Toshiba Laptop - Satellite L300-ST2501

A wealth of great features that won't cost you a fortune. That's what makes the new Satellite⪚ L305 Series one of the best laptop values available anywhere. The stunning 15.4-inch diagonal widescreen display on this series adds a whole new visual dimension to your entertainment — gaming, photos and more, plus school and business work.

Built around Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology and ample memory, these laptops supercharge most anything you do, from multitasking, balancing the family budget or studying for finals. And when you're ready to move out, integrated Wi-Fi lets you stay connected or work the Web at any wireless hotspots.

Base laptop includes:

- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic 32-Bit
- Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T3200 Processor (2.00GHz, 1MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
- Microsoft® Office 2007 Suite Ready
- 1024MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz SDRAM (1024MBx1)
- 15.4" Diagonal Widescreen WXGA TruBrite® display (1280x800)

What is an Operating System

The operating system is the core software component of your computer. It performs many functions and is, in very basic terms, an interface between your computer and the outside world. In the section about hardware, a computer is described as consisting of several component parts including your monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other parts. The operating system provides an interface to these parts using what is referred to as "drivers". This is why sometimes when you install a new printer or other piece of hardware, your system will ask you to install more software called a driver.

What does a driver do?

A driver is a specially written program which understands the operation of the device it interfaces to, such as a printer, video card, sound card or CD ROM drive. It translates commands from the operating system or user into commands understood by the the component computer part it interfaces with. It also translates responses from the component computer part back to responses that can be understood by the operating system, application program, or user. The below diagram gives a graphical depiction of the interfaces between the operating system and the computer component.

Causes of a slow PC

There are many possible causes of a slow PC. Because your computer is constantly working with files - moving, copying and deleting from place to place - it will eventually get cluttered with leftover files, some of which are not needed and just take up valuable disk space. You only have a certain amount of disk space available on your hard disk, and as it fills up the computer can begin to struggle to find room to perform its tasks.

If your PC crashes or freezes up, it may be a symptom of a slow or cluttered PC.The brain of your computer is the Processor, and it may be that your processor is too slow to run today's demanding software. The processor can also struggle if you have multiple programs running at once - for example, if you have Word open to compose a letter while downloading a file from the Internet and also playing a song through your media player.

RAM is the temporary memory the computer uses to do its calculations. If you do not have enough RAM, your programs will run slowly.

Other components of your PC can contribute to poor performance, particularly your Graphics Card when it comes to running media and games software. Some hardware needs special programs called Drivers and these need to be kept up to date.

You may also have programs running in the background using up memory that you are unaware of, and in some cases, the problem may be a malicious program such as a virus or spyware.

Tips To Make Your PC Run Faster

Remove Malicious Programs

It is important that you use up-to-date security software to detect and remove malicious programs. Virus programs can slow down your PC and cause unwanted behaviour, even damage to your data.

Spyware tracks your movements on the Web for advertising purposes, but can affect your PC's performance as well. Use anti-spyware programs to remove it.


Clear Out Junk Files

Any time you visit a web site, your computer needs to download the page along with any pictures displayed on it. To prevent your computer having to download the same files again each time you visit the same web site, your web browser will keep a "cache" of stored files it will retrieve if the site hasn't changed since your last visit. Although this means web pages appear faster, over time your cache can eat up a lot of disk space and slow your PC down.

Whenever you delete a file, it is moved to the Recycle Bin first, to give you the chance to change your mind. But the Recycle Bin uses disk space too, so if you leave lots of files in there you are wasting precious space.

Computer Mouse

The Mouse is the device you will use for most of your interactions with your PC. It is primarily used to move the pointer arrow around the screen and to select and activate options.

The mouse buttons are used to interact with whatever is on the screen where the pointer is located. The left mouse button is the one you will use most often. Clicking this tells the PC to select an item and is called 'left-clicking'. To activate an item and use it, you will often need to click the button twice or 'double-click'.

If you click and hold the left button and move the mouse, this has the effect of 'dragging' a selected object about the screen until you release the button.

Left-clicking on text in a document will place a flashing cursor at that point, which allows you to begin typing there.

The right mouse button is usually used to bring up a small menu window that gives options specific to the selected object. To use a particular option you just left-click it.
Common right-click menu options for an object include: Open (activate, same as if you double-click), Cut (remove to be placed elsewhere), Copy (make a copy of this object) , Create Shortcut (create a shortcut link elsewhere to give quick access to this object), Delete (remove permanently), Rename (give a new name), and Properties (find out information).

You may have a third smaller button in the center of your mouse that can be rolled forwards and backwards. This mouse-wheel can be used to move up and down through documents.

Windows Operating System

The operating system that runs all your programs and allows you to easily interact with your PC is called Windows for a good reason. It allows you to work with several different items and programs at once, all in their own 'window'. A window is like a smaller screen contained within a box on your main screen.

When you are working with a window it is brought to the 'front' of the screen, overlapping the Desktop and any other items behind it, so that you can focus on whatever is in the window.

In this way, you can have several windows open at the same time containing different programs that can be opened, closed, and re-arranged across the screen. This means you can do multiple tasks at the same time, such as running a programme while writing an e-mail for example.

What are the bumps at the end of computer cables?

In a typical computer system found in a home or office, you normally see these "bumps" on the mouse, keyboard and monitor cables. You can also find them on power supply wires when a device (like a printer or scanner) uses an external transformer.

These "bumps" are called ferrite beads or sometimes ferrite chokes. Their goal in life is to reduce EMI (electromagnetic interference) and RFI (radio-frequency interference). You can see these beads in the photo on to your right.

A ferrite bead is simply a hollow bead or cylinder made of ferrite, which is a semi-magnetic substance made from iron oxide (rust) alloyed with other metals. It slips over the cable when the cable is made, or it can be snapped around the cable in two pieces after the cable is made. The bead is encased in plastic -- if you cut the plastic, all that you would find inside is a black metal cylinder.

Computers are fairly noisy devices. The motherboard inside the computer's case has an oscillator that is running at anywhere from 300 MHz to 1,000 MHz. The keyboard has its own processor and oscillator as well. The video card has its own oscillators to drive the monitor. All of these oscillators have the potential to broadcast radio signals at their given frequencies. Most of this interference can be eliminated by the cases around the motherboard and keyboard.

Another source of noise is the cables connecting the devices. These cables act as nice, long antennae for the signals they carry. They broadcast the signals quite efficiently. The signals they broadcast can interfere with radios and TVs. The cables can also receive signals and transmit them into the case, where they cause problems. A ferrite bead has the property of eliminating the broadcast signals. Essentially, it "chokes" the RFI transmission at that point on the cable -- this is why you find the beads at the ends of the cables. Instead of traveling down the cable and transmitting, the RFI signals turn into heat in the bead.