Help Us Help You

If you are asking for help on the Hardhats mailing list, you must remember that we have not spent the huge amount of time that you have with your problem. From the fact that you are asking on Hardhats, we can assume you are asking a question about the VistA system, but since VistA is so large and flexible, and portable across many different operating systems and MUMPS implementations, we can't guess very many things about your situation.

A vague post is not enough to describe your problem. If you are interested in getting an answer, you need to give us enough information to help us help you.

This page is a reminder of various kinds of issues that you might run into with your problem. In order for us to help you we need details about the following:

1. What steps have lead you to believe that there is a problem?
 * Is there an error from the operating system ?
 * Is there an error from the MUMPS implemenation ?
 * Is there an error from the Kernel Error Trap ?
 * Is there an error from CPRS or some other GUI ?
 * Do you get contradictory information from different parts of the system ?

2. What steps have you taken to reproduce the problem?
 * Does the problem occur on more than one physical machine ?
 * Does the problem occur with more than one login ? (i.e. NEW PERSON)
 * Is the problem sensitive to the time of day ?
 * Does it occur after the system has been rebooted ?

3. If you have tried to fix the problem and failed, what have you done?

4. What version of VISTA are you using?
 * Astronaut WorldVistA
 * Astronaut Medsphere OpenVistA
 * FOIA VA VISTA
 * HUI OpenVista
 * Medsphere OpenVista
 * RPMS
 * WorldVistA VOE 1.0
 * WorldVistA 0809

5. Do you have any add on proprietary components on your system?
 * Sea Island Systems (SISI) HL7 ADT
 * Document Storage Systems (DSS) packages

6. What Operating System underlies your VistA system?
 * Linux
 * Microsoft Windows
 * Apple OS
 * VMS
 * Linux on Virtual Machine on Microsoft Windows
 * Linux on Virtual Machine on some other Operating System

7. What are you trying to do ?
 * Text based VistA (putty, terminal)
 * Graphical User Interface (GUI)
 * CPRS
 * TMG-CPRS
 * VistA GUI Config
 * GUI Mail
 * HL7 into VistA
 * HL7 out of VistA
 * Mirth Scripts for HL7