troubleshooting

Brian has had an issue with an alarm system for two years that drives him nuts. They are supposed to get push notifications in the app, but often they don't. Or one person gets them, and one doesn't. Leo says that iOS can be very aggressive at shutting down background apps. Notifications can also be dialed up and down with sensitivity to not get a notification every 10 seconds when the wind blows. So it could be dialed down too far. If you haven't visited the app in a while, it may just be shut off. Or the company's servers may be down. There's a lot of points of failure there. 

Max has an issue with his Dell XPS 15 laptop, where if he's running off the AC adapter, it will slow down. He has to take out the battery and then put it back in to solve the problem. Leo says it could be because the computer thinks you want to charge the battery, but it can't. Dell has addressed it by coming out with a separate USB-C charger. 

Dylan likes to play video games, and his new laptop has a broken keyboard. Leo says that sounds like a factory defect that needs to be addressed by the manufacturer. Dylan can plug a USB keyboard into it in the short term, and it will replace the keyboard on the laptop. Dylan tried that, and that's when the keyboard stopped working. Leo says that it sounds like the laptop keyboard got disabled in Windows. He recommends going into device manager (Windows Key + X, device manager). Look for the keyboards section and make sure your standard keyboard hasn't been disabled.

Larry is having an issue where the computer he built is suddenly freezing up and not letting it reboot. So he's gotten into the habit of using a bootable backup. But now he can't get the computer to boot back up. Leo says that most problems like this can be solved by just reinstalling Windows from scratch and starting over. But if it's freezing during the boot, then it could be a host of things, including cabling. One key is to wait for the "beeps," or Power On Self Test (POST). If it beeps, that indicates an issue.  Also, pull out your dedicated video card and try rebooting.

Jose has been kicked off of Google and can't access anything on the internet. Leo says to make sure your computer's time and data is correct to start. If your motherboard battery has died, it can't backup any time data, and as such, the clock fails and you can't sync up with Google. That's the first thing to check. Leo says that security software may also be a culprit. He recommends sticking with Windows Defender and not a third party AVS app. He's also using Windows 8. Leo says that could be part of the problem.

Ron has a 40" Samsung TV with an Amazon Firestick. He can't raise the volume up or down. It's just stuck where it is. Leo says that it's likely an issue with the TV, not the Firestick. Leo says that he thinks that there's an issue with the TV's CEC option, which allows him to control the TV with the Firestick remote. What he suggests is to disconnect the Firestick and see if the volume issue persists. If it doesn't, then he knows there's an issue with the Firestick. 

Robert has a Dell Inspiron running Windows 10, but his restore point keeps getting deleted. Leo says that Microsoft deprecated System Restore recently, and Leo says it has never really worked when he needed it the most. He can still use it, but he will need to re-enable it. Windows Key + Restore. Here's a link from the chatroom about this issue, but it's a few years old.

Mark has a Samsung Note X. Sometimes, he doesn't get any internet access, even though he has full bars. He's tried going into airplane mode and back, but he still doesn't get data. Is it a dead zone? Leo says that the bars aren't for data; they are for voice. So your full bars doesn't really have anything to do with data access. But since Mark lives in LA, you should get data anywhere.

Dennis' 2011 iMac is showing lines on a white screen. Leo says it could be a failed monitor, or even the cable that connects to your monitor has failed. The OS may have been corrupted as well. Try booting into recovery mode. CMD+R. That will bypass the loading of the OS and will allow you to reinstall the OS. You can also try target display mode. If the problem persists, the Mac needs replacing., because it'll cost too much to fix.

Stan is having issues with his home theater system subwoofer. No bass at all. Leo says that there are two ways to connect your subwoofer.  A single RCA jack or an LFE connection (for low frequency).

But it could also be a setting in Netflix. Make sure you have your Netflix app set for surround. Make sure the highest quality is also selected. Also, check the settings in your streaming box.