CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

3.1. Gathering Tools of the Trade

When plumbers or electricians come to your house to do some work, they bring a toolbox containing what they need to fix most problems that might arise while on the job. As an A+ Certified Professional, you need to do the same thing: Keep a PC repair toolkit of all the tools — software and hardware — that you need to do your job.

The following sections discuss the hardware and software tools that you need to perform your job well.

3.1.1. Hardware tools

Of the myriad pieces of hardware you need to repair computers, the most popular is the humble screwdriver. You can purchase a PC repair toolkit (shown in Figure 3-1) at your local computer store, but you should be able to get away with a multihead screwdriver for most jobs.

Figure 3.1. A typical PC repair toolkit.

The following is a list of tools that you might need from time to time to fix most of your computer repair problems:

• Screwdrivers: Most toolkits come with a variety of screwdrivers that have a variety of tip shapes and sizes — flat-head screwdrivers with a flat tip, Phillips screwdrivers with a +-shaped tip, and TORX screwdrivers with a star-shaped tip. I usually use a multihead screwdriver instead of choosing from a mass of different screwdrivers.

  Be sure that you don't use a magnetic ...