Help, My Computer is Broken

144 Pages·2020·4.96 MB·English

by  Barry Collins

HELP! MY COMPUTER
IS BROKEN
(How do I fix it?)
BY BARRY COLLINS
THE INTOLERANT PERSON’S GUIDE TO 1KEEPING YOUR COMPUTER COMPUTING
2
HELP! MY COMPUTER
IS BROKEN
BARRY COLLINS
3
First published in 2020 by
Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd,
Maurice Wilkes Building,
St. John’s Innovation Park,
Cowley Road,
Cambridge, CB4 0DS
Publishing Director: Russell Barnes • Editors: Phil King, Simon Brew • Sub Editor: Nicola King
Design: Critical Media • Illustrations: Sam Alder with Brian O Halloran
CEO: Eben Upton
ISBN: 978-1-912047-90-1
The publisher, and contributors accept no responsibility in respect of any omissions
or errors relating to goods, products or services referred to or advertised in this book.
The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any injuries, damage to equipment,
or costs incurred from advice, tutorials or suggestions in this publication.
4
CONTENTS
About the author 9
About this book 10
Why is my laptop not turning on? 13
Why is my desktop computer not turning on? 15
Why is my laptop’s keyboard not working? 18
What are those black dots on my screen? 20
Why is my computer making strange beeps when I switch 22
it on?
How can I tell if my computer is overheating? 24
Why is my laptop’s touchpad not working? 26
Why is there no sound coming from my laptop’s built-in 28
speakers?
Why is there no sound coming from my computer’s external 30
speakers?
Why is my mouse not working? 32
Why are games running really slowly on my computer? 35
Can I make my laptop faster by upgrading its memory? 37
Why won’t the USB port on my computer charge my phone? 40
Why won’t my computer connect to the Wi-Fi? 42
5
My PC is asking me to update the BIOS – should I do it? 45
How do I improve the battery life of my laptop? 47
Can I replace my laptop’s battery? 52
My computer screen is dirty – how do I clean it? 54
My computer’s touchscreen has stopped working! 56
Why doesn’t my computer recognise my memory card? 58
How do I defrag my hard disk? 61
I’ve run out of USB ports – what now? 63
My PC’s fans are clogged with dust – how do I clean them? 66
What is the Blue Screen of Death? 68
Why can’t my computer see my printer? 70
Why can’t my computer see other devices on my Wi-Fi 73
network?
My computer has broken after a Windows update. What now? 76
Why has my laptop screen gone very dim? 79
Why won’t the external screen plugged into my laptop work? 81
Why is my computer so slow? 83
Why is the internet so slow on my computer? 90
Why is my computer making a scratching noise? 93
I’ve forgotten my Windows 10 password – how do I get into 95
my computer?
My computer is horribly slow. How do I reinstall Windows 10? 98
Why have all the icons on my Windows desktop gone 101
missing?
6
10 ways you can break your computer all by yourself 103
How do I make my laptop fans less noisy? 108
When I switch on my computer, I see a demand for money to 110
give me my files back. What should I do?
Why am I getting a ‘this app needs to be updated’ error on 114
my Mac?
My computer keeps crashing – how do I start in safe mode? 116
Windows won’t open a file because it ‘hasn’t got an app 118
associated with it’. What do I do?
Why has the Windows 10 search box gone missing? 120
How do I get rid of the awful Cortana? 122
I don’t think my PC has updated to the latest version of 125
Windows – how do I force it to do so?
My USB hard disk is not recognised when I plug it into my 128
computer?
I keep getting strange pop-ups in my browser… and there’s 130
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 132
room for ten minutes?
My Windows 7 PC keeps flashing up warnings that support 134
has ended. What does that mean?
This book hasn’t answered my computer problem. Where 137
best to turn for advice now?
7
8
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.
9
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
10