PC problems don't have to be expensive. Darren Yates shows how to find solutions for a range of common hardware issues.
NEW CPU, OLD BIOS, NO POST
You buy a new CPU and motherboard only to find the board won't recognise the CPU, but how do you update the board BIOS to recognise the CPU without a recognised CPU? This is an occasional issue noted with Haswell-refresh CPUs such as the Pentium G3258 and unless the board already has the latest BIOS, there’s often no way to update the BIOS without an original-version CPU on hand. If the board won't POST (power-on self-test), take it back to the retailer, get them to swap the board or do the BIOS update at least, otherwise, buy yourself the cheapest first-gen CPU you can find and do it yourself.
SAVE YOUR PSU FROM 'FEATURE-CREEP'
Feature-creep is a potential problem for power supply units (PSUs) — you add new components to your PC, but keep loading up the original PSU. If you add in a new graphics card (or two), make sure your PSU has the reserves to keep up. If not, the PSU voltage rails will droop, causing random reboots, or worse, pop and possibly damage your components. A good PSU will last you for ages, but don't abuse it by asking it to deliver more power than it’s capable of. Both AMD and Nvidia provide guides on minimum recommended PSU wattage ratings for their respective GPUs.
KEEP A KITBAG OF SPARES
This sounds a bit over the top, but if you want to be self-sufficient and ready for any eventuality, keep a kitbag of spares — just low-cost spares you can use to identify 'link in the chain' faults. A US$3 USB-to-Ethernet adapter and a US$1 USB sound card from eBay are perfect for 'A-В' comparison testing for integrated motherboard functions, for example. Also, have your Windows OS installer ready on a USB flash drive in case the systems fails to boot — you can use the recovery menu to possibly repair the system. I also keep a spare PSU and enoughparts to build a new system, but that's just me.
POOR OVERCLOCK STABILITY
Overclocking is a dark art that has no rulebook. Just because one CPU reaches a magic GHz number is no guarantee yours will. You really need to thrash the daylights out of your overclock settings before declaring it stable. Use IntelBurnTest/Linpack (tinyurl.com/kj57e6j) to find the maximum core temperature (beyond 80°C isn’t good for the CPU long-term) and fire up Prime95 (tinyurl.com/mh59hq6) for more-accurate long-term stability. The combination of the two should give you a good idea of how your overclock will perform. If the tests fail, drop your settings back a notch and try again. You may also need to improve your cooling system.
IS MY HARD DRIVE DYING?
Self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology (SMART) has been built into new hard drives for ages, but it's not commonly used. After enabling it in the BIOS, grab hold of Passmark DiskCheckup (tinyurl.com/p35mh86). Free for personal use, it provides more information than most HDD maker tools and is easier to read. No tool will predict catastrophic mechanical failures, so use SMART for 'slow-burn' wear-type monitoring. Hopefully, HDD failures won't creep up onyou and bite you hard — just don’t use SMART software in place of a good backup regime. If your HDD is starting to make 'new' noises, ensure you have good backups in place.
WATCH YOUR USB PORTS
I'm always worried about stuff dragging excessive power out of PC's USB ports, so I use a low-cost USB power meter that measures the current draw directly from the port. They're under US$3 on eBay and typically accurate to 1%. Any device grabbing more than one-amp of current gets booted to a USB AC adapter, for mine.
RAM UPGRADE WONT BOOT
You've installed new RAM but get no POST (power-on self-test)? Make sure the RAM is correctly seated in the DIMM slot and if using multiple modules, try them one at a time in turn to find the problem stick. Check your DIMM voltage settings are correct in the BIOS (even try reverting to default settings).
PORTABLE HARD DRIVE TICKS
If your portable hard drive won't start and makes 'tick' noises, it's not necessarily a sign it's dead. It could just mean it's not getting sufficient power. If connecting to a USB 2.0 port, use a USB 2.0 splitter to double up on power. If there are no other problems, this should get the drive up and running.
PC TURNS ON BY ITSELF
This seems to affect some Windows 8.1 systems. If the PC boots up of its own accord, use the Powercfg utility to see what woke it by typing at a command prompt:
Powercfg -lastwake
To see what devices are set to trigger a wake-up, type:
Powercfg -devicequery wake_armed
You may need to adjust the BIOS settings to turn these off.
MONITOR NEEDS MORE HDMI PORTS
It's rare to find an LCD monitor with two HDMI ports (some don't even have one!). But if you have a VGA port spare, grab a budget HDMI-to-VGA adapter — it'll convert HDMI signals to VGA format and display them on your screen. Avoid cable-only options, make sure it has the converter chip box.
FAILED USB PORTS
On notebooks, failed ports are bad news, but a USB hub will augment any remaining ports. On a PC, front-panel ports tend to be weaker in providing power for devices than the rear ones. If a breakage leaves you short of ports, most boards have unused internal ports. Grab a USB rear-panel bracket from eBay for US$4 to add more.
SSD SLOW-DOWN
If your solid-state drive isn't as fast as it used to be, check you haven't overfilled it. SSDs need empty storage blocks to maximise write speeds and it's generally thought you shouldn't exceed 75% of its capacity to maintain something approaching its original speed (personally, I limit mine to 50%).
BUZZ ON INTEGRATED AUDIO
If your PCs' integrated audio delivers a buzz-like sound in the background, it could be poor voltage regulation from the PSU or poor audio design on the board. The solution is often to use USB audio devices instead. Grab a US$1 USB DAC from eBay or spend US$10 on a MUSE X5 DAC with high-quality Burr-Brown PCM2704 DAC.
RECOVER DELETED DATA FROM AN SSD
If the SSD is running internally in your system, there's usually little chance of recovering data you've deleted. Modern SSDs use a technique called TRIM to reclaim abandoned (deleted) data blocks and that reclamation is often almost instant. Still, if you're desperate, try the free EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (tinyurl.com/26dysou) — you might get lucky. Use it carefully.
ISOLATING PROBLEM COMPONENTS
The trick to troubleshooting hardware problems in general is isolating the problem component — that means you change one thing at a time and retest, for example, testing RAM sticks one at a time. Any 'before-after' differences can then be related to that one change. Too many changes tell you nothing.