PC users know the blue screen of death. Mac users know the spinning beach ball of noncompliance. While the debate rages on which system is better, faster, stronger, taller, handsomer, more likely to help you move or give you a ride to the airport at four in the morning… there will forever be one thing to bring computer users of any stripe together, and that is the fact that all of our machines, from time to time, break down.
Asking for help with computer problems can be a mollifying prospect, like men asking for directions, or men asking anything, really. Deep down inside, when our computer stops doing what it should, we all think we are to blame. We would like to think it is because we are performing some immensely complicated task, so mind numbingly diverse and insolvable that our poor processors finally give up, huddling themselves into the corner of the machine, arms around their knees, crying softly to themselves. But we know we probably just clicked something on accident. Really our processor is probably laughing at us while it has a cup of coffee and finishes reading the Twilight Saga.
Fear not, for qualified, competent, judgement free help is never far away. Whether you have computer monitor problems, computer hardware problems, even computer audio problems, tech repairmen are happy to help, and there may even be multiple sources of information that may save you a call to a repair shop, if you still have access to the Internet. Many high quality computer magazines exist that regularly offer help with computer problems people encounter everyday, as well as tips to optimize your system, avoid or fix viruses, speed up your machine, or trick out your display to make it look like you actually know what you are doing.
The bottom line is, never be afraid to ask for help. What is the worst that could happen? The tech guy comes out to your house, takes one look at your machine, presses one button, and everything is magically fixed? So what? Everything is magically fixed! Just so long as that one button was something other than the “on” button. That might be hard to live down…