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yourmybestfriend.mid (18,276 bytes) Press play to start |
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| Questions to Answer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The key to troubleshooting a home computer is to analyze the problem to try to isolate the cause. You also need to be able to recreate the problem on demand. How many times have you called in an expert to show them the problem, and the computer works just fine? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is it a hardware or software problem? One of the most frequent calls I get concerns the inability of the printer to function correctly. The first thing I do is determine if the printer problem seems to be happening with all programs or just with one. If the problem is only happening with one program, then it's probably a software problem rather then a hardware problem. You may want to go to the DOS prompt and use the Print command to print something like your autoexec.bat file. If this works, then the problem is probably in the way your printer is set up within Windows. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What's the last thing you did before the problem started happening? Many problems are self-inflicted. You may have changed something to fix a problem, which messed up something else. There's almost always some key to the problem, that if you can figure out what that key is, then the resolution of the problem becomes very simple. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is it really a problem? Some problems solve themselves merely by rebooting the computer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Have you seen the problem before? Here's where a computer "expert" comes in handy. Many problems are the same thing over and over again. If it's something you've seen before, then you already should know possible causes. I had a call one time on a printer problem that took me about 5 minutes to fix. The caller said that I made her feel so dumb because she'd been working on the problem about two hours before calling me. I told her that the first time I saw the problem, it probably took me that long to figure it out, but once you've seen the problem several times before and know what symptoms to look for, resolution becomes easy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Did you check the manual?
(also known as RTFM - Read the "Fine"
Manual) Many problems can be solved merely
by reading the manual or checking the
troubleshooting area of the manual.
Have you listened to the "beep" code? You can be pointed in the right direction on basic motherboard problems by listening to the sequence of beeps when you boot up the computer. |
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| Interrupts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One of the most frustrating things to solve
when installing new hardware is interrupt
problems. Hardware interrupts are signals
to the CPU that an adapter has information to
provide to the CPU. In many cases the
hardware interrupt is set by changing a jumper on
the interface card. The following table
shows the "standard" hardware
interrupts:
You are limited to 16 interrupts. In a few cases two devices can share an interrupt, but the key is whether or not the two devices have to operate at the same time. For instance a mouse needs to be operational all the time, so if you have a mouse using COM1: (IRQ4), you can't have another device connected to COM3:, because the mouse has total use of IRQ4. To further compound the situation some sound cards, video cards, and hard disk controllers actually use more than one hardware interrupt. By the time you add a scanner, zip drive, and a network card, each of which require an interrupt, you're usually running into problems. It's best to keep a table for your own PC showing what is using each interrupt. Windows 95 will show you the interrupts being used under Control Panel, System, Device Manager, Computer, Properties. |
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| I/O Base Addresses and DMA Channels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Two other parameters you need to be aware of are I/O base addresses and DMA Channels. Normally you can stick with the default with both of these, but you will have a problem if two devices are trying to use the same area. An I/O base address is also referred to as a port address. It is merely an address in memory, so normally there will be no conflict since there are so many memory addresses available. There are normally 8 DMA addresses available (0-7) although many devices only recognize 0-4. Sound cards and hard disk controllers are usually the types of interface cards where DMA channels become important. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Driver Problems | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Many peripheral problems can be traced back to the software driver for running that peripheral. You may need to get a later version of the driver from the manufacturer. It may be just a matter of setting or changing a parameter found within the driver. This is especially true of printer problems. A good sources of drivers is the Drivers Headquarters. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Other Sources of Information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Back to Home Computer Support |
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 refnor@mgfairfax.rr.com |
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| Last modified: 08-29-99 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
