1. BOOT TO A:
2. CHECK CMOS
3. CHECK CABLES/CONNECTIONS
4. CHECK JUMPERS/DIP SWITCHES
5. KNOW DOS COMMANDS, AND THE HARDWARE & SOFTWARE UTILITIES
6. REMOVE UNFAMILIAR HARDWARE.
7. REMOVE POSSIBLE CONFLICTING SOFTWARE.
8. SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Logical consistency, and scientific thinking is also a must. System configuration is the foundation for troubleshooting a computer. Configuration begins with software, and how it interacts with other software and the hardware in the system. If the Software is not configured properly, it will cause errors, and freeze ups, with the system. For error messages and freeze ups, contact the manufacturer of the software for assistance, and configuring.

1. BOOT TO A:\ WITH A DOS DISK
        Software will easily change the configuration of the system. If you are having a problem with something functioning, it's often a good idea to eliminate software that you feel may be causing the problem. The best way to do this is to boot to the Floppy drive. (The floppy drive should be set as the first boot device for this reason.)        With Windows 95, pressing f8 (that's the function 8 key at the top of your keyboard) when you see "Starting Windows 95," will take you to the "Start up" menu. At the Start up menu, select "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only." This will load only the essential dos files. (If you need the mouse, or CD-ROM drive, you will have to boot to your floppy disk without f8, or use the "Command Prompt Only" option.) For all this, it is essential to have a floppy disk with dos on it that is compatible with your operating system. (Windows 95 has its own dos. Otherwise, use the dos version that is currently on your hard drive.) For anything besides Win95, or WinNT 4.0, use f5 to get to a dos prompt that does not have any start up files.

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2. Use the CMOS setup utility
       CMOS contains the configuration of all the basic hardware used by your computer. If there is an incorrect value here, you may find that your hardware may not work at all, or the computer may not even know that the hardware exists.
       It's always a good idea to know what the values of your Setup utility are for the specific configuration of your system. (The settings will change with different configurations.) With Win95 and WinNT4, Device Manager controls the Plug and Play features (if the BIOS has PnP Operating System enabled). Know how to use the Device Manager regardless.

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3. Check Connections
       Always make sure that everything is plugged in, both inside the case and out.
       Cards plug into slots, cables plug into connectors.

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4. Jumpers
       On older systems, these were often dip switches, (like a light switch: off & on). A jumper is a piece of plastic, with an inner conductive material that makes an electrical connection between two pins, (they are simply slid over the top of the pins). If the jumpers are not set exactly to the required specification for the configuration of your system, a piece of hardware will either conflict with other hardware, or software, or may not work at all. (Also make sure your software is set to recognize the configuration of the hardware if it is not Plug and Play.)

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5. KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR UTILITIES, INCLUDING MSDOS COMMANDS
       Be aware of the different utilities that the manufacturer of your hardware, and software, have provided you. Since you are using dos to troubleshoot your system, it's a good idea to know what the different commands in dos do. When not in dos, it is a good idea to know the configuration utilities of your operating system. Things like "FDisk," (which configures the partition table of your drive), Chkdisk, or scandisk, (which verifies the integrity of the sectors and clusters, as well as file structure of your drive--use scandisk, over Chkdisk, whenever possible), etc.

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6. Remove added, or unfamiliar, hardware (and its software if necessary)
       Hardware is anything physical that can be touched: joysticks, printers, monitors, scanners, modems, SCSI devices and cards, & network cards. If you can touch it, it's hardware. Sometimes, if a problem persists, hardware may have to be removed until the device with the problem is isolated.

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7. REMOVE CONFLICTING SOFTWARE
Remove any added software that may be conflicting. Disable Antivirus, and System Monitoring programs, and check those programs, and TSR's that are loading at startup
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8. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
       The scientific method is a pattern of skeptical thinking. Do you remember the steps from high school?
       A) Verify the problem.
       B) Form a hypothesis--an educated guess, (and more than one hypothesis, if possible).
       c) Gather data. If you have a controlled environment, this is merely a matter of gaining enough information to narrow down possibilities. This is where your skeptical thinking comes in. If you do not have a controlled environment, you simply have to take all the possibilities (your hypotheses), and rule out as many as possible.
       D) Once you have a good working hypothesis, experiment. Validate your hypothesis, then attempt to prove it wrong. Does the experiment have the same results after several tries?
       E) Conclusion. Either 1) your hypothesis is validated, and you can take the necessary action to correct the issue at hand, or 2)you have to junk your hypothesis, and go to the next likely possibility. Even if we are sure that there is only one possibility left, it is always possible that we missed something. Therefore, we have to judge what is most probable, and go from there. At the end, the most unlikely, however seemingly improbable, will be the most probable.

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