Friday, October 19, 2007

Simple Steps To Fix a Computer

How to fix a computer is a common question among PC owners. Often times, this problem is faced by "common" people who don't have much knowledge in terms of computers and its complexities. In this article, the is aims to provide tips for helping PC owners fix their computer.
The following are helpful PC troubleshooting tips:
• Clean-up
After using your computer for some time, you may start noticing that it has started to slow down. This change in speed can be very annoying, especially if you are doing something very important and the speed is slowing things up. Luckily, this unwanted occurrence can be prevented through conducting PC clean-up once in a while. Downloading programs cannot be prevented sometimes so it is better to check what programs you download and remove those that are not of much use to you anymore.
Aside from the useless installed programs, unwanted files can also slow down the speed of your computer. Check your hard disk files and look for any that you no longer use or need. Delete those files so you can have more free space on your hard disk.
• Antivirus/Antispyware Tools
Malware programs really affect the speed and performance of your PC, so tip no.2 on how to fix a computer is that you should install antivirus and antispyware programs. If your computer is extensively infected with virus, worms, spyware or any other malicious programs, it starts to harbour corrupt your files and its security can also be comprised.
These programs can drag your computer and will cause it to hang. Protecting your computer from this nuisance can save you from spending more money on computer repairs. What you will need is to make a complete system scan on your PC and do it on a regular basis to maintain its integrity and functionality. Install a good anti-malware program and begin today!
• Restart
If your computer seems to be having its tantrums and "would not budge," then try to restart or reboot it. Usually PC's that encounter system errors or are overloaded may need to be restarted.
If trying the above tips on how to fix a computer do not solve the issue, then try to reformat your PC. If you have no knowledge of how to reformat a computer, then maybe it is time you visit a computer store to let their technicians take a look at your unit.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Simple Steps to Fix Slow Computers

A common occurrence with personal computers is that they tend to slow down over time. So people experiencing decreased performance of their PCs ask: How to fix slow computers? The solution lies in first understanding the problem. In most cases this is a software problem. The software can be malicious one like a spyware or the software in Windows itself needing a little tuning. Let us discuss some of the points that a user must have in mind to speed up the computer himself before asking for professional help.
First, check if there are any malicious programs present in your computer? Obviously you have not installed any of these programs, at least not willingly. The problem is that it is an unforgiving world out there and chances are that if you have had your guard down, someone might have sneaked a spyware or two into your PC all without you being completely oblivious to the situation. So when your computer begins exhibiting performance problems, the first thing you should do is scan it with a good anti-virus + anti-spyware software to get rid of any unwanted viruses or spywares.
Second, the data on your hard disk might be fragmented. The result is that the drive head must look all over the disk to locate the fragments of the data resulting in decreased performance. It is a general belief that some third party software are better at defragmenting than the Windows defragmenter. The choice is yours!
Third, do you have too many unwanted programs starting up with your PC? Programs that run at startup consume system resources, and the resources that they monopolize become unavailable for other processes. This leads to decrease in performance. If you are running unwanted programs at startup, you must try getting rid of some of these to speed up your PC.
Fourth, in order to fix slow computers you must always check out whether there is enough free space available on the hard disks. Too little hard disk space on your drives leads to a decrease in performance. If, for instance, you have some data lying around which is useful but not in immediate use, consider writing it to a CD-R. This might free up some of the precious resources.
Last, a lot of utilities are available on the internet like the Tuneup utilities which are great to fix slow computers. These utilities are capable of cleaning your registry and tweaking Windows settings. Try them out as well.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

8 Ways To Improve Your PC Performance

PC processing speed mainly depends on the speed of processor of a computer. But there are more external factors that affect the performance of your PC. In order to improve PC performance, someone must put more effort in system maintenance such as scheduled defragmentation of computer drive and clean up of temporary files stored in PC. From here, I will reveal some tips on how to improve your PC performance without the help of others.
1. Defragment
For your information, data that stored in the computer are arranged in a specified way. Whenever a software is uninstalled, the data will be erased from the system in which an empty space is generated from the action taken. The empty space will be later occupied by new data when new software is installed. The newly installed software will not arranged in a group but separated into few different data group which this process is actually slowing down computer performance. Defragment is meant to rearrange the fragment of data into a proper manner which fetching of data from system become smoother and faster. Schedule defragmentation is recommended for computer users especially those who interested in software testing.
2. Scheduled Clean Up
Cleaning up the dust within the computer will improved the performance? May be true for desktop but totally not for laptop. Scheduled clean up in this case means the elimination of junk files in your computer. Normal internet surfing activities will generate variety of files such as cookies that are used to facilitate internet browsing. Accumulation of these files will eventually slow down your PC.
3. Avoid Installation of Memory-Consuming Monster
Your computer performance may decrease due to some memory-consuming monster installed in your computer. These monster consist of antivirus program especially internet security package, out-of-date internet browser, pps (online video streaming) and professional drawing software. Antivirus program is the most common source of memory-consumption program that probably slow down your PC. One of the recommended way to improve your computer performance is to install light antivirus program likes Avira Antivir Personal or Avast. The security level of these software could be sufficient for normal daily use of computer unless you are dealing with high risk illegal download.
4. Uninstall Unwanted Program
There will be a moment when you keep all the unwanted program in your PC and await for the next format in order to eliminate those program. This could be a very bad habit for PC maintenance which these unwanted program will definitely consume the limited memory resource. Perform a scheduled removal of these program along with the cleaning up of junk files. You can easily perform the removal using Windows Clean Up feature for Windows users.
5. Turn Off Unwanted Background Application
Every time you turn on your PC, it would take less time to boot if these are not much application running at the startup time. As you install more software in your PC, there will be more application being activated during startup time which is actually slowing down your PC even after PC boot. These application run in background mode and consume part of the PC memory. In order to avoid memory consumption by these background application, someone can turn off these application by following the steps below:
  • click Windows Logo + R
  • type msconfig in search box
  • uncheck the unwanted program
6. Turn Off Sidebar
Windows users may experience slow startup due to the running of sidebar feature. Windows Sidebar provide easy-access to certain application and also a clear picture of the date & time notification. At the same time, sidebar feature used up around 100 Mb to keep these application running. It is recommended to turn off sidebar to avoid decreased computer performance.
7. Add More RAM
Besides of processing power, size of RAM is another important criteria that determine the computer performance in term of speed. RAM acts as the temporary storage for data used to open certain application. More RAM installed in your PC eliminate the need of fetching data from the system everytime you open an application and this will improve the PC performance.
8. Format
Final solution for bad performing computer is to undergo format. After format, your PC will free from all problem such as virus infection and slow performance. In order to keep your PC perform well, kindly follow the steps as described above.