• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

General-Purpose Ports

Laptops rarely come with all of the hardware you want. PC Cards/Express cards certainly help, but today’s laptops usually include at least USB ports to give you the option to add more hardware. Some laptops still provide legacy general-purpose expansion ports (PS/2, RS-232 serial ports, and so on) for installing peripheral hardware. If you’re lucky, you might even get a FireWire port so you can plug in your fancy new digital video camera. If you’re really lucky, you will have a docking station or port replicator so you don’t have to plug in all of your peripheral devices one at a time.

USB, FireWire, and eSATA

Universal serial bus (USB), FireWire (or more properly, IEEE 1394), and eSATA feature easy-to-use connectors and give users the ability to connect or insert a device into a system while the PC is running—you won’t have to reboot a system to install a new peripheral. With USB, FireWire, and eSATA, just plug the device in and go! Because portable PCs don’t have a desktop’s multiple internal expansion capabilities, USB, FireWire, and eSATA are three of the more popular methods for attaching peripherals to laptops (see Figure 21-17).

* * *

NOTE Almost all PDAs and other handheld devices—such as iPod music players—connect to PCs through USB ports. Most come with a USB cable that has a standard connector on one end and a proprietary connector on the other. Don’t lose the cable!

Port Replicators

A port replicator plugs into a single port on the portable computer—often a USB port but sometimes a proprietary port—and offers common PC ports, such as serial, parallel, USB, network, and PS/2. By plugging the port replicator into your notebook computer, you can instantly connect the computer to non-portable components such as a printer, scanner, monitor, or a full-sized keyboard. Port replicators are typically used at home or in the office with the nonportable equipment already connected. Figure 21-18 shows a Dell Inspiron laptop connected to a port replicator.

Figure 21-17 Devices attached to USB connectors on a portable PC

Figure 21-18 Port replicator for a Dell portable computer

The computer can access any devices attached to the port replicator; you don’t need to connect each individual device to the PC. As a side bonus, port replicators enable you to attach legacy devices, such as parallel printers, to a new laptop that only has modern multifunction ports such as USB and FireWire and not parallel or serial ports.

* * *

NOTE Although portable PCs most often connect to port replicators via USB ports, some manufacturers have proprietary connections for proprietary port replicators. As long as such a portable PC has a USB port, you can use either the proprietary hardware or the more flexible USB devices.

Docking Stations

Docking stations resemble port replicators in many ways, offering legacy and modern single- and multi-function ports (see Figure 21-19). The typical docking station uses a proprietary connection, but has extra features built in, such as a DVD drive or PC Card slot for extra enhancements. You can find docking stations for most laptop models, but you’ll find them used most frequently with the desktop extenders. A docking station makes an excellent companion to such portables.

Figure 21-19 Docking station

The Modular Laptop

For years, portable PC makers required completely proprietary components for each system model they developed. For the most part, this proprietary attitude prevails, but manufacturers have added some modularity to today’s portable PCs so you can make basic replacements and upgrades without going back to the manufacturer for expensive proprietary components. You need to surf the Web for companies that sell the components, because very few storefronts stock them. The most common modular components are RAM, hard drives, CPUs, video cards, optical drives, and network cards.

RAM

Stock factory portable PCs almost always come with a minimal