Hardware & Network Troubleshooting

The 6 troubleshooting steps

1. Identify the problem

2. Establish theory (Occam's razor)

3. Test theory

4. Plan of action

5. Verify system functionality

6. Document findings

Potential causes of the Windows blue screen of death (stop error)

Disk space issues, malware, driver issues

Some reasons you might get the macOS spinning beach ball of death

App bug, faulty hardware, slow paging to disk

When might you use VGA mode? (F8 key)

No video after Windows loads

If the system has sluggish performance you should check this

Task Manager, Windows updates, disk space

What is defrag?

rearranges saved info to make computer faster

The first thing you should do if the PC has smoke or is burning

Disconnect from power

Two things to check if an application crashes

Event log, Reliability Monitor

How to reset BIOS configuration(s)

-Remove CMOS battery (older systems)

-Use jumper or short manually if no jumper (newer systems)

What it means when system says 'drive not recognized' or 'operating system not found'

Boot failure

What to use to monitor storage disk information

SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology)

IOPS

Input/Output Operations Per Second (storage devices)

Hard Drive/SSD IOPS

200/1,000,000

Three things to check when a monitor has a distorted image

-cables

-OS refresh rate

-display specifications

What it means when an LCD projector intermittently shuts down

Cooling issue/airflow

When a touchscreen is black and not responding to input you should do this

Hard reset

How to fix cursor drift

touch calibration

A line or echo on the page when using a laser printer means

photosensitive drum might be dirty or scratched

When toner becomes smudged on a page this means

fuser issue

Ping loopback address

127.0.0.1 (internal ip address)

Latency

Delay between the request and the response

What is SNR? (Network troubleshooting)

Signal to noise ratio (you want a very large ratio)

Jitter (VoIP)

amount of time between each individual data frame

What is port flapping?

causes a switch port to fluctuate up and down (hardware/cable issue)