Difference between revisions of "Basic Diagnostics Manual"
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| − | If a student comes in saying that some type of liquid was spilled on their computer let them know that we will keep it on our drying rack for | + | If a student comes in saying that some type of liquid was spilled on their computer let them know that we will keep it on our drying rack for a minimum of 48 hours before we do can determine the extent of the damage. Remove the hard drive if possible and take out any removable batteries, modules, bottom or top case and leave tented on the drying rack. |
| − | * | + | *If the hard drive shows no signs of the spill, try to back it up right away. If wet, pat dry and leave it to dry with the computer. |
| − | * | + | *After 48 hours, see if the computer appears wet and if not, see if it boots normally. If it does not boot, more damage was done than we can fix. |
Latest revision as of 15:57, 31 January 2019
Contents
Hardware
Hard Drive
Predictable hard drive failure is usually caused by normal wear on the mechanical parts of the drive.
Unpredictable hard drive failure can be caused by misuse, defective parts, or immediate mechanical failure.
Gradual wear causes most mechanical failures. The most common symptoms of a failing hard drive are:
- Increased heat output
- Increased noise level
- Problems with reading or writing data
S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) scans
SMART scans are a quick way to tell if a hard drive is failing, although not all failing drives fail SMART tests. There is no standard requirement for SMART support, so not all disks will test all or even most of the tests available.
You can test most hard drive formats via Ubuntu's built in SMART scan (in Disk Utility).
Common SMART signs of HDD failure:
- Read error rate
- Reallocated sector counts
- Spin retry count
- Command timeout
- Reallocation event count
- Current pending sector count
- Uncorrectable sectory count
- Drive life protection status
Mac Question mark folder
When a mac boots to the question mark folder this often means that there is a registry error on the drive. Disk Warrior can fix registry issues with our clearing the hard drive. But make sure you back up the users data just to be safe.
Another possible issue could be with the hard drive cable, this is especially prevalent in the A1278 model. To test this take the hard drive out of the laptop and plug it into one of our toasters and plug the toasters into the laptop, boot the laptop holding the option key and see if the hard drive is recognized.
Logic/Motherboard
- Unexplained crashes
- Corrupt graphics
- Display failures
- Power button doesn't always work
- Ports don't always work
- Unexplained noises
Things to try:
- Reset PRAM (Parameter Random Access Memory)
- Reset PMU (Power Management Unit)
- Reseat the RAM
RAM failure
Beeps when trying to powering on
Things to try:
- Reseat the RAM
Software
Many software issues can also be caused by hardware malfunctions.
Common Software issues:
- Long load times
- Long quit times
- Program crashes regularly
- Window not moving
Program lists
- Mac
- Drive Genus
- Disk Warrior
- Data Rescue
- Windows
- Data Rescue
- Malwarebytes
- AVG
- Ccleaner
The Manuals for most of these are on the desktop of the Admiral and Arrakis
Viruses
- If the user thinks it might be a virus, have them show you what is happening.
- Boot to safemode
- Win7: restart then keep pressing F8 until a menu comes up, always select safe mode with networking
- Win8: from the start screen type run, open run, type msconfig, go to Boot tab and check the box for safe mode with networking
- Install Malwarebytes from flash drive and follow the steps here Malwarebytes.
Things to try:
- Malwarebytes
- AVG
- Ccleaner
- SMART Test
How to backup
Ask the student what they would like backed up (Documents, Desktop etc. You can backup a user profile, but try to avoid backing up the entire hard drive if it will need to be saved for longer than a week. We store backups for a minimum of 1 Month and delete older backups as space is needed.
Create a new folder with the naming scheme (Studentname mm_dd_yy). Manually move folders to a new folder.
Skynet
- Username: Admin Password: the DC 1 policy is n0! (note 1/31 by Rae: Verifying current password)
- from Mac: Finder, Go, Connect to server, afp://skynet.local
- from Windows: myComputer address bar, //skynet/Student Backups
Water spill
If a student comes in saying that some type of liquid was spilled on their computer let them know that we will keep it on our drying rack for a minimum of 48 hours before we do can determine the extent of the damage. Remove the hard drive if possible and take out any removable batteries, modules, bottom or top case and leave tented on the drying rack.
- If the hard drive shows no signs of the spill, try to back it up right away. If wet, pat dry and leave it to dry with the computer.
- After 48 hours, see if the computer appears wet and if not, see if it boots normally. If it does not boot, more damage was done than we can fix.
