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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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Figure 3-47 CMOS-clear jumper

To clear the CMOS, turn off the PC. Then locate one of those tiny little

plastic pieces (officially called a shunt) and place it over the two jumper

wires for a moment. Next, restart the PC and immediately go into CMOS and

restore the settings you need.

Troubleshooting CPUs

Troubleshooting CPU issues falls into two categories: overheating and

catastrophic failures, with overheating being far more common than the latter.

Once a CPU is installed properly and functioning, it rarely causes problems.

The only exception is when you ask a CPU to do too much too quickly. Then

you’ll get a sluggish PC. The Intel Atom processor in my vintage netbook,

for example, does a great job at surfing the Web, working on e-mail, and

writing stellar chapters in your favorite textbook. But if you try to play a

game more advanced than Half-Life (the original, circa 1998), the machine

stutters and complains and refuses to play nice.

The vast majority of problems with CPUs come from faulty installation or

environmental issues that cause overheating. Very rarely will you get a

catastrophic failure, but we’ll look at the signs of that, too.

Symptoms of Overheating

Failure to install a CPU properly results in either nothing—that is, you push

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