So . . . you think your computer is misbehaving: all of a sudden you cannot send (or receive) e-mail; you are not sure how to configure your dial-up connection; the images you have just uploaded to your web page are not visible; or you just have a general computer question.
All you have to do is contact the Help Desks at either 863-1035 or 863-2494 and we will be happy to help you. Before you call, however, please read the following checklist and try to have on hand as much information as possible.
First of all, if possible, make sure that your computer is turned on and within reach of your phone when you call in so that we can easily check your computer's settings and suggest possible changes to solve your problem.
Secondly, please make sure you know the following data:
- What kind of computer you are using: is it a Macintosh or a Windows machine?
- What OS (Operating System, i.e. Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, MacOS 9.0 or MacOS X) and how much memory is installed on your computer?
- The name and possibly the version number of the software program that is malfunctioning (for instance, saying that you have trouble with your e-mail doesn't tell us much if you do not specify what e-mail software you are using).
- If you call about a dial-up problem, take the time to check what the speed of your modem is (i.e. 56k or DSL or cable modem) and what phone number your modem is set to dial to.
- If an error message has appeared on your computer screen, make sure to write down the whole text and to tell us what you were doing when the error occurred; this will give us a clue about what the problem might be.
- Let us know if you have recently installed (or removed) any software on your machine, what software it was and whether your computer problem appeared only after the installation/removal.
- If you are connected to the Penn State backbone and you have problems with your connection you might also need to know the IP address of your machine.
Troubleshooting over the phone is not always easy, so rememberthe more details you can provide, the better we will be able to help. Please try to provide the data mentioned above. Without that information we might not be able to determine what is wrong with your computer.
One last thing: we will ask you for your user ID. We need that information not only to check whether your account is active or not, but for statistical purposes.