No More Computer Problems

This is a partnered post.

Computers are everywhere. We have three laptops and a tablet  in our house now. I’m sure when my daughter gets a little older we will have four. The schools use them, we use them at work, the libraries, everywhere.

But they can be or use to be a bit of a pain when something went wrong. Here are a few ideas to save you money and make your problems using the computer better.

There are many antivirus programs you can buy, but there are also several you can download for free and they work just as well. You should have this on all your computers. It’s important. Just Google Free Antivirus and you will get a list of free antivirus available to download. I happen to have Norton, that we bought 2 years ago with our new laptops. I hear that it is outdated but it still works for us and it covers up to 3 computers. With my tablet I just download a free one.

I never used to this. But when I got my new laptop and I was blogging more, I knew I needed to get this done on a timely manner. So the first back up I did requested something 20 CDs and took forever! Then I discovered external hard drives and this makes backing up much easier! It’s super important to back up your files, especially if your store pictures and documents, like I do. I have a ton of pictures on my laptop.

Get free help with installing software and hardware.  Ask a friend or relative  to install a new piece of hardware or software for you instead of paying a  technician $100 or more. I had a neighbor in my old neighbor hood that was an IT guy. So whenever I had a problem I would just ask him. There was this one time that I though I had lost all of my photos from a recent trip to Disney. I was devastated about it. I called him and he said that pictures are never really deleted from your disk. So he kept my computer for a few hours and found my pictures. I was forever thankful and it didn’t cost me  a dime! You can also check your local high school, community college  or university and see if they offer free computer troubleshooting or repair program. They may allow you to bring in computers for their students to troubleshoot and  repair.

Did you buy an extended warranty? Or an extra repair program? Before you pay someone, make sure to check of your computer is still under warranty. My husband’s computer was slow and we mentioned to someone while buying our third laptop for the kids and the guy told us to contact the tech guys and ask for all over system check and an extra battery. We had like 3 months left on our repair program. The extra battery, he said is great if you are going on a long trip and you can’t recharge. Just switch out the batteries.

What problems can you fix without paying?