What to do with an old PC

You can do plenty of things with an old PC besides sending it to the recycling centre. Let’s take a look at a few ways you might reuse an old PC.

  1. Convert it into a NAS or Home Server

If you’re running a home network and have multiple users – you, your spouse, your kids – reuse as network-attached storage or even as an actual server may be just the ticket for an old system.

However, it’s not just a matter of plugging an old PC into a network connection and starting it up. Most desktop systems aren’t configured to be effective servers or storage systems. For one thing, they probably use too much power. You’ll want to set BIOS power management to run cooling fans in quiet mode, if that option exists. You’ll also need to set up the operating system so that it doesn’t shut down at inconvenient times, yet run in a low-power state when it’s not being actively used.

Bear in mind that you’ll probably want to run your server ‘headless’ (that is, without a monitor), and sans keyboard and mouse as well. While you’ll need a display and input devices for the initial setup, make sure the system will work properly without them. Having a scheduled reboot hang because the system halted during startup (it couldn’t find a keyboard, perhaps) is annoying, to say the least.

Also, the operating system is likely not well suited for storage applications, particularly for multiple users. While Windows can function well as a storage repository for a couple of users, you’ll want to take the time to create user accounts for each person who might need access. In some cases, you may want to set storage quotas.

  1. Donate it to a local school

If your PC isn’t too archaic, consider donating it to a local school or hospital. Even if it is way beyond its sell-by date it could go to a local school’s computer lab (most schools have one) and be used as a test bed, to take apart and reassemble. Alternatively, local schools might use it for parts, although they may shy away from used gear, given the unknown pedigree or wear of older hardware.

If you donate it to a hospital or daycare centre, consider buying some low-cost educational software packages and preinstalling them before handing the system over. Also, as with selling a system, you’ll want to remove all software that you’ve reinstalled on your new PC. And make sure to include all licence information for the software you’re preinstalling on the old system.

  1. Turn it into an experimental box

You’ve heard about this Linux thing, and maybe you’d like to give it a whirl. But the thought of trying to create a dual-boot system on your primary PC leaves you a little green around the gills. Now you can experiment to your heart’s content on your old box.

Check out Ubuntu, the sexy Linux distro that geeks love to, well, love. The neat thing about Linux is all the built-in support for older hardware, so installation is usually easy. In fact, installing Ubuntu is sometimes simpler than installing Windows. And there’s a wealth of free software for Linux just waiting to be tried out.

If you think you’ve got the tech savvy and a bent for tinkering, you might try creating a Hackintosh – a PC that can run MacOS. It can be done, but it does take a fair amount of effort. The main hackintosh site is a good place to start, but expect a long and somewhat bumpy trip. Oh, and you’ll have to fork out for a legal copy of MacOS.

In addition, a number of true UNIX-based operating systems are available, ranging from FreeBSD or PC-BSD (based on the Berkeley UNIX version) to OpenSolaris, based on the Sun Microsystems version of UNIX.

  1. Give it to a relative

I do this all the time. My brother-in-law has modest computing needs. So I’ll often just hand over one of my two-year old PCs, though I’ll usually drop in a mid-range or entry-level graphics card.

I don’t generally recommend doing this with your kids, though – at least, not if your kids are like mine. They often need as much or more PC horsepower than I use on a regular basis (outside of gaming and photography, anyway). My older daughter is a dedicated photographer, and makes heavy use of Photoshop, while my younger daughter has become a pretty hardcore gamer.

Giving a system to family members can be fraught with peril, though. That’s because you are now the go-to person for tech support. So you’ve been warned: Give a PC to a friend or relative, and you’re now on call.

One thing you’ll definitely want to do is completely erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS from scratch. If it’s an off-the-shelf system from a major manufacturer, restoring it to its original condition from the restore partition or restore disc accomplishes the same thing.

  1. Use it as a dedicated game server

Do you have a favourite multiplayer game? If so, check and see whether it’s a game where you can host a server on a local computer – you might consider making your old system a dedicated game server. Most multiplayer games capable of playing online often support dedicated servers.

The great thing about many of these dedicated game servers is how little system horsepower they actually need.

7 SIMPLE TIPS TO SPEED UP YOUR PHONE

Your Android phone was probably fast when you first bought it, right? Then over time it began running more slowly. This is a common problem and nothing to worry about. Below is our guide to getting your phone fast again. Read on for our best tips to speed up your phone.

  1. Identify the problem

The first thing to do is find out what is causing the problem: an app, multiple apps, the system itself? Trepn Profiler by Qualcomm will show you the real-time CPU load for individual cores, an overview of network traffic for both data and Wi-Fi, GPU loads and RAM usage and more.

Trepn can also produce app-specific or system-wide profiles and contains various methods for displaying accumulated data. You can save your profiled data for offline viewing and analysis and even have performance overlays on running apps. Once you’ve figured out your specific issue, you can move on to the solutions below.

  1. Free up some space

All those photos you’ve taken and all of those apps you’ve installed can take their toll on your phone. It needs a little breathing room to run smoothly and if it’s running low on space, it can start to slow down.

You can check how much space you have left by heading to the Storage section of Settings. One of the easiest ways to free up space is to tap Applications and see which apps you can uninstall.

Tap the entry for an app you no longer need and then tap Uninstall. You can repeat this process as many times as necessary for any apps you feel you can live without.

There are other ways you can free up space. The files you have downloaded are probably still sitting in storage wasting space and can be removed. In Storage, tap Downloads, select the files you want to remove and then tap the Bin button.

Many of the apps you have installed use data caches in an attempt to speed up operations. This is effective up to a point, but if you are running short of space, it can actually be counter-productive. To free up this space, hit the Clear cached data option and then tap OK to confirm.

More files ripe for deletion can be found in the Miscellaneous files section. Tick the boxes next to any types of file you’d like to remove – backups, files received via Bluetooth, playlist files, and so on – and then tap the bin button. You can keep an eye on how much space you have freed up when you look at the Available space section.

You can also disable any apps that came pre-loaded on your phone but you don’t use. If you have rooted your Android, you can actually get rid of these apps, but if not, you can go to the app properties and disable it to prevent it from running and using up your phone’s resources.

  1. Cut back on the widgets

All those widgets you have running on your home screen may be useful, but they also take up their fair share of resources.

If you have any widgets running that you don’t really need, consider disabling them. There’s no harm in having some active, but you will notice an element of slow-down if you have too many running at the same time, so just be a little selective.

  1. Disable unnecessary animations and extras

Depending on the launcher you are using, you may find that there are various animations and special effects in place. These may look great, but they can also slow things down.

Check in your launcher’s settings to see if there is a way to disable any of these unnecessary extras, and you could earn yourself a speed boost.

  1. Close down apps and free up RAM

Multi-tasking several apps makes it easy to switch between different tools, but there can also be an impact on performance. You can quickly close down any apps you are no longer using by calling up the running apps list – press and hold the home key and then swipe away any apps you want to exit.

While you are at this screen, tap the pie chart button to the lower right of the screen and then move to the RAM section. Tap the Clear memory button and any background processes that are running unnecessarily will be closed down.

  1. Restart your device

A quick and simple fix for a slow device is to simply restart it. This can clear out the cache, stop unnecessary tasks from running, and get things running smoothly again.

Just hold down the power button, select the Restart option, and then tap OK to confirm.

  1. Dig deeper

You can also keep tabs on the apps that are using lots of battery by going to Settings > Battery. You can also monitor RAM usage in Settings > Apps (or App Manager, depending on your brand of phone) and there’s even more nerdy goodies in Process Stats in Developer Options – if you don’t have this setting enabled, go to Settings > About Phone and tap Build Number seven times until a notification pops up.

These 5 Things Are Killing Your Smartphone’s Battery Life

Battery life is an aspect of smartphones that hasn’t improved as much as other technology. If you’re a user that depends on your smartphone throughout your day, getting through a full day on a single charge can be a struggle. While there are battery packs and USB batteries that you can pick up, as well as phones specifically designed for their big batteries, sometimes that isn’t enough.

However, there are also things you can change about the way you use you your phone that can help save you some battery life. There are obvious battery-killers such as playing games or watching videos, but some factors are lesser known.

Here are five things that are killing your smartphone’s battery life that you may not have known about:

  1. Screen brightness

As smartphone displays get bigger, brighter and more resolution, the effect it has on battery life can be severe. While you can’t really do much with your phone without using your display, there are a number of things you can do to reduce the damage it’s having on your battery life.

On Android devices, the first thing you should do is turn on Adaptive Brightness so that your smartphone automatically adapts to the lowest amount of brightness that you really need. It’s much smarter than the “Auto-Brightness” feature of Android past. There are number of third-party Android apps that do this, but I’ve found the Adaptive Brightness feature to be fairly effective. If you want to save extra battery life, you can also toggle off the “Ambient display” setting, which will make sure your display isn’t activated every time you receive a notification. iOS has an Auto Brightness setting as well that you’ll want to toggle on.

But even with these features, it’s always important to keep the brightness of your display in mind when in use. The last thing you can do to help is change your Sleep settings so that your phone automatically turns off the display after a set amount of time. On iOS, you’ve got the Auto-Lock setting that performs the same function.

  1. Background App Refresh

The background app refresh feature in iOS can be a helpful way of letting your apps smartly update their save states while on WiFi or cell service. However, they can also suck the life out of your battery.

You can toggle it off completely to ensure that you’re always getting the most out of your battery. However, you can also go through your app list and toggle them on or off so that you can pick and choose the apps you want to be refreshing in the background. If you’re curious about which apps are using up your battery, head over to your Battery settings where you can easily see which apps are using the most juice.

On Android, you’ll find the option to restrict data usage on specific apps in Settings > Data usage > Data usage control. From there, you can choose which apps are allowed to use WiFi or Data or none at all. You also may want to disable auto-updating of apps, which happens in the background if it is toggled on.

  1. Streaming audio

If you’re someone who streams music or podcasts all day at work via services like Apple Music or Spotify, you may notice that your battery life isn’t lasting as long as it did with your collection of locally-stored music.

There’s not much you can do about this (other than just plug in your phone), but you can certainly try to download songs to your phone using Offline Mode on Spotify (and download podcasts ahead of time), which will sidestep having to stream all of this audio.

  1. Using Bluetooth

Speaking of streaming music, you may also have it connected to a Bluetooth speaker or pair of wireless headphones for extended amounts of time. Unfortunately, having your Bluetooth turned on all day is pulls extra juice out of your phone’s battery. In fact, it’s one of the worst things about not having a headphone jack anymore and switching over to wireless headphones.

There’s no way around this one, but it’s definitely something to be aware of as you are attempting to save juice for later in the day.

  1. GPS

Lastly, apps that use GPS or location services can be big battery-suckers. As you’ve got Google Maps or Apple Maps running, you’ll be putting a serious dent in your battery life. It’s not necessary to turn off Location Services altogether, but apps like Google Maps should be manually shut down when you arrive at your destination.

Manually closing down apps is easy in both iOS and Android. In iOS, just double-click the Home button and swipe away the app. In Android, hit the App Switcher button and swipe it away.

10 tips to better your smartphone battery life

Smartphones have come a long way over the last few years when it comes to design, camera, or even processing power. However, we have not seen much breakthroughs when it comes to battery technology –which is critical today given that handsets come packed with mammoth sized displays, multiple sensors, and faster processors that take a toll on battery life.

While a number of smartphone makers offer ‘Fast charging’ and ‘Power modes’ to deal with the situation, a concrete solution is still nowhere to be seen.

That said, here we have listed out some lesser known tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of your smartphone battery.

1/10 Turn off Vibration and Haptic feedback

We all like that mild vibrations while typing on the smartphone keyboard or while tapping the capacitive buttons, however they absorb a good amount of juice. Turning off the ‘Haptic feedback’ will help you save a good amount of battery because we spend a lot of time on typing throughout a day.

Besides, if you don’t really need to get notified by vibration, then turn it off as It actually takes more battery power to vibrate your phone than it does to ring it.

2/10 Turn off “Always on” Google Hotword detection

Turning off Google’s Hotword detection will also improve your Android smartphone’s battery life. This prevents your phone from always ready to listen to your command to perform a search function. Below are the steps to turn it off.

  • Go to Apps > Settings > Google Services > Search & Now > Voice.
  • Click on ‘OK Google detection’
  • Turn Off Always on

3/10 Reduce the screen brightness

If your smartphone boasts an AMOLED display, then applying Black coloured wallpapers will help you save battery life. This is because pixels that make the AMOLED displays only utlise battery power to illuminate light colours and don’t need any energy to show black colour. To simply put, the more dark or black pixels you have on your AMOLED display, the less power it consumes to illuminate them, thus saves the battery.

4/10 Customise which apps can use Location

Most of the apps that are installed on your smartphone (Android/iOS) constantly track your location. You might not want to turn it off while using Google Maps, Uber, sending location on WhatsApp, Tinder, etc. however keeping it on throughout the day while you don’t need location tracking will simply kill your smartphone battery. Turn it off while you are just using your handset for watching videos, sending e-mails, and apps where you don’t need location tracking.

5/10 Don’t miss on Android updates

Updating apps might seem to be a cumbersome task, but it actually helps in improving the overall smartphone performance and battery life. This is because developers keep updating apps to improve on battery and memory optimization. SO make sure your smartphone has the latest version of apps installed.

6/10 Turn on Airplane mode

This is not an everyday solution but can really help you cut battery usage. Turning on Airplane mode will cut you from the outside world but will allow your smartphone to last longer for multimedia apps such as videos, music player or games that don’t need any connectivity.

It can do wonders if you are travelling in a poor network zone where your smartphone antennas consume a lot of power to register on the available networks. Simply turn on the Airplane mode if you don’t want to receive any calls, messages or use internet.

7/10 Remove On-screen Widgets

Android operating system is all about widgets that offer tons of information on your smartphone displays. It is indeed a good thing to have everything on screen, however proves havoc for your smartphone battery. The battery has to supply continues power to make those widgets deliver latest updates from backend servers.

Delete the widgets that are placed to offer information not required throughout the day and still fetch data from internet such as weather apps, stock apps, scoreboards etc.

8/10Turn off Auto-sync

Apps such as Gmail, Twitter, calendar, etc. constantly refresh themselves to offer latest information. This is required if you just cannot afford to miss an important information but also takes a toll on battery life.

Go to Settings > Google account and turn off auto-sync for apps you don’t need constantly updated.

9/10 Doze mode (Android Marshmallow users)

Doze mode is the latest addition to Android OS and works on devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. You don’t need to do anything to use the new Doze feature and basically there are no switches or settings to activate or deactivate it. However you can edit the apps that utilise the battery optimization feature from Settings menu. Doze mode simply works in background on Marshmallow devices and puts your phone in hibernation mode whenever it lies unused for a longer duration.

10/10 Check on GPS, Bluetooth, NFC

Last but not the least; check on Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, NFC and mobile data if you are not using them. Switch off the Wi-Fi if you are connected on Mobile data and vice versa. The NFC feature might get turn on if you restart your NFC enabled handset, s keep a check on it.

Besides, activate the low power mode on your smartphone if you are running low on battery.

Google Is Doubling Down on Building Its Own Phones

By buying up HTC, Google is committing to the Pixel, and forging ahead into its past.

Google officially announced that it would buy HTC. For $1.1 billion, the search giant will be acquiring only only the Taiwan-based tech company, but also the engineering team that designed the terrific Google Pixel. That’s right: Google is buying up the very folks who made its flagship phone.

This isn’t a total surprise, since the Pixel went over quite well. But it is a little strange because, well, Google’s been down this road of buying a company that makes Android phones before, and it changed its mind. Buying up HTC means Google’s flagship Pixel phone is here to stay—and the decision might shake up the future of Android.

Unlike iPhones—which are pure Apple phones, designed chips-to-software by Tim Cook and company—the lineage of an Android phone is more complex. Google makes the Android software (to which your carrier adds its extra bloatware), but companies like Samsung and LG make the actual hardware and, accordingly, put their names on the phones. It’s the Samsung Galaxy S8, after all.

This approach has its pros and cons. Google gets its software (apps and services it uses to sell ads) in front of hundreds of millions of people without having to worry about hardware. And there are hundreds of Android phones: big, small, cheap, expensive, good, bad, something for every conceivable taste. This distribution of labor and flexibility lead to an Android explosion, and Google’s domination of the global market share.

It also means that Google doesn’t have the soup-to-nuts control of its product. That power is part of the reason that for years now iPhones have been undeniably more polished than their Android competitors, and why now, even though Android is slicker than ever, it is woefully vulnerable to security problems. Apple can just send out iOS updates, but Google needs to work with is many hardware partners and phone carriers to make that happen. As a result, woefully few Android phones run the latest, safest version of the software. A truly Google phone, like the Pixel, can fix that.

Google has toyed with the premise before, having purchased Motorola in 2012. But difficult relationships with hardware partners prevented Google from doing anything too wild. It released only two (terrific) Google-backed Motorola phones before selling off the company (though hanging onto some extremely valuable patents) and returning to its “Nexus” program—a partnership between Google and rotating hardware partners to create an “ideal” Android phone.

Google’s latest move to hire the HTC team responsible for the Pixel represents a renewed, serious push at creating the mythical “iPhone of Android.” But such a project will now encounter world that’s totally changed. With its voice-assistant “Bixby” and a growing suite of exclusive apps, Google’s most formidable hardware partner, Samsung, is increasingly striking it out on its own, shifting users away from the Google services the search giant uses to make money even while it sticks with Android at the core. Meanwhile, the Pixel will push its users deeper and deeper into Google’s web, offering things like limitless Google Photos storage, and all-important security updates that come as quickly as possible.

Practically, Google’s purchase of the HTC doesn’t mean a whole lot in the short term. Those folks have been working on Google hardware exclusively for years. But it does mean that the Pixel is likely here to stay as just one of the many arms of Google’s growing hardware Kraken.

8 Essential Tips To Keep Your Phone’s Battery Healthy

  1. Yes, you can leave your phone plugged in overnight.

It is not the end of the world if you don’t unplug your phone the second that it is charged. That charger is smarter than you give it credit for. Leaving your phone on the charger all night (or all day) is far better for your battery than running it down and charging it up.

  1. Charge a little bit whenever you can.

Lithium-ion batteries don’t respond well to being charged all the way up and then run all the way down. They take much better to little bits of charge here and there.

  1. Yes, you can leave your laptop plugged in all the time.

Don’t worry about overcharging the batteries in your gadgets, and especially don’t worry about overcharging your laptop. What we just said about phones applies here, too. And on and on top of that, many laptops (most, in fact) are smart enough to cut the battery out of the charging equation entirely once it’s full. The battery just sits there patiently until you need it or until it needs another little shock to top it off.

  1. But maybe pop out your laptop battery while it’s on the charger, if you can.

The biggest danger to your laptop battery—and your phone battery and your tablet battery—isn’t overcharging, but heat. And with that in mind, it might be wise to pop out your laptop battery while you’re plugged into the wall, if you can.

  1. Keep your batteries cool.

Speaking of temperature, make sure you don’t leave your phone in a hot car all day. Or place it on top of your gaming PC. Or use it in a sauna. Try to avoid wireless charging if you can, because the waste-heat those chargers generate will also bake your battery. Also, beware of quick chargers. While your phone and charger are generally smart enough to minimize damage from high-voltage chargers, a lot of power super fast can generate extra heat. And if you have to store a gadget or its battery for a while, do it in a cool dry place.

  1. Store batteries with a little bit of charge.

If you’re storing batteries, you give them about a half a charge first. They’ll slowly lose their charge over time, and if it drops into the true-zero danger zone, your battery will automatically trip its safety circuit and kill itself for real before it can become unstable.

  1. Maybe go replaceable if you can.

If you’re borderline insane about your battery life, consider opting for gadgets that have removable batteries when you can. For one thing, there’s no faster way to “charge” a gadget than by swapping in a fully charged battery. And if you can’t avoid these bad battery practices, at least you can start fresh by buying a fresh battery.

  1. Don’t let your battery rule your life.

If you follow the most basic rules of thumb—don’t go all the way from full to empty if you can avoid it and minimize the exposure to heat as best you can—you’ll be fine. It’s easy to obsess over battery care, to let charging superstitions metastasize into obsessive ritual. But just remember two things:

  1. Your gadgets and their batteries are designed to keep you from ruining them. Lithium-ion batteries today are better, smarter, and more resilient than the nickel-metal hydrides of yesteryear.
  2. Your batteries are going to die. No amount of obsessive care will save you from having to deal with a less capable battery a few years from now.

How to get macOS 10.13 High Sierra now

macOS 10.13 High Sierra is packed with new features for your Mac, and the final version will be available later today. We explain how you can get the update right now.

At WWDC 2017 we got our first look at Apple’s next version of macOS, which will be released to the public later today. If you want to install High Sierra, the update will be available via the Mac App Store from likely around 6pm in the UK. If you can’t wait you can still install the beta, as we outline below, but given that there’s only a few hours to wait we’d really recommend you hold on until tonight.

Should I install the High Sierra beta?

Running beta software isn’t a choice you should make lightly, as by its very nature the code is still being worked on and bugs will appear – potentially big ones – which could cause you to lose data. If you are intending to put this on your main working machine as the only OS, then we’d strongly advise against it. Yes it’s cool to be on the cutting edge, but there are considerable risks involved when you use unfinished software.

A much better choice is to dual-boot your Mac, so that the preview OS is kept separate from your normal one. If you have virtual machine software such as Parallels or VMware, then that would also be a great way to sample the delights of macOS 10.13 without endangering your system.

As always you should run a complete system backup before starting any kind of operating system upgrade, as things can easily go wrong.

How to get the new macOS today

First, sign up to the Apple Beta Software programme.

You’ll need to sign in with your Apple ID, then click the link to the Mac App Store to download the High Sierra public beta.

The Mac App Store will launch in a separate app on your Mac and display the High Sierra download page. Look for and click the Download button at the top of the page.

If you want to wait for the final version, here’s the step-by-step guide to getting it:

  • Open the App Store
  • Click on the Updates tab
  • You should see “Software Update – macOS High Sierra”
  • Click ‘Update’
  • High Sierra will download and install – it will take a while
  • Wait while your mac restarts

How to install macOS on a dual-boot system

If you go for a version of the High Sierra beta, we recommend installing it into a second partition on your machine, or if you have a spare machine then feel free to wipe the existing OS and go it alone with 10.13. Remember that these are advanced procedures, and you proceed at your own risk.

To set up a dual-boot system you’ll need to do the following things. First of all open up Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility) and select the main drive (usually the top of the list in the left hand panel). Then select the Partition option in the main panel.

Now you’ll see a large rectangle with the heading Partition Layout. Currently it will be a single drive, so click the Plus button beneath it and then click on the new partition that appears.

To resize the partition simply drag the partition corners. The Size box on the right shows you how much space the partition takes up.

It’s a good idea to rename the partition so that things don’t get confusing – maybe call it macOS Beta Test. When you’re happy with the name and space allocation click Apply.

Now find the downloaded version of macOS 10.13 and click on it to begin the install.

When you see the option of which disk you want to install it on be sure to select macOS Beta Test (or whatever name you gave the new partition). When this is done click install and the rest should proceed automatically, with your Mac rebooting into 10.13.

From now on when you want to return to the previous version of macOS (or OS X) on your system, reboot your machine while holding down the Alt key. This will present you with a menu of which drive you want to boot from.

Deleting the partition

Once you’ve finished test driving macOS 10.13 you can remove it by reversing the process above. Restart your machine and boot into the previous version of macOS (or OS X). Launch Disk Utility, choose your main drive, go to Partition, select the Sierra partition, then click the Minus button below, followed by Apply.

Using Virtual Machines

Probably the safest way to try out any new operating system is to use a virtual machine. There are several excellent software offerings around, some of which are free (Virtualbox, for example). Others, such as VMware offer a free trial, but are paid-for products.

These create, as the name suggests, virtual environments on your Mac where the operating system can run as if it were installed on your drive. Performance isn’t quite the same as it would be from an OS that is actually installed, but it gives you a good chance to explore without the hassle of altering your machine in any way.

As each software package operates slightly differently it’s worth investigating the options available and consulting the relevant instructions. Our colleagues over at Macworld have put together this helpful guide to running Windows on a Mac, which covers using virtual machines.

Should I install the macOS public beta?

If the idea of creating and deleting partitions, having applications crash suddenly, or working out how to set up virtual machines has you a little worried, then we’d suggest waiting.

While all of this can be a lot of fun, and actually quite fascinating, for most people it would just get annoying rather quickly. macOS 10.13 is due to be released in a few months, and will be a much more stable and polished experience than the one you’d find in the public beta.

If you’ve always held to the Apple mantra of ‘it just works’, then we think you’d have a better time in the Autumn.

Laptop won’t turn on? How to fix a computer that won’t boot

If your laptop or PC won’t turn on, don’t panic. You might be able to fix it yourself for free by trying these five methods.

Here we’ll explain the possible causes and how to try and fix a PC or laptop that won’t boot up.

  1. Check the power supply

Laptops

This is one of the most common problems. There are various things that can go wrong, from using the wrong laptop power supply (delivering the wrong voltage) to a blown fuse in the plug.

It might be that your power supply has simply failed. First, make sure the battery has some charge. If you’re not sure, and there’s no power indicator on the battery itself, then remove it entirely and just use the mains charger.

Double-check, too, that the charger is the right one for your laptop. Many laptops – especially from the same manufacturer – use the same size plug, and if you own more than one, it’s not too difficult to plug in the wrong power supply, which might provide a different voltage or not enough current.

Other gadgets may also use the same tips, such as a battery powered speaker, and are unlikely to use the same voltage as your laptop, which typically requires 16-20V.

Second, check the fuse in the plug. Use a screwdriver to remove the fuse and install one that’s known to be good. If you have a spare power cable that will plug into your power supply, this is a much quicker swap to test that it isn’t the fuse at fault.

Check over the wire itself, as power supplies get beaten up, especially if you carry them everywhere. Weak points are at the ends where it joins the black brick and at the plug which connects to the laptop. If you can see the coloured wires inside the black outer protection, it could be time to buy a new PSU.

If you’re having problems with your laptop’s touchpad, also check out our top tips to fix it.

PCs

PC power supplies can also be problematic. Few people have a spare they can install and test, so the first check is the fuse in the plug. There’s also a fuse inside the PSU itself, but it will require you to remove it from your PC and then remove the metal case to check if that’s the problem.

One of the most common PC power supply issues is that the PC will turn off unexpectedly rather than fail to boot up at all.

If the LED is on showing that power is reaching it, make sure your power button is properly connected and working.

You can short the appropriate motherboard pins together (check which ones in your motherboard manual) to eliminate the power button from the equation.

  1. Check the screen

Laptops

Try disconnecting any external displays including projectors and monitors to make sure they’re not stopping your laptop from booting into Windows.

If your computer’s power LED lights up and you can hear the hard disk or fan(s) whirring, but there’s no image on the screen, then make the room dark and check that there isn’t a very faint image on the screen.

It’s easy to think a laptop isn’t booting when in fact, it’s the screen that’s the problem.

If there is a faint image – maybe the Windows logon screen – then it’s likely that your screen’s inverter has failed. This component changes the direct current (DC) coming from the battery or power supply to an alternating current required by the screen.

Replacing an inverter isn’t too difficult if you’re handy with a screwdriver, but it’s crucial you buy the right replacement part. As inverters aren’t exactly cheap, you can’t afford to get it wrong.

If your laptop appears to be booting fine, but there’s no image at all, the LCD panel could be at fault. Replacing a laptop screen is possible, but difficult, and screens can also be costly. If it’s an older laptop, it’s worth considering buying a new one.

PCs

There isn’t much you can do to fix a broken PC monitor, but it’s easy – or easier – to swap the power lead and video cable or even the whole monitor to see if that’s the reason your PC won’t boot.

  1. Remove any USB drives or memory cards

Assuming everything is ok with the power supply and screen, your computer may be getting stuck before it loads Windows.

A classic culprit here is a USB drive or memory card left inserted into a USB port or card reader. Typically you’ll see an error message such as “Operating system not found” which can lead to unnecessary panic.

For the majority of the time, it means the BIOS is set to try booting from removable storage drives (including cards) before the internal hard drive.

It could also be a disc left in the DVD or Blu-ray drive, so check those too.

  1. Try a rescue disc

If you’re seeing different error messages, or there aren’t any cards, external drives or discs causing the problem, try using a rescue disc.

If you have one, the Windows DVD can be used, but otherwise you can download (using another computer – obviously) a rescue disc image and either burn it to a CD or DVD, or extract it to a USB flash drive. You can then boot from this and attempt to fix the problem with Windows.

  1. Boot into Safe Mode

Even if you can’t boot into Windows, you might be able to get into safe mode. Press F8 as your laptop is starting up and you’ll get a menu offering to boot into Safe Mode. Here’s how to enter safe mode.

  1. Check for faulty or incompatible hardware

If you’ve just installed some new memory or another piece of hardware, it might be preventing your computer from booting. Remove it (reinstalling the old memory if necessary) and try again.

If your motherboard has a LED readout showing POST codes, search the manual or online to find out what the code shown means.

Often it can be tricky to get a newly built PC to boot. The best tip here is to disconnect everything except the bare minimum needed to boot to the BIOS:

  • l Motherboard
  • l CPU (with heatsink attached)
  • l Graphics card (if there’s a graphics output on the motherboard, remove any plug-in graphics cards)
  • l One stick of memory (remove any others, and leave the single stick in slot 0 or whichever the manual recommends)
  • l Power supply
  • l Monitor

All other hardware is unnecessary: you don’t need a hard drive, optical drive or any other components for the PC to start.

How to factory reset Windows PC, laptop or tablet

Restoring your computer or tablet to the state it came out of the factory can be handy for a number of different reasons. Perhaps you’re having problems with performance, it’s picked up a virus, or you simply want to sell it on and remove all your programs, files, passwords, and other sensitive information.

If your device is just running slowly, you might only need our guide to speeding up Windows, but for more serious performance problems, a full reset might be in order.

It’s a little more difficult than a smartphone or a tablet but we’ll show you how to do it step by step. The process is slightly different depending on which version of Windows you have, because Windows 10 handles factory resets differently to previous versions, so we’ve split this guide up accordingly.

How to factory reset a Windows 10 computer or tablet

In Windows 10 the process is pretty easy, thanks to a built-in tool for resetting a PC. Open the Start menu and select Settings (the cog wheel). Now type ‘reset’ in the search bar and select ‘Reset this PC’ on the left when the results appear.

Under the Recovery section of Update & Security you can now hit ‘Get started’ to begin the process. During this you can select if you would like to keep files or do a full reset.

The process is identical for a Windows 10 tablet, because the operating system is almost identical across computers and tablets.

How to factory reset a Windows 7 or 8 computer

Factory resetting a computer running an older version of Windows is a little trickier, because there’s no reset tool built into the operating system.

Some computers come with recovery discs, which is a fairly easy way of performing a factory reset – you can just insert the disc and follow the instructions. Just remember to back up your files first!

Windows 8 computers will sometimes have a recovery application which is launched from within Windows, rather than from a disc, so check your app menu.

If you didn’t get any discs in the box, and don’t have a preinstalled recovery app, then there’s a good chance your PC or laptop has a recovery partition instead.

This is a hidden part of the hard drive which safely stores a complete copy of Windows, drivers and extra programs. You can use it return your computer to the exact state it was in the first day you had it – and it will perform just the same, too.

Backup any data which you wish to keep before performing a factory reset. You will probably want to copy everything from your user folders, including documents, photos, music and videos. The factory reset will delete all these along with any programs you’ve installed since you got your laptop.

  1. Start up or reboot your laptop.
  2. During the start-up process, hit the appropriate F key or key combination which we have listed below for your manufacturer.
  3. You should see instructions on the screen explaining how to proceed. Different manufacturers use different software to restore the ‘disk image’ from the recovery partition, so we can’t provide specific guidance. However, the process is almost always automatic once you’ve confirmed you definitely want to proceed.

It might be a case of waiting for 30 minutes for the job to happen in one go, but some systems restore Windows first, and then install drivers and programs automatically when Windows first boots. If that’s the case, don’t try to do anything until you see a message saying the restore has finished.

How to downgrade iOS 11

If you’ve upgraded to iOS 11 and got cold feet, it’s possible to downgrade, but only if you’re quick.

There are two main ways to do it, one of which requires you to have a backup and the other which – fortunately – doesn’t. Here we’ll explain how to downgrade iOS 11.

How to downgrade iOS: Method 1 – no backup needed*

* You may lose your text messages, but all other settings and apps will remain after the downgrade

  1. Download the appropriate IPSW file for your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Make sure iTunes on your computer is the latest version. If not, download and install it.
  3. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer and then click on your device when it appears.
  4. Under the Summary section, click the Check for Updates button while holding Shift (Windows) or Option (Mac).
  5. Now navigate to and choose the IPSW file you downloaded.
  6. Your device will be ‘updated’ to iOS 10.

As we said, the process will downgrade your phone or iPad without deleting all your stuff, but you will lose any text messages. So next time you upgrade, either make a full backup or don’t upgrade!

How to downgrade iOS: Method 2 – using a backup you already have

Not unreasonably, Apple doesn’t encourage downgrading to a previous version of iOS, but it is possible.

Currently Apple’s servers are still signing iOS 10.3.3. You can’t go back any further, unfortunately, which could be an issue if your most recent backup was made while running an older version of iOS (even version 10.3.2).

Let’s be clear: you can only restore a backup which was made while your phone or tablet was running iOS 10.3.3.

Our Macworld UK colleagues have a great guide to how to back up an iPhone, here. The key thing is to make sure you always have an up-to-date full backup, which is why it’s best to do a full password-protected backup via iTunes. You can also back up to iCloud to get a second chance of recovering your contacts, photos and other things.

Step 1.

To reinstall iOS 10 you need the relevant .ipsw file for your model of iPhone or iPad. Older versions won’t work as they’re not being ‘signed’ – or approved – by Apple’s servers.

(Mac users, if the ipsw file is stored on your Mac hard drive you can find it by following the path youruserfolder/Library/iTunes/ and then within a folder called iPad Software Updates, iPhone Software Updates or iPad Software Updates.)

If you can’t find the latest one on your Mac, or your a PC user, simply run a search for ‘download ipsw’ and select and download the appropriate file for your device. There are plenty of sites to choose from, including https://ipsw.me/ which helpfully tells you which versions are currently being signed.

Step 2.

Note: If you’re reading this after the final version of iOS 11 is release to the public you will have only a short time to downgrade (in past years as little as one week after the initial release date – not the date on which you upgraded) before it becomes impossible without a jailbroken phone.

Disable the Find My iPhone/iPad feature on the device if you’ve enabled it. You’ll find it in Settings > iCloud.

Plug in to your PC or Mac your iPhone or iPad. Launch iTunes. Click on your device in the iTunes interface and select Summary. Now hold down the Alt/Option key (Shift on a PC), and click the Restore iPhone button.

Now navigate to the IPSW file on your desktop and click Open. Your PC will now reinstall iOS 10.3.3 on your iPad or iPhone. Or it should…

Go into Recovery mode

If iTunes says you’re already running the latest version of iOS on your device, you may need to use Recovery mode. Completely power off the device, plug one end of the syncing cable into your computer and hold down the Home button on the iPhone/iPad while you connect the cable to it. When the ‘Connect to iTunes’ screen appears, release the Home button.

Restore your backup

If you have managed to go back, you’ll have a near-blank iPhone with none of your stuff on it. That’s where the backup you made comes in.

In iTunes click the Restore iPhone… button and choose the appropriate backup. It may take an hour or so, but your phone will be back to the way it was when you made the backup.

If you have no backup, you’ll have to sync music, videos and other content from iTunes or iCloud. You can then go to the App Store and download anything you’ve previously purchased after logging in with your Apple ID.