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10 ways you can break your computer all by yourself
How do I make my laptop fans less noisy?
When I switch on my computer, I see a demand for money to
give me my files back. What should I do?
Why am I getting a ‘this app needs to be updated’ error on
my Mac?
My computer keeps crashing – how do I start in safe mode?
Windows won’t open a file because it ‘hasn’t got an app
associated with it’. What do I do?
Why has the Windows 10 search box gone missing?
How do I get rid of the awful Cortana?
I don’t think my PC has updated to the latest version of
Windows – how do I force it to do so?
My USB hard disk is not recognised when I plug it into my
computer?
I keep getting strange pop-ups in my browser… and there’s
a new search bar at the top of the screen. What’s going on?
How do I stop my computer going to sleep when I leave the
room for ten minutes?
My Windows 7 PC keeps flashing up warnings that support
has ended. What does that mean?
This book hasn’t answered my computer problem. Where
best to turn for advice now?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barry Collins has been a technology journalist for more than 20 years.
He’s written for most of the UK’s leading tech publications, including
PC Pro, ComputerActive, Which?, Web User, and many more. He’s a
former editor of PC Pro and was assistant editor of The Sunday Times’
technology section. He’s now the co-editor of The Big Tech Question,
a site designed to answer people’s tech queries – in a similar vein to
this book.
Barry makes regular appearances as a tech pundit on TV and radio,
including on Newsnight, BBC Radio 5 Live, The Chris Evans Show, and
many more.
He lives in Sussex with his partner, two daughters, a greyhound,
and a cupboard full of computing kit that he refuses to throw away
because it will definitely come in handy one day.
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ABOUT THIS BOOK
Let’s get the apology out of the way first: we’re sorry. Sorry because
from the mere act of picking up this book and flicking through it in
the bookstore, or scanning its first few pages on Amazon, we can
tell that you’ve been there.
You’ve suffered from one of those knotty computer problems that
make you want to shove your fist through the screen, just so you
never have to see that impenetrable error message ever again. We
feel your pain. How many sugars do you want in your tea?
We can’t promise to solve all of your computing ills – there’s not
enough ink and paper left in the world to cover every conceivable
computer fault. But we can promise that we’ve covered most of the
major problems that might befall a PC or laptop and have provided
no-nonsense advice on how to deal with them.
What’s more, we deal with those problems without burying you under
an avalanche of jargon. You won’t need a master’s in computer science
to work through our solutions. You won’t need a teenager on speed dial
to explain what a SCSI port is. You won’t even need to know that SCSI is
pronounced ‘scuzzy’, like the state of said teenager’s bedroom.
Instead, we’ll explain everything in (to use that hackneyed phrase)
plain English. And on each answer, you’ll find a brief ‘What can I do
about it?’ set of bullet points, that give you an overview of the potential
solutions before you dive into the full explanation.
As we said before, we don’t have all the answers – but we’ll give
you advice on where to find them if you come across a problem
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that’s not covered in these pages. And without wishing to sound like
doom-mongers, chances are you will come across one or more of the
problems covered in this book during your computing lifetime. So, if
you’re still thumbing through in the bookstore, why not take this book
home now and be prepared for the day when the difficulty strikes?
We’ll pop the kettle on, just in case.
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WHY IS MY LAPTOP
NOT TURNING ON?
Let’s start at square one. After all, if the computer isn’t even firing up,
the rest of the problems we solve in this book are pretty academic.
Here, we’re talking about a computer that shows no signs of
life when you press the power button – the screen’s not lighting
up, there are no funny beeps, it’s showing fewer vital signs than a
bar of soap.
First, check the power cable is fully inserted into the power port,
and that any cable connections in the power brick are firmly in place.
Even a slightly dislodged cable may not provide a charge.
Many modern laptops charge via a USB-C port, but you need to
ensure that the power supply is adequate. The charger that comes
with your mobile phone, for instance, may not be sufficient to charge
the laptop. Be sure to use the charger that came with your laptop, not
any old USB charger you can lay your hands on.
It’s also possible that not every USB-C port on your laptop accepts
the charge. Try moving the power cable to a different port if one isn’t
bringing the machine back to life.
If the laptop hasn’t been used for a few weeks or months, it may
need a while plugged into the charger before it will come back to life.
Chromebooks are particularly prone to this type of sulk. The Google
Pixelbook often needs to be plugged in for several hours before it will
resume normal operation if it’s been left dormant for a fortnight or so,
which can be enormously frustrating.
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On laptops with removable batteries, check the battery is firmly
locked in place. Most will have sliders that can be easily dislodged in
a bag, breaking the connection between battery and laptop.
One final thing to try on laptops with removable batteries is draining
any residual electricity. Unclip the battery (if possible), remove the
power cable, and then hold down the power button for 30 seconds
or so, to make sure any residual energy in the laptop is sapped. Now
plug the power cable back in, but don’t put the battery back in. Fire up
the laptop and – if all is well – shut it down again. Now put the battery
back and power her up once more.
If none of the above breathe life back into your laptop, a hardware
failure of some sort is likely. It could be the charger, the battery, or
something more fundamentally afoot inside the laptop itself. Brace
yourself for a visit to the repair shop, but bear in mind that many of
today’s sealed-unit laptops aren’t easy for even the professionals to fix.
What can I do about it?
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Check power cables are plugged in securely
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Only use the supplied charger
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Leave the battery to charge for a few hours
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Drain residual electricity from the computer
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