Lab 9-3 Student Two

HARD DRIVE AND FLOPPY DRIVE TROUBLESHOOTING

Objective

The objective of this lab exercise is to develop hard drive and floppy drive troubleshooting skills.

After completing this lab exercise, you will be able to:

_ Troubleshoot a PC floppy drive configuration.

_ Troubleshoot a PC hard drive configuration.

_ Describe and implement the troubleshooting process.

Materials Required

_ Operating system:Windows 9x

_ Lab workgroup size: 2–4 students

_ Configuration type: simple

Simple Configuration

_ 90 Mhz or better Pentium-compatible computer

_ 16 MB of RAM

_ 540 MB hard drive

_ 1 NIC (Network Interface Card)

Additional Devices: None

Lab Setup & Safety Tips

_ Always unplug the power cord and properly ground yourself before touching any component

inside a computer.

_ If students are working in pairs, identify one as Student 1 and the other as Student 2.

ACTIVITY

Troubleshooting and resolving problem 1

Student 2

After Student 1 has reconfigured the lab workstation, power on the workstation, answer the following questions, and then repair the lab workstation.

Are there any error messages? If so, write them down.

What is the problem? Be specific.

List several possible solutions.

Test your theory (solution) and record the results.

How did you discover the problem?

What could you do differently in the future to improve your troubleshooting process?

Creating problem 2

Student 2

While Student 1 is away from the lab workstation, proceed with the following steps:

1. Power off the lab workstation and unplug the power cord (it is not necessary to unplug all other cords).

2. Remove the case from the lab workstation.

3. Locate the floppy drive.

4. Unplug the floppy drive data cable from the system board.

5. Reverse the floppy drive data cable and plug it back into the system board.

6. Replace the case.

7. Plug in the power cord.

Troubleshooting and resolving problem 2

Review Questions

Circle True or False.

1. Hardware configuration changes can cause CMOS errors because the setup information doesn’t agree with the actual hardware configuration. True / False

2. While you are troubleshooting a problem, it is best to make only one change at a time. True / False

3. The error message “No Operating System found” normally indicates that the computer’s hard drive isn’t formatted or could not be found. True / False

4. List three of the six troubleshooting steps below.

5. Describe how a floppy drive will behave if it is not plugged in correctly.

6. Write a hardware troubleshooting question (use any hardware component). There must be only one correct answer.