CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

2.2. The Art of Troubleshooting

In this section, you take a look at some general factors and then perform an overview of troubleshooting specific components. This chapter covers these components in the same manner as in the preventive maintenance chapter, Book IV, Chapter 1, by touching on each major component one at a time.

2.2.1. Troubleshooting basics

Computer components used to be very expensive. In today's market, though, most components have been turned into commodities and can be purchased very cheaply. Because so many elements are so cheap, replacing components is now more common than repairing them. Because of the reduced cost, you can easily have a small supply of spare components and test components by swapping in new and reliable components.

Most failures in components occur either near installation or around the expected wear-out period; very few components fail during the normal use period. With technology improvements proceeding at their current rates, technology commonly becomes functionally obsolete prior to hitting the wear-out period for that device. This can be illustrated by CD and DVD drives over the last few years, where most CD drives that fail will be replaced with a CD-RW, CD-RW/DVD combo, or DVD-RW drive.

2.2.2. Physical environment

To troubleshoot and repair computer systems, you need a large, clean work surface and enough available power connections to power the equipment you are testing as well as your diagnostic tools. You should use antistatic ...