The
domestic tools
Most of the items in
this group of software diagnostic tools are usually included as a part of the operating
system.
l BIOS
POST: This effective diagnostic tool is built right into the PC and
runs automatically every time the PC is powered on. If a serious hardware
problem exists, most likely the POST finds it and reports it to you.
l POST
card: (Not the kind Aunt Sally sends to you from Iowa and the other
exotic places she visits.) This piece of hardware (an expansion card) is a
dedicated circuit card that interprets the POST error codes written to address
80h. (The "h" means hexadecimal) A POST card saves you the trouble of
counting beeps and decoding them.
l MSD.EXE:
(also known as Microsoft Diagnostics): This DOS utility, which
should probably be carried with you, creates and reports a brief inventory of
your PC. This inventory is useful for seeing a system's configuration,
including the BIOS, disks, memory, and system resource assignments, such as
IRQs (interrupt requests) and I/O (input/output) addresses to LPT and serial ports.
It was included with MS-DOS and Windows versions through Windows 95, but it is
no longer distributed.
Tip
MSD.EXE will run under Windows 95. Although it is on the Windows
95 release CD and can be copied to the system, it isn't included in a normal
Windows 95 installation. Run MSD.EXE in DOS mode, not in a DOS window, under
Windows 95.
l SCANDISK.EXE:
This program, installed as a part of all Windows versions, checks
and reports hard disk problems, including file system corruption and hard disk
read errors. If a PC is not shut down properly, this utility will run
automatically when the PC is next restarted.
l MEM.EXE:
This DOS utility is distributed with Windows 9 x versions.
It provides details about the memory configuration and usage on a PC.
l DEFRAG.EXE:
This DOS and Windows utility rearrange data clusters on the disk
to improve disk I/O efficiency.
l SYSEDIT.EXE:
This Windows tool is used to view or edit INI, AUTOEXEC. BAT,
CONFIG.SYS, and other
system files.
l Windows
Device Manager: This tool is useful on Windows 9 x and 2000 systems for a
problem caused by a resource conflict, IRQ, DMA channel, or I/O address. The
Properties feature shows the device driver, resource settings, and much more
for a specific hardware device.
The
foreign tools
Three types of software
tools can be used to help troubleshoot, diagnose, or repair PC problems:
l Anti-virus:
Due to the increase in e-mail, Web, and other Internet access, PCs
need immunity against computer viruses. A variety of anti-virus software
packages are on the market. Having an anti-virus program available on a floppy
disk can help you solve a customer problem caused by a virus before it spreads
to other system users.
l Diagnostic
and troubleshooting: A number of diagnostics packages are available, such as QAPlus (www.diagsoft.com),
AMIDiag (www. megatrends.com), and those listed in "Loopback
plugs" earlier in the chapter, that perform troubleshooting, system
tune-ups, hardware diagnostics, and system status reporting. Often these
packages include other features such as file encryption, file compression,
undelete, and other file utilities.
l Uninstaller/Cleaning:
The Windows environment uses the first-in-stays-here mode of file management.
Windows programs leave behind more junk than NASA, which is why uninstall and file
cleanup software are essential tools. Although you may never be called upon to
clean up a customer's files, you may need to remove conflicting or out-of-date
DLLs or the like. For an extensive list of this type of software, visit CNET's
Windows File Cleanup Utilities page at http://winfiles.cnet.com/apps/98/file-cleanup.html.
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