Troubleshooting

ave many possible causes. Troubleshooting is used in many fields such asengineering, system administration, electronics, automotive repair, anddiagnostic medicine.Troubleshooting requiresidentification of themalfunction(s) or symptoms within a system. Then, experience is commonly used to generate possible causes of the symptoms. Determining which cause is most likely is often a process of elimination - eliminating potential causes of a problem. Finally, troubleshooting requiresconfirmation that the solution restores the product orprocess to its working state.
In general, troubleshooting is the identification of, ordiagnosis of "trouble" in a [system] caused by a failureof some kind. The problem is initially described as symptoms of malfunction, and troubleshooting is the process of determining the causes of these symptoms.

A system can be described in terms of its expected, desired or intended behavior (usually, for artificial systems, its purpose). Events or inputs to the system are expected to generate specific results or outputs. (For example selecting the "print" option from various computer applications is intended to result in a hardcopy emerging from some specific device). Any unexpected or undesirable behavior is a symptom. Troubleshooting is the process of isolating the specific cause or causes of the symptom.Frequently the symptom is a failure of the product or process to produce any results. (Nothing was printed, for example).

The methods of forensic engineering are especially useful in tracing problems in products or processes, and a wide range of analytical techniques are available to determine the cause or causes of specific failures. Corrective action can then be taken to prevent further failures of a similar kind. Preventative action is possible using FMEAand FTA before full scale production, and these methods can also be used for failure analysis.