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.
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.
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.
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.
Configuration Error Messages Meanings
Press F1 to continue Invalid configuration
CMOS time and date not set CMOS battery error
CMOS memory size mismatches System configuration and setup failure
CMOS system option not set CMOS battery failure or CMOS checksum
After the beep tones occur during the startup process, the system now looks and loads the operating system. The errors that occur between the beeps and initializing the operating system can be categorized into the following categories.
• Hardware failure ( due to the physical problem with the booting drive)
• General Failure Error Reading Drive x
• Bad or Missing Command Interpreter
• Non system Disk or Disk Error
• Bad File Allocation Table
• Corrupted or missing operating system files
• Corrupted or missing boot files
The configuration or boot up problems can be occurred to the hardware or operational function’s failure and if the configuration is correct and these error appears this means there is some problems in the hardware and boot up problems are normally linked with the operating system.