T H E B E G I N N I N G

Turning on and booting the computer

Turning the power on

If you have a TV card fitted, check the chapter ‘Multimedia’ for

important information. To turn on the computer, press the lower POWER button. The green POWER ON light should come on to show that the system unit is powered. Remember that the monitor has its own power control (see the monitor’s User’s Guide for details) and that it may take a few moments to warm up.

If nothing happens when the POWER button is pressed, check that the system unit and monitor power cords are securely connected and that the AC power supply is switched on. See also the chapter on ‘Troubleshooting’.

Power-on self-test

Whenever the computer is turned on, the ‘power-on self test’ (POST) routine checks the actual set-up of the computer against that recorded in its internal configuration memory. During this time, various messages are displayed. Further information on the computer’s Basic In/Out System (BIOS) and its setting up can be found in Appendix C, ‘System BIOS and set-up’.

The boot sequence

Provided that POST succeeds without any serious errors, the computer attempts to find its operating system to start it going, that is, it attempts to boot. By default, the computer will first look for a system diskette, then for a bootable hard disk partition or area.

System diskette

A system diskette is a diskette bearing at least the rudiments of an operating system. If the computer finds such a diskette in the diskette drive, it boots from it. If it finds a non-system diskette, the computer will ask you to replace it.

Bootable Hard disk

Most computers with a hard disk containing pre-installed software normally arrive set up with a single ‘partition’. The operating system already in place or pre-installedon this, the C: drive, and it is usually made ‘active’, i.e. the bootable hard disk.

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