Week 1: Technician Foundations and Hardware Orientation

210 instructional minutes | five 42-minute lessons

This week establishes the technician habits used through the entire course: work safely, preserve evidence, identify the system boundary, test one useful theory, verify the result, and document what happened.

What you will learn

You will apply ESD and hardware-safety practices, identify major internal and external components, distinguish power/data/display/network interfaces, observe BIOS/UEFI and POST behavior, and complete a first service ticket.

Lesson sequence

1. The Technician Mindset
2. Open the Box
3. Ports, Cables, and Interfaces
4. Firmware, POST, and the Boot Path
5. Your First Service Ticket

Evidence you will produce

• safe technician workspace checklist;
• component census;
• port/interface map;
• firmware or POST observation;
• service ticket with observation, theory, controlled test, verification, and documentation.

A+ alignment

Week 1 introduces Core 1 technician foundations and provides introductory evidence for hardware/interface and troubleshooting concepts that are completed in later objective-specific weeks. The CompTIA troubleshooting method is used as professional practice, not treated as a standalone tested objective.

Safety boundary

No PSU disassembly, forced connectors, personal-device disassembly, or powered internal service outside a teacher-directed observation procedure.