Computer Troubleshooting for the Non-Geek

Wow, I can't believe I've been absent from this blog for so long. I'll try not to let that happen again.

My friend Pam is going through what I call "compu-trauma". She is a successful small business operator who contracted with a local firm to provide I.T. services. To make a long story short, they dropped the ball and left her with a system that was non-functional. Over the last few weeks, I've been helping her put the pieces back together again. Her dilmena casts a sharp focus on the challenges faced by small business people and independent workers in dealing with technology in the workplace. My role in her life (and perhaps yours, too) is not the be the "go-to I.T. guy", but to empower her to use technology to the max without having to be a geek. In order for anyone to do that, s/he must be willing to embrace the technology, do quite a bit of homework, and make backups.

The rest of this post is copied from an email I sent to her.

This link will take you to an excellent article for people who use computers. It's about troubleshooting. Through an understanding of troubleshooting, we gain a better understanding of our computers.

View article...

As you read it, accept the fact that some of the information might be more technical than you’d prefer. Just skip over that stuff and use the information in it that makes sense. Just like your car, there are aspects of a computer’s care and maintenance that you want to leave to a technician, but there are also aspects of its care and maintenance that you can do yourself. The specifics vary by individual. For example, some people are limited to checking the air in their tires while some people can overhaul engines. Most people fall somewhere in between those two extremes. Same with computers. Regardless, the more knowledge you have of how the car operates, the better performance you’ll get out of it and the same applies to computers.