Computer Repair For The Amateur
Computers are very reliable devices, even the cheap desktop computers.  Yet no matter how sturdy or reliable your desktop computer may seem now, sooner or laater, it will need some sort of repair or tune-up.  It is one of the Murphy's laws that unfortunately hold true.  The PC is the modern man's version of the work horse and even with careful maintenance, it will show some signs of wear and tear after awhile.  If you're reluctant about paying a couple of a hundred bucks to have someone take a look at your computer, then you could do a checkout of the problem yourself.  Here are a few repair tips for those of you uninitiated in the inner workings of the computer:

Try to determine what's wrong.

By now, you should already be somewhat familiar with the hows and whys of the ways your computer unit works.  You know what it looks and sounds like when it's working properly and can probably tell if there are kinks and warning signs that some things are not quite right. 

First, you should try to identify what exactly ails your PC, then look for the simplest explanation first.  The old adage of if you are on a farm and hear the sound of hooves, think horse instead of zebra.  Then gradually work yourself towards more complicated possibilities.  If the PC won't turn on, for example, check to see if it's connected to a live electrical outlet or if the batteries are sufficiently charged in a laptop.  Check your monitor to see if it's working properly.  There may be nothing wrong with your CPU at all and your problem is just simply a monitor that has conked out.

If you're using a surge protector or a UPS, see if these are plugged in and the switch is in the ON position as well.  Check the outlet or power source.  In some cases, the fault may lie here and not on your PC.  Remember: just because something doesn’t seem right does not automatically mean that your PC requires repair.  Sometimes, you can all trace it down to the power issue.

Know what you can perform.

Most PC repairs involve parts replacement.  This is something that even most of the uninitiated can perform efficiently.  Parts such as the motherboard, memory, video cards and internal modem are relatively easy to uninstall and replace.  This holds true for the hard drive as well.  Just be sure you understand what happens during and after replacement, though.  If you replace the hard drive, for example, you will lose data you already have if you're not careful with the hardware.

When it comes to software replacement or upgrade, these are fairly simply steps you can do on your own.  You could safely do stuff such as cleaning your registry, providing you purchase one of the software applications that can perform this action.  Installing an update to Windows or one of your applications or just simply performing a simple antivirus check or removal can be done with minimal risk.  However, if you're faced with something you think may be beyond the scope of your abilities and are in doubt, stop.  If you're uninitiated in this kind of work, you could destroy more data or hardware unnecessarily.  Better to be safe than sorry, but keep in mind, it isn't brain surgery.  After all, a computer is just a high speed moron that does exactly what you tell it to do.