Troubleshooting and Maintenance Fundamentals

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Chapter 13

• Troubleshooting and Maintenance Fundamentals

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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

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Troubleshooting Perspectives

• PC support technician
• PC service technician
• Bench technician
• Help-desk technician

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Essential Troubleshooting Tools

• Bootable rescue disk
• Can boot the PC even when hard drive fails
• Ensures cleanest boot possible
• Ground bracelet and/ground mat
• Screwdrivers (flat-head, Phillips-head or
  cross-head, Torx set, particularly size T15)
• Tweezers, preferable insulated
• Chip extractor and extractor

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Useful Troubleshooting Tools

• Multimeter
• Needle-nose pliers
• Flashlight
• AC outlet ground tester
• Small cups or bags
• Antistatic bags

• Pen and paper
• Diagnostic cards and software
• Utility software
• Virus detection software on disks

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Diagnostic Hardware and Software

• POST diagnostic cards
• Diagnostic software
• General-purpose utility software

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POST Diagnostic Cards

• Discover and report computer errors and conflicts
  at POST
• Examples
• POSTcard V3 by Unicore Software, Inc.
• Post Code Master by MSD, Inc.
• POSTmortem Diagnostics Card by System Optimization

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Diagnostic Software

• Identifies hardware problems
• Examples
• PC-Technician by Windsor Technologies, Inc.
• PC-Diagnosys by Windsor Technologies, Inc.

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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
• Downloads software updates from Internet

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Fundamental Rules of Troubleshooting

• Make backups before making changes
• Approach the problem systematically
• Isolate the problem eliminate unnecessary
  hardware and software
• Dont overlook the obvious
• Check simple things first
• Make no assumptions

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Fundamental Rules of Troubleshooting

• Become a researcher
• Write things down
• Reboot and start over
• Establish priorities
• Keep your cool and dont rush
• Dont assume the worst
• Know your starting point

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Gathering Information

• Ask the user good questions with diplomacy
• Investigate the problem on the computer
• 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?

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Gathering Information

• Isolate the source of the problem
• Consider the possibilities
• Eliminate simple things first
• Eliminate the unnecessary
• Trade good for suspected bad
• Trade suspected bad for good
• Intermittent problems more challenging
• Look for patterns or clues
• Keep a log of when problems occur and exactly
  what error messages appear

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Preventive Maintenance

• Make and implement a preventive maintenance plan
  to help prevent failures and reduce repair costs
  and downtime
• What can you do to prevent each cause of PC
  failure?
• If it does occur,how can you solve the problem?
• What can you do now to prepare for that event?
• Develop a disaster recovery plan to manage
  failures when they occur

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Goals of Preventive Maintenance

• Reduce likelihood that events that cause PC
  failures will occur
• Lessen the damage if they do occur

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When a PC Is Your Permanent Responsibility

• Organize hard drive boot directory
• Create rescue disks
• Document all setup changes, problems, and
  solutions
• Record setup data
• Take practical precautions to protect software
  and data
• Back up original software
• Back up data on the hard drive

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Preventive Maintenance Plan
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Preventive Maintenance Plan
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Preventive Maintenance Plan
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When Moving or Shipping 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
• Coil all cords and secure them
• Pack in original shipping cartons
• Purchase insurance

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Disposing of Used Equipment
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Disposing of Used Equipment
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Fire Extinguishers

• Mount a fire extinguisher for Class C fires
  (ignited and heated by electricity) near your
  workbench, but not directly over it

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Chapter Summary

• Common-sense guidelines to solving computer
  problems
• Avoid making situation worse by damaging
  equipment, software, or date, or by placing undue
  stress on users
• Follow safety precautions