Computer Repair Tips

Unlike standalone desktop keyboards on which you can easily replace sticky or broken keys one at a time, many laptop PC keyboard problems require wholesale keyboard replacement.

Replacing a laptop PC keyboard requires opening the bottom deck of the laptop PC, which can void your warranty. Check your warranty first before replacing the keyboard.

As with earlier do-it-yourself repairs covered in this brief, you’ll find that the Repair4Laptop.com website offers a wide range of tutorials with photographs and step-by-step instructions.…

Most laptop PCs include external video outputs, primarily VGA (Video Graphics Array), with an increasing number of devices offering DVI (Digital Visual Interface), or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) support.

When your laptop PC’s built-in display isn’t working properly, you can quickly and easily determine if the problem relates to the built-in graphics circuitry or to the display itself by plugging in an external monitor. If the external monitor lights up and things work as they should, the built-in display…

The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is an essential but nearly invisible program that operates in the background on every PC. The BIOS establishes settings for PC hardware, boot order among multiple drives, interface language, and more. Access to the BIOS requires pressing a key just as the PC begins to boot up, right after you turn it on.

For most HP laptop PCs, these special keys provide the following types of functions:

• Esc: Displays the POST (power on self test) message…

Study after study shows that no upgrade improves Windows performance or boosts user satisfaction with their PC more than adding RAM (random access memory) to a machine. Although many laptop PCs come equipped with 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM, those same computers can often accommodate at least twice as much RAM as is currently installed. In many cases, at least one laptop PC memory module, called a SODIMM (small outline dual inline memory module), is readily accessible on…