Question | Answer |
List of preventative maintenance tasks | Update AV-run scans; Defrag; Scandisk; Disk cleanup; Spycheck; Physical system cleaning |
MTBF | Mean Time Between Failures, server-class HD could be 1.2 million hours. |
Can MTBF be used to determine when a particular drive may fail? | No. |
What is MTBF used for? | Help determine how many spares to have on hand. |
How is MTBF calculated? | Run thousand drives for fifty days, if one drive fails would give an MTBF of 1.2 million hours. |
3 Phases of failure: | Infant mortality; Useful life / Constant Failure; Wear-out |
What other stat could be listed besides MTBF which would be useful? | AFR-Annualized Failure Rate, Service life (usually 3-7 years), warranty period considered best measure of expected life. |
What do POST Cards check? | Checks and stresses buses and circuitry of the motherboard (PCI, PCIe, IRQ lines, memory lines, etc) + presence and stability of common voltage. |
What slot does POST card use? | Typically PCI, some PCIe and USB |
Can faulty expansion slot damage POST card? | Not if the POST card is fused (usually are) |
POST cards output codes on which port? | 80 (unless proprietary), displayed on readout as a hex value. |
How do POST cards display voltage integrity? | LED's |
POST Card Disadvantage: | Expensive |
Post Card Advantage: | seemingly dead motherboards, intermittent, quality assurance, fast diagnostic, speeds up RMA turnaround time. |
POST Card Trivia! | SVGA connector (dead video card), built in BIOS (dead BIOS), loopback testers |
Optical Drive: Not recognized by BIOS | Firmware, CMOS config, or physical |
Optical Drive: Recognized at boot but not OS | Firmware, Driver, or registry issue |
Optical Drive: not recognizing/playing some discs | Firmware, Region, or faulty disc |
Optical Drive: not burning discs correctly | Firmware, interface, software, or system perfomance |
CLV | Changes rotate speed |
CAV | Same rotate speed |
ZCLV | Changes rotate speed depending on the zone of the disc. Many have 3 zones (3 speeds). |
How to destroy optical disks: | Clean in circular motion; leave in sun; heat+cold; scratch the top; glue+alcohol; use labels! |
Should you use DMA in DVD drive settings? | For best performance, yes. Stands for Direct Memory Access. |
EP Printers, but whats EP? | Electrophotographic! |
Printer: Obvious fixes didn't work, good next step? | Clean and lubricate printer, often fixes problem. |
Printer: Check if capable of printing? | Self-test page |
Printer: Check if connection to printer working? | Windows test page |
Printer Symptom: Blank Page | Printhead failure (laser) |
Printer Symptom: Totally black page | Primary corona (or charge roller) failure |
Printer Symptom: Distorted characters | Drum not turning freely |
Printer Symptom: Image falls off page | Fuser assembly failed |
Printer Symptom: Can't find printer | Parallel port config |
Printer Symptom: Memory | Insufficient printer memory |
Printer Symptom: Incorrect formats | Application / Driver |
HVPS | High Voltage Power Supply, sounds dangerous (up to -5000V). |
Repeated paper jams in same part of printer? | Worn part or incorrect paper/transparency type being used. |
Dot Matrix Print Heads | 9, 18, 24. 1-3 rows. |
HD Failure: Physical | If controller can replace with identical drive controller. If motor bearing, needs to be opened, clean room. |
HD Failure: Logical | Stop all writing to drive; make image of the drive; try to recover data from image |
HD Failure: Logical - Causes | Corrupt file/partition table/MBR, deleted files, formatting drive. |
HD Failure: corrupt system file | repair with OS disk |
HD Failure: corrupt partition table, file deletion, drive formats | Specialized software (ontrack, getdataback, Active@ data recovery) |
HD Failure: Defragmented drive | Better chance of data recovery when file allocation table is corrupt. |
Mix Tin and Gold? | NEVER! |
RAM: verify! | Type, speed, capacity, timing, voltage. |
What is often used instead of MTBF? | AFR, Annualized failure rate. Estimated probability that a device or component
will fail during a full year of use. |
What aspects of working on a printer can be dangerous? | Toner (inhaling/staining), HVPS, Fuser assembly (HOT!) |
How do you clean up toner? | Special Vacuum with a charge |
What can cause printed copies to come out of a laser printer to be to light? | Low on toner / bad or incorrectly installed toner cartridge. (could be many things
appearantly) |
Why shouldn’t a printer (particular an ink jet) be turned off with power button? | Heads actually clean and seal themselves, otherwise nozzle’s stay open, ink
dries. |
Where does the ink end up in a printer that is used to clear nozzles, etc. | Spittoon! |
What to consider when choosing paper for a printer? | Make sure printer supports the type of paper you use, not all paper types/weight
supported. |
What are the four color of toner in a printer? | Cyan, magenta, yellow, black |
Where do the printers mix the colors of toner for laser printer? | Transfer belt |
Two modes of printing for dot matrix? | Font, Dot Addressable |
What is the name of the optional that lets printers print on both sides of page? | Duplex printing |
What can cause a paper jam? | Printer hasn’t been maintained, incorrect paper type, worn parts, humidity
(high=sticky,low=static) |
If problem occurs in the same place in a printer quite often, what could be
wrong? | Indicates a worn part or incorrect paper being used. |
7 Steps of laser printing!! | Process, Charge, Write, Develop, Transfer, Fuse, Clean. |
How is bond weight of paper measured? | Weight in pounds of 500 sheets (a ‘ream’) of 17x22 paper |
What is a ream? | 500 sheets of paper of same size and quality (identical). |
What should you do if you get a paper jam? | Try to form feed, pull paper in direction it normally goes in. |
Gummy sludge found in ink jet printers? | Ink + paper dust, its disgusting! |
Optical Speeds | CD X = 150KBps, DVD X= 9X = 1350, Blu-ray = 30X = 4,500 |
Diff between dvd and bluray | Size, Speed, Laser |
Any guarantee that blu-ray can play dvd? | No |
Region codes for dvd and bluray? | Yes |
How many region codes for bluray and dvd? | BR=3(A-C), DVD=9(0-8) |
What is max recommended PATA cable length? | 18 inches |
What max length for SATA cable length? | 39 inches |
PCIe power connecter pins? | 6, 8 (sometimes 2x 8 pins) |
Out of range message on LCD monitor? | Resolution, color depth, or outputted refresh rate is set beyond what LCD is
capable of. |
How is CRT discharged? | Using a screw driver w/ well insulated handle, ground it well with a jumper wire,
slide screwdriver under suction cup (where anode wire is covered) until loud pop w/
blue flash. |
What is degaussing? | For CRT. Shadow mask builds up charge, resulting in a rainbow effect.
Demagnetizes this fixes. |
How to degause? | Button on back or rebooting it |
What is pin-cushioning? | Sides and top/bottom move in |
Barreling? | Opposite of pin-cushioning, screen bulges at edges. |
What is resolution? | Number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. |
Common Beep codes? | Video = 1 long, 2(or 3) short, Memory = Repeated long, Everything is ok = 1 short,
Motherboard = 1 long, 1 short |
What would be a minimum voltage you can get on blue wire with loose
tolerance? | Blue = -12V, -12V x 0.9 = -10.8V |
What is tight/loose tolerance? | 5% tight, loose 10% |
Wire Voltages! | Yellow/Blue = +12/-12, Orange = 3.3, Red/White = +5/-5, Purple = 5 |
What makes one Power Supply better than another? | Efficiency (power loss to heat), Wattage |
RAM count at boot good indicator? | No |
Convert DDR#1-#2! | DDR#1-#2 = PC#1-#2 x 8. Eg DDR2-800 = PC2-6400, DDR-200 = PC-1600 |
What is a memory leak? | Incorrectly managed memory allocation, eventually exhausts available system
memory. |
What happens when a file is deleted? | Pointer to the file removed and space marked as available to be written to. Data
remains until overwritten. |
Name some data recovery software! | Recuva, GetDataBack, Data Rescue PC, EaseUS |
What is SAS? | Serial attached scsi, no need to ID, no termination |
How does SAS number itself? | It uses WWN, World Wide Name |
What connectors on video card? | VGA, DVI, S-Video, HDMI, DisplayPort |
Defective pixel, what is it? | dead pixel (permanently black), stuck pixel (always on red, blue, or green) |
RPC2 instead of RPC1, what the hell are these things, differences? | Regional Protection Code for DVD Drives, 1=any region works, 2=region enforced. |
Sound stuff from last semester! | DSP = Digital Signal Processor, DAC = Digital to Audio Converter,
Green=front/headphone Black=Rear Pink=Mic Blue=Out Orange=Sub/Center |
Normal cause of “No Video” message from display? | Usually cabling or adapter problem. |
Sometimes uninstalling a program will unintentionally do what? | corrupt a sound driver, so if all else fails, download the most recent drivers and reinstall |
Typical SCSI problems: | ID Conflict, (Incorrect|Absent|Type) Terminator, compatibility issues |
SCSI: Some devices fail to respond | improper termination, locate last responding device on bus to check |
SCSI: Data transfers are corrupt | No termination (data reflected), defective terminator, incorrect terminator. |
SCSI: Appears in boot but not windows | Drivers or set to legacy mode. |
SCSI: Works on one system not another | Firmware on card or motherboard. |