| Maintaining Your Computer |
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| Written by Arthur Dellea | |
| Monday, 11 August 2008 | |
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Don't neglect your computer, to the point where it stops working completely! People tend to think of computers as microwaves or refrigerators; you buy a computer, use it for a dozen years or so, then throw it out when it dies. Appliances are not a good comparison for computers. In fact, you should think of a computer more like a car. A computer needs maintenance at regular intervals. Just as you bring in your car for oil changes, spin balancing, new breaks, etc, you need to have your computer serviced regularly to keep it in prime condition. Some maintenance you can do yourself, but other things you should leave to the experts. Just like with your car, if you've never changed the break pads on your car before, you probably shouldn't attempt to do it yourself without having an expert nearby to help you out. Have a regular maintenance plan, and stick to it For most home users and small businesses, I normally recommend that they call me once a year for an annual checkup, or “spring cleaning” if you will. By “annual”, I don't mean call me in January, as most people do so they don't forget. I mean, if I see you this August, remind yourself to call me some time around next August for a check-up. There have been some instances where people have called me because their computer is slow, yet they've owned the computer for five years and have never had any check-ups, and have even let their anti-virus expire years ago! The rule of thumb is to have a computer check-up at least once a year. Now, if you have kids in school or in college, you may be calling me about once every month or two. Despite the fact that today's kids grow up using computers, just like toys, kids tend to not show computers respect. Kids will beat on them, kick them around, drop them, whether you're watching or not. Also, kids, both school and college-age, are the greatest culprits of computer crashes. I'd say that one out of every four or five calls is to a home where the kids have been downloading illegal music, turning off the firewall to send instant messages to friends, etc, etc. So, if you have kids, regular computer maintenance is even more important. Cleanliness has a lot to with how long a computer lasts For example, most people tend to put their towers down at floor level, to make more room on the desk. This is a huge mistake! A computer should be kept on top of a desk, or at least a couple of feet above the floor. Computers have built-in fans that run all the time to keep the computer's components cool. If the computer sits at floor level, it acts like a vacuum, and sucks in all the dust, debris, and pet hair that blows around on your floors! Over time, the fans get clogged and they go bad, the cooling grids on the processor, chipset, and video card inside the computer get covered in a blanket of dust that looks like dryer lint! I know there are many computer desks out there that are designed to hold the computer's tower close to the floor, these are very bad designs. Computers should always be set up on top of a desk. You should have me open up your computer while I'm there for a check-up, and see if it needs cleaning. You should also clean your computer a couple of times a year yourself, with cans of compressed air, which you can buy from Staples and other office-supply stores. Cleanliness also goes for laptops too. You should regularly blow out all of the vents on the sides and the bottom of your laptop. You should blow out food and other debris out of the keyboard on your laptop as well. Also, try not to use the laptop on your lap, or on quilted or cloth surfaces for long periods of time, such as in bed. When you do that, you're blocking all the vents on the computer and keeping it from breathing! It needs to breath to stay cooler and last longer. Always try to use your laptop on a solid surface, even on a lap tray of some sort if you use it in bed or are bed-ridden. And finally, you can buy laptop coolers as well, which are simply dock-like units with built-in fans. You sit your laptop on top of them, and they keep your laptop cooler, giving it longer life. Here are some good laptop coolers... Do some regular maintenance yourself There are two key utilities that most people tend to overlook or forget about. If you run them regularly, your computer will perform much better. The first is Disk Cleanup, which is built-in to Windows. I recommend running Disk Cleanup every month or so to keep your computer free of compounded temporary files and other data that's no longer needed by Windows or Internet Explorer, etc. To find it, you click on Start, then Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then click on Disk Cleanup. You can also find it by searching for “Disk Cleanup” in Windows' Help and Support. It takes quite a while for Disk Cleanup to start, especially if you've never run it before, because it searches your computer and builds a list of files to be cleaned. Once it shows up on the screen, you select the drive you want to clean (usually C drive unless Windows lives somewhere else), and then you simply check off all of the boxes in the cleaning options. It can take hours to run if this is the first time it's ever been run, so it's best to do it when you won't be using the computer for a while. The second is Disk Defragmenter. Over time, as you use your computer, your files can get broken up and scattered around the hard drive. On a hard drive, what you see as one file is stored in a number of blocks, or small chunks of data. These chunks are kept track of within the directory structure of the hard drive, behind the scenes. To help you understand better, think of taking a box of children's alphabet blocks and scattering them on the floor, that's what happens to your files over long periods of use, fragmentation. Defragmenter reorganizes all of your files back in order, so that the hard drive will retrieve them faster. Disk Defragmenter can take hours to run, so best to run it when you won't be using the computer for a while. On Windows XP, you have to manually run it, I recommend about once a month or so. It's located in the same Programs menu as Disk Cleanup, under the System Tools menu. On Windows Vista, defragmenter will be run automatically with its built-in maintenance schedule. Antivirus and antispyware On average, most people tend to let their antivirus expire, or don't even run it after its initial trial period runs out. A computer virus is a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data. Often viruses are hidden in other programs or documents and when opened, the virus is let loose. It's important to have a fully-functional, regularly updated antivirus program in your computer. Please note my recent article, Do Not Buy Norton or McAfee! Both Norton and McAfee, although they are the most over-advertised antivirus programs in history, are far from the best options to use, even if they do come pre-installed on many computers. Both Norton and McAfee will slow your computer down to a snail's pace! I recommend either AVG Free Antivirus, or Avast Home Edition, they are excellent free antivirus programs that are just as effective, if not more so, than Norton and McAfee. Also note that you should have only one antivirus program installed on your computer at a time! If you have an old one, be sure to remove it first and reboot the computer before installing a new one. Using more than one antivirus program at a time can corrupt your computer's core system files! I recommend doing full system scans at least once a month with either AVG or Avast, and yes, keep them updated even if you're on dialup. Spyware is another huge threat to your computer. Spyware is software that is downloaded onto your computer (often without your knowledge). It can be used by third parties including criminals to monitor your internet activities which could compromise the security of your personal information. Spyware is one of the most common forms of malware, and often slows the performance of your computer. I recommend Spybot Search & Destroy, it's a free antispyware program that does an awesome job of cleaning and protecting your computer. Protect your computer from surges In the northeast, surges are often the number one killer of computers and related equipment in the summer months. It's very important that you have sufficient surge protection or battery backup on your computer. Note my recent article You need surge protection! Back up your computer regularly You should also keep a regular backup routine. Don't rely completely on USB flash drives (a.k.a. Thumb drives) as your primary form of backup. Or if you do, by a handful of flash drives and alternate them regularly, that way if one fails, you have another one to retrieve data from. Flash drives are best for smaller volumes of data, such as backing up your financial files from your preferred financial program. Of course, flash drives are handy for carrying files between work and home, or copying between a desktop and laptop. Here are some flash drives to consider... A longer-term, more reliable backup is the external hard drive. There are many brands and configurations available, but I personally swear by Maxtor One Touch external backup drives. Maxtor drives come with free backup software, with tons of options. When picking a backup drive, it's best that you choose one that's larger than the primary drive in your computer. For example, if your computer's primary drive is 120 GB or less, then use a 160 GB backup drive. Examples... There are other ways to backup your computer as well. Some are online backup services, where you can store critical data on secure servers via the internet, off-site in case you ever have a fire, etc. You can search for online backup solutions using your favorite search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc). Is it better to repair the computer, or to replace it? This all depends on the age of the computer and its current condition. I would have to personally check out the computer in-person before I could judge its condition. According to Consumer Reports, if a computer is 2 years old or less it should be repaired, if it is 2 to 4 years old you should consider repair, and if it is 5 years or older you should replace it. In my own experience, I've noticed that, on average, computers tend to die after 5 to 7 years of use, so Consumer Reports is fairly accurate. However, the real determination is the amount of overall use, regularity of maintenance, and the physical cleanliness of of the computer. If you follow my previous instructions, and you call me regularly for check-ups as well, your computer should last you a good 5 to 7 years. Of course, at some point the day will come when you need to buy a new system. The important thing is to maintain, protect, and back up your current computer as often as possible to extend its life. You can set up a house call with me to discuss your needs in a new computer. Stay tuned, I will probably be writing articles on buying a new computer in the future. |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 August 2008 ) |
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