Top Tips to Keep Your PC Health in Check

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With the wealth of malware being churned out these days and the increasing cunning of computer criminals on the offensive, a regular PC health check is no longer something for IT geeks – it’s crucial to the sound working of your PC.

The following top tips will help you keep your computer working effectively. Also, by being aware of the main signs of ill health to look out for, you can nip any problems in the bud.

Good maintenance for efficient action:

Free storage space

Keeping a reasonable amount of storage space free can really improve your PC operating system and the speed that it performs. Generally, a good rule of thumb is to leave 20% of your drive free. Ways to do this are to regularly do a cleanup as you would with your home - delete unwanted music files, photos and documents. Alternatively, you can archive non-essential data on an external hard drive or a writable CD so that it doesn’t clog up space.

Defragment

Defragmenting (or ‘defragging’) is a way of tidying up your hard drive and putting things in their proper order. What happens is that unknown to you, files can be stored in pieces in different parts of your computer. This makes your operating system work harder to locate and load a file or program. 'Defragging' places the data all together in a logical order, which in turn increases the speed your PC is able to find files and load programs. It can make a significant difference to how your computer operates. To access this, see the Accessories listing in your Start menu.

Delete Temporary Internet Files

You might not realise it, but every time you load a web page, your browser will save it on your hard drive to make it easier the next time you access the site to load it. Most PC owners spend a great deal of time browsing the web, so these stored pages can pile up and take a large amount of your storage space. To keep your PC running fast, it’s a good idea to delete the cache of temporary internet files fairly regularly.

Common PC problems to watch out for:

Hardware failures

Glaring signs of hardware problems include:
Your PC won’t switch on when pressing the power button – this could mean the power supply inside your computer has failed, or there could be a loose/frayed cable.

The monitor isn’t working – if your computer powers on but not your monitor, this could mean you have a loose monitor cable or the monitor/graphics card has failed, preventing display. The worst case scenario would be that your motherboard (the essential circuit board inside your PC that controls all the other components) has failed.

Windows fails to start – the reasons for this would be that crucial files or programs have been lost or damaged by computer usage during a power cut or by a malicious virus. Other causes of this issue would be a build-up of dirt, damaged hard-drive cables or full blown hard drive failure.

Reliability and speed issues

If you find your PC is getting slower and slower, this usually means that a good clean is needed. While it sounds obvious, a build up of dust and dirt can seriously damage your operating system, it causes overheating which is one of the main causes of loss of speed and stability issues such as when your PC crashes for no reason, resets itself or stops responding. An anti virus health check is also crucial to make sure your PC is not infected by malware, which is the other main reason for this type of problem.

Operating conundrums

When operating your PC, mysterious glitches can sometimes occur during familiar actions:

Your keyboard is unresponsive – the obvious cause for this issue is that dust and debris is clogging up your keys. If this is not the case, you will probably need to replace your keyboard.

Problems with reading and writing CD’s/DVD’s – this issue will generally need specialist help. Either the laser that reads data is dirty and needs cleaning by an expert, or your firmware (specific software that controls your hardware) needs updating.

Misbehaving mouse – if you find your mouse jerky or unresponsive, it could be a problem with the surface you use it on. PC mice work best on a flat, non-varnished surface or a foam-based mouse-mat. Another tip would be to try adjusting the response settings in your PC itself.

A regular and informed PC health check should be a given for all computers if they are to operate at their best. Whether you need to fix virus problems or free up your hard drives, you’re strongly advised not to let even the little glitches go unchecked as they could snowball into something worse. While some problems can be easily solved using the above guide, others are best left in the hands of IT support specialists.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Michael Preston – IT Consultant and expert in virus removal.

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