How does a computer work?

How Computers Work
How Monitors Work

You should also look into logic gates, which are the very low level logic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gates

I’ll tell you at Thanksgiving, it’s too long for a fluther answer.

—Matt

Start by pretending that our hands have only one finger each – hence we use the binary system…and if you are a techno idiot like me, skip the article on logic gates, trust me.

I personally believe that there is a tiny nano-man inside my computer who runs around throwing switches and arranging teeny fonts.

It is a long answer, but I’ll keep it as short as possible.

The computer is divided into a few main parts:
1)Motherboard
2)Hard Drive
3)RAM
4)Power Supply
5)Processor
6)Video Card
7)External Bays
8)Cooling fan
—-
So, basically the motherboard is what holds everything together, except the power supply, it has all the chips and ports for what your computer needs to run. It also contains your computer’s BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) which controls boot order and other various options not controlled by the OS. The Hard drive (HDD) contains all of your data, OS, and everything else. The RAM is what your computer runs on. Because it is not very effective to write all data onto the HDD then change it constantly during a programs operation, all constantly changing data is written to RAM (Random Access Memory). Power supply supplies power to every component of the computer, duh. The video card is what runs and processes all of the video effects, such a 3D, on the computer. External Bays are your CD/DVD/Floppy drives. The processor is where the data goes to get interpreted and executed.
So to get, lets say MineSweeper to run it would go like this. You boot up the Computer, skipping the BIOS options along the way, and then your operationg system boots up. The BIOS knew to boot from the HDD and found the necessary files to start up. The operating system loads its data up, telling the processor to draw the windows logo at a predefined location. The OS then tells the computer to draw a task bar, etc. After that is done, you move the mouse, whose position is constantly being modified in the ram to the start menu. You click the Start Icon, which tells the OS to draw in the shapes to make up the menu and then click MineSweeper. The Icon you click tells the OS which directory to run the program from. The program tells the OS what to draw and writes data to the RAM and presto, you got MineSweeper. From there, everything you click will be interpreted by the program and not the OS.

Side not because I just realized this, by OS in the last paragraph, I do not mean all of the Windows files necessary for boot, but the Explorer program that windows automatically loads in order to preform input/output operations.

I think the best way to explain a computer is to think of the file
cabinet with say 4 drawers… Microsoft has the top drawer and has all the files that control what you see and how your computer processes it… When download a file MS tells it where it will stay and pulls it out when you want to look at it or run that program… This may not be very technical but it works for me—You go on the internet—you look in someone elses file cabinet…