PC Access for Windows Reference Guide

for PC Access for Windows 4.30.158

Know Your Bugs

When a user calls with a particular problem, your first task is to classify it as:

· A hardware or system software problem;

· A user's PC Access setup problem;

· A PC Access program bug; or

· An MLS bug.

Your primary bug-classifying clue is the reproducibility of the problem. If the problem occurs on many well-configured computers, suspect a legitimate PC Access program bug or an MLS bug. Please report all such bugs to MFM Communication Software. Be sure you are running the latest update to your version of PC Access (available from MFM), because we may have already fixed the bug.

A PC Access setup problem (obviously) goes away when you correct the user's PC Access setup. The user's setup errors may be subtle or obvious. Watch out for setup errors resulting from the user changing or rearranging their hardware and forgetting to tell PC Access about it. PC Access for Windows is fairly clever about reporting possible setup errors that can cause an error later (for example, while trying to dial the MLS). Always read the Help entry for any error message a user reports.

Be familiar with how PC Access works. When a user describes a problem to you, be alert to departures from normality. Be aware of ordinary hardware failure which can occur randomly on any computer. A hardware failure may prevent other programs from running correctly on the same computer, so have the user try running other programs besides PC Access. If another program duplicates some function that isn't working right in PC Access (such as printing), then try that function in the other program as a "sanity check."

The user can generate hardware or system software problems by changing or rearranging their hardware improperly. Even hardware vendors make mistakes installing add-in cards, etc. The vendor may have jumpered a computer's motherboard to indicate the presence of hardware (such as a floating point coprocessor) which actually is not present. Another "system change" that sneaks up on almost everyone is running out of disk space. When you check for free disk space, find out if the user has compressed their disk with a program such as Doublespace or Stacker. These programs estimate free space by assuming they will be able to compress future files by some optimistic amount. If the user stores files which don't compress well, the compressed disk may run out of space more quickly than the free space estimate would lead you to believe.

Always be ready to question any information you have, especially when it contradicts the way you have observed PC Access to behave in the past. Occasionally a user will describe symptoms of a problem incorrectly. For example, some users have trouble distinguishing between black-and-white photos and color photos, even under direct questioning. Users also tend to confuse the digit 1 and the letter I, the digit 2 and the letter Z, and the digit 0 and the letter O. This is where actually seeing the user's computer in action can be very helpful.

Last modification date: Friday, January 17, 2003 00:58:55