Will not start, spills, emergencies
When a machine will not start, or a drink has gone over the keyboard, the first ten minutes matter more than anything a technician does later.
These guides are the calm first checks: what to try before you panic, what to switch off and leave alone, and how to tell a flat battery from a fault. They also cover what is actually open when it goes wrong at night or on a Sunday, because a deadline does not wait for Monday. When the checks do not bring it back, the repair pages below say what happens next and how a visit works.
The guides
9 guides on this, newest first.
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Laptop hot and loud? What the fan is telling you, and what to do about it
A laptop that runs hot and roars is usually choked with dust or running on tired thermal paste, not dying. How to tell the four causes apart from the outside, the one case where you should stop using it, and what a proper clean involves.
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Phone will not charge? The five causes, cheapest first
A phone that will not charge is one of five things, and the cheap ones are the common ones: the cable, the plug, lint in the port, the port itself, or the battery. How to work through them in order at home, what each one looks like, and when it stops being a job for a toothpick.
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The laptop died on a Sunday and everything is shut. What now?
Sunday is the day a dead laptop hurts most, because the week is already in front of you. The calm checks worth doing, what a secure link can often sort, and why the first job is the files instead of the repair.
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Computer died at night before a deadline? Who is actually awake, and what to do first
It is 11pm, the machine is dead and the work is due tomorrow. The calm first checks, what a secure link can often fix, and a repair firm that is actually awake.
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Sound but no picture on your TV? The torch test tells you in ten seconds
A black screen with the sound still playing is one of two very different faults. A torch, a dark room and ten seconds tell you which one you have before anyone comes out.
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TV will not turn on, or the standby light just blinks
Nothing when you press power, or a standby light blinking the same count over and over. What is worth trying yourself, and the one split that decides whether a set is worth fixing.
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Your laptop will not turn on. Can you still get your files off it?
A laptop that is completely dead usually still has your files intact. Why the drive is normally the survivor, what makes recovery harder, and the one thing not to do while you decide.
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Laptop will not turn on? The simple checks to try before you panic
A dead laptop is not always a broken one. The calm, ordered checks that rule out the cheap and simple causes first, and when to get it looked at.
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Spilled a drink on your laptop? What to do in the first ten minutes
A spill is a race against corrosion, not just water. The calm first-aid steps that give your laptop the best chance, and the mistakes that make it worse.
Get it fixed
When reading is not enough.
Repairs
- Emergency computer repairA fault does not wait for opening hours. We read every enquiry day and night, Sunday to Friday, advice on it is free, and a good number of software faults are sorted the same night over a secure link, as a priority session you ask for, if we have a slot free.
- Liquid & water damageA spill on a laptop or keyboard? Get it off power now and book a repair. This is the one repair nobody can promise, and we will not pretend otherwise.
- Laptop repairDead, crashing, overheating, or refusing to charge? We find the real fault and quote you a fixed price before any work starts.
Every topic
Reading is free. So is a first opinion.
Tell us the fault and you get a first opinion, free: what it sounds like, whether it is worth doing, and what it is likely to cost. A photo of the screen or the machine helps. A visit has a £50 call-out, agreed before we travel, which is the first £50 of the job rather than an extra on top. You get one fixed quote, agreed in writing, before any work starts. If we cannot fix the fault we quoted for, you pay nothing for the repair. No Fix, No Fee covers the repair, not the call-out.