To the major geeks out there, this is old news. But it could come in handy for our up and coming geeks who are getting into the technical fields. It’s the Universal Troubleshooting Process (UTP).

Here’s a summary of its steps:

The 10 step Universal Troubleshooting Process

1. Get the Attitude

2. Get a complete and accurate symptom description

3. Make damage control plan

4. Reproduce the symptom

5. Do the appropriate general maintenance

6. Narrow it down to the root cause

7. Repair or replace the defective component

8. Test

9. Take pride in your solution

10. Prevent future occurrence of this problem

This does not apply only to computers! You can troubleshoot anything technical with these rules. Computers, networks, engines and machinery, even health and biology! Yeah, there are probably other things you could use this on, but I’m too lazy to think of anything else.