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By Root 1296 0

the world on your monitor looks very different (Figure 27-9). That’s when all goes well. Many megabytes of data have flowed from your hard drive and across the Internet, been processed by multiple processors, and sent to the monitor and the speakers.

Figure 27-6 Updating the screen and speakers

To keep the action continuous and unbroken, Second Life, like many current online games, uses a process of continuous or stream loading: your computer constantly downloads updated information and data from the Second Life servers, so the world you see changes with every step you take. When done right, stream loading can do some amazing things. In the Nintendo GameCube game Zelda, for example, the game anticipates where you will go next and loads that new area into RAM before you take the step. You can be in one area and use a telescope to zoom in on another fully developed area (Figure 27-10), making the experience amazingly seamless, just like real life.

Figure 27-7 PC to Second Life servers

Figure 27-8 New area loading

Figure 27-9 Castle completed

Figure 27-10 Zelda zoomed

Anytime you have a problem on a computer that’s not immediately and clearly obvious (such as not powering up due to not having a power cord plugged in), you should use the computing process to help you zero in on the problem. The computing process only defines the pieces and their interaction—but good troubleshooting requires more than just rummaging around to find the problem. You need to combine the computing process with a troubleshooting theory to get the job done.

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NOTE What applications do you use on your computer? What applications do your clients or potential clients use? Analyzing them in terms of the computing process can help elevate your troubleshooting game by a huge factor. Take for example Microsoft Excel, a program designed to let you take numbers and turn them into charts, among other things. When you sit down to work in Excel, you load it from the hard drive into memory and then put information in via the keyboard and format things with the mouse. Every click requires the CPU to analyze and update RAM and the video card information.

Troubleshooting Theory

Troubleshooting theory is nothing more than a set of mental steps you use along with the computing process to diagnose and fix a computer. Troubleshooting theory includes talking to users to determine how and when the problem took place, determining a cause, testing, verification, and documentation. Techs use a number of good troubleshooting theories. Luckily for those taking the CompTIA A+, CompTIA clearly defines their vision of troubleshooting theory in the 220-701 exam.

2.1 Given a scenario, explain the troubleshooting theory

Identify the problem

• Question the user and identify user changes to computer and perform backups before making changes

Establish a theory of probable cause (question the obvious)

Test the theory to determine cause

• Once theory is confirmed determine next steps to resolve problem

• If theory is not confirmed re-establish new theory or escalate

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

Identify the Problem

There’s a reason you’re standing in front of a computer to repair it: something happened that the user of the computer has identified as “not good” and that’s why you’re here. The first step to identifying any problem is talking to the user. Get the user to show you what’s not good. Is it an error code? Is something not accessible? Is a device not responding? Then ask the user that classic tech question (remember your communication skills here!): “Has anything recently changed on the computer that might have made this problem appear?” What you’re really saying is: “Have you jacked with the computer? Did you install some evil program? Did you shove in a USB drive so hard you broke the connection?” Of course, you never say these things;