A+ Certification Guide. Chapter 18 Operational Procedures and Communication Methods

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1 A+ Certification Guide Chapter 18 Operational Procedures and Communication Methods

2 Chapter 18 Objectives Computer Safety Environmental Controls Incident Response and Documentation Communication Methods and Professionalism

3 Power Diagnostics, ESD, and Safety Important to know when and how to use: Electrical tape: Add insulation to exposed wires. AC outlet tester: Check for reverse polarity. Battery tester: DC voltage testing for batteries. AC/DC multimeter with Ohm/continuity tests: Several functions but can test wall voltage. Can also test power supply voltage when PC is on. ESD wrist strap with alligator clip: Do not use when working on old CRT monitors. Monitor can discharge voltage into your body.

4 Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) What is it? Different entities contain differences in statically stored voltage. When the entities come in contact, the voltage is equalized. Means the higher voltage flows into the lower voltage entity. Human body can store high amounts of voltage. 10k to 20k volts when you feel the sting of someone touching you who has rubbed their feet across a carpet. Chips can be damaged by as little as 300 volts. ESD damage may not show up for weeks. Causes intermittent errors the worst kind. Prevention: Wear an ESD strap when working on internal system parts. Ground yourself before touching any computer component.

5 ESD Kit

6 Additional ESD Precautions If you must handle expansion cards without suitable antistatic protection, never touch the chips! Most current products use a CMOS design. No resistance to ESD. 30V of ESD can damage CMOS-based devices. Hold expansion cards by the brackets. Never hold by the gold edge connectors, chips, or circuitry. Wear natural fibers and remove jewelry. Cotton and leather-soled shoes, instead of synthetics. Use an antistatic spray to treat carpeting to reduce ESD. Use antistatic cleaning wipes on Keyboards, monitors, computer cases to reduce static charge. Turn off the power, and if you use a liquid cleaner, always spray the cloth, never the device!

7 Electrical Safety Use an AC outlet tester to verify proper wiring. Check for proper voltage output with a multimeter: 120 volts +/ 2 volts Sag = decrease in voltage over a short time period Brownout = decrease in voltage over an extended period Line conditioners can rectify sags and sometimes brownouts if UPS is used. Some UPS units have conditioners built in. Use surge suppressors to prevent high-voltage spikes/surges: Rated in Joules, the higher the better. Spikes last less than a second and can be hundreds of volts. Surges last longer, but voltage is lower than spikes. Do not plug a laser printer into a surge suppressor.

8 High-Voltage Hazards Printers: Power supply; fusing process Power supplies: Do not open; capacitors can be fatal. Monitors: CRT can have 20,000 volts stored in capacitors. Do not service without certified training. Static discharge can be affected with a screwdriver. Systems in suspend or sleep modes: System appears to be off. The PSU is not actually off. Fire Safety : Need to have a class C extinguisher.

9 Discharging a CRT Monitor

10 Physical Safety Hazards Moving heavy equipment, such as office grade laser printers, servers, large UPS systems, or print/scan/copy devices, rack systems Mechanical devices, such as printer mechanisms Power or data cables running across floors or other locations where users could trip and fall. Liquids, such as those used for cleaning or refilling inkjet cartridges Situational hazards, such as unsafe temporary equipment or cabling locations

11 Heavy Equipment Hazards Employers are sensitive to worker s compensation insurance costs: Drives up the cost of business Affects competitiveness in submitting bids Cautions: Move equipment in its original cartons and packaging whenever possible. Use wheeled freight dollies or carts to move equipment. Use "team lift" methods to move heavy and bulky items. Wear a back brace. Know your personal lift limit, and do not accept a job that requires you to exceed it.

12 Mechanical Hazards Impact and inkjet printers: Can pinch or crush fingers in their gears and paper feeders if the cover is removed while the printer is in operation. Turn off printer to remove paper jams. CD and DVD trays: Can pinch fingers or damage cables when retracting. Keep fingers and other stray items away. Pins in serial, parallel, VGA, and DVI cable connectors: Can cause puncture wounds. Avoid metal solder joints or use gloves. Sharp edges on metal computer cases, card brackets, and drive rails can cause minor cuts: Use proper tools to get the most time-efficiency safely.

13 Tripping Hazards Cable Management Cable ties To keep long cables out of the way. Velcro or similar hook-and-loop material to provide selfadhesive properties. Comes in a variety of colors you can use for color-coding. Cable wraps/trappers. To manage bundles of cables running to a particular PC or other equipment. Gaffers' tape or duct tape. For temporary cable runs across floors, such as in a repair situation, a trade show, or a training class, tape the cables to the floor. Cable management systems. To keep cables out of the way in permanent installations. Cable trays, cable racks, and raised-floor systems.

14 Recommended Equipment Cleaning Products Antistatic electronic wipes for monitor cases and glass surfaces, keyboards, LCD screens, and all types of plastic and metal. Combines effective cleaning and antistatic properties Glass and surface cleaners for monitor glass and LCD screens. Not the preferred choice because they usually lack antistatic properties. Endust for Electronics in pump or aerosol sprays is preferred because it cleans and has antistatic properties. Caution: With any spray cleaner, spray the product onto the cleaning cloth and never on the product to be cleaned, as it can damage or destroy device. Isopropyl alcohol Use with foam (not cotton!) cleaning swabs to clean tape drive heads, floppy disk drive heads, and some keyboards. Specialized device cleaning kits for mechanical mice, tape drives, floppy disk drives, inkjet and laser printers, and CD/DVD cleaning discs. Stabilant-22a cleans the sockets and provides a more effective electrical connection.

15 Cleaning and Maintenance Tools Compressed air to clean gunk out of cases, fans, and power supplies Keyboard key puller Safely removes keys to allow effective keyboard cleaning Computer-rated mini-vacuum cleaner: Cleans gunk and dust out of cases, fans, power supplies, and keyboards Wire cutter and stripper Used to build network cable Extra case, card, and drive screws (salvage or new) Extra card slot covers (salvage or new) Extra hard disk and motherboard/card jumper blocks (salvage or new) Antistatic cleaning wipes Replacement ATA/IDE and other cables

16 Situational Hazards Overloaded equipment benches: Observe load limits. Don t use shipping boxes as temporary workbenches. Under-engineered building support trusses: For large rack mount server systems Using chairs instead of a ladder/step stools Be aware of tripping hazards: This can be a legal exposure issue. Atmospheric hazards: Halon in some fire extinguishers is toxic; exit area after using.

17 Environmental Hazard Controls Temperature, Humidity, Air Temperature: degrees Fahrenheit/ degrees Celsius Humidity 20 60% is ideal Presence of air particulates: Causes dust build up. Use high end filters, replace on regular schedule. Atmospheric hazards include those created by the use of toxic cleaners or the discharge of computer room-rated fire suppression chemicals.

18 Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) Importance: References to this are made in this chapter. Federally mandated for most businesses. Determines: Safe storage practices Treatments procedures for human contact Safe disposal Dealing with spills, fire, and so on 16 Sections: Do some class research to see what the scope of the 16 sections are. Important ones include the following: Fire-fighting equipment First-aid measure

19 MSDS

20 Incident Response What is an incident? Any event or action that violates Safety precautions for either people or equipment Company policy Regulatory policy Federal or state law What is incident response? Actions taken to Mitigate the effects of an incident First response versus escalation Documentation of the event Documentation of the actions taken as a result Documentation chain of custody ensures professionalism.

21 Environmental and Accident Incident Principles Know who to contact in case of injury to people or equipment. Know how to reach an outside phone line to call 911 in case of serious emergency. Review and follow procedures for cleaning up chemical spills, retrieving damaged computer equipment, or other problems. Have MSDS information available for computer-related supplies and chemicals. Write up the incident in a professional manner. Note time, place, personnel involved, and other important information. Work with other personnel to solve problems resulting from the incident. Learn from the incident to help avoid future problems.

22 Principles of Interacting with Clients User proper language and speak clearly, deliberately: Avoid acronyms and tech jargon. Be punctual or communicate/negotiate a new time. Listen to the client s explanation of the problem carefully. Clarify the issue. Set and meet reasonable expectations. Be positive about your ability to resolve the issue: You are not alone: it s ok to quarterback the resolution by employing the assistance of others. Do not blame, argue, or become defensive: Some issues are just tougher, to solve and spending time blaming does not resolve it. Maintain your focus on the problem: Avoid distractions from phone, co-workers, or others.

23 Troubleshooting Process Again Review This Process: Identify the problem. Establish a theory of probable cause. Test the theory to determine the cause. Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution. Verify full system functionality, and, if applicable, implement preventative measures. Document findings, actions, and outcomes.

24 Client Interview Details What hardware or software appears to have a problem? What other hardware or software was in use at the time of the problem? What specific task was the user trying to perform at the time of the problem? Is the hardware or software on the user's machine or accessed over the network? What were the specific symptoms of the problem? Time of the failure, error messages, beeps, and unusual noises. Can the problem be reproduced? Try to reproduce the problem at the customer's site. Does the problem repeat itself with a different combination of hardware and software? Does the problem go away when another combination of hardware and software is used?

25 How to Evaluate the Client's Environment Power issues: Multimeter, circuit tester. Interference issues: Sources of EMI and RFI Symptoms and error codes: BIOS beeps/error codes: Have a list of BIOS codes, POST cards, or display devices. Boot issues: Start Windows with Bootlog option enabled. I/O ports: Connect loopback plugs and run third-party diagnostics. Windows Device Manager for Hardware resources Device drivers.

26 Determining if a Problem Is Caused by Hardware or Software Determine most likely source of problem: Client interview will be the starting point. Helps to determine which Windows subsystem needs to be checked. Subsystems include the following: Printing Display Audio Mouse/pointing devices Keyboard Storage Power RAM Network

27 Determining if a Problem Is Caused by Hardware or Software Steps after client interview: Back up customer data. Find most likely cause. Record current configuration of subsystem. Change one component/setting at a time. Retest after a single change and evaluate. Reconfigure or reinstall (device, driver, and so on). Repeat process on all suspected components. Move to next potential subsystem.

28 Points of Failure on the Outside of the Computer Cannot read CD or DVD media: Try both a hard eject as well as a soft eject. Cannot shut down the computer with the case power switch (not PSU switch). Press the button and hold it down. Systems often require 4 5 seconds to respond. Cannot see the drive access or power lights. Cannot use the USB, FireWire, and so on.

29 Where to Go for More Information Manufacturers' websites: Need to have the Adobe Reader program in the latest version available to read the technical manuals you can download (Adobe Reader itself is a free download from Printed manuals: File these in a way that permits quick access when needed. Web-based or PDF manuals on disc: Many vendors put user or reference manuals on the web. PDF manuals can be opened with Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, or other PDF viewer/editor. Help for "orphan" systems and components: A system whose manufacturer is no longer around. Sites such as and provide information and drivers for orphan systems and components. Online computer magazines.

30 Where to Go for More Information (Continued) Third-party news and information sites: Tom's Hardware ( AnandTech ( The Register ( ixbt Labs ( Book series: Scott Mueller s Upgrading and Repairing PCs can be a lifesaver. Great information about desktop computer hardware, old and new. Other books in the series: Upgrading and Repairing Laptops, Upgrading and Repairing Windows The Upgrading and Repairing Networks for improving your network skills. Windows; try Que s Special Edition Using series (

31 Using Search Engines Search engines: Google ( Yahoo! ( Bing ( Aggregators such as Dogpile ( Twitter Feeds Facebook, Gmail, and Yahoo Groups Know how to search Use and or & to request multiple search terms in the same document Motherboard and Intel Use or to expand the search to include similar keywords LCD or LED Use quotes to search for a specific sequence of words Known Video Card Issues

32 Useful Hardware and Software Tools Hardware diagnostics testing software: BurnIn Test Professional ( CheckIt Professional Edition ( AMIDiag Suite ( Ultra-X QuickTech Personal or PRO ( Tests RAM, hardware configuration, motherboards, serial ports, parallel ports, and drives; some also check USB ports. Loopback plugs for USB, network, serial, and parallel ports: These "loopback the transmit lines to the receive lines during diagnostic testing. POST card to find boot errors Blank media for transferring drivers from one machine to another Virus scanning software

33 How to Treat Customers' Property Don't use customer equipment for personal tasks. Make personal phone calls with your own phone. Don't go poking around their hard disk or PDA folders unless it's necessary to solve the problem. Don't "test" the printer by printing personal information. Use your own printer to print your resume or a pinup of your favorite movie star, sports figure, or car. If you need to reset the resolution on the display for testing, change it back when you're done. Ditto with any other changes necessary for troubleshooting. Don't make the customers sorry they called you or your company for help.

34 Restated and Reiterated Rules of Customer Engagement First Rule: Listen and ask good questions. Second Rule: Drop the technical arrogance. Third Rule: Focus on the customer's problem at hand. Fourth Rule: Don't promote a negative client attitude. Fifth Rule: Respect other people's space and property.

35 What Have You Learned? 1. What are the six steps that CompTIA has identified to use in troubleshooting? 2. How would you find and load the new device drivers for a nonfunctioning network adapter to a machine? 3. Name one of the rules for interacting with a customer. 4. What would you do first to determine whether a problem is caused by hardware or software? 5. What would you do before implementing a solution on a customer s machine?

36 Exercise You have been asked by your supervisor to help a user in the Human Resources area at work. HR is known for keeping a close eye on employee behavior. What should you do (or avoid doing) when working at the user's desk?

37 Reflection Tom is installing a new patch for the client-access side of the company's proprietary database. After installing the patch, he reboots the PC and gets a blue screen with a cryptic error code. At this point, he does not know whether to reboot to a previous configuration and uninstall the patch code, or to reinstall the client's workstation. The client in this case is a data entry clerk for the database. If the clerk s work is not finished by 5:30 p.m. each day, customers attempting to order services via the web will not have access in the overnight hours. The cost to the company of this outage time is estimated at $8,000/hour. What should Bryan do?

38 Chapter 18 Summary Computer safety Environmental controls Incident response and documentation Communication methods and professionalism

IT ESSENTIALS V. 4.1 Module 2 Safe Lab Procedures and Tool Usage

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