Frequently Asked Questions

You will probably be familiar with the concept that simply turning your PC off and on again can fix no end of minor glitches.

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?“

However, with the latest version of Windows, this is not quite a simple as is used to be due to Windows trying to be too clever! What you now have to do is ‘Restart‘ Windows rather than simply shutting it down and starting it up again.

So, if you are experiencing some sort of glitch on your PC, before going any further, give it a try. I’ve lost count of how many times I have been asked to fix a PC problem and all that was required was a restart.

 

But I cannot stress this enough…

You MUST select Restart and not Shutdown.

 

The performance of a PC is determined by both the software and hardware.

 

Software

When your Operating System (ie Windows) is first installed on a PC, its performance will essentially be the best possible
(albeit there are some tweaks that can be done to make it better but that aside for the purpose of this article).

However, Windows is constantly growing and changing, very much like you and I! So over time, it becomes ‘tired’ and gets clogged up with changes it makes to itself (updates etc) and changes you make to it like adding and removing software and even just simple day to day usage. All of these will reduce the speed of your PC.

Some of these changes can be reversed by doing some ‘housekeeping’ of Windows but you will never get the performance back to how it was on day one. The only surefire way to get it back to its original performance is by reinstalling it. Your PC will now work as it did on day one. However, any changes you made and/or any software or data that you added since day one will now be gone. If you take a backup of your data beforehand then this can be restored but any software will need to be reinstalled.

Hardware

Unlike software, the hardware that makes up your PC doesn’t change or degrade over time (it may fail but that’s another issue).
The overall performance of your PC will depend on the capability of the individual hardware components.

However, some of these components can be upgraded and as a result, will increase the overall performance. The 2 main components that can feasibly/practically be upgraded are the memory and the hard drive.

Upgrading the hard disk drive (HDD) to a faster solid state drive (SSD) involves removing the existing HDD, transferring its contents to a new SSD and then replacing this in the place of the old HDD.

Upgrading the memory is a simpler process as memory doesn’t retain any data that needs to be transferred and the memory modules simply clip into the motherboard.

 

As the overall performance is a function of both the software and hardware then any combination of the above will help improve the performance of your PC.

This, or words to that effect, is one of the most common complaints and the go to solution is quite often to complain to your service provider. However, you may be wasting your time!

Most problems can broadly be divided into one of two areas, ‘wifi’ or ‘broadband’, but your service provider (again broadly speaking) is only responsible for your broadband, not your wifi. So before wasting hours on the phone, it is best to find out more to see if your service provider can/will actually help.

The whole wifi/broadband thing is unfortunately a complete subject in itself and so too much information to put here. Hence, diagnosing these types of problems can be time consuming and requires some technical knowledge. The following is just an outline…

  • Your Broadband is the connection between your service provider and your hub/router. It can fail due to many reasons but most of these occur outside of your premises and so are out of your control. Your service provider is therefore responsible for these (unless the problem is between your main phone line wall socket and hub/router).
  • Your Wifi however is the radio connection between your hub/router and your device. This will be affected by your local ‘environment’ e.g. how far away you are from your hub/router, how thick the walls are in between the two, interference from other devices in your house etc. These are all your responsibilities so your service provider will not help you with this, although some providers can provide you with wifi extenders to help reduce the environmental effects.

A PC by itself should never be considered an invulnerable data store. In fact, one of the most common parts of a PC to fail is the hard drive which is where all your data is stored.

If a hard drive fails, then more than likely all the data on it will be lost. (It may be possible for a specialist to recover the data, but this will cost £100s). To safeguard against this happening, you must take regular backups of your data.
To be safe, a general rule of thumb is to have 2 backups of your data and at least one of those to be in a different location.

The start menu not responding to a click of the start icon has been a bug in Windows 10 ever since it was released. The problem occurs less frequently with the latest version but still happens occasionally.
The solution is simply to right click the start icon. You will get another menu. From here, select to restart the PC (refer to the first article in this list). After the restart has completed the start menu will work properly again.

Wireless printers have a habit of sometimes not connecting to your PC. The first thing to try is to restart everything that may be causing the problem so try the following (in this order)…

 

  1. Turn off your wifi router/hub
  2. Turn off your printer
  3. Turn the wifi router/hub back on
  4. Wait a couple of minutes
  5. Turn the printer back on
  6. Wait a couple of minutes
  7. Restart your PC (refer to the first article in this list)
It gets easily forgotten that wireless keyboards & mice need batteries in them to function. So, before going any further, check the batteries.

A hard drive / solid state drive can easily be replaced with a larger one. It will involve removing the existing one, copying the complete contents of the drive onto a new one and then installing the new one into the PC.

There are a number of cooling fans inside a PC. Depending on your environment (dust etc) or simply their quality, these fans may wear out over time. When they do they invariably start to make whirring / whining noises.

Most of the fans inside a PC are replaceable so it is time to get them replaced else your PC may overheat.

If however you hear a metallic clicking sound then you need to act immediately. This may be your hard drive about to fail. Make sure you have all your data backed up and have it investigated.

A common problem with email programs e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird etc, is that they will occasionally ask for your password out of the blue.

Assuming that you haven’t changed your password yourself then this is most likely due to a simple glitch at your email provider. That being the case the solution is to simply wait until the glitch goes away or is fixed, then your email program will start working again.

However, there is a ‘gotcha‘!…

The majority of people will re-enter their password simply because they have been asked for it but sometimes the password may have been forgotten, so an incorrect one gets entered. Once the fault at the other end is fixed the email program will continue to try to connect using the incorrect password and hence will keep requesting the correct password indefinitely.

So, if your email program unexpectedly asks you for a password, just ignore it and more often than not it will start working again shortly.

This is a common question that gets asked, especially by people moving into a new house. Unfortunately though, assuming we are talking about a ‘regular’ connection that comes through your phone line, the service provider that you use is probably one of the least important factors in the performance of your connection.

It is more down to the infrastructure up to your location which is supplied and managed by Openreach, which unfortunately you have no control over.

The second issue is wifi, assuming you use it, which is a function of the layout of your house and where you put wifi devices.

It is therefore a better suggestion to go with your ‘preferred’ provider based on previous experience and knowledge of the equipment they supply, their services and support.