| Other types of expansion cards and peripherals: Almost every type of expansion hardware that you can add to a computer is manufactured on cards that are plugged into one of the bus slots on the mother board. Television and radio cards, video capture cards, cards for attaching external components such as zip drives, cameras, and specialty devices, as well as cards which provide extra printer, serial, and USB ports, and other unique hardware devices are all made to fit into the bus slots. Be aware that if you want to add a hardware expansion card to your computer, you'll need to have an open (unused and physically available) bus slot of the right type (ISA, PCI, etc.) on your motherboard. VIDEO: serial-parallel card install (Notice that this card adds an ADDITIONAL printer and serial port to the machine), serial parallel card Printers and other external peripheral jacks: Most external computer hardware peripherals connect to the computer via cables connected to the Parallel ("printer" or “LPT”) port, serial ports, or USB ports. USB devices can be hooked up while the computer is powered on. All other types of external devices should be connected after the computer has been powered off. Common external devices include printers, scanners, cameras, modems, network connection devices, ports, special mice, keyboards, input and output devices, and any type of specialty device that is connected to, controlled by, or used by the computer. PHOTOS: Back panel connections, ATX case back panel , AT case back panel, Back panel connections #2 VIDEOS: printer cable back panel, USB back panel, speaker cable back panel, back panel all plugged in, joystick into back panel These types of devices usually come with installation disks that run automatically when inserted into a machine that has Windows installed. These installation disks install the software and "driver" programs which make the device work in and recognize/communicate with the operating system. The physical setup of these devices, however, simply requires plugging in and powering up the peripheral device. USB devices very often don't require external power - most web cams, for example, plug into the USB cable connector, and receive their power directly from the USB port on the computer. VIDEO: USB cam back panel connection |
