Problem solving tips for helpdesk personnel

Postulate and test

By now, you know what the symptoms are and you have done some research on similar problems. You should by now have some theories as to the cause of the problem.

Now you need to test your theories. This usually involves further questioning of the user:

"Your monitor is blank, can you check if there is a green light on the front, bottom right of the monitor?"

If there is, then you know there is power to the monitor, but is there a signal?

"Do you have another monitor nearby that you can plug in instead?"

If the new monitor works, then it is a problem with the old one. If the problem persists, chase it back up the wire...

"Can you put the original monitor onto a different machine? Does it work Ok there?"

If it does, the the fault is with the original PC.

"Is there a green light on the front right of the PC?"

If there is, the problem is probably with the PC itself.

Don't assume or jump to conclusions. Take a step by step approach, eliminating possibilities as you go. Sometimes when there are many possible answers you are able to narrow the field considerably by taking an initial broad brush approach. In the above example the first question we asked was "...can you check if there is a green light ...". If the answer was no, then either the monitor wasn't plugged in or there was a power failure. Perhaps a better first question would be "Plug a desk lamp into the same socket - does it work?"

Keep an open mind. You might find yourself going right down one avenue of investigation only to come to a full stop. Don't forget your other theories, go back and test these as well.

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