Computer Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting of Computer Hardware
Computer Hardware troubleshooting

Preventive Maintenance
• Improve system availability by maintenance on a regular
• Video Display Unit (VDU)
• For CRT, keep away from strong or residual
electromagnetic
• field such as motor, magnets to avoid colour change.
• Turn off the intensity of the display if it is left
unattended for
• long time or activate the screen saver to avoid memory
effect and the burn out of the phosphor coating.
• Clean the dust regularly to avoid flash over.
1. Power Supply
What is a Power Supply in a Computer?
 A power supply inside the computer is the unit that converts alternate
current from your home or business wall outlet (assuming 110v) to direct
current.
 it's responsible for supplying power to the rest of your hardware

components
 Desktop Power supplies are often found in
the upper rear of the tower.
 Connector of Power Supply

 A single 20-pin plug is set into a fitted receptacle
and secured with a catch on the side of the plug
that snaps over the fitting(MB Power Connector)
 Almost all computer power supplies have three voltage rails (3.3V rail,
the 5V rail, and the 12V rail).
 The wires on your power supply

means: BLACK GND
 ORANGE +3.3 V GREEN POWER-ON
 YELLOW +12 V
GRAY POWER-OK
 BLUE -12 V
 RED +5 V PURPLE +5 V STANDBY
 WHITE -5 V (this is sometimes not BROWN +3.3 V REMOTE SENSING
available on some power supplies)
 Molex connector. This is the most commonly

used power connector. It provides both 12-volt
and 5-volt power.
o Hard disk drives
o internal tape drives
o CD-ROM drives
o DVD (digital video disc) drives, and
o Older 5.25-inch floppy disk drives all
use this fitting
 Mini connector. Most power supplies
provide one or more mini connectors The
mini is used primarily for 3.5-inch floppy
disk drives. It has four pin-outs and,
usually, four wires
 SATA Power Connector. Some Power supply provide one or more SATA
Power connector, mostly used to give a power for HDD and optical drive
not for all the drive that can support SATA power connector and
 20 pin ATX main power cable, 24 pin ATX main power cable or 20+
4 pin ATX main power cable, Auxiliary power connector
 Power Supply Problems

 Power supply problems can come from both internal and external
sources.
 Component failure within a computer can cause a power supply to fail,
but the most common failures come externally from the power source
itself
 Power supplies are affected by the quality of

the local power source
 Common power delivery problems such as

spikes, surges, sags, brownouts, and
blackouts affect the stability and operation
of the main power supply and are passed on
to the computer
Surges/Spikes (voltage increase from Electrical noise can confuse system logic and
lightning, etc.) can damage damage electronic components, resulting in
equipment incrementally or random server lockups and premature board
catastrophically failure.
87% of power problems are caused by Blackouts, a complete loss of power, result in
brownouts, not blackouts lost productivity, time and money.
 Reasons a Power Supply fails

 Power supplies fail for a number of reasons:
 Electricity and voltage spikes
 Dust
 Age
 Fan failure or heating issues
 Age
 Electrical (power spikes, etc.)
 Dirty (Cigarette smoke, house dust, etc.)
 Brown outs
 Overheating and/or ventilation failure
 Failure symptoms
 System is completely dead (no fan, no cursor)
 Power supply failures can be similar to the ones the motherboard has,
 Computer doesn't power on
 Computer turns on for just a few seconds
 Computer freezes or displays blue screens when booting or playing games
 Any power-on or system startup failures or lockups

Note:
 When your power supply fails, DON'T OPEN IT it's not worth your time,
usually when a power supply fails it's due to a voltage capacitor and it's
highly likely you don't have the capacitor to replace or the experience, my
suggestion is to replace this power supply with a new one.
 Monitor and power supply it have above 25000 volt
 Another thing you can do, is using a MultiMater to check the pin with the
Green cable and see if it has 5V, the power supply symptoms can be often
be confused with other hardware components, and the best way to know
for sure it's using a spare power supply.
 Steps to Troubleshooting Power Supply

 First we need to check if the computer turns on, check if the fans of
your power supply turn on (or creates air).
 Second, If the power doesn't come on, check the source (outlets or
power jack) to see if it does have electricity, this may seem like dumb,
but we sometimes forget it.
 Third, check to make sure the correct voltage (110V/ 220V) is selected
on the power supply. (power cable)
 Fourth, check that the 20 or 24 pin main ATX power connector and any
additional motherboard power connections, such as the 4 pin ATX 12V
supply (8 pin on some systems), are connected
 Fifth, You should be able to get your power supply running, if not you may have a
faulty device, you can always check the 5V cable with a voltage meter, it should
give you close to 5V if not, replace power supply
Note:
 The most common reason for power supply failures is overheating and
lightning. If you are a cigarette smoker or the computer is in a dirty
environment, rest assure you will likely be replacing your power supply
sooner than later.
2. CPU(Central Processing Unit)/Processor
 A CPU is normally the most expensive part of a computer, due to it's

extreme complexity, research and development costs, and because a lot
of the tiny internal contacts are made from gold or gold plating, and
other expensive materials
 Reasons for CPU fails

 Overheating
 A short circuit
 ESD
 The Primary Killer of CPUs is Heat
 Symptoms of a Bad CPU
 System fails to boot

 Distorted graphics on your computer screen
 Computer appears to boot, but screen remains blank
 System re-boots from time to time
 Illegal Operation
 Stop Error, (Blue Screen)
 Random crashes or reboots
To be Check for the solution

1. Check that all the fans are running
2. If it is dusty or there is a build-up of dust on
the fans and other components then you
should get a dust blower or vacuum to
remove the dust
3. Check the CPU heat sink compound, if there is not enough compound
or the heat sink compound is dry/flakey then it needs to be reapplied
4. Replace the Processor(CPU) if it is failed totally
3. Motherboard(MLB)
 While each of them is very important for the performance of a computer, all of
them are linked together for proper functioning by one thing: the motherboard
 A Computer Motherboard is one of the most hardest pieces of

hardware to troubleshoot, because the symptoms are too similar to
other pieces
Reasons a motherboard fails

 A Motherboard can fail for a number of
reasons:
 Electricity and voltage spikes
 Dust, smoke
 Age
 Fan failure or heating issues
 Force or pressure
 Symptoms of a Bad MLB
 Motherboard failures can be similar to the ones the power supply has,
 Everything powers on but you can't see a live screen
 Computer turns on for just a few seconds then turns off
 Some peripherals work others don't
 System closes off randomly
 System completely dead

 Solutions
 There are two things that can be done to try to save your
motherboard, these things can be done whenever your BIOS fails to
register a new component and you are sure it's the motherboard:
 Check the cable connections
 Reset the CMOS
 Update the BIOS
 Check the jumpers
 Replace the MLB
3. Hard Disk Drive(HDD)
 A Computer Hard Drive troubleshooting is fairly easy to detect, because

hard drive symptoms are unique, and most of the time it can be fixed with
a Windows System Restore or with a scan disk.
 Most of the time troubleshooting of a

hard drive doesn't require the
replacement of the component, just a
format or a scan disk can do the job to
avoid spending your money in a hard
disk
 Hard disk drives could fail in any of the following ways
 Electrical Failure
 Firmware Failure
 Mechanical Failure
 Bad Platter Area
 Logical Failure
 Complex Failure Mode

 Electrical Failure
 Most HDD PCBs' failures are caused by Motor Controller Chip burnt, then the TVS
diodes burnt and Main Controller IC burnt.
 The PCB (Printed Circuit Boards) 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 Cracking 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
damaged without previous warning.
 Symptoms
 Clicking, grinding sounds
 Completely quiet due to " motor freeze"
 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.

 Bad Platter Area

 This is commonly created 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
"maximize" the recovery yield.
 Symptoms
 Hard disk still accessible but appear to "hang" or "slow"
 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.
 Reasons a hard drive fails

 A hard drive can fail for a number of reasons:
 Age
 Bad sectors in the disk
 Force, pressure or shock damages
 Not formatted or no operating system present
 BIOS unable to detect the hard drive
 Configuration
 Failure symptoms
 Hard drive has a number of unique symptoms, and because
it just controls the data, you should get a live screen, here
are some symptoms a hard drive may fail:
 BIOS isn't registering the hard drive  No bootable Found
 Failure to find operating system  Operating system not found
 Computer not responding when trying to find some files  Unable to boot from drive
 Unable to find boot disk/drive  Non system disk
 No boot media
Note: If this is your problem, then the fix is simply formatting the drive and
installing the operating system (Windows). Proceed installing the operating
system from the CD if the hard disk is detected in the BIOS.
 Solutions
 There are two things that can be done to try to save your hard drive,
these things can be done whenever your hard drive is giving you
problems:
 See if you hard drive is properly connected to MLB
 See if your hard drive is detected in the BIOS
 Run scan disk
 Using system restore
 Format the hard drive
 Memory(RAM)
1. RAM is Primary Storage, also called internal storage.

2. Functions as computer’s workspace, storing all or part of the program
that is being executed, as well as data being used by the program.
3. RAM stores the operating system programs that manage the
operation of the computer.
4. RAM is Volatile storage:
 Common Symptoms Bad Computer Memory (RAM)

 Common warning signs to pay attention to:
 Blue screens (blue screen of death)
 Random crashes or reboots
 Crashing during heavy memory use tasks, such as gaming, Photoshop etc.
 Distorted graphics on your computer screen
 Failure to boot (or turn on), and/or repeated long beeps
 Memory errors appear on screen
 Computer appears to boot, but screen remains blank
 Computer not booting at all
 beeping endlessly
 Solution:
 Check the RAM if it is plug firmly/Correctly
 Replace the RAM
 VGA
 A video card also called a graphics card it's a piece of hardware that
controls and processes the graphics on a computer through a GPU
(Graphics Processing Unit).
 GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) is the processor of the card. It processes

data sent by your CPU and converts them into images and/or graphics. It
can efficiently handle, construct and extract video information sent by
system.
 VGA
 Is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Some
modern high performance video cards are used for more graphically
demanding purpose
DIV(digital visual VGA (15 female
VIVO(video in interface) port)
Video out)
 Video In Video Out (VIVO) for S-Video (TV-out), Digital Visual Interface
(DVI) for High-definition television (HDTV), and DB-15 for Video Graphics
Array (VGA)
 Symptoms
 Power is on, on the computer but no display on screen
 Solution
 Check the VGA port is plug or not to the appropriate position
 Check the VGA cable if it is connect to the port or not
 Replace VGA card if it is failed
 Replace The cable if it is not working
Thank You for

your
attention !!!
Self-Check
Questions
Self Check Questions

 You are installing two IDE hard drives and one CD-RW. One hard drive has a 20
GB storage capacity and the other a 30 GB unit. Write all the necessary IDE
configurations should be configured to ensure that a 20 GB drive is seen as the
primary boot device and that al the IDE components works properly after
installation
 To connect this three drive I have to use the jumper to set as a master and slave
 So 20 GB hard disk should be set as a primary master (using jumper)
 And the other 30 GB hard disk should be set as a Primary slave
 and the optical drive connected to the second controller either master or slave
 The first two hard disk should be connected by one EIDE/PATA cable

 You have one micro ATX power supply, in your computer, so list out the
connector that you have In this power supply and give one Drive that is
connected to each connectors
 MLB Connector
 Auxiliary Connector
 Molex connector(Optical Drive/HDD)
 Mini/Berg connector(3.5 inch floppy)
 A PC is generating a single beep each time when the computer is boot. The
customer reports by telephone and says the number of beep is one each time
when the computer is started. But there is no display on the monitor what do
you advice to your client
 VGA
 Your computer reboots continues after 5 minuets of operation. What is the

most likely cause of the problem that you think.
 Most likely cause of the problem is related to CPU(CPU fun

is not correctly plugged to the positions)
 Every component that are in a computer are working properly but still a
message no boot drive on you screen. What is your next action to solve these
problem
 See if your hard drive is properly connected to MLB
 See if your hard drive is detected in the BIOS
 See if your hard drive is installed OS
 You brought a new power supply to replace the burned one on your system, so
write the way how to check the new power supply before you install it.
We can have two way
 Using a simple lead wire and(fun will be spinning)
 Using Digital multimater (5 volt display on the screen of
multimater)
 Your computer couldn’t start up when you press the power switch button you
check the AC power comes from the UPS to the PC is normal, the power cable is
perfect and power supply is also working properly. There is a light on the MLB.
What is your next action to reach the exact cause of the problem
 Check the power switch is properly connected to the
appropriate positions
 When you press your power switch a PC is boot but it fails to offer any display
during the boot process, Estimate all the possible causes and your
troubleshooting procedure.
 VGA
 RAM
 CPU
 MLB
 Assume you have a computer without any optical drive and its motherboard
can support only IDE drives. What is the maximum number of HDD could be
connected In this computer
 Only four drive is connect on this computer using master
slave configurations
 No power light appears on the computer monitor and system unit and there is
no display on the screen. what you suggest the problem is related to
 Check the power life from the wall outlet.

 Check the adapter sockets
 Check the power cables
 Check that the system units power supply is plugged in to
the wall outlet (adaptor sockets)
 Check the system units On/Off switch.
 “Press F1 to Continue” this message appear on your screen on the POST stage
so what you suggest the problem is.
 Configuration Problem

Computer Troubleshooting

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Troubleshooting of Computer Hardware

Computer Hardware troubleshooting

 it's responsible for supplying power to the rest of your hardware

 Connector of Power Supply

 The wires on your power supply

 Molex connector. This is the most commonly

 Power Supply Problems

 Power supplies are affected by the quality of

 Common power delivery problems such as

 Reasons a Power Supply fails

 Computer doesn't power on

 Computer turns on for just a few seconds

 Computer freezes or displays blue screens when booting or playing games

 Any power-on or system startup failures or lockups

 Steps to Troubleshooting Power Supply

2. CPU(Central Processing Unit)/Processor

 A CPU is normally the most expensive part of a computer, due to it's

 Reasons for CPU fails

 Symptoms of a Bad CPU

 System fails to boot

To be Check for the solution

 A Computer Motherboard is one of the most hardest pieces of

Reasons a motherboard fails

 Symptoms of a Bad MLB

 Everything powers on but you can't see a live screen

 Computer turns on for just a few seconds then turns off

 Some peripherals work others don't

 System closes off randomly

 System completely dead

3. Hard Disk Drive(HDD)

 A Computer Hard Drive troubleshooting is fairly easy to detect, because

 Most of the time troubleshooting of a

 Hard disk drives could fail in any of the following ways

 Bad Platter Area

 Complex Failure Mode

 Firmware is the software program normally only accessible by the disk

manufacturers. It is used to do low level disk testing and functions that

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

the PC system and the hard disk.

components are still fully functional.

 Bad Platter Area

 Complex Failure Model

 Reasons a hard drive fails

 Bad sectors in the disk

 Force, pressure or shock damages

 Not formatted or no operating system present

 BIOS unable to detect the hard drive

 Failure to find operating system  Operating system not found

1. RAM is Primary Storage, also called internal storage.

 Common Symptoms Bad Computer Memory (RAM)

 GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) is the processor of the card. It processes

Thank You for

Self Check Questions

Self Check Questions

Self Check Questions

 Your computer reboots continues after 5 minuets of operation. What is the

 Most likely cause of the problem is related to CPU(CPU fun

Self Check Questions

Self Check Questions