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Keeping Your Computer Healthy
General Hardware Recommendations:
Laptops:
Never leave laptops in extreme cold, heat, or direct sunlight. When taking them in from a cold environment to a warm environment, give them time to warm up and for condensation to dissipate. Turning on a laptop right after bringing it in from the cold can damage it.
Floppy Disks:
Never leave disks in extreme cold, heat, or direct sunlight. When taking them in from a cold environment to a warm environment, give them time to warm up and for condensation to dissipate. Never store them near any type of magnets or device containing magnets such as speakers, this can erase your data.
Monitors:
Don't place magnets near the screen, it can cause distortion and can damage the display.
Power:
When choosing a power outlet for a computer or monitor, be sure it’s reliable, you don't want constant power surges hitting your computer. Also be sure to use either a surge protector or UPS (uninterruptible power supply). Surge protectors prevent power spikes from hitting your computer and are reasonably priced. UPS systems can cost nearly $100 or more but do a better job of protection as well as provide enough battery power to safely shut down your computer in the event of a power outage.
Backups:
As with any mechanical or electronic device, the possibility exists that it can fail at any time. It is strongly encouraged to make a backup of any important files or documents. A backup can be as simple as keeping a second copy on a floppy disk or zip disk or as elaborate as a set backup schedule with a some type of tape backup device.
Also, keep in mind that disks have a limited useful shelf life and backups should be moved to new disks every couple of years. Hard drives have an average lifespan of 3 - 5 years, floppy disks have an average shelf life of 3 years. Backup disks 3 years old should be replaced.
Common Problems
Hard Drive Errors - Can cause slowdown, erratic behavior, errors, and computer crashes.
Fragmented Hard Drive - Can cause slowdown or erratic behavior
Full Hard Drive - Can cause errors or performance problems
Temp Files - Large numbers can cause performance problems, erratic behavior, and even errors and/or crashes.
Memory Abusing Software &
Adware/Spyware Software:In some cases of poor computer performance, the problem isn't always caused by a full hard drive or fragmentation. In many cases, the amount of RAM free can be the biggest limitation of all. In order to run properly, the operating system needs a large share of the RAM to do it's job. Other programs also need a portion of the remaining ram to run efficiently. When too many programs (or poorly written programs) are running, they can attempt to use too much RAM and in effect, "steal" memory space from the operating system causing everything to slow down, act erratically and, in some cases, crash.
Below are some examples of programs which have been known in the past to use large amounts of RAM and cause system slow down. While they may or may not cause problems all by themselves, when running simultaneously with other programs, they can create performance problems.
- Weatherbug
- Web-Shots
- Gator
- Comet Cursor
- Real Player
In order to prevent these programs from starting up (and also to troubleshoot simple startup problems) we can use a Windows program called Msconfig. To run this program, click on Start, Run, type 'msconfig' in the open box, and press OK. On the new window, click the startup tab. In the large white box that appears, make sure that there are only check marks next to the programs you want running when windows starts. Note: Always make sure that systray.exe (system tray) is checked. We also recommend that all McAfee anti-virus listings are checked.
Another way to prevent these programs from starting is to Uninstall them.
For Additional Information Please See:
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