This must have happened before: you sit down at your work desk, press the power button on your computer and wait for it to light up. Nothing happens and you’re left staring at a blank screen. There’re no familiar flashing lights, no whirring sounds of the machine coming to life, absolutely nothing!
The first thing people usually do in such a situation is picking up the phone to call the IT wizard at the workplace. While it’s in their job description to oversee networking problems and other issues with computers at the workplace, you can take note of the following steps before calling the IT department as usually the problems are easy enough.
Computer Won’t Power Up
Check to see if the;
- PC’s power cable is plugged firmly into its wall socket or power strip. Is the socket or power strip on? If yes, then try plugging the power cable into another wall socket.
- Does the PC have a voltage setting? If yes, maybe it is changed to an incorrect setting.
- Attach a known working power cable to the power supply (of the PC), if trying the above fails. Plug it in and turn the power on/off again.
Computer Powers Up but Monitor Is Blank
Check to see if the;
- Check if monitor is plugged firmly into a working power strip or wall socket and the power strip is turned on. If yes, then try to plug the PC into another wall socket.
- Is the power button on the monitor switched to the ‘on’ position?
- Are the brightness and contrast controls of the monitor adjusted properly?
- Hook up another working monitor to your PC. If the display works perfectly fine, then the issue is with the previous monitor. Get in touch with a computer repair technician who’ll examine and diagnose the problem with your monitor.
Computer Won’t Boot from Hard Drive
Check and make sure;
- No bootable media (DVDs or flash drives) are inserted into the computer.
- All external drives and devices are removed from the computer. If yes, try restarting the computer again.
- Your hard drive will make a spinning sound when working. Listen carefully. If you hear a clicking sound instead, the hard drive isn’t working and will have to be replaced.
The above mentioned tips address only the most basic and often over-looked problems. You won’t even need to open your computer’s case or handle hardware components as these trouble-shooting tips are meant to be followed by the average computer user. For more complicated issues within the computer however, contacting a computer repair service such as Rockland County Computer Repair is the appropriate action to take.