Hal's Hardware Haven
~~by Hal Cardona, PC Sleuth

How To Troubleshoot Your PC 

In this issue, I am going to talk about troubleshooting your Windows PC.  It really isn’t all that hard to do, if you follow some simple steps. 

The first thing is to be prepared, just like I learned in Boy Scouts.  Preparation starts by knowing your PC.  You need to know what hardware and software you are using, preferably before a problem crops up. 

To find out what hardware is installed in your PC you can often look at the invoice or packing label from your PC’s manufacturer.  If you can’t find it or your PC didn’t come with a hardware list, you can use a 3^rd party application.  My favorite for determining what hardware is installed is the Belarc Advisor, which is free and available here: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html.  

The next thing to do is to find out what Operating System (OS) and what version of it you are using.  You can do this in Windows by right clicking on My Computer and selecting properties. 

If you are using any version of Windows, Microsoft has integrated Internet Explorer (IE) in to it, so it helps to know what version of IE you are using.  You can find out by opening IE and dropping down help from the menu bar and selecting About Internet Explorer. 

One crucial ingredient is:  What causes the problem?  You need to know what software is running, what software you are using and exactly what you were doing leading up to the problem.  

The last thing that I use that really helps me is a notebook.  Paper and pencil can really help here.  Remember you may not have access to your computer while you are fixing it, so having a hard copy is essential.  I keep a file folder for each of my customer’s computers.  In it I keep a list of all the hardware and software installed. Take notes, write down what you’re doing and why. If you make a mistake and make things worse, your notes should allow you to reverse the change that caused the problem.  When I am done troubleshooting a system, I add my notes from that session to customers folder so I have written history of what’s been done to the computer. 

Let’s get to the nitty gritty of troubleshooting. 

The most likely cause to any problem is the last piece of hardware or software that you installed.  If you just installed a brand new pop-up stopper and now you find you can’t access some of your favorite websites.  Chances are the pop-up stopper is the culprit; usually removing it will correct the problem.   

If the hardware or program is something you feel that you can’t live without, then you need to try and correct the problem.  The first thing to do is try the manufacturer’s website and read any Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) they have regarding your hardware or software.  This where knowing your system can help, in the FAQ you could learn the pop-up stopper requires a certain version for the video card driver if you are running a 3Dfx Voodoo 6000 video card. 

You should also look for any patches or new drivers while you are there.  With so many different computer configurations out there, it is impossible for a manufacturer to test on all of them prior to releasing a product, you may find your cure in an available patch or updated driver. 

Ok.  That was the easy stuff.  What do you do if the problem starts out of the blue, your system has been stable, but it is crashing? 

The first thing I do is reboot.  I’ve found simply shutting down the system for about 30 seconds can often correct the error.  This is particularly effective for problems that are related to System Resources (for more information on System Resources, see my article on them here: http://personal-computer-tutor.com/hal3.htm). If the problem is fixed, great.  If it recurs right away or later, then we need to locate the cause. 

Now we need to determine if the problem is with hardware or software.   

Hardware problems usually happen without regard to what you are doing.  For example, if your PC reboots randomly after 30 minutes of use, then the problem is probably hardware related.  Software problems usually manifest themselves as error codes or crashes that happen only when do certain things.  For example, if your PC crashes each time you launch Microsoft Word the problem is usually related to Word.  Of course, these are very general statements and every problem is unique. 

• If you can’t boot your PC, pay attention when you turn it on. 

• If it makes it to a Windows Start-up screen or past the initial BIOS screen, then your hardware is booting OK.   

• If it doesn’t make it that far, then you have probably added some new hardware or had some of your existing hardware fail.  The first thing to check is power, make sure your PC is plugged in and that the outlet has power.  A cheap lamp works great for this test.  If you're sure you have power, try setting your CMOS to boot from the floppy drive and put a floppy in it.  If you boot or get an Operating System not found error, then the problem is probably  either with Windows or the Hard Drive subsystem. 

• If you’ve added new hardware, remove it and try to boot.  If it works then try your new hardware in a different slot.  It may work.  If it doesn’t, then you probably have an IRQ conflict.  To troubleshoot an IRQ conflict, boot to Windows with the new hardware removed and check the properties for My Computer in the Device Manager, then choose to View Resources by Type, and look for a free IRQ.  If there aren’t any free then you will need to either share an IRQ or free one up.  Not all devices are capable of sharing an IRQ, so be careful.  To free one up you will need to either rearrange your other devices so that they are sharing an IRQ or disable or remove one of your existing devices.  You can often free an unused IRQ by disabling one or both of your serial ports in the BIOS (only do this if you aren’t using one or both of them though!).  IRQs for PCI cards are assigned by the motherboard's BIOS, so if you to move a PCI card to a new IRQ, try putting it in a different PCI slot.  

• If you haven’t added any new hardware recently, but your computer still doesn’t make it to the Windows boot screen, try removing the case from your computer, take a look inside and make sure that all the wires and cards are firmly connected.  If everything looks OK at this point turn your computer on and look at the fans, make sure they are spinning freely.  If one or more of them isn’t, replace it and try again. 

• If things still won’t get to the Windows screen, listen when you turn it on.  Make sure that you hear the fans, and the Hard Drive.  If you here anything that sounds out of place, try to identify it’s source, I recently found a cheap power supply that was keeping the PC from booting by listening and locating a soft high pitched whine coming from it.  Hold your hand over the opening in the back of the power supply, and make sure that you feel air coming out when your PC is on, if don’t your power supply fan has failed or you need a new power supply. 

WARNING – DON’T DISCONNECT OR DO ANYTHING INSIDE THE PC UNLESS YOU ARE GROUNDED AND THE PC IS DISCONNECTED FROM POWER. PULL THE PLUG.  DON’T JUST TURN IT OFF!! 

• If it still isn’t making it to the Windows boot screen, start removing and disconnecting things, make notes or take a picture before you do though so you can put things back where they were.  Now,  I remove and reseat all the cards.   Try it.  The next step is removing all cards except the video card from the PC.  Try it, if it gets to the Windows boot screen then you have a bad card, start adding the cards you removed one at a time until you can’t boot.  If it works with all the cards, then you had a loose card.  If it still doesn’t work, try removing and reseating your memory.  Still no go, try removing your memory cards, you may need to remove them in a specific pattern, so check your motherboard documentation.  Don’t just remove them, try swapping them around too.  Now try a different Video card if you have one, and, if your current card fits an AGP slot,  then try a PCI based card. 

• If you still aren’t making it to the Windows boot screen, it is time to try disconnecting your hard, floppy and CD-ROM drives, once you disconnect your HD you will not be able to get to a Windows boot screen, so pay attention after you disconnect it and see if you get an Operating System Not Found error.  If you do, you will probably need to replace the Hard Drive, it’s IDE cable, or your Hard Drive Controller.  You may need to set a partition as active or recreate your Operating Systems boot sector. 

When you are troubleshooting hardware, it really helps to have some spare parts around to swap out.  The easiest way to find a bad cable is to try one that you know is good, the same thing goes for memory and other components. 

I think we’ve covered enough for this article (besides, I now have the other half already written for Linda).  See you next time! 

See part two here

Hal Cardona, PC Sleuth, serves as tech support and/or offsite Sys Admin for over 200 clients around the US.  He designs, builds, and troubleshoots networks and builds custom computer systems.