// COMMON PROBLEMS
Worth trying before you call.
A few things that fix the most common problems on their own. If none of them
help, that is exactly what we are here for, and knowing what you have already
tried saves time when we visit.
01
Running slowly
Shut it down properly rather than just closing the lid, then restart. If it is still crawling, the usual culprit is an ageing mechanical hard drive: swapping that for an SSD is the single biggest speed change most machines can get.
02
Will not turn on
Try a different power lead and socket first. On a laptop, unplug the charger and hold the power button down for thirty seconds, then plug back in. If you get lights or fans but no picture, it is usually the screen rather than the whole computer.
03
Wi-Fi keeps dropping
Switch the router off at the plug, wait a full two minutes, then switch it back on. If only one device drops out, the fault is with that device rather than your broadband. Thick walls and distance from the router cause far more dropouts than people expect.
04
Pop-ups and warnings
Anything in your browser telling you to ring a phone number is a scam, not a real virus warning. Close the tab, do not ring the number, and never let a caller talk you into remote access to your machine.
05
Running out of space
Empty the recycle bin and look in your Downloads folder first, since both quietly hoard gigabytes. Photos and videos are usually the real weight, and moving those to cloud storage or an external drive frees up far more than uninstalling programs.
06
Still on Windows 10
Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 in October 2025, so it no longer receives security updates. It will keep working, but it gets steadily less safe online. Many machines can move to Windows 11; some need a small hardware change first.