When you're an entrepreneur who works from his or her home-based office, your computer is pivotal to your productivity and profitability. You may often find that in addition to work spending time at your computer during the average workweek, you're also using it on evenings and weekends, especially when you have busy projects on the go. Computer problems can hinder your progress, but it can also be difficult to turn the machine off and lug your CPU to your local computer repair shop — after all, when your home office is missing your computer, it's tough to get much work done. However, there comes a point that you need to step away from your work and have this essential piece of equipment fixed. Here are some signs.

Slow Speeds Are Slowing You Down

As a computer gets old, and especially if it's cluttered with unnecessary programs and perhaps even some operating errors, it will slow down.  It can be easy to stomach your computer's slow speed for a while, especially if the speed has decreased over time and it's not overly apparent. However, you might eventually reach a point that you realize your computer's slow speed is hindering your progress. For example, you might click to open a program and the computer may process for several seconds before the program appears. This is a sign that it's time to deliver your computer to a repair shop.

Reliability Issues Are Getting In Your Way

As an entrepreneur, you need your home computer to be reliable. Bugs, malware, and other issues can all compromise your machine's ability to be dependable, and this can be detrimental to your business. For example, perhaps you regularly use a certain type of software, but now you're noticing that it occasionally gets glitchy and won't open — and that means that you can't work on the necessary files for a project you're completing.

Lack Of Updates Results In Inaccessibility

For a computer to function optimally, its operating system needs to be updated regularly. However, whether you've turned your computer's auto-updates off to save time or have just ignored the need to perform these updates, you may eventually notice that certain browsers and programs are inaccessible. For example, you might not be able to run a newer program if you haven't updated your machine in a long time. This is another issue that can get in your way when you're trying to do business, and should precipitate a visit to your local computer repair shop.

Contact a company, like Office Technology Experts, for more help.