Most of us work with a computer on a regular basis, own a smartphone and reserve to the Internet to find information. If this is you, then you can consider yourself an experienced information technology user. Here is how you can turn your experience and knowledge to your advantage – for example fixing your technology yourself, before calling a technician.

  • Computer (Also laptop or smartphone or any other piece of technology) isn’t working like it supposed to. We all know this scenario – everything was just fine yesterday, or even 5 minutes ago, and now it isn’t. Although the solution is a second nature to most IT users, we will still mention it – try restarting your computer first. All the programs, apps and OS are powered by code, sometimes that code encounters a problem and stops working – partly or completely. When you restart your device, the code can start from square one. If you are unable to restart your device because it’s unresponsive – try force restarting it. Usually you can perform this action by holding the power button for 10-20 seconds, but note that some devices have their own force restart requirements, so if holding the button for 20 seconds didn’t help, you’ll have to Google or read the manual.
  • Printer doesn’t work. First, check the obvious – that the printer’s drivers are up-to-date, there is enough paper and ink or toner to print. If you are unsure about drivers, you can download them from your printer’s company website by stating your printer’s model. If you think the reason is something else, click on printer icon in the bottom of your screen – it would most likely have an error message, describing what is wrong. If you clicked on the printer icon, you can also check print queue and status of work. If none of these actions helped finding out what is wrong, try turning the printer off and back on, or better yet, unplug it and plug it back in.
  • Internet is too slow. Start with checking the speed of your downloads and uploads online by visiting speedtest.net or analogs. If the speed is similar to one in your internet contract, then speed problem is on the website you are visiting. If the speed is significantly less, you should make sure that you aren’t too far from the Wi-Fi, make sure your computer isn’t downloading anything in the background, if you are using both cable and Wi-Fi, disable Wi-Fi and finally – try restarting router or modem. If problem remains, you can call your internet provider.
  • Pop up ads on my computer. Pop up ads on websites are normal – this is how many of website earn their living. But if you have pop-up ads on your desktop and in programs which aren’t powered by internet connection – then it means that you’ve accidentally installed an adware. These are extremely annoying programs which are easier to prevent than get rid of. To prevent those – make sure than you never agree to install something you don’t know on your computer. If your computer asks you if you want to install something and you have no idea what it is about – simply click “No”. But if you’ve already got adware installed, your best bets are getting a credible antivirus or reinstalling the whole OS and being more careful next time. Credible antivirus is always a good idea, as viruses might be far more dangerous than ones we just discussed – some of which are capable of stealing your credit card information.

Experience all the above problems and more on a regular basis. If problems are regular and persistent, chances are that you need to update your technology. Instead of chancing it, give us a call, so we can trouble shoot it and find most effective and cost efficient way to solve your problems.