  The energy method can be used to identify well-posed initial boundary value
problems for quasi-linear, symmetric hyperbolic partial differential equations
with maximally dissipative boundary conditions. A similar analysis of the
discrete system can be used to construct stable finite difference equations for
these problems at the linear level. In this paper we apply these techniques to
some test problems commonly used in numerical relativity and observe that while
we obtain convergent schemes, fast growing modes, or ``artificial
instabilities,'' contaminate the solution. We find that these growing modes can
partially arise from the lack of a Leibnitz rule for discrete derivatives and
discuss ways to limit this spurious growth.
