General PC Hardware Troubleshooting

PCs & Laptops For Dummies

There are a few standard things you should check before you get your elbows greasy and end up with screws and computer parts strewn all over the floor. Review the items in this list first to determine what's wrong.

Is it plugged in?
Is it connected?
Is it turned on?
Press and hold down the Power button for five seconds to turn off any computer.
Hot things cause trouble. Ensure that the console's air vents are unobstructed and that the fan is on. Touch a power brick to ensure that it's not too hot. If it is hot, unplug it.
Check the Device Manager for conflicts detected by Windows.
Swap out questionable hardware with hardware that works to help pinpoint the problem.
The printer must be on and online or selected before you can print.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.