Troubleshooting

This page should hopefully grow more in-depth over time, but will hopefully provide more and more tips and tricks to help troubleshoot common computer and hardware troubles that I have encountered that generally can be solved, either over the phone, or just by reading this. Hopefully they solve your problem, if not, I am a phone call or email away.

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Slow Computer Performance

We all hate when our computer starts running like it’s stuck in glue. There’s a ton of reasons why a PC gets slow, but here’s where you should start:

First, check for malware. Yeah, you’ve probably heard it before, but it actually helps. Grab a legit scanner like MalwareBytes (it’s not perfect, but better than random stuff you find in a Google ad). Watch out, if you just google “malware scanner” and click the first thing you see, you could end up installing malware instead of cleaning it up. Run a scan, clean out any junk, move on.

Next, clean up your system. Close out programs you aren’t using. Delete old files you don’t need. If you’ve got a bunch of background apps running, they eat up your CPU and memory, which only makes things worse.

Open up Task Manager (just right-click your taskbar and pick Task Manager). Take a look at the “Processes” tab. Is something sucking up all your RAM or CPU? If you see a weird program hogging resources, Google it, if it’s not needed, close it out.

Last, look at your hardware. Love having twenty browser tabs open? Like to keep Spotify, Word, Zoom, and a game running at once? If your PC is old, or you’ve only got 8GB of RAM, it’s probably not going to keep up these days, especially with Windows 11, which is a bit of a resource hog. Upgrading to at least 16GB of RAM and a processor around 3GHz (or more) will make a real difference if you can swing it.

That’s it! Start there and most slow PCs get a boost. Sometimes you just need to give your computer a little breathing room.

Frozen Screen?

Ever had a program just stop responding and completely freeze on your screen? It’s annoying, but the good news is it’s usually an easy fix.

Here’s what to do:

When something like Word or your web browser freezes up, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete on your keyboard. This brings up a special menu just click on “Task Manager.” You’ll see a list of all the programs currently running.

Look for the one that’s frozen. You can sort the list by name: click on “Name” at the top, then scroll through everything. Find the culprit, maybe it’s “Word,” “Excel,” “Edge,” or whatever you were using.

Now, just right-click on that program’s name and choose “End Task.” That’ll force the frozen program to close. Don’t worry, most modern programs (like Word and Excel) have autosave turned on. So next time you open them, you’ll usually get a message asking if you want to recover your work right where you left off.

That’s all there is to it! If something freezes, Task Manager is your best friend. Just a couple of quick clicks and you’ll be back in business.