Boot Up

🔘 Press power

When you press power, a small program on the motherboard called the BIOS/UEFI wakes first. It does a roll call: CPU? RAM? Storage? All present? Then it hands over to the operating system (Windows, Linux or macOS).

🟩 The motherboard

Every part plugs into the motherboard. Its printed lines (traces) are like roads carrying signals between parts very fast. The graphics card sits in the longest slot because it moves the most data.

🗣️ Drivers are translators

The operating system doesn't automatically know how to talk to each part. A driver is a small translator program (from the part's maker) that lets the OS and the device understand each other. Updating drivers can fix bugs and improve performance.

🚀 Opening a program

When you open an app, its files move from storage (the disk) into RAM. The CPU then runs the instructions and the GPU draws what you see. The whole team starts working together.

Key points

• Let's follow what happens when a computer starts.
• You press power. The BIOS or UEFI wakes and does a roll call of the parts.
• Then it hands over to the operating system.
• Every part plugs into the motherboard, which carries signals between them.
• A driver is a translator that lets the OS talk to each device.
• Open an app and its files move from storage into RAM.
• The CPU runs the instructions and the GPU draws the screen. Tayari!

Try it for real: Read your computer's spec

• On Windows press the Windows key, type 'System information' and open it (or on a phone open Settings > About).
• Write down the Processor (CPU) and the installed RAM.
• Find the storage size and how much is free.