Computer Repairs and Troubleshooting

Common Computer Ports

The USB Port

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a specification to establish communication between devices and a host controller (usually a personal computer), developed and invented by Ajay Bhatt while working for Intel. USB has effectively replaced a variety of interfaces such as serial and parallel ports.

The USB port is one of the most popular and most used ports that come standard on nearly every computer manufactured today. USB stands for "universal serial bus" and serves as a standard for both Windows-based computers and Apple's Macintosh. USB computer ports typically enable connections with smaller devices. USB is also useful for "plug and play" applications in which a device is connected to the USB computer port and the driver is automatically located by the operating system, reducing or eliminating the need for a software boot via disk. (TopBits.com. Retrieved February 22, 2011.From: http://www.tech-faq.com/computer-port.html.)

The Parallel Port

Parallel ports are computer ports most commonly used to connect peripherals such as printers to computers. Parallel ports are larger than USB or Firewire ports, have multiple holes that hose the prongs of the associated plug, and screw in to the case of the computer to help protect against it accidentally coming unplugged. (TopBits.com. Retrieved February 22, 2011. From: http://www.tech-faq.com/computer-port.html.)

Game port

The game port was the traditional connector for video game input devices on x86-based PCs. Since about 1990, the game port has usually been integrated with a PC I/O or sound card, either ISA or PCI, or as an on-board feature of some motherboards; before that, it was usually on a dedicated ISA card. (TopBits.com. Retrieved February 22, 2011. From: http://www.tech-faq.com/computer-port.html.)

The Fire wire

Firewire computer ports were developed by Apple and were widely used just a few years ago. However, Apple has all-but-abandoned Firewire support in favor of the...