Yesterday I visited one of my favorite clients. She was having problems with her wireless keyboard. When I typed on the keyboard, nothing happened, unless we were typing in an area asking for a password. This was very similar to a problem someone called the show about last Saturday.
Her keyboard was wireless, as it turns out the little button that synchronizes the keyboard was stuck down. I pried it loose and – POOF! The keyboard worked.
Today I saw a similar problem. I received an emergency phone call from a client whose printer had stopped working a while ago, but now she needed to do some printing on a deadline.
When I got to her house we replaced her print cartridges because the indicator showed that they were almost empty. I uninstalled her printer software and reinstalled it. I disconnected the cord from the back of the printer and reconnected it. No matter what I did, the computer wouldn’t see the printer.
I reached around back behind the computer to pull the USB cable out of the back of the computer and noticed that the cable was plugged into the network port.
No matter how many times I tell people to check the simple things first, even I still make that mistake.
Make a note, when your computer does something weird, turn it off and then turn it back on. If it is a hard ware problem, check all of the cables at both ends. Last, make sure all of the power is on.
Following these simple suggestions will prevent the embarrassment that your computer guy will feel when he troubleshoots for half an hour before he discovers the problem.
