Not every computer we work on requires a long and complex solution. Sometimes all it takes is a little patience… And the magic touch.
The other day a lady came in to our office with an older Windows 7 laptop in tow, saying that the laptop just wouldn’t turn on anymore. She said that when she pushed the power button it seemed like the laptop got power, lights would come on and she could hear the fan spinning, but the screen would remain dark.
As she was setting the laptop, the power cord, and that laptop’s battery on the counter, she began telling me that she wanted to make sure that the laptop was turned off, but since she couldn’t see the shutdown button on the screen, she decided to just removed the battery.
Obviously under a great deal of stress and talking a mile a minute, she told me that this laptop was used for her business, and was in a hurry to get it fixed. She thought that maybe the screen had gone out, and might need to be replaced.
She then told me that she had just made the trip up to Grand Junction from Montrose to have the her laptop looked at, since over the past could of days she had taken the laptop to a couple places in Montrose, and was told that since the laptop was older, they couldn’t get the parts needed to fix the screen.
Before looking up how much it would cost to replace this laptop screen, I wanted to be absolutely sure that the screen was the problem in the first place. I wanted to connect the laptop to an external monitor and run a few quick tests, so I put the battery in the laptop, and pressed the power button, and everything came on like it should.
The poor lady obviously surprised by this unexpected turn of events, but I had a funny feeling that I knew what had just happened. I asked if it was still okay to check on a few things and then started poking around.
I asked if he had recently done any Windows updates, and she said that she had, right before the screen stopped working.
I knew right then what the problem was.
I ran some quick hardware and software tests, just to make sure that nothing else was wrong with the laptop. What I found confirmed my suspicions.
It seemed as if there was a bit of a hiccup with a Windows 10 Update, and by removing the battery and power cord, the lady inadvertently did a CMOS reset, which allowed windows to boot up and finish it’s update.
Everything else about the computer was in perfect working order.
Absolutely delighted, the lady reached for her wallet and asked me how much she owed for the repair. I told her that all I did was poke around a bit, I didn’t really fix anything, so there was no charge.
With a huge smile, the lady grabbed a handful of business cards and said that she was going to tell everyone about how helpful we were. I smiled and told her that that was exactly what I liked to hear.
She grabbed her laptop, and bounded out the door.
It wasn’t until then that I realized that I had forgotten to ask her name.
Regardless, helping our clients is the name of the game. If there’s anything that No Ware Computer Repair can help you with, please give us a call, drop us a line, or swing on by our office in Grand Junction. We’re always happy to help!