The ITS Help Desk receives an average of 50 calls and 70 emails a day from faculty, staff, and students of the University seeking assistance with various problems. To get the quickest and most effective resolution to a problem when contacting the ITS Help Desk, here's some questions we'll be asking you.

Computer support can sometimes be a tricky business. Computer support staff generally need to gather as much information as possible about a problem before an appropriate resolution can be determined. This would be much like how a doctor collects information from a sick patient to get a better idea of what could be wrong with them and to prescribe the right kind of medication for their illness. The more information that is available, the better idea computer support staff will have on where to look for the root cause of a problem, and the more effective any provided solution will be for the problem.

Users are always asked for some very basic information when contacting the ITS Help Desk, so being prepared with this information will help to expedite the support being provided. In general, the Help Desk Consultant that is providing the support will need to know:

• Your name and UH Username – needed to identify the person requesting support to the Help Desk; this also allows a ticket to be generated in our call tracking system, so that past history can be referenced, and resolutions can be recorded for possible use in the future
• A contact phone number – particularly important when calling into the Help Desk, as some situations necessitate having multiple conversations with a person before a suitable resolution can be found

Depending on what the issue or question at hand might be, there are a variety of other pieces of information that can greatly assist the Help Desk Consultant. If the issue is with a PC (Windows-based computer) or Macintosh computer, then the Consultant may need to know:

• The operating system (OS) being used – generally, this will be something like Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X.

You can easily find the OS of a computer if you do not know what it is. On a PC, go to Start > Control Panel > System, or right-click on the My Computer desktop icon and select Properties from the menu. On a Macintosh, go to Apple > About this Mac.

• The application being used – if the issue occurred while using a particular application, such as Microsoft Word, Mozilla Firefox, or some other program, the Help Desk Consultant will want to know this.
• Error messages that were encountered – this might be one of the most critical pieces of information you can provide to a Help Desk Consultant. Many times, the error message will hint at exactly where to look for the root cause of the issue, so having the exact error message, verbatim, is extremely helpful.

Additionally, for all issues, providing the answers to the following questions could assist with identifying the cause of the issue, and, thus, lead to a quicker resolution:

• When did the issue occur? Has this issue occurred before? – knowing whether an issue is a one-time problem or happens often can help to pinpoint where the root cause of the issue might be.
• Have you been able to perform the task or action that caused the issue previously, and with success? When was the last successful completion of the task or action? – this can help to determine if a problem could be related to something that may have changed on the computer recently (such as a new program just installed on the computer).
• Can you "reproduce" the problem? – knowing if the problem can be readily repeated can definitely aid the Help Desk Consultant in finding the source of the issue.

Further information, outside of what has already been mentioned, may be necessary to resolve a particular issue, but already having the information mentioned will absolutely cut down on the resolution time for your issue.