Do-it-yourself tech troubleshooting help for broken Christmas gizmos

It’s the week after Christmas and all through the land, one phrase can be heard from those with phone clutched firmly in hand: “Help! It doesn’t work!”

These are the days when you don’t want to be working the help desk of an electronics or computer company. Nor do you want to have to call them.

You are not going to get through without having to wait a very long time.

For these first couple of weeks after Christmas are when all those gleaming, nicely wrapped high tech presents that were so eagerly unopened yesterday are in various stages of assembly or sitting idly by, non working and useless unless and until someone at tech support can offer help.

This is when help desk telephone technicians hate to come to work, the busiest weeks of the year, the time many call when their Christmas gifts give them grief.

Are you among them? I have a list of suggestions.

First, reread the instructions. Second, double check the cables and connections. There’s a third step. Don’t get mad at me but I have to mention it because, as any support tech will verify, this is a top issue: Make sure the gadget is plugged into an electrical outlet or has batteries.

Still no good?

Fear not. I can help. More accurately, the Web can help. Here are my five top suggestions.

Tip #1: Google It (www.google.com) – Start by searching for your problem. Type in two or three keywords that describes your issue, like the name and model number of the gizmo you need help with and the word “problems” or “won’t connect” or whatever the concern is.

Believe me, nine times out of ten, you’ll find your answer here. I know this from experience. Here’s a little secret. For several years, I did a weekly radio show on computers and high tech. People would call me with questions. As they described their issue, I’d Google what they were telling me.

Almost always, before they finished with the question, I’d have an answer on what they should do.

Tip #2: Get a new driver (http://www.driverguide.com) – Visit the Driver Guide. No, we’re not talking about vehicle drivers, but computer driver files, those important little applications that keep our hardware – such as video cards, modems, printers and the like – running well.

These little applications are regularly upgraded and updated and making sure you have the latest version of the driver, or control program, for your PC gizmos is important for trouble-free operation.

After registering for the site… it’s free… you simply enter in whatever hardware you have and search for new drivers. Don’t worry about the geek-speak…beginners get a lot of hand holding on how to do this.

Tip #3: Hit the forums – Look up the Website for the company that makes your balky gadget and look under support. Most have forums, or discussion areas, where users just like you ask for and get help, suggestions and troubleshooting tips. If the forum has a search box, use it, listing the model and the issue. Post your question and use the subscribe to thread option most forums have so when an answer comes in, you’ll be notified by e-mail.

Don’t pay for online support. Use free sites, like the Tech Support Forum here, one of several such sites run by volunteers and organized by category. I have one on my PCMike tech blog, too. 5Star Support is another resource with free help.

For PCs, I like PCMech (http://forum.pcmech.com). It’s a huge forum loaded with technical expertise. For Mac users, I like the forums at Macrumors (http://forums.macrumors.com). Again, solid, reliable advice from experts and consumers who’ve been where you are and can help you get out of your dilemma.

Enter the problem on the search form or post your own, chances are somebody has already posted an answer or knows exactly what you need to do to fix it.

Tip #4: Check the help sites. For Macs, it’s at http://www.apple.com/support. For Microsoft its at http://support.microsoft.com. These are really deep and detailed sites, totally free and filled with up-to-date suggestions and troubleshooting information.

But there are a couple of private sites that are also helpful.

Still no good?

That takes us to…

Tip #5 – Give it a rest. Seriously. Don’t obsess over this. Trust me as I’ve been where you are, very likely just leaving the problem for a few hours or a couple days, will give you fresh eyes to solve it yourself.GDo-it-yourself tech troubleshooting