1. Troubleshooting and Maintenance Fundamentals
Chapter 24
Troubleshooting and Maintenance Fundamentals

2. 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

3. Troubleshooting Perspectives
PC support technician
PC service technician
Bench technician
Help-desk technician
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Examples of General-Purpose Utility Software
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

15. Examples of General-Purpose Utility Software (continued)
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Gathering Information
Interact with user
Investigate problem on computer
Isolate the problem
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

27. Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued)
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

28. Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued)
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

29. Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued)
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

30. Preventive Maintenance Plan Guidelines (continued)
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

31. 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

32. 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

33. Disposing of Used Equipment
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

34. Disposing of Used Equipment (continued)
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Fifth Edition

35. 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

36. 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