The Chronicles
March 2011
Salutations dear readers and fellow Laurentian neighbors,
This month I'd like to talk about the three most commonly encountered computer problems which might scare your pants off but which are very easily overcome. If you come across them, and undoubtedly you will, you might be tempted to throw your computer out the window but, don't fret, here are solutions to apply BEFORE you take your computer to the doctor ...
Scenario One - You turn on your computer and nothing appears to be the same. The programs you are used to seeing are not all there and your machine is working in "slow-mo". The very first thing to do before anything else is to turn off your computer, wait briefly and then restart it (or perform a Restart where the computer turns off and on automatically for you). This might seem a bit strange as your computer was just off, but the fact is the restart process helps put all the "ducks in a row" and your computer should now work normally. (Note: if you are in the habit of leaving your computer on Hibernate for long periods, make sure to restart it at regular intervals.)
Scenario Two - You turn on your laptop (not desktop) and you are unable to connect to the Internet. Before calling your Internet supplier and wasting loooong moments with technical support, try one of the two following solutions ... Look everywhere around your computer (front, sides, even back) for a little button that will usually slide from left to right. You may have unconsciously knocked it to the off position. This button is the on/off for your wireless connection. Usually, if the little light next to it is either orange or red then it is turned off, if it is green or blue it is on. If, however, you do not see this button, take a look on your keyboard at the F1, F2, F3... keys. On one of them, you will see a little antenna-looking icon. With one hand hold down the Fn key (bottom/left) and with the other softly hit the key with the antenna icon on it. This should reactivate your wireless connection's internal modem and ta-daaa! you are back online all by yourself! If the previous steps did not work, take the Internet cable out of your wireless modem (or desktop computer) and plug it directly into your computer (the other end being in the wall). If you get online then there is nothing wrong with the Internet providers' service... you can now call for help to fix your wireless connection problem.
Scenario Three - Your curiosity is getting the better of you and you've decided to play around in your computer. Open this, click here, click there ... In all honesty this is what you should be doing to get to know your computer better. And you can avoid any negative consequences IF you know the following: no matter what you are doing, you can always either hit the "ESC" button on your keyboard, click the "Cancel" button in any window or choose to not "Save changes", thus ensuring that none of the changes will be kept. That's right! your computer will then return to its original configuration before you decided to have all that fun!
There you have it, dear readers, hope that saves you some unnecessary headaches ...
Take good care of yourselves,
questions.monamilordi@gmail.com
This article originally appeared in Main Street – The Laurentians' English Language Community Newspaper.
