Troubleshooting Computer Systems

The specifications of the computer systems in Bolton College are as follows:

Acer Veriton M265 Tower PC – Specifications

Product Description	Acer Veriton M265 Tower PC
Form Factor	Tower
Processor	1 x Intel® Celeron DC ® 2.2Ghz E1500 processor
Cache Memory	L2 Cache, 512 KB
Chipset	Intel® G31 Express Chipset
Storage Controller	Serial ATA-300
Hard Drive	160GB - SATA Hard Drive
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, WLAN3 - IEEE 802.11b/g
RAM	1GB DDR2 upgradeable to 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz
Graphics Processor	Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
Optical Drive	DVD-Super Multi
OS Provided	Windows XP Professional
Dimensions (WxDxH)	18.0cm (W) x 44.0cm (D) x 35.2cm (H)

“The tutor has described the systems as being slow and unresponsive.  You have been tasked with troubleshooting these systems.”

Prompts for change

When computer systems aren’t running as efficient as it is supposed to. It may require an upgrade or some new installations, this can be down to virus or malicious attacks causing the system to perform slower. By upgrading the system, it can upgrade the speed the programs work at, of fix system issues such as hardware failure (with device drivers) or system turning off and crashing.

Problems with existing systems

Overtime using computer systems, installing software, taking up memory, and operating big application programs will reduce the performance in existing systems. If the computer system is old and you’re trying to install up to date software there may be some compatibility issues. Sometimes the whole computer system will need an upgrade, but sometimes existing systems will encounter problems such as memory full, which by can resolved by installing upgrades such as hard drives or RAM (Random Access Memory). The software on the system may need updates or patches. Sometimes it can be more convenient to upgrade the system itself if there are multiple problems with the existing system.

Additional functionality required

Bolton college systems may require software with additional functionality for various purposes. An example would be obtaining suite software such as AIO (All in one) anti viruses supporting both anti spyware and firewall software for a better protection of the software security. Another would be using Microsoft office 365 for the times the employees or students need additional functionality such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Project instead of purchasing Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel individually.

New hardware requiring new or upgraded software

When installing new hardware components such as sound cards or peripherals. The hardware will often require a device driver to run for the hardware to be compatible and work with the system. The software device drivers will communicate with the system and help run the hardware component. If you do not have the correct device drivers installed, then the hardware components may be unresponsive. It’s important to check your systems device drivers to make sure right drivers are there that you can download the correct drivers before buying hardware components e.g. a second-hand specialized mouse on its own without any manual or CD (the original buyer may have gotten a CD device driver to install the mouse and without it the component will not work).

External prompts for software bug fixes

Software developers always check and test their software for bugs before release. Bugs can always arise and the only way to fix them is by the developers to patch the bugs, for the students or employees to avoid software bugs causing the programs to crash/become unresponsive the developers of the software would add a feature allowing them to notify the buyers of the software that the software needs updating.

Company policy

Bolton College will have policies the organisation must follow when installing upgrading software. This is to prevent the systems and networks from attackers from virus or illegal downloaded software. Therefore, they may apply rules or block students from downloading any software onto the systems. The types of software that will be used on the systems will be discussed in group meetings involving the BITSS and the employees who will be using the systems e.g. graphics tutors, maths tutors etc. This is so the right money is spent on the right upgrades.