Dear friends,

Here you will learn about computer hardware troubleshooting techniques, cable testers, software diagnostic routines, POST cards, error diagnostic methods. Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer and it is frequently changed as compared to the software. Most computer hardware is inside the computer and cannot be seen by normal users. There are a large number of the computer hardware devices including Hard disk, CD-Rom, RAM, Motherboard, Monitor, printer, peripheral devices and other devices. One of the first steps in the troubleshooting is to sort out the hardware and software problems. You can use the event viewer utility in the Windows operating systems to identify the nature and cause of the hardware or software problem. Also you can identify the hardware problems by identifying the initial start up beeps.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Errors that occur before the initial beep shows that there is some kind of hardware problem exists in the system. At the POST stage, only the BIOS of the system and basic hardware is active and operating system does not starts to initialize at this stage until a final beep occurs. If a computer produces an error (“The system has detected Unstable RAM”) or a beep code appears, this means that system and found a problem with the devices and system RAM should be changed. Additionally, if the system starts up process reaches the point where CMOS configuration information is displayed on the screen this means that there is no problem detected with the basic hardware of the system. After this point, the system starts to load the device drivers and operating system.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

You can categorize the system configurations errors and components failure errors. Sometimes configurations or setup problems occur when a new hardware is installed and used in the system for the first time. These problems occur due to the mismatches of the CMOS memory information and component's configuration information. It is usually advisable to access the system CMOS when the system is first time prepared, when it is necessary to replace the CMOS battery and when a new device such as hard disk, CD-Rom, RAM, Video adapter etc added to the system. In most of the computers, the BIOS use plug and play techniques to detect most of the devices. These components provide system resources to the newly added device. When you are installing a new devices or software, you may notice some configuration errors.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

If you face the configuration errors, you should see the installation manual that comes with the new computer device. If you cannot confirm configuration problems and the device is not working properly, this means that there must be some defect in the hardware. The symptoms and errors can be divided into the three parts such as boot up problems, configurations problems and operational problems. First of all system’s configurations settings are checked. The error messages that occur during or after the end of the POST are reported so it is important to observe that where the problem is actually occurred.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

PC Hardware Troubleshooting Tools

Due to the low cost of the some of the hardware components, it’s usually not advisable to repair the IC level problems of the components, instead they should be replaced. The repair cost of the component will most likely be high as compared to the actual cost of the component. There are some very excellent hardware problem detection tools that are very helpful in identifying and isolating the problems. These tools included Multi meter, Cable Tester, POST card and software diagnostic disk.

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A.Rajesh Khanna