Chapter 13 RQ’s

A+ Guide to IT Technical Support

What are two reasons to tie cables up and out of the way inside a computer case? *It stops the cables moving, preventing short circuits if a cable is worn. *It keeps cables from blocking the airflow, required to reach the heatsinks and hard drives. Why should a tower case not sit on thick carpet?

The power supply and the Hard drive are the two components that makes loud whining noise when a problem is detected.

One of the reasons your computer won’t boot but the fans spin could be a bad RAM. In this case, remove the RAM from its slot, then clean it and return it back to the same slot or try a different slot altogether. The best way to clear RAM is with a cloth and gently. Don’t apply any liquid.

How to Fix a Computer That Turns on but Displays Nothing

1. Test your monitor.
2. Verify that your PC has completely restarted and is powering up from a completely powered off state.
3. Troubleshoot the cause of the beep code if you’re lucky enough to get one.
4. Clear the CMOS.
5. Verify that the power supply voltage switch is set correctly.
6. Reseat everything possible inside your PC.

If your computer starts but displays nothing, you should check is if your monitor is working properly. Check the power light of your monitor to verify that it’s turned on. If your monitor won’t turn on, unplug the power adapter of your monitor, and then plug it back into the power outlet.

Symptoms. A computer with a bad CPU won’t go through the usual “boot-up” process when you turn the power on. You may hear the fans and disk drive running, but the screen may remain completely blank. No amount of key pressing or mouse clicking will get a response from the PC.

Common Failure Symptoms

• Computer turns on, no beeps, no screen.
• Computer turns on, fans run at highest speeds, still no POST, and operating system not loading.
• Computer powers on, but turns off immediately.
• In Windows (or any other OS), screen freezes after being on for a few minutes.

The computer may start to boot but then shuts down. Increased Windows errors or “blue screens of death” are symptoms of failing motherboards. The computer may freeze for seemingly no reason, or connected devices that worked before suddenly won’t work.

6 Signs of CPU Failure | CPU (Processor) Failure Symptoms

• Booting Issues. In the event of a CPU failure, it won’t go through the normal process of booting.
• Frequent Shutdowns. A Processor that is more subjected to heat is more likely to undergo failure.
• Beeping Noises. Every computer at its startup runs a self test known as POST.
• Physical Damages.
• Freezing.
• Blue Screen Of Death.

Plug your computer into an electrical outlet and turn it on. Look for the BIOS manufacturer name—such as Award, AMI or Phoenix—on your monitor as the computer starts up and then listen for and record the number and sequence of beeps that occur as your computer goes through a power-on self test, also called a POST test.

CPU Troubleshooting

1. CPU Troubleshooting. In one sense, there’s not much troubleshooting to be done for a processor.
2. Keep an eye on processor temperature.
3. Keep the system clean.
4. Use a good CPU cooler.
5. Install supplemental case fans.
6. Upgrade the case.
7. Position the system properly.

If you start up your computer only to observe your display fill with random characters and halt, the motherboard — or at least the video chip — is probably fried. If you have a dedicated video card, however, reseat or replace it first in order to rule out an issue with the card alone.

You’re not supposed to touch exposed metal on motherboards because you may have electrostatic charge on you from rubbing your feet on the carpet or moving your fingers through your hair (you may do it as a habit, without realizing) or just moving your hands and touching them by the clothes you have on your body,.

As long as you ground yourself every few minutes, you’ll be fine.

Simple answer is: yes, you can give out a static electricity discharge that can damage electrical components. It is good practice to always ground yourself before touching any components.

9. Lay the motherboard down flat on an anti-static mat. Don’t touch the board’s circuitry or any other part but the edges.

It’s definitely best to build it on a table. Carpets are more likely to generate static. The PC will be fine sitting on the carpet after it’s been built (that’s how mine was for close to 15 years – not all the same PC, BTW), but you wouldn’t want to risk damaging the components.

The most common causes of motherboard failure are:

1. Aging of the battery.
2. Aging of capacitors.
3. Electrostatic discharge.
4. Heat.
5. Dirt.
6. Partially connected or incorrectly connected cables.
7. Improperly seated memory modules, video card, CPUs, and other expansion devices.
8. Carelessness.

BUILDING A PC DOESN’T HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE, DIFFICULT, OR RISKY. That recaps the most common misconceptions with PC assembly. PC building doesn’t have to be expensive (and often isn’t), it doesn’t have to be difficult, and it doesn’t have to carry any risk of component damage.

The graphics card is the most expensive part of your gaming PC build. You’re better off splurging on a powerful, expensive graphics card that will play games at high graphics settings (in 1080p) for several years rather than going down the economical route and upgrading several times over the years.

I’ve built on a bed, on a Table and a kitchen counter one time. As long as you’re careful and ground yourself on your case every once and a while, you can build pretty much anywhere. Some people recommend using your plugged in power supply in an off position, but you will be fine with the case touching method.

The short answer is no, you don’t need to wear rubber gloves while putting your PC build together.

If your fans spin beyond the normal way, you need to check that the airflow around it is not hindered. When your computer’s components are faulty or are damaged, they can prevent your machine from booting. Such components include RAM chips, motherboard, and even the BIOS.

And, the answer to that is: in some scenarios and depending on how much RAM you have, yes, adding more RAM could increase your FPS. On the flip side, if you have a low amount of memory (say, 2GB-4GB), adding more RAM will increase your FPS in games that utilize more RAM than you previously had.

Best RAM You Can Buy Today

1. TeamGroup T-Force Xtreem ARGB DDR4-3600 (2 x 8GB)
2. Patriot Viper Steel DDR4-4400 (2 x 8GB)
3. Patriot Viper RGB DDR4-3600 (2 x 8GB)
4. Patriot Viper 4 DDR4-3400 (2 x 8GB)
5. Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3200 (4 x 8GB)
6. Patriot Viper Steel DDR4-3200 (2 x 16GB)
7. Patriot Viper Steel DDR4-3600 (2 x 32GB)
8. G.

If you have a Ryzen based system 3200 is a sweet spot in terms of performance and will benefit you very well. “Faster RAM will give your PC better performance in certain specific benchmarks, but in terms of actual benefit to most users, having more RAM available is almost always better than having faster RAM.

The more cycles your RAM can perform per second translates to how much data can be stored and read – making for smoother user experiences. There’s usually a direct correlation between higher DDR (Double Data Rate) RAM and the clock cycles those modules accommodate.

Is 2400MHz (DDR4) RAM good enough for gaming in 2020–21? It’s passable. For an intel system, it should be fine. For a Ryzen system, the ram speed affects the infinity fabric so slower memory will hurt performance more.

Many game consoles don’t even use anything close to 32GB, so you can imagine the sheer amount of power it has on a gaming PC. If you want the absolute top speed performance, no stuttering issues, lag, or any other graphical or performance hiccups, 32GB might be your ideal of good RAM.

128GB would be overkill for gaming, going over 64 is like stepping into server territory. 32 should do you fine if you plan on doing vms and ramdisks. But for standard gaming 8 or 16 should play you well.

In general, yes. The only real reason an average user would need 32GB is for future proofing. As far as just simply gaming goes, 16GB is plenty, and really, you can get by just fine with 8GB. In a handful of gaming performance tests, Techspot found basically no difference between 8GB and 16GB in terms of framerate.

Those who are rendering large files or doing other memory intensive work, should consider going with 32GB or more. But outside of those kinds of use cases, most of us can get by just fine with 16GB.

The amount of RAM does not dictate the framerate, and only significantly affects performance if you have not enough RAM in the first place. In most games you would not see a difference between 8 GB and 16 GB, let alone 16 GB and 24 GB. It’s overkill. Games are just starting to recommend 8GB as minimum.

32GB will be enough for a decade. It’ll start from future proof, to gaming standard to average.

Answer: In 2021, every gaming configuration should have at least 8 GB of RAM. However, 16 GB is the perfect middle ground at the moment, so that’s much preferable. 32 GB might be a good idea if you want to make your build more future-proof or use any RAM-intensive software.

You can run it at least at 3200 MHz CL14 on Ryzen 2700X and it will do 3600 CL16+tight timings or better on Ryzen 3000 series. Last month i got Ryzen 5 3600 with MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX and im sitting at 3600MHz 14-17-17-35 stable.

The 3700X official support is for 3200mhz. That said 100% of 3700X CPUs should work with 3600mhz RAM with a 2x8GB or 2x16GB config. You can set the RAM speed and timings in the BIOS, however if you bought a 3600mhz RAM kit you should be able to simply enable the XMP (DOCP) profile in the BIOS.

8 Prime Best RAM for Ryzen 7 3700x (Overview)

For the Ryzen 7 3700X, you’ll want to install 3000MHz or faster modules, but Corsair’s Vengeance LPX 16GB Kit is an excellent option for this CPU.

Brand doesn’t matter too much, what really has impact for Ryzen CPUs is frequency. In this case, 3200 MHz is a great speed to have, and Crucial kits are always solid.

2400Mhz RAM will work with the latest generation of Ryzen as well as the previous generations. However if you want the best perfromance out of your CPU then either go for 3200MHz or 3600MHz RAM anything above this will have no benefit to performance. buy 3700X, put change towards 3200 cas 16 ram.

The Ryzen 3900X works well with RAM clocked at 3200MHz, and this kit from Corsair houses two 8GB modules. It’s also rather affordable, making it an ideal addition to your PC build.

Sure. 8GB is enough for that. A computer should be built according to the use case; if it’s for heavy computation and multitasking, you need lots of CPU and lots of RAM. If you’re sorting a lot of information and have lots open, but overall don’t do anything particularly intensive, you need RAM, and a competent CPU.

CAS latency is not the only thing that matters, so a 3200 CL16 kit is definitely faster than a 3000 CL15 kit. It’s just a smaller difference. Apart from regular scaling, Ryzen also has infinity fabric following the memory clocks, which amplifies the advantage of higher clocked memory (regardless of latency).