I can talk all day about the topic of troubleshooting, but let’s get our hands dirty!

SCENARIO – Morning Toast

You wake up one morning and get ready for work.  Because you’ve given up on keto, you place two pieces of standard-sized, white bread in the toaster and press the lever down.  The level clicks into place and you go off to make a cup of coffee.  When you come back, you realize the toaster hasn’t released your warm toast.  You also observe (write that word down if you need to) that the top isn’t glowing red. 

Now, I am going to assume you don’t understand how a toaster works.  Here goes.  A toaster is a household appliance that, using electricity from a standard house electrical outlet, heats several rows of metal elements near the bread, thereby toasting it on both sides.  A mechanical level allows the user to hold the bread in place with metal bands or bars and turns the unit on.  A mechanical lever releases the bread once the desired toasting level has been reached.  A separate selector or lever on the toaster determines the level of toasting desired and this is used as a timer to release the finished toast. 

Very textbook, but a typical, technical description of the features and functions of a common household toaster.  Based on this description, you can go blindly into troubleshooting.  Honestly, some people would simply say their toaster is broke and buy a new one, but let’s say this was an anniversary gift from your mother-in-law and she uses it every time she comes to visit.  Where do you start your troubleshooting?

Start With The Basics

If any system is not working or responding the way it should, the best place to start is power.  Is it plugged in?  For the toaster, 9 times out of 10, this is your issue.  If there are no signs of life even when in operating mode, check the plug.

What if the toaster is plugged in?  Then what?  You have two options.  Assume the outlet is working or that something else is wrong with the toaster.  You’re thinking, “I’ll hit a drive-thru on the way in to work.  I didn’t really want toast anyway.”  Stay with me.  It’s easy to plug a known working appliance into the outlet to test.  Could be your phone charger, could be the can opener, but find something that works in another outlet first.

Interpreting Results

You can quickly find yourself down a rabbit hole testing different scenarios, especially if you don’t interpret the outcomes of your tests correctly.  I have performed similar tests on power outlets and not seen power lights.  Then I realized after the third outlet and assuming the entire power grid was at fault, I had forgotten to turn the device on.  Yes, that really happened, multiple times.  But in the heat of troubleshooting, we sometimes get ahead of ourselves.  More on that topic later.

When you plug in your phone charger, which was working great next to the coffee pot, and it doesn’t work.  What now?  Call an electrician or check the breaker.  You’ve identified at least one problem in the form of no electricity.  Move the toaster to the coffee pot outlet and enjoy your toast.

Occam’s Razor

Odds are in your favor it’s not the breaker, unless your toaster is possessed.  It happens, according to those newspapers at the grocery store checkout, but it is rare.  And most problems you see are NOT rare, but common, with a rational explanation.  Too many technicians, especially newbs, will postulate how it could be this or that, mainly to show that they read the manual or someone’s blog.  But, always try the most possible solution first.  Occam’s Razor states, “entities should not be multiplied without necessity.”

Still Broke?

If the outlet is good and the toaster still doesn’t work, you must remember what causes the toaster to go “On”.  This happens when you press the lever down, with or without bread.  I would remove the bread and press the lever down to see if it comes on or if something may be blocking the mechanism.  I would also move the toast level selector just to see if there is a short, but I have an electronics background and know that sometimes the potentiometer that controls toasting level can stop the electricity.

If the mechanism is going into place and it appears the toaster has entered the “On” position but there is still no toast, you find yourself at a crossroads.  This is where you need to consider all factors before making a decision.  If you were the lead engineer for a Fortune 500 company and you were working on the mail server and not your home toaster, this is where you have a conference with your manager and key stakeholders.  You explain your troubleshooting methodology, what attempts you made to resolve the issue and what your possible next steps are.  Then, by committee, the decision is made to continue troubleshooting, contact the manufacturer for warranty support or just buy a new toaster. 

While much more goes into troubleshooting and corporate interaction than what is described above, in a very basic sense, troubleshooting is that simple.  Collect specific information on the problem through observation, take the knowledge you have of how the system works under normal circumstances and then research the exact issue for known issues from your knowledge of the product or from the manufacturer.  Then, troubleshoot with this knowledge as your tool.

Next week we’ll use a real-world Scenario to troubleshoot the most overused phrase heard by a Help Desk; “The Internet is Down”.

Special thanks for the original art by Brittany Watts. Check out more of her fabulous artwork on Instagram – @babzylla.