Troubleshooting should include the following symptoms and tools:
- Common symptoms
- Proprietary crash screens (BSOD/pinwheel)
- Failure to boot
- Improper shutdown
- Spontaneous shutdown/restart
- Device fails to start/detected
- Missing DLL message
- Services fails to start
- Compatibility error
- Slow system performance
- Boots to safe mode
- File fails to open
- Missing New Technology Loader (NTLDR)
- Missing boot configuration data
- Missing operating system
- Missing graphical interface
- Missing GR and Unified Bootloader/Linux Loader (GRUB/LILO)
- Kernel panic
- Graphical Interface fails to load
- Multiple monitor misalignment/orientation
- Tools
- BIOS/UEFI
- SFC
- Logs
- System Recovery Options
- Repair disks
- Pre-installation environments
- MSCONFIG
- DEFRAG
- REGSRV32
- REGEDIT
- Event viewer
- Safe mode
- Command prompt
- Uninstall/reinstall/repair
Process/Skill Questions:
- Why is it important to monitor resources on a computer?
- What is the process to determine what is not working in an unexpected shutdown?
- What is the lockup feature?
- What is BIOS and POST?