When your desktop or laptop computer doesn’t turn on, serious irritation immediately sets in. Thoughts swirl around in your head: “I just repaired something here”, “Well, yes, a month ago the warranty ended” or “Yesterday everything worked, after all, no one touched it”. Unfortunately – this is the malice of inanimate objects. Who of us has not been through this?
Fortunately, such accidents are often harmless and a little bit of cleverness is enough to bring everything back to order. How to check what specifically does not work and how to solve simple problems with the equipment?
You press the power switch, but nothing happens. The screen remains black and the speakers do not produce a single sound. This is every computer owner’s nightmare scenario, and probably everyone has experienced something like this – it’s the most common problem with a PC or laptop. In this case, a little patience and perseverance is required. Power supplies are often the source of the problem, especially with portable computers – laptops and notebooks. This sometimes happens after a fall, but just as often due to wear and tear on the charging plug – frequent plugging and unplugging of the device. Damaged cables are sometimes the source of power problems and can cause serious battery or even whole laptop failure
If only the outer insulation of the power cord is damaged, you don’t have to buy the whole power adapter right away. To repair the damaged coating, all you need is insulating tape or silicone paste if you want to be sure about the quality of the repair. If you don’t see any disturbing abrasions along the length of the cable, it’s worth looking at the power supply. Most of these black cubes have LEDs to let you know if they are working and if current is running through them. If this LED does not light up despite being plugged in, it could mean that the power supply or outlet is faulty
In the case of desktop computers, it is the fan of the energy feeder built into the central unit that can tell us whether the device is fulfilling its role. If the fan has stopped spinning, your power supply is probably at the end of its life. If your laptop’s power supply LED is on (in the case of a desktop computer, the fan is spinning) and the computer still won’t start, you already know that the problem has another cause. Perhaps it is a defective hard drive
In the first place, it’s a damaged hard drive that prevents your hardware from booting up. Nevertheless, they rarely break down right away, without causing problems with the operation of the system beforehand. This component gives clear signals in case of trouble: it makes previously unheard sounds or displays a blue Windows screen. If you hear strange noises coming from inside your computer, it’s a good idea to save all your valuable data to the password-protected cloud or to an external storage device – a portable drive or a USB stick. It is worth remembering that only HDDs make noises, as they have a traditional mechanical operating system: constantly rotating platters containing data. The increasingly popular solid state drives (SSDs) have no moving parts
Unusual, irregular noises coming from inside a computer can also be the result of a power supply fan that causes voltage spikes. This is very dangerous to all computer components and can cause important hardware configuration chips to burn out. However, sometimes computer problems are more trivial than you might think. Check if your monitor is well connected – sometimes pressing the plug saves a hopeless situation.
Computer problems are no longer what they were ten years ago. It’s estimated that hardware problems account for only five percent of all problems – the rest are mostly software or user errors. If you’re sure you didn’t cause the malfunction and the help described above doesn’t work, contact your dealer. The dealer should repair the equipment defects under the statutory warranty, which usually lasts two years. It is standard among dealers to refuse and dismiss customers who request warranty replacement, but do not be discouraged or let go
It is the duty of the dealer to repair the equipment under warranty – as a last resort you can always turn to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. If you send your device for repair, remember to back up your data – companies that repair equipment often reserve the right to wipe the memory of the products they repair.
