PCB Trace info desired

[quasimodo]

Hello Guys,

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction. I want to be albe to trace the PCB and quickly find electronic defects in components with a Multimeter.
Are there any references on the web that I could look at? Any good books that someone can recommend? What am i tracing, is it just the 5V signal? If I don't hit a Transistor or Resistors I should still have close to the 5V, is this correct?

Thanks for your input.

[rameez]

There are capacitors as well in the 5V line . But most of the time in the pcbs there is a problem with the spindle motor controller .
As for me i check the 5v line if i dont get any thing bad then i check all the transistors and some resistors and check for any visible damage if there arent any i change the controller .

[jono-ats]

I've always found a multimeter too crude to be of much help.

I've had much better luck with a Huntron Tracker, which gives and instant visual, and is great for comparing a working vs. a non-working PCB. Using it is a bit of an art as well as science, but it helps me to spot bad semiconductors PDQ.

Jono

[quasimodo]

Thank you for your replies and the valuable input guys.
How do you determine that the spindle motor is bad, obviously if the drive doesn't spin that’s a good indicator , but do you have no throughput if it's damaged?
I think that the Huntron Tracker is a bit out of my price range for the moment, but I will definitely keep it in mind. Any good electronic books or web resources recommendable for tracing?

Thanks again guys.

[TerraNova]

Jono
Which Huntron Tracker are you using? 2700 or 2700s?

[jono-ats]

Just the old 2000.