Most articles listing “the most common computer problems” are written from memory or copied from each other. We wanted to answer the question with actual evidence, so we did something simple: we went back through more than 15,000 job records from our own workshop and counted what came in.
These are real machines brought in by real customers, the large majority from 2020 onwards. Below is what the numbers actually say — with an honest note on what they do and don’t mean.
A quick word on what this data is
This is a record of what people bring to a repair shop, not a survey of every fault that happens in the world. That distinction matters. A cheap mouse that dies gets thrown away, not brought in — so it won’t appear here. A laptop that won’t turn on, or a Mac that’s had a coffee spilled on it, absolutely does.
So read this as “what makes people seek out a repair,” which is exactly the useful question if you’re deciding whether your own problem is worth bringing in. Percentages are rounded, and categories are based on how each job was logged.
Laptops dominate — by a wide margin
The first clear finding is about form factor, not fault:
| Device type | Share of jobs |
|---|---|
| Laptops | ~77% |
| Desktops | ~10% |
| iMacs / all-in-ones | ~4% |
| Everything else (printers, tablets, etc.) | ~9% |
More than three in four machines we see are laptops. That makes sense — laptops are what most people now own, they’re portable (so they get dropped, sat on and spilled on), and their all-in-one construction means a single fault takes the whole machine out of action. A desktop with a dead power supply is a cheap fix; a laptop with a dead charging circuit is a bench job.
The faults we see most often
Here’s the headline table — the categories that make up the bulk of what comes through the door:
| Fault category | Approx. share |
|---|---|
| Screen / display | ~18% |
| Won’t boot / no power | ~15% |
| Virus / malware | ~11% |
| Slow / health check / overheating | ~10% |
| Operating system install / reinstall | ~8% |
| Data recovery | ~8% |
| Liquid damage | ~5% |
| SSD upgrade | ~4% |
| Battery | ~4% |
| Logic board / motherboard | ~4% |
| Charging / power port | ~4% |
| Keyboard / trackpad | ~4% |
| Email / Microsoft 365 | ~3% |
A few things stand out.
Screens lead. Cracked panels, backlight failures and display faults are the single biggest category. Laptop screens are glass, they’re structural-adjacent, and they break when a machine is dropped, sat on or closed on an obstruction. The good news is that most display faults are the panel alone — the screen replacement is usually straightforward once the rest of the display chain is confirmed healthy.
“Won’t turn on” is huge — and misunderstood. Roughly one in six jobs is a machine that won’t boot or power on. That single symptom hides a whole range of causes, from a failing drive to a charging fault to a genuine board problem. It’s the most misdiagnosed category we handle, which is why we wrote a separate breakdown of what “won’t boot” actually means. Guessing here is expensive; diagnosis is cheap.
Malware is still a top-three problem. Despite years of “antivirus is dead” takes, virus and malware removal is our third-biggest category. As you’ll see below, though, it’s overwhelmingly a Windows story.
Data recovery is one job in twelve. Failing drives, full disks and deleted files bring a steady stream of worried owners. Almost all of it is preventable with a backup — and almost none of the people who need us had one. If you take one thing from this article, set up a backup today.
Which brands come in
Of the machines where we could identify a brand:
- Apple — a little over 1 in 5 (~22%), the single most common brand
- HP — ~13%
- Dell — ~13%
- Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, Samsung, Asus — each in the 3–6% range
- The remainder spread across the long tail of makes
Apple’s lead partly reflects South West London’s demographics, and partly that Mac owners are more likely to repair rather than replace. It’s also why we invest in board-level Apple work — there’s genuine demand for it locally.
The most useful finding: repair usually wins
We looked at how jobs actually ended. When a machine reached our bench, the outcome was a repair or upgrade — rather than a recommendation to write it off — roughly six times out of seven.
That’s not us talking anyone into work. The cases where we recommend against repair are real and we make them plainly: an older laptop with several simultaneous hardware faults is often better replaced with a sound refurbished machine, and we say so. But those are the minority. Most machines that feel “dead” or “past it” have a single, fixable fault — a failing drive, a tired battery, a charging circuit, a full disk — and come back to life for a fraction of replacement cost.
What this means for you
- A slow or “dying” laptop is usually fixable. The most common cause of a machine that feels finished is a failing hard drive, and an SSD upgrade transforms it.
- “Won’t turn on” is worth a diagnosis, not a panic. It’s rarely the worst-case fault, and even when the machine isn’t saveable, your data usually is.
- Back up before you need to. data recovery is one of our most common — and most avoidable — jobs.
- Get a second opinion before replacing. If you’ve been quoted for a new machine or a big-ticket part, the odds are good that a cheaper fix exists.
Get an honest diagnosis
If your laptop or Mac is showing any of the faults above, we diagnose before we quote and tell you honestly whether a repair, an upgrade or a replacement is the right spend. We work on every major brand from our Putney workshop (SW15), serving customers across South West London.
Call 020 7610 0500, drop in to SW15, or use the contact form. For a specific fault, our laptop repair page is a good place to start.