Knowing When to Call A Tech Guru

Some people jump for the phone the instant something seems to be going wrong with their computer. There are certainly times when a tech guru can help you out of a tech jam, but there are other times when a call to tech support will wind you up on one of those lists of tech support stories about people who can't figure out why the drink holder is asking them to insert a CD. Here are the three instances where you will absolutely want to call a tech guru.

Repeated Freezing, Choppiness and Slowdown

When a computer freezes up the first time, maybe it's overheating. Put it in front of a fan or let it rest a little more often. When it slows down or gives choppy performance now and then, it may just be that it's overworked. Try closing some programs down. If it happens every day no matter what you're doing, call a tech guru because something's wrong.

Random Crashing and Shutting Down

If your computer is shutting itself down completely at random, it may be doing this as something of a defensive measure against viruses, malware and so on, or it could be a hardware malfunction. If it happens once, it might just be an automatic reboot to properly install some software. If it happens twice in a row, chances are it's a real problem that needs to be dealt with quickly in order to prevent any permanent damage from taking place.

Computer Refuses to Start Up

When a computer turns on, but just won't boot up for whatever reason, give it a couple tries and call your tech guru. If the computer just plain won't turn on, then chances are there's something wrong with the power cord or, if it's a laptop, perhaps the battery is dead and the computer needs to be recharged. It could be an issue with the thing just not being plugged in. When the computer starts up, then gives you some sort of error and immediately shuts itself back down, freezes up or shows a warning message of some sort, a tech guru should be able to talk you through just about any common problem.

It is worth noting that no matter how well your tech guru knows his or her stuff, they can't save data that's lost in a hard drive crash or a total system failure. Sometimes getting your computer back on track will effectively require starting over from scratch. If possible, buy or borrow a USB drive in order to store everything that you absolutely need to keep so that you can put it right back on the computer after the tech guys have patched your laptop or desktop back up.

These guys are good, but they're not miracle workers. It is especially important to make sure to call them early on, when you can still do something about the problem. By waiting until your computer has crashed a hundred times or making a problem worse by trying to fidget with the hardware and settings to fix a problem, you only make their job harder and decrease the chances of being able to bring your computer back to like-new conditions. If you know how to fix a problem yourself, go for it. If not, call a tech guru.