PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Before You Open the Case

Although you may be raring to get in there and fix something, taking the time to prepare properly before you jump in pays big dividends later. Before you open the case, do the following:

Make sure it’s not a software problem

The old saying, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” is nowhere truer than with PC repairs. Just as surgeons are often accused of being too ready to cut, PC technicians are always too ready to pop the lid. Before you assume that hardware is causing the problem, make sure the problem isn’t being caused by an application, by Windows, or by a virus. Use your hardware diagnostic utility and virus scanner before you assume the hardware is at fault and start disconnecting things.

Think things through

Inexperienced technicians dive in willy-nilly without thinking things through first. Experienced ones first decide what is the most likely cause of the problem, what can be done to resolve it, in what order they should approach the repair, and what they’ll need to complete it. Medical students have a saying: “When you hear thundering hooves, don’t think about zebras.” In context, that means that you should decide the most likely causes of the problem in approximate ranked order, decide which are easy to check for, and then eliminate the easy ones first. In order, check easy/likely, easy/unlikely, hard/likely, and finally hard/unlikely. Otherwise, you may find yourself tearing down a PC and removing the video card before ...