How To Troubleshoot Computer Hardware

Computer hardware is the physical component of a computer.  Every hardware component such as hard disk, monitor, CD-ROM, keyboard, printer, modems, LAN card and scanner requires a software component known as driver, which is required to communicate with the operating system, software applications and the other components in the computer. 
Sometimes a hardware conflict occurs during or after the installation of a new hardware component. The conflicts usually occur due to the new installations, upgradation, change of configuration of the system hardware and software. This conflict causes the following issues.
Troubleshooting Hardware Conflicts and Configurations Errors

• System locks up during installation.
• System locks up during the initialization of a particular software application.
• The newly added component does not function well.
• Previously added components may not work after the installations of the new components.
• A particular device generates beep sound.

The best and fastest solution to resolve the conflicts between the hardware components is to remove the newly added device.  In the Windows based operating system, Device Manager is the utility, which tells you about the used system resources of a particular hardware.
If you see a yellow or red symbol on particular device driver, it indicates something wrong with that device.  You need to uninstall that device and re-install the device again with a correct driver.  Windows plug and play features find the newly attached and compatible devices and install the driver for it. If Windows is unable to provide the device driver, you need select the location of the driver.
Troubleshooting Physical Faults
The faulty and physically defective hardware devices may not function well.  There are tools that help you to diagnose the faulty hardware devices in your system.

• Multimeter,
• Cable Tester,
• POST card 
• Software diagnostic disk

Additionally, you can check the health status of each and every hardware component of your computer with the diagnostic tools.  These tools will help you to diagnose the problem and tell you the right cause of it.  After finding the exact cause of the device’s problem such as misconfigurations, incompatibility, hardware conflict, faulty device, outdated device driver virus attack or physically damage to devices, it would be very easy to troubleshoot the problem.
Troubleshooting Hardware Devices
Hard Disk Errors

• I/O
• Seek Error
• Data Error Reading
• Serious Disk Error Writing
• Error Reading Drive
• Logical/Physical Bad Sectors

Solutions:
By using the scandisk utility of Windows, scan your disk drives to remove the logical errors.  By using the Disk Manager utility, perform low level formatting to your disk to remove the bad sectors.  Check to see if the power and data cables are properly attached with the hard disk.  If you hard disk is physically damaged then best solution is to replace it with a new one.
Physical Memory Errors

• Out of memory
• RAM memory leaks
• "STOP 0x0000008e"
• Insufficient RAM Memory
• System Restarts continuously
• System hangs up due to low memory

Solutions:
Use a RAM diagnostic utility, it will show you the health status of your RAM.  Increasing the RAM in your system can overcome the performance related and other issues.  You may also juggle the RAM modules around, most of the times it fixes the RAM errors. If you continuously receive the errors like the above then replace the RAM with a new a new one.
Video Card Errors:

• Blank Display/No Display
• Color Problem
• Noisy Video Card Fan
• Slow Streaming Video
• New Video Card running slow
• System freezes up

Solutions:
Use a Video card diagnostic utility to diagnose the cause of the error and troubleshoot it.  Properly insert the video card in the PCI slot.  Unplug the VGA card and replug it and properly attach the VGA cables.  If the problem is not resolved then replace the VGA card with a new one.
LAN Card Errors

• Lost Connectivity
• Request Time Out
• Destination Host Unreachable.
• Intermittent connectivity.
• Yellow/Red sign with the LAN card in the device manager.

Solutions:
A faulty network adapter can cause a number of errors including loss of connectivity, intermittent connectivity and packet loss. To resolve the above errors, you need to re-install the up-to-dated version of the LAN card’s driver, install an up-to-dated antivirus and anti spyware program, check the LAN card cable at both ends, reconfigure the LAN card settings and if the problem is still not resolved then replace it with a new one.

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