How To Repair Hardware In Computers

Isn't it great when you try to turn on your computer and get, no lights, no sound, and the monitor screen is blank? Frustrating isn't it and it always seems to happens at the worst moment. So you have a dead computer, maybe. Must be time for computer repair 101 or computer diagnoses 101. You know, when your heart sinks into your chest while you're starting to feel nauseated! That pit in your stomach that starting to tighten up and just doesn't want to go away. This is when you start screaming a bunch 0f obscenities that cannot be repeated here. Well, I've been there and I know what it feels like.

I can't teach you all about computer diagnoses in 501 words, but I can give you a few tips. Diagnosing this is relatively easy. Your objective is to find out if the computer is blown out and needs to be replaced or not. Approach it in a systematic fashion. Forget UNIX or windows for the moment. You're dealing now with the system Bios and system processes. Get used to them for they'll make your life a whole lot easier if you do.

All computers upon being powered up go through processes called a P0ST (power on self test). This test if it completes successfully, will result in a booted Operating system. On the other hand, if any part of the P0ST fails, the PC will stop at the point of failure. The bad part about this is that the screen most of the time does not give a good indicator of whats wrong. Most users get a little frustrated when seeing this. To be successful at this you have got to understand what is going on. For example, when you turn the computer on does the fan come on? Thats the one on the back of the power supply next to where the power cord connects to the computer . Power is applied first to the power supply. If the fan works, it's a safe bet that the computers mother board is getting power.


Next comes the fun part. I usually start by removing the side panel to expose the guts of the PC. I disconnect the hard drive, pull out all cards in the expansion bus except the video card, this reduces the computer to its bare essentials. That is a keyboard, a computer case, a power supply and a video card connected to a monitor. You might be asking WHY go to the extreme. Simple, any compote in the system could be causing the computer not to work. By eliminating everything but the essential equipment which is needed to at least get a visual indicator that the computer is operating, trouble shooting and fixing computer problems can be a real drag.

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