BASIC COMPUTER REPAIR GUIDE - TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS

THE GUIDELINES BELOW CAN BE USED IF THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMS OCCUR:

IN CASE OF NO CPU POWER

1. Check power cable if it is properly plugged.

2. Check the power switch of the case if it is properly turned on or check if it has damages.
Some power supplies have ON/OFF switch at the back side.
3. Check if the power supply is working well. If not, remove the power supply's 20/24pin
cable plugged in the motherboard and try to short the green color cable with the black
color cable.

NO DISPLAY WITH CPU POWER

1. Make sure that the monitor is working properly. Test it using other CPU.
2. Check signal cable of the monitor if properly plugged.
3. Check the graphics card's installation. If you hear a beeping sound, try to clean and re-
insert the graphics card.
4. Check the memory module's installation. If a beeping sound is heard continuously, try to
clean and re-insert the memory module.

MONITOR IS NOT ON

1. Make sure the monitor is ON. If no power light (green or orange light) is seen on the
monitor display try pressing the power button until it comes ON. If no light comes ON
after several attempts continue to below connections not connected properly.

SYSTEM HANGS-UP/RESTARTS

1. Check CPU fan if it is properly working.

2. Check the memory module's installation. Try to clean and re-insert it if necessary.
3. Try to reduce the start-up program in the system tray. If these cannot be done, you may
need to upgrade your memory capacity.
4. It may be caused by a system problem. Try to re-install the operating system.

DISPLAY WITH BAD QUALITY

1. May be the video driver is not installed or corrupted.

2. Check the installation of the graphics card and try to clean the contact of your graphic
device and re-install in again properly.

NO SOUND OUTPUT

1. Check the connection between the CPU and the speaker.

2. Check if the driver is properly installed. Make sure that it is of the same manufacturer.
This incident normally occurs in AC'97 sound devices that have many manufacturers.
3. If the driver is installed properly, you may need to put a jumper in front of the audio
panel. (This works with some motherboards only)

COMPUTER IS ASLEEP
 1. If your computer monitor is ON and you stepped away from the computer and upon
returning it was black it's likely that the computer is asleep. Try moving your mouse,
clicking the mouse buttons, or pressing any key (space bar) on the keyboard to wake it
up.

POWER SUPPLY - YOUR SYSTEM DOES NOT POWER UP

1. Check to see if your computer is properly plugged into the power source, e.g. UPS,
outlet, or surge protector. Power cords sometimes come loose.
2. If your computer is plugged into an UPS or surge protector make sure that it is turned
on. Something may have tripped it.
3. Check to ensure that all the different components are properly connected. Sometimes
connections jiggle themselves loose.
4. Check the power button found on the power supply. Many of the newer power supplies
have an ON/OFF breaker button on the back that sometimes gets tripped.
5. Try unplugging the computer from the power source, wait 30 seconds to five minutes,
and plug it back in. The computer may be "confused" and in some sort of hibernation
mode.

YOUR SYSTEM POWERS UP BUT DOES NOT BOOT UP

1. Carefully ready any error messages that come up. The problem may be as simple as the
keyboard or mouse not being plugged in.
2. Try booting from a system disk (e.g. Bootable CD). The operating system files on your
hard drive may be damaged or missing.

PROCESSOR HEATING

1. Chipmakers have recently been working to make processors more efficient, which
means they generate less heat. Nonetheless, some modern processors still generate a
lot of heat. That's why all processors require some sort of cooling element, typically a fan
of some type. A system's Thermal Design Point (TDP) rating indicates, in watts, how
much heat it can safely dissipate without exceeding the maximum temperature for the
chip. When the processor temperature goes over spec, the system can slow down or run
erratically (lock up) or may simply reboot.

THE PROCESSOR FAN MAY FAIL FOR SEVERAL REASONS:

1. Dust is preventing the fan from spinning smoothly.

2. The fan motor has failed.
3. The fan bearings are loose and jiggling.

Processors may also overheat becausethe heat sink is not properly placed above the
processor or the thermal paste is not of good quality or was applied incorrectly (or not at all)
when the system was built. This is more likely to be a problem wiht home-built systems but can
happen with commercially manufactured ones as well. The paste can breakdown over time, and
you may need to reapply it.

TIP: Another common reason for processor overheating is overclocking. Until heat begins to
take its toll, overclocking does allow for significant performance improvements. Because
processor overclocking can really cook a processor, most dedicated overclockers do not use
regular processor fans. Instead, they use complex-and expensive-water cooling systems.

HARD DISK ISSUES

Traditional hard drives are mechanical devices that eventually wear out. There are many signs
of imminent failure before a hard disk finally gives up.

COMMON HARD DISK FAILURES

Electrical Failure

The PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is the “middleman” of sorts, controlling,

communicating and coordinating to read and write data between the hard disk and the
computer. As such, if the PCB gets damaged due to power surges or power spikes, you
lose access to your data. Frequently, the pre-amplifier circuit of read-write head may
also be affected.

Symptoms

• Drive is powered, but shows no sign of function

• Disk knocking as the motor fails to spin
• Clicking sound as the heads search or initialize

Mechanical Failure

Mechanical damage normally arises as a result of impact or wear and tear.

Internal components, like the read-write head and motors, can become faulty
without prior warning. The much dreaded head crash could be a by-product of
mechanical failure.

Symptoms

• Clicking, grinding sounds

• Completely quiet due to "motor freeze"
• "music" tone as the disk is powered up

Logical Failure

Logical failure refers to any other non-physical failure types. It can be the easiest
or the most difficult recovery job depending on the circumstances that leads to logical
failure.

Some examples include: Accidental deletion, accidental format, file corruption,

software bugs, file system corruption, viruses and malware, and many, many more.
Firmware Failure

Firmware is the software program normally only accessible by the disk

manufacturers. It is used to do low level disk testing and functions that are directly
responsible for the proper functions and healthy state of hard disk.

Without the firmware code, no communication will be possible between the PC

system and the hard disk.

Modern disks normally have their firmware codes located on data platters and
also the PCB board. If the firmware area of the platter is corrupted, the drive will appear
to have failed even all the electrical and mechanical components are still fully functional.

Symptoms

• drive powers up, but is not recognized by the computer

• drive powers up, but is recognized wrongly, sometimes with nonsensical characters
• drive freezes during booting up

Bad Platter Area

This is commonly coined as "bad sectors" which are seen as inaccessible data
blocks or sectors during reading or writing operation. The main cause is due to wear
and tear of platter surface, head crash, manufacturing defects and tracking errors.

There are various levels of bad sector severity. Depending on the situation,
different techniques will have to used to "maximise" the recovery yield.

Symptoms

• Hard disk still accessible but appear to "hang" or "sluggish"

• Constant Cyclic Redundancy (CRC) errors
• Unable to access folders or files which could be seen

Complex Failure Model

Most often, hard disk may not fail in just any single mode. The failure could
cause by a combination of some or all the failure modes, normally triggering by one to
another. For instance, a read write head crash due to mechanical failure could leave to
logical file system damage as well as firmware code corruption. Bad sectors
development is also a natural by-product under such circumstances.