Introduction to PC Troubleshooting

Introduction

Under all the fun, pretty, and fascinating stuff that Windows and other applications enable you to do lies a box—your case, full of the hardware that powers everything you do on a PC. I've already outlined what each piece of hardware does for you and where it lives in your case, but now I want to talk about actually replacing components. Techs replace hardware for two important reasons: It breaks or grows outdated.

Hardware fixes can be the easiest and most tragic. If an individual part in your computer stops working (for instance, if your computer suddenly thinks it has half as much RAM as it did yesterday), you usually can't repair the individual component. If you have a warranty or service plan for the part, you might be able to send it back to the manufacturer. Otherwise, you're out of luck. You'll need to replace the part, which you can easily do, but it can get expensive.

Parts also become outdated. A video card from a few years ago (let alone last year) pales in comparison to the one you can buy today. Replacing hardware keeps your computer up to date and performing well. New hardware often fixes those little glitches and slowdowns that develop over time. (Fresh installations of Windows work the same: Everything has that new OS smell!)

This lesson will introduce you to replacing or installing three commonly upgraded hardware components.

• Installing more RAM takes nothing more than a "click" and can greatly improve your PC's performance, eliminating those hangs and slowdowns.
• Running out of data storage space? I'll show you how to install and set up a new hard drive.
• Your motherboard also has room for expansion cards, which expand the capabilities of your PC with new features or more ports.

When you're ready to learn more about hardware upgrades and installation, move on to Chapter 2.

RAM

Back in Lesson 1, you learned that RAM acts as a bridge between your data storage and your processor. Hard drives can't send and receive data fast enough, so PCs use RAM as a middleman. The amount of RAM you have (measured in gigabytes, or GB) determines how much data your PC can handle at once, which affects the number of applications you can open simultaneously and how fast they run.

Does your PC feel sluggish? Does it take forever just to open an Internet browser? Does opening a second browser window slow your computer to a crawl—or worse, make it crash? You probably don't have enough system memory. How can you improve this aspect of your PC's performance? Install more RAM.

You need to consider several factors before running to your local computer store and picking up several gigabytes of new RAM (which you really should do—RAM doesn't cost much). Read on to learn more about what type of RAM you need, how to remove it from your PC, and how to install it.

RAM Considerations

Motherboards differ in both the number of RAM slots available and in the specific type of RAM used. You need to see what slots the motherboard has available and read the manual to determine the details. You'll find one to eight RAM slots on today's systems. There's a lot of variation in motherboards, though, so you have to look. Plus, you need to see how many are already populated with RAM sticks.

Four empty RAM slots on a motherboard

A typical motherboard might have four RAM slots, for example, which means it can handle four RAM sticks. If it already has two RAM sticks installed, you can add only two more. Or you could take out the old ones and add four new sticks instead.

RAM installed on a motherboard

Once you know the physical options for a RAM upgrade, you need to find out the specific requirements for that motherboard. The motherboard manual will tell you the following details:

• Which technology of memory the motherboard uses, such as DDR, DDR2, or DDR3. State-of-the-art motherboards use DDR3 RAM, the fastest variety available, but plenty of systems still use DDR or DDR2. You can't mix these; if a motherboard uses DDR2, it uses DDR2 only.
• The maximum capacity of stick each slot can handle. You can find RAM sticks with up to 8 GB of memory, but that doesn't mean your motherboard can use them.
• The total amount of RAM the motherboard can handle. In addition to each individual slot, a motherboard also has a maximum total amount of usable RAM.
• Which configuration (placement) of sticks optimizes the motherboard configuration. Some motherboards have specific slots (or specific slot combinations, such as the first and third slot) that can use the RAM more efficiently than others.

Find the RAM specifications in your motherboard manual. A lot of systems come with digital rather than paper manuals. Check the disks that came with your computer.

If you're making the jump from Windows XP to Windows 7, the first thing you might notice is that the new OS runs more slowly than the old one (if you didn't upgrade the hardware too). At a minimum, Windows 7 requires 1 GB of RAM.

The upgrade path for any two machines can differ a lot. Here are two quick examples.

• One customer's computer has 1 GB of RAM, and he wants at least 2 GB. You open it up to discover that it has four 128-MB sticks in its four slots. To upgrade, you'll have to replace existing RAM. Plus, you'll need to check if the motherboard can handle 1-GB sticks or whether it tops out at 512-MB sticks.
• A second customer's computer has 1 GB of RAM, and he wants at least 2 GB. Same scenario, right? Except when you open up the second customer's case, you find a single 1-GB stick of RAM and two empty RAM slots. Easy upgrade: just add an identical 1-GB stick and he's good to go.

Note also that the operating system makes a big difference on upgradeability. My fancy system at the office has six RAM slots and supports 12 GB of RAM. Running a 32-bit version of Windows, however, limits my usable RAM to only 4 GB. That's all that a 32-bit OS can see. To unlock the full 12-GB glory of the motherboard requires a 64-bit version of Windows.

One final factor to consider: Even within the same variety of RAM (DDR, DDR2, or DDR3), multiple manufacturers make sticks with different sizes and different speeds. You might have two DDR2 sticks that look identical with completely different specifications. You don't need to know what all the specifications mean, but you should try to use identical sticks of RAM in your system. If you already have a 2-GB DDR3 stick made by Crucial, don't add a 1-GB DDR3 stick made by Corsair. All the information you need to match RAM sticks should be printed somewhere on the stick itself. (Some stickers include lots of details—like the manufacturer, size, and speed—while some have the size only.)

A RAM sticker with details about the RAM. Notice the "1G" notation at the end of the first line of text

Removing RAM

Removing RAM requires little to no preparation or setup. You don't need to configure anything in Windows beforehand or even back up files. (Well, you should always back up your files, but you already knew that, right?)

For the most part, you need to remove RAM from your PC only when you replace it or when it fails. Yes, bad RAM happens (a lot). I'll show you how to look out for bad RAM a little later.

Note

While I built this lesson as a series of practical, hands-on exercises, you don't need to follow along on your own system if you don't want to. You should remove and replace hardware in your PC only if you feel comfortable doing so. You can learn a lot about the process of replacing hardware just by reading.

You already learned how to open your PC case (review Lesson 9 if you forgot), so I'll assume you can do that on your own. Remember to take all necessary electrostatic discharge precautions before you begin.

1. Find the RAM slots on your motherboard. There should (hopefully) be one or more sticks of RAM already installed. If any cables or cords are blocking access to the RAM, gently try to move them out of the way.
2. Locate the retention clips on either end of the RAM module. These should look like little plastic notches sticking out from the motherboard. You can see them more easily on an empty slot.
   
   
   

   Retention clips on a motherboard
3. Press outward on the clips to disengage them from the retention slots on the ends of the RAM sticks.
4. Press down on the clips firmly and evenly. The retention clips act as levers to lift the sticks up and slightly out of the RAM slots. Wait for the stick of RAM to lift partially out of the slot before pulling on it.
5. Remove the stick, and place it on your antistatic mat or in an antistatic bag.
   
   

   RAM stick in an antistatic bag
6. While you have your system RAM out, this is a good time to check the condition of the metal contacts on the RAM sticks and the motherboard RAM sockets. Dirty contacts are possible but rare.
7. After you've examined your system RAM and inspected the motherboard RAM sockets, reinstall the RAM, as described next.

Installing RAM

Remember how you removed that stick of RAM 30 seconds ago? Do that backwards to install the RAM stick. (No, really.)

1. Find the RAM slots. Make sure the clips you released to remove the RAM are still open.
2. Make sure that the notch at the bottom of the RAM stick lines up with the raised portion of the slot. It should be about halfway down the length of the stick of RAM.
3. Push the RAM stick into the slot, applying even pressure along the length of the stick, until the clips click into place. If it doesn't slide into the slot, don't force it. Check the notch on the RAM stick. Make sure the clips are open.
   
   

   Notch in RAM stick and raised portion of RAM slot
4. To make sure that you installed the RAM correctly (and that the stick itself works too), close up your case, plug in the computer, and turn it on. On the first screen, you should see something like "System Memory" or "Checking RAM." The number next to that represents how much RAM your system has. If you miss that screen, you can also wait until Windows loads. Press the WINDOWS LOGO KEY + PAUSE to quickly open the System applet in the Control Panel. This screen lists all the important specifications of your PC. Next to "Installed memory (RAM)," you should see the total amount of RAM you installed.
   
   
   

   First screen after turning on computer, showing how much RAM is installed
   
   
   

   System applet in Control Panel, showing how much RAM is installed
5. If something doesn't add up, either the RAM didn't install properly or the RAM has failed in some way. Try reinstalling the RAM into the same slot. Then try installing it into a different slot. Try reinstalling the old RAM to make sure that the RAM slots still work. If nothing works, you may need to return and replace the new RAM you purchased.

Adding more RAM to your system can drastically improve performance, especially if you like to multitask. But you can make other handy improvements, too. Dive into Chapter 3 to learn how to expand your data storage capacity with new hard drives.

Hard Drives

Hard drives store your data, but what happens when you run out of space? All those files and applications start taking up a lot of room after a while. Of course, you could always delete some older or unimportant things, but what if you have nothing left to delete? You need more space, and that means a bigger (or second) hard drive. What do you need to know to increase your storage capacity? Read on to find out.

Hard Drive Considerations

When purchasing a new hard drive, you need to make a few choices. Will your new hard drive replace your old one or supplement it with additional space? Keep in mind that replacing the old one would involve moving all of your data, applications, and the operating system to the new drive. In fact, unless you don't have room for the new hard drive in the case, you might as well just add more space for your data. Most motherboards have enough ports (called Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or SATA ports) for several hard drives.

SATA ports on a hard drive

You need to determine the size and speed of the hard drive you want to purchase.

Traditional hard drives use spinning platters to store data. The faster the platters spin, the faster you can access data. Hard drives commonly come in 5400 rotations per minute (RPM) and 7200 RPM varieties. A minor price difference separates them, but the faster version is worth the expense.

On the other hand, you don't always need to get the biggest hard drive available (which tops out at 3 terabytes, or TB, as I write this). A 1 TB hard drive, or even 500 GB, might be plenty. Only you know how much space you need for your data.

Two types of hard drives exist: the traditional, platter-spinning kind I mentioned earlier and a new type of hard drive called the solid state drive (SSD). Solid state drives don't use any moving parts. Instead, they use memory chips, like the kind in memory cards for digital cameras, to store data. Without moving parts, these drives can write and read data a lot faster than traditional hard drives. Unfortunately, they cost a lot more, too. A 128 GB SSD costs three times as much as a 1 TB traditional hard drive. Yikes!

The inside of a traditional hard drive
(A solid state drive, which looks like a board with a bunch of computer chips
isnt pictured here becuase its not very exciting.)

Removing a Hard Drive

It takes a little more time and effort to remove and install hard drives than it does to work with RAM, but not much. Hard drives use Plug and Play technology, which means the computer automatically detects whether the drive is connected.

Caution!

If you decide to replace your hard drive (or just want to remove it for fun or practice), you should absolutely back up all your files. It's all fun and games until you drop that freshly removed hard drive into an unexpected ravine. Again, if you don't feel comfortable handling the box that holds every piece of highly important, irreplaceable data you have, just read along to find out how to handle hard drives.

Here are the steps for removing a hard drive:

1. Shut down your system and remove the system cover, following proper electrostatic discharge avoidance procedures.
2. Two cables connect your hard drive to the rest of the PC. First, disconnect the data cable from the hard drive. Data cables are usually thin, flat, and red (though this isn't always true). Grasp the cable as closely as possible to the connector on the drive and pull, rocking the connector gently from side to side.
   
   

   Power and data cables connected to a hard drive
3. Disconnect the power supply from the SATA drive by unplugging the power connector.
4. Remove the hard drive from the system. Because of the variety of cases, caddies, bays, slots, and so on, it's not possible to give detailed instructions on how to remove the drive from your particular system. Look closely for caddy releases or retaining screws. Close inspection and a little logic will usually make it clear how to remove the drive. Make notes of how the drive comes out; you might want to reinstall it later.

Installing a Hard Drive

The hard drive installation process begins as a reverse of the removal process but grows a little more complex at the end. It's not enough to just plug the hard drive into your PC; you also need to configure it within Windows so that the hard drive knows how you want it to store files. I'll get to that in a moment.

First, here are the steps for installing a hard drive.

1. Shut down your PC. Remove the system cover (and follow proper ESD avoidance procedures, as usual).
2. Reattach your hard drive to the case, using whatever method your machine requires.
3. Plug in the power and data cables. Remember that they're keyed so you can't plug anything in backwards.
4. Close up the case, plug the computer back in, and turn it on.

Note

I've told you how to work with internal hard drives only. You can just as easily add data storage space using external hard drives that connect to your computer using one of the ports on the front or back of your PC case.

We're not quite done yet. To use the hard drive, you'll need to format it with a file system. This tells the PC and hard drive how to read and write data. You might see some unfamiliar terms, but I'll walk you through the process anyway—a wizard does almost everything for you.

1. Go to Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. (You will definitely need administrative privileges to do this.) The Computer Management tool handles many complicated features of Windows, and I don't recommend poking around too deeply. Why Windows hides the seemingly simple task of configuring a hard drive for normal use here baffles me.
   
   

   The Computer Management utility
2. Double-click on Storage in the central pane. Then double-click on Disk Management. It might take a few moments to load.
   

   
   The Computer Management utility, with Disk Management on the far right

3. You'll see a scary-looking screen open, but you don't need to worry about 99% of it. On the bottom half of the central pane, you should see some boxes with colored bars running along the top. Each of these represents a hard drive. Look for a box with a black bar on top (as seen in the following screenshot). This is your new hard drive, waiting for a new file system.
4. Right-click on the gray box to the left of the black bar and select New Simple Volume. The New Simple Volume Wizard should appear.
   
   

   Selecting New Simple Volume
5. Follow the wizard. Unless you have a good reason not to, leave all the options at their default setting. When you're finished, you should have a brand new, freshly configured hard drive, ready to go.

With hard drives safely under your belt (or installed in your PC), you're ready to learn about another type of hardware: expansion cards. Check out Chapter 4 next.

Expansion Cards

When you buy a computer, it comes with a certain feature set and built-in ports on the back of your computer. These include USB ports, audio ports, a connector for your monitor, and so on.

Ports on the back of a computer

But what if there's something you want to attach to your computer, or just something you want your computer to do, that it didn't include when you bought it?

While upgrading RAM and adding hard drives can increase the performance of your PC, installing expansion cards can give your computer entirely new abilities. Common expansion cards include video cards, sound cards, wired or wireless network cards, or even cards loaded with extra ports, like USB and SATA.

Many people install powerful video cards into their PCs so they can play graphically intense video games. Because video cards are so popular, this chapter will walk you through installing a one into an expansion slot.

A video card

Most motherboards include more than one expansion slot. These days, almost all expansion slots use the same technology: Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, or PCIe. This enables the attached expansion card to communicate with the rest of the PC. But while they may all use the same technology, these slots don't necessarily look the same.

Some expansion slots are much longer than others. Very short slots, called PCIe ×1 (pronounced "by one," not "ex one") slots, use fewer wires or lanes to transfer data, usually because the card itself doesn't need to transfer that much data. A network interface card, for example, might only need a ×1 slot.

Longer cards, known as PCIe ×16 cards, use a lot more data and thus need more lanes and a longer slot. Video cards (yes, you can have more than one, if you like) often occupy this type of slot; 3-D graphics require a lot of data bandwidth to keep things running smoothly.

You'll need to verify that the expansion card you purchase can fit in one of the available slots on the motherboard. Check the details of the expansion card and your motherboard manual for details.

PCIe slots in multiple sizes

Removing Expansion Cards

Motherboards have a limited number of expansion slots, so you might run out of space for new cards. Removing the cards doesn't take much forethought, but if you remove a video or sound card, remember to plug your monitor or speaker back into the original ports included with the motherboard. You'll also need a screwdriver.

Caution!

Follow the instructions only if you feel comfortable. Breaking your computer's insanely powerful video card isn't worth the experimentation!

1. Turn off the computer, unplug it, and open the case.
2. Find the expansion slots near the back of the case. Unplug any cables that might be attached to the card you want to remove (audio cables, monitor cable, USB or Ethernet cables, and so on).
3. Most PCIe cards draw power from the slot itself, but other, more powerful cards require a direct connection to the power supply. You'll see an obvious power connector and wires coming from one side of the card if this is the case. Unplug the power if needed.
   
   

   A PCIe card that uses a dedicated connector for power
4. Find the edge of the card closest to the back of the case. Notice the metal bracket screwed to the case. This keeps the card from sagging when you place your tower upright. Unscrew the screw.
   
   

   The screw and bracket keeping the PCIe card in place
5. At the opposite end of the card, you'll find a clip somewhat like the clips that hold in RAM sticks. Every motherboard uses a different style clip, but you'll need to pull it out of the way to remove the card.
   
   

   The tab that helps keep the PCIe card in place
6. Grasp the card (with both hands, if possible), and pull gently but firmly away from the motherboard. Don't try to bend or rock the card—this can damage it.
7. Place the removed expansion card into an antistatic bag.

Turning the computer back on should reveal that whatever that expansion card did no longer works. Fortunately, you can always add another card. Let's look at installing a new one.

1. Open the computer case. Remember to follow ESD-avoidance procedures.
2. You can either use the slot you just emptied or find another one. If you are using a never-before-used slot, you'll need to remove the slot cover. Unscrew it and keep it somewhere safe, in case you decide to remove the expansion card one day.
   
   

   A slot cover outside its case
3. Push the new card down into the PCIe slot (without rocking or bending) until the PCIe clip secures it. Make sure to match up the notches in the card with the raised surfaces of the slot.
4. Screw the card to the case.
5. For a more powerful video card, you may have to attach it to your power supply for it to work. The manual that came with the expansion card will have more information about this.
6. Attach any cables to the back of the expansion card, outside of the case, as needed.

Your work continues after installing the card. You need to install drivers, the tiny applications that enable Windows to use the expansion card. When you first turn on the computer after installing the new card, Windows should automatically detect the card, but it may not have the drivers for it; a notification will appear near the right-hand side of the task bar indicating whether Windows successfully installed the device.

If you need to go looking for drivers, check the Internet first. Yes, your expansion card probably included drivers on an optical disk, but the manufacturer might have already replaced them with a newer version. If you can't find anything at the manufacturer's site, use the drivers on the disk.

Some disks come with an installer that will install the drivers for you. If you need to install drivers manually, you'll use the Device Manager.

1. Go to Start > Control Panel > System and Security, and then click on Device Manager under the System category. (You'll need administrative privileges.)
    
   
   

   The Device Manager
2. Find your device in the list. If it failed to install, it should have a yellow exclamation point next to it.
3. Right-click on the device name, and click on Update Driver Software to open the Update Driver Wizard.
      
   
   

   Right-clicking on a device
4. You can choose to search for the driver automatically or manually. If you already have the disk, use the manual option, Browse my computer for driver software.
    
   
   

   The Update Driver Software wizard
5. Point the wizard to the location of the driver and click Next. It should find the driver and install it.
6. Depending on the device, you may need to restart your computer.

Now that your expansion cards are ready to go, head on over to Chapter 5 for a summary of everything you learned in this lesson.

Summary

While dismantling your computer might sound scary, good techs need to know how to replace components. Even a single bad component can bring your computer to its knees. Sluggish performance? No more room for data? These both have simple hardware solutions if you know what to do inside your computer.

RAM acts as the bridge between your hard drive's data and the CPU. The more RAM you have, the faster your computer will run. Make sure to get the right kind of RAM for your motherboard. Your motherboard manual will be able to tell you more about what type of RAM your need.

Installing new RAM requires little more than popping it into an empty slot. To remove it, you only need to pop open the clips and pull it out.

Hard drives store your data. More hard drive space means you can keep more photos, games, videos, and other files on your PC. Hard drives come in multiple sizes, speeds, and varieties. The more advanced solid state drive speeds by traditional drives, but SSDs cost much more for less space. After plugging in a new hard drive, you'll need to use the Disk Management tool to set up the file system.

Expansion cards add or improve features on your computer. PCIe cards use PCIe slots of varying lengths. Some cards, like certain video cards, require extra power to function. Once you've installed a card into an empty slot, you need to make sure the device has the proper drivers. You can either download them from the Internet or find them on the included disk.

RAM, hard drives, and expansion cards represent the easiest upgrades you can make to your PC. You could also upgrade your processor, power supply, or even your motherboard, but those get trickier and are less common. Often, you can fix basic hardware troubleshooting problems with a few new parts.

Now that you've seen everything you need to know about hardware upgrades and installations, check out the quiz and other materials that go with this lesson. After that, get ready for Lesson 11, which will teach you about cleaning, cooling, and disposing of your PC.