Computer Repair Flowchart

From Morris Rosenthal’s Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts. Bonus: On his site, the charts are interactive, so clicking on a diamond jumps you to the text for each decision step.

After the jump, check out all the branches up close…

[via Tech DC]

Network Troubleshooting

Power Supply Diagnostics

CPU, RAM and Motherboard Troubleshooting

Hard Drive Failure

CD and DVD Troubleshooting

Video Card Diagnostics

1. [Rob Beschizza]

   Hi, Morris! We asked (and were given, by you) permission to run this item, which already links to that page. Do you object to it now?

   Update: The comment was from a well-meaning impostor. I’ve anonymized it.

2. [zikman]

   “Laugh at self, pick right drive”

3. [Anonymous]

   Keep this shit on the down low, how else am i supposed to get my friends to buy me beer for fixing their computers…..

4. [lowrah]

   THEREVENGOR- beat me to it! I have that next to my computer right now!!

5. [michaelportent]

   This is pretty impressive, actually. It’s one thing to actually know all this stuff. Many of us who read tech and gadget blogs could arrive at these conclusions. But turning it into this comprehensive diagram system is pretty rad.

6. [(Not) Morris Rosenthal]

   Scrapper site .. original article at
   http://www.fonerbooks.com/pcrepair.htm

7. [wackyvorlon]

   Bear in mind, there are many possible faults that these charts leave out. They are not an adequate replacement for knowledge and skill in troubleshooting. This is speaking as an admin who doesn’t want to have to clean up the mess someone creates with these:)

8. [Mike2]

   Good find, thanks.

   One thing i thought about: The chart itself is just a gif that links to text anchors further down the page, isn’t it a little bit off to say that a gif is interactive? Might as well comment on the fact that the whole page is interactive, and isn’t that the point of the page?

   Cheers,
   /M

9. [therevengor]

   http://www.xkcd.com/627/

10. [Josepy]

    it reminds me of this XKCD comic :
    http://xkcd.com/627/

11. [Steven Leckart]

    From an email exchange with Morris:

    Steve,

    I dropped by BoinBong to get the tweet count for a blog post I’m writing, and saw a message supposedly from me about scrapers. Rob Beschizza posted asking if something was wrong. I don’t know who that was, but I’m guessing it was a guy who e-mailed me to tell me about the poor practices of another site that was using all of the flowcharts without clear links back, and ironically, I think it was the site you saw them on!

    Anyway, I posted a comment to BoingBoing to say this, but I’m not sure whether it went to moderation or the tar pit since I don’t have an account.

    BTW, I think it’s funny that of all the sites that have picked up the flowcharts over the last couple days, Corey’s site was the only one to ask permission:-) Seems to me I spent some time arguing with him about DRM and information wants to be free at a publishing conference years ago.

    Feel free to post the above if the comment never shows.

    Morris

12. [Day So]

    I was having problems with my DvD drive and found this site. Many thanks to the maker. Peace and long life!