Help Us Help You when you have a Problem

What Information You need to Give When Posting for Help. Or Help Us Help You

Whenever posting a cry for help, we know that you would like help or advice as accurate and as quickly as possible. This Tut is to give you some idea what information you can provide to help us help you.
When it comes to computers (for that matter anything electronic) one symptom can have several causes so vague descriptions of your problem will not help.
Also note that there are sites dedicated to dealing with general hardware and software problems one of these is www.virtualdr.com, and this tut will also help you if you decide to post on that site, it is a more family based site and not security based.

You may need to read the “So Your Computer Is fUX0r3d?” tutorial (current count there are two parts. This thread may help you work out where to start as to how to describe your problem (that is if it doesn’t help you get started fixing it)

So here is the list of information we need:

Quote:

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A clear, but short description of the problem

Operating System - really needed for Software related problems
CPU:
Motherboard: Brand and Model
Memory: How much and in how many
HDD Size and manufacturer (model may help also) oh Percentage of free space available
Video Card / Adaptor: Brand and model
PSU Brand and Power rating
Other Cards i.e. network adaptor, soundcard, USB Hub, S-ATA adaptor.
Optical Drives

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An example:

Quote:

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Dual Boot WinXP-Pro and Win98
AMD 2000+
512MB loaded as 2 x 256MB PC 2100 DDR sticks
60Gb Seagate (slave on IDE-0) 15% free in one part (40gb - NTFS) and 5% on the 2nd part (fat32)
Leadtek A250 GF4-Ti4200 128MB
2x Surcom 10/100 NIC’s
SB-Live 5.1
Sony 16x DVD and Sony 8x4x32x CD-RW
400w PSU (Omni)
Removable HDD Bay (set as master on IDE 0)

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When posting Software problems you may not need to post the hardware info above but have it on hand as someone may ask if needed.

With Windows you will need to know how to find out what programs you have running both During “Start-Up” and while the machine is idle on the “desktop”.

So when posting cries for help for software problems:

Quote:

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A clear but concise description of the problem.
The Operating System
List any hardware that maybe used or affected by the software in question.

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And remember: Ask Questions.
What happened....
what did I do....
what did I Install...
what did I load....
what site did I visit....
.................................just before this problem started?

I hope this helps


Cheers

I know that if we get any more sticky tuts the new ones will be bellow the bottom of the screen when the page loads but this should be made sticky. Good stuff and a subject that i havent seen covered alot.

:thumbsup: This is a great tut you have made Undertaker, It shows not to be shy, nerves or scared that the question is "stupid" as a new member. Also shows what we are here for.

I agree with ZomBieMann77 about the sticky but it's all up to MsMittens and or Negative to put up another sticky. But my opinion is he|| yes!!!!!!! :D

Great job!!
Cya --D00dz AtTackiN

MsMittens grabs a big thumbtack... **WHACK**

Ok. I think it'll stay. ;)

Thank you very much MsMittens. I think that this is a realy good tutorial. As a matter of fact if it hadnt have been for an unfortunate incedent requiring reformat(everybody says linux is bvetter but i cant get the thing to run right) I was working on a similar post in MS word. :) And no Und3rtak3r im not trying to call you a copy cat. Yours is probably better worded than mine would have been.

To the point.Great tut.By the way even if it is in the tutorials,it is great to be reminded every now and then.

Yes, great tut Und3ertak3r we have needed a form like this mentioned here, now posters here will know what it is that we need to help them...not just something like "My program wont start, what can I do?"

Oh, and MsM, great WHACK! Loved it, thanks for making this a sticky!

this should be simple I need to know a little about network when I connect two computers one running xp home the other win 98 can we both use the same connection to the internet I have msn 8 is it possible or do I need seperate accounts ..........

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Und3ertak3r
When it comes to computers (for that matter anything electronic) one symptom can have several causes so vague descriptions of your problem will not help.

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I feel that this tut by Und3ertak3r illustrates the need for a back to basic's approach when problem solving in general. I'm sure possibly many of you , like me have taken shortcuts when trouble shooting, only to realise that you have overlooked something very simple and basic, instead of following all the logical and structured steps. Instead of the so called timesaving shortcut, the job has taken longer than necessary, with a bit of added frustration.
Thank you for a reminder of how thing should be done regards
jm459

This is a great tutorial. It was definitly needed.

PeacE
-BoB