This course will give you the information you need to investigate and troubleshoot your own issues on your own device. Learn how to recognize a problem and then to find a solution for that problem. Use the library and the internet as a resource to find information.

This section will explain:

This is often straightforward- the machine is not acting in the intended manner and is not doing what you want it to do. You will notice that an app or file is not loading, or some process is malfunctioning in another way.
You might also get a popup error box with a message describing what went wrong. Read the full contents of the box to understand what just happened and what to do next.

The process of troubleshooting includes understanding and fixing the errors. Use built-in and external resources to learn about the issue and the best correction.
Sun Tzu said, "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated". If you can remember how to tackle troubleshooting in general, and if you can find out what the computer is doing and what you need to do to change it, then you will always be able to fix it.

The first place to start with troubleshooting is to collect more information about what needs to be fixed.
Most apps or systems will automatically generate information related to the malfunction as it happens. Sometimes you will need to put two and two together (and sometimes you need to find a calculator) in order to find a hidden cause of the issue.

If you get an error message, this is a good sign. The computer or app was able to recognize the issue and can provide some helpful troubleshooting info. Read through the message to get a hint about what your next step is. If you do not understand the message, copy the text into an internet search (or share it with your trusted IT contact) to get more info about the error. For example;

If your machine is consistently erroring or shutting down processing without providing the error box, you may have to find logs stored for the service which describe what the process is doing at a millisecond scale. Read through the log files in time and look for lines of history that indicate something is broken.

Whether you get an error message or only obscure logs, you must become a digital detective to follow a trail of clues which caused the shutdown. Then, you must backtrack and fill in or make corrections to missing pieces to fix the software and get it working. In order to find and fix an issue, you need to be confident, patient, and determined to create the understanding for yourself of what the computer is trying to do.
After all, the computer is only able to do what the user tells it to do.

Books are a great place to start to get an understanding of the computer operations from a birds-eye view. Keep in mind that technology changes at a rate much faster than books are published, so while the information might be technically accurate and sound, the visuals or number or location of specific steps may be different.

The Delta County Library front desk is staffed with a great team who is able to help you understand the error message, or to help you find the means to do so.

For certain extended processes (~15-30 mins), you can "rent" a librarian as a resource. Reach out to the front desk with more info and they can get you scheduled to take a look at your device!

Using the internet to research and solve issues on your own is the best way to grow an understanding of your technology while also developing your own skills in troubleshooting and research.
The process of performing an internet search is easy, but whether you will find information to help with your issue is a different concern.

Use a web browser and a search engine to start looking for articles on the internet related to the issue you are having.
Construct a search using key words, or ask a question about your machine, or copy and paste an error message to the search engine. It will scour the internet for web pages that have information related to you search.
For example, if you have an issue with the CD ROM drive on your desktop or laptop computer being stuck closed and it won't open, your web search could have a number of variations for example:

If you prefer to have someone else log in to your computer and remotely solve the issue with your minimal interaction, this may be an option for you as well. Many companies who allow employees to work from home (or even those with large offices of spread-out employees) will enable remote access tools so the tech team can get into every computer from anywhere. You can purchase these services as a home consumer:

AI tools are an intermediary between a plain web search or web research and between getting a remote helper. Many search engines (specifically, Google using Gemini and Nano Banana 2) are incorporating an AI summary alongside the regular web page results. This provides a human-readable text summary of an answer to your question, and it can even cite the sources used in constructing parts of an answer.
You might find an option to enter a "deep dive" with the AI chatbot to go into further detail about the topic. The chatbot is programmed to do research for you based on the questions and responses you provide. It's designed to feel like talking to a human companion who has all human knowledge. Definitely give it a try and read through the responses it gives for some of your favorite topics.
For the CD drive example, your AI can talk you through the process of removing the physical drive and opening it up, supposing the pin trick does not work.
For the spreadsheet example, AI tools are becoming more comprehensive with coding tasks and can handle building spreadsheet formulas for the user with ease.
Free AI tools will walk you through issues one by one, and pay-to-use tools will provide a lot more depth of conversation or "thinking" ability and can cross-reference contexts and remember your personality based on your conversation history throughout the past.

While finding information on the internet (and consequently, but to a lesser extent, through AI), you must remember the internet is an open place where anyone can post anything. There may be malice tied into the information you are reading or the software you are downloading. Be sure to verify the validity of your request and your solution through secondary followup searches to do research and support your own findings.