With loads of complex devices all working together, bound by complicated

intructions inside a PC, you're bound to have some trouble with some of the
components sometime in your PC's life. Because of the complex nature of the
computer, it can be frustrating to try and locate the troublesome component that's
giving you grief. I'm here to help you with as many hardware problems as I
possibly can. Whether your PC won't boot up, your graphics aren't working
properly, you're hearing beeps during bootup or even if you're having networking
issues, it's all here.

Contents
1. BIOS and the booting up
2. Memory and HDD (Hard Disc Drive) problems
3. Video and sound cards
4. Make your PC environmentally friendly
5. Networking and USB

BIOS and the booting up

If your PC won't boot up properly and fails to show a display, then there are
several ways to diagnose the problem.

First of all you may be recieving beeping noises from your computer. These are
perfectly normal and are there to help you decypher what's wrong with your PC.

Here's a complete list of beep codes and there meanings:

Award BIOS
1 long beep - A memory problem, remove and reseat the RAM
1 long, 2 short or 1 long, 3 short - Video card problem. Replace the graphics card
or its memory
Continuous - Memory and/or video card problems. Reseat video card and RAM

Phoenix BIOS
1,1,3 - CMOS unreadable. Replace the motherboard
1,1,4 - BIOS failure. Replace the BIOS (explained later on)
1,2,1 - The timer chip has failed. Replace the motherboard
1,2,2 or 1,2,3 or 1,3,1 or 1,3,3 or 1,3,4 or 1,4,1 or 4,2,1 or 4,3,1 or 4,3,2 or
4,3,2 - Motherboard error, replace it
1,3,3 - Memory problems. Remove and reseat the RAM
1,4,2 - Faulty memory. Test and reaplce your RAM (testing exmplained alter on)
2,any,any - Any beeps after 2 indicates bad memory. Run a memory test and replace
the RAM (testing exmplained alter on)
3,1,any - Faulty motherboard chip. Replace it
3,2,4 - Keyboard controller error. Replace keyboard controller chip or the
motherboard
3,3,4 - No video card. Try removing and reseating it, or adding one
4,2,2 or 4,2,3 - Replace the keyboard. If this persists replace the motherboard
4,2,4 - Remove and replace all PCI cards one by one to find the faulty one.
Replace it
4,3,4 - Clock error. Reset motherboard clock using its setup program. Replace CMOS
battery if necessary. If this fails replace PSU (Power Supply Unit)
4,4,1 or 4,4,2 - Use motherboard manual to disable the serial ports and add an I/O
card to replace them
4,4,3 - Maths coporcessor malfunctioning. Use a low-level diagnostic program to
confirm this, then disable it

AMI BIOS
None - Faulty speaker, broken motherboard or PSU problem
1 short beep - RAM refresh, interrupt timer or interrupt controller failure.
Replace motherboard
2 short beeps or 3 short beeps - Indicates memory problems. Check the seating of
RAM or replace it
4 short beeps - System timer failure. Repalce motherboard
5 short beeps - CPU failure
6 short beeps - Keyboard controller chip error. Replace keyboard. If this persists
chip may need to be reseated/replaced
7 short beeps - CPU exception error. Replace CPU and/or motherboard
8 short beeps - Video card failure. Reseat the graphics card
9 short beeps - ROM checksum error. BIOS ROM is bad. Replace it
10 short beeps - CMOS problem. Replace motherboard
11 short beeps - L2 cache memory failure. Replace L2 cache memory.
1 long, 3 short - Memory test failure in RAM over the first 64k
1 long, 8 short - Display test error. Missing or broken video card

If you're uncertain of which BIOS you have, download this program, open it, click
the Run button and where it says BIOS manufacturer, that's your BIOS.

If beeps don't resolve your problem, you'll need to test each component
individually. Here's how to:
1. Dismantle your PC completely, taking anti-static precautions. Take the
motherboard out of the case and place it on a non-conductive surface. Remove
everything excpt the processor, heatsink and memory.
2. Connect the power supply to the motherboard and speaker. Press the on switch.
Do the heatsink fans turn? Can your hear any BIOS beeps? If not, remove the RAM
and try again.
3. If the board seems to be recieving power, try connectiong the graphics card. DO
this carefully, ensuring that you don't stress the PCI/AGP/PCI-e slot. Connect
your monitor and power up the PC. Do you get a picture? If not, replace the
graphics card and try again. If this fails the problem may be your PCI/AGP/PCI-e
slot.
4. Now you can recieve power and a picture, so place the motherboard back in the
case, lining it up correctly with the spacers to avoid shorting out. Reconnect the
power, switch, speaker and graphics card and start the computer again to check
taht it still works.
5. Connect your hard drives and start the computer. Are they detected? Does it
begin to boot correctly? If not, check your BIOS settings, jumper configurations
and trysubstituting the drives themselves.
6. Now you have a system that can boot, connect your remaining PCI cards and try
starting again. If all goes well, you can reassemble the computer, connect your
periphals and get it up and running once more.

Memory and HDD (Hard Disc Drive) problems

RAM
Your PC stores data in its memory temporarily, but as RAM loses its contents as
soon as the power is cut, you also need a more permanent method of storage. Most
commonly this is the hard drive, but CD and DVD rewriters can perform this
function too, as can removable flash drives and older taps and floppy disks.

Memory problems can show themselves through random system freezes, in blue screens
or STOP errors. If you suspect faulty memory you'll need to run a memory testing
utility such as MemTest. Replace any memory that is found to be faulty.

Before you throw out apparently "dud", check to see if reseating and/or changing
RAM slots improves the situation. Your RAM slot may be faulty.
Settings within the BIOS can also affect performance. Enter the BIOS by pressing
the delete or F8 key buring bootup, select Advanced Chipset Features, where you
can adjust your RAM settings. Select memory timings and press enter to input your
own timings. CAS stands for Column Access Strobe and it manages how quickly memory
units can return a response to a data request. Bank Cycle Timer or tRAS is the
number of clock cycles needed to create the difference in charge between the bit
and lines of reference to restore the data in the cells of memory. tRCD or RAS to
CAS delay is again measures in clock cycles and can limit memory performance. Aim
for low CAS latency and low RAS-to-CAS delay. Low Bank Cycle time is despirable.
RAS Precharge has less affect on performance.

Hard drives
Your hard drive is probably the most active moving part in your PC. It's
reasonable to expect hard drive failure after using the PC for several years, so
regular (once a week) backups are greatly recommended.

Hard drive manufacturers have developed SMART or Self Monitoring Analysis and
Reporting Technology that gives your PC the ability to predict imminent hard drive
failure, giving you the time to backup and replace the drive before you lose any
data.

You can normally enable SMART (if present) through the BIOS. By using a program
the utilises SMART, you can find out the health of your hard drive. Drive Health
is an excellent utility that provides you with an instant diagnosis of your drive.

If you're replacing a drive, decide whether it's a master or slave and then set
the jumpers to the positions indicated by the diagram printed on the drive itself.
Once you've plugged everything in enter the BIOS by pressinf the delete key or F8
key on your keyboard during bootup. Select the IDE bus information, usually found
under standard CMOS settings. Set each device to Auto. Choose Auto detect if
available.

Video and sound cards

Video cards
If you have a powerful graphics card it may need alot of power. Consider upgrading
your PSU (Power Supply Unit) if you use a high end video card. I recommend more
than 400W of power. The most up-to-date drivers for your graphics card will give
you the best performance. Check nVidia's site or ATI's site for driver updates. If
there's a newer driver than the one you're currently using be sure to download and
install it.

If you have a corrupt drivers consider booting into safe mode by hitting F8
repeatedly during startup, so that you can use driver roll-back if you're using
Windows XP. To do this right-click on My Computer, click properties, then
hardware, and then click on device managar. Click the display adapters menu,
right-click your graphics card and then click on properties. From here you can
select the driver tab and then click on roll-back driver.

If you have a noisy fan on your graphics card then clean it out thoroughly along
with the heatsink and replace it. If it's still extremely noisy then I recommend
you purchase a new fan.

Sound Cards
If you're getting no sound, first check that all of the connections on the back of
your motherboard and in firmly and connected to the write slot. If this doesn't
fix the problem click on the volume control panel in the system tray (near there
the clock is displayed in the lower-right side of the desktop). Ensure that the
mute box isn't checked for any of the channels except for line in (stop that
annoying noise when you connect to the internet).

Your sound card may not be selected as the default card within windows which will
also cause the loss of sound. Open the control panel, choose multimedia or sounds
and audio devices. Select the aduio tab and check that the default devices are
those install on your PC. Select sounds and test a windows event sound to see if
you can hear it. You can also check the sound capabilities of your version of
DirectX by typing dxdiag into the run prompt, clicking the sound and music tabs
and clicking on the test buttons.

Your sound card may also sufer from driver issues or the conflict between on board
sound. Read through your motherboard manual to find out how to disable the on
board sound. This can usually be achieved within the BIOS or by modifying jumper
settings on the motherboard itself. Try updating the driver by visitng the
manufacturer's website if you're expierenced erratic sounds.

Make your PC environmentally friendly

The PC health section of the BIOS allows you to see key information including CPU
temperature, system temperature and fan speeds. You can set levels at which the
BIOS can take action to stop your components over heating a melting/burning.

Many power management features affect your system's performance, but they save
energy and if people used them they would have a significant effect on the
environment. Most involve shutting down parts of your system after a certain
amount of idle time.

To access your power options open up the control panel and then select power
options.

There are several power-saving states that a PC can enter. Dozing slows the
processor down to around half normal speed, standby shuts down the hard drives and
graphics output, suspend closes all devices down except the CPU, inactive shuts
down the processor and powers down the L2 cache and the aptly named HDD power down
shuts down the hard drive.

Networking and USB

Networking
Networking can be a tricky business if you're not too sure of what you're doing,
so this is where I come in to help you out.

If you're having networking problems consult your manuals to ensure that all
connections are in the correct places and that none of the wires are damaged. If
you're using a wireless network make sure that there's as little interferance as
possible from things such as telephones, radios, televisions etc.

Check to see if your wireless adaptor drivers are correctly installed. In Windows
XP use the wireless network setup wizard to sort out encryption problems. This
helps you by providing a print out of the network settings and the ability to
transer these using a USB drive. Launch it by choosing Start -> All PRograms ->
Accessories -> Communications -> Wireless Network Setup Wizard or by selecting it
within the control panel.

Wireless networks are significantly less secure than wired networks as people
within your neighbourhood may also access your connection. To prevent this
download a leading firewall such as Sygate.
USB
If you're having problems with a certain USB device, the problem probably lies
within the connection and not the device itself.

Check the device managar to see if the USB controller is properly installed. If
there's no mention of USB in device manager, check your BIOS to see if it's
enabled.

Re-installing your USB controller can often clear glitches with USB devices. To do
this follow these steps:
1. Open up the control panel and select performance and maintanence. Now select
system and open the system properties dialog and move to the hardware tab. This is
where USB problems can be sorted out.
2. Click device managr and scroll down to Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Expand
this entry so that you can see each USB controller installed on your system. We
need to uninstall these before we can reinstall them.
3. Right-click each of the USB controllers and choose uninstall. Once complete,
reboot your PC and reinstall the USB controllersas your system detects them. Now
plug in a USB device to see if the problem has been cleared.