About Me

I ramble about a number of things - but travel experiences, movies and music feature prominently. See my label cloud for a better idea. All comnments and opinions on this blog are my own, and do not in any way reflect the opinions/position of my employer (past/current/future).

22 August 2008

Problem Solving, or the lack thereof

A few weeks ago, a colleague commented that modern day tech support do not really know how to problem solve - they have just one solution; rebuild the machine. He had been having some problems with his laptop, and that is the solution tech support came up with. I share his frustration after this week ...

I have had intermittent problems with my cellphone since last weekend, and it died on Tuesday afternoon. I was in Cape Town, and had left my charger back in Johannesburg - so I did not think too much of it. When I recharged the phone on Wednesday night, it seemed to work fine; but on Thursday morning, the phone packed up (and started dropping signal an hour or so before that). Nashua Mobile, my service provider - had a solution as soon as I walked in - the cellphone equivalent of rebuilding machines - reinstall the phone software.

After 45 minutes, the phone seemed to work again - only for it to pack up again around 4pm. So, I did my own quick investigation (something I should have done on Wednesday night I suppose); and deduced that I had a faulty sim card. When I went back to Nashua Mobile today (Friday), and explained that reinstalling the software did not help, the guy suggested a new sim card - did not even test out the real problem!

Anyway, the new sim card seems to work fine, and I haven't had any dropped signals or frozen cellphone operating systems. But surely, a check list of remediation is the least efficient way to fix problems - finding the cause of the problem should come first!

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