When your personal PC is important to you, then you’re always a little concerned about what might go wrong with it. When you use it for some creative side-hustles to make some extra money, it’s even more important that it doesn’t malfunction.
Here are the most common things that can happen to a PC.
BSOD – Blue Screen of Death
The dreaded Blue Screen of Death is a blue error screen that appears on the Windows operating system when it has encountered an error preventing it from continuing to operate. There will be a STOP error with a code that you should immediately write down. You can then search for this error in Google to find out what it refers to.
In most cases, the Blue Screen of Death results from a bad device driver that is faulty, improperly installed or clashing with another driver. Drivers help Windows communicate with and use devices like the graphics card, modem and other components in the PC. Also, when unplugging or plugging in something new (or old), Windows can sometimes throw a fit and up comes the blue screen.
Follow the information provided when searching for the STOP code to find out how to resolve the error and prevent Windows from repeatedly crashing.
Your Screen Dies
Separate monitors or flat-panel displays on laptops can suddenly stop displaying anything. Other times, the backlight is failing, and the whiteness level will appear inconsistent across the screen.
There are several options in either case. With a laptop, the flat panel itself could be swapped out for a new one. With a separate monitor, this could be replaced (perhaps under warranty). If you’re unsure whether the PC has a faulty external port or a malfunctioning dedicated graphics card, then you could borrow the use of a friend’s monitor to plug it into your computer and see if you can see anything on their display. If you don’t, then likely something has malfunctioned inside your computer. If you do see a normal display, then most likely it’s only the monitor or flat-panel display that needs replacing.
Laptop Battery Stops Working
Batteries tend to only last 1-2 years before they start giving memory drain problems. At this point, you’re experiencing reduced capacity issues until the battery fails entirely. You’re best buying a replacement battery if your laptop is going to be used for at least a year or you need it on the road. Otherwise, if you have reliable power at home, then consider running on a power outlet alone. Bear in mind that each time a power cut happens, your laptop will turn off which could get very annoying!
Internal or External Drive Failure
You may be using an external drive and it starts to have disk corruption issues. Important files that you use regularly could become inaccessible and then you’re in trouble. If your main drive should fail, then you won’t be able to boot your computer into Windows and will only be able to use it when booting up via a USB flash drive with a portable operating system like Ubuntu temporarily.
When you’re having serious disk integrity issues and files are becoming corrupted, consider contacting Secure Data Recovery for help before the problem worsens. Data loss is preventable in many situations but when leaving it too long, sometimes data is lost forever.
With a personal computer, you must be prepared for things to go wrong. Just like with all machines, eventually almost all of them will experience a malfunction. For instance, with laptops, on average one-third have a hardware failure within the first two years and two-thirds within the first three years. However, the good news is that usually the parts can be replaced, and the PC can be kept running without the need to replace it completely.