computer repair replacing the optical drive

Posted on 3 Feb 2013 by infotechcomputing

hardware optical drive interface of Sony DVD-ROM drive DDU1621 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today we are going to be talking about replacing the optical drive. You will find the Optical Drive or disc drive just above the Hard drive in the computer.

The disc drive is held in by four screws, drawer faces out. To begin with you will want to put on your Electrostatic Discharge Strap, which is a wrist strap, with an Alligator Clip attached for grounding, to prevent Electrostatic Discharge which is quite harmful to the computer. If you don’t have one of these, you can find these at most computer, electronic stores

We will start by unplugging the computer from the socket.

Next we want to remove the retaining screws that are holding the cover on the case, than sliding it off. After locating the Optical Drive, you will see two screws on one side, remove these, there should be two other screws on the other side. You may have to remove the cover that the motherboard sits if you find it won’t budge to remove the other two screws. You should be able to remove the optical Drive by sliding it out the front of the case.

Before you remove the Optical drive, make sure you remove the power plug from the rear of the unit, and either the 40 pin ribbon cable or a single Sata colored wire.

Once, you have removed it, put it aside and pick up the new one. If you have two Optical Drive’s you will want to make one of the drives, master and the other slave. You will have to make the adjust by moving the jumper. The Jumper is a small 2 pin connector. This is on the back side, same area where the power plug is located. This will depend on the instructions that is on the unit. Using a set of forceps to pull off the jumper, allows you to move it to the proper place,. MA for Master, SL for Slave or CS for Cable Select. Your device if is a Sata, may not have a jumper.

Now, we are going to slide the new one into the open bay, connecting the ribbon cable, power plug or colored wire (Sata) .

Once you have fastened in the four screws to hold the Optical Drive into place, make sure all your connections are tight. Remove the Electrostatic discharge Strap, then replace the cover to the case.

Installing Memory

Posted on 15 Sep 2012 by infotechcomputing

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Today we are going to be talking about installing memory. To find out what kind of memory we have we want to head on over to crucial.com . Once at the website your want to click on the memory ram tab, when it opens up go down and to the right where you will see Compatibility tools, move down and click where it says system scanner. A box will open click the box to agree to terms and conditions.

Click the Crucial downloading Tool above. Click run. Scan in progress will appear, than it will show how many slots you have on the computer, how much memory is installed, what type of memory and what it recommends.

To add memory, we first want to make sure were wearing the “electric static discharge strap”.(it goes around your wrist and it will have an alligator clip attached with a cord. This will be after you unplug the computer.

Now when you install memory you want to have two of the same, make sure you don’t mix the memory use 2 sticks of 256 or 512 you don’t want to use 1 gigabyte and one stick of 512 everything has to be equal.

Carefully slide the memory sticks into the slots, there are notches on either side, when you push down the plastic clips will lock into place After your done, disconnect the “electric static discharge strap,” . Make sure the memory sticks are in the groove before you place the cover back on and then plug-in the computer. When you start the computer up,you should see on the display what memory was added.

warning: use this before working on a computer

Posted on 28 Aug 2012 by infotechcomputing

Zdjęcie wykonane w miejscowości Rymań. Północna część Polski. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before working on the inside of a computer, you need to ground yourself. If you have ever walked across a carpeted floor, and touch the doorknob. You will remember seeing a spark, for a human no big deal. Do this to a computer and it is like a lightning bolt hitting the motherboard. So, to be safe we want to use a electrostatic discharge strap. Any computer repair shop should have these for around $10.00. It goes around your wrist, there is an alligator clip attached. Clip the alligator clip to a metal part of the computer. For laptop use a a USB port.