Who enjoys troubleshooting?

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A significant portion of my job involves troubleshooting audiovisual equipment. My job involves the integration of audiovisual equipment, which is a bit more than just hooking up stereos and TV's. For instance, a school may need a PA system to amplify a teacher's lecture. That school may also want a way of recording lectures, so that involves a video camera, and a VCR to record. Of course, the PA system needs to have a connection between it and the VCR...These types of issues is where I come into play. I've some up with some really creative designs that work great for the customers. While initial design of these systems is fun because everyone of them is different, figuring out why they don't work, or what happens when they break down is also a fun and interesting challenge I enjoy.

Most of the other techs in the office hate troubleshooting, and get frustrated with it very quickly, so I end up with the lion's share of troubleshooting frequently, especially the really involved ones that take a lot of time to figure out. I remember one job where some microphone sockets in the floor of an auditorium wouldn't work. A quick inspection of the mixing board revealed that everything was plugged in properly. Solder connections were checked, and everything looked fine. 4 techs went out to the site and could not figure out why they wouldn't work! I went out there and spent a little O.S.D. time with it, and figured out that while everything was labeled up, it was NOT labeled properly. I had to trace the wires, and label them up properly! I felt really proud about figuring this out. My boss was especially happy, because he was worried that we would need to pull all new cable between the stage and the sound booth...which was 16 runs over 200 feet long!

Sometimes problems can be inside the equipment, like a broken belt in a VCR, or a bad optical component in a video projector. Most of the other tech's just simply don't have any patience to sit down with a circuit board and trace signals with an oscilloscope through it. I gladly take these jobs. One of the things my manager always says to the other techs is that they had better build the equipment right and not try to cover up sloppy work, because Steve's gonna wring out any issues with it! I don't just solve the symptom, but go after the core problems!

The thing I don't like about my job is the stuff I must do before and after the repairs and troubleshooting. Since most of the equipment is installed in buildings, I must drive to the customer's site to work on it. I also must talk to the customer in person (I like this much better than the phone though!). Non-technical customers can very hard to talk too. I've found that just about any strange sound that comes out of a speaker is described as "feedback" to a non-techie. I end up taking it's more concrete meaning, and start pulling microphone gains back (and causing more problems) until I figure out that what they are hearing is not really feedback, but something else, like ground hum or something. I also HATE USING THE PHONE! Unfortunatley, my job involves interfacing with customers to set up service visits by using the phone, and with manufacturers and vendors to look up parts, ask technical questions, etc. I don't like making up those white-lies either that my boss wants me to do, like when a manufacturer is slow on getting a warranty repair done, he wants me to make up some excuse, instead of actually telling the customer that the manufacturer has not repaired their piece of equipment yet.

One of the things that others at the office think is strange about me is the fact that I will walk across the building to someone's desk to talk to them in person about a specific topic, instead of calling them on the internal phone system. Luckily, I work at a small, local company that leaves us alone and lets us do our stuff. They dont' give us hardly any crap, especially when the jobs are being done, the customers are happy, and we are making money. I think I've found a pretty decent place to work, since I haven't had to deal with hardly any company politics type issues and stuff. Our manager works with us to make sure we have the proper tools to do the jobs, and that problems are solved, instead of pointing fingers

So far, I think a troubleshooting and design type job like this is good for an Aspie, as long as one can get past the periods of customer interaction necessary. It took me a bit of job-hopping to finally settle down in this place I enjoy. I may be able to make a little more at another place, but I think the stress would be much higher, and the job wouldn't be as rewarding. Besides, I get some nice perks, like a company van, laptop, and a cell phone that the boss doesn't mind us using for personal, as long as we don't abuse the privilidge.

I very much enjoy troubleshooting in fact my last job had a lot of that. I was the guy sent out to solve what ever problem they had with a job. I dealt with buildings not electronics though. And it did have it's perks company van whatever equipment I wanted,and becuse the company was cheap I got to work alone they loved the fact I didn't want a helper. But it had its bad side too long hours soso pay and once we were bought up by a large corpartion the perks dried up to. I quit and started my own bussines in the same feild.

I think troubleshooting is well suited to Aspies.

If something doesn't work, we need to FIX it.

The downside is the frustration if something is not fixable.

I just started a tech support job, because i love troubleshooting, at least i thought i did.

I like to do it in my own time though, and when i get a problem i cant do anything else until i get it fixed. In a work environment this isnt going to well, i need to take multiple jobs at once and deal with customers, i gotta compete with colleagues.

Man, I love troubleshooting. I'm the type of person who some call a God in the realm of fixing computers. I fixed 2 computers at school, one dealing with a server log-in impediment and another which was out of it for 2 years until I worked around with it. It needed to be opened, the power plug inside was sort of slotted and I needed to move the inside of it in order to get it to work, and, since it was running on Windows 2000, I needed to run DOS and not the GUI itself because it desperately needed some diagnostics run on it. I found a virus, deleted it, and fixed the registry, and there it was.

Then, my computer, because my brother clicked an ad on MySpace (don't do it, folks), got Zolob, a very deadly and hard to delete virus. It is the most irritating virus I've ever dealt with, though I haven't dealt with many because I'm a security nut. I put my computer on lockdown mode, basically, running both McAfee scans and Windows Defender scans over and over again. McAfee didn't catch it, and though Windows Defender caught it, it was powerless to delete it. Zolob, the file itself, had disguised itself as a hidden file and it took me 3 days to find out it's location. It had renamed itself to sound similar to those around it, but I knew it was zolob because that's where Windows Defender said it was around the 20th scan. I deleted it, next day, it came back, and I kept deleting it until I realized it had a cementer file right next to it, and several cementers in the registry. I looked, using the command prompt, to see which keys zolob was associated with, I deleted the entries and the cementer files, ended Zolob's process, then destroyed zolob. I rebooted and the beast was dead. Haven't had it since, but it was a week in Hell. That week made me decide to get a Mac. (copied and pasted from another forum, that paragraph was a lot of writing, so I figured I'd do it. it's my writing, i can copy and paste it if i want, eh? )

I just like messing around with things.

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I'm a big fan of troubleshooting. There's something especially satisfying about solving multiple-variable problems, and problems where the symptoms bear no resemblance to the cause.

Like the backwards hard drive cable that caused the video to die.

Or the IDE drive that would only boot if the SCSI controller was removed *or* the sound card was forced to a specific IRQ.

I have had a few bloopers, however. When my '386 stopped working, I actually replaced the motherboard only to find that the power supply switch was on the wrong voltage. It was set to 240 instead of 120, and not enough power was getting to the system. But I did have a 386DX instead of an SX when I got the computer working again.

That blooper eventually paid me back: In 2001 I had to do a troubleshooting exam as part of the candidate selection for a computer tech job. One of the problems was, you guessed it, a power supply set to the wrong voltage. I was the only one to get 8/8 on the test, and got the job.

Yes indeed it is and we are very good at it. Detail, logic, accuracy.

I suspect that maintence may be a good side too, such as getting and keeping things working well.

The exact business doesn't matter.
Site services, motor trade, radio and tv, electronics, embedded computing and more.

Much the same skills are involved in electronic design, most design probably, where the whole process through to manufacturing involves finding solutions, seeing what might or will go wrong, etc.

Yes indeed it is and we are very good at it. Detail, logic, accuracy.

I suspect that maintence may be a good side too, such as getting and keeping things working well.

The exact business doesn't matter.
Site services, motor trade, radio and tv, electronics, embedded computing and more.

Much the same skills are involved in electronic design, most design probably, where the whole process through to manufacturing involves finding solutions, seeing what might or will go wrong, etc.

AV-Geek,

I was an AV Installation Manager for a little bit. I would've loved more techs like you.

I used to try to convince my guys to spend more time troubleshooting. But what self-respecting 250 pound guy is going to listen to a 5 Foot Tall, tiny, little, 20-something girl who can't make eye contact? Sometimes they did - I still had the power to sign their timecards.

Regardless I loved the job and I praise you for doing what it takes to make sure the job is done right.

GO AV TECHS!! !