Seven Faulty PCs, One Exam Tomorrow Morning
The district ITI has one computer lab with 24 desktop PCs (2014 models, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD) running a mix of Windows 7 and Windows 10, all connected through an 8-port switch to one shared laser printer. There is no internet in the lab. The HS Vocational practical examination is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. for 30 students in two batches of 15, and each candidate needs a working PC with a spreadsheet application and a printer for the printout section.
This afternoon the lab assistant reports: three PCs stop at a black screen with repeated beep codes; two take about eight minutes to reach the desktop; four show the shared printer as 'Offline'; one PC does not detect its keyboard. The lab assistant wants to format and reinstall Windows on all 24 machines overnight using the single 4 GB pen drive that holds a Windows 10 ISO. You have six hours, two spare hard disks, no spare RAM, and one healthy PC that can serve as a reference.
1. Should the lab assistant's plan to reinstall all 24 machines be approved? Justify your decision and state the order in which you would handle the faults.
Read the worked answer
No. The plan is arithmetically and technically unsafe: a clean install with drivers, the office suite and printer setup takes roughly 45–60 minutes per machine even when it goes well, so 24 machines cannot be finished in six hours from one pen drive. A failed mass reinstall would leave more machines unusable than the seven currently faulty, and Windows 7-era hardware may lack Windows 10 drivers for the network adapter or printer.
Triage by exam impact, not by how dramatic the fault looks:
- Printer 'Offline' on four PCs - the printout section affects every candidate, so this has the widest blast radius.
- Three PCs with beep codes - reseat or swap RAM between the faulty units; a stick that fails in one machine can sometimes be identified and removed so the machine boots with the rest.
- Keyboard not detected - swap with a known-good keyboard, then try another USB port.
- Eight-minute boots last - slow but usable; tell candidates to switch on ten minutes early and inspect the disk later.
Reimage at most one machine, and only onto a spare hard disk so the original can be refitted.
2. Describe how you would diagnose the two slow-booting PCs and the printer-offline problem, listing the checks in order and what each result would tell you.
Read the worked answer
Slow boot - separate hardware from software before touching Windows:
- Watch where it hangs: before the Windows logo suggests disk or RAM; after the logo suggests startup software or a service timeout.
- Check disk health (SMART status, then chkdsk) and run a memory test. A 2014 500 GB HDD with reallocated sectors is the most likely cause; if SMART is failing, clone to one of the two spare disks instead of reinstalling.
- If hardware is clean, disable unnecessary startup entries, look in Event Viewer for service timeouts, run a full antivirus scan and check free disk space.
Printer offline on exactly four PCs - since the other twenty can print, the printer, cable and switch are probably fine, so the fault is per-PC: confirm the printer's IP has not changed and that the four PCs hold an old port; open Printers, clear stuck jobs, restart the Print Spooler service, tick 'Use Printer Online' and re-add the printer. Fix and test one PC fully before repeating on the rest.
3. Draft a contingency plan for the examiner in case fewer than 24 PCs are working at 10:00 a.m.
Read the worked answer
Written note to the centre superintendent, signed and timestamped:
- Capacity check: two batches of 15 need 15 working PCs each. If 20–21 machines are healthy, both batches run with five spares; no rescheduling is needed.
- 09:00 checklist on every machine: boot, log in, open the spreadsheet, save to desktop, print one test page, tick it off. Tag failures with serial numbers.
- Print section: if the shared printer misbehaves, route printouts through the directly connected healthy PC and stagger printing to five candidates at a time so the queue does not jam.
- Below 15 working: seat two candidates per PC with separate logins and separate output folders, or move batch 2 to the afternoon slot after repair.
- Record every fault, action and time in the lab register and inform the superintendent before the exam starts, not after, so the decision is documented.
- Escalate to the board for a rescheduling request only if fewer than 12 machines are usable.