Computer Technician Advice

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Th3-Trinity

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Hey guys! I don't know if this is a suitable question to post here, but I will give it a shot anyways.
I have an interview for a computer technician in a week or two. during this interview, I will be ambushed with a random PC issue. I was wondering if anybody can give me some examples of things that would either stop a PC from booting or would bog it down,etc. I have been studying my butt off, but I can never be too safe :3

Thanks,
Trinity
 
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Jon-Doe


Usually if your front IO panel is bad then you won't have LED's to fans or flashy lights like that. Your HDD transfer light won't flicker either. It's rare that just a couple pins in the panel are bad.
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Th3-Trinity

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Or more advanced, check to ensure the 20+4 P1 cable and CPU Aux power (4-8 Pin) cable are attached. Then check RAM. If all is good there, move on to all other expansion cards one by one until you get a boot. If none of this works check the CPU (Not likely in an older PC because it is locked in place). If non of these yield results, ensure you have a good PSU by jumping the connection. If it isn't the PSU, it's MOBO. Am I right?
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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watch out for temps below ambient, it cause cause water to pool around cpu and kill both motherboard and cpu
Solid State drives will drastically help your computers boot time.
Its nearly impossible to run dual 17's only certain xeons support it
look for swollen capacitors on a mobo that wont boot
when a computer wont boot unplug everything ram, pcie cards, hdd, cd rom and try to start it with the minimum
anything that advertises "speed increases is malware"
you can fix almost any slowdown by rebuilding a computer
when a computer wont boot use intigrated grapics check all connections and mobo and then the cpu socket and prosesser
ram with 9 chips on each side instead of 8 is ECC server ram it will not work in most desktops
thats all for now
 
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Jon-Doe

Jon-Doe

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If it's plugged in but the motherboard still doesn't kick on, neither any fans/lights then what do you do to check the power supply? -volt meter check is the quickest way

What is the most common issue when it comes to slow home based personal computers?-Bloatware

Do you know how to check the command line in running processes to see where they're coming from? Task manager>Right click>Command line

What is the cause for overheating in a profesional pc use setting?-Poor fan circulation

How many mb in a gb?-1024mb

How do you update drivers on a pc running windows 8 as it's operating system?-PC settings>Update & recovery>Check for updates. Windows will update most if not all drivers on it's own.

To be fair, you will not need to know these right off the bat if you're going to work at Geek Squad or something along those lines. But if you are a private technician for a company in a high end professional setting then you may need to be able to fix a pc on the spot, know when a pc is shot or what part needs to be replaced so it can be up and running NOW, or when to replace a pc entirely because the part needed to be replaced will take too long to service immediately.

 
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Jon-Doe

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Capacitors are flat on the top, if it's swollen then the top will be popped up like the cap on a snapple.
 
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Th3-Trinity

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@cdabc123 - How do you do that? Do you need to remove the plastic ending?

@Jon-Doe - I appreciate the help :) And on the contrary, I don't think I could know too much for this. I just REALLY hope it isn't a MOBO issue. How hard are bulging capacitors to spot by the way? And can they really be fixed?
 
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Jon-Doe

Jon-Doe

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Yes but if a PSU is good and mobo is bad you will normally still get a kick from fans that are directed into it. So if a pc is completely cold then PSU is having issues. Others are absolutely correct though.
 
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Jon-Doe

Jon-Doe

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Lol you have to jump it everytime? Should fix that!

Front panel OR motherboard? You can rule out motherboard on your list if you use a piece of metal to jump your IO power pins on the mobo. If it works then it's your front panel. Cheap replacement.
 
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Th3-Trinity

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So if you jump the PSU and it boots the PC, it's the front panel? How do you jump the Mobo?

 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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you can unplug the psu and stick a bare wire between the green and black connectors. it is 120v so dont get shocked.
bulging caps will be easy to spot if they are what is killing the computer and i do believe you can attach new ones with some time.


 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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i have a switch between the leads

 
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Jon-Doe

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Not exactly. You jump the two pins on your motherboard in the front IO panel that are for the power button on your case. if it boots then the power button needs to be replaced
if it doesn't boot then you either did something wrong or the front IO panel on your motherboard needs to be replaced.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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you can jump the psu when its connected to the motherboard but it might damage the motherboard i dont know it worked for me but my motherboard was already messed up, and it could mead bad io panle or a mobo problem
 
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Jon-Doe

Jon-Doe

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Ohhhhk so you just need a new power button.
 
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Jon-Doe

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A capacitor is the main reason most displays go out. It is pretty easy to spot and can be unsoldered then a new one can be soldered in it's place.
Bam- fixed.
Call it a 5 cent fix.
 
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Jon-Doe

Jon-Doe

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Usually if your front IO panel is bad then you won't have LED's to fans or flashy lights like that. Your HDD transfer light won't flicker either. It's rare that just a couple pins in the panel are bad.
 
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