YavaCo PC Test Station - A Productive Time Saver That PC Technicians and Repair Facilities Cannot Afford To Be Without!!

PERIPHERAL COMPONENT TEST FACILITY (PTF)

PTF Power Supply and
Motherboard Tray

The PTF uses a built-in motherboard in conjunction with a hard drive switching unit to provide for rapid testing of plug-in cards/peripherals and to provide instructors with the capability of easily demonstrating the functioning of and differences between operating systems.

The type of motherboard selected for use with the station (with its associated chipset and processor) will determine which 32 or 64 bit operating systems can be loaded on the hard drives and used with the Station.

Most users configure the Station to switch between three hard drives; however, up to seven drives can be switch selected prior to boot.

PTF Drive Bay and HDD
Selector Switch

The PTF has its own dedicated power supply which powers the built-in motherboard, two PTF dedicated drive bays, and the Fan Control Unit:

Bay No. 1 is a 5 slot 5.25" bay which will contain a Hard Drive Switching Unit, one (1) 3.5" floppy drive, a CD-R (or CD-RW) drive, and a Parts Drawer.

Bay No. 2 is a 9 slot 4" hard drive bay which will contain the PTF hard drives.

The hard drive selector switch unit provides for switch selection of multiple SATA hard drives, each of which can be loaded with an operating system of your choice. Accordingly, you can boot any of these operating systems WITHOUT ANY CABLE SWAPPING.

NOTE: The hard drive selector switch requires an available motherboard SATA connector for each drive to be switched.

TYPICAL PTF APPLICATIONS
Scenario #1 TESTING A HARD DRIVE	Scenario #2 TESTING A MODEM	Scenario #3 TESTING PERIPHERALS
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Hard Drive Connected For Test	Installing a Modem	Connecting a Peripheral Device
Hard drives can easily be tested by connecting them to the stowed primary master IDE cable. You have the option to boot from this drive by placing the Hard Drive Selector Switch in position #4. The Station can test either IDE or SATA hard drives.	Modems can be rapidly tested by simply opening the PTF motherboard access door, installing the card, and switch selecting an operating system. You can use the PTF drives to install drivers and then observe whether or not the modem is functioning properly WHILE INSTALLED IN A KNOWN GOOD ENVIRONMENT (THE STATION).	Peripherals such as Scanners, Printers, Cameras, etc. connected to the USB/Serial/Parallel Ports, can easily be tested by selecting the operating system, connecting the unit under test to the respective PTF motherboard port, and loading the drivers using the dedicated PTF CD-R or floppy drive.

OTHER PTF APPLICATIONS

There are numerous applications similar to those described above which will significantly reduce trouble analysis time, thanks to the accessibility and multi-operating system selection features incorporated in the PTF.

Hard Drives can easily be virus tested by connecting them to the PTF, as described above in Scenario #1, and using virus detection software installed on one of the PTF Hard Drives.

Sound, video and network cards can easily be inserted in the PTF motherboard and tested in a manner similar to that described for modems in Scenario #2.

What is important to note here is that in all of the above PTF applications, you are able to install the device under test and select the required operating system in SECONDS, thanks to the features incorporated in the Station design.

How long would it take you to install the device under test AND load the required operating system using a conventional PC?

MOTHERBOARD TEST FACILITY (MBTF)

MBTF Cables and
Controls (upper right)

Attempting to test or reconfigure a motherboard while it is still installed and connected in the host PC is often a difficult, time consuming and dangerous approach to troubleshooting. Many of the components and jumpers are frequently completely or partially inaccessible and attempts to access them often result in damage to these and other components.

MBTF With Motherboard
Connected

The MBTF not only provides a safe environment in which to test/reconfigure motherboards, it will be a big time saver for the technician/instructor. Instead of having to cope with fighting through a maze of cables to remove RAM, processors, etc. (or to change jumpers), you have unobstructed access to all components with the motherboard connected to the MBTF.

Data cables are permanently connected at the drive ends, while the system ends of the cables are stowed, yet are easily accessible for connection to the motherboard under test. The MBTF has its own dedicated power supply and power cables are stowed in the same readily accessible location as the data cables.

Once these cables are connected, the technician simply plugs in his monitor, keyboard and mouse, and he is ready to test/reconfigure the motherboard - with two big differences:

All motherboard components are accessible.
The chance of damaging components due to inaccessibility has been eliminated.

TYPICAL MBTF APPLICATIONS
Scenario #1 USING THE MOTHERBOARD DIAGNOSTIC TEST CARD	Scenario #2 DETECTING AN INTERMITTENT MOTHERBOARD	Scenario #3 CHANGING JUMPERS
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Motherboard with Test Card Installed	Flex Motherboard Isolated	Changing Motherboard Jumpers
A Motherboard Diagnostic Test Card is provided for problem isolation in cases where a motherboard fails to pass the POST. With the motherboard under test connected to the MBTF, insert the diagnostic test card in a PCI slot and apply power to the MBTF. If the POST does not complete successfully, a two digit Hex Code will be displayed. This code can be cross referenced to the manual containing code definitions for the major BIOS manufacturers. For example, with an Award BIOS, a display of 01 would indicate a bad processor.	A PC randomly powers down unexpectedly. You remove the motherboard and connect it to the MBTF. The board boots OK in the MBTF, but as you reposition the board while powered up, the MBTF powers down. The problem has been isolated to a "flex" motherboard. This would have been extremely difficult to isolate with the motherboard mounted in the host PC.	To optimize a system's performance you need to reconfigure its motherboard jumpers and then observe system behavior. With the motherboard installed in the MBTF, the jumpers are much easier to read and change as many times as necessary. Without the MBTF, the jumpers might not even be accessible, requiring repetitive removal and re-installation of the motherboard in the host PC.

CUSTOM APPLICATIONS
This custom built Training Station features the capability to boot from six SATA hard drives. each loaded with a different operating system. The Training Station functions either as a Server, Workstation or stand-alone PC and supports 64 bit platforms.
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Custom Training Station Equipped To Switch 6 SATA Drives	Case Interior Showing 6 Switchable SATA Hard Drives	Custom Design Showing 2 SATA Hard Drive Switch Controllers