Common Computer Problems, and What Actually Fixes Them
Mac, Windows, printer and Wi-Fi faults, written the way an engineer would explain them on the doorstep — what each one usually turns out to be, and what is worth trying yourself before you pay anyone.
Try the free answer first
Every fault below opens with what it usually turns out to be, then a short list of things you can safely check yourself. Those lists are genuine. A meaningful share of the calls we take are solved in five minutes by the person holding the machine, and we would rather you found that out here than paid an hour’s labour to watch us do it.
What you will not find in them is anything that involves opening a case, prising off a keycap, removing a battery or reinstalling an operating system. That is not caution for its own sake — those are the steps where a £120 job turns into a £400 one, and the failed attempt is usually more expensive than the original fault.
Each fault also says where the work realistically happens — at your door, remotely with no visit at all, or back at our workshop for board-level repair — and roughly what it costs, so you know what you are looking at before anyone picks up a phone. Where the checks do not solve it, each fault points at the service page that sets out what we do about it.
Mac & MacBook problems
Macs fail in a narrower set of ways than Windows machines, which makes them easier to diagnose and harder to bluff. The faults below account for the large majority of the Mac callouts we get across London. Where a symptom has more than one cause, the difference usually shows up in the first ten minutes of testing rather than after a part has already been ordered.
My MacBook will not turn on at all
£120 – £300·Door or workshop
My MacBook will not turn on at all
What it usually turns out to be
Far less often a dead logic board than people fear. The usual culprits are a failed charger or cable, a charging port packed with pocket lint, a battery that has discharged so deeply it needs a long charge before it will respond, or a Mac that is actually running with a dark screen.
What you can safely try first
- Try a different charger and cable — ideally ones you have seen work on another machine. A failed cable is the single most common cause.
- Look into the USB-C or MagSafe port with a torch. Compacted lint stops the connector seating and is easy to mistake for a dead machine.
- Leave it plugged in for a solid 20–30 minutes before testing again. A deeply flat battery will not respond instantly.
- Unplug every dock, hub, external drive and adapter, then try to start it with nothing but the charger attached.
- On an Apple Silicon Mac, hold the power button for 10 seconds, release, then press it again. On an older Intel Mac an SMC reset does the same job.
- In a dark room, look closely at the screen while it starts. A faint Apple logo means the Mac is running and the fault is the display or backlight, not the power.
If none of that shifts it, this is MacBook repair — door or workshop, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
The battery drains in an hour, or macOS says "Service Recommended"
£120 – £220·Fixed at your door
The battery drains in an hour, or macOS says "Service Recommended"
What it usually turns out to be
A battery at the end of its life. Apple rates most MacBook cells for around 1,000 charge cycles, and after roughly four to five years of daily use the chemistry simply will not hold what it used to. "Service Recommended" is macOS telling you the cell has degraded past its threshold, not that anything has broken.
What you can safely try first
- Check the real numbers: hold Option, click the Apple menu, choose System Information, then Power. Look at Cycle Count and Condition.
- Open Activity Monitor and sort by Energy. A single runaway browser tab or sync app can imitate a failing battery convincingly.
- Note whether it also shuts down abruptly at 30–40% rather than draining smoothly. That pattern is a failing cell rather than heavy usage.
- If the case or trackpad has started to bulge even slightly, stop using it and stop charging it — a swollen cell needs replacing now, not later.
If none of that shifts it, this is battery replacement — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
The screen has lines, flickering, or a dark band across it
£180 – £450·Door or workshop
The screen has lines, flickering, or a dark band across it
What it usually turns out to be
Usually the display assembly itself — the panel, its ribbon cable, or the backlight. Vertical lines that stay put as the picture changes point at the panel; flickering that varies with the lid angle points at the cable; a picture you can only see with a torch held at an angle is a backlight fault, which is often repairable on the board rather than needing a whole new screen.
What you can safely try first
- Take a screenshot with Shift-Command-3 and open it on another device. If the screenshot looks perfect, the fault is the display hardware, not macOS.
- Plug into an external monitor or TV. A clean external picture confirms the Mac itself is fine.
- Open and close the lid slowly and watch for the flicker changing with the angle — that points at the display cable.
- Shine a torch at the screen in a dark room. If you can just make out windows and menus, the picture is being drawn and only the backlight has failed.
If none of that shifts it, this is screen replacement — door or workshop, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
It only charges at certain cable angles, or not at all
£120 – £220·Fixed at your door
It only charges at certain cable angles, or not at all
What it usually turns out to be
Either the port or the battery, and the distinction matters because they are different repairs. Intermittent charging that responds to wiggling the cable is a worn or lifted port. Charging that works but never rises above a certain percentage is the battery or its management circuit.
What you can safely try first
- Test every USB-C port on the machine. If one charges and another does not, the fault is the port, not the charger.
- Try a different charger and cable before anything else — chargers fail far more often than Macs do.
- Check the port for lint with a torch. Do not dig at it with anything metal.
- Note what the menu bar says: "Not Charging" with the charger connected is a different fault from no charging icon appearing at all.
If none of that shifts it, this is MacBook repair — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
The fans run constantly and it is hot doing nothing
£120 – £180·Fixed at your door
The fans run constantly and it is hot doing nothing
What it usually turns out to be
On an older Intel MacBook, almost always dust packed into the heatsink fins plus thermal paste that has dried out after four or five years. On an M-series Mac, which barely uses its fans in normal work, constant fan noise is far more likely to be a runaway software process than a thermal problem.
What you can safely try first
- Open Activity Monitor, sort by CPU, and look at the top of the list. A stuck process, a runaway browser tab or a Spotlight re-index will pin the fans for hours.
- If a process called mds or mdworker is at the top, leave the Mac plugged in and idle for a couple of hours — Spotlight is rebuilding its index and will finish.
- Take it off soft surfaces. Beds and sofas block the vents along the hinge completely.
- Note whether it is hot at the hinge or under the palm rest. Heat at the hinge is the heatsink; heat under the palm rest is more often the battery.
If none of that shifts it, this is MacBook repair — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
macOS is slow, beachballing, or apps take forever to open
£120 – £150·Often fixable remotely
macOS is slow, beachballing, or apps take forever to open
What it usually turns out to be
Usually a full startup disk, too many login items and background agents, or a mechanical hard drive still doing the work — Apple shipped spinning and Fusion drives in the 21.5-inch iMac as late as 2019, and they are the single biggest cause of a slow desktop Mac. Genuine hardware failure is a distant fourth. A Mac that has crossed about 90% full storage will slow down dramatically regardless of how fast the rest of it is.
What you can safely try first
- Check free space in System Settings, General, Storage. Below roughly 10% free, macOS struggles no matter what else is true.
- Look at System Settings, General, Login Items and turn off anything you do not recognise starting with the Mac.
- Restart properly. A Mac that has only been closed and reopened for six weeks has never actually restarted.
- Open Activity Monitor and check the Memory tab. Sustained red memory pressure means you are short of RAM, not short of speed.
If none of that shifts it, this is MacBook repair — often fixable remotely, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
I spilled a drink on my MacBook
£150 – £400·Workshop job
I spilled a drink on my MacBook
What it usually turns out to be
The damage is corrosion, not the liquid, and it keeps progressing for days after the spill. Sugary and alcoholic drinks are considerably worse than water. What decides whether this is a repair or a write-off is almost entirely how quickly it is opened and cleaned, which is why this one is genuinely urgent.
What you can safely try first
- Shut it down immediately — hold the power button. Do not wait for it to close things down politely.
- Unplug the charger and anything else connected.
- Turn it upside down like a tent so the liquid drains away from the board rather than into it.
- Do not try to power it on to "see if it still works". Powering a wet board is what turns a cleanable spill into a dead one.
- Do not use rice, a hairdryer or a radiator. Rice does nothing for corrosion already underway, and heat warps components.
- Call the same day. The realistic difference between a next-day clean and a next-week one is large.
If none of that shifts it, this is water damage repair — workshop job, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
Keys are sticking, repeating, or not registering
£150 – £350·Fixed at your door
Keys are sticking, repeating, or not registering
What it usually turns out to be
On 2016–2019 MacBooks, the butterfly mechanism, which fails from a single crumb of debris and is a known design weakness. On newer Magic Keyboard models, far more often a spill or general debris. A whole row failing at once is usually the ribbon connection rather than the keys.
What you can safely try first
- Blow compressed air across the affected keys at an angle, in a Z pattern, with the Mac on its side. Apple documents this and it genuinely works on butterfly keyboards.
- Check the Keyboard Viewer to see exactly which keys register — this separates a hardware fault from a stuck modifier key.
- Turn off Sticky Keys and Slow Keys in Accessibility settings, which imitate a broken keyboard convincingly.
- Do not prise the keycaps off a butterfly keyboard. They break on removal and turn one bad key into several.
If none of that shifts it, this is MacBook keyboard replacement — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
The trackpad will not click, or clicks by itself
£120 – £220·Fixed at your door
The trackpad will not click, or clicks by itself
What it usually turns out to be
On any MacBook more than three years old, the first thing to rule out is a swollen battery pressing up against the underside of the trackpad from below. It is the most common cause and the most important one to catch, because a swelling cell is a safety issue rather than an inconvenience.
What you can safely try first
- Put the Mac on a flat table and check whether it rocks, or whether there is a visible gap along the bottom case. Both point at a swollen battery.
- Turn on Tap to Click in Trackpad settings. If tapping works but pressing does not, the mechanism is being blocked from underneath.
- Check the battery cycle count and condition in System Information under Power.
- If you suspect swelling, stop charging it and stop carrying it in a bag. Do not press on the trackpad to test it further.
If none of that shifts it, this is MacBook repair — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
Windows PC & laptop problems
Windows fails in more ways than macOS because it runs on far more hardware, and the same symptom can have a software cause on one machine and a hardware cause on the next. The saving grace is that most of it is diagnosable without opening anything, and a large share of Windows callouts are labour-only jobs finished inside the first hour.
It is stuck on a restart loop, or "Preparing Automatic Repair"
£120 – £180·Fixed at your door
It is stuck on a restart loop, or "Preparing Automatic Repair"
What it usually turns out to be
Usually a Windows update that failed partway, a corrupted boot configuration, or a drive that is beginning to fail. The loop itself is Windows trying and failing to repair itself, and repeated forced restarts tend to make it worse rather than better.
What you can safely try first
- Disconnect every USB device, dock and external drive, then restart. A machine trying to boot from a USB stick looks exactly like this.
- Let it complete a full cycle at least once without interrupting — some update rollbacks genuinely do take 30 minutes or more.
- Note down any error code it shows. It narrows the diagnosis considerably.
- Stop forcing restarts once you have seen the loop three times. If the drive is failing, every extra attempt costs you data.
If none of that shifts it, this is Windows support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
Blue screen crashes, at random or during the same task
£120 – £180·Fixed at your door
Blue screen crashes, at random or during the same task
What it usually turns out to be
A blue screen is Windows stopping to protect itself, and the cause splits roughly into drivers and memory. Crashes that started after a specific update or a new device are almost always drivers. Crashes that happen at random, across different applications, are more often faulty RAM or a failing drive.
What you can safely try first
- Write down the stop code on the blue screen. It is the most useful single piece of information and it is on screen for seconds.
- Note what you were doing each time. A pattern — always in one game, always when a webcam starts — points straight at a driver.
- Roll back the most recent driver if the crashes started right after an update or a new device.
- Run Windows Memory Diagnostic. It is built in, safe, and takes one restart.
If none of that shifts it, this is Windows support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
It takes minutes to start up and everything is slow
£120 – £150·Often fixable remotely
It takes minutes to start up and everything is slow
What it usually turns out to be
On any machine still running a mechanical hard drive, the drive — and nothing else. That single upgrade transforms a laptop more than any other change available. On machines that already have an SSD, the usual causes are a startup list that has accumulated years of software, a nearly-full drive, or too little RAM for how the machine is now used.
What you can safely try first
- Open Task Manager, go to the Startup tab, and disable anything you do not need starting with Windows.
- Check the Performance tab: if Disk sits at 100% while nothing is happening, the drive is the bottleneck.
- Look at whether the drive is listed as HDD or SSD in Task Manager. If it says HDD, that is your answer.
- Free up space if the system drive is nearly full. Windows needs headroom to work at all.
If none of that shifts it, this is Windows support — often fixable remotely, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
Pop-ups, browser redirects, or a warning telling me to call a number
£120 – £180·Often fixable remotely
Pop-ups, browser redirects, or a warning telling me to call a number
What it usually turns out to be
Almost always browser-level adware or a hijacked search setting rather than a virus in the traditional sense. The full-screen "your computer is infected, call this number" page is a scam, not a diagnosis — it is a web page designed to look like a system alert, and the number belongs to the people who put it there.
What you can safely try first
- Never call the number on the warning, and never let anyone who calls you connect to your machine. That is the actual attack.
- Force-quit the browser rather than clicking anything in the pop-up, including its close button.
- Check your browser extensions and remove anything you did not deliberately install.
- If you did let someone connect remotely, disconnect from the internet and change your banking and email passwords from a different device.
If none of that shifts it, this is virus removal — often fixable remotely, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
The laptop will not turn on, or powers on with no display
£120 – £250·Door or workshop
The laptop will not turn on, or powers on with no display
What it usually turns out to be
A dead charger or a failed DC jack accounts for most of these. Where the machine powers on — fans spin, lights come on — but shows nothing, the fault is usually the screen, its cable, or the graphics chip rather than anything to do with power.
What you can safely try first
- Check the charger has a light on it and the wall socket works. Chargers fail far more often than laptops.
- Hold the power button for 30 seconds with the charger unplugged, then reconnect and try again.
- Listen and look: fans spinning or keyboard lights coming on means it has power and the fault is the display.
- Connect an external monitor. A picture there confirms the laptop is running and narrows it to the screen.
If none of that shifts it, this is laptop repair — door or workshop, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
The laptop screen is cracked or has spreading black ink
£120 – £280·Fixed at your door
The laptop screen is cracked or has spreading black ink
What it usually turns out to be
Physical damage to the panel — usually from a knock to the lid, something left on the keyboard when it was closed, or a drop. The spreading black blot is liquid crystal leaking out, and it will keep spreading. The panel is a separate part from everything else, so nothing else in the machine is affected.
What you can safely try first
- Stop opening and closing the lid more than you have to. Flexing spreads the damage.
- Plug in an external monitor so you can keep working in the meantime.
- Find your exact model number — on Dell a service tag, on HP and Lenovo a serial on the base. Panels are model-specific and this is what lets us arrive with the right one.
- Back up anything important now, while the machine is still usable.
If none of that shifts it, this is laptop repair — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
It is making a loud whirring, grinding or rattling noise
£120 – £180·Fixed at your door
It is making a loud whirring, grinding or rattling noise
What it usually turns out to be
A fan, in one of three states: choked with dust so it has to spin far harder than it should, running a worn bearing, or catching on a cable. All three are noisy rather than dangerous. The one noise that is not a fan — a rhythmic click with a pause, unrelated to how hard the machine is working — is a mechanical hard drive failing, and that is a different problem entirely.
What you can safely try first
- Work out whether the noise tracks with load. Rising and falling as the machine works harder means it is a fan.
- Check the intake vents and filters. On a desktop three or four years old, a visible mat of dust is usually most of the answer.
- Make sure a laptop is on a hard surface. Blocked vents make the fan work far harder than it needs to.
- If the noise is a regular click-click-pause with no relation to load, stop — that is a failing drive, not a fan. Back up now and read the drive fault below.
If none of that shifts it, this is gaming PC repair — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
Games stutter, crash to desktop, or the PC reboots mid-game
£120 – £180·Fixed at your door
Games stutter, crash to desktop, or the PC reboots mid-game
What it usually turns out to be
Heat and power, in that order. A desktop that has been running three or four years accumulates enough dust to push the graphics card into thermal throttling, which shows up as stutter first and crashes later. Sudden reboots under load, with no error, are more often a power supply that can no longer deliver peak current.
What you can safely try first
- Run a temperature monitor while playing and watch the GPU and CPU. Anything sustained above the high 80s is throttling.
- Look at the intake filters and fans. If you can see a mat of dust, that is a real part of the problem.
- Note the pattern: stutter that worsens the longer you play is thermal; an instant reboot with no warning is usually power.
- Update the graphics driver with a clean install if the problem started after a driver update.
If none of that shifts it, this is gaming PC repair — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
I spilled something on my Windows laptop
£120 – £300·Workshop job
I spilled something on my Windows laptop
What it usually turns out to be
The same corrosion problem as on a Mac, with one difference in your favour: many Windows laptops have a drainage channel under the keyboard, so a small spill sometimes never reaches the board at all. What decides the outcome is still how fast it is opened and cleaned, not how much went in.
What you can safely try first
- Hold the power button down until it switches off. Do not shut it down through Windows — that takes too long.
- Unplug the charger and, if the battery is a removable one on an older model, take it out.
- Turn it upside down like a tent so the liquid runs out rather than further in.
- Do not power it up to check whether it survived. That is what turns a cleanable spill into a dead board.
- Skip the rice and the hairdryer. Rice does nothing about corrosion that has already started, and heat warps plastics and components.
- Ring the same day. A next-day clean and a next-week one are very different jobs with very different outcomes.
If none of that shifts it, this is water damage repair — workshop job, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
My files have gone, or the drive is not detected
£120 – £450·Workshop job
My files have gone, or the drive is not detected
What it usually turns out to be
Either a logical fault — a corrupted partition table, a failed update, a deleted account profile, where the data is all still physically present — or a genuine hardware failure of the drive. The two need completely different handling, and the wrong approach on the wrong one destroys recoverable data.
What you can safely try first
- Stop using the machine. Every write to a drive reduces what can be recovered.
- Do not run recovery software downloaded onto the same drive you are trying to recover, and do not let a repair tool "fix" the disk yet.
- Check whether the drive appears in Disk Management or Disk Utility at all — visible but unreadable is a much better sign than not visible.
- If the drive is clicking or was dropped, do not power it on again.
If none of that shifts it, this is data recovery — workshop job, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
My external hard drive is not showing up
£120 – £450·Workshop job
My external hard drive is not showing up
What it usually turns out to be
Often the cable or the enclosure rather than the drive inside it, which is the good news — a failed USB bridge board leaves the disk itself perfectly healthy. Where the drive is a portable one that has been dropped, or a desktop one that now clicks, the mechanism itself has usually gone.
What you can safely try first
- Try a different cable and a different port, ideally directly on the machine rather than through a hub.
- Listen to it. Spinning up normally and then falling silent is different from clicking, which is different from complete silence.
- Check Disk Management on Windows or Disk Utility on a Mac — a drive that appears there without a letter or mount point is usually a logical problem, not a dead drive.
- Do not format it, and do not agree when Windows offers to initialise the disk. That is the one click that turns a recoverable drive into a much harder job.
If none of that shifts it, this is data recovery — workshop job, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
A guide range, not a quote — the exact figure is confirmed on site before anything is opened, and you pay nothing if we cannot fix it.
Printer problems
Printers generate more callouts than almost anything else we do, and the reason is consistent: the printer is rarely broken. What has usually failed is the connection between the printer and the computer — an address that changed, a driver that an update removed, a queue that jammed. That is why nearly all of this is fixed in one visit for labour alone, with no parts involved.
The printer says "Offline" but it is switched on
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
The printer says "Offline" but it is switched on
What it usually turns out to be
The computer has lost track of where the printer is. Most home routers hand out addresses on a lease, so after a router restart or a power cut the printer can come back on a different address while the computer is still looking at the old one. Windows also sets printers to "Use Printer Offline" on its own after enough failed attempts and then never clears it.
What you can safely try first
- On Windows, open the printer queue, click Printer in the menu, and untick "Use Printer Offline". This alone fixes it surprisingly often.
- Print the printer's own network configuration page from its front panel and check the IP address matches what the computer thinks it is.
- Restart in order: printer first, then the computer. Restarting only the computer will not help if the address moved.
- Clear the print queue completely — a single stuck job holds everything behind it and reports as offline.
If none of that shifts it, this is printer support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
The printer will not connect to Wi-Fi, or drops off after a router change
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
The printer will not connect to Wi-Fi, or drops off after a router change
What it usually turns out to be
Most home and small-office printers only support the 2.4GHz band. If your router broadcasts both bands under a single network name — which most modern routers do by default — the printer may never see a network it can join. A new router, or a broadband provider swapping your hardware, breaks it the same way: the stored network name and password no longer exist.
What you can safely try first
- Move the printer near the router while setting it up, then move it back afterwards. Setup needs a stronger signal than printing does.
- Check whether your router shows separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz network names. If it does, join the printer to the 2.4GHz one specifically.
- Re-enter the Wi-Fi password on the printer itself after any router change — it will not update on its own.
- Use the printer's WPS button with the router's WPS button if both have one. It skips the password entry entirely.
If none of that shifts it, this is printer support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
Nothing prints — the jobs just sit in the queue
£120/hr labour·Often fixable remotely
Nothing prints — the jobs just sit in the queue
What it usually turns out to be
A stuck job at the front of the queue, or the Windows Print Spooler service having stopped. Everything sent afterwards stacks up behind it, and cancelling from the queue often will not clear it because the spooler is the thing that has failed, not the job.
What you can safely try first
- Try cancelling all documents from the queue first. If they will not clear, the spooler has stopped.
- Restart the computer — this restarts the spooler and clears most stuck queues.
- Check the printer's own front panel for a jam, an out-of-paper state, or a cover-open warning. It is often waiting for something physical.
- Try printing a test page from the printer itself. If that works, the printer is fine and the fault is entirely on the computer.
If none of that shifts it, this is printer support — often fixable remotely, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
The printer disappeared after a Windows or macOS update
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
The printer disappeared after a Windows or macOS update
What it usually turns out to be
Major updates remove printer drivers they consider outdated, particularly for printers more than a few years old, and replace them with a generic driver that supports basic printing but loses scanning, duplex and tray selection. Sometimes the printer entry vanishes entirely.
What you can safely try first
- Check whether the printer is still listed at all, or has been replaced by a second entry with "(Copy 1)" or a generic name.
- Remove every entry for that printer before re-adding it. Duplicates fight each other.
- Get the driver from the manufacturer's own support site rather than accepting the generic one, if you want scanning to work again.
- On a Mac, remove the printer in Settings and re-add it — AirPrint models often reinstall cleanly this way.
If none of that shifts it, this is printer support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
I cannot print from my iPhone or iPad
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
I cannot print from my iPhone or iPad
What it usually turns out to be
Either the printer does not support AirPrint, or — far more often — the phone and the printer are on different networks. A phone on the 5GHz band or the guest network cannot see a printer sitting on 2.4GHz behind client isolation, even though both are technically on "your Wi-Fi".
What you can safely try first
- Check the phone is on your home Wi-Fi and not on mobile data or the guest network.
- Confirm your printer model actually supports AirPrint — many budget models do not.
- Restart the printer. AirPrint advertises itself on the network, and that broadcast sometimes stops.
- Turn off any VPN on the phone. A VPN routes the traffic away from your local network entirely.
If none of that shifts it, this is printer support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
Prints are streaky, faded or blank even with full ink
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
Prints are streaky, faded or blank even with full ink
What it usually turns out to be
On an inkjet, dried ink blocking the print head — the standard result of leaving a printer unused for a few weeks. On a laser, a toner cartridge that has settled or a drum unit at the end of its life. Blank pages with full cartridges are usually a head that has clogged completely rather than an ink problem.
What you can safely try first
- Run the printer's own head-cleaning cycle from its front panel, then print a nozzle check. Two cycles is reasonable; five is wasting ink.
- On a laser, take the toner cartridge out and rock it gently side to side to redistribute the toner, then refit it.
- Check whether the streaks appear in the same place on every page — a repeating mark at a regular interval is the drum, not the toner.
- If you use third-party cartridges, try a genuine one. Blocked heads and unrecognised-cartridge errors trace back to these more often than not.
If none of that shifts it, this is printer support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
Scan to computer or scan to email has stopped working
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
Scan to computer or scan to email has stopped working
What it usually turns out to be
Scanning uses a different piece of software from printing, so it breaks independently — and it is the first thing lost when an update swaps your full driver for a generic print-only one. Scan-to-email breaks separately again, usually because the mail provider tightened its authentication and the printer is still using a password that no longer works.
What you can safely try first
- Check whether printing still works. Printing fine but scanning failing points straight at a missing full-feature driver.
- Try scanning from the computer rather than from the printer's panel, and see which direction fails.
- For scan-to-email, note whether it reports an authentication error — that means the credentials, not the scanner.
- Restart the printer and the computer together before reinstalling anything.
If none of that shifts it, this is printer support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
Wi-Fi & network problems
Wi-Fi complaints are almost never about the broadband. The speed arriving at the front door is usually exactly what you pay for, and what fails is the distribution of it around the building — router placement, wall construction, band selection, and hardware from a provider optimised for cost rather than coverage. All of which is testable, and most of which is fixable without buying anything.
Wi-Fi is fine near the router and useless in the back bedroom
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
Wi-Fi is fine near the router and useless in the back bedroom
What it usually turns out to be
Distance and building materials. The 5GHz band, which is what gives you speed, is badly weakened by solid walls — and London housing stock is full of exactly what kills it: thick brick, foil-backed insulation, chimney breasts. Provider routers are also frequently installed wherever the phone socket happens to be, which is often the worst spot in the building.
What you can safely try first
- Get the router out into the open and off the floor. Inside a cabinet or behind a TV costs you a surprising amount of range.
- Run a speed test standing next to the router, then in the bad room, and compare. If it is fast at the router, the broadband is fine and this is a coverage problem.
- Check what is between the two points. A chimney breast or a foil-insulated wall is often the entire explanation.
- Try the 2.4GHz band in the far room if your router separates them — slower, but it travels much further.
If none of that shifts it, this is networking support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
Devices randomly drop off the Wi-Fi and reconnect
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
Devices randomly drop off the Wi-Fi and reconnect
What it usually turns out to be
Interference or a band-steering fight. In a London flat your router is competing with a dozen neighbouring networks on the same channels, and if it has been left on automatic it may be sitting on the busiest one. Where a router pushes both bands under one name, devices at the edge of range flip between them repeatedly and drop the connection each time.
What you can safely try first
- Note whether it affects everything at once or one device only. One device is that device; everything at once is the router.
- Restart the router once and leave it. Restarting it daily is a workaround, not a fix, and it hides the pattern.
- Check whether the drops coincide with something — a microwave, a baby monitor, a neighbour arriving home. 2.4GHz shares space with all of them.
- If your router lets you, split the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks into separate names and join devices to one deliberately.
If none of that shifts it, this is networking support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
Video calls break up but speed tests look fine
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
Video calls break up but speed tests look fine
What it usually turns out to be
Upload bandwidth or Wi-Fi contention, neither of which a headline speed test shows you. Most broadband packages are heavily asymmetric — plenty of download, a fraction of it for upload — and a video call needs sustained upload. A speed test measures a few seconds at best conditions; a call needs consistency for an hour.
What you can safely try first
- Run a speed test and look specifically at the upload figure, not the download one. Under about 5Mbps upload and calls will struggle.
- Check what else is running: a cloud backup or a game update in the background will take the upload capacity a call needs.
- Test a call over mobile data. If it is clean, the problem is your network, not the service.
- Try the call with an ethernet cable if you can. If that fixes it, the fault is Wi-Fi contention rather than broadband.
If none of that shifts it, this is networking support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
The broadband is far slower than what I pay for
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
The broadband is far slower than what I pay for
What it usually turns out to be
Where you measure decides what you find. The advertised speed is what arrives at the router, and by the time it has crossed the building over Wi-Fi to a laptop two rooms away, losing most of it is normal rather than exceptional. Genuine line faults exist, but they are the minority of what we are called out for.
What you can safely try first
- Test with an ethernet cable plugged straight into the router. That figure is your actual broadband speed — everything else is a Wi-Fi measurement.
- Compare that to what your provider promised in writing. A real shortfall is a provider issue and they are obliged to act on it.
- Check whether older devices are the ones reporting slow speeds. A laptop from 2015 cannot reach modern speeds regardless of the line.
- Test at different times of day. Consistently poor evenings suggests congestion rather than a fault.
If none of that shifts it, this is networking support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
After a new router, the printer and shared drive have vanished
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
After a new router, the printer and shared drive have vanished
What it usually turns out to be
A new router means a new network, and everything that was addressed on the old one is now looking for something that no longer exists. Devices with saved settings — printers, network drives, cameras, smart speakers — do not rediscover themselves. Provider routers also commonly enable client isolation by default, which stops devices seeing each other even once they have all rejoined.
What you can safely try first
- Re-enter the new Wi-Fi details on each device individually. Nothing carries over from the old router.
- Check the router settings for "client isolation" or "AP isolation" and turn it off if it is on.
- Look at the router's device list to see what has actually rejoined the network and what has not.
- Reconnect network drives by address rather than by the saved shortcut, which is pointing at the old network.
If none of that shifts it, this is networking support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
Smart plugs, cameras or speakers will not join the network
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
Smart plugs, cameras or speakers will not join the network
What it usually turns out to be
Nearly always the 2.4GHz issue. Smart-home devices are cheap by design and almost none support 5GHz, so when the router broadcasts both bands under one name and the setup phone is connected to 5GHz, the pairing fails with an unhelpful error that says nothing about bands.
What you can safely try first
- Temporarily connect the phone you are pairing with to the 2.4GHz network, complete the setup, then switch it back.
- Check the device's specification — if it says 2.4GHz only, that is your answer before you troubleshoot anything else.
- Move the device near the router for pairing. Setup is more signal-sensitive than normal use.
- Turn off the VPN on the pairing phone. It blocks the local discovery step that setup depends on.
If none of that shifts it, this is networking support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
I want visitors and smart devices off my work network
£120/hr labour·Fixed at your door
I want visitors and smart devices off my work network
What it usually turns out to be
Not a fault, but the single most worthwhile network change most homes and small offices can make. By default everything shares one flat network: the work laptop, the children's tablets, the visitors, and every cheap internet-connected device in the building, most of which will never receive another security update.
What you can safely try first
- Check whether your router has a guest network option — most do, and most people never switch it on.
- Change the router's own admin password if it is still the one printed on the sticker.
- Make sure the router firmware is up to date, or set to update itself.
If none of that shifts it, this is networking support — fixed at your door, and that page sets out exactly what we do about it.
£120/hr labour with a one-hour minimum, and most of these are finished inside it. Any hardware is quoted separately and only where it is genuinely needed. Quoted before we start, and nothing to pay if we cannot put it right.
When it is worth calling someone out
Call sooner rather than later
- Liquid has gone into it — corrosion spreads for days
- A drive is clicking, or files have started disappearing
- The case or trackpad is bulging — that is a swollen battery
- Someone talked you into giving them remote access
- It shuts down under load, repeatedly
Try the checks above first
- A printer showing offline that was working yesterday
- Wi-Fi that is fine in one room and poor in another
- A machine that is slow but otherwise working normally
- Something that broke immediately after an update
- A device that will not turn on with an untested charger
If you are not sure which column yours belongs in, ring and describe the symptom. Working that out over the phone costs nothing and takes a couple of minutes, and it is a better use of both our time than a visit that did not need to happen.
Still stuck? We come to you
Same-day visits across Greater London, evenings and weekends at the same rate. No callout charge, no diagnosis fee, and nothing to pay if we cannot fix it. Software problems can often be sorted remotely today without anyone travelling at all.
Questions about fixing it yourself
We will tell you when not to bother
Half the advice on this page is how to avoid paying us. That is deliberate. The jobs worth doing are the ones you genuinely cannot do yourself, and being straight about which is which is the whole reason people call us back.