As much as I’d like to be able to teleport myself to your house and show you how to fix your machine in person, that probably won’t be possible any time soon… 

So in the meantime, to identify your problem (and more importantly, to work out how to fix it!) we need to know exactly what device you’ve got. It can be a bit tricky to tell, but not to worry – here’s how to find out:

(Or, if you prefer to watch a video about it, click or tap here to see our video guide instead.)

What laptop/desktop do I have?

On most computers, you can find out who made it just by looking for a company logo on the monitor, underneath the screen (or on the back of the lid on laptops) – there’s usually the word “Dell”, or “Acer” written somewhere fairly obvious. Or if it’s a Mac, it’ll just have a big Apple symbol instead.  But if you want to know what model of computer you have, here’s how you can find out:

Windows computers

  1. Click on the Windows key either in the bottom left corner or at the left of the set of icons at the bottom of your screen.
  2. In the menu that opens, click on the Settings cog to open the Settings app.
  3. A window will pop up with lots of categories.  Click on “System” (usually in the top left corner or at the top of a list on the left hand side).
  4. A list of options will appear on either the left or right hand side of the screen.  Scroll down to the bottom of these and click on “About”.
  5. Just above or below the heading “Device specifications”, you’ll find the model of your computer e.g. “Inspiron 5758”.  There’ll be a lot of other information too (like “Device name” and “Processor”) but you don’t need to worry about any of those bits.

Mac computers

  1. Click on the little Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen.
  2. In the menu that appears, click on “About this Mac”.
  3. A new window will pop up, with various bits of information in it. Helpfully, this looks different on different models of Mac, but somewhere in that menu it’ll tell you if you have an iMac, a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or similar. On older Macs, it’ll also tell you what year your Mac was made, which can be useful – on newer Macs, you need to click on the “More Info” button to find this out.

Tablets and Smartphones

First things first – do you have an iPhone/iPad or a different type of phone or tablet?

The easiest way to tell is to take your phone or tablet out of its case (if it’s in one) and look at the back. If there’s a picture of an apple on it, then it’s an iPhone or iPad. If not, then it’s a different type.

Which Apple iPhone/iPad do I have?

If you’re sure you’ve got an iPhone/iPad, here’s how to find out which one:

  1. Tap on the Settings app on your Home screen (you might have to swipe across to a second or third Home screen to find it).
  2. In the list of categories you can change, tap on “General” (this might already be selected on iPads).
  3. On the next screen (or the right hand side of the screen on iPads), tap on “About”.
  4. Look for an option that says “Model Name”.  The model of your iPhone/iPad will be written in grey text next to “Model Name”.

Which Android phone/tablet do I have?

If your device isn’t an iPhone/iPad, it’s probably an Android instead (one made by Samsung, Sony, LG or many other companies). Here’s how to find out your model:

  1. Open your Settings app by tapping on the cog icon.
  2. Swipe up on the list of categories until you reach the bottom.  You’ll see a category called “About phone” or “About tablet”. Tap on that.
  3. The layout of this section will vary depending on what phone or tablet you have.  On some, the make of tablet or phone will be written in large font at the top of the screen, e.g. “Galaxy Tab A (2018, 10.5)”.  On others, you need to look for something like “Model” or “Device Name”.

Which Doro phone do I have?

Doro phones are a little more complicated – the older models are organised differently from the newer models, which affects how you find out which model you have (if that makes sense!)  The key is to look at the main icons on the Home screen:

  • If you have three icons labelled “Call”, “View” and “Send”, you have a newer model of Doro – see the Newer Models section below.
  • Or if you have four icons labelled “Phone”, “Messages”, “Camera” and “Internet”, you have a newer model of Doro – see the Newer Models section below.
  • If you have only three icons labelled “Phone”, “Messages” and “Camera”, you have an older model of Doro – see the Older Models section below.
  • If you have lots of icons on your home screen (i.e. if it looks like a regular smartphone rather than a simplified version), follow the Android instructions above.

Newer Models of Doro:

  1. Swipe up on the Home screen and tap on “Set” with the little spanner icon.
  2. You’ll see a list of settings you can change.  Tap on “A general option” towards the bottom of this list.
  3. On the next screen, tap on “Advanced settings” (again, at the bottom of the list).
  4. Once again, go right to the bottom of the list of categories and tap on “About device” to find out what model of Doro you have, e.g. “Doro 8040”.

Older Models of Doro:

  1. Tap on the “Menu” button on the Home screen.
  2. Swipe across on the screen until you find the Settings app (with its little spanner icon), and tap on it.
  3. Swipe up on the screen until you can see a button that says “About device”.  Tap on that to find out what model of Doro you have, e.g. “Doro Liberto 820 Mini”.

Printers

The make and model of your printer is usually written somewhere on the top or front of the machine, like this:

The make and model of this printer is “HP DeskJet 2622” (you can ignore the “Print Scan Copy” bit).

It’s that make and model that we need from you, please, rather than the serial number (which will be on a label somewhere on the back or underside of the machine, a bit like this one):

Finding out what version of the operating system you’re on

We might need to ask you which version of the “operating system” your device is using. That’s just what techies call the software that actually works your device – and makes all the various bits “talk” to each other.

Sometimes it’s important to know which version you’re using, so if we ask, here’s how to find it out:

Windows PCs/laptops:

  1. Follow steps 1-4 from the “Windows computers” section above.
  2. Under the device specifications, you’ll find Windows specifications. That tells you the Edition you’re running (e.g. Windows 11 Home) and the version (e.g. 21H2).

Mac computers:

  1. Follow steps 1-3 from the “Mac computers” section above.
  2. In the window that opens, it will tell you what version of “macOS” your computer is on (e.g. macOS Ventura 13.0).

iPads/iPhones:

  1. Follow steps 1-3 from the “Which Apple iPhone/iPad do I have?” section above.
  2. Look for “Software Version” rather than “Model Name”, and you’ll see what number iOS (for iPhones) or iPadOS (for iPads) your device is using.

Android devices:

  1. Follow steps 1-2 from the “Which Android phone/tablet do I have?” section above.
  2. The layout of this section will vary depending on what phone or tablet you have.  Look for something like “Android version” or “Software information”, then tap on it.

P.S. Android have had some funny names for their OS over the years – they had a stage of calling them after sweets, e.g. “Lollipop” or “Oreo”, so don’t worry if yours says something like that, you haven’t gone mad!  You can tell us the name of it, or if it’s just a number (e.g. Android 9) you can tell us that and we should be able to help you.