71TroubleshootingChapter Four: TroubleshootingTroubleshooting is how you determine what part of a complex system(like a home theater system) is at fault when the system isn’t workinghow you think it should. When you troubleshoot a system, you diagnosea problem by examining and eliminating possible causes until there’sonly one left. Troubleshooting is easiest when you start with the mostobvious, most common, and most likely and work from there.Diagnosing your own problems can save you time and aggravation—thebetter you understand how to troubleshoot and adjust your own system,the less time you have to:• spend on the phone with a customer service representative• do without your receiver because it’s “in the shop”There are some basic steps to good troubleshooting:1. Verify the exact conditions when the problem occurs.This is the most important step in troubleshooting. Whether you fixit yourself or have to describe it to a technician, you are much morelikely to really solve the problem if you know the exact circumstancessurrounding the problem. For example, if you don’t hear anythingthrough the speakers, it’s useful to know if it only happens when youare listening to CDs. Knowing that eliminates the speakers themselvesas part of the problem. The more you know about when a problemoccurs, the more likely it is that you or the technician can solve it.2. Check each part of the signal’s path from source (such as a CDplayer) to speaker.You may also want to test the assumptions you made in step 1: maybeyou haven’t listened to your MD recorder in a while— is there nosound from it as well? This step will really help narrow down thepossible causes. Test all your connected components and eliminatethe ones where the problem doesn’t occur. When you’re done withthis step, you’ll probably have found the problem.
