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Complete Guide to Your Axcess Remote Portal 29
Chapter 6: Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting is how you determine what part of a complex system (like a
home entertainment system) is at fault when the system isn’t working how
you think it should. When you troubleshoot a system, you diagnose a
problem by examining and eliminating possible causes until there’s only one
left. Troubleshooting is easiest when you start with the most obvious, most
common, and most likely cause, and work from there.
Diagnosing your own problems can save you time and aggravation—the
better you understand how to troubleshoot and adjust your own system, the
less time you have to:
• spend on the phone with a customer service representative
• do without your Axcess because it’s “in the shop”
Here are some basic steps to good troubleshooting:
1. Verify the exact conditions when the problem occurs.
This is the most important step in troubleshooting. Whether you fix it
yourself or have to describe it to a technician, you are much more likely
to solve the problem if you know the exact circumstances surrounding it.
For example, if you don’t hear anything through the speakers, it’s useful
to know if it only happens when you are listening to MP3 files. Knowing
that means the speakers themselves aren’t part of the problem. The more
you know about when a problem occurs, the more likely it is that you or
the technician can solve it.
2. Check each part of the signal’s path from source (such as Axcess) to
speaker.
You may also want to test the assumptions you made in step 1: maybe
you haven’t listened to Internet Radio in a while—is there no sound from
it as well? This step really helps narrow down the possible causes. Test all
your connected devices and eliminate the ones where the problem
doesn’t occur. When you’re done with this step, you’ll probably have
found the problem.
3. Go over all device connections slowly and methodically.
Wrong or loose connections are the most likely cause of the most com-
mon home entertainment problem: no sound. Use How to Connect and
Set Up Your Axcess Remote Portal to double-check your connections for
each device.
4. Cables (especially old ones) go bad more frequently than devices do.
Always suspect the cable before its device. For one thing, it’s easier to
test: simply swap the cable with one connected to a device you know is