What to look for when purchasing a laptop

Portable Computers

Weight, Screen size, color support, Batteries, PC card support and Features (color, style, moving around, price, support)

Laptop Power Management:
APM (Advance Power Management)
APCI (Advance Power Configuration Interface)
Types of Portable Computer Displays





LCD - Liquid Crystal Display uses TFT Thin Film Transistor Technology
Active Matrix is clear and you can see it in any angle vs. Passive Matrix found on older notebooks


LED – Light Emitting Diode

OLED – Organic Light Emitting Diode

Video Standards for laptops:

Resolution and Horizontal and Vertical Ratios

XGA Extended Graphics Array 800 x 600 4:3 or 1024 x 768 4:3
SXGA Super XGA 1400 x 1050 4:3
UXGA Ultra XGA 1600 x 1200 4:3
WUXGA Widescreen Ultra XGA 1920 x 1200 16:10


How to move around

Touch pad, Serial Mouse, PS/2 Mouse, Wireless\Bluetooth, Infrared Mouse, USB Mouse, Eraser/Pointer stick & Trackball
Fn Keys  and Ports – Function Keys. Audio/Video Ports, USB, Firewire, Display, Wireless, RJ45, HDMI, and VGA ports
Special Keys – Dual Displays, Wireless on/off, Volume, Brightness, Bluetooth on/off and Keyboard backlight

Batteries

Nickel Cadmium Ni-CD first battery ever used in mobile PC no smart recharging must wait before PC is drained before you can recharge (memory effect)  also battery did not last as long and when removing must clean corrosion in order for new battery to work.

Nickel Metal Hydride Ni-MH a little better than the Ni-CD but has the same problems stated above

Lithium Ion are completely immune to memory problems can recharge on the fly and lasts longer will not explode if overcharge this should be the battery you will need for your laptop

Docking Stations - A docking station lets you connect many devices to a portable at once

Port Replicator – A device to connect a laptop to replicate ports to connect peripherals

PCMCIA Cards or Card Bus of the newest cards Express Cards
(16, 32 and 64bit)

Type I                    
3.3mm                 
Flash Memory

Type II                   
5.0mm                   
NIC/Modem/USB/Firewire

Type III                   
10.5mm                 
Hard Drive

Express Card /34mm and /54mm

Laptop components

LCD screen, case, keyboard, hard drive (SATA/PATA), memory, optical drive, wireless card, mini PCIe, DC jack, battery, touchpad, speakers, motherboard and CPU

Memory components

SO DIMM     

MicroDIMM

Cooling Fans – Use to cool portable computers

Security – Physical Laptop lock, laptop cable locks, LoJack, Find my iPhone/iPAD, Insurance and Warranty

Laptop Components that you usually do not mess with include Display, CPU and Motherboard

Laptop Components use replace are batteries, AC Charger, Memory, Storage, Optical, CMOS battery, Card Bus and Networking

Troubleshooting laptops

No display
Dim display
Flickering display
Sticky keys
Battery issues
Ghost cursor
No power
Num Lock indicator lights
No wireless
No Bluetooth connectivity
Cannot display to external monitor

Tools

Document and label cable and screws
Organize parts
Manufacturer documentation
Use proper tools

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Computer Monitors tips

Types of Displays

CRT or Cathode Ray Tube Monitor
CRT stands for cathode-ray tube and is a technology has been around for a long time

LCD or Flat Panel Monitor
LCD stands for liquid crystal display and although it may seem like this is a new technology it has been used in digital watches for years. The technology works by passing an electric current through liquid crystal which is contained between two sheets of polarizing material.

There are 2 types of color LCD's, passive matrix and active matrix also known as TFT (thin film transistor). Passive matrix LCD's are the less expensive of the two types.


LED and OLED - Light Emitting Diode or Organic LED works without a backlight.

Types of OLED are PMOLED and AMOLED Passive and Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode

Plasma Display – is a type of flat panel display that utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gas.




Projectors – Use for presentation the 3 types of projectors are (CRT, LCD and DLP) Digital Light Processing

Monitor Specs

Monitor supports Pixels and RGB color support
(Red, Green and Blue)


Resolution and Refresh Rates
The resolution is the number of dots displayed on the entire screen. The higher the resolution the smaller everything on the screen will be. This can be a benefit for running multiple applications at the same time but can also be a burden for someone with poor eyesight. Common resolution supports include 640 * 480, 800 * 600 and 1,024*768 and so forth.

The refresh rate of a monitor is the frequency at which the screen is redrawn. The higher the number the more often the screen is redrawn and the less flicker will occur. Common Refresh rate are 60 to 80Hertz

Refresh rates for CRT's will also vary but the minimum refresh rate should be at least 70Hz. Anything below 70Hz and people can start to notice the screen flicker as it is redrawn which can cause eye strain.

Screen Size

The screen size is measured diagonally from corner to corner

Most Monitor can display 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 27 and 32 inches

Viewing Angle

LCD/LED/OLED/Plasma - The viewing angle indicates at what angle the monitor can be viewed vertically and horizontally and still be seen.

CRT - CRT monitor can be viewed at almost any angle

Contrast Ratio

The contrast ratio determines how rich colors will appear on-screen, the higher the ratio the better. Contrast ratios range from 200:1 up to 1000:1

Brightness

LCD/LED/OLED - The brightness states how bright the LCD display will be and ranges from 200 cd/ m 2 to 350 cd/m 2. For the most part, all LCD monitors exhibit sufficient brightness for any type of use.

Dot pitch

This is the space between image pixels on the screen measured in millimeters

LCD - The less space between dots the better and sharper the image will be so the lower the number stated for this spec the better. Dot pitch ranges between .28mm to .24mm in all model categories.

CRT - The less space between dots the better and sharper the image will be so the lower the number stated for this spec the better. Dot pitch ranges between .28mm to .24mm in all model categories.

Multiple Monitor or Dual View Monitor is a Windows feature that allows you to duplicate or extend the desktop across to multiple displays and monitors.

Monitor Troubleshooting
Greenish Tint (Bad Monitor or Bent Pins)
Dead Pixels
Black Border around monitors
No Displays

* Note never work on monitors very dangerous!!!!!!!

Custom PC Configurations
Audio/Video Editing Workstation (Special video card, large fast hard drives and dual monitors)

Graphics Art PCs (Photoshop)

Music Recording PCs (Logic Pro)

Video Recording PCs (Pinnacle)
CAD/CAM Workstation (Powerful CPU, High end video and maximum RAM)

Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing
Virtualization Workstation
Type 1 Native: VMware, Citrix and Hyper V

Type 2 Hosted: VMware Server and MS Virtual PC
Thin and Thick Clients (Basic and Desktop Applications)

Home Server PC (Media Streaming, File Sharing, Print Sharing, Gigabit NIC and RAID)

Home Theater PC (HTPC) (Surround Sound, HDMI, TV Tuner)

Gaming PC (Powerful CPU, High end video/GPU, Sound Card and high end cooling)

Gaming Consoles: PlayStation, Xbox and Wii

Monitor Controls

Power - Turns the monitor on / off.

Brightness - Using this button or wheel the user can increase and decrease the brightness on the screen.

Contrast - Using this button or wheel can increase and decrease the amount of contrast on the screen.

Horizontal Size - Allows for the picture on the screen to be stretched to the horizontal edge of the monitor.

Vertical Size - Allows the picture on the screen to be stretched to the vertical edges of the monitor.

Horizontal Position - Allows the picture to move moved horizontally, once in the center the user can then use the Horizontal size to stretch it to have an equal amount of black border on each side.

Vertical Position - Like the Horizontal Position, using this button or wheel the user can move the picture up or down to center the picture more appropriately.

Full Screen - Sets monitor to full screen

Degauss - This button will demagnetize the CRT restoring possible color impurities. After this button has been pressed the degaussing circuit will be activated and then deactivated after a few seconds. Pressing and holding this button for a few seconds may cause your computer monitor to reset all data.

Corner / Trapezoid Correction - Using this button or wheel the user can either round the edges of the picture or move the picture inward like an hour glass or outwards.

Vertical Linearity - Sets the width of the vertical lines.

Moire - Removes or reduces the Moire effect if any.

OSD Controls - If the monitor contains OSD controls allows for the OSD menus to be adjusted.

Power Management - Allows the user to define the power management settings through the monitor itself and not the software.

Monitor Status - Displays the current monitor settings such as refresh rate and other settings.

Language - Sets the language on the monitor.

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