Making a phone call, submitting a ticket via email, or just experiencing a problem in general, takes time out of your busy day and can kill your productivity.
We always recommend rebooting your computer before submitting a ticket. A reboot can solve a pretty good number of issues just on its own. It clears out a lot of the outstanding errors that have been piling up on your computer and can give it a fresh start.
Preventing problems from happening is the name of the game, so here are a few things you can do to help keep your help desk tickets at bay:
Viruses
Viruses are one of the most common tickets we receive at the help desk. Often the user isn’t even aware that a virus is what is causing the problems on their computer. If your computer seems to be running slowly or you have a lot of popups, it’s likely that you have a virus. There are ways to help prevent getting viruses though!
Never download anything. Even if you think something is safe, double check with an IT support professional before you download anything on your computer. Even if a website is telling you a plugin or extension is required.
You can also prevent viruses by being careful about scams that come across your email. Phishing messages that request action on your part can be very convincing. Make sure you know the warning signs before you click!
Finally, make sure you are only visiting legitimate websites. Check the URL of anything you click on, even within a Google search, to make sure that it looks correct. If a search result tells you that it is the customer support for your computer, and the brand name of the computer is not before the .com in the URL, then it may be the wrong site.
Printer Problems
Another common issue that frequently hits the help desk is problems printing or scanning. This is another problem that can sometimes be fixed by rebooting the printer.
However, printers don’t always reboot when their button is pushed. Sometimes you need to take the power cord out of the printer to really clear out the memory of the printer.
At the BRITECITY office, we always try to clear the printer queue of stuck print jobs prior to rebooting it, to give the printer a clean slate to start from.
Forgetting Your Password
While we never advocate users putting their password on a sticky note and leaving it on or around the computer, sometimes users feel this is the only way they can remember their password.
People have a hard time remembering the password to the computer because they typically change it frequently. Password resets are very common help desk tickets.
Instead of writing the password down on a piece of paper, use a program like LastPass to store all of your passwords. You can then look up the current password from your phone and get into your computer when you need to, instead of having to call the help desk.
With a little bit of forethought, many of these problems can be prevented or solved quickly on your own. While we love hearing from our clients, we don’t want to cause any productivity delays for you!
BRITECITY offers local businesses support in areas like Cyber Security, Cloud Services, Strategic IT, and Managed IT Services in Orange County.