The Nuts and Bolts of a PC

The next part of the assignment was to tear a computer down to the bare bones and build it back again to its original, functional state. The experience of putting hands on the various computer components and seeing how they all fit together made the information I read in the notes and handouts more real to me and thus easier to remember and integrate with what I already know.

One would think that disassembling a computer would be a very easy task – just unscrew or unplug all the pieces and lay them out on the table. However, we soon found that computers can be stubborn things. Throughout the process we dealt with stuck buttons, uncooperative latches, and unyielding hinges. Perhaps the most frustrating part to remove was the heat sink because of its unusual clip. After several tries, Gina was able to get it off. Also, we struggled to remove the power supply unit, an effort which proved to be as challenging as any three-dimensional puzzle. Nevertheless, with nimble fingers and firm determination, all the components were finally dispatched.

Once the case was completely empty we took a quick breath and began to put it all back together again. Actually, it seemed easier to get the parts together than it was to take them apart. At the proper time we inserted an extra memory card into the motherboard, making sure that it was properly seated and fastened on each end. A secondary hard drive was placed in position within the rack, and the master and slave jumpers were adjusted. The jumper operation, a delicate manipulation carried out with tweezers, was particularly interesting to me. Our final upgrade was to add a CD writer which slid into its bay with ease. Reconnecting the ribbon-like cable from the motherboard to the two hard drives proved to be a trial-and-error adventure.

With our upgrades in place, we followed the directions for formatting the hard drives. Then we installed Windows XP, a lengthy process, with the help of the installation wizard. As the clock slipped past 9:00 pm, our reborn computer booted up successfully to my great sense of relief.