The cause of computer failure is confusing and elusive. Moreover, because the components of the Windows operating system are relatively complex, it is almost impossible for ordinary users to accurately find out the cause of the failure once the computer fails. The following are the common inspection methods I have compiled about computer hardware faults. Welcome to read carefully!

First, the motherboard

Motherboard is the key component of the whole computer and plays a vital role in the computer. If the motherboard fails, it will affect the work of the whole PC system. Next, let's take a look at the most common failures of the motherboard in use.

Common fault one: no display when starting the machine

The computer does not display when it is turned on. The first thing we need to check is the BIOS. Important hardware data is stored in the BIOS of the motherboard. At the same time, BIOS is also a fragile part of the motherboard, which is easy to be damaged. Once damaged, the system will not work. This failure is generally caused by the CIH virus destroying the BIOS of the motherboard (of course, it is not excluded that the failure of the motherboard itself causes the system to fail to run. )。 Generally, after the BIOS is destroyed by virus, all the data in the hard disk will be lost, so we can judge whether the BIOS is destroyed by detecting whether the hard disk data is intact. If the data on the hard disk is in good condition, there are three other reasons why it will not be displayed when it is turned on:

1. Because there is something wrong with the motherboard expansion slot or expansion card, the motherboard does not respond after inserting expansion cards such as sound cards and does not display.

2. The CPU frequency of the jumper-free motherboard set in CMOS is wrong, which may also lead to the failure of not displaying, which can be solved by clearing CMOS. The jumper for clearing CMOS is generally near the lithium battery on the motherboard, and the default position is generally 1 2 short circuit. As long as it is changed to 2, 3 short circuit for a few seconds, the problem can be solved. For the old motherboard, if the user can't find the jumper, just take out the battery, wait until the boot display enters the CMOS setting, then shut down and put the battery on it to achieve the purpose of CMOS discharge.

3. The motherboard can't recognize the memory, and the memory is damaged or mismatched, which will also lead to the failure of not displaying when booting. Some old motherboards are very picky about memory. Once the memory that the motherboard can't recognize is plugged in, the motherboard can't start, and even some motherboards don't give you any fault tips (chirp). Of course, sometimes in order to expand memory and improve system performance, plugging in different brands and types of memory will also lead to such failures, so pay more attention to maintenance.

For the failure of motherboard BIOS damage, we can plug in ISA graphics card to see if it is displayed (if prompted, you can follow the prompt steps). ), if there is no boot screen, you can make a floppy disk that automatically updates the BIOS and refresh the BIOS, but after the BIOS of some motherboards is destroyed, the floppy drive doesn't work at all. At this time, you can try to solve it by hot plug (I tried, as long as the BIOS is the same, it can burn successfully on the same level motherboard. )。 However, in addition to using the same BIOS, hot plug may also damage some components of the motherboard, so a more reliable method is to write the BIOS update file into the BIOS with a code writer (it is safer to find a computer manufacturer with this service).

Common fault 2: CMOS settings cannot be saved.

This kind of fault is generally caused by insufficient voltage of the motherboard battery, which can be replaced, but some motherboard batteries can not solve the problem after replacement. At this time, there are two possibilities:

1. The motherboard circuit problem needs professional maintenance;

2. The problem of the motherboard CMOS jumper, sometimes because the CMOS jumper on the motherboard is mistakenly set to the reset option, or set to the external battery, resulting in CMOS data can not be saved.

Common fault 3: Windows crashes after installing motherboard driver or slow reading speed of CD-ROM drive.

This phenomenon sometimes appears on some motherboards with miscellaneous brands. After the motherboard driver is installed, the restarted computer cannot enter the Windows 98 desktop in normal mode, and the driver cannot be uninstalled under Windows 98. If this happens, it is recommended to find the latest driver and reinstall it. General problems can be solved. If it really doesn't work, you can only reinstall the system.

Common failure 4: The mouse is not available when installing or starting Windows.

The software cause of this fault is generally caused by CMOS setting error. There is a modem use IRQ item in the power management bar of CMOS settings, and the options are 3, 4, 5 ... and NA. Generally, its default option is 3, so you can set it as an interrupt other than 3.

Common fault five: the computer often crashes, and CMOS settings will also crash.

In CMOS, there is a crash phenomenon, usually there is something wrong with the motherboard or CPU. If the failure cannot be solved by pressing the button, the motherboard or CPU must be replaced.

This kind of fault is generally caused by the problem of motherboard cache or poor heat dissipation in motherboard design. The author once found that the motherboard on 8 15EP failed due to poor heat dissipation. Touch the motherboard parts around the CPU after the crash and find that its temperature is very hot. After replacing the high-power fan, the crash fault was solved. For the fault with cache problem, you can enter CMOS settings, and the problem can be solved smoothly after disabling cache. Of course, the speed will definitely be affected after caching is prohibited.

Common fault 6: COM port or parallel port and IDE port of motherboard are out of order.

This kind of fault is generally caused by users plugging and unplugging related hardware. At this time, the user can use a multi-function card to replace it, but before replacing it, the COM port and parallel port on the motherboard must be disabled (some motherboards even disable the IDE port to use it normally).

Second, the graphics card.

Common fault one: no display when starting the machine

This kind of failure is generally caused by poor contact between the graphics card and the motherboard or problems with the motherboard slot. For some motherboards with integrated graphics cards, if the main memory is used for video memory, it is necessary to pay attention to the location of the memory bar. Usually, the memory module should be inserted into the first memory module slot. Because of the graphics card, the computer did not show the fault when it was turned on. Generally, there will be a long beep and a short beep after the computer is turned on (for the BIOS graphics card).

Common fault 2: display the flower screen, and you can't see the handwriting clearly.

This failure is usually caused by the monitor or graphics card not supporting high resolution. When the screen is displayed, you can switch the startup mode to the safe mode, then enter the display settings under Windows 98, and click the "Apply" and "OK" buttons in the color state of 16. Restart, delete the graphics card driver in the normal mode of Windows 98 system, and restart the computer. You can also edit in a pure DOS environment without entering safe mode.

System. INI file, after changing display.drv = pnpdrver to display.drv=vga.drv, save and exit, and then update in Windows.

Driver.

Common fault 3: The color display is abnormal, and such faults generally have the following reasons:

1. The graphics card has poor contact with the display signal line.

2. The monitor itself is out of order

3. Some softwares have abnormal colors when running, which are common in old machines. There is an option to check the color in the BIOS, so just turn it on.

4. The graphics card is damaged;

5. The display screen is magnetized, generally because it is too close to a magnetic object, and it may also cause the display screen to deflect after magnetization.

Common Fault 4: Crash

This kind of fault is generally seen in the incompatibility or poor contact between the motherboard and the graphics card; Incompatibility between graphics cards and other expansion cards can also lead to crashes.

Common fault 5: Abnormal spots or patterns appear on the screen.

This kind of fault is generally caused by a problem with the video memory of the graphics card or a poor contact between the graphics card and the motherboard. Need to clean up the gold finger of the graphics card or replace the graphics card.

Common Fault 6: Missing Video Card Driver

The graphics card driver is loaded and automatically lost after running for a period of time. This kind of fault is generally due to the poor quality of the graphics card or the incompatibility between the graphics card and the motherboard, which makes the temperature of the graphics card too high, leading to unstable operation or crash of the system. At this time, you can only replace the graphics card.

There is also a special case, that is, you can load the graphics card driver before, but it crashes when you enter Windows after loading the graphics card driver. Other models of replaceable graphics cards can be solved by loading their drivers and inserting the old graphics cards. If this failure cannot be solved, it means that the registry is faulty, and you can restore the registry or reinstall the operating system.

Third, the sound card

Common fault one: the sound card is silent. Common reasons for this failure are:

The default output of the 1. driver is Mute. Click the small sound icon (small beep) in the lower right corner of the screen, and the volume adjustment slider will appear with the option of "Mute" below. Click the check box in front, clear the check mark in the box, and you can pronounce it normally.

2. The sound card conflicts with other cards. The solution is to adjust the system resources used by PnP cards so that these cards will not interfere with each other. Sometimes when you open Device Management, although there is no yellow exclamation mark (conflict sign), the sound card just doesn't sound. In fact, there is a conflict, but the system did not find it.

3. After installing Direct X, the sound card cannot make sound. This means that this sound card is not compatible with Direct X, and the driver needs to be updated.

4. A channel is silent. Check whether the audio cable from the sound card to the speaker is damaged.

Common fault 2: The sound card makes too much noise. Common causes of this failure are:

1. Card is not inserted correctly. Because the manufacturing accuracy of the chassis is not high enough, the external baffle of the sound card is not well manufactured or installed, and the sound card cannot be closely combined with the expansion slot of the motherboard. Visually, the "golden finger" on the sound card is misplaced with the expansion slot reed. This phenomenon is very common in both ISA cards and PCI cards. Generally, it can be corrected with pliers.

2. The input of the active speaker is connected to the speaker output of the sound card. For an active speaker, it should be connected to the line output of the sound card and the signal it outputs.

When there is no power amplifier on the sound card, the noise is much less. Some sound cards have only one output. Whether it is line output or speaker depends on the jumper on the card. The default mode of the manufacturer is often the speaker, so unplug the sound card and adjust the jumper.

3.Windows comes with a bad driver. When installing a sound card driver, you should choose "driver provided by the manufacturer" instead of "driver provided by the manufacturer".

If the Windows default driver was installed through Add New Hardware, select Have Disk instead of from the list box. If you have installed the drivers that came with Windows, you can select Control Panel → System → Device Management → Sound, Video and Game Controller, click each device, and then select Properties → Drivers → Change Drivers → Install from Disk. At this time, insert the disk or CD attached to the sound card and load the driver provided by the manufacturer.

Common fault 3: the sound card can't be "plug and play"

1. Try using a new driver or a replacement program. I used to have a sound card, but I couldn't install the driver with the original drive disk under Windows 98, so I had to use the creative SB 16 driver instead, and everything was fine. Later, I upgraded to Windows Me, but it didn't work properly. Then I switched to Windows 2000 (full version) and the sound card driver came with it worked normally.

2. The biggest headache is that Windows 9X detects the plug-and-play device but helps you install the driver without permission. This driver is not available. In the future, you will repeat this problem every time you delete and reinstall, and it cannot be solved by adding new hardware. Here, the author reveals a trick: enter the Win9xinfother directory and delete all the *. About the inf file of the sound card, restart and install it manually. This trick 100% is effective, saving countless sound cards ... Of course, modifying the registry can also achieve the same goal.

3. Installing a PnP sound card is not supported (also applicable to PnP sound cards that cannot be installed by the above PnP method): Enter the control panel/Add new hardware/Next, and a prompt "Do you need Windows to search for new hardware?" , select "No", and then select "Sound, Video and Game Controller" from the list to install with the drive disk or directly select the sound card type.

Common fault 4: playing CD silently

1. Completely silent. Windows 98 CD player plays CD silently, but the CD player works normally, indicating that the audio cable of the CD drive is not connected properly. Just use a 4-core audio cable to connect the analog audio output of the optical drive with the CD-in on the sound card. This cable comes with the purchase of CD-ROM.

2. There is only one channel. The output port of CD-ROM drive generally has two lines of signals, and the middle two lines are ground wires. Because the colors of the four audio signal lines are generally different, one-to-one interfaces can be found from the colors of the lines. If there is only one interface on the sound card or each interface does not match the audio cable, we have to change the wiring order of the audio cable, usually only two can be interchanged.

Common breakdowns The PCI sound card has a sonic boom.

Generally, when the PCI graphics card uses bus master technology to read and write the hard disk and move the mouse hanging on the PCI bus, the background will be enlarged.

Because of the noise. Solution: Turn off the bus master control function of PCI graphics card, switch to AGP graphics card, and switch PCI sound card to slot.

Common fault 6: unable to record normally.

First, check whether the microphone is inserted into other jacks by mistake. Second, double-click the speaker and select "Properties → Recording" on the menu to see if the settings are correct. Next, adjust "Mixer Equipment" and "Line Input Equipment" in "Control Panel → Multimedia → Equipment" and set them to "Use" status. It would be too bad if the "Record" option in "Multimedia → Audio" is grayed out. Of course, there is no room for redemption. You can try to add "ISA Plug-and-Play Bus" to "Add New Hardware → System Equipment", simply install the sound card with the card tool software and restart it.

Common fault 7: Wav music and Midi music cannot be played.

Few Wav music can't be played. It is often because there is more than one audio device under Multimedia → Devices, so just disable one. If the MIDI file cannot be played, there are three possibilities:

1. The early ISA sound card may be due to the incompatibility between 16-bit mode and 32-bit mode, resulting in abnormal MIDI playback. By installing a software wave table,

The solution should be solved.

2. Most popular PCI sound cards now use wave table synthesis technology. If the MIDI part can't be played, it's probably because you haven't loaded the appropriate wave table sound library.

3. MIDI channel in 3.Windows volume control is set to mute mode.

Common faults PCI sound card can not be used normally under WIN98.

Some users reported that everything was normal when the sound card driver was installed, and there was no equipment conflict, but there was no sound or other fault under WIN98. This phenomenon usually appears on PCI sound cards. Please check which PCI slot you inserted the PCI sound card into during installation. Some friends like to plug the sound card into the PCI slot far away from AGP slot and close to ISA slot to dissipate heat. This is a frequent problem, because Windows98 has a Bug: sometimes it can only correctly identify sound cards inserted in PCI- 1 and PCI-2 slots. The two PCI cards next to AGP on ATX motherboard are PCI- 1 and PCI-2 (on some ATX motherboards, on the contrary, PCI- 1 is next to ISA), so if you don't install the PCI sound card in the correct slot, there will be problems.

Fourth, memory.

Memory is one of the most important accessories in a computer, and its function is beyond doubt. So what is the most common problem with memory?

Common fault one: no display when starting the machine

This kind of fault is generally caused by poor contact between the memory stick and the memory slot of the motherboard. Rubbing your golden finger back and forth with an eraser will solve the problem (don't use alcohol to clean it, etc.). ), and memory damage or motherboard memory slot problems can also lead to such failures.

When the computer is turned on due to the memory card, there is no fault, and the host speaker will generally buzz for a long time (for the award-winning Bios).

Common fault 2: Windows registry is often damaged for no reason, prompting users to recover.

This kind of fault is generally caused by poor quality of memory chips, which is difficult to repair. There is only one way to replace it.

Common fault 3: Windows often automatically enters safe mode.

This kind of failure is generally caused by the incompatibility between the motherboard and the memory stick or the poor quality of the memory stick. It is common to use high-frequency memory on some motherboards that do not support this frequency memory. You can try to slow down the memory reading speed in CMOS settings to see if it can solve the problem. If not, the memory stick will have to be replaced.

Common fault 4: random collapse

This kind of failure is generally due to the use of several memory chips with different chips, because the speed of each memory chip is different, resulting in a time difference and death.

Machine, which can be solved by reducing the memory speed in CMOS settings, otherwise only the same type of memory can be used. Another possibility is that the memory module is incompatible with the motherboard, which is generally rare. In addition, it is also possible that poor contact between the memory stick and the motherboard causes the computer to crash randomly. 0 1

Common fault 5: System resources decrease after memory increases.

This phenomenon is generally caused by incompatibility between motherboard and memory. It is common to use high-frequency memory chips on some motherboards that do not support this frequency. When this kind of fault occurs, you can try to set the memory speed of COMS to be lower.

Common fault six: when running some software, there are often hints of insufficient memory.

This phenomenon is usually caused by insufficient remaining space on the system disk. You can delete some useless files, leave more space, and generally save them in.

About 300M is suitable.

Common fault 7: When installing Windows from hard disk startup to detecting disk space, the system prompts that there is not enough memory.

This failure is generally due to the fact that the user added a emm386.exe file to the config.sys file, and shielding can solve the problem.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) optical drive

Optical drive is one of the accessories with the shortest service life in computer hardware. In fact, many scrapped optical drives still have great use value, as long as they are repaired a little. This usually does not require any advanced radio expertise, nor does it require the use of any complicated maintenance tools and materials. As long as you carefully observe the fault phenomenon and refer to the following troubleshooting methods, I believe your old CD-ROM drive can still restore its former "elegance".