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Basic Troubleshooting Strategies
15 questions By Tony R. Kuphaldt
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Question 1 of 15
A chandelier has five light bulbs in it, and one of them is not working. The problem could be in the chandelier’s wiring (open wire connection, open connection in socket), or in the bulb itself (burned-out filament). Describe a procedure for determining the location of the problem (chandelier vs. bulb), without using any electrical test instruments.
Reveal answerSwap the non-working bulb for one of the other four working bulbs, and see if the problem moves with the bulb.
Challenge question: can you think of a scenario where this troubleshooting procedure could cause additional failures in a system?
Notes:This simple troubleshooting technique is applicable to a wide variety of electrical, electronic, and other types of systems: swap the suspect component with an identical component known to be functional, and see observe whether or not the problem changes location.
There is, however, a potential hazard to doing this. If the swapped component is indeed faulty, but in such a way that it causes a different part of the system to fail with connected to it, this technique will cause a failure in the system where the faulty component is moved to.
A similar hazard occurs if the swapped component was damaged because of other components in the system that it’s connected to. In this case, the good component it it swapped with will be damaged in the swap, and the bad component will not work where it is moved to.
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Question 2 of 15
One day you decide to water your garden, using a garden hose that is already connected to a spigot on the side of your house:
When you turn on the valve at the spigot, though, no water comes out the nozzle at the other end of the hose. Explain the steps you would take to troubleshoot this problem.
Reveal answerThis is an excellent question for discussion amongst your classmates! Two things I recommend, though:
- • Identify some probable sources of trouble in this garden hose “system.”
- • Proceed in a logical manner to find the trouble as efficiently as possible.
Notes:Discuss with your students both probable causes of this problem as well as strategies for locating the problem. Encourage students to analyze the system by dividing it into sections. Since garden hoses easily detach from spigots and nozzles alike, they lend themselves well to the so-called “divide-and-conquer” method of troubleshooting.
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Question 3 of 15
At a construction site, workers have used power extension cords to create a “network” of power cabling for their various electric tools. Each cord has one (male) plug and a receptacle (female) end that accepts up to three plugs:
Despite this dangerous wiring, all tools have functioned so far without trouble. Then suddenly both the worklight and the circular saw in the lower-right corner of the illustration stop working. All the other tools continue to function properly (including all the radios, which is very fortunate because the workers become irritable without their music).
From this information alone, determine what sections of this “network” are good, and what sections are suspect.
Reveal answer
Follow-up question: describe the general principle you used to locate the suspect area of this power network.
Notes:Now, of course, it is possible that both the worklight and the saw suffered independent, simultaneous failures, and all the extension cords are good, but this is not very likely. Be sure to discuss this possibility with your students, and the reasoning why the one extension cord would be more likely to be faulted than two separate devices.
I have a question about troubleshooting.
As a technician you were asked to troubleshoot a pieces of electronic equipment which contains various electronic components . On opening the door of the cabinet, you perceived a pungent smell and in addition you observed the following:
1. There were some dirt and corrosion on the circuit board
2. One of the capacitor was discolored.
3. One of the leads of the transistor was broken..
Please I need an urgent answer please….