As a reminder, the first two steps of troubleshooting are:
- Identify the problem
- Verify the problem
It is important after doing these steps to form a hypothesis on what could be causing the problem, verify and duplicate, then correct the problem and try to make it mess up again. In the process of testing, you may be tempted to reset the system power or go into/back out of programming. This is very likely to make the problem go away. It is also possible to be the “fix”. The problem is that if you reset the system without first troubleshooting the it, your problem will go away without being fixed. What’s wrong with that? The problem is that the problem may come back up after you leave. Obviously, that isn’t your goal.
To restate, it is common with anything in electronics that if something isn’t right, power it down and back up again. However, this should be done after all other troubleshooting/isolation/testing/verification has been conducted.
These tech tips are intended to provide insights to small nuances to help with many different products we offer. It is the small attention to detail that separates an outstanding job from an OK one. Although these apply primarily to technicians, they will help others gain insight to what the technicians do – in small doses.
