Troubleshooting Basics

Summary

This ITFreeTraining video introduces fundamental IT troubleshooting techniques with a humorous analogy comparing problem-solving approaches of a manager, an engineer, and an IT technician. It emphasizes the importance of replicating issues and the common 'turn it off and on again' method. The video discusses the logical process of identifying a computer's single point of failure, considering symptoms and consequences, and the value of quick fixes like replacing hardware. It also touches on the proactive approach to larger issues, the process of elimination for troubleshooting, and the role of workarounds in maintaining productivity.

Takeaways

• 😀 Basic troubleshooting in IT often starts with replicating the problem to confirm its existence.
• 🔧 IT technicians may suggest restarting a device as a first step to troubleshoot, as it can resolve many issues.
• 🚗 The joke about a car with a manager, engineer, and IT technician highlights the IT approach to troubleshooting: trying to replicate the issue.
• 💡 When a problem persists after a restart, it's essential to identify the root cause, which is often a single issue in computers.
• 🛠️ Troubleshooting a complex issue like a computer crash involves considering the symptom and its underlying cause, which may not be immediately apparent.
• ⏱️ Time is a critical factor in IT troubleshooting; the faster the problem is resolved, the less productivity is lost.
• 💼 Businesses often prioritize resolving the consequences of IT issues over finding the root cause, especially when it comes to productivity.
• 🔄 The process of elimination is a systematic approach to troubleshooting, where potential causes are checked off until the issue is isolated.
• 🏢 In organizations, problem management solutions and change management processes are in place to handle and document the resolution of IT issues.
• ⛔️ Workarounds are temporary solutions that allow users to bypass a problem without fixing it, often used when a direct fix is not immediately possible.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video from ITFreeTraining?

The main focus of the video is to introduce basic troubleshooting techniques in IT, with a particular emphasis on the approach IT technicians take when faced with technical issues.

What does the joke about the car with a manager, an engineer, and an IT technician illustrate about IT troubleshooting?

The joke illustrates the IT troubleshooting principle of attempting to replicate the problem to understand and resolve it, as opposed to the more complex strategies suggested by the manager and the direct approach of the engineer.

Why do IT technicians often ask if the problem can be replicated?

IT technicians ask if the problem can be replicated because if the issue cannot be reproduced, it may not be a consistent problem that needs fixing.

What is the significance of the phrase 'have you tried turning it off and on again' in IT troubleshooting?

The phrase 'have you tried turning it off and on again' is significant because it represents a simple, yet often effective, troubleshooting step that can resolve many issues by resetting the system.

What is the importance of identifying the symptom in troubleshooting a computer problem?

Identifying the symptom is crucial as it provides clues to the underlying cause of the problem, which can guide the technician in diagnosing and resolving the issue more efficiently.

Why might a failing hard disk not present symptoms directly related to the hard disk?

A failing hard disk might not present symptoms directly related to itself because corrupt data reads can cause crashes in unrelated systems, leading to error messages that do not accurately reflect the root cause.

What is the rationale behind replacing a computer quickly when productivity loss is a concern?

The rationale is to minimize downtime and maintain productivity. Replacing the computer allows the user to continue working while the technician can take the time to diagnose and fix the original problem without pressure.

How does considering the consequences of a problem influence the approach to IT troubleshooting?

Considering the consequences of a problem directs the IT technician to prioritize fixes that minimize business impact, sometimes opting for quicker workarounds or replacements over identifying the root cause.

What is the process of elimination in IT troubleshooting, and how does it work?

The process of elimination is a systematic approach to identify the cause of a problem by checking each component or step in a process to determine what is working and what is not, thus narrowing down the potential causes.

Why is it important for IT technicians to think about the larger implications of a specific problem?

IT technicians should consider the larger implications of a problem because a single issue might be a symptom of a widespread problem, such as a manufacturing defect, which could affect multiple devices and require a more strategic approach to resolution.

How does a workaround differ from a permanent fix in IT troubleshooting?

A workaround is a temporary solution used to bypass a problem and restore functionality without addressing the root cause, whereas a permanent fix involves diagnosing and resolving the underlying issue to prevent recurrence.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to IT Troubleshooting

The paragraph introduces the concept of IT troubleshooting with a humorous analogy comparing the approaches of a manager, an engineer, and an IT technician to fixing a car's brakes. It emphasizes the importance of replicating the problem as the first step in troubleshooting, which is a common practice in IT to determine if there is indeed a problem to solve. The paragraph also highlights the common IT adage of 'turning it off and on again' as a simple yet effective troubleshooting step. It concludes with a cautionary note on the importance of addressing real-life safety issues, such as car brake failures, properly.

05:00

🛠️ Advanced Troubleshooting Techniques

This paragraph delves into more advanced troubleshooting scenarios, such as when the simple restart does not resolve the issue. It uses the example of a failing hard disk to illustrate how to approach troubleshooting by identifying the root cause of a problem. The paragraph discusses the importance of considering the symptom, which might not always directly point to the cause, and the potential for multiple causes, although rare. It also touches on the consequences of IT problems, such as lost productivity, and the strategic decision to replace faulty hardware quickly to minimize downtime. The concept of proactive problem-solving is introduced with an example of identifying and addressing a recurring hardware issue before it impacts the business.

10:01

🔍 The Process of Elimination and Workarounds

The final paragraph introduces the process of elimination as a method for troubleshooting, using the example of a user unable to access a cloud-based application. It outlines a step-by-step approach to identify where the breakdown in connectivity occurs, from local network issues to cloud service availability. The paragraph also discusses the flexibility of the troubleshooting process, allowing for different orders of investigation based on the situation. It highlights the role of problem and change management within organizations, the importance of considering the business impact of IT issues, and the use of workarounds as temporary solutions when direct fixes are not immediately possible. The paragraph concludes with a real-world example of a workaround involving a proxy server to bypass a firewall issue, emphasizing the value of keeping users operational and satisfied.

Keywords

💡Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting refers to the process of identifying, diagnosing, and resolving issues within a system. In the video, troubleshooting is the central theme, with the speaker discussing various techniques and approaches to resolving IT problems. The video emphasizes the importance of understanding the basics of troubleshooting, such as replicating the problem and determining the root cause, as illustrated by the joke about the car with a manager, an engineer, and an IT technician.

💡CompTIA

CompTIA is a non-profit trade association that certifies professionals in the IT industry. The video mentions that CompTIA has its own troubleshooting model, which will be explored in a later video. This indicates that the speaker acknowledges the existence of standardized approaches to IT problem-solving within the industry.

💡Replicate the Problem

Replicating the problem is a fundamental step in troubleshooting where one attempts to recreate the issue to better understand and address it. The video uses the phrase 'can you replicate the problem?' to highlight the importance of confirming the issue before attempting to fix it, as seen in the IT technician's approach to the car problem.

💡Hard Disk

A hard disk is a non-volatile storage device that retains data even when the computer is turned off. In the video, the hard disk is used as an example of a failing component that can cause a computer to crash. The speaker explains that a failing hard disk might not always present symptoms directly related to the disk, emphasizing the need for thorough diagnosis.

💡Blue Screen

A blue screen, or 'blue screen of death' (BSOD), is an error screen displayed by Windows when it encounters a critical system error. The video mentions blue screens as a symptom that can indicate various underlying hardware issues, such as a failing hard disk, memory, or CPU.

💡Process of Elimination

The process of elimination is a methodical approach to troubleshooting where potential causes are systematically ruled out until the root cause is identified. The video provides an example of using this method to troubleshoot a user's inability to access a cloud-based application, starting from checking the local network to verifying the application's availability.

💡Consequences

In the context of the video, consequences refer to the impact of IT issues on business operations, such as lost productivity. The speaker stresses the importance of considering the consequences of IT problems and how they should influence the prioritization and approach to troubleshooting, as illustrated by the example of replacing a computer to restore productivity quickly.

💡Workaround

A workaround is a temporary solution that allows a system or process to function despite an unresolved issue. The video discusses workarounds as a strategy to maintain functionality while waiting for a permanent fix, such as configuring a proxy server to bypass a firewall blocking access to an application server.

💡Change Management

Change management is a formal process used by organizations to evaluate, approve, and implement changes to systems or processes. The video mentions change management in the context of making network adjustments, like firewall rules, which can have widespread effects and require careful consideration and contingency planning.

💡Contingency

A contingency plan is a set of predefined actions to be taken in response to an unexpected event or problem. In the video, the speaker discusses the importance of having a contingency plan within change management processes, such as reverting a firewall rule to its previous state if a change causes additional issues.

💡Helpdesk

A helpdesk is a resource provided by organizations to assist users with technical issues. The video implies the role of a helpdesk in the initial reporting and triage of IT problems, which then follows a defined process within the organization to attempt resolution.

Highlights

Introduction to basic troubleshooting techniques in IT

CompTIA's troubleshooting model will be covered in a later video

A humorous analogy comparing IT troubleshooting to car brake failure

The importance of replicating the problem in IT troubleshooting

The common IT technician advice: 'Have you tried turning it off and on again?'

The legal disclaimer about car brake failure and its relation to IT troubleshooting

Exploring what to do when restarting the computer doesn't resolve the issue

The concept that there is generally one cause for a computer problem

An example of a failing hard disk and its symptoms

The significance of the symptom in troubleshooting: the blue screen of death

The potential for multiple error messages indicating a single underlying cause

The impact of computer failures on productivity and the urgency to fix them

The strategy of replacing the entire computer as a fast fix

The importance of considering the consequences of IT problems on the business

The potential for a single cause to be a symptom of a larger issue

A real-world example of proactively addressing a recurring hardware failure

Introduction to the process of elimination in troubleshooting

A step-by-step guide on using the process of elimination to troubleshoot network access issues

The flexibility of the process of elimination and its adaptability to different IT technicians' approaches

The role of problem management solutions in organizations and their impact on troubleshooting

The process of escalating a problem in IT and its significance

The concept of change management and its role in IT problem-solving

The use of workarounds as a temporary solution to IT problems

A practical example of implementing a workaround to bypass a firewall issue

The potential downsides of workarounds and the need to balance them with user needs

The conclusion of the introductory video and a teaser for future in-depth troubleshooting videos

Transcripts

In this video from ITFreeTraining, I will look at some basic troubleshooting techniques.

CompTIA has their own troubleshooting model, which I will look at in a later video. For

this video, I will just give an introduction to basic troubleshooting techniques.

To understand the basics of troubleshooting, let’s start with a joke which explains all

the basic principles of IT troubleshooting. Consider that you have a car with a manager,

an engineer and an IT technician all in the vehicle. The vehicle travels down a hill and

the brakes fail. The vehicle travels at speed off the road and almost falls off a cliff.

Everyone gets out of the vehicle and are thankful that they are still alive after almost falling

off the cliff. They all urgently need to get to a meeting in the city on the future of

free training, so they need to get the car fixed and get on their way as soon as possible.

The manager says, “We need to have a series of meetings, work out a plan and a strategy.

We next need to implement the strategy and then have further meetings to work out if

the strategy was effective.”

The engineer says, “That is going to take too long and that never worked before. What

needs to happen is that I need to get some tools and get under the car and fix the problem.”

The IT technician just laughs. “You’re both wrong. What we need to do is push the

car back up the hill, roll the car back down the hill and see if it happens again.”

You can start to understand the basics of IT troubleshooting. One of the first questions

asked is, can you replicate the problem? If you can’t, there is no problem to fix. Now

you can understand why so many IT technicians will say, “have you tried turning it off

and on again?” If you turn it off and on again and the problem goes away, there is

nothing to solve.

Just for legal reasons, if the brakes on your car ever fail, please get them fixed ̶ don’t

push the car up the hill and see if it happens again!

Let’s now have a look at what to do when turning the computer off and on again does

not work.

There are many different ways to troubleshoot computer problems. One may work better in

some cases; others may work better in other cases. Generally speaking, when a problem

occurs, there is generally something that caused it.

In this example, we will consider that the hard disk is failing. The hard disk is sometimes

not reading and writing data correctly. In computers, generally there is only one thing

causing the problem and it is a matter of treating it like a logical problem to find

out what it is. Find the cause, fix it or replace it and the problem goes away. In some

cases, there will be multiple causes, but this is rare. For example, I once had a laser

printer that was not working correctly. It had two faulty parts which needed to be replaced

for it to start working again. I replaced one thinking this would fix it. When it did

not, I removed the part and replaced the other part which again did not fix the problem.

It took a while for me to work out that both parts were faulty. This is rare in computers,

as generally there is only the one cause.

The next thing to consider is the symptom. In this case, the symptom is the computer

keeps crashing, giving a blue screen. The blue screen will give you an indication of

how the crash occurred, but this may not always be true. For example, a failing hard disk

may not appear as a hard disk problem. For example, corrupt data reads from the hard

disk may cause a hardware crash in a completely unrelated system. If you find that switching

it on and off again keeps giving different error messages, the cause may have nothing

to do with the error message. Random blue screens can be anything from a failing hard

disk, failing memory or even a problem with the CPU. If any of these components start

acting in a random way, they can cause other hardware and systems to crash, and thus the

error messages given by the blue screen could have nothing to do with the problem.

The thing to consider when fixing problems like these is the consequences. A failing

computer will result in lost productivity for the worker. Trying to figure out what

is causing the problem will take time. Even more time may be required to fix it. For example,

to copy the data from a hard disk to another hard disk takes time.

For these reasons, many businesses deploy computers which store all of a user’s data

on the network. If the computer fails, it is a simple matter of replacing it with a

new one. A good IT technician will have a computer ready to go. When they attend to

fix a computer, the clock is essentially ticking. If it starts taking too long, replace the

computer. Why? Because the consequences are lost productivity the longer it takes to fix.

Therefore, the fastest fix is often to replace the whole computer. Once it is replaced, you

can take the old computer away and work out what the problem is without having to hurry.

This will keep the user happy, and take the pressure off you.

When fixing IT problems, always think about the consequences this will have to the business;

this will often direct you to what should be fixed first and how you should go about

it. Often a business cares more about the consequences then the problem itself. For

example, replacing the computer will fix the consequence faster than fixing the cause.

It is also important to consider that a particular cause may be a symptom of a much larger problem.

For example, if the hard disk keeps failing all the time, it may be a problem with the

manufacturing of a particular model. For example, I once worked in a business where the motherboards

kept failing. The problem was poor quality capacitors that were used on the motherboard.

Once we worked out which model was failing, it was an easy matter to remove those computers

from service and get them repaired before they started failing. This is a good example

of how you can sometimes proactively fix something, before it starts impacting the business.

The next troubleshooting process I will look at is the process of elimination. As the name

suggests, it uses the process of elimination to find the cause of a problem. For example,

let’s consider a user cannot access a cloud-based application from their desktop computer.

In order for this to work, the desktop computer needs to connect to the internet to access

the cloud which contains the application. The user has reported that the application

is not working. Let’s consider how we may troubleshoot it, using the process of elimination.

First, let’s make sure that we can access the local network. The problem could be as

simple as a network cable being unplugged or a network device failing. Next, I would

try and connect to the internet. It could be a simple matter of the internet connection

being down which is causing the problem. If this works, next try and access the cloud.

For example, maybe accessing the cloud requires the application to have a username and password.

Or you may need to check on-line that the cloud services are available.

The last step is to check that the application is available. If the application is available

on the cloud, the problem may be something to do with the way the user is trying to access

the application, or a problem with their settings.

Looking at this, you may be thinking, could this be done in reverse. Could you check the

application first, check the cloud is available, check the internet followed by checking if

the local area network is available.

The answer is, yes you can. There is no right or wrong answer. In fact, you could start

in the middle by checking the internet first. The point to remember is, this is a process

of elimination. You want to figure out what is working and what is not. Different IT technicians

will work in a different order and, depending on the problem, your approach may vary. The

point to remember is that there is no right or wrong way, just the process of elimination.

Work out what works and what does not. This will lead you to what is causing the problem.

In any decent-sized company, there will be some kind of problem management solution in

place. The process and procedures will differ, depending on your organization. Essentially

the users in your organization will report a problem to your helpdesk.

Depending on your organization and your position, you may be responsible for taking the initial

report of the problem either by telephone or electronically. Once the problem has been

reported, the organization will generally follow some sort of process to fix the problem.

The process will of course differ from organization to organization but will generally involve

attempting to fix the problem initially (if it can be fixed) and confirm it was fixed.

If not, the technician will attempt to gain more information and escalate the problem.

Escalating may involve the problem going to a senior member or to the manufacturer of

the software or hardware.

In some cases, the problem may not be able to be fixed on the user’s end. For example,

if the user cannot access something on the internet or another site, a change may need

to be made on a firewall. This change can potentially affect everyone. A small change

on a large network can potentially affect a lot of users, and thus the process needs

to be controlled. Many organizations will have a change management process.

Change management will involve, as the name suggests, making a change to something. In

the case of a firewall, a rule on the firewall may need to be changed. The change will be

reviewed to ensure the change will not cause other problems on the network. Also, a lot

of change management will include information about what to do if something goes wrong,

and this is called a contingency. In the case of the firewall, if more problems occur, the

contingency may be as simple as changing the rule back to what it was. This will fix the

additional problems caused by the change but will not fix the original problem reported

by the user.

Fixing the problem may take time and if you are waiting for change management to fix the

problem it may take even longer. When this occurs, the good IT technician will think

outside the box (so to speak) to get around the problem without fixing it. This is commonly

referred to as a workaround..

A workaround is essentially something that is used to avoid a problem, but not actually

fix it. A workaround is generally used when you can’t directly fix the problem; however,

by using a workaround, you can get the functionality to work. Maybe the workaround is temporary

or permanent depending on the situation.

Let’s look at an example. Consider that there is an application server on the network.

A user has been connecting to the application server without a problem. The problem occurs

when the user moves to a different office. Now the user needs to connect to the application

server through a firewall. The problem is, the firewall is blocking the connection. This

was not a problem before, as the user was on the same network.

Changing a rule on the firewall to allow the connection will take some time. Perhaps the

person who looks after the firewall is away from work, perhaps it takes some time to get

the request authorized. In some cases, it may not even be possible to get the change

done. For example, maybe the user is on a network that you don’t have any control

of. Access to the application server is critical to the user performing their job function.

This is a classic situation where the consequence of a problem is more important than fixing

the problem. The sooner you can get the user access to the server the better.

When in business, it is important to consider what effect not having access to something

will cause. Telling the user the firewall will be fixed in a week or saying it can’t

be fixed at all and walking away is not a good idea. The user will most likely talk

to their manager who will shortly call your manager and you will be sent back to fix the

problem.

Often with problems like these, workarounds will help. In this example, the user’s proxy

server could be configured to a proxy server on the same network as the application server.

As the proxy server is on the same network as the application server, the connection

to the application server will be allowed. This workaround can be used until the firewall

rule is changed.

Using a workaround can also cause problems. In this example, the user’s internet was

also redirected to the proxy server and thus their internet speed was slowed down, as it

was not accessing the internet directly. In this case, a small inconvenience like this

was more than an acceptable trade off to access the application server that was critical to

the user performing their duties. Often a user will be happier with a workaround than

not having anything at all. Always keep this in mind. At the end of the day, if you have

made the user happy, you have done your job properly.

I hope this introductory video on IT troubleshooting has been helpful. In later videos I will look

into more detail about troubleshooting. Until those videos, I would like to thank you for

watching.