Troubleshooting Hardware Failures

Your all pumped up to play some Call of Duty after a hard days work, and you go to turn on your computer and you get a black screen. Your monitor won't display an image and you can't get into your BIOS. How to you determine which part of your computer has failed? To be able to determine the solution, you first have to understand the problem. For example, a blank image doesn't mean that there is something wrong with your computer, you could be having monitor issues. The process of elimination is very handy in solving your computer problems. Once you've established that something in your computer has failed, you need to narrow down the possibilities. To help you do that, there a multiple steps you can take that will eliminate certain parts. Number one. Reset your BIOS using either the jumper, or removing the BIOS battery and putting it back in. Oftentimes, a simple option change in the BIOS can prevent your computer from posting. If this doesn't solve your problem, move onto the RAM. Remove all the sticks and boot up your computer. Normally, the computer should beep multiple times if there is no RAM installed. If your computer beeps, replace one module and try different combinations of DIMM modules and slots. If your computer doesn't beep, this may indicate that you have a faulty motherboard. If you identify the bad RAM slot, remove it and purchase new RAM if you'd like. However, if you are still having issues, you probably have an issue with your motherboard, CPU, or graphics card. Try using onboard video or swapping graphics cards if possible. If all these fail, you should attempt to get your CPU and/or motherboard replaced. Diagnosing issues with hard drives is much easier. If your computer turns on and you get a message saying something about no OS to boot, your hard drive is probably faulty. Note that you should verify that your power supply is functioning, but if you computer powers on, your power supply is probably fine. The most difficult issue to diagnose is video card failure. This is because many component failures may cause a black screen, and your video card is obviously one of them. Luckily, video cards usually do not fail without cause. Overheating and artifacting during games can damage your video card, so always make sure to note those kinds of signs.