Phones & Tablets

Phone Speaker Gone Quiet or Muffled? Clean It Before Anything Else

A speaker grille packed with pocket lint is the cause most of the time, and it is free to fix.

A screen that taps by itself is usually moisture, a bad charger, or a failing digitiser. Here is how to tell which.

A pad that charges sometimes, slowly, or not at all is nearly always misalignment, a case, or something metal in between.

A phone that crawls for a few days after an update is usually rebuilding indexes, not deliberately slowed down.

A hotspot that will not appear, or connects with no internet, usually comes down to bands, tethering permissions or APN settings.

Some bubbles disappear on their own, some never will. Here is how to tell which you have and how to fit one…

Face recognition that has become unreliable is usually a dirty sensor, a changed appearance, or lighting the sensor cannot cope with.

Casting fails for network reasons almost every time. Four settings account for nearly all of it.

A tablet that has become painful to use is usually short of storage or running too much in the background. Here is…

Random reboots point at an app, a failing battery, or overheating. Here is how to tell which without guessing.

A backup that silently stopped months ago is the worst kind. Here is how to check yours is working and fix it…

A phone has three or four microphones and only one is used for calls. Here is how to find which is blocked…