Collection of Common IT Support Issues, Handy Hints & Tips!

IT support issues are frustrating, but there are ways to fix them with the right approach. When you call your IT support, you want to make sure that your issue is handled quickly and effectively. So, it doesn’t happen again or prevent you from accomplishing your goals.

That’s why it’s good to know what IT support issues and solutions are most common, so you can identify any problems that come up and get them taken care of as soon as possible. We have also added in a few interesting facts and helpful hints to help you on your way!!

1. Had a “liquid incident”? Remove the battery from the device (if you can) as quickly as possible and place it in a bowl of rice. Cover the device completely. Don’t be tempted to try the device for at least 2 days. If the device has a keyboard be sure to check for rice under the keys before using otherwise you may damage the keyboard.
2. My computer just shut down unexpectedly!” – Randomly shutting down is likely due to overheating. Check your device for dust and ensure you’re using it on a flat surface in a cool, ventilated room. If this doesn’t help, your device may be experiencing a virus. In which case, it’s imperative you contact your IT Support partner immediately.
3. Not sure if you trust a cash point? Enter an incorrect PIN. If it is a dodgy cash point it won’t care and will still go through the process of pretending to give you cash. If it requests that you re-enter your PIN, it’s probably safe to use.
4. Did you know the seven common migration strategies? The 7 Rs for moving applications to the Cloud are refactor, replatform, repurchase, rehost, relocate, retain, and retire.
5. Keyboards gather a rather large amount of unthinkable “stuff”. The sticky end of a Post-It note is perfect for slotting between the keys and gathering “stuff”. Just don’t think about where it might have come from.
6. Cloud providers rely on firewalls to help protect your files. Firewalls, which can be hardware- or software-based, apply rules to all of the traffic coming into a network designed to make it more difficult for hackers to slip malware or viruses past the security measures
7. Did you know? The scary prospect of the combination of Google Glass, social media and facial recognition technology. Some app developers are excited about the prospect of a Glass app that can recognize a stranger’s face and pull up information about the person scoured from their Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Google has patented eye-tracking technology that would record what ads you look at in the real world and charge fees to advertisers on a “pay-per-gaze” basis.
8. Data sovereignty is the concept that digital data is subject to the laws of the country in which it is processed. SaaS (Software as a Service) and Cloud storage services have dramatically increased in popularity in recent years, but their use often entails international data transfers, which can result in major compliance challenges for users and providers.
9. Got an old hard drive that refuses to work? Put it in an airtight bag (Ziploc type), wrap in bubble wrap, then place in the freezer overnight. Try again and you might find that you can now read data from the drive. You need to be quick though. Once the drive has warmed up it will probably fail again.
10. Born 10th December 1815, Augusta Ada King (Countess of Lovelace) is recognised as the first computer programmer. Happy 207th Birthday Augusta! Bonus fact… MIL-STD-1815 (a US military standard) refers to the use of the Ada programming language. The 1815 isn’t a coincidence.
11. Rates for cloud adoption is extremely high. Public cloud adoption is at 91 % and private cloud adoption is over thirty percent. It’s considered the number one initiative for businesses.
12. The year 2000 was expected to be computer Armageddon due to a calendar roll over from 99 to 00. This was due early short-sightedness in storing years as 2 digits. As it happened, none of the predicted chaos happened and people blamed the media for generating hysteria. In reality, a truly massive amount of work put in by techies identified and fixed nearly all the issues before the year 2000. Had this work *not* been done it is highly likely that the global problems that were anticipated would actually have taken place.
13. The word “Google” is actually a typo. It was supposed to be “Googol”, meaning 1 followed by 100 zeroes.
14. One of the most prominent technologies that will change our world is AI. Robotic Process Automation is the process of teaching a robot how to manage certain menial tasks. This allows skilled workers to focus on the more skilled parts of their job.
15. The 10 oldest .com domains still in use today are (all of these were first registered in 1985 or 1986):
    • symbolics.com
    • bbn.com
    • think.com
    • mcc.com
    • dec.com
    • northrop.com
    • xerox.com
    • sri.com
    • hp.com
    • bellcore.com
16. Fiction to fact: In the movie Wargames, the protagonist found the nuclear weapon system controller by randomly dialling telephone numbers in an attempt to find the modem of a games publisher. Hackers used this technique in the 80s and 90s. The technique became known as Wardialling. Later, hackers would drive around towns looking for wireless networks to exploit. This became known as Wardriving.
17. Tip – Mapped Network Drive Disappeared? This is a common issue that can happen if the network path changes or the computer is disconnected from the network. To fix this, you need to reconnect to the network drive. Go to My Computer and click on Map Network Drive. Enter in the new path for the network drive and check the box that says Reconnect at logon. This should fix the issue.
18. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be written using the letters on a single row of a keyboard
19. Did you know? – As part of the Windows 11 upgrade, Microsoft announced that the infamous ‘blue screen of death’, displaying a sad face alongside “Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart”, will now be a black screen instead!
20. The original Intel 4004 CPU (now over 50 years old) was made up of 2300 transistors. The Apple A16 CPU (as used in the iPhone 14) is made up of 16 billion transistors!
21. Don’t use your laptop running from mains power all the time. Use it on battery occasionally and run it down to about 10%-20% capacity then fully charge it. This will extend the life of your battery massively.
22. By the year 2025, there’s projected to be over 100 zettabytes of data in the cloud. One zettabyte is equal to a trillion gigabytes. The cloud industry is becoming too big to fail. Soon enough, it’s likely that there will be more information stored online than there is in person.
23. You can use the camera on a mobile phone or laptop to check the batteries of your television remote control. Point the controller at your camera and press any of the buttons. If the remote control is working you should see flashing lights. This is because most cameras don’t properly filter infra-red light.
24. If all else fails… turn it off and on again!