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Troubleshooting Issues with Laptops

Diagnosing Problems

There are several diagnostic steps you can take to troubleshoot problems on a laptop.

First, you should verify you have AC Power by LEDs on the AC power adapter or by swapping out the AC adapter.

Second, you should verify you have DC Power through the operating system power charging status.

Many laptop manufacturers have a status light available on the battery to determine its charge. The example above is from a Dell battery and shows you the strength of the battery.

Third, you should remove unneeded peripherals when troubleshooting problems. Things such as external hard drives, printers, scanners, mice, external monitors can be removed to thoroughly troubleshoot the problem.

Fourth, you should toggle the Fn keys and lock keys, suck has NumLock, ScrollLock, or other function keys on your laptop. There is a common problem with users who have numlock on and try to enter a password.

Fifth, if you are experiencing a monitor issue, try issuing the function keys which rotate the display between the internal and external monitors (e.g. Function+F4).

These are steps you should understand when troubleshooting problems with notebook computers and for the A+ Certification Essentials exam.

Monitor Issues

You might also experience problems with the LCD screen on the laptop. LCD screens could have backlight or pixilation issues. The backlight is the light which makes your LCD screen bright. If it is not functioning, the screen will be very dull. Pixilation issues occur when individuals pixels on the monitor have a problem or are dead.

The Blue Square is a Dead Pixel

Stylus Issues

On Tablet PC notebook computers, you use a stylus to act as a mouse and for handwriting input. This stylus may malfunction or operate incorrectly. If you are experiencing stylus issues, check to see the battery inside the stylus has power. Next, run the calibration utility included with the computer to calibrate the stylus to the screen.