General Troubleshooting Techniques

Many people will probably come to this Troubleshooting Guide looking for the answer to a specific problem that they are having with their PC. The Troubleshooting Experts can often help with this. However it is worthwhile if you are having a problem to read first the general troubleshooting information in this chapter. Using it you may be able to not only solve your current problem, but also develop your own skill as a troubleshooter so you can correct future problems more easily and quickly.

Troubleshooting and Your Mental State

Very few people seem to understand how incredibly important the mental state is of the person who is attempting to troubleshoot a system. I have personally seen many times (and often with myself as the subject) the difference between a person in the right mental state and one who is not, in the ability to identify and correct system problems. It can easily be the difference between a problem that is fixed in minutes and one that languishes for hours or days.

I would urge all troubleshooters to read this section and keep these rules of thumb in mind as you try to work out your PC problems. If you get stuck, come back and refer to them again. You may be surprised how much just thinking about the problem the right way can make it much easier to solve.

Don't Panic or Overestimate the Magnitude of the Problem

Probably the most important single thing to keep in mind when you find a problem with your PC is not to panic. Being in "panic mode" makes it extremely difficult for you to work on solving the problem, and in many cases the panic will turn out to be unwarranted anyway. Remember that most PC problems do not have to be solved with a clock ticking away in the background; this isn't a time bomb you are dealing with and if it is easier to turn off the PC and deal with the problem later, do so.

In fact, there are many problems with PCs that appear to be very serious but in fact are not. It isn't always possible to tell at the beginning how serious a problem is just by its outward symptoms. For example, there are some problems that can manifest themselves with your hard disk appearing to be crashed and all of its data lost. Sometimes real crashes do occur, but there are other problems that can cause a disk to appear crashed when really the problem is simple and can be fixed in a matter of a few minutes.