Everyone has computer problems, but not everyone has an IT guy as a close friend or relative to fix all their problems. That’s why we wanted to make an article answering the question “How do you fix a computer yourself?”
There’s no reason to be frustrated or give up on your relaxing weekend because your computer’s broken. A lot of issues can be resolved with a few basic troubleshooting steps or quick fixes that are commonly known.
Top Three Problems with Macs and How to Fix Them
Since there are so many articles about PCs, we’d like to discuss the top three problems that happen to Mac users and how to fix them. If you’re bumping into Wi-Fi issues, frozen programs, a gray screen, or a blue screen you’ve come to the right place!
1. Issues with Known Wi-Fi Connection
Sometimes users will be at home and their Macbook Pro tells them that it has no internet even though they have connected to their home Wi-Fi thousands of times with no issue. This is a common issue that users call in about. Luckily, there is an easy and quick solution!
Users can just have their Mac forget the network and then let it re-find it. The user will then input their network password again and everything should be functioning just as it should be!
This solution isn’t a permanent fix, but this only happens to users maybe two or three times per year, so the quick fix is all a user should ever need.
2. Frozen Programs
Programs freezing when users need them can have people pulling their hair out in frustration. Many users try to reboot their Macbook every time they have an issue with a program freezing up.
Mac has actually given us a nifty key combination to pull up all the programs that are currently running and force quit the program! This is equivalent to the “ctrl + alt + delete” function on a PC.
The key combination Command + Option + Escape will bring up a small window with all of your running programs in it. At that point, you can simply select which program is having the issue and select Force Quit. This should save you the hassle of rebooting each time you run into a freezing issue.
3. Blue or Gray Screen on Boot-Up
Even experienced IT people panic when a computer doesn’t boot up normally. If you’re running into an issue where you have a blue or gray screen come up instead of your desktop, there are a few ways to fix it.
Step 1: Remove Your External Devices
First, you are going to need to figure out exactly what is causing the issue. The most common issue for either of these screens is hardware that won’t work with the machine. You are going to need to power down the machine and unplug any devices plugged into your computer that don’t require it to run.
Once you have removed all external devices, you should try to boot it up again and see if the problem still persists. If the problem is resolved, you can add one device back at a time to determine which one is causing the blue or gray screen.
The device that is causing the issue won’t work with Mac with your current configuration, so you’ll need to go to the manufacturer’s site to see if there is software needed to make it work. It is also possible that other people may have suggestions on the manufacturer’s site to get the device up and working.
Step 2: Do a Safe Boot
If removing all external devices doesn’t work, then there is some more troubleshooting that needs to be done. For additional troubleshooting, you’ll have to boot the computer into safe mode. To perform a safe boot, you can hold the Shift key down on your Mac while it boots up.
Safe mode is a mode on your Mac where the bare minimum is running to make the computer work. It strips down any potential issues and lets you work on the computer in its more basic state.
Once you’ve booted into safe mode, you can actually move on to rebooting the computer again. Oddly enough, booting the device into safe mode once can resolve your issue. If the problem isn’t resolved by another reboot, you’ll need to boot into a different mode.
Step 3: Run Disk Utility
The Disk Utility is the next tool we’ll want to boot into to see if it’s a hard drive issue. If you’re uncomfortable going this far with troubleshooting, you can always bring it to an IT Professional to narrow down the problem.
To boot into the Disk Utility, you should hold Command + R while the computer is booting up. This will get you into the diagnostic mode for your Mac.
Once you are in diagnostic mode, you can select the Disk Utility Option. Then select your hard drive, click verify, and wait for the Disk Utility to finish running. Once it is finished, if it has problems, you can select “Repair Disk.”
If no result comes up, you’ll want to select “Repair Permissions” and wait for the scan to finish a second time. If anything is repaired by the Disk Utility tool, you’ll want to reboot your computer again to see if the repairs fixed the problem.
Step 4: Ask For Help
At this point, if you’re still seeing the blue or gray screen on boot up, it’s time to bring it into a shop that does Apple computer repair. The problems can range from a bad motherboard to something as simple as a faulty wire. Most of the time the repairs are going to be cheaper than getting a new Mac for this issue.
How Do You Fix a Computer Yourself? Now You Know!
Hopefully, this has answered the top three ways to fix your Mac and helped you fix your own computer. You can always look up other issues on the internet and there are very knowledgeable people there to help you fix your computer yourself.
If any of this is beyond you, don’t hesitate to bring it somewhere with good reviews. Sometimes you can do more harm than good and the answer to the question “How do you fix a computer yourself” is to bring it to an IT professional.
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