How to Report Your Computer Problem

At some point you are going to have a computer problem severe enough to warrant taking it to a computer repair shop. There are a few things you can do to help those guys and gals get your machine back up to speed ASAP.

Be Observant. Pay attention to what you were doing with the computer when the error occurred. Have you recently installed or upgraded your operating system or some other program on the computer? If you were not using the computer at the time, what was the computer doing? Was it booting up or waking up from sleep mode? Have there been any distinct noises? Where were/are the noises coming from? Were any error messages displayed?

Be Precise. If the computer displays an error message, be sure to write down the exact wording. When I receive a call and the error message description is “It said something like fatal error type something?”, it really doesn’t help at all. Write it down and fax it or email it from another working computer if possible. If the computer is making a funny noise, use the phone near the suspect computer so they can hear the noise as well. More often than not, they can discern between a hard drive going out vs. a cooling fan going out just from the sound alone. This will allow them to bring replacement parts with them and avoid unnecessary trips and get the repair done faster.

Be Patient. Off the top of your head, do you know what the C=342 error message in Quickbooks is? Nope? Guess what—neither do I. With all of the different programs in use today, there is no way anyone could memorize all the various error codes and incompatibilities. It unfortunately will take a bit of time to research your error and find a fix. How much time will depend on the software. Some programs have great support communities and the company that produced the software is good at keeping it’s users up to speed on errors and bug fixes. Other companies offer little in terms of support and we have to scour the Internet looking for other people who have had the same issue and were courteous enough to post their findings and fixes to the Internet for others to use. It takes time to read through all of that material to find the nugget of information that they are looking for to fix your issue.

By taking a bit of time before calling or contacting your repairman regarding your problem and following these instructions, you can greatly accelerate the repair process and aid him in getting you back to normal in no time.