When All Else Fails, Turn It Off…
March 13, 2009 | In: Computers, Electronics, Tips & Tricks
My Computer Setup
I can’t tell you the amount of times in my years of using computers, printers, cellphones and other electronics of having problems and working for hours trying to fix a problem. The funny, frustration thing of all is that if I only turned off the electronic device, waiting a minute, and turned it back on the problem would mysteriously go away.
Now, not all problems are solved that way. Windows comes with a utility called System Restore and I highly recommend and you can use that to bring your computer back to an earlier point. Here are directions for Windows XP, and directions for Windows Vista. Creating a restore point before making any major changes to your system is a very wise proposition indeed…take it from one who knows.
Sometimes the problem is of another kind, like your printer won’t print. The first thing I would check is whether it is on or not. Believe me, I have found that to be the solution to over 50% of printer problems. Also, if it has an offline/online button make sure it is online.
What about those pesky error messages you get. My solution is to type in quotes into the Google Search Engine the error message and look at the results. More than likely you are not the first person to have the problem and someone hopefully has figured out the solution for you. Sometimes you are directed right to the product’s website, othertimes to a user forum.
Another way to get information about an electronic product problem is to find a user forum about the product. Sometimes the product itself has a forum, like Dell computers, other times you need to type once again into Google, name of product then forum and see what comes up. I love forums because not only do they give me solutions to problems but also a wealth of information of how I can make my product work better than what the manual says. For my Samsung Omnia I go to the Samsung Omnia Forum. Another great forum for audio/video products is AVS Forum. Looking for a solution to a problem is as simple as typing into the search box.
And, of course there is always the manual but many of us have learned they don’t contain as much information as we need.
Do you have any tips to help solve electronic product problems (epps)?
