Hardware
Pages relating to Hardware issues

Monitor: No Signal Issues
A No signal error message could appear on your screen due to several reasons. In this article we will tackle the issues that are causing your screen to display the “No Signal” error message. 

 

 Why does the “No Signal” error message appear? 

 

 The “No Signal” message appears on your screen to inform you that the monitor is not receiving any display signal from your computer or laptop. Most monitors also switch off after displaying this message after a couple of seconds; and usually your power button LED shines a yellow/orange light (But not exclusively). 

 

 

 1.   Loose Cable 

 Display cables can fall loose after long time being connect to your monitor and moving the monitor around. So, ensure tight connection from each end of the cable, you should feel a click if the cables were loose. 

 

 2. Software Misconfiguration 

 If that didn’t work, then before we assume the cable is faulty, we want to see if the issue lies with the software side of things. Although we take it for granted connecting a screen to our laptop and within seconds it starts working, sometimes a misconfiguration on your laptop/desktop could be the cause of the problem. Let’s walk through how you can identify a misconfiguration: 

 

 Assuming that you are logged* on to your machine click both the windows key  

+ 

P 

 

 

 

 PC screen only – if this setting is selected then it will only display your laptop/Desktop screen and display nothing to your monitor. Ensure the appropriate Display view is selected. 

 

 Perhaps the issue has not been fixed, in that case we need to ensure if our computer is detecting the second monitor. To check whether our laptop/desktop is detecting the second monitor we can do the following step. 

 

 1        1) 

 Click the windows key    + S 

 2        2) 

 Type “ Display Settings ” 

 

 

 

 3       3) 

 Click “ Detect ” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 3. Wrong Input Display 

 We have previously looked at software misconfiguration, but what about hardware misconfiguration? Sometimes the issue could be that your monitor is trying to connect to a completely different display terminal and therefore we will need to correct this misconfiguration. 

 This solution varies depending on the monitor you have in front of you and settings could look slightly different to those in the examples below. 

 

 

 

 1    1) 

 Assuming your monitor is in standby mode (orange/yellow light on the power button ). If not please turn the monitor back on* 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      2)   Find the Buttons for you monitor, Possible locations: Bottom left/right or Middle, sometimes at the back, Near the power button. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    3) 

 Click the first button away from the power button. you might need to click it again because the first click wakes up the monitor* 

 

 

    4) 

 Depending on your monitor a menu should appear with possible display input selection like VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI…etc. Generally, the menu should look something like in the image below. 

 

 

 

 

   5) 

 Selecting auto allows the monitor to auto detect the display input and prevent issues like misconfiguration. If you don’t happen to have that option then keep trying each display input until the right one works.  

 

 

 

 

 4. Faulty Cable 

 

 If all fails and you have tried the previous solutions and nothing resolved the problem, then you can safely assume maybe the cable is faulty. To test that, try finding a similar display cable as the one that isn’t working and use that instead. Additionally, test the current cable that you have by plugging it into another device or monitor. If the cable worked on another monitor or device then the issue could be with your monitor or device display ports. However, it is highly unlikely for monitor ports or device ports to fail and usually the cable is the issue. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Thanks for reading this Article, if you are still experiencing issues and nothing has been resolved then please contact the support team.

Mouse & Keyboard: Not working
When we are generally troubleshooting an issue we should start thinking of the most common cause rather than ruling it off as broken. This article will cover solutions to when your mouse or keyboard stops working.  

 

 

 1. Disconnect and reconnect 

 Depending on the mouse or keyboard you are using, its either Wired, wireless or Bluetooth. In either cases they would been connected to your device either physically via USB or Wirelessly via Bluetooth. 

 Wired = a wire coming from the mouse/keyboard connecting to your device 

 Wireless = a USB dongle connected on the device which specifically connects your mouse & Keyboard to the device wirelessly. 

 Bluetooth = The mouse or keyboard has been paired to the device via Bluetooth wirelessly (No wire or USB dongle). 

 Depending on the type of mouse or keyboard you are using (as mentioned above), either unplug or disconnect the mouse/keyboard then plug or reconnect/pair the mouse/keyboard.  

 This could very be the solution to the problem. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Caption: Windows 10 action centre enabling and disabling Bluetooth. 

 

 Caption: USB Mouse/Keyboard dongle 

 

 

 2. Restarting you machine 

 The second solution should rule off the issue if it was caused by windows. Sometimes Windows might fail to register the device at a specific point of time which causes the software which communicates with the mouse or keyboard to crash. This is referred as to as a crashed driver. 

 Typically restarting your device resolves the issue. But before you do restart, make sure to save your work. You can use a different mouse or keyboard temporarily to save your work. After restarting the mouse or keyboard that wasn't working should start working.  

 Unsure how to restart your device? Click here 

 

 

 

 3. Replace dead batteries 

 This solution is only catered to those wireless or Bluetooth Mouse/Keyboards. Underneath the mouse/keyboard - unless they are chargeable mouse/keyboard - there is a cover which holds the battery in place. Change the current battery 🔋 with a newer one. Give it a test to ensure the mouse/keyboard is working.  

 Alternatively check if the mouse/keyboard was switched off. Some mouse/keyboards have a switch mode on/off to save the battery life. Ensure the mouse/keyboard is switched on then give it a test. 

 

 

 Caption: A new battery being inserted in the battery cover in a wireless keyboard. 

 

 Caption: Underneath a mouse showing the switch modes