what kind of computer they had. I remember one conversation with a customer … <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/?page_id=264\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-264","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/264\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.linux-tutorial.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}