School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

University of Leeds

Yongji Zhou

PC Repair History

 

Date: Jan., 2008

Problem: A desktop PC based on AMD Athlon 1700 CPU showed blue screen and reboot at starting Windows in both normal mode and safe mode. The blue screen flashed for less than half second and no valuable information can be acquired from it.

Solution: First of all, I reassemble the memory to another socket, also reassemble the video card to make sure proper connection. Problem still there. Then I got unnecessary peripherals, eg. floppy disk drive, CD drive, Ethernet card, disconnected from the motherboard, to narrow the range of possible problematic source. Memory passed full bios test on booting. CPU temperature was checked as normal. Occasionally motherboard diagnostic LEDs indicated stall at initializing video card. So video card was suspicious. I removed the dust on the video card but this didn’t solve the problem. Video card got disassembled from the motherboard and checked in details when a chip capacity was found falling off the card. Then I got an new video card fitted on and the problem got solved.

Skill used: Desktop PC Hardware diagnostic skills

 

 

Date: Feb., 2007

Problem: On a desktop PC connected to university network, a software ModelSim SE 6.1g failed to acquire license from the university server PC at start-up.

Solution: Problem was reported to the university IT support staff. But they failed to find reason. Then I turned to the software vendor for help and get some hints to update the  licence file in the server. I asked the IT support staff to do so, but the problem still there, and they didn’t know how to solve it for a month. Finally I use some particular commands to check the version of Daemon licensing software on the server and found that that version was too old. I got the Daemon updated and solve the problem.

Skill used: Network licensing diagnostic skills

 

 

Date: Jan., 2005

Problem: A Dell Dimension 4700 (Desktop PC) failed to boot from XP, even in safe mode. But there was important data stored in the hard disk which was in NTFS format. Three technical staffs/engineers from the university department attempted to recover the data but all in vain. They tried to boot the computer to DOS, but DOS normally can’t see NTFS drives. They attached the hard disk as a secondary hard drive to another desktop PC, but the Windows XP system still couldn’t find it due to its physical damage.

Solution: I plugged in a USB portable hard disk and used a bootable CD, which was specifically programmed, to boot the faulty computer to DOS mode. Meanwhile, some drivers were loaded from the CD to enable DOS to find NTFS hard drives and USB mass storage devices. Then, the data in the damaged hard drive was moved to the USB portable hard disk and the recovery task was done.

Skill used: Data recovery, versatile hard-disk problem solving skills

 

 

Date: Jan., 2004

Problem: On an Evolution xxxx pc workstation, XP didn’t work properly and just simply needed to be reinstalled. But the technicians from the company failed to reinstall Windows in the result of selecting an incorrect driver for the SATA hard disks during the installation. Then, they wrongly diagnosed that faults occurred in either the display card or hard disks. And the computer have had not been repaired for 1 month.

Solution: I just chose the correct SATA driver during reinstallation of Windows XP. And then all went well.

Skills used: Driver fault diagnosis and troubleshooting

 

 

Date: Sept., 2004

Problem: A Linksys BEFSR81 router (with AOL broadband service) didn’t work properly after reset. It failed to build connection with the AOL server even after correct AOL user name and password were inputted and the connection method was set as PPPoE correctly. The technician from AOL couldn’t find a solution but prompted to replace the router with another brand.

Solution: I just tried every method I could think of, to reboot the router and modem, to reconnect the cables, to modify parameters in the router configuration, expecting to diminish the scope of possible causes. Finally I found out that the AOL user name and password should be typed in lower case and the internet connection was built successfully.

Skills used: Network building, network problem diagnosis

 

 

Date: Apr., 2004

Problem: A Compaq Presario 2800 Laptop system crashed down due to unexpected and severe physical errors in the hard disk (FAT32 format). There are some strange noises from the hard disk. Windows XP couldn’t boot. Even DOS couldn’t find the hard disk. The primary task was to retrieve data from hard disk.

Solution: The faulty hard disk was taken out from the laptop and attached as a secondary hard drive to a desktop PC via the IDE port using an IDE adaptor. The hard disk was found in Windows. But only part of data in the hard disk can be moved out due to the mechanical fault in it.

Skills used: Laptop problem diagnosis, adaptation of different devices