HELP!-My Computer Is Broken DIGITAL 2

HELP!
MY COMPUTER
IS BROKEN
(How do I fix it?)
BY BARRY COLLINS
THE INTOLERANT PERSON’S GUIDE TO1KEEPING 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.
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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
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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
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that’s not covered in these pages. And without wishing to sound like
doom-mongers, chances are you will come across one or more of the
problems covered in this book during your computing lifetime. So, if
you’re still thumbing through in the bookstore, why not take this book
home now and be prepared for the day when the difficulty strikes?
We’ll pop the kettle on, just in case.
11
12
WHY IS MY LAPTOP
NOT TURNING ON?
Let’s start at square one. After all, if the computer isn’t even firing up,
the rest of the problems we solve in this book are pretty academic.
Here, we’re talking about a computer that shows no signs of
life when you press the power button – the screen’s not lighting
up, there are no funny beeps, it’s showing fewer vital signs than a
bar of soap.
First, check the power cable is fully inserted into the power port,
and that any cable connections in the power brick are firmly in place.
Even a slightly dislodged cable may not provide a charge.
Many modern laptops charge via a USB-C port, but you need to
ensure that the power supply is adequate. The charger that comes
with your mobile phone, for instance, may not be sufficient to charge
the laptop. Be sure to use the charger that came with your laptop, not
any old USB charger you can lay your hands on.
It’s also possible that not every USB-C port on your laptop accepts
the charge. Try moving the power cable to a different port if one isn’t
bringing the machine back to life.
If the laptop hasn’t been used for a few weeks or months, it may
need a while plugged into the charger before it will come back to life.
Chromebooks are particularly prone to this type of sulk. The Google
Pixelbook often needs to be plugged in for several hours before it will
resume normal operation if it’s been left dormant for a fortnight or so,
which can be enormously frustrating.
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On laptops with removable batteries, check the battery is firmly
locked in place. Most will have sliders that can be easily dislodged in
a bag, breaking the connection between battery and laptop.
One final thing to try on laptops with removable batteries is draining
any residual electricity. Unclip the battery (if possible), remove the
power cable, and then hold down the power button for 30 seconds
or so, to make sure any residual energy in the laptop is sapped. Now
plug the power cable back in, but don’t put the battery back in. Fire up
the laptop and – if all is well – shut it down again. Now put the battery
back and power her up once more.
If none of the above breathe life back into your laptop, a hardware
failure of some sort is likely. It could be the charger, the battery, or
something more fundamentally afoot inside the laptop itself. Brace
yourself for a visit to the repair shop, but bear in mind that many of
today’s sealed-unit laptops aren’t easy for even the professionals to fix.
What can I do about it?

l Check power cables are plugged in securely
l Only use the supplied charger
l Leave the battery to charge for a few hours
l Drain residual electricity from the computer
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WHY IS MY DESKTOP
COMPUTER NOT
TURNING ON?
Unlike laptops, desktop computers don’t have batteries that can run
down, so a complete failure to even turn on is not a great sign.
We’re talking about a PC exhibiting no signs of life – if you’re
seeing something on screen, hearing weird beeps, or you’re getting
bewildering error messages, we’ll deal with those later. Right now,
we’re focusing on a computer that’s to all intents and purposes dead.
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First thing to check is that all the power cords are plugged in
securely. Desktop PCs will often have a kettle-plug type socket that
fits into the back of the computer – just make sure that hasn’t come
even slightly dislodged, as that can prevent a PC from starting.
Also try unplugging peripherals such as printers, scanners, USB
hubs, or any other device other than keyboard, mouse, and screen.
An electrical fault with one device can prevent a PC from booting.
If that fails to bring it to life, then there may be a problem with
the computer’s power supply. If the PC case has been banged or
knocked, it’s possible the cable(s) connecting the power supply to
the computer’s motherboard has come loose.
If you feel comfortable opening up your PC and having a poke
around, you’re normally looking for white plastic connectors that have
popped off the motherboard (the main circuit board). Every power
supply is different, but search YouTube for ‘replacing a PC power
supply’ and you’ll find videos that show you how they plug in. If you’re
not confident, take it to a repair shop – it should be a cheap fix if it’s
just a loose cable.
Power supplies themselves can fail, and this is normally a job for
the repair shop unless you’re very confident you know what you’re
doing. If you’re planning to replace the supply yourself, just beware
that all power supplies are not born equal – you’ll need to match
the wattage of the supply you’re replacing. It’s very much at your
own risk.
Other internal devices such as memory modules or graphics cards
becoming unseated can prevent a computer from firing up. A gentle
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push on the components might be enough to put them back in place,
but take care. The connectors are fragile and pushing too hard can be
an expensive mistake.

l Check all cables are securely connected
l Unplug everything except screen, mouse, and keyboard
l Open the PC and check power supply connectors
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WHY IS MY LAPTOP’S
KEYBOARD NOT WORKING?
Seen any guilty-looking toddlers lurking suspiciously close to your
laptop with once-full glasses of juice? Accidental spills are one of
many reasons why your laptop’s keyboard can turn into little more
than a jumbled alphabet, but the fault isn’t always as obvious as a
MacBook drowning in Ribena.
The first thing to determine is whether a keyboard fault has knocked
out the entire keyboard or only certain keys. If it’s a cluster of keys
alone, it’s very likely something has been spilled on the keyboard.
Turn the laptop off and remove the battery (if possible), lay the
keyboard upside down on a cloth or kitchen paper, and let the system
dry thoroughly for 48 hours. Use a dry brush around the affected area
to remove any debris. With any luck, the keyboard will return to full
health when dry. If it doesn’t, a trip to the repair shop beckons.
If the entire keyboard is kaput, it’s likely something else is afoot.
Keyboards are normally connected to the computer’s motherboard
by a thin ribbon-like interface, and it’s not unheard of for these to pop
off – especially if the laptop has been dropped or banged.
Not so long ago, you could normally remove a few screws on the base
of the laptop, wear a static strip, and put the ribbon back in place yourself.
These days laptops are generally sealed units that require special tools
to prise apart. A trip to the repair shop is likely to be necessary.
Before you load the laptop in the car and drive to your local geek
emporium, there is something else you should try to rectify a whole
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keyboard failure on Windows laptops. Turn the laptop off, power it back
on again, and then quickly press the key on your laptop that enters the
computer’s BIOS (or setup) menu – the key differs from manufacturer
to manufacturer, but F2, F10, and DEL are commonly used.
If the laptop will enter the BIOS menu, then the fault is likely with
the keyboard’s software driver, not the keyboard itself. Leave the
BIOS setup menu and boot back into Windows as normal. Plug in
an external USB keyboard (borrow one if you don’t have one lying
around) and open the Device Manager by typing that phrase into the
Windows search menu and selecting the relevant option.
In the Device manager, look for keyboards, find your laptop’s main
keyboard (normally called Standard PS/2 keyboard), and right-click
on it. Select ‘Uninstall device’. Restart the computer and Windows
should – fingers crossed – automatically reinstall the keyboard. If
not, right-click on keyboards in the Device Manager again and select
Scan For Hardware Changes. That should reinstall the keyboard
driver and hopefully resolve your problem.

l Switch the laptop off and dry any spills
l Reinstall the keyboard’s software driver
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WHAT ARE THOSE
BLACK DOTS
ON MY SCREEN?
Fetch a black armband, prepare a heartfelt speech, dig out those
Celine Dion CDs: we’re sorry to tell you that one or more of your
screen’s pixels has passed away.
Today’s computer displays are made up of millions of tiny dots,
called pixels. If one of those pixels fails or gets stuck (we’ll come to
that in a minute), you’ll either see a tiny, permanent black dot on your
screen or one that’s stuck on a particular colour.
They’re easier to spot when your screen is displaying a single
colour. Visit color.aurlien.net in your web browser and press F11
(in Windows only) to make the browser window full-screen and the
display will flip through various single colours, helping you to identify
if a pixel has passed away or needs life support.
There’s not much you can do to rescue a completely dead pixel.
Most screen and laptop manufacturers will have a dead pixel policy
in their warranty that allows you to replace the device if a certain
number of pixels fail. That’s why it’s important to test new screens
and laptops when you first buy them, before the warranty expires or
your right to return faulty products lapses.
Stuck pixels that are locked to a particular colour can be rescued,
however. There are various utilities that blast the screen with lots of
different colours to unjam stubborn pixels. One of the simplest to
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use is jscreenfix.com – you simply drag the square over the stuck
pixel area and leave the utility to work its magic for ten minutes.
With any luck, you’ll have a fully restored pixel by the time you’ve
made a brew.
Even if you’re lumbered with a dead or stuck pixel, it’s generally not
the end of the world these days. Screens are now so high-resolution
that even one or two faulty pixels are barely noticeable. But like that
mark on a freshly painted wall, once you’ve seen them, you can’t stop
looking at them…

l Visit color.aurlien.net to check for dead or stuck pixels
l Go to jscreenfix.com to unjam stuck pixels
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WHY IS MY
COMPUTER MAKING
STRANGE BEEPS
WHEN I SWITCH IT ON?
Does your computer sound like a supermarket checkout till every
time you turn it on?
That beeping noise is the power-on self-test (POST) that every
computer performs when it’s first switched on. It’s a mini-MOT the
computer conducts by itself to check everything is working properly
before it launches into Windows. It happens so quickly you won’t
even notice it when everything is fine, but when something is amiss,
you’ll hear a series of beeps and may also see an on-screen warning.
The number of beeps you hear is indicative of the problem. But
here’s the thing: every different computer manufacturer has a
different set of beep codes. Even different models made by the same
manufacturer can have different codes.
For example, at the time of writing, two beeps on a Dell Inspiron
laptop indicates no memory (RAM) detected, three beeps is a
motherboard chipset failure, and four beeps signals a memory
failure. On a Lenovo IdeaPad laptop, however, a basic memory
failure is indicated by one short beep, followed by three short beeps,
followed by another two beeps!
If we tried to list every beep code for every manufacturer, this book
would be the size of an encyclopaedia. Instead, our best advice if
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you hear strange beep codes when you fire up your computer is
to note down the pattern, then do a Google search for your laptop
manufacturer and model name, followed by beep codes (i.e. ‘Lenovo
ThinkPad beep codes’).

l Make a note of the beep pattern (e.g. three short beeps)
l Google your computer manufacturer and model name, then
‘beep codes’
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HOW CAN I TELL
IF MY COMPUTER
IS OVERHEATING?
There are telltale signs that a computer is getting too hot – and it’s
not sweat pouring out of the USB ports.
The first sign is instability and sudden shutdowns. Today’s
computers are loaded with built-in thermometers and are programmed
to shut themselves down if a core component becomes too toasty,
thus preventing the whole system turning into a smoke machine.
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Other signs are funny smells emanating from the vents or the fans
constantly running at full pelt. Don’t be paranoid – most laptops or
PCs will fire up their fans if you’re doing something heavy-duty, such
as playing 3D games or editing video, or if it’s been running for a
long while. But if the fans are screaming from the moment you turn
the thing on, or after it’s been left idle for a while, you might have
a problem.
Free utilities let you check the temperature of your computer’s
processor (CPU) and graphics card (if you’ve got one) – the
two chief suspects in an overheating system. The free Speccy
(ccleaner.com/speccy) is one such utility for Windows systems.
Once Speccy is installed, click on the CPU section on the left-
hand side of the window and look for the temperatures. If your CPU
temperature is constantly displayed in red figures (90°C or above),
something is up. Switch it off to prevent further damage and get
it checked.

l Download Speccy
l Check CPU and graphics card temperatures
l Switch off if too hot
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WHY IS MY LAPTOP’S
TOUCHPAD NOT WORKING?
Like a parent trying to wipe chocolate off a child’s face with a tissue,
you’re swiping at your laptop’s touchpad and nothing’s happening.
That pointy arrow on the screen isn’t moving a jot. Let’s try to work
out what’s gone wrong.
First, it’s possible that you’ve accidentally deactivated the touchpad
(sometimes referred to as a trackpad). Some laptops have a little
switch that turns off the touchpad; others have strange key combos
that disable the device – a feature designed for those who prefer
to work with a mouse or trackpoint and want to make sure that
accidental presses on the touchpad don’t send the cursor zinging
across the screen.
To check if you’ve accidentally knocked out the touchpad, type
‘mouse’ in the Windows 10 search box and open the mouse settings
(you might need to plug in an external mouse to navigate the screens if
you don’t have a touchscreen). Click on Additional Mouse Options in the
top-right corner and look for options to enable/disable the touchpad.
On Apple laptops, you’ll find the trackpad options by clicking on
the Apple icon in the top-left corner of the screen, selecting System
Preferences, and choosing Trackpad.
If Windows is reporting the touchpad is enabled, it’s time to check
the touchpad’s software drivers. Windows updates often knock out
the touchscreen or touchpad on Lenovo devices, for example, until
you run an update on the laptop that installs all new drivers.
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Most laptop manufacturers will have their own utility that checks
for driver updates. Lenovo’s is called Lenovo Vantage, for instance;
Dell’s is simply called Dell Update. Run that application and install any
available updates for the touchpad or pointing devices.
Our old friend the Windows Device Manager can also reveal
touchpad troubles. Open the Device Manager by searching for it, click
on Mice and Pointing Devices, and look for the touchpad (it might be
called Synaptics Pointing Device or something similar). Right-click
and select Update Driver if it’s reporting a problem.
Finally, it’s worth removing all external mice – including Bluetooth
mice – to see if that solves your problem. It’s daft, but some laptops
knock out the touchpad in favour of an external mouse.
If none of the above work, it’s possible there’s a hardware failure.
Brace yourself for an expensive trip to the repair shop or get used to
using an external mouse.

l Check the mouse settings to make sure the touchpad hasn’t
been accidentally deactivated
l Update the touchpad’s drivers
l Remove external mice
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WHY IS THERE NO SOUND
COMING FROM MY LAPTOP’S
BUILT-IN SPEAKERS?
Hello silence, my old friend… If your laptop is intent on playing the
sound of silence even when you’re trying to blast out AC/DC, it’s time
to start fiddling with your sound settings.
First, let’s work through the obvious, just to be sure you’ve not done
something silly. Make sure any headphones or speakers plugged
into the laptop are removed or switched off. Bluetooth headphones
and speakers can catch you out here, as there’s obviously no lead
sprouting from the laptop.
Most laptop keyboards will have a mute button that it’s easy to
accidentally activate, especially as some of them are on the row of
function buttons directly above the numbers. Look for a little speaker
icon with a line through it and push the button to see if that restores
the speakers.
You can also use the Windows settings to check if your speakers
are silenced. In the row of tiny icons next to the clock, look for the
speaker icon and click on it. Drag the volume slider up if it’s down on
the left-hand side. On Macs, the speaker icon is found in the menu bar
at the top of the screen.
If the volume appears to be turned up, but you still can’t hear any
sound from the video/music you’re trying to play, it’s time to dig a
little deeper. If you’re playing the media in a web browser, it’s possible
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the browser tab is muted. Today’s web browsers have tools designed
to silence those furiously irritating ads that play in the background,
but these can sometimes result in content you want to hear being
accidentally blocked.
In browsers such as Chrome or Firefox, a little speaker icon will
appear at the top of the tab if content is playing, or a speaker with a
line through it will be shown if it’s been muted. In Chrome, you can
right-click on that tab’s header and select Unmute Site to restore
volume; in Firefox you merely have to click on that tiny speaker icon
in the tab header.
Likewise, if you’re using an app such as Spotify or iTunes to play
music, just check there are no mute buttons activated from within
the app itself. These can be tricky to spot. Spotify will mute if you
click the speaker icon next to the volume slider, which is easy to do
by accident.
If all else fails, Windows 10 users can run a troubleshooter to see
if the operating system can repair the audio. Type ‘troubleshooter’
into the search bar and click on Troubleshoot Settings. Now click
Additional Troubleshooters and select Playing Audio and Windows
will have a stab at sorting out any problems.

l Switch off any Bluetooth headphones or speakers nearby
l Check the computer’s volume settings
l Check browser tabs or applications aren’t muted
l Run the Windows troubleshooter
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WHY IS THERE NO
SOUND COMING FROM
MY COMPUTER’S
EXTERNAL SPEAKERS?
Most laptop speakers would be drowned out by a squirrel nibbling an
acorn in the back garden, which is why many folks will connect a pair
of thumping external speakers to their computer. But what if they’re
not working?
First, we’d urge you to read the previous question, which ticks off
many of the problems that you might encounter with getting sound
to play on either built-in or external speakers.
Let’s deal first with wired speakers, ones that are plugged into either
the headphone jack or via USB. We’re going to start with a lemon-
sucker, but you have checked they’re plugged in, right? Some wired
speakers don’t need external power, many do. Just make sure the
power’s switched on or the power cable hasn’t leapt out of the back
of them.
Next, we need to make sure your computer’s got the right set of
speakers selected. A common problem on Windows computers is
that the PC’s trying to send sound out through the monitor’s speakers…
even if the monitor doesn’t have speakers. In Windows 10, click on the
little speaker icon near the clock, click the up arrow next to the name
of the speaker at the top, and just make sure your external speakers
are the ones currently selected.
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On a Mac, click on the Apple icon, choose System Preferences, click
on the Sound icon, select the Output tab, and choose the speakers
that you wish to disturb the neighbours with.
If it’s Bluetooth speakers that are giving you problems, then you need
to check the computer’s still talking to them. Type ‘Bluetooth’ into the
Windows search bar, open the Bluetooth settings and check that your
chosen speakers are listed as connected under the Audio section. If
they’ve gone walkabout, first check the speakers are actually turned
on – many will switch themselves off after a short period of inactivity.
If they’re on, click the ‘Add Bluetooth or other device’ button at the top
of the screen and see if you can get them to reconnect.
Bluetooth devices can be painfully stubborn. If your computer can’t
detect them, it’s worth rebooting both the speakers and computer
and trying again. Also check if your speakers have a specific pairing
routine that you need to enable for the computer to see them in the
first place – a quick search online should help.

l Check power to the speakers
l Ensure the right speakers are selected in Windows/macOS
l Check the Bluetooth connection for wireless speakers
31
WHY IS MY MOUSE
NOT WORKING?
If you’re a desktop computer user, you’re pretty stuck if your mouse
suddenly decides to go on strike. Here’s how to get yourself out of a
mouse hole.
First, assuming you’ve got a laser mouse that’s plugged into the
computer, flip the rodent over and check if the lights are on.
If there’s no sign of life, it suggests the mouse isn’t getting power
from the computer. Try plugging the mouse into a different USB port.
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If you’re plugging the mouse into a USB hub, trying connecting it
directly to a port on the computer instead.
If you’re using a wireless mouse, again flip it over and look for
the vital signs (chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth are
unnecessary). Obviously, you need to make sure the batteries are
topped up – today’s mice last so long between charges/battery
replacements that it’s easy to forget the things don’t run on
pure magic.
If your mouse has a little Bluetooth receiver that you plug into the
computer, again try moving that to a different USB port.
If a wireless mouse appears to be alive and well, but it’s not doing
mousey things, then it’s time to check the wireless connection. On
Windows, type ‘Bluetooth’ into the search bar, select the Bluetooth
settings, and see if your mouse is listed in the menu. If not, try adding
the device afresh.
Now, at this point, you might be thinking, ‘Hang on, pal. If
my mouse isn’t working, how am I meant to open search and
navigate menus?’ Well, Windows has a feature that allows you to
use your keyboard’s cursor arrow keys to move the mouse. Hold
down the ALT, LEFT SHIFT, and NUM LOCK keys simultaneously
and it should give you the option to turn on Mouse Keys. Press
the SPACE bar or the ENTER key to confirm that you do wish to turn
them on.
If the Bluetooth connection appears to be fine, it’s worth kicking
the tyres of our old friend the software drivers. Search for Device
Manager, open the Mouse and Pointing Devices section and look for
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any exclamation marks against your mouse, which is always a bad
sign. Click on the mouse and try updating drivers, or uninstalling the
device and restarting again.

l Try different USB ports
l Make sure the batteries are charged
l Use Windows’ Mouse Keys to help you diagnose faults
34
WHY ARE GAMES
RUNNING REALLY SLOWLY
ON MY COMPUTER?
Fortnite taking a fortnight to load? FIFA matches not even making it
to kick-off? Running games on a Windows PC or Mac is not as simple
as many people think.
While almost any computer you can lay your hands on will happily
play a few hands of Solitaire or smash your self-confidence at chess,
only high-powered PCs will play the latest 3D games. Computers
aren’t like consoles: not every game you can buy for them will play on
every machine.
The determining factor is normally the computer’s graphics chip.
Laptops, by and large, don’t have dedicated graphics cards – they use
what is known as integrated graphics – which means they’re usually
not up to playing the latest 3D games at playable frame rates (how
many times per second the screen is refreshed to make the action
appear smooth).
If you want to play 3D action games such as Fortnite or Call of Duty on
a laptop, you need to look for one with dedicated graphics – companies
such as Dell’s Alienware or Asus will happily sell you one of these, but
you’ll do very well to get any change out of a thousand pounds.
Can you add graphics capability to a laptop with integrated
graphics? Not easily. There are a few external graphics card (eGPU)
units out there from companies such as Razer and Blackmagic, but
35
they’re expensive, rely on ports that many cheap laptops won’t have,
and you’ll need a relatively nippy laptop to take full advantage of them
in the first place. It’s not something we’d generally recommend.
Desktop tower computer are more suited to gaming as they can
be fitted with dedicated graphics cards and they don’t always cost
the Earth. A decent budget graphics card can be had for around
£100–£150, although it’s important to check that your computer has
the right slot to accommodate a graphics card.
What if you’ve got a computer with a decent graphics card but games
are still struggling? There are a few things you can do to make them
more playable. Dive into the game’s own settings menu and dial down the
graphics quality – you might sacrifice mist sweeping across landscapes
or other special effects, but at least the game will be playable. If that
doesn’t work, try reducing the resolution – with fewer ‘pixels’ for the
graphics card to push around, the game should run more smoothly.
If you want to play the latest PC games on any computer, no matter
how old or underpowered, check out a streaming service such as
Shadow (shadow.tech) or Google Stadia (store.google.com/stadia).
These run the games in massive data centres and then stream them
to your computer, much like a Netflix video. You’ll need a decent fibre
broadband connection to take advantage of them, though.

l Invest in a new graphics card (if possible)
l Dial down the game’s graphics quality or resolution
l Consider a games-streaming service
36

CAN I MAKE MY LAPTOP

FASTER BY UPGRADING
ITS MEMORY?
A few years back, the answer to this question would have been an
almost certain yes. Most laptops would have a little compartment on
the base that you could unscrew and pop in a couple of new memory
chips to give your laptop more zip. Now, it’s not so clear cut.
The problem is that most laptop designs these days are sealed
units. Memory compartments are now the exception rather than
37
the rule. That means that opening up a laptop is often now a job for
the professionals.
What’s more, even if a repair shop could prise apart your laptop,
there’s no guarantee even they would be able to upgrade the memory.
The RAM is often soldered or glued to the motherboard, making it
impossible to swap out chips. On many laptop designs, you’re pretty
much stuck with what you’ve got.
That’s not to say it’s not worth trying. Crucial’s System Scanner tool
will tell you in a heartbeat if your computer’s memory can be upgraded
or not. You’ll find it at: uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/systemscanner.
If you do have an accessible memory slot, make sure you load
the computer with the right type of memory. Not only does it need
to be the right type (DDR3, DDR4 etc), it needs to be the right
speed. You can’t just slam any old memory chips you find on eBay
in there. Again, Crucial’s tool will tell you precisely what you need
inside your system.
You’ll probably need to double the complement of memory
inside in your laptop to see any notable difference. At the time of
publication in 2020, 8GB is the minimum amount of memory we’d
recommend for a Windows or Mac laptop. 16GB should be plenty
for most day-to-day computing jobs, with 32GB or more reserved for
those who are doing real heavy lifting, such as intensive graphics
work or video editing.
By the way, you may remember a Windows feature called
ReadyBoost, where you could plug in a compatible USB memory stick
and have it act like extra memory. That is still available, although in
38
our tests its benefits were next to negligible. Google ReadyBoost if
you want to give it a crack.

l Try Crucial’s system scanner to see if you can upgrade
your memory
l Make sure you buy the right type
l Double the quantity you already have to see a noticeable boost
39
WHY WON’T THE USB PORT
ON MY COMPUTER CHARGE
MY PHONE?
The only thing that never seems to get better about smartphones is
their battery life. Today’s phones are like milkmen: they’re shattered
by lunchtime, which means you’ll often need to plug the phone in for
a quick charge at your desk. But why is the phone not charging – or
charging very slowly – when you plug it into your PC or laptop?
This basically boils down to power. Although the USB port on your
computer looks the same as the one on your phone charger, the
current output is very different.
Some older USB ports on computers may deliver little or no power.
Some companies disable USB ports on their computers because they
don’t want staff plugging in disk drives and taking home sensitive
information. And even fully functioning USB ports may not have
enough juice to top up your phone as quickly as you’re used to.
Many of today’s posher phones – and even more economical ones
– use a system called Fast Charge that blasts the battery from empty
to half-charged in as little as ten or 20 minutes. But, for that, you need
the charger the phone is supplied with; you won’t get that kind of
performance by plugging your phone into a computer’s USB port.
If your phone isn’t charging at all from a computer’s USB port, and
you’re sure the port is working, then there are a few things to check.
First, the computer normally has to be powered on (we’ll come back
40
to this in a sec). Computers that have put themselves to sleep will
often cut power to USB ports, which might explain why you left your
phone on charge while you went to lunch and it’s only added 2% by
the time you got back to your desk.
You can fiddle with your computer’s power management settings
(search for ‘power’ in the Windows 10 Start menu to access the
relevant settings), although you might reflect that there are more
environmentally friendly ways to charge a phone than keeping a
desktop computer running.
Some laptops do allow you to charge your phone from the laptop’s
battery, even when the lid of the device is shut and the computer’s
on standby. Look for a little symbol with a lightning squiggle inside a
battery next to the port, which indicates that it can be used for such
purposes. Obviously, your laptop battery will need to have sufficient
charge if it’s not connected to the mains supply.
This so-called Always-on USB feature sometimes needs to be
switched on in your computer’s settings. The utilities that computer
manufacturers supply with their systems (such as Lenovo’s Vantage)
will normally have an option to turn this feature on or off.

l Don’t let the computer lapse into sleep/standby mode
l Check you’re using the correct USB port
l Make sure Always-on USB is enabled
41
WHY WON’T MY
COMPUTER CONNECT
TO THE WI-FI?
Wi-Fi sometimes makes you weep for the days when the only way to
get the internet was to lash your laptop to the phone socket.
This question could almost be a book in itself, because there are so
many potential answers. And even when people sometimes think their
‘Wi-Fi is broken’, it’s not the Wi-Fi at all, but the internet connection to
the router itself. But let’s try and work through this knotty one together
and see if we can get things back to normal.
First, we need to ensure that the Wi-Fi router is working properly in
the first place. Can other devices in the home (smartphones, tablets)
get a Wi-Fi connection? If all or only some of your devices cannot
connect, it’s a router problem. Try restarting the router (yes, switching
it off and on again) as routers can be temperamental beasts.
Assuming it’s only your computer that’s not getting a Wi-Fi signal,
then we need to look for reasons why. Some laptops have a Wi-Fi
switch that turn off the Wi-Fi radios, which you might have accidentally
flicked. Look for a little slider, often on the side or front of a laptop,
with a little Wi-Fi symbol next to it.
Other laptops allow you to kill the Wi-Fi radio with a key combo
or function key. On a Lenovo ThinkPad, for example, the F8 key will
knock out the wireless radios, which is easy to mistakenly press when
you’re shooting for a number on the top row of the keyboard. Again,
42
look for buttons with Wi-Fi symbols that might help you get back in
the game.
Windows and Macs both have menus that allow you to see the
available Wi-Fi networks, in case your computer has simply dropped
off the network for whatever reason. In Windows 10, look for a little
Wi-Fi symbol in the tray next to the clock in the bottom-right of the
screen. If you click on that, you should see your Wi-Fi network and
be able to click on it to reconnect. On Macs, look for the little Wi-Fi
symbol at the top of the screen. If your network isn’t appearing and
you know you’re within Wi-Fi range, restarting the computer can often
solve the problem.
If you can’t see any Wi-Fi networks at all on your computer, there
might be a problem with the wireless card. The first thing to do is to
check for any recent updates to the software drivers for your wireless
card. In Windows 10, type ‘updates’ into the search menu next to
the Start button, choose Check for Updates, and then View Update
History. Under Driver Updates, see if any updates to wireless cards
have been applied recently that could be the source of a problem.
If there have been, search for Device Manager, click on Network
Adapters and look for your wireless card – it will be called something
like Intel Dual Band Wireless. Right-click on that, select Properties,
click on the Driver tab, and select Roll Back Driver. This should (fingers
crossed, say three Hail Marys) return the driver to its previous state
and – after a system restart – put you back online.
It’s not unknown for Windows updates to cause problems as
serious as knocking out Wi-Fi cards in computers, either. Windows 10
43
Update 1903, released in the summer of 2019, disabled a number of
wireless cards, forcing owners to rewind the Windows update to get
their computer back online.

l Check you’ve not accidentally disabled Wi-Fi
l Restart both router and computer
l Wind back any recent wireless card driver updates
44
MY PC IS ASKING ME
TO UPDATE THE BIOS
– SHOULD I DO IT?
Firstly, well done. You’re right to be suspicious of any impromptu pop-
up window on your PC asking you to install anything. Many a good PC
has been ruined by a click in haste.
So who’s this BIOS fella, we hear you ask, and why does he
need updating?
BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. It’s basically the
software that the computer runs from the very moment you press the
power button, even before Windows gets involved.
If you’ve ever had to do some serious troubleshooting with your PC, you
may well have been asked to fire up the BIOS screen, which is normally
done by pressing one of the F function keys before Windows loads. In
there, you’ll find advanced options, such as choosing which operating
system to load first (if you have more than one installed), which disk
to boot from, and options to recover a corrupted Windows installation.
If you’re lucky, you’ll never have to get your hands dirty with the
BIOS screen. Like tax returns, life is generally much easier without
it. However, from time to time, your computer may automatically
download an update for its BIOS and it’s a good idea to install these.
Before you click OK, a little health warning. Just make 100% sure
this isn’t a fake pop-up that’s been generated by an iffy website you’re
browsing. Antivirus software is pretty good at rooting out this stuff,
45
but the odd one can slip through the net and it could leave you with
some nasty ransomware or other hideous mess to deal with. If you’re
not absolutely sure, click No or Cancel and see if the same pop-up
comes back later, when you’re not browsing the web. That’s normally
a good sign it’s genuine.
It’s paramount that the BIOS update is installed cleanly and isn’t
interrupted – if your BIOS is corrupted, Windows won’t boot and you
face a world of pain getting your PC back in working order. Therefore, if
you’re running a laptop on battery power, plug it in before you click OK
just to make sure the battery doesn’t run dry during the process. Make
sure you’ve saved any work and shut all your programs down, too.
The BIOS update should only take a minute or two and you might see
code flashing across a black screen while the update is in progress.
The PC will need to restart itself at the end of the update. You can go
away and make a cup of tea while all this is going on – it’s statistically
proven* that a watched update is 87% more likely to go wrong.
(*Proven may be stretching it.)

l Make sure it’s not a fake pop-up
l Save all work and close all programs
l Plug a laptop in and then run the update
46
HOW DO I IMPROVE THE BATTERY
LIFE OF MY LAPTOP?
If your laptop battery is not exactly an Energiser Bunny, but lasts
about as long as a rabbit in the headlights, there are things you can
do to extend the period before it runs out of puff.
We’ll deal with replacing your laptop battery in the next question.
Suffice it to say that if the battery has been in the laptop for years,
has had heavy use and now peters out in a matter of minutes, much
of what we discuss below is probably not going to make a solid
47
difference. All batteries have a finite life and it might be time for
a replacement.
However, if you’ve got a relatively spritely set of cells, then the
following tips should help eke out the maximum battery life:
Dim the screen

The screen is one of the biggest battery burners on your laptop.
Windows and Mac laptops normally dim the screen automatically
when on battery power, but you can take manual control and dim it
further. If you’re in a dark train carriage, for example, you probably
won’t need much more than minimum brightness to see your laptop
screen clearly. Look for a key marked with what looks like a sun and a
minus sign to turn the brightness down. Failing that, type ‘display’ into
Windows search and use the slider to adjust brightness.
Switch off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Although the wireless radios on modern laptops are much less
battery-intensive than those of yesteryear, they will still trickle
power away. If you’re working on a train or in a café without Wi-Fi
or wireless gadgets, then switching those radios off will keep more
battery power in the bank.
Some laptops have a physical switch that lets you turn Wi-Fi off, others
have a keyboard combo. However, the easiest way to switch both off
in Windows 10 is to put the laptop in Flight Mode. Click on the little
speech bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and click
the Flight Mode button that appears, to disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
48
Macs are seemingly air sick and don’t have a Flight Mode. Instead,
click on each of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi symbols at the top of the
screen and switch them off individually.
Don’t leave the laptop chained to the mains

If your laptop spends 95% of its life on your desk, plugged into the
mains, you can damage the long-term health of the battery. On the rare
occasion you do take the laptop out, you may find its battery indicator
trickles down faster than a shot of a particularly potent beverage, or
simply lies to you, and runs out of juice when it’s reporting that there’s
still 20% of battery left in the tank.
Some manufacturers ship their laptops with utilities which
allow you to alter the battery charge threshold. This, for example,
will set the battery to only start charging when below 85% of
power and stop at 90%. This will crimp short-term battery life but
improve its long-term lifespan. Look for utilities such as HP Support
Assistant or Lenovo Vantage that should come pre-installed on
your device.
Switch off graphics chips

If you have a laptop with a dedicated graphics chip from Nvidia or
AMD, you can fully expect that to hammer your battery life. Most of
these laptops will now have an option to switch to so-called integrated
graphics, the weaker graphics chips that are bundled in with the main
computer processor. Integrated graphics are much kinder on battery
life, although they’re faintly hopeless for playing the latest 3D games.
49
If all you’re doing is noodling around on the web or watching iPlayer,
switch to the integrated graphics and you’ll be rewarded with tens of
extra battery minutes. Look for the Nvidia or AMD utilities that should
come pre-installed on your laptop.
Disconnect peripherals
If you’ve got anything plugged into your laptop – USB drives, a
mouse, your smartphone – they are going to drag down the battery
life. Some laptops have a powered USB port for charging mobile
phones and other devices, and that really will chew through your
battery life, even if you’ve only connected the phone to transfer
photos or videos.
Don’t put the laptop directly on your lap

We know, we know… why do they call it a laptop then? However,
putting the laptop directly onto your 37°C thighs is going to warm
your laptop. That will in due course prompt the laptop’s fans to take
remedial action (assuming your laptop has fans, of course) and that
will take its toll on battery life. Better to put the laptop on a nice
cool table. If it’s unavoidable to use it on your lap, then put a book,
newspaper, or something solid between your legs and the laptop.
Don’t push it!

The more strenuous the task you ask your laptop to perform,
the harder it has to work and the more battery power it will drink.
Among the tasks that are going to sap battery life are 3D gaming,
50
video editing, and photo editing. Watching movies (especially with
headphones plugged in), word processing, or browsing the web are
much less likely to make the laptop sweat.
51
CAN I REPLACE
MY LAPTOP’S BATTERY?
Ten years ago, this wouldn’t have been a problem. Almost every
laptop battery could be removed and replaced simply by moving a
couple of sliders or undoing a few screws.
Then Mr Steve Jobs pulled a MacBook Air out of a slim brown
envelope at an Apple presentation, and ever since the obsession has
been with creating wafer-thin sealed units that are impossible for
mere mortals to remove the battery from. Laptops do still come with
removable batteries, but these are very much in the descendancy, not
least because it gives you another reason to buy a new laptop two or
three years down the road.
It should be fairly easy to tell if you have a removable battery. Look
for clips or a removable section on the base of your laptop. If it’s not
marked as a removable battery, we strongly suggest you don’t take a
screwdriver to your laptop and attempt to investigate yourself, unless
you’re sure of what you’re doing. It’s very easy to dislodge something
from the motherboard and leave yourself with an expensive doorstop.
If you do have a sealed unit, that doesn’t mean a battery replacement
is out of the question – but we would recommend you take it to a
professional repair shop to have it replaced, rather than attempting
to do so yourself.
Before you do that, however, get Windows to run a battery report
to find out just what kind of state your battery is in. To do this, you
need to open something called the Command Prompt in Windows
52
administrator mode. In Windows 10, type ‘cmd’ into the Windows
search menu, right-click on the Command Prompt option that should
appear in the search results and choose Run as Administrator. Click
Yes on the next screen.
A black window should now appear. In that window, type the command:
powercfg /batteryreport
(Note the space between the g and /)
Hit ENTER and Windows should state that a report is saved on

a file path that reads something like C:\WINDOWS\system32\
battery-report.html. Copy that entire file path and paste into your
web browser’s address bar and you can read an incredibly detailed
breakdown of your battery’s health. It’s a godsend for insomniacs.
The key stats to look for are the design capacity and the full charge
capacity. If your full charge capacity is only half of the design capacity,
it means your laptop’s battery life is – at best – half of what it was
when the laptop was brand new. Anything less than half signals it’s
time to consider a replacement battery.

l Run a battery report in Windows
l Check to see if your battery is replaceable
l Take a sealed unit for professional replacement
53
MY COMPUTER SCREEN IS DIRTY –
HOW DO I CLEAN IT?
Gone are the days when you could clean a screen with a can of Mr Sheen
and a pair of your old pants (everyone did that, right?). Today’s computer
screens are delicate beasts, often sprayed with a delicate fingerprint-
resistant coating that doesn’t get on well with abrasive chemicals. So
how do you clean a screen of daily detritus without doing damage?
The good news is you don’t need any expensive equipment – a
cheap microfibre cloth is your friend here. Nor do you necessarily
54
need to invest in these expensive LCD screen sprays that are flogged
on Amazon and in computer stores. Most screen spots and smears
can be removed by simply damping the cloth with plain water.
First, try cleaning the screen with the dry microfibre cloth. Don’t press
too hard – this isn’t the solid screen of years ago, but a thin layer of
glass/plastic with delicate crystals lying just beneath the surface. If
you apply too much force, you could permanently damage your screen.
If that doesn’t shift all the grime, then lightly dampen the cloth with
water and try again. It’s vital the cloth isn’t so soaked that drips could
fall down the screen and into the bezel. Not unless you’re keen on the
smell of shorted electronics, anyway.
If you need to call in the chemical big guns to shift a stubborn spot,
then be super-careful about the screen cleaner you choose. Dell
recommends that you don’t choose a cleaner with any of the following
chemicals for cleaning LCD screens: acetone, ethyl alcohol, toluene,
ethyl acid, ammonia, or methyl chloride. If the chemicals used in a
cleaner aren’t listed, don’t use it. You’re better off with a slightly dirty
screen than one that’s had its coating removed by chemicals.
If you’re using a cleaning spray, do not squirt it directly on the
screen. Spray on the cloth to avoid drips running into the bezels or
over the keyboard of a laptop.

l Use a microfibre cloth
l Don’t spray water/cleaners directly onto the screen
l Don’t press too hard
55
MY COMPUTER’S
TOUCHSCREEN HAS
STOPPED WORKING!
If your dabs are no longer having the desired effect, and there’s no
obvious physical damage to your screen, there are several steps you
can take to get your touchscreen back into working order.
In our experience, touchscreen failures most often occur after
a major update to Windows. Those twice-yearly updates often
require new drivers for the touchscreen, which aren’t installed until
the new version of Windows is in place. If you find your touchscreen
has failed after a big Windows refresh, you should first check to
see if there are any screen or graphics driver updates available for
your device. Your laptop manufacturer might provide a utility that
checks for driver updates. Failing that, it’s time to dive into the
Device Manager.
Search for ‘device manager’ in Windows search, open the Device
Manager from the search results. Now we want to look for two items
in particular. First, click on Display Adapters, find the graphics system
listed under that tree, right-click on it, and select Update Driver to
check if there’s any new software available. Repeat that process for
‘HID-compliant touch screen’, which should be listed under Human
Interface Devices. Your computer may need to restart during the
installation of graphics drivers or the screen may look weird during
the process. Don’t panic, it should right itself.
56
Over-aggressive power management is another potential cause,
with Windows deciding to turn the touchscreen element off when
the laptop goes to sleep and failing to switch it back on again. This
is another Device Manager job. This time, right-click on the ‘HID-
compliant touch screen’ entry, select Properties, and check to see
if there’s a Power Management tab. If there is, uncheck the box that
says ‘Allow the computer to turn off this device and save power’.
If new drivers and tweaking the power management don’t do the
trick, then type ‘troubleshooting’ into the Windows search bar and see
if the operating system can detect any fault with your touchscreen.
Failing that, you might need to circumvent Windows itself. Some
laptop manufacturers put a touchscreen diagnostics test into the
BIOS of their devices. To access the BIOS, you need to restart the
computer and then press a certain key (normally one of the F function
keys or ESC) before Windows boots. A quick Google search (ie.
‘Lenovo ThinkPad BIOS key’) should reveal the key you need.
Once in the BIOS, look for an entry such as Component Tests (which
is the relevant entry for HP laptops, for example). These will ask you
to dab the screen and detect if there’s a fault with the hardware. If
there is, you should be given an error code that will be helpful to your
computer manufacturer’s helpdesk.

l Check for new display/graphics drivers
l Disable touchscreen power management
l Run BIOS diagnostics tests
57
WHY DOESN’T
MY COMPUTER
RECOGNISE MY
MEMORY CARD?
You’ve been to a wedding and taken those never-to-be repeated
images that you’ll cherish for ever. Except your computer is having
none of it. Every time you plug the card in, the computer’s either acting
like it doesn’t exist or is throwing up some random error message.
Cherish for ever has turned into perish for ever.
Memory cards are sensitive things, which is why professional
photographers will use cameras with two memory card slots, one
purely acting as a backup for the first.
Part of the problem is the dirt-cheap card readers that are built into
most laptops and PCs. These things can corrupt a perfectly good card
in no time. Therefore, we’d recommend avoiding card readers as much
as possible. Leave the card in the camera, reducing the risk of physical
damage as you pop it in and out of the slots, and connect the camera
to the computer – either using the supplied USB cable or the Wi-Fi
transfer functionality increasingly found on today’s digital cameras.
If you’ve plugged the card into a card reader and now neither the
computer nor the camera can see the images stored on it, the card
is likely corrupted. The good news is that photos can normally be
recovered, even if the computer shrugs its shoulders and says there’s
no data on the card every time you plug it in.
58
Memory cards (and any disk drive, for that matter) have the
equivalent of a directory or index, which tells the computer where all
the images are stored on the card. It’s often this index that becomes
corrupted, forcing the computer to report that it cannot find any
images on the card. The good news is specialist recovery software
can still find and restore those images, meaning you should get the
vast majority of your images back.
We’ve used Recuva (ccleaner.com/recuva) in the past to rescue
images from a defunct memory card. There are free and paid-for
versions of the software, but you should be able to pluck files from a
duff card without having to using the premium version.
The crucial thing to remember when recovering a memory card is
to keep card activity to a minimum, until you can use the recovery
software. Don’t keep putting the card in new computers, hoping for a
miracle – the more the card is accessed, the less chance you have of
recovering data. Some sites suggest using Windows’ disk recovery
tools or even formatting the card! Disk recovery would be our last
resort and formatting the card is a guaranteed way to lose all images
stored on it!
Generally, when using digital camera memory cards, you should
take great care not to remove them while they’re being accessed.
Always turn the camera off before removing a card and don’t
yank them out of the computer until you’ve safely ‘ejected’ them
in Windows. In order to do that, click the up arrow in the little row
of icons next to the clock, find Safely Remove Hardware and Eject
Media, and then select the memory card for ejection before you pop
59
it out of the reader. This ensures the card isn’t being used when
it’s removed.
We’d also strongly recommend investing in good-quality memory
cards from renowned brands such as SanDisk or Samsung. Cheapo
cards that you can pick up for a few quid on Amazon or eBay are a
false economy.

l Keep the card in the camera and transfer images using a cable
or Wi-Fi
l Use recovery software such as Recuva to rescue corrupted cards
60
HOW DO I DEFRAG
MY HARD DISK?
It’s 1999. Wi-Fi is still sci-fi, PCs come in any colour as long as it’s
beige, and Windows is regularly nagging you to defrag your hard
disk. Now, 20 years on, how do you perform this once crucial piece of
disk maintenance?
First, a look at what disk defragging entails. Think of a hard disk as
a grid with millions of little squares. Your hard disk will try to store
data sequentially – i.e. if you’ve got a digital photo stored on the
drive, it will attempt to put the bits of data that make up that photo in
consecutive slots of the grid.
However, once the disk starts to fill up and bits of data are deleted,
bits of files are scattered across the grid. That means the hard disk
has to work harder to find all the fragments of data that make up that
photo, slowing the computer down.
Defragging tries to clump all the little fragments of files back into
adjoining slots on the grid, reducing the amount of time it takes to
find all those tiny bits of data and making the computer run more
smoothly. Got it? Marvellous.
Now for the good news. You don’t need to do this process
manually any more. If you search in Windows 7/8/10, you will still
find a utility that lets you defrag the hard disk, but it should report
that ‘scheduled optimisation’ is on. Windows handles the process by
itself, defragging disks in the background when it detects the data
has become scattered.
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If you have a solid-state disk (SSD), you might be slightly alarmed
that Windows appears to defrag that – conventional wisdom says
that it’s harmful to defrag them. That might have been true for the
very early models, but Windows will now defrag SSDs as part of its
routine maintenance to help prolong the life of the drive.
It’s generally best not to interfere and simply be glad that this once
dull but necessary task has been taken off your schedule.

l Nothing – this task is now best left to the operating system!
62
I’VE RUN OUT
OF USB PORTS –
WHAT NOW?
In the same way that every household has now run out of plug
sockets because everyone is charging their phones, your computer
can easily run out of USB sockets for all the different gadgets you
want to plug into it. This is a particular problem for laptops, which
these days might have as few as one USB port on them! So, what do
you do when you run out of ports?
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The relatively cheap solution is a USB hub. Much like a wall socket
adapter, these convert a single USB port into four, five, six, or more
different USB ports, allowing you to use multiple devices from a
single USB port on your computer.
However, life is never that straightforward, and there are a few
things you need to check before rushing off to order the cheapest
hub you can find.
First, note that some USB hubs require external power of their
own (i.e. they have to be plugged into the wall power socket). Rule
of thumb is the greater the number of USB ports they provide, the
greater the chance they’ll need their own power source. That means
you won’t be able to use the hub while using your laptop on a train
or plane, for example. Check the specs of a potential purchase very
carefully, as these details are often buried deep in the listings.
You also need to make sure you get the right type of USB port. There
are now two main types of USB port on computers: Type-A, which are
the flat, rectangular ports that have been around for donkey’s years
and Type-C, which are the much thinner, rounded ports that have
become much more commonplace over the past couple of years.
Check carefully to make sure you’re ordering the right one.
In fact, the Type-C (or USB-C) hubs can be quite complicated,
because they can do a lot more than the Type-A. The reason laptops
only have one of those ports is because they can carry a lot more
data and power. That means a USB-C hub might have connections for
an external monitor, SD cards, and regular Type-A and Type-C ports
built into the one device.
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If you’re buying a hub that doesn’t require external power, beware that
it will output very little power from its own USB ports. If you’re looking to
charge a phone off your hub, for instance, you’ll need to check carefully
that it can deliver sufficient juice. Also note that if you’re running on
laptop battery power, the more devices you plug in, the quicker the
battery will drain.

l Get a USB hub
l Make sure to buy the right kind (Type-A or Type-C)
l Beware that some require external power
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MY PC’S FANS ARE
CLOGGED WITH DUST
– HOW DO I CLEAN THEM?
If you’re looking at the back of your desktop computer and see that
the vents have gathered lots of dust, then it’s time to act. Blocked fans
or limited airflow make your computer much more likely to overheat,
and that can lead to sudden crashes, burnt-out components, and
expensive repair bills.
However, poor cleaning techniques can also damage those
ridiculously sensitive components, so here’s how to clean those dust-
gubbed fans without making matter worse.
First, let’s establish what needs cleaning. On the back of your PC,
you’ll likely see air-intake vents which may have a case fan directly
attached to them. If you open the case, you’ll likely see other fans
nestled on top of the processor, within a graphics card (if you have
one) or dotted around the case. It’s a good idea to make sure these
are all as free from dust as possible.
Before you start any cleaning, or even open the case to have a look
around, you need to make sure you have the right equipment. Anti-static
bands are a good idea, as these minimise the chances of you accidentally
cooking a component with a build-up of static electricity. If that seems
like overkill, make sure you touch a metal part of the outer casing before
touching components on the inside, to discharge any static you may
have built up, and avoid wearing socks on a carpet while cleaning.
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Likewise, make sure the computer is fully unplugged before you
start any cleaning work, unless you have a strong desire to spend the
rest of your life with charred fingers and Rod Stewart’s haircut.
Don’t even think about using a vacuum cleaner to remove dust, even
a mini one. They will generate static which could definitely do more
harm than good. Instead, arm yourself with a can of compressed air
(sometimes called ‘dust remover’), a clean cloth and some cotton buds.
Use the compressed air to blow dust out of vents and fans, taking
care not to blast the air too close to components. Use the cotton
buds to remove any stubborn dust from fans blades that won’t come
loose with air alone.
The cloth comes into play to collect any loose dust that may now
have gathered at the bottom of the case. You can dampen the cloth
slightly to help pick up the dust, but make sure the cloth isn’t wringing
wet. The last thing you want is to leave any moisture behind in the PC
enclosure. Don’t – whatever you do – apply the wet cloth directly to
any components.

l Take anti-static protection
l Arm yourself with a can of compressed air, cotton buds, and a cloth
l Clean any fans and vents to prevent overheating
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WHAT IS THE BLUE
SCREEN OF DEATH?
You may have heard of the Blue Screen of Death – it’s normally the
last thing you see before putting your fist through said screen.
Blue Screens of Death (BSOD to the techy elite, who love to initialise
everything) are rare these days, but they do still occur. So, what are
they and what do you do when you’re confronted by one?
A Blue Screen of Death is a hard crash in Windows. It takes the form
of a blue screen (hence the name, kids) and an often-indecipherable
error message. You won’t get a chance to save your work or close the
error message and go about your business, because the crash is so
monumental that Windows needs to restart itself.
Before it does, however, try to take note of any error message code
that is printed on the screen. If you’ve got a smartphone in your pocket,
take a quick snap of the screen so that you can Google the error code
later. Blue screens are generally nothing to worry about – they happen
to the best of us from time to time – but the error message might give
you a clue as to what went wrong and how to avoid such crashes
happening in the future, so do your best to get that code. You’ve got
to be quick, as it will disappear after a few seconds.
Nine times out of ten, a computer will recover itself from a Blue
Screen of Death and carry on as if nothing ever happened. If you had
unsaved changes in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, reopen
the application and look to see if you’re offered the chance to recover
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a document. This will normally appear in a pane on the left-hand side
of the application. If it doesn’t appear automatically, click File, then
Open, and scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the button
that says Recover Unsaved Documents. Word/Excel takes regular
snapshots of work in progress and saves them to a temporary files
folder, which might save your bacon if you’ve forgotten to hit the Save
button for the past couple of hours.
If the computer continues to blue screen, something more serious
is afoot. Faulty or outdated graphics drivers are a problem that often
leads to a BSOD, so go into the Windows Device Manager, find the
Display Adapters section, right-click on your graphics card/chip, and
select Update Driver. Windows will search for a new version of the
graphics card’s software and install any updates it can find online.

l Make a quick note of any error message
l Google that error code to find out what caused the crash
l Update graphics drivers if Blue Screens of Death are persistent
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WHY CAN’T MY
COMPUTER
SEE MY PRINTER?
Your PC is connected to the Wi-Fi network; your printer is connected
to the Wi-Fi network. But can you get A to see B? Can you heck. Here’s
how to deal with a printer that has seemingly gone AWOL.
The first thing to check is that your printer and PC are actually
connected to the same network and both devices are turned on.
Some dual-band Wi-Fi routers offer two networks you can connect
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to at home – one on the 2.4GHz band and one on the 5GHz band.
Most devices will still detect another device on a different band, but
just to make sure, connect them to the same band. (See our question
on why your computer can’t see devices on your Wi-Fi network on
page 75 for more.)
If both are definitely connected to the same band, then it’s time to
dive into Window’s settings. Type ‘printer’ into the Windows search
bar and open the Printers & Scanners menu that appears. If your
printer isn’t listed on that screen, press ‘Add a printer or scanner’ and
try to find it that way.
If your printer is listed, but there’s a little grey ‘offline’ label
underneath it, we need to dig a little deeper. Click on the printer and
select Manage. If this is your primary printer, press the Set As Default
button – this can sometimes be enough to make Windows rediscover
the printer and make them best of friends from here on in.
If not, click on the Run The Troubleshooter link on that page.
Windows will now perform a series of network tests to try to connect
to your absent paper-spewer.
If that still doesn’t deliver any joy, go back a screen, click on the
printer again, and select Remove Device. This will uninstall the
printer completely. Reboot your computer and then try adding the
printer afresh.
On a Mac, you’ll find the printer settings by clicking on the Apple
in the top left of the screen, selecting System Preferences, and
choosing the Printers & Scanners option. If your printer isn’t already
shown in the list on the left, click the + button under the list. You can
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also change the default printer from this screen, if more than one is
installed on your Mac.

l Check the printer and computer are on the same wireless band
l Set the printer as the default printer in Windows/Mac
l Run the printer troubleshooter
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WHY CAN’T MY COMPUTER
SEE OTHER DEVICES ON MY
WI-FI NETWORK?
You’ve got two devices both claiming to be connected to your home
Wi-Fi, and yet when you try and access a printer, a NAS drive, a
smartphone or some other device via your computer, your PC simply
refuses to see it. Short of waving the device in front of the computer’s
webcam and screaming ‘can you see it now!’, how do you get out of
this conundrum?
One reason for this can be devices accessing different Wi-Fi bands
on the same router. Confused already? Fetch a cup of tea and let
us explain.
Most modern Wi-Fi routers are dual-band. That means they
operate at two frequencies: one in the 2.4GHz band and one in the
less congested 5GHz band. Most routers won’t make this visible
to the end user. Your Wi-Fi network will be called something like
‘Dave’s Home Wi-Fi’ and the router will allocate devices to different
bands automatically.
However, that can sometimes mean devices on the 2.4GHz band
can’t ‘see’ devices connected to the 5GHz band. It shouldn’t happen,
but it occasionally does. BT Home Hubs, we’re staring long and
hard at you.
One way to sidestep this problem is to make your router
give each band a separate name. So, instead of ‘Dave’s Home
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Wi‑Fi’, you could have ‘Dave’s Home Wi-Fi 2.4’ and ‘Dave’s Home
Wi‑Fi 5’, for instance. That way, you can be sure both devices are
connected to the same band and so should be able to interact with
one another.
Instructions on how to set this up vary from router to router.
On a BT Smart Hub, for instance, you need to access the router’s
settings from a web browser. This will normally be an IP address
such as http://192.168.1.254. Google the name of your router and
‘IP address’ to find yours. To access the management settings,
you’ll also need the router’s admin password, which is normally
printed somewhere on the router itself. Once you’re in there, look
for a setting that allows you to separate bands – it may well be in
the advanced settings.
If that still doesn’t work, you might try assigning the other device
(printer, smartphone etc.) a static IP address on your network. Every
device on your network will be given an IP address by the router every
time it connects; however, that address can change because the
default behaviour is for addresses to be ‘dynamically’ assigned each
time. That can cause problems when your computer tries to find the
device and it’s no longer at that address.
The way to solve that is to tell the router to give your printer, for
example, the same address every time it connects. Again, open
your router’s settings and look for a section that lists the devices
currently connected. Now click on the relevant device and you
should find an option to ‘always use this IP address’ or something
similar. You shouldn’t need to do this for every device, but it’s worth
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trying if you’ve got a problem device that your computer refuses
to see.

l Separate your Wi-Fi bands and make sure both devices connect
to the same band
l Assign problem devices a static IP address
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MY COMPUTER
HAS BROKEN AFTER
A WINDOWS UPDATE.
WHAT NOW?
Nothing is more likely to send a Windows computer owner into a fit of
apoplectic rage than Windows Update. Not only does it inevitably kick
in at the worst possible time, but it can sometimes leave your PC in
a crumpled pile, incapable of displaying anything other than an error
message. So much for progress, eh?
If your PC has problems after a Windows Update, there are several
steps you can take to get things back in working order.
If the computer can still boot into the Windows desktop, but has
some minor ailment that you can’t resolve – loss of audio, refusal
to see external hard disks, graphics glitches – then turning back the
clock is often the easiest way out.
You have two choices here. You can uninstall the update and roll
back to the previous version. If you type ‘Windows Update’ into the
Windows search bar, open the Windows Update Settings, and you’ve
installed the update in the past week, you should see the option
here to roll back. If not, click on View Update History and select
the Uninstall Updates option from this screen, then select the most
recent Windows Update.
The other, and normally safer, option is to use the System Restore
facility. This rolls back Windows to a certain point in time, but you have
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to have this feature turned on beforehand (it should be on by default
if you’ve never fiddled with it). Type ‘System Restore’ into Windows
search, click on Create A Restore Point, and then click on the System
Restore button. Follow the instructions on screen and hopefully you
should be presented with the option to restore the computer to a time
before the update was applied. This process can take a while and
may see the computer restart itself a few times. Try not to panic and
let it run its course.
If an uninstallation/roll back does the trick, the next job is to prevent
Windows automatically installing the faulty update once more. In the
Windows Update settings screen we mentioned above, you should
see an option to pause updates for seven days. Hit that and hope
Microsoft fixes any flawed updates in the intervening period. To
be fair to Microsoft, it’s normally pretty good at patching borked
updates promptly.
If the Windows Update flaw is so bad that your computer refuses
to get to the Windows desktop or displays a Blue Screen of Death
message every time you attempt to fire it up, then it’s time for a little
intensive care.
With a bit of luck, after a couple of failed attempts to boot,
Windows 10 will throw itself into the blue troubleshooting screen,
from where you want to click on Advanced Options. Here you have
the option to attempt a Start-Up Repair, where Windows will attempt
to fix itself. If that doesn’t work, that screen also contains options
to Uninstall Updates and System Restore, which should be your next
ports of call.
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If you’re still snookered, it’s time for more drastic action. You may
have to try to boot Windows from installation media. Almost nobody
has discs these days, so you will need to download a Windows
installation to a USB drive and repair your computer from that. See
the question on ‘How do I reinstall Windows 10?’ on page 100 for
precise instructions.

l Roll back or uninstall the updates
l Use System Restore to return to a working configuration
l Block broken updates from re-installing
l Use the troubleshooting settings to repair a system that
won’t start
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WHY HAS MY
LAPTOP SCREEN
GONE VERY DIM?
If your laptop screen is suddenly dimmer than the average reality TV
contestant, the solution is likely to be searingly simple or a complete
pain in the hard drives. This is one of those problems with no
middle ground.
First, let’s deal with the easy ones. Your laptop should have screen
brightness controls somewhere on the keyboard – look for two
symbols that look like suns, often on the row of F numbers at the top.
You may need to press the Fn button along with the relevant icon to
make the screen brighter or dimmer.
If your screen is dim when you’re running on battery power, that’s
what meant to happen. Windows’ power management settings
reduce screen brightness to save batteries when you’re unchained
from the mains, but if the screen dimming is too aggressive you can
change that. Type ‘battery saver’ into the Windows 10 search bar and
open the Battery Saver Settings. In there you should find a box ticked
that says ‘Lower screen brightness while in battery saver’. Untick that,
but beware that your battery life will be shortened as a result.
Some fancier laptops have dynamic brightness, which use sensors
to detect the level of ambient light and adjust brightness accordingly.
Normally, this is a good thing, but we’ve seen it behave erratically on
some models.
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If you wish to turn this off, first unplug the laptop from the power
adapter, and then open the Windows Control Panel (search for it if
you don’t know where it lives). In Control Panel, search for Power
Options, then click Change Plan Settings. On the next screen, select
the advanced settings option and then click the + sign next to Display.
You should see an Adaptive Brightness setting here, which you can
switch off.
If your screen hasn’t so much dimmed, but gone a funny yellow
colour, you may have accidentally activated the night mode. This is
a relatively new feature in PCs and Macs that is meant to reduce the
amount of blue light belting out of your screen, which has been linked
with sleeplessness. In Windows, night mode can be deactivated by
clicking on the speech bubble-like icon in the bottom-right corner of
the screen and selecting the Night Light icon. On a Mac, click the
Apple menu, select System Preferences, select the Display icon,
click on the Night Shift tab and select ‘Off’ from the schedule drop-
down menu.
If the screen is very dark, almost impossible to see in a normal
room, then there’s a chance the backlight has failed. That’s a problem
that nobody but the most technically competent tinkerer is going to
solve themselves, so it’s time for a visit to the repair shop.

l Adjust the power management settings
l Turn off adaptive brightness
l Make sure you’re not in night mode
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WHY WON’T THE
EXTERNAL SCREEN
PLUGGED INTO MY
LAPTOP WORK?
The problem with laptop screens is – unless you’ve bought
a supertanker of a laptop – the display is pretty small. Which is
why many people will choose to plug it into a bigger screen if
they’re using the laptop at their desk. But what happens when
you bung the cord in the port and no picture appears on your
external screen?
Windows and macOS should both automatically recognise when an
external screen is plugged in and show the desktop. However, if that
doesn’t happen, you can try a little manual prompting. On Windows,
press the  Windows key and P simultaneously to bring up the display
options, which include the options to extend the display across both
screens, mirror what appears on both screens, or have either screen
turned off and just use the other.
On a Mac, click the Apple symbol in the top-left corner, choose
System Preferences, and then Displays. Here you’ll find similar
options to mirror, extend, and so forth.
If the computer still doesn’t acknowledge you’ve got a second
screen connected, check the cable is plugged in firmly at both ends
and that the power to the monitor is switched on. Change the cable
to rule out any chance of a wiring fault.
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If you’re connecting a monitor via one of the more modern USB-C
ports, you first need to check that the port is capable of carrying
display information. Check to see if the port is marked with a little
screen or lightning icon. If the ports aren’t marked, try plugging the
USB-C cable into another USB-C port on the computer to see if that
does the trick.
A faulty Windows display driver can prevent external screens from
being recognised by the computer. To check your drivers are fully up
to date, open the Device Manager by searching for it in the Windows
search bar. Click on the little arrow next to Display Adapters and right-
click on Update Driver. Windows will now scour the internet for an
updated version of your driver. Screens can go blank or display fuzzy
images while display drivers are being updated and installed, so don’t
panic if that happens – just let Windows finish the job and all should
right itself in the end.

l Check the Windows/Mac display settings
l Make sure cables are plugged into correct port if using USB-C
l Update the display drivers
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WHY IS MY COMPUTER
SO SLOW?
If we had a quid for every time we’d been asked this question, we’d
be sipping cocktails on a beach in Bermuda. Like all of us, computers
tend to slow with age, but problems can also come on suddenly which
turn a once nimble computer into a lumbering sloth.
Here we are going to run through some – but by no means an
exhaustive list – of the problems that can cause a computer to
operate on a go-slow, and tell you how to fix them.
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Too many programs loading at startup
One common cause of Windows seemingly taking an age to get
ready after you’ve pressed the power button is that you’ve got too
much software loading in the background every time the computer
starts. This is categorically not your fault, but the fault of thoughtless
software developers, who program their apps to run at startup, often
without any just cause.
Fortunately, it’s much easier to eject software from the startup
routine than it used to be. Type the word ‘start’ into the Windows 10
search menu and click on the Startup Apps setting. You should now
be presented with a list of all the apps that are activated to fire up
when you first switch on your PC. Switch off any that have no right to
be there or apps that you barely ever use.
Note that there are some apps that you definitely shouldn’t prevent
running at startup, including antivirus software, online storage
systems such as Dropbox, and utilities that control your wireless
mouse and keyboard.
Running out of storage space

A computer that is running close to its storage limit is likely to run
very slowly indeed, particularly if that storage is a conventional hard
disk. Windows uses spare storage space as a temporary replacement
for memory (RAM). But if there’s no spare storage, it cannot do that,
slowing the PC down. A close-to-capacity hard disk also has to work
much harder, meaning the computer will be slower to load software
or access files.
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It’s important, therefore, not to let your PC get clogged with files. If
your main disk is more than 90% full, it’s time for a clear-out.
Windows has a few tools that can help you clear space. If you
type ‘apps’ into the Windows search bar and click on Add or Remove
Programs, you’ll get a list of all the software stored on your PC. Use
the drop-down menu to sort that list by size and then get rid of any
space-hungry software that you no longer use.
If you type ‘storage’ into the search menu, you should also find
Windows’ storage settings. Here you can turn on an option called
Storage Sense, which keeps an eye on folders that tend to gather
unnecessary clutter, such as the temporary files and recycle bin. It
can also delete previous versions of Windows that remain on the
system, although this does prevent you turning the clock back if a
Windows Update borks your PC (see our separate question on how
to recover from faulty Windows updates, page 78).
The Downloads folder – where Windows stores all the stuff you
download off the internet – is another prime culprit for collecting
files that you no longer need. You should find a link to the Downloads
folder in the Quick Access section on the left of the window, when
you open Windows Explorer.
Your system is riddled with malware

PC pestilence is a common cause of computer go-slows. You’ve been
clicking on everything you see on the internet again, haven’t you?
Even in 2020, it’s still woefully easy to download one delicious-
looking free utility and get three or four more sneakily bundled into
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the same package. Ironically, this often happens with free apps that
claim to boost the performance of your PC.
These applications often install adware, which sits in the
background, frequently blotting your screen with pop-up ads. They
install browser toolbars that similarly plague you with ads or redirect
your search engine to some awful alternative. Or these apps sit
invisibly in the background, either hoovering up your personal data to
sell to the highest bidder or running programs that generate bitcoins
(a virtual currency) for their masters.
This stuff can sometimes be tricky to spot and even harder to
remove. The developers don’t tend to call this stuff BIG NASTY
MALWARE that you can easily remove from Add/Remove Programs.
Make sure your security software is regularly set to fully scan your
system, not just perform a quick scan every now and then.
If you see a piece of software installed on your system and
you’re not sure what it is, bang its name into Google. Sites such as
shouldiremoveit.com are also very handy at separating the wheat from
the chaff and identifying rogue files that have slipped on to your system.
Golden rule: if you’re not sure what something is, don’t install it in
the first place. And don’t just blithely click Next or OK when installing
new software. Take your time, read the screens carefully, and make
sure you’re not getting more than you bargained for.
Too many or rogue browser tabs

If you check the Task Manager (press CTRL+ALT+DELETE
simultaneously on Windows systems), chances are you’ll find it’s
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the web browser that’s hogging most of your computer’s memory –
especially if you’ve got loads of browser tabs open.
Some browsers are better than others at managing memory. Some
shove unused tabs into the background, others don’t, meaning those
20 tabs you’ve got open while researching that weekend break to
Paris are breaking your computer. It’s generally best to close any
tabs you’re not using to prevent them gobbling up spare memory that
could be better used for the stuff you’re actually viewing.
Rogue tabs are another problem. This normally occurs on sites
where you’re not just looking at a static webpage, but doing something
such as word processing, playing video, or even running a game in
the web browser. These web apps can swallow memory, bringing the
rest of the computer down with them. A key sign this is happening are
browser warnings that a ‘site is not responding’. Sometimes you can
wait for these temporary glitches to resolve; other times you have to
shut down the tab.
Browsers now have their own task managers to help you root out
the rogue tabs. In Chrome, you’ll find it by pressing the SHIFT and
ESC keys simultaneously, in Firefox you can access the task manager
by typing ‘about:performance’ into the address bar. These let you kill
tabs that are taking way more than their fair share of memory.
You’re in the wrong power mode

Windows has different power modes for different scenarios. If you’re
running a laptop on battery power, for instance, Windows will put
the device in a battery-saving mode that throttles the processor and
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reduces background activity so that the computer doesn’t get so hot,
fire up the fans, and canter through the battery.
It is possible that this setting has been accidentally activated even
when the laptop is plugged in and can cope with running at full throttle.
To check, plug the laptop in and then click on the tiny power socket/
battery icon that’s in the row of icons next to the clock. You should
be presented with a slider, ranging from Best Battery Life to Best
Performance. Drag it to Best Performance if it’s not already there.
You’ve just installed a major Windows update

Every six months or so, Windows 10 is given a major new update.
These are the ones that tend to take an age to download/install and
change the appearance of Windows ever so slightly.
After installing one of these, you may notice that Windows is
particularly sluggish for a day or so. This is normally down to Windows
rebuilding its search index in the background, and there’s not much you
can do about it, except let it runs its course. (It can be wise to leave the
computer on overnight to let it complete the job while you’re not actively
using it – assuming you’re not an insomniac or a security guard.)
What’s the Windows search index? Every file stored on your
computer has to be scanned and indexed so that when (in theory)
you search for a keyword in one of your documents, Windows returns
the correct file in its search results. Every time Windows installs a
major new version, that index has to be recreated from scratch, for
reasons that aren’t entirely clear. It’s one of those pain points that we
just have to deal with.
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Your computer is getting on a bit
Just as when you get to 40, your Park Run times tend to slope towards
a Park Walk, so too your computer’s performance is going to suffer
with age.
There are several contributory factors here. Windows/macOS tends
to get a bit heavier with every update; so too do all the applications
stored on your computer, making it harder for your once sprightly
computer to keep up. There’s also an accumulation of digital cruft
over time that can lead even high-performance PCs to struggle after
three or four years.
Windows 10 has an excellent option to ‘reset’ your PC that can
counter this problem. This will effectively wipe the PC clean and
start afresh, but leaves all your documents, photos, and other files
intact. Despite this promise, make sure you have a backup of all that
personal data in case anything goes wrong during the process. You
will need to reinstall all the software on your PC, so make sure you’ve
either got the disks handy or know which website to download the
software from.
Type ‘reset’ into Windows search to find this option.
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WHY IS THE INTERNET SO
SLOW ON MY COMPUTER?
This is one of those questions that has a million different potential
answers, but when people make this complaint it’s usually because
surfing the web or downloading movies is much slower than they
expect it to be. They’ve paid the man for an ultrafast broadband
connection and feel like they’re getting one powered by a hamster
wheel. Let’s deal with the most likely causes.
First, you need to ascertain whether it’s the internet connection
itself that’s at fault. To start with, we want to check something called
the sync speed of your connection, which you can normally find by
delving into your router’s settings. On a BT Hub, for instance, type
192.168.1.254 into a web browser’s address bar, then click the Status
option and you should get a sync speed readout. If your download
(or downstream) sync speed is reporting as, say, 5Mbits/sec and
you’re paying for an 80Mbits/sec connection, it’s time for a word with
your broadband provider’s support team, as your connection isn’t
delivering the promised speeds.
If your sync speed is roughly what you’re paying for (it may be a
little less, but don’t lose too much sleep over that), then there’s likely
something going wrong in between your router and computer. One
way to test if it’s the computer or router to blame is to run a couple
of speed tests. Download Ookla’s free speedtest app on your phone
or tablet and take a speed reading. Now go to speedtest.net on your
computer and repeat the process. Try to take both tests while nobody
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else in the house is downloading massive files or doing anything
demanding (such as streaming video) over the connection.
If the speed test results from your computer are much slower than
from the mobile device, that suggests a problem with the computer.
If both mobile and computer are much slower than the sync speed,
then it’s more likely a problem with the router.
Dealing with router problems is a little beyond the remit of this book
(we’re not paid overtime, you know). But common router issues
include poorly configured signal boosters, poor placement of the
router, interference from nearby electrical devices, or simply running
on very old router equipment that cannot cope with today’s speeds.
If the fault’s with the computer, there are a few things to check. The
most obvious is signal strength and location of the computer. If you’re
using it in a loft extension or back bedroom that’s a few solid brick
walls away from the router, it may be that the wireless connection
simply isn’t strong enough. You can get a rough guide of how good
the signal is by clicking on the little Wi-Fi symbol next to the clock
on a PC or in the bar at the top of the screen on a Mac. If the symbol
next to your router’s name is not solid white/black, but showing greys,
then you might well have a signal problem.
If it’s a laptop, does the speed improve if you move to another room
closer to the router? If it’s a desktop PC, a powerline signal booster
placed halfway between the router and the computer might help. It’s
normally best to buy signal boosters that are the same make as your
router, but most should work fine and they’re not very expensive –
around £30 for a unit from reputable firms such as TP-Link or Netgear.
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It’s also possible there’s a problem with the wireless radio inside
your computer. Wireless software drivers are frequently updated, so
check that you’ve got the latest version of those or that there’s not a
problem with your existing drivers. Use the Windows search facility
to find the Device Manager, click on the little arrow next to Network
Adapters and look for a wireless card made by a company such as
Intel or Broadcom. Right-click on that and select Update Driver to
make sure everything is bang up to date.
It’s entirely possible that the router is syncing at the right speed, the
speed test results are fine, but surfing the internet still feels like you’re
wading through porridge. In which case, the problem is likely to be
activity on the computer itself.
Malware can sit in the background, using your internet connection
to do stuff such as ‘mining’ the virtual Bitcoin currency, which can
hamper the perceived speed of the internet connection. More
obviously, toolbars and adware that you’ve inadvertently downloaded
onto your computer can cause the web browser to crawl. Go into your
browser’s settings and check the add-ons or extensions menu for
things you don’t want or need and disable them.

l Check your router is syncing at the correct speed
l Take speed tests on different devices
l Check the wireless signal
l Update the wireless drivers on your computer
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WHY IS MY COMPUTER
MAKING A
SCRATCHING NOISE?
There are two possible explanations for this. Either a mouse has
found a way inside your computer – and we’re not talking about the
thing that moves the cursor – or your hard disk is in grave danger
of failure.
A hard disk is a bit like a vinyl record player, except the heads hover
over the platter when reading data instead of a needle physically
dropping onto the disk like they do with an LP. When a hard disk
starts making a scratching or grinding sound, it’s normally a sign that
the heads are coming into contact with those highly sensitive glass
platters and that’s very bad news indeed. Terminal, in fact.
If you’re a wise owl, your computer will be backed up on a daily basis,
meaning any data loss should be minimal. If you’ve taken a more
laissez-faire attitude to backups, then you’re in something of a bind.
The longer you leave that computer running, the more chance you
have of causing permanent damage to those hard disk platters and
all that data being lost forever. However, unless you’ve got a clean
lab, a degree in mechanical engineering, and several grands’ worth of
specialist equipment in your back bedroom, you’re unlikely to be able
to recover the data yourself anyway.
Instead, if you want those photos of last summer’s holiday to
Tenerife back, you’re going to need to send the hard disk to data
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recovery specialists such as Seagate or Ontrack. We’ll warn you now,
you’ll likely be looking at a bill that runs well into the hundreds of
pounds to recover the data and have it sent back to you on a new
hard disk.
The moral of the story is, of course, to always keep backups.
Hopefully you read this sentence before something goes wrong…

l Switch off the computer immediately
l Rely on your data backups and replace the disk, or…
l …send the broken disk to a data recovery specialist
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I’VE FORGOTTEN MY
WINDOWS 10 PASSWORD –
HOW DO I GET INTO
MY COMPUTER?
Memory is a funny thing. You can remember every lyric to Glad That
I Live Am I that was drummed into you at school assemblies, but you
can’t remember the Windows password that YOU REALLY NEED NOW.
If you’ve been struck down by a nasty case of password amnesia,
we’ll show you how to recover your password and then make sure
you’re never caught out again.
The good news is that Windows 10 passwords are these days
normally linked to Microsoft accounts. In other words, you use your
Microsoft email address and password to log in to Windows. That
means you can use the online password recovery tools to set a new
password and get yourself back into Windows, provided your computer
is connected to the internet and can receive the new password.
The Microsoft account recovery page can be found at:
account.live.com/password/reset.
If you’ve managed to avoid Windows’ nagging and not use a
Microsoft account as your Windows login, but have instead set a
local username and password, you can still get back in. On the login
screen, click the Reset Password link. You will be asked to answer a
security question that you’ve provided the answer to previously. That
should sneak you back under the gates.
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If you’ve failed both the password and security question tests, things
become trickier. First, check to see if you’ve previously set up any
alternative login methods: fingerprint, PIN number, face recognition etc.
These will be offered under the Sign-In Options link that appears on the
login screen. We’ll talk more about these in a moment.
If not, pray that someone else in your household has an administrator
account on the same PC. They can then use this account to reset
your password. If not, you’re now in a world of pain. You may well
have to reset the PC entirely, but that will take all your data and
installed applications with it. If you’re properly backed up, that might
not be much more than a minor inconvenience. If you’re not properly
backed up and the data on your hard disk isn’t encrypted, you (or a
PC technician) might be able to recover the data before you fully reset
the PC as a last resort.
How do you avoid this happening again? As we mentioned above,
Windows 10 now offers a range of login options. If your laptop has a
fingerprint reader, you can log in with the dab of a digit. If it has a fancy
webcam, you may be able to use facial recognition to automatically
log you in when you plonk yourself in front of the screen. On any
device, you can use a PIN instead of a password. Any of these will get
you into your system if you forget your main Windows password. To
set these up, type ‘sign in’ into the Windows 10 search bar and click
the Sign-In Options setting, then follow the on-screen instructions.
Another great tool to have in your locker is a password manager.
These store the gazillions of passwords we all need to log in to
various websites and services these days, and they create strong,
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unique passwords that you don’t have to remember yourself. All you
have to remember is the password for the password manager itself,
although you can often use a fingerprint reader on your smartphone
to unlock a password manager’s app.
Note that no password manager will automatically fill in your
Windows password, like it will on any of the websites that you visit.
However, you can manually store your Windows password in the
password manager, so that if you ever forget it, you can log in to the
app on your phone and retrieve the password.
There are many password managers out there, but we’d recommend
the free BitWarden (bitwarden.com), which works on practically any
device you can think of and is both powerful but simple to use.

l Use the Microsoft Account recovery website
l Try an alternative login method (if previously set up)
l Use another admin account on the same PC
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MY COMPUTER IS
HORRIBLY SLOW.
HOW DO I REINSTALL
WINDOWS 10?
In the bad old days, people used to recommend users reinstall Windows
every 12–18 months, just to blow away the Windows cobwebs and
make the system feel sprightly again. Modern Windows is much
better at not gradually amassing clutter, but if you’ve been struck by a
virus, hit an inexplicable performance problem (don’t worry, chaps, it
happens to the best of us), or simply want to wipe the slate clean and
start with a fresh system, then reinstalling Windows still has benefits.
The good news is it’s much easier to do these days. And that’s
largely down to a feature introduced with Windows 10 called Reset
Your PC. Instead of wiping out the whole system and starting again,
as if you’ve just got the system home from the shop, Reset leaves
your personal files intact but clears out all the software you have
installed on the PC. This should (and normally does) return the PC to
full health, whilst saving you the bother of having to restore all of your
documents, photos, and Status Quo MP3s from a backup.
That said… always, always, always take a full backup before
performing any Reset or reinstall procedure. Things can go wrong. If
you don’t take a backup, it will go wrong. It is known.
So, how do you perform a Reset? If you can still get to the
Windows 10 desktop, type ‘reset’ into the Windows search bar and
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select the option that says Reset This PC. On the screen that appears,
hit Get Started under the Reset This PC section and follow the
on‑screen instructions. You’ll get two options – one that leaves your
personal files intact and one that removes absolutely everything. The
latter is a good option if you’re donating the PC to a friend or family
member and don’t want them poking through your holiday photos,
for example.
The Reset can take a while and your PC may restart several times
during the process. Resist the temptation to press the power button
and start again if you think it’s got stuck – that will normally end
in tears.
If your computer won’t boot to the Windows desktop, you might be
able to use the recovery tools to Reset the PC. When you first power up
the computer, look for a message that tells you which key to press to
interrupt the normal startup – it varies from system to system, but it’s
normally something like ESC, ENTER, or one of the F function keys.
When you’ve entered that menu, look for an option to recover your
computer and then, under the troubleshooting menu, you should find
the option to Reset your PC. It will work as above.
If you can’t even get to that screen, a full reinstall might be in
order. To do this you’re going to need a sizeable USB memory stick
(at least 8GB) and another computer. Go to the Microsoft website at
bit.ly/32sCoIv and follow the instructions for downloading and
installing the Windows 10 installation media on another PC.
Once that process has completed, you need to plug that USB drive
into your broken computer and hopefully it will boot into the Windows
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setup tool. If it doesn’t, switch the PC off and on again and try entering
the BIOS menu (Google your computer’s model name and ‘BIOS key’
to find out which key does this). Look for boot or startup options and
then select removable USB drive as the device to boot from first.
Restart the PC and it should boot from the USB drive.
Note, this reinstallation process will wipe everything from your PC
and give you a completely clean install. If there are photos, documents,
or other vital files on that PC that you don’t have backed up, then it’s
worth seeking professional help to see whether you can recover that
data before wiping and starting afresh.

l Backup the PC (if possible)
l Reset the PC from within Windows or the recovery tools
l Reinstall Windows from a USB stick if the above won’t work
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WHY HAVE ALL THE
ICONS ON MY
WINDOWS DESKTOP
GONE MISSING?
Nothing inspires a quick bout of panic quite as much as switching
on your PC to find all the icons you had carefully arranged on your
desktop have gone walkabout. Obviously, it’s nice to get a clear view
of your computer wallpaper, but WHERE ARE MY ICONS?
Calm down. This is a normally an easy one to solve and you won’t
have lost anything.
Drag the mouse pointer to any clear space on the Windows desktop
and right-click. Select View and, in the drop-down menu that appears,
look for an option that says Show Desktop Icons. If there’s not a tick
next to it, then click on that option and your icons should magically
pop back into place.
If it’s not all of your desktop icons that have gone astray but one in
particular, open the Recycle Bin and look for the missing item. You can
search for it by name using the search box in the top-right of the window.
If it was a shortcut to a program, rather than a document or photo, search
for ‘shortcut’ and you should get a list of all the deleted shortcuts.
If you need to create a new program shortcut on your desktop,
search for the program in the Windows search bar, and then drag the
program from the Start menu to the desktop, where a new shortcut
(or link, as Windows now seems to call it) will be created.
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If an icon’s image has gone walkabout, try right-clicking on an empty
space on the desktop and selecting Refresh – this redraws the page
and will hopefully return the icon back to its former glory.

l Right-click on desktop, select View, and then Show
Desktop Icons
l Look for missing icons in Recycle Bin
l Create a new shortcut by dragging from Start menu
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10 WAYS YOU CAN BREAK
YOUR COMPUTER
ALL BY YOURSELF
1. Not uninstalling programs properly
There is a way to uninstall software from a Windows computer, and
that way is NOT to navigate to the Program Files folder on your C: drive
and delete the folder of the app in question. That’s the way to leave a
whole heap of files behind and be forced to dismiss error messages
every time you switch on your computer. Search ‘remove programs’ in
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the Windows search bar and use the Add/Remove Programs facility
to uninstall software properly. Your computer is not an iPad, so you
need to do it this longer way around.
2. Turning on very cold laptops

This is a peculiarly British problem, but we’ve lost count of the
number of times we’ve seen people take a laptop out of their bag
on a bitterly cold day and then switch it on immediately. That’s a
guaranteed way to generate condensation on your screen and the
internal components – computers and moisture are not a good mix.
Leave the laptop to acclimatise to room temperature for 10–15
minutes before switching it on.
3. Downloading ‘freebies’ from dodgy sites

Everyone loves a freebie and there’s plenty of good, reputable free
software out there. But there’s an awful lot of shysterware too, which
installs spyware, adware, or unwanted applications on your machine
with it. Don’t download just anything you find online and assume your
security software will take care of any nastiness (see point 6). Check
reviews, Google the software’s name, and make sure you know what
you’re downloading on your PC before you press the Install button.
4. Answering a phone call from Microsoft

‘Hello, I’m calling from Microsoft’s support team, we have a
discovered a virus on your computer.’ No, no you haven’t. What you
have discovered is a way to con people into installing software on
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their PC which will eventually rob them blind. If you get a phone call
from Microsoft, your broadband provider, or anyone else trying to
convince you to install some software or to visit a certain website,
hang up. Legitimate companies simply do not make these calls.
5. Installing fix-it utilities

Your computer is running so slowly, you’re beginning to look longingly
at abacuses. Naturally enough, you download a Guaranteed To Make
Your Computer 634% Faster application over the internet… and it’s
made your PC even slower than it was in the first place. Most fix-it
utilities aren’t worth the time of day. Most will simply repeat jobs that
the operating system does already, some will make your PC worse.
Think of a phrase involving barge poles and apply.
6. Run without security software

You may think you’re smart enough not to open iffy attachments or
visit dodgy websites, and are thus immune from malware, but this
isn’t 1998. Malware has evolved to the point where you don’t need to
do something actively dumb to get yourself infected. Even reputable
websites can have code injected into their ads that infect your PC,
without them or you ever knowing. Windows 10 has baked-in security
software that’s perfectly fine and doesn’t slow your PC. Don’t be a
spanner and switch it off.
7. Powering down during Windows updates

This isn’t as critical as it used to be – Microsoft has built tools that
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can recover an interrupted update – but it’s still far from a good idea
to power down the computer during an update. Don’t be fooled by a
progress bar that hasn’t moved in a good while. Knotty parts of an
update can take a while and leave you staring at messages such as
‘83% installed’ for half an hour or so. Only if there’s no movement for
hours on end, should you bite the bullet and press the power button.
Laptop users – make sure you’re plugged in before starting an update
and don’t pull the cord until it’s done.
8. Tinkering with the Registry

There are a lot on online advice sites that will show you how to
solve problems by editing the Windows Registry. The Registry is a
database of configuration settings and it’s not something that should
be meddled with lightly, because if you mess something up here,
Windows itself might not start. If you’re confident you know what
you’re doing, at least make sure you take a backup of the Registry, so
that if something does go skew-whiff, you can put it back.
9. Getting in over your head

Computers are complex beasts. Even (ahem) internationally
renowned tech book authors sometimes look at a screen, scratch
their head, and slide off to the pub. The general rule of thumb is that if
you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t fiddle with it. The ‘what harm
can it do?’ attitude has borked many a good computer. Professional
help is often cheaper than a new PC.
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10. Giving the kids admin rights
It’s dead easy to set up different user accounts on a PC – just search
for ‘add user’ in the Windows search bar and follow the instructions.
Don’t let kids roam on the same account you use, as the main
account has admin rights, allowing you to install software, meddle
with settings, even reset the whole PC. When you try and add a
Windows 10 account, you’ll be asked if it’s for an adult or a child –
select child and you can limit which apps they can use, set screen-
time limits, and generally keep the PC-wreckers under control.
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HOW DO I MAKE
MY LAPTOP FANS
LESS NOISY?
When you’re in the zone and trying to bash out the final, say, 15,000
words of a book that has to be in next week (gulp), the last thing you
want is the distraction of your laptop fans wheezing like Hal with a
heavy cold. But there are safe ways to banish that fan noise and not-
so-safe methods. Here’s how to do it.
One of the easiest ways to cut down on the fan noise is to change
your power plan. We mentioned this before in the section about ‘why
is my computer so slow’ (see page 85), but this time we’re using
the power plan to crimp performance when the laptop is plugged in
instead of boosting it.
Why? Well, 90% of what most people do on their computer doesn’t
require maximum processing power. Web browsing, word processing,
the odd email doesn’t need the processor running at full pelt, which
heats up the system and forces the fans to kick in. To change the
power mode in Windows, click on the little plug/battery icon in the
bottom right-hand corner, and move the slider from ‘Best performance’
to ‘Better performance’. If you’re doing some heavy lifting – such as
video editing or gaming – you can always move it back, but if you
want to hear less fan noise, this is one way to achieve it.
Another way to limit fan noise is to change what the laptop is placed
upon. Your lap is, ironically, about the worst place for it, because your
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thighs are two massive heat conductors (yes, we say that to all the
girls). Likewise, don’t place the laptop on a quilt, sofa, or any other
insulating surface.
There are cheap (sub £20) stands that you can buy for laptops
which lift the base off a flat surface, improving the airflow and not
blocking any vents that may reside on the base of your laptop. They
might be worth a shot if you’re constantly battling fan noise and often
use your laptop at a desk.
One trick we would definitely not recommend is to use software to
reduce your fan speed. There are apps such as SpeedFan (Windows)
and smcFanControl (Mac) that you can use to manually control
the speed of your fans. However, these are intended for enthusiast
tinkerers, the kind of people who ‘overclock’ the speed of their
processors to eke out maximum performance. If you attempt to
reduce the speed of your fans manually and don’t really know what
you’re doing, there’s every likelihood that your computer will overheat,
crash, and (literally) burn.

l Drop back from maximum performance in the power plan
l Buy a cheap laptop stand
l Don’t manually tinker with fan speeds!
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WHEN I SWITCH ON MY
COMPUTER, I SEE A
DEMAND FOR MONEY TO
GIVE ME MY FILES BACK.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Malware has got nastier and nastier over the years, and these kinds
of ‘ransomware’ attacks are horrible.
If you’re lucky, it’s just a chancer who’s trying to get you to pay
without doing any real damage to your computer; if you’re not, they’ve
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encrypted your files and there may be no guaranteed way of getting
them back.
There are many different types of ransomware and it’s impossible
to give advice that can cover all eventualities. If you’ve been the victim
of a ransomware attack and you feel you’re in over your head when
applying some of the remedies below, then seek professional help.
You can do greater damage if you get it wrong.
Our primary piece of advice would be don’t pay the ransom. Yes,
there are certainly many cases where paying a ransom has returned
the victim’s files, but there’s no guarantee it will. They could take your
money and run. Worse, you don’t know what the attackers have left
behind on your computer. Will they repeat the trick in six months’
time, knowing they’ve got someone here who’s willing to pay? Don’t
give into the temptation.
The first thing to ascertain is how bad the attack is. If you can get
past or close the ransom screen and open the files on your computer,
that’s normally a good sign. That’s usually an indication that the
attacker was bluffing and hasn’t encrypted your files. It may just be
a pop-up that’s appeared from a website or it may be something
deeper – try performing a full scan of your system with your antivirus
software to see if it detects anything nasty installed.
If you can’t get past the screen or cannot open files on your
computer (such as photos and documents), then it’s likely to be one
of the nastier variants.
At this point, the next thing to do is to disconnect your computer
from the internet/home Wi-Fi so that you don’t infect any other
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machines on the same network. If there’s a ransom note or warning
message on the screen, use your smartphone to take a photo of it for
future reference.
If you have a full, up-to-date backup of your infected PC, our
strong advice would be to wipe your PC clean by reinstalling
Windows from scratch. (See the question on how do I reinstall
Windows on page 100). That way you can be sure nothing nasty
is left on your system. Just make sure you check the backup on
another system first and ensure the ransomware hasn’t infiltrated
the backup too.
If your files have been encrypted, but you can get past the warning
screen, then you can try downloading a decryptor that reverses the
encryption of your files. Visit nomoreransom.org on your smartphone
or another uninfected device, then enter any website address or
bitcoin address the ransomware is asking you to send money to in
the box provided. If the ransomware demand matches one on the
site’s database, you may be able to download a decryptor that puts
all your files back to normal. Even if the decryptor works, run your
antivirus software to make sure all traces of the ransomware are
removed. We’d even be tempted to wipe clean and start again once
we had a full backup, just to be sure.
Some ransomware encrypts files and then deletes the original
copies. If you can’t find a decryptor and have used antivirus software
to remove the malware from your system, try running software such
as Shadow Explorer (shadowexplorer.com), which can recover
deleted files.
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If none of that works and you don’t have an adequate backup,
seek professional help before throwing in the towel and wiping
the computer.

l Check whether you can still open files
l Restore your PC from a backup
l See if you can download a decryptor or revive deleted files
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WHY AM I GETTING
A ‘THIS APP NEEDS
TO BE UPDATED’
ERROR ON MY MAC?
Buckle up, folks. This one’s going to get a wee bit geeky, about as
geeky as we get in this book, because it’s necessary to know the
background to understand why you’re getting this error message.
Around 2005, Apple (and other computer manufacturers) started
the shift towards 64-bit hardware. 64-bit processors are hugely more
powerful than the 32-bit processors that went before them, and allow
the computer to use greater quantities of memory (RAM), among
other benefits.
To take maximum advantage of the 64-bit hardware, both the
operating system and the applications for it ideally need to be written
in 64-bit code. But because there were still so many 32-bit systems
out there, we’ve been gradually shifting from 32-bit to 64-bit software
over the past 15 years. 64-bit machines can run old 32-bit software,
but it’s not as efficient as running 64-bit code.
Apple first shipped a 64-bit version of macOS back in 2009 and has
been releasing 64-bit versions of its software ever since. The vast, vast
majority of software written today is 64-bit, but there is some old 32-bit
software out there that people still use that hasn’t been updated.
With the release of macOS Catalina (10.15) in October 2019, Apple
finally reached a tipping point. It said it would no longer support
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those old 32-bit apps, making macOS 64-bit only. Consequently, if
you attempt to run old 32-bit software on Catalina, you’ll see an error
message telling you your ‘app needs to be updated’. The program
simply won’t run.
If you’re lucky, the software developer of the original app will have
since released a 64-bit version of the software, but that will often
mean you need to pay for the upgraded version.
If there’s no new version, the only alternative is to stay on an older
version of macOS, but that (a) may not be possible if you’ve already
upgraded your system, and (b) comes with other disadvantages, such
as a lack of new features and, eventually, security updates.
Unless that old 32-bit is absolutely business-critical or does a job
no other piece of software can do, it’s probably time to bite the bullet
and upgrade the app, or find an alternative that does a similar job.
To find out if you’ve got any 32-bit apps on your Mac, click on the
Apple menu in the top-left corner, select About This Mac and then
click System Report. Select Legacy Software in the sidebar. Any
software listed here is 32-bit. If that’s blank, click Applications in the
sidebar and scan the list of apps that appears. If ‘no’ appears in the
column labelled ‘64-Bit (Intel)’, that too is a 32-bit app.

l Look for an updated version of the app from the same developer
l Stick on macOS X 10.14 or older
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MY COMPUTER KEEPS
CRASHING – HOW DO
I START IN SAFE MODE?
If your computer’s about as stable as a lilo in rough seas, you’re
probably looking for the lifeboat of Windows Safe Mode. But it’s not
as easy to find as it once was. Let us be your lighthouse (we’ll never
use this metaphor again, promise).
Safe Mode, for those unfamiliar with its work, is a mode that strips
down the operating system to its bare basics, limiting access to
connected devices, installed software and even the internet. The idea
is that if you’ve run into a problem that keeps causing your computer to
fall over, you boot into Safe Mode to see if it’s an inherent problem with
the computer itself or something you’ve recently plugged in or installed.
If the computer is stable in Safe Mode, you can start trying to diagnose
the problem by, for example, disconnecting recently added devices,
uninstalling software, or reversing updates to Windows or drivers.
In Windows 10, there are two versions of Safe Mode: bog-standard
Safe Mode and Safe Mode With Networking, which leaves the internet
connection intact. That can be handy if you need to download updated
drivers for a device, for example.
You get to both via the same method. If you’re able to keep Windows
running for at least a minute or two, go to Settings, select Update &
Security, and click the Recovery option. Under Advanced Startup, select
Restart Now (obviously make sure you’ve saved any unsaved work first!).
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When your PC restarts, you should see a blue screen with three
options on it – choose Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, Startup
Settings, and Restart once more.
Once your PC restarts for the second time, you’ll be given a list of
options. Press the 4 key on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode or
press 5 for Safe Mode with Networking.
If your PC can’t stand up in Windows long enough to fiddle with the
Settings menu, go to this Microsoft support page for instructions on
how to boot into Safe Mode from the sign-in screen or if you can’t get
anything but a black or blank screen: bit.ly/34QnPQA.
Once you’re in Safe Mode, don’t be alarmed if your graphics look
all blurry, or external monitors or devices don’t work. That’s what’s
meant to happen. Once you’ve finished in Safe Mode, simply restart
the PC as normal and it should go back to full-blown Windows so you
can see if you’ve managed to fix your problem.
Macs also have a Safe Mode – called Safe Boot just to be typically
different. To access this, all you need do is hold down the SHIFT key
while the computer boots up. You can let go of the SHIFT key once
you see the Apple logo and a progress bar appear on screen. Once
again, a reboot will put the Mac back to normal.

l Access Safe Mode via the Windows 10 Settings menu (steps
outlined above)
l Hold down SHIFT while the computer boots to put a Mac in
Safe Boot
117
WINDOWS WON’T OPEN
A FILE BECAUSE IT ‘HASN’T
GOT AN APP ASSOCIATED
WITH IT’. WHAT DO I DO?
You’ve downloaded a file from a website, clicked on it and absolutely
naff all has happened, except an annoying little pop-up message
has appeared. ‘The file does not have an app associated with it for
performing this action. Please install an app or, if one is already
installed, create an association in the Default Apps Settings page’.
It’s one of those error messages that is about as much help as
a dead wasp floating in your wine glass. ‘Please install an app’?
Which one? The first thing you need to do is work out what type of file
you’re trying to open. Right-click on the file and select Properties. In
the window that appears, you should see Type of file listed, along with
a three- or four-letter filename type (such as .odt or .indd).
Now, the easiest thing to do is Google that file type. In the examples
above, for instance, you’d soon find out that .odt is a text document
that can be opened by free word processing packages such as
LibreOffice, while .indd is an Adobe InDesign file that must be opened
with that particular piece of software.
If a quick Google search doesn’t help, the excellent fileinfo.com
should help identify what the file is.
This message can also appear after you’ve updated a piece of
software to a new version, and all its file associations have been lost.
118
Consequently, when you go to open a certain file type – a spreadsheet,
say, or a certain type of image file created in Photoshop – Windows
can’t remember what software to open it with.
To overcome this problem, you basically need to reintroduce
Windows to the software in question. Normally, the easiest way to
do this is to right-click on the file and choose Open With. A window
will appear that allows you to select which app to open the file with.
If the app you want isn’t listed, select Look For Another App On This
PC and then navigate to the app in question from the Programs folder
that will open.
If that doesn’t work, type ‘default’ into the Windows search bar
and open the Default Apps setting. Now, click on Choose Default
Application By File Type. Down the left of the screen you’ll find a
huge long list of file types. Find the one you want, then click Choose
a Default next to it. Select the software you want to use for that
particular type of file.

l Select file properties to identify the file type
l Right-click on file and choose Open With to find the relevant app
l Or use the Windows Default App settings
119
WHY HAS THE
WINDOWS 10
SEARCH BOX
GONE MISSING?
There’s a delicious irony to your computer’s search bar going AWOL.
After all, where on earth do you go looking for it?
Luckily, this is one of those problems that is (normally) very easy to
actually solve. Helpfully, it also gives us an opportunity to talk about
rearranging that search bar and making more use of the limited space
on the taskbar.
Firstly, to restore the search bar back to its rightful place on your
screen next to the Start button, right-click on any blank space on
the taskbar (the bar that normally sits at the bottom of the screen in
Windows). Next you need to click on Search, and you’ll probably see
a tick next to Hidden. Click on Show Search Box and all should be
well again.
While you were in that screen, you probably noticed another option
there that you might not have come across before. The halfway house
is to Show Search Icon. What this does it put a small, magnifying
glass icon on your Windows taskbar, which takes up only a fraction
of the valuable real estate at the bottom of the screen. If you often
find you’re running out of space on the taskbar because you’ve got
too many programs pinned to it, this is a way of saving space without
sacrificing app shortcuts.
120
Note that you don’t have to have the search bar or icon visible at
all to access Windows search. If you press the  Windows key + S
simultaneously, the search facility will open.

l Access the search options by right-clicking on the taskbar
l Choose whether you want the full bar back or just a search icon
121
HOW DO I GET RID OF
THE AWFUL CORTANA?
Cortana rivals Clippy, the animated paperclip, as the Microsoft
‘assistant’ people would cheerfully throttle with their bare hands.
Microsoft’s Alexa rival is built into Windows, and the only time most
people come across it is when they accidentally say something
vaguely like ‘Hey, Cortana’ and it fires up by accident.
If you’ve had enough of being interrupted by an unwanted voice
assistant, or even want to replace Cortana with the much more
122
useful Alexa, here’s how to do it. First, some good news. Microsoft
has now decided to ‘de-emphasise’ Cortana, making her more of an
app than a built-in part of Windows. So, in Windows 10 version 2004
onwards, you have to actively sign into the Cortana app before the
voice commands kick in.
If you’re still running an older version of Windows 10 and want to
stop Cortana chirping up, type ‘Cortana’ into the Windows 10 search
bar and click on Cortana Permissions. Now click on Talk To Cortana
on the left-hand side of the window. Turn off the ‘Hey Cortana’
invocation, the keyboard shortcut, and the Lock Screen option. If
you’re running your laptop on battery power, this will actually save a
slice of battery life, as the microphone won’t be permanently turned
on, listening for your holler.
Now, back on the Windows desktop, you’ve probably noticed
the circular Cortana orb next to the search bar. If you’re not using
Cortana, that’s a waste of valuable space, so right-click on any
empty space on the taskbar and untick the option that says Show
Cortana Button. That should be the last you hear from Microsoft’s
Interrupter-In-Chief.
If you’ve got Amazon speakers all over your home and you’re well
used to conversing with Alexa, you might choose to replace Cortana
with Alexa instead. To do that, go to the Windows Store and download
the free Alexa app.
When you first fire up the app, you’ll be given the option to turn on
hands-free mode, which means you can say ‘Alexa’ to your computer
(provided it has a mic, of course) and treat it like one of Amazon’s
123
speakers. The Alexa app for Windows doesn’t quite have the full range
of features that you get with a dedicated Amazon Echo speaker. You
can’t play music from third-‑party apps such as Spotify, for example,
nor make free telephone calls. But most of the features are switched
on and Alexa is a damned sight more useful than Microsoft’s
computerised PA.

l Disable Cortana from the Cortana Permissions setting
l Remove the Cortana button from the Windows taskbar
l Install the free Alexa app if you want a worthwhile replacement
124
I DON’T THINK MY PC HAS
UPDATED TO THE LATEST
VERSION OF WINDOWS
– HOW DO I FORCE IT TO DO SO?
In the good old days, you knew roughly where you stood with Windows.
You had Windows XP or Windows 7 or, although you’d never admit it
publicly, Windows Vista. There was a clear distinction between the
different versions and confusion was minimal.
Nowadays, things are a bit more complicated. Windows 10 has
been out for five years at the time of writing, but the Windows 10 that
first shipped in 2015 is a very different beast to the latest version
that’s available today.
Twice a year, Windows 10 gets what’s known as a feature update,
where new bells and whistles are added to the operating system.
Nominally these are meant to happen in March and September, and
so the March 2019 update was known as version 1903 (third month
in 2019), while the autumn update was called version 1909. So how
do you know if you’ve got the latest update and what can you do
about it if you haven’t?
To find out what version you’re currently running, type ‘about’
into the Windows 10 search box and then click on the About
Your PC option. Scroll down the page that appears and under the
Windows Specifications heading, you should see which version
you’re on.
125
Now, don’t be too perturbed if it’s October and you’re still
stuck on the March update. These releases often slip – version
1909 didn’t get released to the public until mid-November,
for example. To check out which is the latest release, visit
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-information and look
at the release dates.
If your PC is running an old version but a new one has only been
released in the past couple of weeks, don’t sweat too much. Microsoft
staggers these releases so that the whole world isn’t trying to download
a massive update at the same time. It also means the whole planet
doesn’t have broken PCs if the early upgraders discover nasty bugs
(this happens more often than Microsoft would like to admit).
However, if you’re months or even years out of date on a new
release, it’s time to investigate. First thing to do is type ‘update’ into
the search bar and click Check For Updates. This screen should
reveal if you’ve got any updates pending. Sometimes you need to
install minor updates before the big twice-annual updates will appear,
so fetch yourself a cup of tea and prepare for a few system restarts.
Windows will, by default, automatically download and install
updates these days, but it is possible to pause or defer updates. The
Update screen should reveal if you’ve turned either of those on by
mistake, and you can either click to unpause an update, or click the
Advanced Options link and set the number of days to defer a feature
update to zero.
It is possible that an update won’t be offered to your machine,
either because it’s getting on a bit and doesn’t meet the minimum
126
requirements, or because Microsoft has scanned your system and
found something that may conflict with the latest version. In these
instances, there’s nothing you can do to force the update. If it’s a
conflict bug, then the problem may be resolved in time (when your
PC manufacturer issues a driver update, for example). If your PC
doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, then you’re never going
to get a feature update again and it’s time to consider upgrading
your computer.

l Check the About Your PC screen to find out what version
you’re on
l Check Microsoft’s site to find out what the latest release is
l Use the Check for Updates screen to download any new updates
127
MY USB HARD DISK IS NOT
RECOGNISED WHEN I PLUG
IT INTO MY COMPUTER?
We’ve all done the USB hokey-cokey: put the square plug in, the square
plug out, in, out, in, out, shake it all about… and still Windows won’t
recognise the hard disk! So how do you make Windows acknowledge
the disk you’re shoving into its ports?
There are a few things to try. First, open the Windows Device
Manager – by searching for that phrase in the Windows 10 search
box – and see if you can find the hard disk. It might be listed under
Disk Drives. If you can see the drive in question, right-click on its
listing and click Uninstall.
Now unplug the disk drive from the machine, reboot the PC, plug it
back in and the hard disk’s software driver should load automatically,
hopefully allowing you to see the drive’s contents in Windows Explorer.
If that fails, it’s time to move up the chain a little. Go back into the
Device Manager, click on Universal Serial Bus controllers, and then
right-click to uninstall all the devices listed here. Note that if you have
a USB mouse, you will likely lose temporary access to this. When
you’ve uninstalled everything, reboot the PC and the drivers should (if
you’re connected to the internet) reload themselves. Plug your hard
disk back in and hopefully now it will get the recognition it deserves.
No? Then it’s time to take a fresh tack. Right-click on the Windows 10
Start button and select Disk Management. If you can see your disk
128
listed in the drives at the top of the screen, right-click on it and select
Change Drive Letter And Paths. Now click the Change button and give
it a letter in the middle of the alphabet, such as M, that no other drive
is likely to use. For some reason, simply assigning a drive a letter
sometimes makes it visible in Windows. Ours is not to reason why…
If you’re still seeing no signs of life and you’re using a laptop on
battery power, then let’s just check the computer isn’t quietly putting
your USB ports to sleep. Search for ‘power plan’, open the Edit Power
Plan setting, and select the Change Advanced Power Settings link.
Under USB settings, change the USB Selective Suspend Setting to
Disabled for both battery and when plugged in, and see if that makes
a difference when you plug in your disk drives.
If all of that still draws a blank, it may be that there’s a fault with
the drive itself. Try plugging it into another computer to see if it’s just
sulking with your machine or if it’s completely given up.

l Reinstall the disk drive
l Reinstall the USB controller drivers
l Assign the drive a letter in Windows
129
I KEEP GETTING STRANGE
POP-UPS IN MY BROWSER…
AND THERE’S A NEW SEARCH
BAR AT THE TOP OF THE SCREEN.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
This sounds like a nasty case of downloaditis. More specifically,
you’ve inadvertently downloaded some horrific piece of adware that
is blasting you with pop-ups and trying to redirect all your searches
to an appalling Google clone, making your computing life a misery.
The first step is to try to disinfect your browser and disable any
browser add-ons or extensions that this irritating adware has
brought with it. In Chrome, for instance, type chrome://extensions
into the address bar and remove any extensions that you don’t want
or recognise. Other browsers have different means of managing
add‑ons/extensions, but they’re generally all available from the
browser’s main Settings menu.
Handily, Chrome also has a mini virus-checker of its own that
can find and remove dodgy software from your browser and your
computer. Click on the Chrome menu button (the three dots at the
top of the screen) and then click Settings. Scroll down to the bottom
of the screen and select Advanced Settings. Then click Clean Up
Computer, and Chrome will scan your system for any nasties. Whilst
you’re there, go back one screen and select Restore Settings To Their
Original Defaults to put Google back as the search engine.
130
The next step is to find out if there’s any lingering adware that’s
installed itself in Windows. This often runs in the background,
attempting to reinfect your browser if you delete nuisance extensions
or toolbars, so it’s best to chop it off at the knees. Use the Windows
search facility to find the Add or Remove Programs setting in Windows
and then scour that list for anything unfamiliar or iffy-sounding.
This can be tricky, because these malware programs often disguise
themselves as something genuine-sounding, such as Pic Enhance
or CheckMeUp. Look at the ‘installed on’ date next to the program’s
listing. If you’re sure you’ve not installed anything in the past fortnight
and there’s a new program there from a week ago, when you started
seeing these problems, that’s likely the culprit to remove. There may
well be more than one of these programs.
Now it’s time to let security software make sure that every trace
of malware has been removed from your system. If you’re using
the built-in Windows antivirus, search for ‘Defender’, and then in
the Windows Defender settings, choose Scan Options. Select the
Windows Defender Offline scan and press Scan Now. Leave your
system to do its thing – this may take half an hour and the computer
will restart. Hopefully this will clear any remnants.
If using paid-for security software, run a full scan on your system.

l Remove any strange browser extensions
l Run Chrome’s Clean Up Computer facility
l Remove any strange software using Add or Remove Programs
131
HOW DO I STOP MY
COMPUTER GOING TO
SLEEP WHEN I LEAVE THE
ROOM FOR TEN MINUTES?
Computers are like security guards – leave them be for ten minutes
and they’ll nod off in the corner.
Your computer putting itself to sleep when not in use is normally
a good thing. It turns off the screen and other power-munching
components, consuming less electricity, although it will still keep
132
ticking away in the background if you’re doing something such as a
virus scan or downloading a massive file.
Still, if you want to stop your computer nodding off quite so quickly –
or even prevent it from going to sleep at all – then it’s easily adjusted.
In Windows 10, type ‘sleep’ into the search bar and open the Power
& Sleep settings. Here you’ll see four options determining how long
Windows waits to turn off the screen and how long before it puts the
computer to sleep, with options for when running on battery power
and when plugged in. Adjust these to whichever timeframe suits you,
right up to never!
If you’re running a Mac, click the Apple logo in the top-left corner and
select System Preferences, then click on the Energy Saver setting.
Here you’ll find options for when to switch off the display, put hard
disks to sleep, or to put the whole computer into what Apple wittily
describes as a Power Nap.

l Adjust the Power & Sleep options in Windows 10
l Fiddle with the Energy Saver settings on a Mac
133
MY WINDOWS 7 PC KEEPS
FLASHING UP WARNINGS
THAT SUPPORT HAS ENDED.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
Windows 7 is probably the best and most popular version of Windows
Microsoft has ever released. Which is why – almost a decade after
it was replaced with the execrable Windows 8 – it still remains on
millions of computers in active use today.
But Windows 7 has now reached the end of the road. Microsoft
stopped officially supporting the operating system in January 2020,
which means it won’t receive fixes for critical security bugs. To make
sure you’re not blind to that danger, Microsoft flashes up annoying
full-screen warnings every now and then, trying to convince you to
upgrade to Windows 10.
It’s unlikely Microsoft is going to relent with such badgering. In fact,
it’s only going to get worse. So, you’re faced with two choices: carry
on regardless and try to find ways to best protect your now vulnerable
machine, or bow to Microsoft’s wishes and upgrade.
Let’s deal with the first option: bludgeoning on. Even if
Microsoft is pulling up the drawbridge, it’s likely that other
companies will continue to supply antivirus software for
Windows 7. At the time of writing, these included well-known
brands such as Avast (avast.com/windows-7-antivirus) and Avira
(avira.com/en/free-windows-7-antivirus).
134
To be clear, even the third-party security software can’t mitigate
against flaws in the operating system itself, so you are more
vulnerable to attack. But if you have a working Windows 7 PC and
can’t face the cost or hassle of an upgrade, then at least make sure
you’ve got some security software watching your back.
The other option is to upgrade. At the time of writing, there were
still ways to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free. A quick
Google should reveal how, but just make sure you’re downloading
Windows 10 from official Microsoft sources, not dodgy third-
party sites.
Whilst Windows 10’s system requirements aren’t that much greater
than Windows 7’s, it’s still questionable whether you should upgrade
in place. Any Windows 7 system is going to be at least five years
old, likely older. That means it’s entering the phase where hard disks
start to fail, power supplies go pop, and so forth. Unless you pop in
more memory and replace the hard disk with an SSD, the experience
is likely to be sticky – and if you’re performing those upgrades, you’re
getting to the point where it would be more economical to replace the
entire PC.
Another option is to install an alternative, more lightweight
operating system on your Windows 7 PC and avoid the nagging and
security fears altogether. Neverware’s CloudReady (neverware.com)
will effectively turn your old PC into a Chromebook, which is fine for
basic browsing, email, and day-to-day tasks. Alternatively, you could
install one of the more lightweight versions of Linux, such as Puppy
Linux (puppylinux.com) to replace Windows. Again, if you mainly use
135
your PC for browsing the web and reading your Gmail, you won’t find
too much difference between using Windows and Linux, and the new
operating system should be faster.

l Seek out Windows 7 security software
l Upgrade to Windows 10
l Replace Windows 7 with CloudReady or a Linux
operating system
136
THIS BOOK HASN’T ANSWERED
MY COMPUTER PROBLEM.
WHERE BEST TO TURN
FOR ADVICE NOW?
Firstly, we’re sorry your question wasn’t answered – we did warn you at
the start that we didn’t have a prayer of answering them all. But even if
we can’t answer your specific question, there’s probably someone who
can, as long as you know how to look for the answers. Here, then, is our
guide to solving the computer problems we didn’t answer.
137
LOOK FOR SPECIFIC ERROR MESSAGES
Error code X45DYH003 might not mean much to you, but you can bet
your pension that Google will have heard of it. Error messages can
sometimes flash up on screen and disappear seconds later, so either
try to take a photo of any error message code using your smartphone
or quickly jot them down for future reference.
If you punch the precise error code into Google, you will nine times
out of ten find that hundreds of others have had the same problem
and find a solution. The problem is, everyone has their own solutions,
so how do you know which one to trust?
BEWARE OF THE ARMCHAIR EXPERTS

The sites we would trust are ranked in the following order:
1. Manufacturer’s own support site – if Google turns up an answer

to your error code on the manufacturer’s own site, you can be pretty
sure it’s going to work. Be warned that many manufacturers have user
forums, where it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between advice from
the company’s own experts and that of customers. Obviously, be wary
that the latter may not have the first clue what they’re talking about.
2. Technology websites – tech websites (such as, ahem,

bigtechquestion.com) like answering people’s questions, because
it’s a good way to get traffic to their websites from Google. Most of
the time, they’re paying people who know what they’re talking about,
too. Just be a little more circumspect about following advice from
138
sites where anyone can submit answers (such as wikihow.com), as
the quality of the advice varies enormously.
3. Reddit – you may have heard of Reddit for its more unsavoury
forums, but it’s also got a huge community of highly tech literate
users. Reddit is broken down into what’s known as subreddits – or
individual topics – many of which are based on specific tech products.
There’s a MacBook subreddit (reddit.com/r/macbook), for example,
one for Windows 10 (reddit.com/r/Windows10), and one for almost
any computer manufacturer or piece of major software you can think
of. The great thing about Reddit is that readers can ‘upvote’ posts, so
if someone’s given good advice, they’re likely to have a high number
of votes (the number next to the up/down arrows beneath their post).
4. User forums – forums are a mixed bag. They can be brilliant,

especially when you’re dealing with niche products with unusual
problems or error messages. But they can also be populated by well-
meaning but knowledge-light keyboard warriors offering duff advice.
Be particularly wary of any advice telling you to apply highly technical
fixes, such as editing a PC’s registry. It’s very easy to make a problem
worse if you’re outside of your comfort zone.
ONLINE MANUALS
Thick printed manuals are something from a bygone era, but many
products still produce PDF manuals that you can either download
from the manufacturer’s website or find elsewhere online. Google the
139
specific product name and ‘manual’ and see if anything comes up,
but don’t pay for them! Sites such as manualsonline.com are worth
checking if Google lets you down – although it has ‘see prices’ next
to its manuals, these are just adverts for products and you can view
the PDFs for free. Google Books also allows you to thumb through a
huge range of titles, such as the excellent For Dummies series, which
might solve your computing problems.
PROFESSIONAL HELP
Sometimes we all need a bit of professional help. And though the
thought of paying someone to repair your computer might grate,
it’s often more economical than buying a new one. The computer
repair business isn’t as healthy as it once was, because many laptop
manufacturers have made their products much harder for even the
professionals to repair. Still, do your best to find a reputable repairer
– and by that, we don’t necessarily mean the big chains. Check a
company’s Google reviews, sites such as Checkatrade.com, and
even the Which Trusted Trader scheme (which doesn’t have many
computer repairers on its books, but you might get lucky and find
one near you).
140
141
142
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143
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HELP!

THE INTOLERANT PERSON’S GUIDE TO1KEEPING YOUR COMPUTER COMPUTING

The publisher, and contributors accept no responsibility in respect of any omissions

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

CAN I MAKE MY LAPTOP

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

(*Proven may be stretching it.)

What can I do about it?

Dim the screen

Switch off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Don’t leave the laptop chained to the mains

Switch off graphics chips

Don’t put the laptop directly on your lap

Don’t push it!

(Note the space between the g and /)

Hit ENTER and Windows should state that a report is saved on

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

Running out of storage space

Your system is riddled with malware

Too many or rogue browser tabs

You’re in the wrong power mode

You’ve just installed a major Windows update

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

What can I do about it?

2. Turning on very cold laptops

3. Downloading ‘freebies’ from dodgy sites

4. Answering a phone call from Microsoft