HANDOUT – Troubleshooting Personal Objective

Computers 201.02

IDENTIFYING & RESOLVING COMMON COMPUTER AILMENTS

Having completed a study of all of the hardware components within a PC and what each does, it
is important to understand how they work together and how a computer processes the data as
a whole. Each component is connected to the others and works with them to complete the
tasks given the computer. No one component works in a vacuum. One of the first steps in
troubleshooting a problem is to reboot the system, watch it boot, note what you see and hear,
and verify the symptoms. A cold boot – booting from a power off condition – will cause a full
POST to be done and provides for a better diagnostic environment. The following is not a
comprehensive list of common computer ailments; your ability to troubleshoot “outside the
box” and move beyond these “canned” symptoms is something that will make you an excellent
technician.

Power Supply
The power supply converts input AC power to DC voltages usable by the internal computer
components. Every of component inside the PC is dependent on your power supply to provide
it with the necessary voltage and required current during its operation. Without power
delivered through the cabling from the power supply, the computer and its components will
not work.

1. If your computer is completely dead, check for a lack of input power (make sure it’s
plugged in), an incorrectly configured power supply (on/off switch or voltage switch) or
a flaky front panel switch. (ATX power supplies are soft controlled through the
motherboard)
2. If multiple components are having problems or the symptoms keep changing, test the
computer’s power supply with a multimeter and consider replacing it. When testing the
power supply output voltages, your meter should be set to VDC (voltage, direct current);
when testing the input power from a wall outlet, it should be set to VAC (voltage,
alternating current).
3. If your system sporadically reboots itself, you may have an overheating power supply.
4. Faulty or failing power supplies are not always easy to recognize. If you have
intermittent problems, try replacing the power supply and “test driving” the system for
a couple of days to see if the problem is resolved.
5. The power supply is not tested by the Power On Self Test (POST).
6. Since each component on a computer requires a certain wattage to work, the power
demands on a power supply may exceed its capacity. If that occurs, the power supply
may whine at boot or fail to start the computer.

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Motherboard
The motherboard can be likened to the central nervous system of the human body. All of the
other devices connect to one another through the motherboard busses. The motherboard
houses the BIOS, the CMOS, the quartz crystal that generates the basic clock pulses for the CPU,
the system resource controllers, the drive interface controllers (PATA, SATA, SCSI, floppy, etc),
the peripheral connections (keyboard, mouse, USB, FireWire, etc), the expansion card
interfaces (PCI, AGP, etc), even the CPU interface and anything else that needs to communicate
with it.

1. If you have a catastrophic failure (i.e. the computer simply won’t boot) and you’ve ruled
out the power supply, consider replacing your motherboard.
2. If the POST indicates any “chip” failures or your symptoms are affecting multiple devices
and the power supply checks good, check your motherboard.
3. If component devices fail intermittently or the problem cannot be rectified by replacing
the “failed” component, consider that the motherboard may be your culprit. If the
motherboard HDD controller goes bad, the hard drive will not work and could be
flagged as bad by diagnostic tests.
4. If the motherboard CMOS battery dies, the CMOS data cannot be retained when the
system is powered down.
5. If you get a “CMOS configuration mismatch”, check your CMOS settings.
6. If a BIOS password has been set or a BIOS flash fails, there is a set of jumpers on the
motherboard that can be used to reset the BIOS settings to their default values. If these
cannot be easily located, the CMOS battery can be removed and reseated to reset the
BIOS settings to their default values.
7. On older motherboards, you may need to configure jumper settings as well to match
speeds and processor types. On newer motherboards, jumpers may need to be set to
enable and/or configure overclocking or other features.
8. When needing to boot from a different device, you may need to use advanced BIOS
settings to change the boot order.
9. Advanced BIOS settings can be used to control and configure the devices built into the
motherboard (e.g., onboard sound and video, serial ports, USB ports, LAN ports, parallel
ports, etc.) as well as make adjustments to features provided by the motherboard, the
BIOS , and the chipset (e.g., CPU and RAM speed and voltages, boot order, etc.). Among
many options, these settings allow such basic control as disabling and enabling onboard
devices as well as enabling the advanced tweaking involved in overclocking and
performance enhancement.
10. The CPU must be compatible with the motherboard, so its socket must be the same as
that provided on the motherboard.

If hardware is not working with your motherboard:

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1. Make sure to have installed chipset drivers.
2. Check for recent BIOS/firmware updates, and install the most recent firmware updates
by flashing the BIOS using the directions given on the motherboard manufacturer’s web
site.

Other issues around the motherboard could be in the following categories:

1. One of your expansion boards has popped out of the slot (unseated itself) by what is
called thermal creep. This is caused by the heating and cooling (expansion/contraction)
of metals. This heating and cooling occurs when computers are turned on and turned
off.
2. Your front panel USB or Firewire connectors are not functioning. Could be that they
have not been connected to the motherboard.
3. Integrated I/O ports not functioning could be caused by the connectors to the
motherboard becoming disconnected. If an onboard device does not work, an
expansion card can be installed to perform the needed function. For instance, if
onboard sound no longer works, a sound adapter card can be installed in an open
expansion slot.
4. Disconnected front panel connectors can also be the cause of the power switch, reset
switch, power LEDs, hard drive LEDs, and case speakers not working.

CPU
The central processor unit is the brain of the computer. It is the first electronic device in a
computer to “wake up” when the system is turned on. The CPU handles the manipulation of all
the data and the running of programs. Nothing (your operating system or your application) runs
on the computer if the CPU isn’t working.

1. If your system locks up or shuts down within a couple minutes each time it is started,
considering the CPU cooling system. Specifically, the heat sink needs to be properly
seated, and the fan needs to be turning at the proper speed. Often, cleaning the fan
with compressed air will help its cooling performance.
2. If you keep getting program lock ups with various programs and you’ve eliminated the
memory (a common hardware culprit of lock ups), consider your microprocessor as a
possible suspect.
3. If you’ve just replaced your processor and are having problems, check for any jumper
settings or software configurations in CMOS that you may have missed. Also, check for
bent pins on the CPU or in the motherboard’s CPU socket. If you find some, you may be
able to carefully unbend them.
4. CPUs with different socket types are not interchangeable. For example, an LGA 775 CPU
cannot be replaced in a motherboard by an LGA 1156 CPU.

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Heat issues: Your computer is running hot and shutting down after a short period of time. You
may have issues with one or more of the items below:
1. Your heat sink is not sufficient for your processor. Make sure the heat sink is rated for
the socket type and processor speed of your CPU.
2. When installing the CPU, you did not use a thermal compound to aid in the transfer of
heat to the heat sink.
3. You may need to add a case fan. Usually this is done by connecting it to one of the
motherboard’s built-in fan connectors (aka fan “headers”). In general, to reduce
overheating in your system, fans should be set up to pull cool air into the case from
outside of the case, move it over the hot components (like the CPU), and send the now
hotter air out through the rear of the computer.
4. BIOS settings may have been changed that have increased the voltage or the speed of
the CPU. This can cause serious overheating problems or can even damage or destroy
the CPU.

Memory
All of the software that is running on a computer is, in one fashion or another, in the system
RAM. It is responsible for the temporary, short-term, storage of volatile lines of code during the
computer’s operation.

1. Repeating long beeps are an indication of a memory-related POST failure and others
specific to the type of BIOS chip you have.
2. General Protection Faults (GPFs) are generated by applications that attempt to access
memory locations that are assigned to other applications (including the operating
system). Intermittent or random GPFs may indicate bad RAM.
3. Parity errors, when generated, may indicate bad RAM.
4. “Illegal operation” errors may be caused by defective memory modules, corrupt files, or
bad program code. Check other files or other programs to isolate the problem.
5. If more RAM is installed than can be addressed by the CPU, it will not be recognized or
used by the operating system. So, a computer with a 32-bit CPU and 6 GBs of RAM will
be seen by the operating system as having only 4 GBs of RAM since the maximum
amount of RAM addressable by a 32-bit processor is 4 GB. 64-bit processors can address
much more RAM (16 exabytes).
6. The RAM type must fit into the slots provided on the motherboard. For example, a
motherboard which supports DDR2 RAM must have DDR2 RAM installed in it.
7. Motherboard chipsets place limits on the amount of RAM supported. Therefore, the
amount of RAM needs to be considered when installing RAM. This can be found in the
motherboard’s documentation.

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8. A motherboard manual or a list of its specifications should also be considered when
determining what RAM speeds are supported for that particular motherboard. While
faster RAM may enhance performance, it may not be recognized at its stated speed
since the motherboard may not support that speed.
9. If trying to set up dual-channeling or triple-channeling, the motherboard’s
documentation should be consulted since implementing these features requires that
certain combinations of slots are used. Moreover, the RAM modules used in these
implementations should ideally be as identical as possible. Note: Not all motherboards
support dual or triple channel RAM configurations.

Storage Devices
Floppy Drives
Although these devices are obsolete, many older computers still contain a floppy drive. If
available, the floppy drive is often considered the first boot device. Problems with the floppy
are often recognized when the computer boots through an error message or when the user
attempts to read from or save files to the diskette.

1. If you receive a “Non-system disk…” error, check for a diskette in the floppy drive – your
system may be trying to boot to it.
2. If you get a POST “601” error, check that the power cable to the floppy disk is properly
connected.
3. If your floppy disk LED stays on constantly, check to see if the floppy disk data cable is
on backwards. An improperly attached data cable will send signals where they aren’t
intended to be.
4. If a user cannot read from or write to floppy disk, make sure the diskette isn’t write-
protected or try another diskette. If other diskettes result in the same symptoms,
consider the possibility that the drive read/write head has malfunctioned and the drive
is bad.

Hard Drives (PATA, SATA, SCSI, SSD)

The hard drives in a computer system are responsible for the long-term storage of data. Your
operating system, applications, and irreplaceable “senior project research paper” are stored on
your hard drive. Don’t wait for this fail – backup, backup, backup!

Hard Drive Troubleshooting

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1. If the computer starts up but fails to load your operating system, check your hard drive
connections and test the drive.
2. If you boot your computer and don’t hear the hard drive at all, and it doesn’t get
recognized, make sure its 4-pin Molex power cable is connected (PATA).
3. Older power supplies often do not have SATA power connectors and require an adapter
to change a molex connector into a SATA power connector.
a. Check to make sure that the adapter is seated properly and providing the proper
voltages.
4. If you’ve been hearing a horrible grinding noise over the past few weeks but figured it
would go away and now your computer won’t boot, consider replacing your hard drive
and ask yourself, “Why didn’t I check on that before I lost my English paper?”, then kick
yourself for not doing a backup. Determine which type of drive it is first:
a. SATA-small data cable and power cable.
b. PATA-40 or 80 wire ribbon cable and standard Molex power cable.
c. SCSI – specific SCSI connector depending upon SCSI versions.
5. If you’ve just replaced your ATA hard drive or CDROM drive and are now having
problems, check the master-slave jumper settings on the back of the drives. One drive
on an EIDE cable should be set as the master and the other should be set as the slave; if
there is only one drive on a cable, it should be set as master (or you could try your luck
at “cable-select”).
6. If you’ve just replaced your SCSI hard drive or added other SCSI devices, check the
terminator on the last device. If a SCSI chain is not properly terminated on both ends,
the entire chain will fail. Also ensure that your SCSI hard drive is turned on first before
the system is booted or it may not be recognized by the system.
7. If your newly installed drive is not recognized by the computer during the boot process.
Check its data cable connection. If the data cable is ok, check the CMOS configuration
settings.
8. If you have recently partitioned your new hard drive and it is not being recognized by
the system or you are getting a disk boot failure, make sure you have an active partition.
You may only have one active partition on a physical drive and only 23 logical drives on a
system.

SSD Troubleshooting:

1. SSD drives in and of themselves are not very problematic it is more the interaction with
motherboards and operating systems that causes problems.
2. If SSDs are not transferring data at the rates that they should, check the specification on
the SATA ports on the motherboard to see if the ports are the slower SATA 1.5Gb/s
ports. This is a consideration for all SATA drives, not just SSDs. For instance, a SATA
3Gb/s drive will transfer data at SATA 1.5Gb/s speed if connected to a SATA 1.5 Gb/s
port.

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External and Removable Storage Device Troubleshooting:
1. Check connections first. With external storage devices, make sure the data and power
connections are solid and secure.
2. Check Device Manager to make sure the port (e.g., USB, Firewire) into which the device
is plugged is working properly.
3. If it is a USB device, try a different port.

Optical Drives (CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray)

The CD-ROM drive is used as a common program-loading device. You may also use it to access
disks during game play or to play music. DVD’s and Blu-Ray drives allow for the recording and
playback of video recordings and larger storage capacity.

1. If your computer can’t read your old “Diablo” game disk, check the disk for fingerprints
or scratches first. Clean the disk or try another.
2. If your computer can’t read a recently “burned” CD, make sure your drive will accept the
recorded format and make sure the disk is closed if you are using a CD Reader only.
3. As with your hard drive, verify your jumper settings, the IDE data cable connections,
power connections, and CMOS settings before concluding that you have a bad drive.
4. Dust and dirt are real problems for optical drives. Make sure that you regularly clean the
computer and attempt to keep dust out of the drive.
5. If you are attempting to use a CD-ROM drive with an old DOS system, make sure
MSCDEX.EXE is loaded.
6. DVD and Blu-Ray drives require a special optical disk for recording in those formats.
7. DVD disks can store in the 4 gigabyte range with Blu-Ray starting in the range of 25
gigabytes.

Controllers
Controllers are components that allow for a specific interface to a device. As an example, you
may have an SATA controller built into the motherboard to allow a SATA hardware device to be
connected. Many times these controllers are built onto the motherboard but can be added as
an expansion card if they are not present. They are simply PCI or PCIe expansion cards with the
necessary connections to allow for the specific function. Below are typical controllers:

1. Storage Controllers: Allow for the connection of SATA, PATA, SCSI hardware devices.

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2. RAID Controllers: Allow for the connection of hardware RAID devices.
3. eSATA Controllers: Allowing SATA external connections.
4. Firewire/USB/Parallel Controllers: Provides connections for these types of devices.
5. Wireless Cards: Connections to provide wireless connections to the computer could be
IEEE 802.11x, RF (Bluetooth), or Infrared.
6. Media, TV/Video Capture Card Controllers: Providing a connection for TV and standard
media interfaces (i.e. HDMi, Coaxial, RCA, S-Video, Component Video).

Expansion Cards
Expansion cards allow users to expand the amount and type of I/O connections on their
motherboard. Generally problems with expansion cards will be specific to the type of card
installed but there are general troubleshooting procedures that can be taken.

1. First, check the external device that is connected to the expansion card to make sure
that the device is working.
2. Re-seat the card or try it in another slot. Sometimes cards can unseated themselves
through the process of thermal creep, which is when a card works itself out of a socket
through the process off heating up and cooling off.
3. Make sure the device drivers are installed. If they are, try uuninstalling and reinstalling
the driver.
4. Search the internet for know issues with the card type.

Sound Cards
The sound card on most new PCs is integrated into the motherboard and is not a separate
device. If the system does have a separate sound card, or you want to install one, verify the
expansion slot options available and consider the capabilities of available cards.

1. All sound cards play music and can drive a set of speakers but there are many different
features with each. Before assuming a bad sound card, make sure that the feature you
want to have is available on the card that you have.
2. The first place to check if you are having problems with your sound card is the Device
Manager. Check your system resources, ensure there are no resource conflicts, and
check the status of your card – look for a red X or yellow highlighted exclamation point.
As with all devices, an IRQ conflict could result in a nonfunctioning device when another
device is operating.
3. Ensure the proper device drivers are loaded.
4. Don’t assume a bad card if you haven’t checked your speakers (Are they turned on? Is
the volume up high enough? Are they connected properly? Etc.)

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Video Cards
The video card (or integrated video on the motherboard) is responsible for processing the video
signals and sending those out to the monitor. The quality of the video is significantly reliant on
the quality of the video card (and monitor to a lesser degree) that is installed.

1. In case of video problems, first check the cables (video and power) for proper
connection, then the card to make sure it’s seated properly and working, and then try
another monitor (replace it with a known good monitor).
2. Improperly loaded or corrupt video drivers can cause significant problems with your
display. Try restarting the system in “Safe Mode,” and see if it will work. If it does, check
your drivers, and make sure you have the correct ones installed.
3. Another problem could be improperly configured settings. Go to your Display Properties
and change your settings here. If you have an ATI video card, try using their video
configuration tools.
4. If garbled video is keeping you from reading the Display Properties menu, reboot the
machine in “Safe Mode” and make your changes reverting to original drivers and
settings.

Network Interface Cards and Modems

The purpose of the NIC is to connect your computer to other computers and networks.
Modems allow computers to connect to networks over telephone lines. Always assume that
there could be network problems that lie outside the realm of the A+, computer repair,
technician’s ability to repair.

1. Use the NSI LEDs on the network card to determine its status.
2. Use the Device Manager, as with any other expansion card, to check for disabled
hardware devices and bad drivers.
3. Check other computers on the same network to isolate the problem to the computer or
the network.
4. Your system’s network settings or any improperly configured protocols can cause
networking problems as well.
5. Modems require telephone service; check to see that there is a dial tone available.
6. Noisy telephone connections can terminate a modem connection. Check that there is
not interference on the line by listening to the line using a standard telephone.

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Peripherals
Standard system peripherals include a keyboard, mouse, and display. These devices generally
connect directly to the motherboard via an interface cable (PS/2, USB, VGA). Errors of these
devices are generally caused by the devices themselves but may be symptomatic of other parts
of the computer. These devices can easily be switched out to isolate the problem.

Mouse and Keyboard

1. If the mouse pointer jumps around on the screen, clean the bottom of the mouse and
reattach it.
2. Attaching a PS/2 keyboard while power is applied to the system may result in the
destruction of the keyboard controller on the motherboard and, hence, the
motherboard itself.
3. If your system boots but locks on the Windows initialization, make sure your PS/2
keyboard and mouse are correctly connected.
4. Loopback plugs can be used to test for bad ports. Of course, onboard ports can also be
tested by plugging known working devices into them. If these devices don’t work in the
ports, then the ports are likely damaged.

Display
1. Check the cables and connections and re-seat the connections if loose
2. Switch out the defective display for a known good one.
3. NEVER open the case of a display due to the high levels of voltage inside, it is always
safer to replace the display than to try and repair it.

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