Trouble Shooting & Problem solving

1. Trouble Shooting & Problem solving Solving technical problems: Identifying needs and technological responses Unidad 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware Unidad 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management

2. Objectives and goals At the end of this module you will be able to: • Identify errors and failures from hardware or from software • Improve the efficiency of computers

3. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Identify the problem The first step when it comes to solve any computing problem is find out which component is not working correctly. Sometimes it is due to something simple such as: the audio is not working, or we can’t properly see the screen or keyboard/mouse have stopped working. Other times the computer doesn’t even start, it suddenly restarts or turns off and we don’t know what is happening. In order to identify the problem, we have to pay attention to the clues that the computer gives us.

4. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Identify the problem The first step is to check if the problem is related to the software or to the hardware. The most simple method for this is to access your computer in “Safe mode”. Safe mode is a start mode of the computer where the system only boots with the necessary applications and drivers and everything else which is not necessary remains disabled. Now we are going to see how to access Safe Mode.

5. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Identify the problem Click on ‘turn off’ and, while pressing ‘shift’ key, click on ‘restart’. Now the computer will restart and will show a menu where we will select ‘Troubleshoot’ -> Advanced options -> ‘Startup configuration’.

6. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Identify the problem In safe mode, we will try to reproduce the error. If we can reproduce it, then it means that it is a hardware error. On the contrary, if the error does not appear again, it means that it comes from the software.

7. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Identify the problem The error occurs before or after an error message: This is one of the most simple case to identify and correct errors as important information will appear in the message to help you repair the computer. It can either be an error window or a full screen error, in both cases we must look at the error code and read the message.

8. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Identify the problem The error message can also appear before the computer completely boots. In any case we must copy the code or error message and search it on the internet so that we can find a solution for our problem.

9. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Most common errors Sometimes we don’t have an error message that gives us any clue about the exact failure. For this reason here is a list of the most common errors and their possible solutions. Audio:

10. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Most common errors Screen:

11. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Most common errors Peripherals:

12. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Most common errors Computer:

13. Unit 1: How to deal with technical issues related to hardware • Most common errors Theerrors and solutionsprovided in thepreviousslides are themostcommonones and alsothesolutionsproposed are theeasiest and mostfrequent. You can expandthisinformationthroughthe links in thebibliography. Theexamples are basedon a Windows 10 OS

14. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Keep your Operative System (OS) updated Theykeypart of yourcomputeristhe OS so in order to ensurecorrectfunctioning, itisadvisable to keepitupdated, and ifour pc runswith Windows we can use Windows update. Thiswaywewillalwayshaveperipherals’ drivers updated.

15. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Update applications Justlikethe OS, alsoinstalledapplicationsworkbetter and are saferifwekeepthemupdated. • Uninstallapplications The more applicationswehaveinstalled, theslowerthecomputerwillbecome, due to excess of tasks in thebackground and files in thecomputer. A goodmaintenancetaskwould be to deleteallapplicationsthatwe do not use.

16. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • System start Many applications start by default when we start the OS and this makes the pc goes slowly and it takes longer to be completely ready to start. In order to avoid this issue, we can define the applications that we want to start along with the computer. To do so we can: • Click with the right button on the task bar and select the option ‘task manager’ • Once inside we go to the tab ‘start’, we select the application and click on ‘disable’

17. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • System start 1 2

18. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Antivirus The antivirus shall always be active and updated. For Windows 10 it is not necessary to install any additional antivirus software as it brings along a good antivirus system. It is called ‘Windows security’ and it includes several security systems apart from the standard antivirus.

19. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Antivirus It is not advisable to disable automatic control of the system, which is in charge of searching for virus with regularity. If we want to have an extra exam we can do it by clicking on ‘Quick review’.

20. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Disk defragmentation There is an application in Windows which can defragment the hard drive. Thanks to that the computer can access to files in an easier and more efficient way. Search for disk defragmenter through Windows searcher, select the hard drive and click on ‘optimize’.

21. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Cleaning software Over time our PC collects temporary files from different applications and this takes space and consumes resources of your OS. There are some programmes which help us with this task, like CCleaner.

22. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Cleaning With this programme we can clean temporary files from internet apart from records that are not used. From this screen we can select all the options of search engines and execute them.

23. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Cleaning hardware Apart from software cleaning, hardware’s cleaning also has an impact on the optimal functioning of the computer. We should clean PC cases inside once a month or every two months. The best way to do it is using a vacuum cleaner that cleans all parts of the computer without causing any damage. Laptops have to be opened for cleaning purposes, so we’d better take them to a specialised centre.

24. Unit 2: Tips and tricks for smooth software management • Installation Finally, once in a while it is advisable to reinstall the whole system from the beginning. The OS, after a while, collects many temporary files and updates and driver files which are obsolete or we don’t need them anymore. For this reason it is convenient to format and reinstall the whole system once a year or once every two years.