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Capstone Project-Troubleshoot a Malfunctioning ComputerJoel DesJardinCOT 415 Computer Systems IntegrationMarch 23, 2014Russ SchoechSouthwestern College Professional StudiesThis week I had to troubleshoot a broken computer that a customer and fix it so the system could boot into the BIOS. I will describe all the parts and tools available and why I selected each. I will also explain in what order I complete the steps. Final I will analysis what I learned from the project.To start with the scenario stated that I worked as a computer technician and that a customer's computer would not boot up. I started by checking the power supplied to the computer. I checked the power cord was attached and that the power supply was switched on. While I was checking the power supply I also checked that it was switched to 115 volts. I then verified that the wall outlet was working correctly, you never know. Since I was now going to check the volt from the power supply I decided to remove the plug from the outlet. I work on electrical equipment in a calibration laboratory for a living and always remove power for equipment before opening it. This is more of a precaution to ensure I am not shocked while making connections. If this was a real world scenario I would also perform a visual inspection of the entire inside of the computer. Many of the problems I have found in the past can be found with a good inspection and sniff for burn components. After a quick visual inspection I found that several of the system panel connections were not connected. So I started here, connecting the case fans, speaker, and the hard drive LED. This would most likely not keep the computer from not booting but might make it shutdown after running. Now that I have the case open and did find something disconnected I decided to recheck the power again, but of course it still did not power on. Now that I was happy that all was connected but still would not boot I decided to connect the power supply connections to the power supply tester. I found that the +12, +5 and PG ms volt all read low from the 20+4 connector. This led me to remove the power supply and replace it with a 20+4 pin, PCIe power supply. I had noticed there was a PCIe video card already installed in one of the expansion slot. This of course would be a conversation with the customer if there was a large difference in price between the power supply components. Before completing the installation I decided to check the new power supply with the power supply checker. All the voltages appeared to be correct so I completed the installation. After the installation I then applied power and all I received was a series of beeps. I remembered from our troubleshooting lesson that a series of beeps were usually a symptom of a bad RAM board. I pulled the memory tester from the shelf and checked the DDR3 RAM. The first two RAM boards check "OK" but the third was bad. I pulled a good DDR3 RAM board that matched the bad unit, 2 GB, 1600. Before installing the RAM though I also checked to ensure it was working properly.Now that the case was connected correctly, the power supply was installed and the RAM was corrected I turned the computer on. It ran fine and I was able to get to the BIOS settings. I verified the hard and optical drives could be seen by the computer. I then checked the System Information to ensure the RAM was recognized. For this exercise I found that having the correct tools can be very helpful in quickly and accurately solving problems that you might have with a system. There are many tools that can help you narrow down the various problems that arise with a computer. The power supply tester was very quick and easy to use but you could also use a multimeter to check the voltage that is produced by a power supply. The RAM tester was great to use as well and I do not know of another instrument that you could use that can check memory as quickly. You could always use process of elimination and swap in new memory but this can be time consuming and increases the possibility of an electro static discharge. Ultimately I found the test instruments used to verify a computer to be very interesting and informative.In this paper I explained how I was able to troubleshoot a faulty computer. I was able to identify unconnected connections with a good visual inspection. I then explained how I used the power tester to check and validate that the power supply was faulty. I then found the final fault with the system RAM. I explained how the computer would start but would just receive beeps instead of booting to the BIOS. I then checked the system RAM and found a bad unit and replaced it. Final I explained that using the correct tools for the job can help you quickly and accurately troubleshoot a computer. ................
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