SoFunction
Updated on 2025-03-09

Basic principles and methods of computer repair

Chapter 1 Basic principles and methods of computer maintenance
The principles, methods, etc. mentioned here are the basis for the classification judgment of the second part and need to be carefully followed and implemented.

§1.1 Basic principles to follow for computer repair:
1. The maintenance judgment must start with the simplest thing.
A simple thing refers to observation on the one hand, and a simple environment on the other hand.
The simple thing is observation, which includes:
1. Environmental conditions around the computer - location, power supply, connection, other equipment, temperature and humidity, etc.;
2. The phenomena displayed by the computer, the content displayed, and the similarities and differences between them and under normal circumstances;
3. Environmental conditions inside the computer - dust, connections, color of devices, shape of components, status of indicator lights, etc.;
4. Computer software and hardware configuration - what kind of hardware is installed and the use of resources; what kind of application software is used as a system; what kind of application software is installed on it; the hardware settings driver version, etc.
Simple environments include:
1. The minimum system to be mentioned later;
2. In the judgment environment, only basic running components/software and suspected faulty components/software are included;
3. In a clean system, add user's applications (hardware, software) to analyze and judge.
Starting with simple things is conducive to concentration of energy and to judge and positioning faults. It is necessary to pay attention that you must pass careful observation before you can make judgments and repairs.
2. According to the observed phenomenon, you should "think first and then do"
Think first and then do it, including the following aspects:
First of all, think about how to do it, where to start, and then actually do it. It can also be said that it is to analyze and judge first, and then perform maintenance.
Secondly, for the observed phenomena, try to check the relevant information first to see if there are corresponding technical requirements, usage characteristics, etc., and then start repair based on the information you have reviewed and combined with what you want to talk about below.
Finally, in the process of analyzing and judgment, you should make judgments based on your existing knowledge and experience. For those you don’t know much or don’t understand at all, you must first consult an experienced colleague or your technical support engineer for help.
3. In most computer maintenance judgments, it is necessary to "firm first and then hard:
That is, from the entire maintenance judgment process, we always first determine whether it is a software failure and check the software problem first. When it can be judged that the software environment is normal, if the fault cannot disappear, then start from the hardware aspect of the inspection.
4. During the maintenance process, we must distinguish the primary and secondary, that is, "grasp the main contradictions"
When reproducing the fault phenomenon, you may sometimes see that a faulty machine has more than one fault phenomenon, but two or more fault phenomena (such as: it is not displayed during startup, but the machine is also starting, and after starting at the same time, there is a crash, etc.). In this case, you should first judge and repair the main fault phenomenon. After repair, you will repair the secondary fault phenomenon. Sometimes the secondary fault phenomenon may no longer require maintenance.
§1.2 Basic methods of computer maintenance
1. Observation method
Observation is the first important method in the maintenance and judgment process, and it runs through the entire maintenance process. Observation must not only be serious, but also comprehensive. What to observe includes:
1. The surrounding environment;
2. Hardware environment. Including plugs, seats and slots;
3. Software environment;
4. User xx's habits and processes
2. Minimum system method
Minimum system refers to the most basic hardware and software environment that can enable the computer to be turned on or run from the perspective of maintenance judgment. There are two forms of the minimum system:
Minimum hardware system: consists of power supply, motherboard and CPU. In this system, there is no connection to any signal wire, only the power supply to the motherboard. During the judgment process, we use sound to determine whether this core component can work normally;
Minimum software system: consists of power supply, motherboard, CPU, memory, graphics card/monitor, keyboard and hard disk. This minimum system is mainly used to determine whether the system can complete normal startup and operation.
For the minimum software environment, there are the following points to explain about "software":
1. The software environment in the hard disk retains the original software environment, but isolates it according to needs such as uninstalling, blocking, etc.) when analyzing and judging. The original software environment is mainly used to analyze and judge application software problems.
2. The software environment in the hard disk has only one basic xx system environment (maybe uninstalling all applications, or reinstalling a clean xx system), and then load the required applications according to the needs of analysis and judgment. It is necessary to use a clean xx as the system environment, which is to judge system problems, software conflicts or conflicts between software and hardware.
3. Under the system with minimum software, appropriate hardware can be added or changed as needed. For example: When judging a startup failure, since the hard disk cannot start, I want to check whether it can be started from other drives. At this time, you can add a floppy drive under the minimum software system or simply replace the hard drive with the floppy drive to check. For example: when judging audio and video faults, you should add a sound card to the software minimum system; when judging network problems, you should add a network card to the software minimum system, etc.
The minimum system method mainly requires first to determine whether the system can work normally in the most basic software and hardware environment. If it does not work normally, it can be determined that the most basic software and hardware components are faulty, thus playing the role of fault isolation.
The minimum system method and the gradual addition method can quickly locate faults that occur in other board software and improve maintenance efficiency.
3. Gradually add/remove
The step-by-step addition method is based on the minimum system, and only one component/equipment or software is added to the system at a time to check whether the fault phenomenon disappears or changes, so as to judge and locate the faulty part.
The step-by-step removal method is exactly the opposite of the step-by-step addition method.
The gradual addition/removal method generally needs to be coordinated with the replacement method to position the faulty part more accurately.
IV. Isolation method
It is a method of judging that blocks hardware or software that may hinder fault judgment. It can also be used to isolate suspected conflicting hardware and software to determine whether a fault has changed.
The above-mentioned software and hardware shielding means stopping its operation or uninstalling it; for hardware, it is to disable, uninstall its driver in the device manager, or simply remove the hardware from the system.
5. Substitution method
The replacement method is a maintenance method that uses good parts to replace possible faulty parts to determine whether the fault phenomenon disappears. Good parts can be of the same model or of different models. The order of replacement is generally:
1. Consider components or equipment that need to be replaced based on the failure phenomenon or the fault category in the second part;
2. Replace in a simple first and then complex order. For example: first memory, CPU, and then motherboard. If you want to determine the printing failure, you can first consider whether there is a problem with the printing driver, then consider whether there is a fault in the printing cable, and finally consider whether there is a fault in the printer or parallel port, etc.;
3. First, check the connection lines, signal lines, etc. connected to the suspected faulty components, then replace the suspected faulty components, then replace the power supply components, and finally other related components.
4. Consider the first replacement parts based on the failure rate of the parts. Components with high failure rate should be replaced first.
6. Comparative method
The comparison method is similar to the replacement method, that is, use good parts to compare the appearance, configuration, operation phenomena, etc. with the suspected faulty parts. You can also compare them between two computers to determine the difference in the environment settings and hardware configuration of the faulty computer, so as to find out the faulty parts.
7. Cooling method
During the on-site service process, the cooling method is different from the maintenance due to the limitations of the tool. The heating method in door-to-door service can help reduce the ventilation capacity of the computer with the consent of the user, and make the computer's own heat increase. The cooling methods include: 1) Generally, choose a period of low ambient temperature, such as early morning or later; 2) shut down the computer for more than 12 to 24 hours, etc.; 3) Use an electric fan to blow against the faulty machine to speed up the cooling speed.
8. Knocking method
The knocking method is generally used to determine a repair method for determining the fault by vibrating, appropriate distortion, or even hitting a component or specific component of the equipment with a rubber hammer to recur the fault.
9. Suggestions for cleaning computer products
Some computer failures are often caused by a lot of dust in the machine. This requires us to pay attention to whether there is more dust inside and outside the faulty machine during the repair process. If so, dust removal should be performed first and then subsequent judgment and repair. When performing dust removal, special attention should be paid to the following aspects:
1. Pay attention to the cleaning of the air duct
2. Pay attention to the cleaning of the fan
During the cleaning process of the fan, it is best to remove the dust and then place a little watch oil on the fan shaft to enhance lubrication.
3. Pay attention to the cleaning of the gold finger parts of the connector, seat, slot, and board.
To clean the gold finger, you can use an eraser to wipe the gold finger part, or wipe it with an alcohol cotton.
Remove oxidation on the metal pins of the plug, seat, and groove: First, wipe with alcohol, and second, gently scrape the metal pins with a metal sheet (such as a small screwdriver).
4. Pay attention to the cleaning of pins such as large-scale integrated circuits, components, etc.
When cleaning, use a small brush or vacuum cleaner to remove dust. At the same time, observe whether the pins are soldered and damp, and whether the components are deformed, discolored or leaked.
5. Pay attention to the cleaning tools used
The cleaning tools are first and foremost anti-static. If you use small brushes for cleaning, brushes made of natural materials should be used, and plastic brushes should be disabled. Secondly, if you use metal tools for cleaning, the power supply must be cut off and the metal tools must be discharged to discharge static electricity.
Tools for cleaning include: small brushes, leather tigers, vacuum cleaners, rags, alcohol (not used to wipe plastic shells of chassis, monitors, etc.).
6. For relatively humid situations, you should find a way to dry before using it. Available tools such as electric fans, hair dryers, etc. can also allow them to air dry naturally.
10. Several methods and suggestions for software debugging
1. xx as the system.
The main adjustment content is the startup file, system configuration parameters, component files, viruses, etc. of the xx system.
Fix xx as system startup file.
1) For Windows 9x systems, SYS commands can be used to repair (the size must be guaranteed to be above 1KB), but it is required that the partition parameters should be ensured before repair. This can be implemented using software such as DiskMap;
2) For Windows 2000/XP system, there are two methods - repair the startup file, use the fixboot command; repair the main boot record, use the fixmbr command.
Adjust xx as system configuration file.
A. For Windows 9x systems, there are many tools available, such as: Msconfig command, system file checker, registry backup and recovery command (which requires running in a DOS environment. In addition, if you want to use the recovery registry, it is best to use the second backup file in the listed recovery menu), etc.;
B. For Windows 2000 systems, there are fewer tools available than Windows 9x, but some debugging commands can be used for some commands in Win98 (such as the Msconfig command under win98, which can be used for Windows 2000);
C. For Windows XP systems, the main tools available are the Msconfig command;
D. To adjust power management and related services, the command you can use is to enter it in the "Run" text box to perform it;
E. All xx systems can be debugged through the control panel, device manager, and computer manager (Windows 9x system does not have system).
Repair of component files (including .DLL, .VXD, etc.)
A. Reinstall by adding and removing programs;
B. Install by extracting and installing from .CAB files;
C. You can use the system file checker (command) to repair files with errors;
D. Copy overwrite from a good machine.
Check for viruses in the system.
It is recommended to use virus detection software under the command line method and can directly access partitions such as NTFS.
2. Equipment driver installation and configuration.
It mainly adjusts whether the device driver matches the device, whether the version is appropriate, and whether the corresponding device can respond normally under the action of the driver.
A. It is best to automatically identify the system first (except for special requirements, such as some graphics card drivers, sound card drivers, non-plug-and-play device drivers, etc. with special requirements), and then consider forcibly installing it. This is conducive to judging the quality of the equipment;
B. If xx is used as the driver that comes with the system, it will be used first. If it still cannot be normal or cannot meet the application needs, use the driver that comes with the device;
C. When replacing the equipment, the driver should be uninstalled first and then replaced. Uninstall the driver, you can uninstall it from the device manager; then uninstall it from safe mode; then delete it in the INF directory; finally uninstall it through the registry;
D. When updating the driver, if there is any problem with the direct upgrade, you must uninstall and then update.
3. Disk status.
Check whether the partition on the disk is accessible, whether the media is damaged, whether the files saved on it are complete, etc.
Available adjustment tools:
A. DiskMap, conveniently retrieve the correct partition;
B. Fdisk and Fdisk /MDR, check whether the partition is correct and restore the main boot record to its original state;
C. When the hard disk capacity is greater than 64GB, if you want to repartition or view the partition, you need to use the Fdisk command in the floppy disk that comes with the random disk partition. This command can be replaced by the Fdisk command under Windows Me;
D. The disk detection program provided by format, Scandisk, and manufacturers to check whether there are bad channels in the disk medium;
E. When the file is incomplete, it is required to rename the incomplete file first and then rebuild it using the method described in "xx as system".
4. Application software.
Such as whether the application software is compatible with xx as a system or other applications, whether the use and configuration are consistent with the instructions, whether the application software's related programs, data, etc. are complete, etc.;
5. In terms of BIOS settings.
1) When necessary, you should first return to the optimal state. Recommendation: First restore the BIOS to the optimal state (usually the factory state) during maintenance, and then gradually set it to the appropriate value according to the needs of the application.
2) BIOS refresh does not necessarily need to refresh to the latest version, and sometimes you should consider reducing the version.
6. Rebuild the system.
When the hardware configuration is correct and the user's permission is obtained, the system can be rebuilt to determine software failures such as the xx system. If the user disagrees, it is recommended to use the built-in hard disk to rebuild the xx system. In this case, it is best to rebuild the system and gradually restore to the state of the user's original hard disk in order to determine the fault point.
1) When rebuilding the system, one-click recovery must be the main focus, followed by recovery and installation, and finally completely reinstalled. How to restore installation:
For Windows 9x systems, you can directly install it from the CD or execute tools\sysrec\ to restore the installation. When performing recovery and installation, the existence may affect the normal progress of the installation process. At this time, you can delete it in the Windows directory and then reinstall it.
Another way to restore and install is to rename System.1st in the root directory and overwrite the file with the same name in the Windows directory, and then restart. But this method is not a real reinstall, but is similar to a complete reinstall.
For Windows XP or Windows 2000 systems, use its installation CD to boot directly. Select Repair and Install in the installation interface. Two options will appear when selecting R: one is quick repair, and use this option for simple problems; the other is a fault repair station. As long as you select the correct installation directory, you can enable the fault repair station. The fault repair desk interface is similar to the DOS interface.
2) To ensure the system is clean, execute the Fdisk /MBR command (also available) before installation. If necessary, execute the format <drive letter> /u [/s] command after this.
3) Be sure to use random or genuine xx as system installation media for installation.