I guess Troubleshooter is called PC-Check, and I found a link for it at:
http://www.trainingplanet.com/html/novell_cne_training.htm
I paid $295 for it back in 1997, so the current price for it is pretty good.
QAFE is about the same, but the links I found on it are QA+FE and QAPlus/FE,
so I understand why you might not have been able to find it. I found a link
for it at:
http://www.provantage.com/scripts/go.dll/-s/ffdiag__
It's pretty spendy too, but most of these types of programs are.
Troubleshooter came with it's own OS, and the whole program came on a single
floppy. One would think you could do much more by making it on a bootable
CD, but there may be more involved in that than I'm aware of.
Good luck!
Kyle Elmblade
Distinct Computer Solutions
Sales - Upgrades - Training - Consulting
[log in to unmask]
"A closed mouth gathers no foot"
From: "Bob Armour" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] For the Professionals...
> You Mention two Hardware Diagnostic programss: Troubleshooter & QAFE.
Could
> you tell me where to get them please. tried GOOGle but can't find any
> references.
> THX
> Bob
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kyle Elmblade" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, 8 mmmm 2002 7:30
> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] For the Professionals...
>
>
> > Ahhh... The age-old and possibly ethical question of how best to solve
> > ambiguous issues without having to charge your customer an arm and a
leg.
> >
> > Sometimes you can figure it out fairly quickly, other times you cannot.
> If
> > I cannot pinpoint a hardware or driver problem in pretty short order (I
> use
> > two hardware diagnostics program called Troubleshooter and QAFE), I take
a
> > best-guess (based on my experience) on about how long it might take for
me
> > to track the problem down. If I think it's going to be more than about
> > three hours, FFR it is.
> >
> > For my own part, I would love to know why. I am a very "why" oriented
> > individual, and I have a hard time accepting anything at face value. I
> want
> > to know how the clock ticks, not just know that it does. BUT, my
customer
> > should not be made to pay for my curiosity. If I can figure out why, I
> will
> > tell them. If they REALLY want to know, I make sure and explain to them
> > that the minimum it will cost is $200 (based on an estimate of at least
> four
> > hours work), and could be much more, depending on how deep I need to
dig.
> > As well, they will be without their computer during the entire time I am
> > digging into it.
> >
> > Usually the reinstall will actually help you discover the problem. I
> found
> > that most driver conflicts will expose themselves when you go through
the
> > install process. Sometimes the problem is a corrupted driver that is
> fixed
> > during the reinstall, but figuring out which driver it could be
> before-hand
> > can cost much more time than a FFR. In the end, I usually leave it up
to
> > the customer, explaining the pro's and con's of each approach, but more
> > often that not my recommendation is the FFR.
> >
> > Kyle Elmblade
> > Distinct Computer Solutions
> > Sales - Upgrades - Training - Consulting
> > [log in to unmask]
> > "A closed mouth gathers no foot"
> >
> > From: "Mike Whalen" <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 8:19 AM
> > Subject: [PCBUILD] For the Professionals...
> >
> >
> > > I thought this might be a good place for this question since there
> > > are so many professionals -- as in working techs -- on this list. I
> > > have worked in tech support for a few years and have recently started
> > > taking on my own clients for Windows support and troubleshooting.
> > >
> > > Every once in awhile, I get a client who complains of general
> > > instability -- Applications crash. PC BSODs, GPFs, etc.
> > >
> > > My previous tech support experience has been working hand-in-hand
> > > with developers. So, I would, first, reproduce the problem, second,
> > > determine the steps to produce a hard failure, and, three, take it to
> > > development for logging and a possible patch.
> > >
> > > It seems to me, however, that my customers don't care for this
> > > approach. (Aside from the "take it to development" part, which may or
> > > may not be available, as we all know.) They want it all to be better
> > > as soon as possible and they don't so much want to know _why_
> > > something doesn't work.
> > >
> > > I understand their reluctance; they're paying me by the hour. It
> > > could be substantially more expensive for me to eliminate every
> > > problem one-by-one. But I cringe at the Scorched PC policy, as
> > > someone at Gateway Tech Support put it to me. "F-Disk, Format,
> > > Reinstall. Doo-Dah. Doo-Dah." For one thing, it may not eliminate the
> > > problem. For another thing, we won't know what caused the problem in
> > > the first place. (Learning from history and all that.)
> > >
> > > Plus, in all of this there I have the desire to create something
> > > affordable _and_ practical for the customer.
> > >
> > > I'm wondering how you guys deal with this? Do you apply some
> > > policy-driven set of fixes then, if those don't work, go into
> > > seek-and-destory-errors mode? Do you install in-place if the O.S.
> > > supports it? Do you backup files, format, and reinstall? Or, do you
> > > convince the customer to pay you to actually troubleshoot?
> > >
> > > Curious...
> > >
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