TroubleShooting Tips
Last Modified 6/1/99.

The first thing I do when I'm having problems with a program is to look through the documentation to see if I've got it set up correctly. If it's an older program, I will go to the company's web site to make sure I'm not missing any free upgrades. If I know the program is set up correctly and is as up to date as possible, I'll shut down any other programs running on the system to make sure nothing else is interfering. This may require shutting down a few extensions (such as Virex) and restarting. Some applications such as PreFab Player and MondoMail run completely in the background. You can't see them at all. If you have the processes scripting addition installed and you run a script with the single line "list processes", you may be suprised at what comes up. The processes scripting addition is one of the many scripting additions available from Late Night Software.

If you've recently upgraded your operating system, you may want to check the Apple site or whatever company supports your system to see if they mention any conflicts between the software you're having problems with and their newest version of the system. They may also have patches that you can install to remedy the problem. I try not to make too many changes to my system at once because it makes it hard to find the culprit if something stops working. If you've made five changes before something stops working, you have at least five possible causes for the problem. If you've made only one change, it's much easier to know where to look.

Many programs such as WebStar, Filemaker, Frontier, Tango, and Lasso have mailing lists that you can write to and share your problem with others to see if anyone else has experienced the same thing and has found a solution. Most of the application specific mailing lists are maintained by the companies that support the application. You can find links to these mailing lists from their sites. BlueWorld supports several of these mailing lists in a searchable format so you can search the archives for keywords that relate to your problem to see if it has already been discussed. The WebStar mailing list is also searchable. For general scripting assistance, you can subscribe to the MacScript scripting list supported by Dartmouth college by sending an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU with "subscribe" as the subject and subscribe macscrpt (your name) in the body of the message. I subscribe to the digests of all of the technical lists that I'm interested in to cut down on the number of messages I receive. If you subscribe to the digest, you'll receive all the messages in one daily email.

If you're computer won't start up at all, the first thing I try is to restart without extensions. Hold down the shift key when you start. If it starts, that means a system extension was causing the problem. You can try turning on the extensions one by one and restarting to see which one is causing the problem. If holding down the shift key doesn't work, you need to restart with your system disk or CD. To start your computer from a CD, hold down the c key while you start up. Norton Utilities by Symantec can also be used as a start up disk and is a good first step to fixing a troubled start up drive. If you can't start from a CD (or disk) or without extensions, most likely you have a hardware problem and should contact your hardware vendor.

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