Squash Bugs & Save Money: How to Fix Common Computer Problems

In a work-from-home world, your tech is everything. If anything goes wrong, your job is on the line, so it’s vital you get things repaired right away. 

Unfortunately, the perks of working from your living room co meat the expense of an IT department, which means any unexpected breakdowns are your sole responsibility. Of course, no sooner do you take on this role than your computer breaks down, and payday’s too far away.

How can you send it in for repairs or — in the worst-case scenario — cover a full replacement? 

In an emergency when savings are low, online loans offer a convenient option. You can find simple loans online that provide a safety net when things go wrong. If approved, you can take out what you need to repair your tech and pay it back over time. 

But let’s rewind a step. You may not need to take out a loan online to pay for replacement or repairs. Interested? Keep reading. 

How to Fix Your Computer All by Yourself

Below, you can find some of the most common glitches the average work-from-home professional faces and how to fix them.

Blue Screen Errors

If you’ve encountered a blue screen, it may be time to reset your computer. This solution may sound like an overreaction to a slow and buggy computer, but it’s a piece of advice Windows recommends trying every year

Your computer collects a lot of data over 12 months, which can create clutter that drags down your performance. A reset is a clean slate, restoring its factory settings and removing corrupted files, malware, and unnecessary software.

Can’t Connect to Zoom

If you can’t connect to weekly meetings over Zoom, it might not be your computer’s fault. It’s more likely there’s something wrong with your modem or router. Try resetting both pieces of equipment. 

If the problem persists, you may need to replace these items. Both are $100 or less, which is significantly less than a new laptop. Plus, most internet service providers will lease it to you for an even smaller monthly fee.

Slow Data Transfers

Does it take you forever to open a Google spreadsheet, or does your doc freeze every few minutes? 

When it comes to cloud-based apps, you might be able to blame Wi-Fi on these performance issues. Switching to a wired ethernet cable may cut your loading time in half. LAN speeds are faster than Wi-Fi because you’re dialled directly into your modem 

Overall Sluggish Performance

If your computer moves at a glacial pace even when you aren’t opening huge, shared files, you can troubleshoot this error in a few ways. 

  1. Run a virus scan: Check to see you haven’t picked up any viruses or malware that could be hampering your processing speeds.
  2. Accept Updates: Operating system updates provide important patches to glitches and other bugs that could be slowing down your computer. 
  3. Perform a Disk Defrag: Over time, your computer can split up data blocks so that related files are stored in several different places. Defragmentation, also known as defrag, helps your computer reorganize data more efficiently, so that it’s easier (and faster) to retrieve.
  4. Delete Files: If you have an older computer, you might need to free up some hard space for better performance.

If you can only afford a major repair or replacement with an online loan, troubleshoot these errors on your own first. They might just fix your computer for free.