Troubleshooting
your Computer System-II
The
Troubleshooting section here is not intended as a comprehensive
guide to troubleshooting computer systems, but rather as a quick
checklist to point you in the right direction.
Here
is a list of some of the common problems that may arise.
1.
If you hit the power button and nothing happened.
Is
the power cord plugged in? Is it plugged in the other end too? Check
the switch at the back of the case. Make sure that you connected
the wire from the case power button to the right connector on the
motherboard. Make sure the power connector to the motherboard is
in correctly. Check the floppy power cable. Double-check all connections.
You did use the risers, right?
If
none of this makes a difference, next step is to unplug everything
from the motherboard with the exception of the power cable, power
button wire, video card, memory and processor. If it still will
not power up, it's likely that you have one or more defective components.
The most likely culprits are the motherboard or the case power supply.
2.
If the system turns on, but does not beep or begin to boot up.
First,
double check all connections and try again. Otherwise, the best
thing to do in this circumstance is to unplug everything from the
motherboard with the exception of the power button wire, video card,
memory and processor, then test it again.
If
the computer successfully starts at this point, power off and reconnect
one component at a time until you find the problem. If you cannot
get it to boot up successfully, it is likely that you have one or
more defective parts.
3.
System turns on, beeps intermittently, does not boot up.
Check
that your memory (RAM) chip is installed correctly. Remove it and
re-install it if necessary.
4.
System turns on, gives a sequence of quick beeps, does not boot
up.
Check
that your video card is correctly seated in its AGP or PCI slot.
The AGP slot especially can be unforgiving of a card that is a tiny
bit out of position.
There
are a number of other error codes indicated by patterns of beeps
from the motherboard speaker, but the two above are the most commonly
encountered. For more information, see our guide to Computer Error
Beep Codes.
If
you have got the system up and running, but are experiencing some
problems installing an operating system, here are a couple of common
issues:
5.
Your system freezes intermittently while installing the OS.
Could
well be a heat issue, especially with AMD processors or older Intel
ones. Check that the heat sink fan is spinning and that the heat
sink itself is firmly mounted and parallel to the surface of the
processor. Assuming you are using a stock heat sink from the manufacturer
of the processor, it should be more than adequate to cool the system
if properly applied.
6.
You are having problems fully installing the OS due to errors
copying files and blue screens.
Errors
while copying the setup files, especially with Windows 2000 or XP,
are a common indicator of problems with your memory (RAM). It's
possible it could also be a hard-drive problem, but if you are getting
blue-screens also, especially any ones indicating that a 'page-fault'
has occurred, it's time to pop the memory out and haul it back to
the store to be tested. And don't leave it there for the night either.
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