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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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CHAPTER 16

Troubleshooting Operating Systems

In this chapter, you will learn how to

• Troubleshoot boot problems

• Troubleshoot GUI problems

• Troubleshoot application problems

This chapter looks at operating system problems from the ground up. It starts

with catastrophic failure—a personal computer that won’t boot—and then

discusses ways to get past that problem. The next section covers the causes

and workarounds when the GUI fails to load. Once you can access the GUI,

the many diagnostic and troubleshooting tools that you’ve spent so much

time learning about come to your fingertips. The chapter finishes with a

discussion on application problems.

The CompTIA A+ 1002 exam focuses primarily on troubleshooting in

Windows, so the basic structure of this chapter follows that example. We’ll

look first at various issues through the prism of a PC tech working on modern

Windows versions, then, when applicable, discuss the symptom, tools, and

techniques in macOS and Linux.

macOS and Linux systems have the same problems you’ll find in

Windows, such as hardware failure, system and driver flaws, and buggy

applications. The differences among the three OS families when

troubleshooting are stark.

A ton of companies manufacture hardware and write software for

Windows. The resulting heterogeneous ecosystem (that is, a lot of variety) of

Windows greatly expands on the number of possibilities for what could be

causing problems in any system.

Because Apple has always strictly controlled the hardware and drivers

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