IT Helpdesk

List of 8 items.

• Battery Issues

  If you are experiencing battery issues where your machine does not have enough power to last through the entire school day, here are some tips to help your battery life:
  
  -Make sure you are bringing your machine to school fully charged
  -Restart your machine daily
  -Check for updates on your machine at least once a week
  -Turn down your screen brightness
  -Close applications/windows/tabs you are not using on the machine
  -Use Microsoft Edge instead of Google Chrome for web browsing
  -Do not play games, listen to music, or do extensive web searches that are not school related during the school day
  -Do not use a slideshow background or animated background on your desktop background
  
  Charging stations are available in room 1105 during the entire school day. Students may put their machines on a charging station before or after school, during a lunch period, during a study hall period, or during a class period when machines are not needed for that day's lesson.
  
  If you have done these steps and are still experiencing poor battery performance, please bring your machine to room 1105 for the IT team to inspect.

• Restart

  The first step to any troubleshooting issues you have with your Surface Pro is to try a restart of your machine. You should be restarting your machine once a day to help it run properly. There is only one way to properly restart your machine.
  
  -First, click the windows icon located on your taskbar:
  

  

   

  -Click the Power button in the bottom right of the window that appears:

  

   

  -Click “Restart”:

  
  
  Restarting fixes a vast majority of issues with the Surface Pro, helps to keep the battery running properly, and resets all of our systems on the computer. You should restart your machine once a day. 

• Running Updates

  It is always good to check for updates once a week on your computer. This keeps your computer up-to-date and functioning properly. Follow these steps to run updates:

   

  -Find the magnifying glass icon in your taskbar and click on it to bring up the search window. At the top of the window you should see a search bar:

   

   

  -Type in “Updates” and choose “Check for updates” when it appears:
  
  

   
  
  

  -When the window opens, click the “Check for updates” button

   

  
  -Let any updates that are found download and install. The computer may require a restart after updates are run. Make sure to restart for the updates to work.

  
  -Continue running updates until it says "You're up to date" on the screen.

• Clearing Cache/Cookies

  For issues on a webpage, please try these troubleshooting steps:

   

  Restart (you should do so daily – especially between home and school as it is two different networks)

   

  Clear Chrome cache

  -Open Chrome

  -Select Settings (3 vertical dots in the upper right corner)

  

  -Select More tools – Clear browsing data

  

   

  -Change from Basic tab to Advanced tab

  

   

  -Change Time range to All time

  

   

  -Check all boxes except for Passwords

  

   

  -Select Clear data

  

   

  Flush DNS

  -Select Windows button

  

   

  -Type CMD and select Command Prompt

  

   

  -Type C: and hit enter

   

  

  -Type CD\ and hit enter

  

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  -Type ipconfig /flushdns and hit enter. You should receive a message indicating you Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache

  

   

  -Type exit and hit enter

  

   

  You can also try using Edge as your web browser instead of Chrome

   

• Hard Reset (frozen machine/keyboard not working)

  Sometimes when you run into issues like your computer freezing or your Type Cover (keyboard) not working, it helps to try a hard reset of your Surface Pro. Follow these steps to hard reset your computer:

   

  -Locate the Volume Up and Power buttons on the top of your Surface Pro

  

   

   

  -Press and hold down the Volume Up and Power button at the same time for 20-25 seconds. The screen on your computer will go black, but keep holding these buttons until you reach counting to 20-25 seconds.

   

  -If a login screen comes up, hit cancel, and on the following screen select “Exit” and hit the “Restart Now” button.

• OneDrive/OneNote Syncing Issues

  If your OneNote is having syncing issues, please try the following steps:

   

  -Make sure you are logged into OneDrive and that it is not paused

   

  -In the bottom right of your computer, you should see a blue cloud icon:

  

   

  -If you do not see this icon click the ^ button to see more icons .

  

   

  -If this cloud icon is grey, has a pause button on it, or has an X on it, you are not properly connected to OneDrive and your programs will not sync.

  

        

   

  -If you see one of these symbols, click on it, and in the box that pops up, login to your OneDrive with your school email address and password.

   

  -Force sync your OneNote notebook

   

  If you are properly connected to your OneDrive, try forcing a sync on your OneNote notebook.

   

  -Right-click on the notebook that you are having issues with and click on Sync >

  

   

   

  -Click Sync This Notebook or if you are having issues with multiple notebooks click Sync All Notebooks.

  

  -Give OneNote some time to sync and see if the syncing issue is resolved.
  
  -Close and Re-Open a Notebook
  
  If you continue to have issues after the above steps are tried, you can attempt to close and re-open a notebook with syncing issues.
  
  -Right click on the notebook having issues and click "Close This Notebook"
  
  -Once the notebook has closed, click the "More Notebooks..." button at the bottom of your notebook list. Find the notebook you closed in the window that appears, click the box next to it to select the notebook, and click "Open" in the bottom right. 

   

  -Check office.com to see if the sync issue is also happening there

   

  -Go to www.office.com and login with your school email and password

  -When you login and get to the dashboard, open OneNote

  

  -Find the notebook you were having sync issues with and see if the issue is happening online as well

  -If the sync issue is not happening online, use the online version of OneNote in the interim and bring your computer to Room 1105 when you are at school to have your OneNote app fixed

   

  -Restart your computer

   

  If none of the previous steps helped, please run updates on your computer and restart the computer

   

• Charger Issues

  If you are having difficulties charging your Surface Pro at home, please take the following steps to ensure that your power adapter is working properly:

   

  -Unplug the two halves of the power adapter and securely re-plug them back in, making sure they are snug.

  -Do a visual inspection of the charging port to make sure there is no debris blocking the power adapter from plugging in and having a good connection.

  -Make sure the plug is connected flush to the machine. The best plug-in position is with the power adapter “upside-down” with the skinny cord pointing upwards.

  -Make sure the light on the plug comes on when connected to the Surface Pro. Please note that some lights are dim on the chargers, but the brightness is not an issue.

  -If your Surface Pro is still not charging, inspect the charger for any physical damage to it. Any rips, tears, kinks, or large bends near the ends of the cords can cause the charger to stop working.

  -If you try all these steps and your power adapter does light up and charge the computer, your power adapter is working. If the issue is that your computer does not hold a charge long enough or doesn’t fully charge, please try a hard reset (instructions are on this site) and run updates on your computer.

  -If you try all these steps and your computer still does not charge, bring the power adapter with you to school and stop by room 1105 to have the power adapter and Surface Pro inspected.

   

• Touch Screen Issues

  If you are having issues with the touch screen on your Surface Pro, please try the following steps:

   

  -First, if you are trying to use the touch screen with your Surface Pen and it is not working, try using your finger on the touchscreen to see if it is working for you. If the touch screen works using your finger, your Surface Pen may need a new battery, pen tip, or need to be replaced. Bring the pen to room 1105 for inspection.

  -If the touchscreen is not working using your Surface Pen or your finger, start by trying a restart on the computer. To properly restart, click the windows button in the bottom left of your screen, click the power icon, and click restart.

  -If the touchscreen still does not work after a restart, try running any updates on your computer. Please visit the Running Updates section for these steps.

  -If you have restarted and ran all available updates and your touchscreen still is not functioning properly, bring your Surface Pro and Surface Pen to Room 1105.