James Rowe: There are few things more frustrating than your devices not doing what they're supposed to. Luckily for you, that's where our tech support team comes in.
Hello and welcome to Which? Shorts, your free weekly insight into Which? magazine, as well as our Money, Tech, Travel, and Gardening titles, too.
Today, I'm bringing you a piece that our tech expert, Cathy Hudson, wrote for the August-September issue of Which? Tech, all about the tech problems we solve most often.
Members of Which? Tech, who receive the bimonthly magazine from where this piece originated, also get unlimited one-to-one access with our tech experts, whose job it is to help our members when something techy goes wrong.
Here, Cathy has spoken to the team to round up some of the most common problems and what they do to quickly fix them.
If you're not already a Which? Tech member, there's a link in the show notes for you to join.
Here is Cathy's piece, adapted for the podcast, this week read by me, James Rowe.
James Rowe: Meet Conor Houlihan. He has worked in tech since he left school at 14 and, for five years, he's worked in the Which? tech support team.
"I've always had an interest in tech," he says. "I built my first computer when I was about eight years old, and I've always helped family and friends fix their tech."
Connor says the best thing about his job is the members.
"I've worked in plenty of other tech roles over the years, and I've never known gratitude like we get from our member base. They truly do appreciate the help we offer them."
Whatever the issue, whether it's software, security, the internet, or printing, our tech members can call on our crack team of eight full-time experts to diagnose and resolve it so they can get on with using their tech trouble-free. Our team of advisers have 89 years of tech support experience between them.
Connor says he has his regulars that he's spoken to since he started working at Which?, and has built good relationships with many of them. His favourite fix was for a member with a serious illness during the COVID lockdown. The member was distraught, as he'd lost images of his late wife from his computer along with other data, but Connor was able to recover the data, including the images.
Connor has also dealt with some unusual fixes. One involved a rather innovative device that a member had bought from China.
"It hooked up to your bed and computer, and when a notification or alarm began, the whole bed and mattress would shake uncontrollably," he says. "The noise at the other end of the phone of the person on the bed with a shaking 10 to the dozen still makes me laugh."
But what about the more everyday problems our team comes across? Well, we've asked our experts to reveal the most common ones and what they do to quickly fix them.
Notifications from your browser with alarming messages such as "critical threat or virus detected" can be worrying. However, these are fake virus alerts or scareware aimed at getting you to install malicious software or pay for fake antivirus to solve the issue.
To stop them, all you need to do is block unknown websites from sending you notifications. Just navigate to the settings menu on your browser – select Privacy and Security on Chrome and Firefox, then Site Settings on Chrome or Permissions on Firefox to do this. If you use Microsoft Edge, choose Privacy, Search, and Services, then Site Permissions.
Alternatively, you can stop notifications altogether.
It's a good idea to run an antivirus scan afterwards so that you can be confident nothing has been downloaded to your PC.
You may also get full-screen scam pop-ups. These often claim to be from Microsoft and could have audio playing and telling you not to turn off your computer. They may attempt to get you to call a scam number.
As it's full screen, you can't just click the X to close the window. Instead, on a Windows PC, press Control, Shift, and Escape, or Control, Alt, and Delete, which opens the Task Manager. Then select the web browser you're using and end task. On a Mac, it's Option, Command, and Escape, then click Force Quit.
When it comes to no internet, our team has a tried-and-tested solution. It's a cliché to say, "Try turning it off and on again," but in the majority of cases, this will work to bring the internet back.
Perform a network reset by going to Start, Settings, Network & internet, Advanced network settings. You need to reconnect to your Wi-Fi network using your password – usually that's written on your router, unless you've changed it yourself.
If your printer isn't working over Wi-Fi, it's often because the new router is a dual-band, which means it operates over two different frequencies to reduce congestion and give you faster speeds. Many printers don't support 5 GHz, so won't work if connected to that band. You can fix this by giving the 2.4 GHz band a separate SSID – that's the name that identifies the network – in your router's settings, then connecting the printer to that one. You can usually access your router's settings by typing its IP address – you can find this on the router itself or in your Wi-Fi settings – into your browser, such as Chrome or Safari.
If your printer's not responding to print requests, it's often because it's lost connection to your Wi-Fi router. The easiest way to reconnect it is by using WPS, or Wi-Fi Protected Setup, which allows your router to look for nearby devices so you don't have to enter its long password. You can do this either through your printer's control panel or touchscreen, or by pressing a physical button – consult your printer's manual for instructions.
What about email? If your email app, such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, stops working and won't send or receive messages, it's usually straightforward to solve. In Classic Outlook, go to File, Account Settings. Choose the relevant account and click Repair. Then sign back into the account. This reauthenticates the connection to your email provider, which often fixes the issue.
With newer versions of Outlook and other apps such as Apple Mail, it's usually an easy fix, too. Simply removing your email account from the app and then readding it is usually enough to resolve problems with sending, receiving, and syncing.
The new Outlook app, which became widely available in 2024, promises to help you manage your email accounts and calendars more easily, use AI to write better emails, and more.
So what if your app has changed to this new version, but you'd prefer to keep using the classic one? Well, it's no problem. You can switch back by turning off the "New Outlook" toggle at the top right of the Outlook window. Classic Outlook will continue to be supported until 2029.
And finally, if your screens are letting you down, don't panic. If you're stuck on a black screen, restarting your device usually fixes this. To switch your computer off, hold down the power button – or the power and volume down buttons on a phone or tablet – for 10 to 20 seconds.
And if your phone screen keeps turning off, it's usually because they're set to turn off automatically after a specific period, but you can extend this or even stop it happening altogether. Depending on whether your phone is Android or iPhone, go to Settings, Display or Display & Brightness, Screen timeout or Auto-Lock. You can choose up to 5 minutes or more, and sometimes never, depending on your phone.
That brings to an end another podcast from Which? There's loads more for you to read about everything we discussed today – just head to the episode description for more useful everyday advice.
James Rowe: There, you'll also find an exclusive offer for podcast listeners like you to become a Which? member for 50% off the usual price, giving you access to our product reviews, our app, one-to-one personalised buying advice, and every issue of Which? magazine across the year. Plus, your membership helps us to make life simpler, fairer, and safer for everyone.
If you'd like to know when we release a new episode, then make sure you press subscribe wherever you're listening – that way, you can be one of the first to listen. And for any questions, comments, or anything in between, follow us on social media @WhichUK, or email us podcasts@which.co.uk. Goodbye.
