A lot of people come to me for help with their computer and between working with them and having done tech support years ago, I have come up with an extremely helpful guide on how to convey what is wrong with your computer to whoever is helping you. This guide works well whether you are calling into phone support or trapping a friend/relative into helping you.
Remember that it’s not important to know what any part of the computer is actually called. If you are talking about the tower, call it the hard-drive. If you are talking about the monitor, call it the CPU. It doesn’t really matter what part of the computer you are talking about, so long as you know the name of random computer parts. The person helping you will automatically know what you are talking about, as well as be impressed with your knowledge.
Remember that computers don’t respond well to common sense, so don’t try to use any by diagnosing the problem yourself. If your keyboard doesn’t work and there’s a purple tipped cord dangling from it, it probably doesn’t go into the purple colored port on the back of the computer. Sure the colors are the same and sure the male and female connectors match up, but that’s likely just a trap, so don’t fall for it.
Remember that if an error message pops up on the screen, don’t write down what the error is, just mention to whoever is helping you that you had one and they’ll probably automatically know what it is.
Remember that your friends and family who know something about computers like nothing better than fixing them. A dinner date is the perfect time to bring your laptop along to have them look at.
I hope these few pointers have been helpful to you and will serve you well the next time your computer dies despite your keeping it warm and snuggly with that space heater sitting next to it.