From the Repair Bench

Hard-won advice from 20+ years running a UK computer-repair shop - the mistakes, failures and fixes I see on the bench every week.

The Broadband Call-Out That Turned Out To Have Nothing To Do With Broadband

The One Time "Off And On Again" Makes Things Properly Worse

The Second-Hand Laptop That Still Had The Previous Owner's Files On It

The Hidden Cost of Letting Everyone Use the Same Windows Account

The Data We Couldn't Get Back Because the Phone Screen Was Smashed

Why That 'Your Windows Licence Has Expired' Pop-Up Is A Scam

The SSD That Failed Without Any Warning Signs Whatsoever

Why Replacing A Laptop Battery Yourself Can Go Badly Wrong

The Phone Call That Gave Strangers Full Control of Her Computer

Why Spilling Tea On A Laptop Is Never As Simple As It Looks

The Phone That Was 'Backed Up To iCloud' But Actually Wasn't

The One Check I Do That Stops Laptops Dying Before Their Time

The Email Account That Gets Hacked Because Of One Weak Password

The One Reason Your Phone Photos Could All Vanish Overnight

Why Your PC Takes Forever to Start (And It's Not What You Think)

The Laptop Screen That Cost More To Fix Than It Should Have

Why Your Laptop Still Won't Charge After You Bought a Brand New Charger

The Smell Coming From Your PC That You Should Never Ignore

Your Wi-Fi Keeps Dropping — But Is It Actually Your Laptop's Fault?

The First Thing Most People Do After A Virus — And Why It Often Makes Things Worse

Why Your Computer Keeps Freezing (And It's Not What You'd Expect)

Why Kids' Gaming PCs Often Come In Full Of Malware And Pop-Ups

Why Is My Laptop Typing by Itself? The Cause Is Usually Simpler Than You Think

The Office Version Your Business Is Still Running Could Land You In Trouble

The Forgotten Microsoft Account That Locks You Out of Your Own New PC

The One Computer Problem That's Been Annoying People Since the 1990s

Why Your Desktop Keeps Shutting Down (And It's Not a Failing Hard Drive)

Why "It Was Working Yesterday" Is Usually The Start Of A Bigger Fault

My Customer's PC Turned On Fine — So Why Was The Screen Completely Dead?

Why A Cracked Screen Can Get Worse Even If It Still Works

The Laptop That Only Charges When You Hold The Plug At A Certain Angle

The Habit That Could Wipe Out Years of Your Work in an Afternoon

How to Speed Up an Old iPad or Android Tablet Before Replacing It

Do You Actually Need Antivirus on Windows 11?

Why Your Files Have Vanished Behind a Lock You Don't Remember Setting

Why Is My Smart Home So Slow to Respond? Common Fixes

The Scam That Got Through Even Though She Had Antivirus Running

Why Your Computer Suddenly Can't Find Anything to Boot From

Why Your Old Email Password Could Be The Weakest Link In Your Security

Your Files Are in OneDrive — But Are They Actually Safe?

Why Ignoring A Broken Laptop Hinge Can Destroy The Whole Machine

The Real Reason I Tell Customers To Stop Using Their Old Windows PC

My Customer's Laptop Was Fine — Until Windows Update Got Hold of It

The Backup Device That Looks Like It's Working Until the Day You Need It

The Reason Your "Backup" Drive Could Let You Down One Day

The Bargain Charger That Wrecked a Perfectly Good Laptop

Why a Nearly-Full Hard Drive Can Make Windows Almost Unusable

Why Your Laptop Says 40% and Then Suddenly Dies

Liquid on Your Laptop? Why the Bag-of-Rice Trick Isn’t a Repair

The Laptop That Runs Hot, Loud and Slow — Because It’s Full of Dust

The Fake ‘Microsoft’ Warning We Remove Every Week — and the One Thing It’s Really After

That Faint Clicking From Your Laptop? Stop What You’re Doing — Here’s Why

The ‘Slow, Ready for the Bin’ Laptop That Usually Just Needs One Cheap Part

I've Repaired Computers for 20 Years, and This Is the Backup Mistake I See Most

Updated automatically as new articles publish. Last rebuilt: 15 August 2026.