My computer does not turn on, what do I do now?
First, we need to check if the power cable is firmly in the wall and the back of the PC. Everyone likes to assume that’s not it and skip that step but do yourself a favor and check the simple stuff first. If it's on a power strip make sure that’s turned also and plug something else in to the power strip to make sure it is working. On some models of computer there will be a power switch on the power supply. This will be located near the power plug. If the PC still does not turn on at this point something is most likely wrong with the PC hardware and you will need IT to come take a look.
Why is my computer crashing?
There are many reasons your PC could be crashing. It could be any number of corrupt software, a piece of your operating system (Windows) could be corrupt, your hard drive may have a bad sector, or your computer's memory could be faulty. It’s not easy to say why would be crashing but with a call and a little bit of patience on your part your friendly neighborhood IT person should be able to help resolve the issue.
My monitor says 'no signal input', what should I do?
First you need to check and make sure that the video cable is securely connected to the monitor and the PC. If it is than you need to look for buttons on the side of the monitor and find the source option. Make sure the video source is on auto or is matched to the type of connector you have. If this is all correct and it's still not working, throw up a prayer and just unplug the video cable from the computer and plug it back in. If the problem persists it may be a bad cable or an issue with the Monitor or computer and you should call IT to come take a look at it.
My screen is black, what should I do?
First, we want to check that the power lights for the monitor and the computer are both on. If not turn them on. If they are both on turn off the monitor and turn it back on. If it stays black it is probably dead. If it gives you a message like “no signal input” than we need to troubleshoot further. Next check the video cables. Unplug them and plug them back in on the monitor and the computer. Make sure the source on the monitor is correct (should be on auto or whatever type of cable you have). If possible, move the video cable to another spot on the PC. If the screen stays black after all this you may have a bad video card or some other hardware related issue. Call IT and have them determine the problem.
Is it safe to turn off my computer by holding down the power button?
NO!!! You may have done this with no problem in the past but verry often people break their computers doing this. At times your PC may run updates on or make changes to parts of the operating system without making it known to you. This is why there is a shutdown option. The shutdown option gives a command to the computer that tells it to wrap up whatever its doing and start the shutdown procedure. If you hold down the button it skips all this and cuts power to the PC. If the computer was making a change to the operating system, it would have been running out of memory while deleting and readding things from the operating systems portion of the hard drive. When you shut down a PC everything in memory is wiped out as it cannot hold bits without power like a hard drive can. So, if you cut the power off and the computer just so happened to be making these changes, you would be missing large chunks of the code necessary to run your PC when it came back up.
How can I recover a recently deleted file?
Most of the time you should have a “recycle bin” on your desktop. If you double click on that you should be able to find your recently deleted file, right click it, and hit restore. This will put it back to where you deleted it from. If for whatever reason you do not have the recycle bin on your computer call IT and ask for help. There are several ways to get the document back depending on how your PC is setup, how long ago it was deleted, and how much time you are willing to spend trying to get it back.
How do I find my computer name?
For Windows 10 & 11 it is pretty simple. I normally tell people to right-click the Windows icon and select “System”. This will open the about page. Under Device specifications, it will have your computer's name next to “Device name”. You can also just search for computer name in the Windows search bar and it should show an option for “View your PC name” which will open the same about page.
What is a computer virus?
A computer virus is a software program that has been intentionally created to perform some malicious act like encrypting your data to hold for ransom, spread to other computers to create botnets, or just generally wreak havoc on your computer.
What does it mean if printer is printing odd symbols instead of what I told it to print?
This is normally due to bad drivers. Basically, printers don’t speak the same language as your computer and most printers speak different languages, so your computer used “Drivers” as translators. If you have the wrong driver setup for a printer then your computer will be trying to speak the wrong language to the printer so when your computer says “print XYZ? The printer thinks it's telling it “print +={“. Depending on the printer this can be a more involved process and we suggest that you call the helpdesk of the printer lease service or IT, depending on your printer's situation. What do I do if I suspect that my computer is infected?
If you have antivirus software on your computer (all our clients have Bitdefender) you can run a virus scan. If there is a quick scan and a longer scan, we always suggest you make some time to do the longer scan. If it seems like a more aggressive virus or you can’t seem to run the scan, we suggest unplugging the PC from your network and shutting it down until IT can come take a look at it. My computer is slow. What can I do to make it faster?
First, we want to make sure we don’t have too many applications open. People don’t understand how much memory is used up by browser tabs or other software applications. If you’re machine only has 8GB of memory and you have 30 chrome tabs open or 7 applications running you’re going to have issues. Next, we suggest running a virus scan to make sure there isn’t some malicious software taking up recourse. If you don’t have a 3rd party antivirus software, Windows does come with its own. After this we would suggest having IT take a look to determine if it is a hardware issue.
For more advice and instructions on common issues, check out our knowledge base.