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Chapter 24. Troubleshooting and Maintenance Fundamentals. You Will Learn…. About your role as a PC technician in troubleshooting and maintenance, and tools available to help you in those roles How to approach a troubleshooting problem
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Chapter 24 Troubleshooting and Maintenance Fundamentals
You Will Learn… • About your role as a PC technician in troubleshooting and maintenance, and tools available to help you in those roles • How to approach a troubleshooting problem • How to develop a preventive maintenance plan and what to include in it A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Troubleshooting Perspectives • PC support technician • PC service technician • Bench technician • Help-desk technician A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Essential Troubleshooting Tools • Bootable rescue disks • Ground bracelet and/ground mat • Screwdrivers (flat-head, Phillips-head or cross-head, Torx set, particularly size T15) • Tweezers, preferably insulated • Chip extractor and extractor A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Useful Troubleshooting Tools • Multimeter • Needle-nose pliers • Flashlight • AC outlet ground tester • Small cups or bags A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Useful Troubleshooting Tools (continued) • Antistatic bags • Pen and paper • Diagnostic cards and software • Utility software, virus detection, and diagnostic software on disks A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Bootable Rescue Disk • Enables booting of PC even when hard drive fails • Ensures cleanest boot possible A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
POST Diagnostic Cards • Monitor boot process and report errors and conflicts at POST, usually as coded numbers on an LED panel on the card A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Examples of POST Diagnostic Cards • Amber Debug Card by Phoenix Technologies • PCI Error Testing/Debug Card by Trigen Industries • POSTcard V3 by Unicore Software, Inc. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Diagnostic Software • Identifies hardware problems • Most effective diagnostic software does not run from the Windows OS • Windows might mask a hardware problem A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Examples of Diagnostic Software • PC-Technician by Windsor Technologies, Inc. • PC-Diagnosys by Windsor Technologies, Inc. • Data Lifeguard Tools by Western Digital • Programs that test memory • Memtest 86 by Chris Brady • Windows Memory Diagnostic by Microsoft • DocMemory by CST Inc. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
General-Purpose Utility Software • Diagnoses problems • Repairs and maintains software on a PC • Recovers corrupted or deleted data on hard drive or floppy disks • Provides security • Monitors system performance A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
General-Purpose Utility Software (continued) • Downloads software updates from Internet • Might use installed OS or provide its own • Do not run it continuously in the background • Slows down system A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Examples of General-Purpose Utility Software A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Examples of General-Purpose Utility Software (continued) A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Fundamental Rules of Troubleshooting • Make backups before making changes • Approach problem systematically • Isolate problem • Remove memory-resident programs • Boot from disk to eliminate the OS and startup files on the hard drive • Remove unnecessary hardware devices A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Fundamental Rules of Troubleshooting (continued) • Don’t overlook the obvious • Check simple things first • Make no assumptions • Become a researcher • Write things down A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Fundamental Rules of Troubleshooting (continued) • Reboot and start over • Establish priorities • Keep your cool and don’t rush • Don’t assume the worst • Know your starting point A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Gathering Information • Interact with user • Investigate problem on computer • Isolate the problem A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Interacting with the User • Use good manners and diplomacy • Don’t take drastic action before asking about important data that may not be backed up • Provide alternatives before making decisions for users • Protect confidentiality of data • Don’t disparage user’s choice of hardware or software A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Investigating the Problem • What OS is installed? • What physical components are installed – processor, expansion cards, drives, peripheral devices? PC connected to network? • What is the nature of the problem – before or after boot, error message, etc? • Can you duplicate the problem? Intermittent or consistent problem? A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Isolating the Problem • Consider the possibilities • Eliminate simple things first • Eliminate the unnecessary • Trade good for suspected bad • Trade suspected bad for good A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Intermittent Problems • Hardest to solve • Look for patterns or clues • Ask user to keep a log of when problems occur and exactly what error messages appear A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Goals of Preventive Maintenance • Reduce likelihood that events that cause PC failures will occur • Preventive maintenance plan • Lessen the damage if they do occur • Disaster recovery plan A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
When a PC Is Your Permanent Responsibility • Organize hard drive boot directory • Create rescue disks • Document setup changes, problems, and solutions • Record setup data • Take practical precautions to protect software and data (eg, back up original software and back up data on the hard drive) A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued) A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued) A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued) A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued) A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Guidelines for Moving Equipment • Back up hard drive • Remove removable disks, tape cartridges, or CDs from drives • Turn off power to PC and devices • Disconnect power cords and external devices • Label cable connections A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Guidelines for Moving Equipment (continued) • Coil all cords and secure them • Pack in original shipping cartons • Purchase insurance A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Disposing of Used Equipment A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Disposing of Used Equipment (continued) A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Fire Extinguishers • Mount a fire extinguisher for Class C fires (ignited and heated by electricity) near – but not directly over – the workbench A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition
Summary • Common-sense guidelines to solving computer problems • Avoid making situation worse by damaging equipment, software, or data, or by placing undue stress on users • Follow safety precautions A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition