Troubleshooting Computers There are basic rules of troubleshooting a problem, whether it is a hard drive or any other problem. 1. Identify the problem (gather information from the customer to identify the nature of the problem). o Can customer show you the problem? o How often does the problem occur? o Has any new hardware or software been installed recently? o Does the problem occur in a specific application? 2. Isolate the problem. 3. Correct the problem 4. Verify corrective action taken 5. Document your steps. This is useful for two reasons. For you or others to refer back to on the next possible service call for the same equipment and because you may not be the only one servicing the computer and the next person will need to know what steps you have taken. 6. Follow-up - contact the customer after they take back the equipment and see if they are problem-free. *** Some problems are hard to duplicate, especially intermittent hardware or software problems. Refer to customer's information on exactly what error message or problem occurred, what applications was the customer using, how many applications were open, etc..... Sometimes the computer works fine in the shop. but when the customer takes it back, the problem returns. This is always frustrating to the customer, and technician. Could an externally connected peripheral that the customer has have caused the problem? Communicate with the customer as often as needed. Overheat issues? *** If the laptop or desktop overheats at the customer site but not in the shop, ask if the location the computer is kept is in a area where the air vents could be blocked. If a laptop, is it being used on a soft object such as a bed/couch where the air vents on the laptop bottom are being blocked? If the fans are weak, they may fail to cool effectively at the customer site, but work fine in the shop. Clean the CPU fan and/or CPU heat sink blades, especially if a laptop. Dell diagnostics has a fan test and there are third-party fan test utilities as well. Google ' computer fan tester'. Here are a few utilities to test the temperatures of the computer fan and other hardware - • SpeedFan. Here is the web site: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php. • I8kfanGUI is a graphical Windows application to show the internal temperatures and to control the fan operation on the Dell Inspiron/Latitude/Precision notebook series. Here is the web site: http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html. There is also the original DOS command line fan utility at the web site. Troubleshooting Resources • Application's help feature • Manufacturer support web site - Many links are provided at http://oz.plymouth.edu\~tom • Manufacturer knowledge base - look at bottom of this page for several links • Forums - look at bottom of this page for several links • Microsoft Support site * Advanced troubleshooting for general startup problems in Windows XP * XP FAQ at Microsoft.com • The Elder Geek web site • 'Google'. the problem • Hard Drive diagnosis procedural suggestions • Here is a site I started of some of the more common Windows XP error messages and possible solutions Troubleshooting Hard Drives In Windows XP / 2000 If you have a computer with a hard drive (HD) that you suspect may be faulty, there are methods you can use to determine this. This first section will use general procedures, and not those specified by a particular PC manufacturer. Later in the article I will discuss: • Dell hard drive diagnostics • Data recovery • Web sites for reference, including HD manufacturer suggestions for diagnosing their hard drives • Hard Drive utilities Symptoms of a failed or failing hard drive: • During POST: “HD not found” or “HD not detected” error • During POST: “Device not found” message • During POST: No Operating System found • During POST, “….. Drive 0 operating outside normal……..” message • ‘Clicking sound’ from hard drive / hard drive area of computer. • Computer keeps rebooting or Computer takes excessively long to boot up • System “Blue Screens” or System “Freezes” or “hangs” Procedures used to verify hard drive status [ Isolate the problem!!!! ]: • Get into setup (CMOS). Is the HD detected? Is Date / time correct? (if not, CMOS battery may be bad). • If a desktop, Reseat HD IDE connector on both the system board and hard drive, and the power cable. If a laptop, reseat hard drive. • If a desktop check the jumpers on your IDE devices. (Most laptop hard drives do not have jumpers) • Boot up with a DOS Diskette or boot CD and run FDISK (A DOS Diskette image can be obtained here: http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/dos.html . A Dos CD ISO image can be downloaded here: http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html). If you get a “No Hard Disk detected” when using FDISK, and you have checked the cables, then the hard drive likely failed. • If a computer does not recognize or "see" a hard drive, a sure fire step to help isolate the problem is to install a known good hard drive into the computer or install the suspect HD into another similar computer and see how it acts. (I keep a spare desktop IDE HD and SATA HD and a spare laptop IDE and SATA HD with just the DOS system files on it which allows it to boot to c:\. This will tell you if the computer can boot off a hard drive). • Run the hard drive manufacturer’s diagnostics on the drive. Visit http://oz.plymouth.edu/~tom/Troubleshooting/hd_diags.html for links to such utilities. • Run a utility such as HD Tune to evaluative the hard drive for bad sectors. web Site: http://www.hdtunecom/download.html • If you want to Defrag the hard drive, use jkdefrag. Download it here. • Sometimes a HD can be ‘fixed’ using the HD manufacturer’s utility or by doing a low-level format on the hard drive but if the hard drive has bad sectors, repairing them, if possible, is usually a short-term fix. I uses two different utilities for low-level format (Eraser and PC Inspector's E-Maxx ). Each of which will perform a low-level format but E-Maxx will not work on SATA hard drives. These utilities will irreversibly WIPE the HD of all data. IT will be as if the hard drive was new. No data will be retrievable after using these utilities. After performing a low-level format, run FDISK from a DOS prompt and create a partition and run the diagnostics utility again. If the hard drive still fails, replace it!!! • Run CHKDSK. CHKDSK is a Dos / Windows XP and Windows 2000 command that checks a hard drive for file system integrity. There are multiple avenues in which to run this command. A few methods are listed here: 1:) Boot off a Ultimate boot CD (A great CD tool used to troubleshoot.) http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ and run CHKDSK /R. 2:) Boot from a Windows XP CD, enter the Windows XP recovery console, and run CHKDSK /R. A CHKDSK document is found here, in which research was done at Dell and Microsoft web sites. The common parameters used with the CHKDSK command are /f and /r. Other Recovery Console commands may help you repair Windows files that will allow you to boot into windows. Here are two links for XP Recovery Console: Microsoft web site and Wikipedia . Recovery Console commands I use regularly are: CHKDSK, Expand, Fixboot, Fixmbr and Bootcfg. Some of these commands have parameters. • GOOGLE THE ERROR MESSAGE OR PROBLEM YOU ARE ENCOUNTERING!!!!! --------------- END OF SECTION --------------- Dell Hard Drive Diagnostics in Windows XP Dell installs diagnostics software on their computers but if you reformat the hard drive, replace the hard drive or delete the partition, you will lose the diagnostics partition and will need to run it off the Dell Diagnostics users to order, at usually no charge one copy of the original CDs for your computer at Go here to request your CDs. Here is a Dell technical note: How to run the HD diagnostics on a Dell computer: Here is a summary of it: To utilize the build-in Dell diagnostics use one of the following methods: 1. Most Dell laptops - when power is off, press and hold the Fn key while turning laptop on, then release both keys. 2. Newer Desktops - at the Dell splash screen, hold CTRL, ALT, and D keys simultaneously. The computer beeps once to acknowledge that the hard drive diagnostics has been initiated 3. All Dells - During POST, press F12 for “boot options”. When the menu appears, select Diagnostics to run the DST diagnostics. This will run a quick test of most of the hardware in the computer. When complete, it will prompt you to enter the diagnostics partition, if present. Again, if you deleted the partition or installed a new HD, this partition may be gone and only the abbreviated DST diagnostics will be available. If you get a Dell diagnostics error code, write it down!! 4. Boot off the diagnostics CD for your model Dell. Data Recovery in Windows XP: for data recovery from corrupt or damaged hard drives • I have been using Final Data 2.0 for several years. IT HAS A HIGH SUCCESS RATE. • Disk Investigator is fairly new to me but appears to do a fairly good job. (both free at www.download.com ) • A new utility as of 2006, Spin Rite, has not been tested too often by me yet but is advertised as a good utility. See here http://www.grc.com/default.htm for information. Other utilities are out there!! Web sites for reference • Troubleshooting hard drive installation - http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1778&page=14 • Hard Drive Crash - 7 Common Symptoms and Solutions that will help you get your critical data recovered when you experience a hard drive failure.