"It just does not work"
A user says, "My PC is broken." That is all. You could swap the PC. You could reinstall everything.
A good technician does neither. They ask questions, test one thing at a time, and find the real cause.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Troubleshooting | finding and fixing the cause of a fault in a planned way |
| Symptom | what the user sees going wrong |
| Probable cause | a reason that is likely to explain the fault |
| Eliminate | to prove that something is not the cause |
| Known fix | a solution that has worked for the same fault before |
| Line speed | how fast data moves along a connection |
| Uptime | the time a system has been running without a stop |
| Downtime | the time a system is not working |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can gather information, analyse a problem and test the remaining causes in order.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Step one: gather information
Investigate the request. Read the ticket. Ask the user what they see, when it started and what changed. Ask if anyone else has the same fault.
Investigate probable causes. From the symptom, list the likely reasons. One PC with no connection might have a bad cable. No connection for everyone might mean a switch or the line.
Troubleshoot the issue. Check the facts: line speed, uptime and downtime.
Check how long this system has been up
uptimeA command for the lesson’s lab terminal. It is shown here and not run.
Check the connection answers
ping -c 3 127.0.0.1A command for the lesson’s lab terminal. It is shown here and not run.
Look at the counts on a link
ip -s link show loA command for the lesson’s lab terminal. It is shown here and not run.