A computer that will not start looks like the end of it, and it rarely is. Most of the dead machines we are called out to have one of about five things wrong, and the files on them are almost always still there.
$39 books an in-person visit and comes straight off the price. Remote help is $39 for 30 minutes. Card only, and you approve the price before we start.
The charger, not the computer. Laptop chargers fail more often than the laptops they charge. The cable breaks inside where it bends at the plug, or the brick gives out, and the battery quietly runs flat behind it. If the charging light does not come on, start here.
A battery that has worn all the way down. An older laptop with a tired battery may refuse to start even when it is plugged in, or start and shut off a minute later. That is the 'will not stay on even when plugged in' call, and it is usually the battery or the charger, not the computer.
An update that stopped halfway. A black screen with a cursor, a circle that spins forever, or a logo that sits there for an hour is often an update that got interrupted. The machine is on. It just cannot finish starting.
A drive that is failing. Clicking, a message about no boot device, or a machine that starts on some days and not others points at the drive. This is the one to take seriously, because the drive is where the files live.
A cable that came loose. After a move or a new desk, the power cord is half out of the back, the power strip is switched off, or the monitor is on the wrong input and the computer was running the whole time.
Do not keep forcing it off during an update. One forced restart is reasonable. Doing it over and over to a machine that got halfway into an update is how a stuck update becomes a computer that will not start at all. If it comes back to the same screen, stop there.
Do not open it up. Laptops are glued and clipped shut around ribbon cables that tear, and a desktop power supply can hold a charge after it is unplugged. Almost nothing on the list above needs the case open, and opening it is the quickest way to add a second problem to the first.
Do not keep trying to start a drive that clicks. Every attempt wears a failing drive further. Turn it off and leave it off until the files are copied.
Do not throw it out. Even a computer past saving still has your photos, your documents and your saved passwords on it. The files come off and the drive gets wiped before it goes anywhere.
We start by finding out which of those it is, because a new charger does nothing for a stuck update and an hour of software work does nothing for a dead charger. Tell us on the free call what you see, and we will tell you before anybody drives out whether it sounds worth fixing.
We come to your kitchen table. Nothing gets boxed up and hauled to a shop, and nothing sits on a shelf for a week. We bring what usually sorts these out: chargers for the common laptops, known-good power and video cables, and the tools to read a drive from outside the machine.
Your files come first. A computer that is truly dead usually still has its files on a drive that is fine, and getting them off onto something safe is part of the visit, before anything else is tried.
If the answer is a new computer, we will tell you plainly, move your files and accounts across, and set the new one up the way the old one worked.
Some of these will fix it outright, and that is fine. We would rather you solved it in ten minutes than paid us to do it.
We fix what is wrong with your tech. What we do not do is hardware repair, the kind that needs parts or a soldering iron, and saying so plainly saves everybody a wasted trip.
$39 books an in-person visit, and it comes straight off the price of the visit. Our hourly rate steps up with distance from downtown of the city that serves your area: $110 an hour within 25 miles, $130 in the 25 to 50 mile band, and $145 in the 50 to 75 mile band. That is how we cover the drive, so there is no separate travel fee.
Remote help is $39 for a 30-minute session and starts with a phone call at the time you picked. If you use us a few times a year, Nerd on Call is $14.99 a month and includes two remote sessions and an in-person visit each year.
Cards only. Local Nerds are not permitted to accept cash or checks, so you will never be asked for either at the door. Full detail is on the FAQ.
Rather talk it through first? Have a Local Nerd call you first, free and with no obligation.
In-person visits reach up to 75 miles out from downtown of each city we serve, whichever state that address is in. Remote help works anywhere. Check your own address on the ZIP checker, or see the whole state on the map.
Most often it is power: a failed charger, a battery run completely flat, a power strip switched off, or a cord pulled half out. Next come a stuck update and a failing drive, which look dead but are not. Any sign of life, a light or a fan, tells you which half of that list you are on.
The computer is on and the system has not finished loading. It is usually an interrupted update or a startup problem, and sometimes a failing drive. Give it half an hour, then try one forced restart. If it comes back to the same screen, stop restarting it and have it looked at.
Usually the battery has worn out, or the charger is no longer putting out enough power, and the laptop shuts down the moment it has to lean on the battery. We test the charger on the spot with one we bring. If it is the battery, that is a hardware repair shop job and we will tell you so.
Check the charger at both ends, try a different outlet, and leave it plugged in for half an hour. Then hold the power button for ten seconds, let go, and press it once. Worth knowing before anyone opens it: on most newer MacBooks the storage is built into the main board, so the files are only safe elsewhere if iCloud or a Time Machine backup was on.
Almost never. The files live on the drive, and the part that died is usually something else. Getting them off is part of the visit. The exceptions are a drive that has physically failed, which needs a specialist lab, and newer MacBooks where the storage is part of the board.
It depends on the age of the machine and what is wrong. A charger or a stuck update is worth fixing on almost anything. A failed board in a seven-year-old laptop usually is not. We will tell you on the free call whether it sounds worth a visit, and again at the table before anything is done.
No. A Local Nerd comes to you and works at your kitchen table, so nothing has to be unplugged, boxed and carried, and your files never leave the house. A machine that will not start cannot be fixed over a remote session, so in person is the right answer here.
$39 books the visit and comes off the price. Our rate is $110 an hour within 25 miles of downtown of the city that serves your area, $130 in the 25 to 50 mile band and $145 in the 50 to 75 mile band. Most of these visits take about an hour, and longer when there are a lot of files to rescue.