Take a breath first. When a computer will not turn on, it is nearly always the computer that has failed — not the photos, the documents and the records stored inside it. Those usually come back. That is the part I look after first.
I am Szabi. If your computer or laptop will not turn on, will not start, or keeps landing on a blue screen, I come out and find out why. I work in Port Dover, Simcoe, Delhi, Waterford, Jarvis and Vittoria, at homes and at businesses.
Tell me what it is doing and I will get back to you, usually the same day and the next business day at the latest.
Nothing on the screen. Maybe a light, maybe a fan, maybe nothing at all. People describe it to me like this, and every one of these is a normal call:
Most of the time it is the power supply, the battery, the charger or one part that has quietly given up. Here is the thing worth knowing: the part your files live on is a separate piece inside the machine. It usually sails through all of that untouched.
The machine has power. It just never gets you to your desktop.
This one is usually good news. It is normally Windows that is broken, not the machine and not your files. It is a repair, not a write-off.
The computer was fine when you went to bed. Windows changed something overnight, and in the morning it will not start. This is one of the most common calls I get, and one of the most fixable.
Often the answer is to take the bad update back out and put the machine where it was, then stop that same update from walking back in next week.
This is what people are really ringing about. Not the computer. The photos of the kids and the grandkids. The tax records. The letters, the recipes, the scans — twenty years of things nobody ever printed.
So that is where I start. Before I try to repair anything, I get at the drive and copy what is on it onto something separate. If the repair then goes badly, it does not matter, because your files are already somewhere else and safe.
Most of the time this works. When a machine will not turn on, it is usually the machine that has died and the drive inside it is perfectly readable in another computer.
I am not going to promise you more than that, and you should not trust anyone who does. I will not tell you your files are safe until I have seen them with my own eyes. And if I get in there and they cannot be got back, you will hear it from me straight away, before you have spent money on it.
Sometimes the drive is the part that died. You can often hear it: a click, or a quiet tick-tick-tick that keeps repeating. Or it simply is not there at all when I go looking for it.
If that is what I find, I will say so plainly. Drives in that state can often only be opened by a specialist lab in a clean room. That is expensive, and it is not work I do. I will tell you who does it and roughly what you would be looking at, and then it is your call. You are better served by an honest answer than by me having a go and hoping.
On some thin laptops and on recent Macs the storage is soldered to the main board and cannot be moved to another machine at all. If yours is one of those, you will hear that from me on the first visit, not after a bill.
Two numbers, and you know both of them before I touch anything.
I come to you and work out what has actually failed, and tell you in plain words. If you go ahead with the work, this comes off the bill. You only pay it if you decide to stop there.
Getting your files off a machine that will not start, and onto something you keep. Plus whatever the drive or memory stick they go onto costs — I tell you that number before I buy it.
Fixing whatever turned out to be wrong is quoted on its own, once I know what it is. You get that number before I start, and nothing is spent without you saying yes to it first.
It is not only Windows PCs. I work on Macs, on phones and tablets, on printers that will not cooperate, and on wifi and home networks that keep dropping out. If it is plugged in and it is annoying you, ask me while I am in the house.
You call or text, or fill in the form. You tell me what it is doing in whatever words you like — you do not need the right terminology, and you will not be made to feel silly for not having it. I get back to you, usually the same day and the next business day at the latest.
We pick a time, and I come to you, at home or at your business. Then I look at it, and I tell you what I found: what has failed, whether your files can be got off, and what it will cost.
You decide after that, not before. And if the machine is old enough that you would be better off putting the money towards a new one, I will tell you that too — after I have got your files safely off it.
A PlayStation or an Xbox that has gone loud, runs hot, shuts itself off mid-game or is simply full of dust gets a full strip-down, a proper clean and fresh thermal paste — from $129. PlayStation and Xbox. I do not do controller repairs, disc drives, HDMI ports or board-level soldering.
Not this, no. A machine that will not turn on needs somebody in front of it — that is hands, a meter and spare parts, not a screen share. Remote works on the machine that does start and then misbehaves: Windows trouble, an update that broke something, a program that will not run. Many of those I can sort out over a screen share without anyone leaving the house, and if it cannot be fixed that way, I come out.
Call or text, or fill in the form and I will get back to you. Port Dover, Simcoe, Delhi, Waterford, Jarvis and Vittoria, at home or at your business.
Prefer email? info@doverpc.ca. Not sure yet — the FAQ answers the usual questions about pricing and in-home visits.