A method for when anything goes wrong
One repair method that works on a phone, a printer, a television or a car radio — and you will have used it on a fault you have never seen before.
Nobody who fixes things for a living knows every fault. What they have is an order of operations, and it is short enough to keep in your head.
Key points
- Say it in one sentence, and say when it last worked
- Look before touching; change one thing at a time
- Narrow it down — this device or all of them, this app or all of them
What to remember
- You do not need to know the answer. You need to know how to remove the things that are not it.
- Every step in that list narrows the field. None of them requires you to know what is wrong.
- One change, then test. It is the difference between fixing something and it happening to start working.
Try this
The next time something misbehaves, write the sentence down before you touch anything: what is happening, and when it last worked. That one habit does more good than any single fact in this course.
Practice: A method for when anything goes wrong. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.