Help with basic H/W troubleshooting steps

[tanw]

Hi,
I am posting here as I am abt to try for a entry lvl basic helpdesk support/onsite job.I am comfortable with OS and networking troubleshooting but however,I do not have much exp in the H/W side and therefore I would like to gain more exp in the H/W side and would like to prep myself in the event of any H/W fault reported.Being a laptop user for most of my life,the problems I encountered so far was unable to boot up and a hard-reset by pressing power button for awhile did the trick.

I have 2 scenario which I had no experience before and researched to come up with the steps with some qns and would appreciate advice


Scenario 1: PC cannot boot up.no beeps
From what i read,when there is no beeps,it means either PSU,CPU or MB is faulty..So my steps are listed below(Let's imagine that every step done is still not successful and therefore there is a,b,c,d etc...)
a.Remove AC and USB devices and hold power button for ~30sec.(only for HP PCs?)
b.Check Power cable to see if inserted properly.Change to another power cable and also check if AC powerpoint is working
c.Check to see parts are inserted firmly.
[In the event if there is no spare PSU,how to check if PSU is faulty?]
d.Take out all RAM and to see if any beep.If beep means motherboard is ok,no beep motherboard potentially faulty?

I read that to check CPU,take out CPU cooler and power on,if there is some heat coming out,it means that CPU is working,is there any alternative option?


Scenario 2: PC cannot boot up.have beeps:
-refer to BEEP code to see which HW may be faulty

Scenario 3:If Laptop cannot power on after doing the hard reset method with no beep,How to I proceed from there?

 

[Ketchup]

If you can find the specific questions like this, I am sure there is an answer key somewhere. You would do much better to get an A+ book or take an A+ course so that you can understand not only what the best answer is but why.

 

[Matt1970]

From what i read,when there is no beeps,it means either PSU,CPU or MB is faulty..
Not necessarily. Just about any failed component can cause any number of problems including initially keeping the PC for even giving beep codes.
a.Remove AC and USB devices and hold power button for ~30sec.(only for HP PCs?)
For the life of me I have only had that work one time.
d.Take out all RAM and to see if any beep.If beep means motherboard is ok,no beep motherboard potentially faulty?

I read that to check CPU,take out CPU cooler and power on,if there is some heat coming out,it means that CPU is working,is there any alternative option?

Bad CPUs are so rare that I don't even test for them anymore. When you have narrowed it down to either the CPU or the Motherboard, you have a 99.9% chance it's the Motherboard.

....

 

[Drummerdude]

Hi,
Being a laptop user for most of my life,the problems I encountered so far was unable to boot up and a hard-reset by pressing power button for awhile did the trick.

Me - Here's your primary issue. If you have only ever worked with laptops, while I'm sure your knowledge would definitely be invaluable, you've gotta find a way to expand your knowledge, hands-on, with desktops/towers. Just reading a forum isn't going to cut it. Any tech will tell you that really, the best way to learn, is to just jump in and do it yourself. Get yourself a tower and start learning. This really would help round out your experience, and make you suuuupppper invaluable to your new job!

I have 2 scenario which I had no experience before and researched to come up with the steps with some qns and would appreciate advice


Scenario 1: PC cannot boot up.no beeps
From what i read,when there is no beeps,it means either PSU,CPU or MB is faulty..So my steps are listed below(Let's imagine that every step done is still not successful and therefore there is a,b,c,d etc...)
a.Remove AC and USB devices and hold power button for ~30sec.(only for HP PCs?)

- Me. Are we talking laptops, or desktops? Both are different beasts, and require different diagnostics. Desktops, if they're not beeping, not doing anything..I' ask A. Did it ever beep before? B. When it turns on, do you hear the fans kick on full blast, then quiet down, or do they stay on full blast? C. Did the user recently upgrade to a separate powered video card, and maybe the 6 pin ( or 8 pin, or even 6 and 8 pin ) cable came loose? All these questions will help you diagnose a computer. Laptops, there's a few reasons why it wouldn't beep when turning on. It is more often ( while still rare ) that a cpu will quit on you ( overheating continuously, etc ) so that's a possible answer. Sometimes, because power is a beast with a mind of it's own, the answer is to pull the power, pull the battery, hold power for 30 seconds, then plug back in just power adapter, and hit power. If it turns on, then turn it back off, plug battery back in, plug power back in, and turn on. If it still turns on, then there ya go. But yeah, lots of different questions are required when diagnosing a computer that won't turn on, no beeps. Laptops, especially the older HP series ( dv2000, dv6000, and especially the dv9000 series ) were notoriously known for overheating, and having the gpu physically separate from the motherboard. In that case, a reball/reheat was required. Most computer repair shops can do this with a simple heat/paint gun.

b.Check Power cable to see if inserted properly.Change to another power cable and also check if AC powerpoint is working

- Me. I've found that it's very very very rare that the power cable is to blame. But I'd definitely say yes, make sure your wall outlet ( or power strip, whatever ) is outputting power.

c.Check to see parts are inserted firmly.
[In the event if there is no spare PSU,how to check if PSU is faulty?]

- Me. You can see if the psu will at least turn on using either a psu tester ( which will tell you if each power rail is outputting properly ) or at the very most basic, using a paperclip to short the ground ( green ) to any of the black cables on the 20+4/20/24 pin connection.

d.Take out all RAM and to see if any beep.If beep means motherboard is ok,no beep motherboard potentially faulty?

- Me. Most motherboards will have beep codes, to diagnose what's wrong. Some will beep, say, 3 times, and that'll indicate bad ram, or so on. getting yourself "learned up "on them will really help.

I read that to check CPU,take out CPU cooler and power on,if there is some heat coming out,it means that CPU is working,is there any alternative option?

- Me. This is a viable option to find out if the system is utilizing the cpu. But, this isn't recommended for novice users, as sometimes, if you turn the computer on without a cpu cooler attached, and don't pull the plug the instant you feel heat on the cpu, you could risk blowing it by allowing far too much heat to build up for far too long.

Scenario 2: PC cannot boot up.have beeps:
-refer to BEEP code to see which HW may be faulty

Scenario 3:If Laptop cannot power on after doing the hard reset method with no beep,How to I proceed from there?

- Me. From there, I'd recommend finding a local computer shop ( preferably with free diagnostics ) to find out what the problem was.

Everything I've said is just the very beginning of being able to help people. Computers hold a wealth of information, when it comes to diagnosing properly, and helping fix. Learning on a rig of your own really will help

So there ya go. Lots of info there.