Common problems
Wi-Fi keeps dropping
It cuts out in the middle of a video call, comes back on its own a minute later, and behaves perfectly the moment anyone comes to look at it. A connection that keeps dropping is maddening in a way a broken one is not, because it will not stay broken long enough to be caught. It is also an easy fault to pay for twice, because it can live in three different places, the machine, the router, or the broadband line coming into the building, and fixing the wrong one changes nothing. We test all three where the fault actually happens, in your home or your office, and tell you plainly which it is. The diagnosis is free, you get one fixed quote before any work, and if the honest answer is that your provider has to fix it, we say exactly that.
- No fix, no fee
- We come to you
- The diagnosis is always free
- A real person who does the work, not a call centre
What it usually means
The likely causes, most common first
- Weak signal in the places you actually sit: the router is in the wrong spot for the building, and walls, floors and distance do the rest, which is why it holds in one room and drops in another
- A tired or overworked router that drops every device in the house at once and rights itself after a restart, more and more often as time goes on
- An extender or a mesh unit making things worse rather than better, with the laptop clinging to a weak signal from the far unit instead of switching to the strong one nearby
- The machine itself: a wireless card, its driver, or a power-saving setting that quietly switches the card off, the likely story when one device drops while everything else in the house stays connected
- Interference and congestion from neighbouring networks, which is why some connections behave all day and fall apart in the evening when every household around you comes online
- The broadband line itself dropping, so the Wi-Fi shows full strength while nothing loads and every device fails together, which is the provider's fault to fix, not the machine's
Not sure which is yours? That is what the free diagnosis is for. Call and describe it.
What we do
How we find the real fault
- You tell us three things on the phone: whether one device drops or every device drops, whether it happens in one room or everywhere, and whether it comes back on its own or only after the router is restarted. Those three answers split the suspects before we have even set off
- We come to where the fault lives, because this is the one fault that cannot be brought to a bench. A laptop that drops in your back bedroom will behave perfectly anywhere else, so the testing has to happen in the house or the office where it fails
- When only one device is affected we start with the machine: the wireless card, its driver, and the power-saving setting that switches the card off to save battery, a small setting responsible for a great deal of misery
- We walk the signal room by room, look at where the router sits and what the walls are doing to it, and check whether an extender is helping or quietly causing the very drops it was bought to cure
- We take the Wi-Fi out of the picture and test the broadband line directly, because a dropping line looks exactly like bad Wi-Fi from where you sit, and it is the one thing no new router or setting will cure
- If the fault is the provider's, we say so and we arm you: when it drops, what the router did, what stayed connected, written down in plain words, so your call to their support line starts from evidence rather than another week of switching it off and on again
- If it is something we can put right, you get one fixed quote before any work begins, and if we cannot fix it, you pay nothing
Is it worth fixing?
An honest answer, before you spend anything
Nearly always worth sorting, because the fix is usually small and the misery is daily. A driver, a setting, a better spot for the router, or retiring an extender that was making things worse costs little, and some of it costs nothing at all. Where a larger building honestly needs more coverage, you see the price of the kit before anything is bought, and we will not sell you equipment the building does not need. The one thing you should never do is pay to have the machine fixed when the machine is not the problem: if the broadband line is dropping, that is your provider's fault, their engineer and their cost, and we will tell you so plainly rather than take the job. The free look tells you which side of that line you are on before you spend anything.
This is a tech support and setup job. The diagnosis is free, then you get one fixed quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, there is nothing to pay.
Call 0113 460 2103 for a free diagnosisWhere we work
We come to you across Leeds
Home or work, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm. There is no walk-in shop, so we come to the machine, or you can arrange to drop it to us. Start at computer repair in Leeds, or pick your area.
Questions
The things people ask
How do I tell whether it is the laptop, the router or the broadband?
Three questions get you most of the way. First, does one device drop or does everything drop? If your laptop loses the connection while the phones and the television carry on, the suspect is the laptop. If everything fails together, it is the router or the line. Second, does it depend on where you are? A connection that holds by the router and dies two rooms away is a signal problem, not a broken machine. Third, when everything drops at once, look at the router: if the Wi-Fi shows full strength while nothing will load, or the router's internet light changes, the broadband line itself is dropping, and that is the provider's territory. Tell us those three answers when you call and we will usually know where to start before we arrive.
Only my laptop drops. Every other device in the house is fine. What is that?
That pattern points firmly at the machine rather than the network, and it is good news, because it is one of the more fixable versions of this fault. The usual causes are a wireless driver that needs updating or reinstalling, a power-saving setting that switches the wireless card off to save battery and does not always wake it cleanly, or, less often, a wireless card that is failing and needs replacing. None of those is a big job, we test them in that order on the visit, and this version of the fault is often put right there and then.
Restarting the router fixes it, but it keeps coming back. Why?
Because the restart is a treatment, not a cure. A router that needs rebooting every few days is telling you something: it may be overheating in a cupboard, struggling with the number of devices a modern household asks of it, or simply worn out, and routers do wear out. There is also a version of this that fools everyone: if the broadband line is dropping, restarting the router appears to work only because the line happened to come back at the same moment. Part of the visit is telling those two apart, because one ends with a better router and the other ends with a call to your provider that we will help you make.
Why is it fine all day and terrible in the evening?
An evening pattern is a real clue, so mention it when you call. It usually means congestion: every household around you comes online at once, the airwaves your Wi-Fi shares with the neighbours get crowded, and older routers cope with that worse than newer ones. It can also be the busiest hours showing up a weakness in the broadband line that quiet daytime use never exposes. The two look identical from the sofa and have completely different fixes, which is exactly why we test rather than guess.
What happens if you find out it is my broadband provider's fault?
We tell you, plainly and at no charge, because the diagnosis is free and we do not take on jobs that should not exist. You do not walk away empty-handed either: we write down what we found in plain words, when it drops, what the router did, what stayed connected and what failed, so when you ring your provider you are reporting evidence rather than a vague complaint, and it is much harder for the first person who answers to send you round the loop of switching it off and on again. A line fault is the provider's to fix, at their cost, and no work we could sell you on your machine would change that.
Do I need a new router, an extender, or one of those mesh systems?
Sometimes, and sometimes the honest answer is none of them. A fair share of these faults end with the router moved to a better spot, a setting changed, or an old extender switched off because it was causing the very drops it was bought to cure. If your router came from your broadband provider and is showing its age, it is worth knowing they will often replace it without charge once a fault is shown to them. Where a larger home genuinely needs more coverage, we will say so, explain what kind of kit actually suits the building, and you will see the cost before anything is bought. We do not sell equipment for a living, so you will only hear that you need some when you do.
Other problems
Sound more like one of these?
Tell us what is wrong.
Call and describe the fault. We will diagnose it for free, give you a fixed quote before any work, and if we cannot fix it there is nothing to pay. A real person who does the work, not a call centre.