General Troubleshooting Help

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It is hard to differentiate the symptom from the cause. These steps help to determine, and fix, the cause.
  1. Get information about the incident
    • What, when, how, where, who?
      • What: What is being attempted? What is the issue?
      • When: When did the incident start? Did it start after a significant event? What changed recently?
      • How: What steps were taken?
      • Where: On or off campus? Wired or wireless network?
      • Who: ID and affiliation (Faculty, Staff, Student, etc.)? How many people are affected?
    • More details
      • Device type
      • University-owned or personal device?
        • Asset tag ID
      • Operating system
      • go.uwrf.edu/ip: IP address and date/time
      • Software name and version
      • Browser name
      • Any out of the ordinary setups? (e.g., external monitor, VPN)
        • Sometimes ordinary setups cause issues. Eg., some software can only be run on campus or on our VPN.
      • Error messages
      • Screen shots
    • Reproduce the issue
  2. Isolate the cause of the issue
    • Does it work for you on a different device? (It could be the device.)
    • Does it work for another person on the same device? (It could be the account.)
    • Does it work in another browser? (It could be the browser or browser settings.)
  3. Correct the cause of the issue
    • Search the knowledge base (if UWRF specific) or the Internet (if global in nature) for answers.
    • Use the process of elimination
    • Try standard, easy, tried and true fixes first
      • Reboot device (gets the device to a known state)
      • For browsers, clear cache/cookies (gets the browser to a known state)
      • Close and reopen the program (gets the program to a known state)
      • Log out/in (gets the account to a known state)
      • Remove/Reinstall software (gets the software to a known state)
      • Update to the latest version of the operating system (software sometimes needs the latest)
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