A+: Analyzing the Problem

Depending on the clues you receive in the initial interview, you should go to the client’s work area prepared to perform a variety of tests. You must look for four major issues when evaluating the customer’s environment:

    • Event logs and services
    • Symptoms and error codes (might require you to try to reproduce the problem)
    • Power issues
    • Interference sources

Your evaluation of the most likely sources of problems will lead you to specific tests, and you might need to perform several tests to rule out certain problems. Examples include:


Power Multimeter and power supply load device, circuit tester
BIOS beep, error codes List of BIOS codes and POST card
Printer self test Printer, paper
Windows bootlog Start Windows w/ bootlog enabled
I/O Port tests Connect loopback plugs, run third-party diagnostics
Video tests Third-party diagnostics
Hardware resources Windows Device Manager
Device drivers Windows Device Manager