Are there any books on just troubleshooting?

Hi guys,

Wondering if there's a book on just troubleshooting? Kind of like a troubleshooting for dummies maybe? Something that could give you a solid understanding. Currently a Support Engineer and would like to learn best practices the best way.

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iBrokeIT

1) Turn it off and back on
2) Google the error message
3) RTFM

Hasn't let me down yet...

systemstech

iBrokeIT wrote: »

1) Turn it off and back on
2) Google the error message
3) RTFM

Hasn't let me down yet...

Didn't really answer the question, lol. Turning it off and on just puts out the fire. It doesn't find the root cause for the issue.

Cheers,
Mike

Mitechniq

It is great that you want to know the root cause but you will find in the world of IT, there are gremlins in the network. You simply cannot find a reason why it broke and how it got fixed. I always tell my developers (which they hate) FM.

UnixGuy

There might be but best experience I got was from doing support calls. Next best experience was from setting up VMs, you can gain a lot of experience in VMs

danny069

If you like flowcharts:
Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts Third Edition: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Problems from Boot Failure to Poor Performance: Morris Rosenthal: 9780972380188: Amazon.com: Books

There are a few on amazon, none that I ever used, just gained troubleshooting skills from experience.

Russell77

There are some books on the troubleshooters.com website. Troubleshooting is a learned art. The more often you do it the better you get. There are different styles depending on your personality. If you take the a+ course they go over some basic troubleshooting theory.

paul78

Russell77 wrote: »

Troubleshooting is a learned art.

Absolutely agree.

And I have always been of the opinion that being a good troubleshooter comes with experience. And some people just do it better than others. And in complex environments, I still think that the best troubleshooters have broad backgrounds.

NetworkingStudent

Plural sight has a course on troubleshooting issues:
Technology Troubleshooting Essentials

Learn how to diagnose, repair, and document problems with PCs and IT systems from the first call to completion.

A few things to keep in mind that will help you troubleshoot things
is this issue happening on one device, or several?
Check the Windows event logs
What changed?

NetworkingStudent

@systemstech

I think this video is what you're looking for:
Troubleshooting 101: Guide to the A+ Certification Exam (01:07)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VrfJZOdPEc

Published on Dec 30, 2014
Video 7 in our Introduction to the CompTIA A+ Certification Exam looks at the the basics of troubleshooting. We examine how we should talk to the customer as well as the 5 categories of computer problems.

shodown

As some have already put it, T/S is a learned art. I came from a electronics background where T/S was part of the training, in IT not to much. What we really learned was the theory behind circuits, so it was much more easy to fix when things go wrong. In IT we just learn this box does "x" without knowing whats really going on. So for example if you are having a internet problem do you know the technologies involved? Thats the huge disconnect I see. A lot of support techs don't understand the tech behind getting from point A to point B so they don't pick up good skills.

Mike7

shodown wrote: »

In IT we just learn this box does "x" without knowing whats really going on. A lot of support techs don't understand the tech behind getting from point A to point B so they don't pick up good skills.

Agree. They think that everything in IT is magic.

And we are all Google experts.
Always tell this joke to those who think the best way to resolve an issue is to reboot

Three engineers are riding in a car.
One is a mechanical engineer, one is an electrical engineer, and one is a computer engineer.
The car breaks down and coasts to the side of the road.

"Hang on," says the mechanical engineer. "The problem is probably the engine, let me have a look at it and I'll have us on the road again in no time."

"Wait," says the electrical engineer. "The way it just stopped like that, I think it's the electrical system. Let me have a look and I'll get us going again in a minute or two."

"Hold on," says the computer engineer. "Why don't we all just get out of the car and get in again, and then see if it starts?"

tpatt100

I reached the stage in my life where I am a know it all so I spend more time trying to find the more difficult fix rather than starting with the basics, eventually I just reboot.

E Double U

Learn by trial and error.

Mike7

I do reboot if I do not know the easy fix. Especially if I am certain that problem is probably a memory leak issue. If this is a heavily used production server with no failover, I will try to fix it without rebooting.

Just the other day, someone was commenting that even though his VM takes up 100% CPU, the host Hyper-V server only uses 1 processor core. So he reboots the host.