Slow computer – steps to speed up your computer

How can you speed up a slow computer? Below are some easy steps that can help return your computer to it’s original state.

Clean the cooling system – This is the number one overlooked issue that affects speed. Depending where you live and the environment I would recommend cleaning your system 1-3 times a year. If you’re comfortable with a screw driver the following should be fairly easy. If not bring your system to a repair center once a year. Cleaning is important – if your computer can’t breath it will run hot, slow and have a shorter life span.

1. Shut down the computer & unplug the power cord
2. Move computer to a place where dust is okay (you may want to wear a mask as well)
3. Desktops
   1. If you smoke you’re about to see what it’s doing to you… example
   2. Open the case  – example
   3. Use a vacuum with a small snout attachment to clean all air ports, the power source, and any open area
   4. Use canned air to clean the CPU fan and heat sink
      1. Remove dust from the CPU fan
      2. Remove dust from the Power Supply
      3. Remove dust from the exhaust fans
      4. Clean the front grille and any airports
   5. Re-assmble the case and power back on
4. Laptops
   1. Locate the intake and exhaust ports
   2. Use canned air to blow dust our of the cooling ports (do this is a work area!)
   3. In bad cses this may require taking apart your laptop shell – search Youtube for videos relevant to your model

Hard Drive – Drive errors, bad blocks or failing

1. Check Event log – How To
2. Backup your critical data 
3. Run Chkdsk to detect hard drive errors, set to “Automatically fix file system errors” – How To
4. Most modern hard drives are self healing – if your system has drive errors it should be replaced

Hard Drive – fragmentation

1. Disk fragmentation can affect performance once it exceeds 10-20%
2. Cleanup temp, browser cache and other unneeded files using CCleaner or similar tool
3. Close all open applications
4. Run a full defrag using Defraggler

Hard Drive – Disk Space

1. Check space
2. Remove files
3. CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is an excellent utility to clear up unecessary files and free up spage

Programs running at Startup

1. Use msconfig to remove unneeded startup items – video tutorial here
2. Remote items from your Startup folder: Windows Start > All Programs > Startup folder – right click programs and choose Delete

Check for Malware

1. Run CCleaner to remove all uneeded files – this will speed up the scan and often removes malicious files from your browser cache or profile temp folder.
2. Run a full scan with Malware Bytes