April 2017 - Ophtek

5 Ways to Fix a PC Which Won’t Start Up

Repairs and Upgradesoffice IT, power supply, startupOphtek, LLC

Apr 2017

There’s nothing more frustrating than a PC which won’t start, and its impact on productivity is immense. Therefore, knowing how to remedy this is crucial.

When a PC fails to start up, however, it can seem as though there’s no hope due to the lack of indicators towards the actual problem. Thankfully, there are a number of steps you can take to investigate the fault and start forming solutions to get your PC back up and running.

And that’s why, today, I’m going to share 5 ways to fix a PC which won’t start up.

Check the Power

One of the most common reasons for a PC refusing to start up is that age old favorite of electrical appliances: no power. Luckily, it’s also one of the simplest to fix. Just check your power cable or power adapter to make sure it’s plugged in.

USB Drive Plugged In?

PCs can fail to start up correctly when a USB drive has been left plugged into the system; the reason for this is that a PCs BIOS will often be set up to boot up through any USB devices rather than heading straight to the hard drive. And, seeing as your USB drive is unlikely to have the correct software to load up your operating system, this will be why your PC fails to boot up. Therefore, remove any USB devices and try again.

Listen for the Beeps

If there is a specific issue with your PCs hardware, then there’s a good chance that it will make a series of beeps as it tries to load up. Make sure you count these as it will provide you with the cause of your issues, but bear in mind that these beep codes can vary between PC manufacturers e.g. 5 beeps on a Hewlett Packard could indicate a problem with RAM, but on a Dell it could mean a processor failure.

Check for Loose Hardware

Over time, your hardware can come loose and once it reaches a certain point, this can render your PC unusable. Therefore, if you can’t identify the specific fault, it’s worth opening your PC up and checking that the following components are secure:

RAM should be fitted into the motherboard securely
Check that all internal data cables such as power cables and motherboard ribbons are secure

Access Safe Mode

If you can get far enough into your PC to access Safe Mode then this can often help resolve any issues. You usually need to hit F5 or F8 as your computer starts up to access Safe Mode, this will give you access to your desktop and its most basic functions e.g. accessing control panel and system restore. Once in here you should be able to investigate faults with your software and, if necessary, perform a system restore.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

4 Tips to Keep Your Laptop Working Out of the Office

hardwarelaptop, office IT, remote workingOphtek, LLC

Apr 2017

Laptops make remote working a real possibility for your employees, but this also means they need to be maintained correctly to remain effective.

Obviously, any issues with a desktop PC in the office can quickly be rectified by your IT team. However, when employees are away from the office with their laptop, it makes any necessary fixes that little bit harder to implement. And the delay in addressing these issues could put a real dent in your employees’ productivity.

Therefore, it’s essential that you know every little trick for keeping your laptop productive when IT support is out reach. And that’s why I’m going share 4 tips to keep your laptop working out of the office.

Get a New Battery

After a couple of years, lithium-ion batteries struggle to be as effective as they once were. Where your battery would once hold enough power to keep your laptop running for three hours, now it may only work for an hour. And this is no use to an employee working on the move.

Many businesses make the rather kneejerk reaction of scrapping the laptop and purchasing a new one. Whilst this also provides a number of other upgrades, it’s also an expensive move as the cost of a battery will be a fraction of the cost of a new laptop. Not only is a new battery more cost effective, but it will also prolong the life of the laptop.

Always Install Updates

As those employees with laptops will be working off site for long periods of time, it puts them at risk of security threats much more so than those working from a central location. And this is why it’s imperative that laptop users install ALL updates as soon as possible, this provides the best protection from having their laptop compromised.

Protect Your Keyboards

There’s nothing worse than losing a key from your keyboard or suffering a non-responding key, especially when – with a laptop – it’s your only typing option to hand. Thankfully, there’s a preventative measure you can take to prolong the life of your keyboard.

Silicon keyboard protectors are a relatively cheap solution which fit over your keyboard and helps to protect the keyboard from knocks, dirt and grime. And, believe me, it’s a lot less labor intensive than taking a laptop keyboard to pieces to repair!

Prevent Overheating

Whilst laptops are, naturally, suited to sit in your lap, this position should always be restricted to short periods of time. And this is because, nestled in your lap, your laptop’s air vents can become blocked and this causes overheating which can soon lead to system failure.

The simplest solution, of course, is to invest in a laptop stand which will hold your laptop a few inches off the ground and provide plenty of airflow. They’re simple devices which fold up quickly and provide the minimum of fuss whilst protecting your laptop.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

5 Tips to Keep Your Printer Working at its Best

Office IToffice IT, PrintingOphtek, LLC

Apr 2017

Although paper usage has fallen in the past decade, printers remain crucial for all businesses, so you have to know how to keep them working at their best.

After all, paper and toner can be very expensive, so you want to make sure you’re not wasting any of these materials. Additionally, there’s nothing more frustrating than a printer which isn’t working, so, instead of chucking it out the window, wouldn’t it be great if you could quickly fix it?

Well, now you can and it’s all thanks to our 5 tips to keep your printer working at its best.

Shake that Toner!

If you’re running a laser printer then you’ll be familiar with the high costs of toner. However, it’s possible to get more mileage out of your toner and print more pages. Once your printer alerts you that it’s time to change your toner, just take the toner in question out and give it a shake. This will loosen up any solid toner and provide you with a printer which carries on printing.

Inkjets Require Quality Paper

Inkjet printers provide a cheaper option than laser printers and can produce stunning results, but you have to make sure you’re using high quality paper. With low quality paper you’ll find that the ink spreads and bleeds too much, this results in a low quality print which may leave you thinking you need a new printer. However, by upgrading your paper you’ll notice a huge difference in your print quality.

Print Double Sided

If your printer has a ‘duplex’ option then it means that it’s capable of printing double sided. And the benefit of this is that it means your paper will go a lot further. All you need to do is enter your printer’s settings and select the ‘print duplex/double sided’ option.

Keep the Nozzles Clean

It’s always irritating to pick up your printed documents and find that they’re covered in smeared ink. Not only does this waste your time, but it also wastes your paper and ink. Thankfully, there’s a relatively quick fix for this problem on inkjet printers.

This smearing is caused by the print-head nozzles becoming blocked by dried ink. Therefore, you need to clean these nozzles to get printing again. And all you need to do is install a cleaning cartridge in place of your ink cartridge and it will clean out those blocked nozzles.

Print What You Need

You’d be surprised just how much ink is wasted by printing unnecessary data. Take websites, for example, perhaps there’s only one paragraph you need, but when you hit the print button it churns out six pages of wasted ink. What you should be doing here is taking advantage of the ‘print selection’ option offered up in your print settings. All you have to do is highlight the desired text and then tick ‘print selection’ and it will only print out that specific section.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Don’t Make These 5 Cloud Storage Mistakes

UncategorizedOphtek, LLC

Apr 2017

Cloud storage has been a huge revolution in how businesses store their data, but as it’s relatively new, there’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding it.

Understanding cloud storage is essential to ensure that your business is able to maximize the cloud’s benefits, but, more often than not, businesses are making the same old mistakes and missing out on value and performance.

Seeing as value and performance are critical for any successful business, it’s essential that you don’t make these 5 cloud storage mistakes.

Not Selecting the Right Storage Option

Every day there seems to be more and more service providers offering cloud storage options, so all this choice is surely a good thing, right? Well, yes, but all their claims of “the best package” can make it difficult for businesses to select a storage option which is right for their needs. And this can lead to businesses overpaying for cloud storage options which aren’t necessary.

The key to avoiding this – and securing the system which suits your business – is to work with reputable cloud brokers who can conduct surveys on your storage needs. With this data in hand, they’ll be able to search out the best cloud storage to suit your budget and infrastructure.

Not Planning For Disasters

Whilst your data in the cloud is regularly backed up, the fact remains that this storage remains prone to failure. And this means that there’s the potential for you to be facing some significant downtime for your business.

Therefore, you need to ask yourself some serious questions about contingency plans for such scenarios. Perhaps a certain amount of data should also be stored on site to ensure that business critical operations can continue or, maybe, go through disaster recovery exercises to explore all your options.

Not Maximizing Connectivity

You’re potentially going to be accessing large amounts of data from the cloud, so you need to ensure that your internet connection can cope with all the accompanying bandwidth demands. Obviously, networks run much faster and are more stable than broadband, so the enhanced costs shouldn’t be a deciding factor. After all, having maximized access to your data at all times is a luxury you can’t afford to dismiss.

Not Using the Cloud’s Full Potential

Many businesses view their cloud storage as just that, storage. No more, no less. And whilst, yes, it’s an amazing resource for storage, there’s the potential for so much more, but not enough businesses take advantage of this and, effectively, lose value from their cloud system. One of the main benefits of the cloud is that it allows collaboration between remote users and dispenses with the need for sending huge files over email or having to wait to download them.

Not Realizing Any Maintenance is Required

With the cloud out of sight, it may almost feel, at times, that it’s also out of mind. However, maintenance is still an essential part of working with cloud storage. Your IT providers will still need to work closely with the providers to ensure connections are maintained and be ready to run diagnostic tests. And this is why it’s essential that your IT providers are involved with the implementation of the system from the very moment you start shopping around.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Monthly Archives: April 2017