Monday, June 16, 2008

Hardware Engineering for Girls - part I

Why is it that boys are generally better at hardware engineering than girls? Well in my university very few of the girls studying computer engineering have a good knowledge in dealing with computer hardware. Why? Maybe becoz girls are generally not expected to get down and dirty with machines.. Well whatever, bottomline anyone studying computer engineering should have some basic knowledge about maintaining the h/w too. And this is how i set out to be a h/w expert:)

First I browsed YouTube for video tutorials on h/w. This what i found. It's a complete guide for anyone learning about setting up h/w for the first time..













Next I opened up the my PC and did a bit of exploring. Although I have opened my PC before to change the RAM or clock battery, i never opened it up just for taking a look around and figuring things out. My usual policy is, as long as it works don't mess with it.

After my exploring was done I fitted everything back and switched on the PC. Omg, i got a error message saying "Looking for IDE channels..." and then "Please insert Boot CD and press enter". Looked like my policy was right!

Now I had a real reason to open up the PC [its not working, lol!]. So went and opened it up again and realized I hadn't fitted back the power supply cable going to the DVD ROM [ i had pulled this out during my exploring]. So fitted it back and rebooted. Worked just fine.

So it really doesn't hurt to do a bit of exploring after all..