TABLE OF CONTENTS FROM BOOK
BEFORE WE BEGIN TROUBLESHOOTING 5
LAPTOP BASICS 7
WHAT'S MY LAPTOP WORTH? 18
SHOPPING FOR USED LAPTOPS 19
SHOPPING FOR NEW LAPTOPS 22
LAPTOP UPGRADES 26
THINGS THAT GO WRONG WITH LAPTOPS 29
BASIC REPAIR TECHNIQUES 34
SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS 39
TROUBLESHOOTING POWER PROBLEMS 43
TROUBLESHOOTING BATTERY PROBLEMS 47
LAPTOP VIDEO TROUBLESHOOTING 50
TROUBLESHOOTING LAPTOP OVERHEATING 55
TROUBLESHOOTING LAPTOP HARD DRIVES 57
TROUBLESHOOTING WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY 61
TROUBLESHOOTING MOTHERBOARD, CPU AND MEMORY 64
TROUBLESHOOTING LAPTOP DIAL-UP MODEMS 67
TROUBLESHOOTING DVD/CD PLAYBACK AND RECORD 70
TROUBLESHOOTING LAPTOP SOUND 75
WIRED NETWORK TROUBLESHOOTING 77
TROUBLESHOOTING KEYBOARD, POINTER AND USB 79
POWER FLOWCHART 83
BATTERY FLOWCHART 93
DISPLAY FLOWCHART 103
OVERHEATING FLOWCHART 113
DRIVE FLOWCHART 123
WIRELESS FLOWCHART 131
MOTHERBOARD, CPU AND RAM FLOWCHART 141
MODEM FLOWCHART 151
DVD/CD FLOWCHART 159
SOUND FLOWCHART 167
WIRED LAN FLOWCHART 175
KEYBOARD, POINTER AND USB FLOWCHART 183
Laptops aren't resistors, which is the short way of saying you have to think about what you see when you try to diagnose a laptop with a multimeter. One of the more useful tests you can do is to measure the resistance between the positive pin of the power input (usually the center pin of the connector) and ground. The outer shell of the connector is ground, but it's not usually possible to get both multimeter probes into the port without touching each other. Any exposed metal shielding on the outside of the laptop, such as the metal around USB ports, the video output, etc, should be connected to ground, which you can test separately. When you do find a good ground, the input resistance for a healthy laptop may be anywhere from a few hundred Ohms on up. Measuring on the 20K Ohm scale, this particular laptop read 6.48K Ohms. If you get a reading of just a few ohms or less, there's a short circuit.
Laptops aren't resistors, which is the short way of saying you have to think about what you see when you try to diagnose a laptop with a multimeter. One of the more useful tests you can do is to measure the resistance between the positive pin of the power input (usually the center pin of the connector) and ground. The outer shell of the connector is ground, but it's not usually possible to get both multimeter probes into the port without touching each other. Any exposed metal shielding on the outside of the laptop, such as the metal around USB ports, the video output, etc, should be connected to ground, which you can test separately. When you do find a good ground, the input resistance for a healthy laptop may be anywhere from a few hundred Ohms on up. Measuring on the 20K Ohm scale, this particular laptop read 6.48K Ohms. If you get a reading of just a few ohms or less, there's a short circuit.
Laptops aren't resistors, which is the short way of saying you have to think about what you see when you try to diagnose a laptop with a multimeter. One of the more useful tests you can do is to measure the resistance between the positive pin of the power input (usually the center pin of the connector) and ground. The outer shell of the connector is ground, but it's not usually possible to get both multimeter probes into the port without touching each other. Any exposed metal shielding on the outside of the laptop, such as the metal around USB ports, the video output, etc, should be connected to ground, which you can test separately. When you do find a good ground, the input resistance for a healthy laptop may be anywhere from a few hundred Ohms on up. Measuring on the 20K Ohm scale, this particular laptop read 6.48K Ohms. If you get a reading of just a few ohms or less, there's a short circuit.
الخميس مايو 21, 2009 3:59 am
