3 Common Problems with a Macbook & How to Fix Them
One of the main reasons that so many computer users switched over to Apple products over the past ten years is that these products experience fewer errors. Apple prided itself on developing software that ran smoother and simpler than that of its Windows brethren.
That being said, that doesn’t mean that Mac computers don’t still run into issues every now and again. All you can hope is that these issues don’t arise while you’re in the middle of any important work.
Whether they do or not, learning how to troubleshoot a Mac can be a good idea if you do any sort of important tasks on your computer. You don’t want to be frozen up or locked out right in the middle of a work-related task, after all.
What are the best steps to take when you encounter an issue? Read on and we’ll walk you through everything you need to know.
- Your Computer Won’t Turn On
A common but frequently terrifying issue that some users run into occurs when the Mac computer won’t turn on at all. You hit the power button and the screen just stays black.
You might have that initial moment of panic, thinking, “Did my computer just die?” Only getting it up and running again can help alleviate you of that panicked fear in your gut.
First and foremost, you’ll want to make sure that the computer actually has power. Is it plugged into the wall? Check and see.
It might turn out that there’s just no power currently being sent to the system.
If you’re all plugged in and everything seems good to go, try it with a different power cable altogether. It might be the cable itself that has an issue, not your computer — a much less expensive problem to have!
If you still aren’t getting anything from your computer even with a new power cable attached, it might be time to get concerned. Try a hard reset of your computer by holding down the power button for a full ten seconds.
This will create a power cycle that might be able to reset your computer and kick it back to life. If your computer still won’t turn on after all this, you might need to call in a professional to take a look at it.
- Your Computer is Frozen
You’re probably familiar with the ‘color wheel of death,’ as many have called it. This is when your Mac is attempting to process a certain action and decides to freeze up, preventing you from clicking on anything new.
Sometimes, your Mac might freeze up without giving you this helpful signal. An application that you are using will simply stop working or allowing new actions to take place.
You can try giving your computer a few moments to work through this moment and get back up and running again. However, it might be a better move to simply start the quit process if you want to get things moving again.
The easiest way to quit out of a program that is causing a problem is to right-click on the program’s icon in the dock. You should get a range of options with Force Quit being one of them. If you hit that, the program should close within a few moments, restoring proper operation to your Mac.
You might also want to quit an app by bringing open the Control Panel menu. If you press Command+Alt+Esc at the same time, it will bring up a window with your currently running applications.
You can select the application that is causing issues and force it to quit from this menu.
If nothing else is working, you can also hit command+ctrl+eject to initiate a forced reboot on your computer. You can also hold down the power button for an extended amount of time to achieve the same effect.
Your computer should regain its normal function upon reboot.
- Mac is Running Too Slow
What if you’re Mac isn’t frozen, but it’s running so slow that it might as well be? This can be almost more frustrating, and it can certainly ruin your workflow.
There a couple of things to try in this scenario. The easiest thing to do is to go to your computer’s Activity Monitor, which should be listed under your applications.
If you click on the Memory tab within the monitor, you should see if there’s one program that seems to be hogging all the memory on your device. There should also be a graph of memory usage present. If a memory clog is the cause of your computer running slow, you should see areas here in amber or red.
Identify which application is causing the memory issues on your device and stop it from running if you can. See if your computer runs faster with this application out of the way.
If this application (as well as others open) is something you use all of the time, you might need to consider purchasing more RAM for your computer. There are some other steps you can take to help speed up a slow computer, but purchasing RAM is certainly one of the easiest fixes.
How to Troubleshoot a Mac That’s Having Problems
Is your computer having issues running? This can be a roadblock unless you learn how to troubleshoot a Mac computer. The above information can be hugely helpful in identifying issues with your computer and getting them resolved.
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