Troubleshooting motherboards, cpus, ram and power( Comptia Objective 5.2)

Question 1

What should you check if you notice the time and date have reset on a system?

Answer 1

• Could be a bad motherboard CMOS battery that needs to be replaced battery should have 3.3 volts replace if under 2.5 volts.
• If the time and date settings have changed then it is likely that other settings in the BIOS may have been reset as well. Compare settings with companies documentation and change as required.

Question 2

When troubleshooting a CPU what should you first do?

Answer 2

• First be sure that all connections( power 24 pin/8/4 pin cpu connector are connected properly)
• Then make sure the fan, heat sink and cpu are all secured properly.

Question 3

When troubleshooting RAM other than making sure the ram stick is inserted properly what should you make sure of?

Answer 3

• Make sure the RAM module is compatible with the motherboard( e.g. only use DDR3 in DDR3 slots, make sure speed is correct and capacity)

Question 4

If Power supply has failed what should you never do?

Answer 4

• Never try to open a power supply

- If it has failed, replace it with a working unit.

Question 5

Unexpected shutdowns( No warning black screens) are commonly caused by?

Answer 5

• Often this is caused by a heat related issue such as:
• Overheating of CPU or video card due to gaming
• Check all fans and heat sinks.
• Bios may show fan status and temperatures.

Question 6

What is another less common cause of Unexpected shutdowns?

Answer 6

• Could be caused by failing hardware. You can check Device Manager or event viewer to run diagnostics and check logs.

Question 7

If experiencing unexpected lockups( No response from keyboard etc) what can you do?

Answer 7

• Check for any form of activity such as Hard drive or status lights, try an cntrl+alt+del to access task manager.
• Check and see if there have been any recent software or driver updates, issue could be caused by bad driver which can be rolled back to prior functioning one.

Question 8

What can be a cause of system lock ups when it comes to hardware components?

Answer 8

• Can be caused by low resources such as RAM or Storage. Will need to install more to rectify issue.
• Hardware diagnostics can be helpful

Question 9

When performing a POST( Power On Self Test) what can indicate errors with hardware components?

Answer 9

• Usually the motherboards BIOS will sound beeps or display codes, you will then need to check the motherboards documentation to confirm what these beeps/codes mean.

Question 10

If you power on your system and there is no image displayed on the display when booted and no codes shown on the screen this is commonly caused by a?

Answer 10

• Commonly caused by a video issue or perhaps a BIOS configuration issue.
• Listen for beeps confirm if the beeps mean there is an issue with the video card.

Question 11

If a system keeps rebooting itself what can be a cause of this issue?

Answer 11

• Commonly caused by a bad driver or configuration.
• You can press F8 and select to “ Boot from last known configuration” if this happens or select to boot into “ Safe Mode”

Question 12

If you notice that you are hearing the fans turn on on your system but nothing else happens what can you do?

Answer 12

• Use a multimeter and test the voltages coming out of the systems power supply. There could be enough voltage to turn on the fans but nothing else.
• If this is the case the power supply will need to be replaced.

Question 13

If you hear a scraping sound coming from you system what could this be caused by?

Answer 13

• You could be having an issue with your hard drive.
• Good idea to run a backup.
• A pop sound could be a sign of a blown capacitor which will need to be replaced.

Question 14

What are some causes of intermittent device failure?

Answer 14

• Could be related to a bad install. Check and reseat hardware to make sure installed correctly.
• Could be caused by Bad Hardware or poor cable connections due to coming loose because of constant vibrations. Ensure they are secured properly.

Question 15

If there is smoke or a burning smell coming from your system what could this be caused by?

Answer 15

• Usually a sign of electrical problems
• Immediately disconnect the system from the power source.
• Locate bad components by opening up system once it has cooled down and replace damaged components as needed.

Question 16

What is a name commonly used to identify a Crash screen or Windows Stop error?

Answer 16

• Commonly referred to as a “ Blue Screen of Death”
• Not good means you have to restart system before having access again.
• Take note of error codes displayed by the crash screen to confirm what the cause was.

Question 17

What is the MA.C equivalent of a Windows Stop error screen?

Answer 17

• Commonly referred to as “ The spinning ball of death” or MAC OS X Spinning Wait cursor
• Can be many causes of this such as an application bug, bad hardware or slow paging to disk.
• Can usually be solved by restarting the system.

Question 18

Inside Windows where can log entries be found?

Answer 18

• Commonly found in the Event Viewer
• Boot logs can be found in System configuration
• C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt

Question 19

Inside Linux where can log entries be found?

Answer 19

• Individual applications logs can be found under /var/log

Question 20

Inside MAC OS where can log entries be found?

Answer 20

• Can be found in the Utilities folder using the console.app

Question 21

When receiving error messages on the screen what is it important to do

Answer 21

• Take note of the message by taking a picture of video of the message on the screen.
• Can be helpful when speaking with the third party developer to help troubleshoot issues faster.