Personal Computer Fundamentals
Starting Up and Shutting Down a PC
In this lesson, you will learn:
Almost everyone has started up a computer. Generally there is nothing to do after the power switch is turned on, as the program auto magically loads itself and answers all of its own questions. Unless you have to log on to a network or specific computer profile, there is nothing else to do.
Most computers these days have the start button on the front, but you may occasionally run into an older machine that has a red switch on the side in the rear, or a black switch where the cable comes into the computer from the wall. In any case, all of the cables have to be connected to the back of the computer before the computer is turned on or else the speaker will beep a few times. The beep is a code letting you know which device is not connected. The Video is most important, so beeps two times fast to let you know to shut it off right away and plug the monitor in. The computer will beep once when all is normal. When the keyboard is disconnected, the message on the screen will tell you and ask what you want to do. Sometimes when Windows is loading there will be a dialog box telling you that Windows did not detect a mouse on your computer.
In any case, if everything is connected properly and windows is installed ok, the computer will open with a splash screen naming the operating system. After a couple of minutes the desktop screen will load, and the Icons and and Taskbar and the Start Button appears on the screen. You will learn more about these later.
The computer lab computers are all on a network so that all of the desktops and computer screens and programs are the same for each one. Since all of the computers are "networked" the techniques for logging on to the network is the same for all of the computers in the computer labs.
The first screen will ask you to press Ctl, Alt and Delete Keys. Since it is not obvious what those are, just hit "Enter" and you will see a picture with moving fingers showing the keys in red.
Simply hold down the CTL key on the lower left of the keyboard, skip a key and press and hold the ALT and with your right hand touch the "Delete" key one time. You may need to practice this a couple of times.
The first screen asked you to press Ctl, Alt and Delete Keys. To log off of a computer so that another user can log on with their settings, follow the instructions below:
Simply hold down the CTL key on the lower left of the keyboard, skip a key and press and hold the ALT and with your right hand touch the "Delete" key one time. You may need to practice this a couple of times.
Shutting off the computer safely is a matter of greater care. Always make sure that you close all of the Windows properly before powering off the computer. DO NOT switch the power off without following the shutdown procedures described here in the following paragraph. Windows stores the information about itself, what you are working on, and the computer internal sessions that are running in the background in a memory area called cache ram. Even if you have nothing on the screen and have saved all of your files in the applications you were working in, Windows still needs to write some or all of the data from this memory area onto the hard drive where it can be found when windows restarts. When you shut off the power suddenly, this information is instantly gone, and is not there when Windows tries to rebuild the session again.
Here is the exact procedure for shutting down every computer system, from mainframe to Laptop.
Another way is the way you learned in logging off of a PC. Simply hold down the CTL key on the lower left of the keyboard, skip a key and press and hold the ALT and with your right hand touch the "Delete" key one time. You may need to practice this a couple of times.
When you leave programs open, they will be re-opened in the next session. Large programs take time to open, so Windows starts up much slower.
When shutting down or re-starting, the services are stopped, the data in CACHE RAM is transferred to disk, the settings that you CHANGED are written to disk, and the IO Ports (Input/Output and Network) are disconnected.
Remember: To shut down the pc when you are in Windows, Unix, Linux or Ubuntu, point to the (bottom Left) or the 'Start' button and select Shut Down. On Mac Computers point to the Apple icon on the top left.
Shutting off the computer in this way will unload all of the information that is in memory and safely close the programs that are running in the background. If you do not do this and just turn off the computer at the switch, the services and programs that are running in the background (you can't see them) will suddenly end and the data they have will be totally lost, causing them to fail when the computer is restarted. (Sometimes permanently; the computer itself may fail to start and display error messages because some of the main files have become "corrupted".)