Troubleshooting is a form of problem solving. It is the systematic search for the source of a problem so that it can be solved. Troubleshooting is used in many fields such as system administration and electronics. Normally a process of elimination is used to isolate possible causes of problems. Problem solving forms part of thinking. ... A system administrator is a person responsible for running, or running some aspect of, a computer system. ... Electronics is the study and use of electrical devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles in devices such as thermionic valves and semiconductors. ...

Usually troubleshooting is applied to something that has suddenly stopped working, so the first focus, or concentration of attention, should be on what has changed. However, care must be used to not jump to false conclusions of causality - correlation does not always mean cause. Wiktionary has a definition of: Attention Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one thing while ignoring other things. ... The philosophical concept of causality or causation refers to the set of all particular causal or cause-and-effect relations. ... (Note: The term correlation is sometimes used to specify the cross-correlation of two functions, and sometimes to specify the correlation coefficient between two random variables. ...

A basic principle in troubleshooting is to start from the simplest and most probable possible problems first. This is illustrated by the old saying "When you see hoof prints, look for horses, not zebras", or to use another maxim, use the KISS principle. This principle results in the common complaint about help desks or manuals, that they sometimes first ask: "Is it plugged in?", but this should not be taken as an affront, rather it should serve as a reminder or conditioning to always check the simple things first before calling for help. The word probability derives from the Latin probare (to prove, or to test). ... This article needs cleanup. ... The KISS principle is a popular maxim often invoked when discussing design to fend off creeping featurism and control complexity of development. ... Did you mean to go to the Wikipedia:Help desk? A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers and similar products. ... This article is about the psychological term. ...

Further steps in troubleshooting are to check each component in a system one by one, and to substitute known good components for any suspect ones. A cognitive walkthrough is also a good thing to try. Good documentation produced by talented technical writers is very helpful, especially if it provides a theory of operation for the subject device or system. In general, a things components are its parts; the things that compose it. ... For the Macintosh operating system, which was called System up to version 7. ... This article is a substub, the first step on the way to becoming a full article. ... In general terms, documentation is any communicable material (such as text, video, audio, etc. ... This article or section should include material from Technical Writing. ...

See also

• Root cause analysis
• Scientific method
• Trial and error