DIY Troubleshooting: 3 Things to Try Before Calling an IT Support Company In Colorado Springs

You’re a busy professional with plenty of important tasks on your plate. Your time is valuable because you’re using it to make a difference in your business. It’s incredibly frustrating when the tech you need to do work isn’t behaving properly. It kills your productivity, interrupts your flow, and can make for an all-around bad day.

So what do you do when your tech isn’t cooperating? Typically, people call IT. Now, we’re going to be brutally honest with you here: even with great IT support, calling IT can be frustrating. It can take a lot of time. The wait is especially noticeable when you’re using a managed IT service and your problem can’t be fixed remotely. If they have to send a tech to your location, you’re going to lose valuable time waiting on that person to arrive.

Here’s the good news: IT technicians will tell you that a large percentage of the problems they fix are simple and don’t require technical know-how to solve. Using a little DIY troubleshooting, you can fix a whole host of problems without making a call to IT. Here are a few troubleshooting techniques to try before calling IT.

When Your Device Won’t Power On

If your problem device is completely dead and won’t power on, check the power cable. Is it plugged into the back of the device securely? And, more crucially, is the power cable plugged into an outlet? Yes, it’s simple, but failing to plug something in trips up more people than you’d expect.

Plugged In, but Still Dead?

If your device is plugged in but still seems dead, it’s time to test the outlet. Unplug the problem device and plug in something simple, like your phone charger, to the same outlet. If your phone won’t charge either, then you have a bad outlet. Try the problem device in an outlet that is currently (successfully) powering something else. Most of the time, you’ll be back in business.

Trace Power All the Way to the Wall

If you’re plugging into a power strip or into desktop outlets or some such thing, make sure the cable connecting those outlets to wall power is plugged in, too.

When Your Device Is Performing Poorly

Before you call IT to replace a computer that’s running slowly or performing erratically, try a simple restart. There may be nothing wrong with your computer hardware. Often some piece of software or your operating system itself has just gotten out of whack. Restarting your machine will stop and restart all those applications. Often, that’s all that your computer needs to get back to running smoothly.

When One Application Isn’t Working

If your device is operating well, but one program or app has frozen, try restarting the app. In Windows, you can use the Task Manager to force close a program, and on Macs, you’ll use Activity Monitor. End or quit the process and then restart it normally. If that doesn’t fix the problem, try a reboot too.

Still Having Trouble?
Contact Your IT Support Company In Colorado Springs

Often, you can get back to work quickly by trying these DIY troubleshooting tips. If these don’t work, contact our IT support company in Colorado Springs for excellent managed IT support.