What Exactly Happens When You Turn On Your Computer?

When you power on a computer, it goes through a “boot up” process– a term that comes from the word “bootstrap.” Here’s what’s happening in the background—whether you’re using a Windows PC, Mac, or Linux system.

The Hardware Powers On

When you press the power button, the computer supplies power to its components—the motherboard, CPU, hard disks, solid state drives, graphics processors, and everything else in the computer.

The piece of hardware that supplies power is known as the “power supply.” Inside a typical desktop PC, it looks like a box at the corner of the case (the yellow thing in the picture above), and it’s where you connect the AC power cord.

The CPU Loads the UEFI or BIOS

Now that it has electricity, the CPU initializes itself and looks for a small program that is typically stored in a chip on the motherboard.

In the past, the PC loaded something called a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System.) On modern PCs, the CPU loads UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) firmware instead. This is a modern replacement for the old-style BIOS. But, to make it extra confusing, some PC manufacturers still call their UEFI software “BIOS” anyway.

RELATED: What Is UEFI, and How Is It Different from BIOS?

The UEFI or BIOS Tests and Initializes Hardware

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Geek Trivia: The Introduction Of What Led To A Significant Rise In U.S. IQ Levels?

The Introduction Of What Led To A Significant Rise In U.S. IQ Levels?

Iodized Salt Fluoridated Water Jeopardy Computers in Schools Think you know the answer?

Why You Shouldn’t Buy A 5G Phone In 2019

How to Clean the Dust Out of Your Laptop

How To Thoroughly Clean Your Dirty Desktop Computer

Just like your car, your house, and even your body, your computer needs a good cleaning every once and a while to prevent dust build up and overheating.  Cleaning a PC is easy to do and only takes about 20 minutes, so today we’re going to cover how to effectively clean the inside of your desktop computer.

Editor’s Note: This article shows how to completely clean everything inside of the computer case. You don’t necessarily have to remove the RAM and video card if you don’t want to. We do recommend cleaning your computer on a regular basis.

How often should I clean my computer?

Depending on your environment, you may need to clean your computer more or less often. Computer placement is one important variable. Keeping your computer on the floor allows for dust, hair, skin cells, and carpet particles to get inside easier. If you keep your computer above the floor—say, on your desk—particles are less prone to getting inside.

If you smoke near your computer, tar, ash, and other gunk can build up in your computer’s fans and on inside surfaces. Ridding your computer of these things every 6 months can increase your computer’s performance.

If you’re the owner of a pet that sheds, you might want to clean your computer more often. The inside of your computer is just as susceptible to fur clogging fans and other areas of your computer.

In short, if you keep your computer off the floor, don’t smoke, and don’t have shedding pets, you can probably get away with cleaning your computer once per year. If any of those things do pertain to you, you might want to clean your computer every 6, or even 3, months. And, as always, if your computer starts getting hotter than usual, open it up to check for any dust or hair buildup and then clean it.

Preparation

Do not open your computer while it is running or with any cables attached to it. It is always safer to remove all peripherals such as USB cables, audio cables, video cables, and especially the power cable. Yes, keeping the power cable connected does ground the PC and it’s often okay to leave it connected while working inside the case. But, even the tiny trace of moisture from canned air can cause trouble if the components are getting power.

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Geek Trivia: Who Is The Only Person To Have Played Themselves In The Star Trek Universe?

Who Is The Only Person To Have Played Themselves In The Star Trek Universe?

Carl Sagan Buddy Holly Jimmy Carter Stephen Hawking Think you know the answer?

How to Disable Ad Banners on Firefox’s New Tab Page

Mozilla just “experimented” with advertisement banners for Booking.com, a hotel reservation website, on Firefox’s New Tab page. Here’s how to disable all those banners so you never see any of these ads in the future.

A Mozilla spokesperson told VentureBeat that this “was not a paid placement or advertisement,” and was “an experiment to provide more value to Firefox users through offers provided by a partner.” Who does Mozilla think they’re fooling?

Anyway, if you don’t want to see these advertisement banners in the future, there’s a simple solution.

Click Menu > Options > Home, or just click the gear-shaped “Options” button at the top-right corner of FIrefox’s New Tab page.

Under Firefox Home Content, uncheck “Snippets.” This will disable all those message banners at the bottom of Firefox’s New Tab page, including ones hawking hotel booking websites.

While you’re at it, you may also want to uncheck Pocket’s Sponsored Stories, which are another type of advertisement that Mozilla places on your New Tab page.

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