Help Desk Software Help Desk Support Skills 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A technician must remotely access a user's computer to troubleshoot. What should they do before initiating the session?
- Access the machine silently to avoid interrupting the user
- Obtain verbal or written consent from the user first (Correct answer)
- Request the user's login credentials via email
- Disable the user's antivirus before connecting
Correct answer: Obtain verbal or written consent from the user first
Obtaining user consent before remote access is both an ethical requirement and often a policy or legal obligation.
Question 2: What is the difference between a service request and an incident in ITIL?
- Service requests are urgent; incidents are planned
- A service request is a formal request for something new; an incident is an unplanned disruption (Correct answer)
- Incidents require change approval; service requests do not
- Service requests are only submitted by managers
Correct answer: A service request is a formal request for something new; an incident is an unplanned disruption
In ITIL, a service request is a pre-approved demand (like a software install), while an incident is an unplanned interruption to normal service.
Question 3: A user's laptop is running slowly. After checking Task Manager, the technician finds a process consuming 95% CPU. What is the next step?
- Immediately shut down the computer
- Identify the process and determine if it is legitimate before taking action (Correct answer)
- Uninstall all recently installed software
- Increase the laptop's virtual memory
Correct answer: Identify the process and determine if it is legitimate before taking action
Identifying whether the high-CPU process is legitimate (e.g., antivirus scan) or malicious guides the appropriate remediation.
Question 4: Which channel is generally best for communicating a planned maintenance window affecting all users?
- Individual phone calls to each affected user
- A broadcast email or company-wide notification (Correct answer)
- A ticket submitted to the help desk queue
- A posted note in the server room
Correct answer: A broadcast email or company-wide notification
Broadcast communications such as email or system notifications are the most efficient way to notify all affected users of planned maintenance.
Question 5: What does 'warm transfer' mean in a help desk context?
- Transferring a call after business hours to an on-call technician
- Introducing the user and summarizing the issue to the receiving technician before transferring (Correct answer)
- Sending an email summary before calling the user back
- Placing the user on hold while researching a solution
Correct answer: Introducing the user and summarizing the issue to the receiving technician before transferring
A warm transfer involves briefing the next technician on the issue before handing off the user, preventing the user from repeating themselves.
Question 6: A technician resolves a ticket but the user says the problem is still occurring. What should the technician do?
- Reopen the original ticket and continue troubleshooting (Correct answer)
- Ask the user to submit a new ticket for the same issue
- Escalate without reopening since it was already resolved
- Mark the ticket as a duplicate and close it
Correct answer: Reopen the original ticket and continue troubleshooting
Reopening the original ticket preserves the history and context, making continued troubleshooting more effective.
Question 7: Which troubleshooting approach starts with the most common or simple causes before moving to complex ones?
- Top-down troubleshooting
- Bottom-up troubleshooting
- Occam's Razor / least-complex-first approach (Correct answer)
- Divide and conquer method
Correct answer: Occam's Razor / least-complex-first approach
The least-complex-first (Occam's Razor) approach saves time by ruling out simple causes like loose cables or disabled services before complex diagnostics.
Help Desk Software Help Desk Support Skills 4
A technician must remotely access a user's computer to troubleshoot.
What should they do before initiating the session?