A computer that won't start looks like the end of it, and it rarely is. It's usually one of five things, and the files on it 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 agree to the rate before we start.
Tell us what the computer is doing and a Local Nerd calls you back to say whether it sounds worth fixing. Nothing to pay here.
Rather pick a time yourself? Book a visit online
The charger. Laptop chargers fail more often than the laptops they charge. The cable breaks where it bends at the plug, or the brick gives out, and the battery runs flat behind it. If the charging light doesn't 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's plugged in, or start and shut off a minute later.
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. The machine is on and can't finish starting.
A drive that's failing. Clicking, a message about no boot device, or a machine that starts on some days and not others. Take this one 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.
Don't keep forcing it off during an update. One forced restart is reasonable. Doing it over and over to a machine halfway into an update is how a stuck update becomes a computer that won't start at all.
Don't 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's unplugged. Nothing on the list above needs the case open.
Don't keep trying to start a drive that clicks. Every attempt wears a failing drive further. Leave it off until the files are copied.
Don't throw it out. Even a computer past saving still has your photos, documents and saved passwords on it. The files come off and the drive gets wiped before it goes anywhere.
Tell us on the free call what you see, and we'll tell you before anybody drives out whether it sounds worth fixing. A dead charger, a stuck update and a failing drive each need a different fix.
We come to your kitchen table, so nothing gets boxed up or left on a shelf for a week.
Your files come first. If the machine will power on at all, getting them off onto something safe comes before anything else is tried. If the drive has to come out of the case to be read, that's a repair shop's job, and we'll tell you so.
If the answer is a new computer, we'll say so, move your files and accounts across, and set the new one up the way the old one worked.
Some of these fix it outright, in ten minutes, and save you the visit.
We don't do hardware repair, the kind that needs parts or a soldering iron. Better to know before anybody drives out.
$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's how we cover the drive, so there's 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 aren't permitted to accept cash or checks, so you'll 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, free, 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 address on the ZIP checker, or see the whole state on the map.
Most often it's power: a failed charger, a battery run 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 aren't. Any sign of life, a light or a fan, tells you which half of that list you're on.
The computer is on and the system hasn't finished loading. It's usually an interrupted update, 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 isn't putting out enough power, and the laptop shuts down the moment it has to lean on the battery. We check the charger first. If it's the battery, that's a hardware repair shop job and we'll 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. 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. If the machine will power on at all, getting them off is part of the visit; if the drive has to come out of the case, a repair shop does that part. 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.
A charger or a stuck update is worth fixing on almost anything. A failed board in a seven-year-old laptop usually isn't. We'll 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 your files never leave the house. A machine that won't start can't be fixed over a remote session, so in person is the right answer here.
We bill by the hour, and the rate depends on how far your Local Nerd drives; the three rates are on this page under What it costs. Plan on about an hour, longer when there are a lot of files to rescue.