How to Test Power Supply (SMPS)?

Power Supply is the most important part of your computer System because you can not work until your computer is not powering on.  Here I am describing some techniques that you can use to troubleshoot and overcome the SMPS Problems.

Functions Performed

Following Functions are provided by the SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply):
Its main function is to provide required DC voltage to operate all components in the system.
Different Voltage levels obtained from same power supply.
Output is not affected by the input means if input voltage is between 120V AC to 240V AC the output obtained will be constant. It also provides electrical protection to all components from under voltage or over voltage.
It Provides Necessary Cooling to its components and protects computer from overheating. 

Voltage Levels
If you want to test SMPS than you should know voltage level on every pin of the connector so that testing can be performed:

24 PIN ATX Connector
SIDE A			SIDE B
Pin No.	Color	Voltage Level	Pin No.	Color	Voltage Level
1	Orange	+3.3 Volts	13	Orange	+3.3 Volts
2	Orange	+3.3 Volts	14	Blue	-12 Volts
3	Black	Ground	15	Black	Ground
4	Red	+5 Volts	16	Green	PS_ON
5	Black	Ground	17	Black	Ground
6	Red	+5 Volts	18	Black	Ground
7	Black	Ground	19	Black	Ground
8	Grey	Power good	20	White	NC
9	Purple	VSB  +5V	21	Red	+5 Volts
10	Yellow	+12 Volts	22	Red	+5 Volts
11	Yellow	+12 Volts	23	Red	+5 Volts
12	Orange	+3.3 Volts	24	Black	Ground

8 Bit Industry Standard Architecture(ISA) or PC Bus

ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) was first used with the IBM PC in 1981. It was the first open system for PC architecture. No restriction was put on the use of this interconnection method by the IBM. IBM offered free licensing of this PC architecture technique which resulted in more popularity of this. Some main features of 8 bit ISA are:

1) It was introduced by IBM and was the first open system for PC architecture.
2) It provides data transfer rate up to 4.77 Mbps.
3) ISA interface contains 62 pins to interface add on cards. These 62 pins are arranged in two rows, each containing 31 pins.
4) Distance between each pin is 0.1 Inches.
5) 8 Bit ISA make use of Following signals:
    3 Ground Signals
    2 +5V DC Supply
   +12,12,-5V DC supply
    Bidirectional 8 bit data Bus.

Functions of North Bridge

After CPU North Bridge is the core chipset on the computer motherboard that controls data communication between CPU and Motherboard. It runs at full processor speed. It mainly works as Memory controller and System Controller. It incorporates interface between Processor and rest of motherboard components.

Chipset is actually numbered according to the number of North Bridge. Nvidia GeForce 320M is a Northbridge /Southbridge fabrication in a single chip. Following are some major functions that are performed by the North Bridge:

Processor Support: Chipset is the major decider on the motherboard that decides which processor is supported, of what speed and how many processors are supported? Following areas are covered by North Bridge under this:

CPU Interface Socket Type: North Bridge is interfaced with the processor through host processor bus and CPU socket. No. of processor sockets are available in the market for this purpose such as Socket 7,Socket -1, Socket A etc. This socket number is decider that which particular Processor class is supported on that motherboard.

Max. Speed of Processor: North Bridge works as speed controller for CPU. It Consists of Cache and main memory controller. North Bridge provides necessary interface with FSB (Front Side Bus) and PCI –Southbridge. Processor speed is dependent on FSB speed and clock multiplier.

Functions of South Bridge

South Bridge is a chipset that is used for controlling I/O Functions such as USB, disk interfaces, PCI Bus, Super I/O Chip support etc. In other words it works as peripheral controller. The main feature of Southbridge is that same South Bridge can be used with different types of North bridges. It is generally located at the lower edge of the motherboard.

Following are some Major Functions Performed by South Bridge:

I/O Control: South Bridge is the key point that decides which kinds of buses, at what speed, and which features will be supported by the system. South bridge controls PCI and ISA buses and transfers information to them or from them.

USB Ports Control: USB Support on the motherboard is provided by the south bridge and which is the main interface for mostly peripheral devices.

Bus Bridge Support: Two main type of buses ISA and PCI are used in most of the modern computers. Since, there is a great speed mismatch between them. South Bridge provides the feature of connecting these two dissimilar buses. This is achieved by PCI-to-ISA bridge chip.

SPX (Sequential Packet Exchange) Protocols

It is the version of Novels’ Sequenced Packet Protocol (SPP). It is a transport layer protocol and is used by client server applications. This protocol provides a packet delivery system for third party applications.

Figure given below illustrate the structure of SPX packet.

Connection Control Flag	DataStream Type
Source Connection ID
Destination Connection ID
Sequence Number
Acknowledge Number
Allocation Number
0-534 bytes of data

How to Download YouTube Videos?

Hello friend today I am going to tell you very special software with the help of which you can download videos from any site like YouTube. Actually this is a plugin that comes with our beloved Mozilla Firefox web browser. So the primary platform to install this plugin is Mozilla Firefox. Here are some important points about this plugin:

Plugin Name is Video Download Helper. It is a tool for web content extraction and can download videos and pictures from other sites.

It’s absolutely free and can be downloaded from official website of Mozilla (Click Here to Download)

No need to install any video downloader.

No Download Limit.

Fast Download Speed.

And one more exciting thing about this plugin is that it can also convert videos into your desired formats during download. Hence we get double benefit Download + Video Conversion.

To perform video conversion another plugin Convert Helper is also installed and can be downloaded from official site at no cost means its also absolutely free. (Click Here to Download)

Another advantage is that you can download videos as per your size means high quality or low quality.

Intel 8255 (Programmable Peripheral Interface)

Intel 8255 is a PPI (Programmable Peripheral Interface) and is used to interface Peripheral devices to microcomputers. It can be programmed in a variety of ways as per Programmer Requirements. It has two versions 8255A and 8255B. Both of them are similar in general description but are different in their electrical characteristics.

Intel 8255 Consists of Three 8 Bit Ports: Port A, Port B and Port C. The Port C is further divided into two 4 Bit Ports: Port C_UPPER and C_LOWER. These three ports are divided into two groups for the purpose of Programming:

Group A: This Includes Port A (PA₀-PA₇) and 4 MSBs of Port C (PC₄-PC₇).

Group B: This Includes Port B (PB₀-PB₇) and 4 LSBs of Port C (PC₀-PC₃).

Features of 8255A (PPI)

It is a 40 pin IC.
It Operates on single +5V_DCsupply.
Power Dissipation=1 watt.
Ambient Temp. =0- 70 °C
Input Low Voltage (V_IL) = Min. 0.5V, Max. 0.8V.
Input High Voltage (V_IH) =Min. 2V, Max. V_CC.
Output Low Voltage (V_OL) = 0.45V
Output High Voltage (V_OH)= 2.4V
Voltage on any pin 0.5V to 7V.
Darlington Drive Current= Min. 1mA, Max. 4mA.