When your computer is not working as you wish, you often have to call out professionals, but there are some common computer repairs you can do yourself with a little know-how.
Computer not starting
This is a problem with power, check the power supply, is it plugged in and switched on? You can check it on another PC if you have one. If you know the power is working, try holding the power button on the pc for a few seconds, this will make sure it is actually powered down, release and wait a few seconds before trying again. If still no joy, then call the experts.
The computer not switching off
We gave a hint on how to do this, hold the power button down for a few seconds to force close the PC. If this situation happens a lot call the experts.
Screen is blank
Move the mouse, or touchpad to see if the PC went to sleep. Check the cables between the pc and screen. Switch the pc down as before and reboot. Still, no luck, call the experts.
Computer running s…l…o….w
This might be a case of too much data stored on the hard drive, try a drive clean-up by right-clicking on your main hard drive and selecting ‘properties’, run the clean-up tool. A defragmentation tool is also available in the same menu and worth running too, it will be seconds on a solid-state drive but hours on a hard disk drive. Consider upgrading your storage space with an external hard drive.
Internet is s…l…o…w
The browser cookies and internet files need clearing out. Head to your browser settings and look for cookie clean up. The clean-up tool in the last fix can be used to clean up ‘temporary internet files
Noisy PC
Most often the noise from a PC is the fans, they can get loud if your PC is overheating. Switch off the PC and let it cool down before continuing. If it is still noisy, then be sure to back -up in case of a PC failure. It may be the hard drive starting to fail if you hear whirring sounds. Now is time to call the experts
Programs not working or acting strangely
This is a sign you may have a virus, so run a virus checker, anti-spyware and check your firewall is switched on.
Blue screen of death
We suggest whipping out your mobile phone and grabbing a picture of the screen, as it will help an engineer with fixing your problem. Make a note of what you were doing just prior to the screen appearing. Shut down the PC, reboot and try again. If you get the Blue screen again, call the experts. Incidentally, we hear that this screen will be the colour black in windows 11!
Hopefully, none of these things happens to your PC, with regular maintenance and backup you should have a fairly smooth running device. Most of the time a simple switch it off and turn it back on is all the computer repairs that is needed to correct problems. Having a support package in place is a good idea if you want peace of mind.
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