Computers run low in performance when used for long times. The reason behind the lag in the performance might be due to unmaintained hardware and software. Computers are after all machines that are made of earthly metals and material. They perish too when they run out of time. The hardware need to be checked and undergone maintenance from time to time. The air borne dust that was caught by hardware also lowers the performance of computer.
Though the data is digital and the software is unworn, it need to be maintained from time to time. Prolonged usage of software may leave fragments and unnecessary files in the computer memory making it run slower than it can. Software slowdown may also be caused due to bad hardware. So there is a need to maintain both the hardware and software of a computer to make it run faster as it used be.
Let’s peek in to maintenance of hardware and software more precisely.
To prevent damage to the other integral parts of the computer, uninstall the fan out of the computer, clean it well, make sure it is rotating freely and install it back to its position. You may use vacuum cleaner to suck out dust from it or you may also use pressured air flow like canned air to clean it.
Thermal paste is a grease like thing that is applied to the interface between heat sink and CPU. The paste fills tiny gaps and pits and ensures closer contact between heat sink and CPU there by cooling it better than before. Try to re-apply thermal paste for every six months or a year.
You know what, the word debugging came into practice when a computer scholar found dead bugs while dusting off his computer. This sounds funny but its true that bugs love to live inside your computer. They would make royal entrances through ports at the backside sometimes. Remove the cable connections and check if they are filled out with their properties. ‘Debug’ all the ports and slots and connect the cables tightly again.
Make sure you have fitted every screw tight and every cable firmly and correctly. Now turn on your computer and see if everything is working fine after the care.
If everything is good, its time to maintain software now!
As this article was focused on optimizing a computer for better performance with no extra cost indulging, I haven’t recommended you to upgrade your configuration. By the fact, it is better to upgrade you computer if you are using a 10 year old computer yet.
Hope this article shed some light on speeding up your computer. Feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions about speeding up a computer. You might have better ideas than discussed earlier.
Though the data is digital and the software is unworn, it need to be maintained from time to time. Prolonged usage of software may leave fragments and unnecessary files in the computer memory making it run slower than it can. Software slowdown may also be caused due to bad hardware. So there is a need to maintain both the hardware and software of a computer to make it run faster as it used be.
Let’s peek in to maintenance of hardware and software more precisely.
Maintaining Hardware
Maintaining hardware is maintaining the crucial parts of the computer. You don’t have to scratch out the designs on the mother board or design your own for maintenance. It just needs a simple care.Clean Fans and Heat Sink
The reason for heating up and low performance is the reduced performance of the heat out fans. You may also find a fan on the graphics card along with the CPU and SMPS or any other part of the computer. All fans are equally important in maintaining good air flow in your computer there by decreasing the heat pressure on one component. After all overheated hardware lags performance or destroys it at all.To prevent damage to the other integral parts of the computer, uninstall the fan out of the computer, clean it well, make sure it is rotating freely and install it back to its position. You may use vacuum cleaner to suck out dust from it or you may also use pressured air flow like canned air to clean it.
Clean Power Supply(SMPS)
The SMPS is responsible for maintaining power supply to your computer. You may find a fan inside it and also can found it difficult to take it out. I don’t recommend you to open up SMPS unless you are an expert. Try to brush out the air borne and other organic dust from the power supply through the vent holes. Using vacuum cleaner like thing is mostly recommended and can get your task done.Use Thermal Paste
Installing one more fan or a new one might help you cool CPU for some extent. When you wanted it get cooled better and if wanted to get most of your processor, it is strongly recommended to use thermal paste on the CPU.Thermal paste is a grease like thing that is applied to the interface between heat sink and CPU. The paste fills tiny gaps and pits and ensures closer contact between heat sink and CPU there by cooling it better than before. Try to re-apply thermal paste for every six months or a year.
Clean all Cables and Connection Slots
Overheating and dust may not be the only problem for slowing down of your computer every time. It might also because of loosened cable connections and bug dwelling slots and ports.You know what, the word debugging came into practice when a computer scholar found dead bugs while dusting off his computer. This sounds funny but its true that bugs love to live inside your computer. They would make royal entrances through ports at the backside sometimes. Remove the cable connections and check if they are filled out with their properties. ‘Debug’ all the ports and slots and connect the cables tightly again.
Make sure you have fitted every screw tight and every cable firmly and correctly. Now turn on your computer and see if everything is working fine after the care.
If everything is good, its time to maintain software now!
Maintaining Software
After done with hardware maintenance successfully, we’ll skip into software section immediately. The reason why hardware is to be looked after prior to software is that software can only be maintained if the hardware is running at best. After all, software resides and directly depends on the performance of the hardware.Clean Temporary Files
Temporary files are not bad. In fact, they help you open programs, access files quickly than possible. The temporary files might fill up memory of the computer and it show a adverse effect on the performance. As the saying ‘Too much of anything is not good” is already known to us.Uninstall Unused Programs
You may want to have more number of programs on your computer but many of them remains unused. Install those programs that are needed and you frequently use. Uninstall the unused programs and free up space on your computer. The freed up space would be helpful in giving best of the programs you frequently use.Defrag the Memory Dumps
When you are using a program, certain chunks of memory would be assigned to it. When it crashes or stops running suddenly, the chunks of memory would not be freed up and left as a crap in the backyard. You need to clean this crap from your HDD to make the disk perform reading and writing more faster.Perform Antivirus Full Scan
Virus slows down the computer. The unnecessary, uncontrollable programs eats up the processor and memory share of a computer. Update your antivirus definitions and set a full scan of your computer. Removing viruses from your computer would help it run faster than before. Let your antivirus software take control of the majority of the viruses and malware during the scan.Remove Programs from Start up
One more thing that feels like the computer is slowing down is the boot time. Highly fragmented hard disk, heated up hardware, spoiled hard disk and more number of start up programs slowdown your computer. We’ve gone through all the optimizations of computer except the startup programs.- Open Run > type msconfig.exe and hit Enter.
- Click on Startup tab and disable unnecessary programs on start up.
- Click Ok and restart the computer. You will find the computer booting up faster than earlier.
Update Drivers
No knife is useful unless you know how to use it to cut a fruit. In the same way, no better hardware configuration is useful if the drivers are outdated. You may have better hardware and software configuration but if had out dated drivers installed, they come to no use. Update your drivers by going to the Device Manager of your computer. If you got any problem opening device manager, try this tweak to access it.Conclusion
There are many other reasons for a computer to get slow down. Dust, bugs, fragments, unused programs and temporary files may not be the only causes for slowing down a computer. The hardware and software configuration you use on your computer is also a specific reason. If you use Windows 7 or 8 on a older computer that is good for XP, you may not make best out of them.As this article was focused on optimizing a computer for better performance with no extra cost indulging, I haven’t recommended you to upgrade your configuration. By the fact, it is better to upgrade you computer if you are using a 10 year old computer yet.
Hope this article shed some light on speeding up your computer. Feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions about speeding up a computer. You might have better ideas than discussed earlier.
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