The Moulton Company Seminar Capsules
Technology training for the 21st Century

Course Contents

Introduction

- The Changes In PC Troubleshooting
- PC Troubleshooting and Repair Summary
- Repairing Brand Name Compatible PC's
- Compatible and Brand Name PC Component Repair and Replacement Summary
- About Troubleshooting Laser Printers

+ How Laser Printers Work
+ Laser Printer Repairs
+ Laser Printer Troubleshooting and Repair Summary

- Tear down and reassemble Your PC

+ Brand Name PC Disassembly
+ Board Identification How To Spot a Disk Controller, Display Controller, etc.
+ Proper Procedures For Reassembling Your PC

- Understanding and Examining Your PC's Components and Subsystems

+ The System Board or Mother Board

-- Integrated Motherboards - XT/AT Styles and Baby Styles
-- Replaceable CPU Motherboards - Are They Really Better? -- Motherboard Chips -- PC Chip Comparison

- Problems with Pentium Chips
- Types of Buses


+ Buses Vs. PC CPU Chips Today

- Displays Controllers and Monitors
- Disks: Controllers and Drives

+ Types of Disk Controllers

- Input/Output Boards Connections To Printers And Modems
- ROM, RAM and CMOS
- Update BIOS and CMOS
- Coprocessors
- Power Supplies
- Keyboards

- Power
- Cooling
- Radio Frequency (RF) and ElectroMagnetic Interference
- Simple Steps to Prolong Your PCs Life

+ Power Isolation
+ Static Electricity: Shocks To The PC
+ Keep It Cool: Cleaning The PC
+ Leaving The PC Powered Up or Over Coming Monday Morning PC Blues
+ Minimize Vibration
+ Liquids - Are They Certain Disaster?
+ Magnetism
+ Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)
+ The User

- PC POST Error Codes and Their Cause
- Other Problem Symptoms
- Using IBM Diagnostics: What Do They Identify?
- Using Other Diagnostic Programs: Are These Really Any Better
- Steps To Follow In Isolating PC Problems

+ Bootable Diskette Troubleshooting Tool
+ Subsystem Isolation
+ Correcting Simple Problems
+ Subsystem Verification
+ Swap Till You Drop

- Saving What You Can Save

- The Power Supply
- Floppy Disks
- Displays
- Input/Output Boards
- Modems - Cable Verses Modem Problems
- Other Boards

+ System Boards
+ System Board Battery Power
+ LAN Boards

- Keyboards
- Printers: When To Repair or Replace?
- Repair Warranties Vs. New Warranties

- Install and Setup Additional Memory and Options

+ Typical Memory Malfunction Symptoms
+ Identifying The Malfunctioning Chip or SIMM
+ Chip Anatomy - Identifying Pin One and Socket Orientation
+ Chip Speed and Memory Expansion
+ ROMs
+ How Do You Know When Your ROMs Are Bad?
+ ROM Replacement

- Fixed Disks


+ Install Setup of IDE and SCSI drives
+ Fixed Disk Failures
+ Controller Verses Drive Failure
+ When You Need To Save your Data What Should You Reach For First? Last?

- Display Problems


+ Real Verses Imagined (Software) Problems
+ Drivers And What They Do For (or To) Your PC

- Windows 95 Plug and Play

+ PCI Bus Cards
+ ISA Cards
+ Windows 95 Configuration Tips and Tricks

- Installing Replacement Boards


+ Interrupt ReQuest Lines - IRQ
+ Input/Output (I/O) Addresses

- Picking IRQ and I/O address


+ Reserved Memory Areas
+ Direct Memory Access (DMA) Channels
+ DIP Switch, Jumper or Software Setup

- Testing Your Installation Under Windows 95

- Windows 95 Error Indications
- Is It Hardware Or Software?
- Isolating Software Faults