I had an experience Tuesday where I tried helping my dad troubleshoot his laptop. It reminded me of a lesson taught in my IS 101 class. A while back we learned about things to consider when buying a device, such as how comfortable you are with fixing your device. Now even further back, my dad's laptop's screen turned blank out of nowhere. In order to use the laptop, we connected it to the TV with an HDMI cord.
Okay, now for this week. My dad needed to download something for work but after downloading it, everything turned black and only the cursor was visible. After some research with a little trial and error, we came up with forcing the computer to shutdown 3 times in a row. This forces computers to try to find and analyze any problems. I was able to get the command prompt up and found the code to start the computer in safe mode, which only allows basic functions. From there we were going to uninstall the program and hopefully fixing the screen. At the time, I didn't consider if the HDMI port is a basic component. Now we're in safe mode, but have no way of seeing anything. The lesson I learned is to think of the outcome, we're not always able to undo our actions. Sometimes a carefully thought out plan is required.
Looks like you are comfortable troubleshooting and taking actions to support a computing device :-) I hope you are able to resolve the issue(s) with the laptop ^_^
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your proactive action to solve a problem for your father. Glad to hear that you were able to run the system in "safe mode" and have the video output appear on your TV through an HDMI connection.
ReplyDeleteI can relate, when we take the necessary steps to correct a problem and missed a small but important detail. Hope you and your father find a solution for his laptop.
ReplyDeleteTroubleshooting is more of an art than skill form. It takes a long time to recognize issues and how to narrow down where the issue lies. It's always good practice to try multiple ways to solve one issue. Try pressing F8 while the computer is turning on to get to the BIOS screen, that might be a good place to start.
ReplyDeleteI dislike troubleshooting, but it is important to know how to do basic troubleshooting if you're going to have a laptop or PC, in my opinion. My daughter saved up her birthday money to get a laptop, and I have been making her deal with most of the issues surrounding transferring her data/music from her old PC to this new laptop. When she would ask me questions, I would first ask "What does Google say?" before trying to assist her further.
ReplyDeleteTroubleshooting is very important. If I can't figure out the issue on my own I usually go to the genius bar at the apple store and those people are pros at troubleshooting Macs. I'm so glad that you were able to help your dad out.
ReplyDeleteGreat job helping your Dad out, if i ever have problem with my computer I always call my husband for help. Because I am not very good with troubleshooting.
ReplyDeleteI've never tired to fix my computer by myself, I would probably leave it a lot worse than it started out.
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