PC Hardware Loss - Basic Classes

In this lesson you will learn:

Introduction to Hardware Failure

Regardless of the best firewalls, encryption and data storage practices, computer crashes are fairly frequent. Although better than the 'good ol days' when blue screens were quite common, today if a blue screen appears it is a rare occasion. But it still means the same thing.... DEAth to the software or computer Operating System. Hardware failure takes the form of 'Black Screen', where 'Blue Screen' would be a welcome sight! Because Black Screen means that the computer hardware is failing BEFORE the operating system comes to life, it generally means a trip to an operating room. In this class we will study failure of the hardware.

Software failure is one of the main reasons for peoples initial distrust of computers and has made people hesitant to ever use them for sensitive data. Even the most progressive user has that special 'someday' in the back of their mind, when those core pieces of their life and work is missing in action! One day it will happen - guaranteed. When you think of all the lost documents written, school assignments, records, all the family pictures, the information on purchases and even banking / checkbook information, it is amazing that people trust them to the extent that 'I couldn't live without it'. I think that is testament to the tenacity of the human population.

Recognizing Hardware Failure

The time will come when the laptop freezes, the mouse or track pad hangs, the keyboard stops responding, the hour glass never stops and the 'Spinning Pizza of Death' never stops turning. On that day, the web is gone, the data may be and the programs may as well be. You tried unplugging, counting to 10, holding down the power button for two minutes and presto.. The machine starts up and is..... FIXED.

Until a few hours, a few days or a few months later. The same trick will work again... right? Maybe. The thing to remember is that the computer is a device that computes EXACT sequences in programs over and over and over. The problem wasn't 'fixed' at all, unless you know what happened and MANUALLY fixed it. Because the underlying hardware, like RAM and CPU or DISKSPACE wasn't changed, and the software wasn't changed, the computer that you trust in is now basically a time machine ticking along quite faithfully UNTIL the fateful moment when you duplicate the EXACT same conditions that took it down in the first place.

But this time, there is a difference. Now the event has a 'History' and is entered into an 'Event Log' which the machine scans periodically and which you can look at to determine what the failure was. The utilities will be covered in later lessons. For now, you can be sure that the SECOND time that ANY computer hangs, it is a signal that something is definitely wrong. In short, you can't trust the machine from that point on.

If you know EXACTLY what makes it fail EVERY time, then congratulations. You have 99% of the diagnostic work behind you and you can be confident that you can just avoid the bomb and keep playing. However, like most of us, we can't remember what brought it on. One time it was this, another time it was something else and one time it wouldn't even boot up.

And that brings us to the point of this class... eventually it may NOT BOOT up and at that stage it is called Data Recovery. If there is a hardware failure that involves the same error message FIRST then you can check a log file on the computer and use your favorite tech to decipher it for you.... for a nice price. If the failure was a total lockup of the machine, no error message given then your job (or your favorite techie for a price) has to determine whether it is caused by software or hardware. In other words, you have to reconstruct the last moments of life, the first things you saw when you booted up, relay all errors and what you did to 'fix' it.

Hardware failures can be related to HEAT, improper drivers for the hardware that is installed, updates that take drivers down, new software that was installed and now things like sound cards or modems won't work. Video cards, sound cards, and internet cards are usually the fail points, but ANY software update can take the machine down if the version is wrong, the driver is for another device etc.

Hardware failures can result in NO BOOT, no power, no lights, beeps or any sign of life. These are called an 'All or Nothing' failure and are usually the easiest to fix. Once the problem is discovered, everything else is back also. Power Supplies (PS) are the first place to look.... at the fuse, the power strip supplying the computer and the LED lights on the back of the machine indicating the PS is getting power. If it is, is there a fan on anywhere in the case or PS? If not then the usual culprit is the PS, which must be perfectly matched to the type of machine that you have. It can be 'Upgraded' to more power though, so a 350 watt could be replaced by a 400 watt if you added cards since it was purchased new. Diagnostics is the next step and is covered in later chapters.

Preventing Hardware Failure

Some of the most obvious reasons for hardware failure would be:

There are several approaches in prevention, and the best is either a combination of them, or all of them. If you are doing less than three of these, you may eventually have an opportunist theft.

NOTE: Recording the serial numbers of each piece of equipment can be time consuming, so get into the habit of recording them when acquiring each new piece.