[1000mp] FT1000MP not responding

[Tod - Minnesota]

Jeez Ian, there ought to be a penalty for giving such GOOD
advice!

> The keys to successful fault-finding are:
> * THINK as MUCH as possible
> * Change as LITTLE as possible
> * Repeat until you've found the ONE right thing to do.

These rules, plus perhaps one other, are golden. The thing
that might be added is something that comes from
Kepner-Tregoe "Problem Analysis" (Some US guys may recognize
this reference). The book "The Rational Manager" <no, it is
not an oxymoron> spells things out a bit more. I have
paraphrased below but it may be worth finding a copy of that
book or the successor book, "The New Rational Manager" and
reading it. I have used the analytical methodology the
detail for many years. They also have a section that is
called 'Potential Problem Analysis' which has been
invaluable for me in selecting how to avoid or minimize the
consequences of things going wrong. (Things never go wrong
do they?). One key part of 'potential problem analysis' is
to ask people who have been through the experience what they
noticed and did. (A good reason to look at things on
reflectors).

The Problem Analysis methodology includes:

1. Defining the problem. What should things be doing versus
what is happening = deviation from normal or desired state.
2. Specifying the situation. What things are/are not present
=> signals, voltages, programs, etc. If it did work, what
has changed.
3. Development of possible causes. Make a list of possible
causes and rank order it with most probable first. (this is
where something like a reflector helps).
4. Testing the possible causes. For each possible cause try
to think of a way that you can test things so you can verify
that possible cause is likely to be the "true' cause.
5. Verifying the cause. Once you have selected a cause then
make the indicated correction and test to 'prove' that
things are TOTALLY fixed. Sometimes you can do something
that gets a partial fix or the problem has compound causes
and you may need to go back through the steps a second time.

If you get through step 4 and nothing you listed in step 3
has been verified as the cause, you can either try the steps
again and see if you can figure out something you didn't
think of the first time or send the unit off to the repair
center with a list of things you observed as wrong (step 1).
[Probably best not to tell the guys at the repair center
what you have thought was the cause and what you 'verified'
was not the cause. They may have more information about
failure modes and probability of a failure mode occurring
and better tests for verifying cause of failure.)


Ian's suggestions that we should THINK as much as possible
and change as LITTLE as possible are truly important.

Tod, KØTO