The terms overhaul is commonly used for car services. I don’t really use overhaul word for repair computer. Basically, that’s what I did during last weekend. My computer gets extremely slow due to heavy usage of disk. I like to download Youtube videos using Video downloader plugin on Firefox. I am tired of waiting the video to load (full HD). Thought about getting 2TB hard disk but I’m going to give a complete service to my computer before deciding to add on more peripherals. I have some experience changing hardware and software during my school and colleague days. This does come in handy now. This may be a guide for some newbies who wants to service their computer at home like me.
First of all, we needed a good vacuum machine. I have bought USB vacuum cleaner to clean my keyboard. Trust me, this is a bad investment. We need some powerful vacuum cleaner to make our job easy. You might want to get your carpet cleaning vacuum if you need some extra blog power there. I’m just good with cordless vacuum. The main part of servicing your hardware is getting out the dirt. A good vacuum can save your time and do a clean job as well. I have spend about 10-20 minutes vacuuming my casing fans, motherboard, graphic card fan, processor fan and all the whole casing.
You need to open both side of panels of your CPU casing to get most dirt vacuumed. Once vacuum is done, physically you can’t do anything more. Just install back the CPU panels and start your computer. You should hear less sound and vibration from CPU fan. I’m using extra fans in CPU and the vibration and sounds get terrible within months. Too bad, I don’t use air conditioned for my home office room. It is common to have more dirt on CPU fans on not air conditioned environment. We should not use long hours as it may fry up our processor or motherboard if the room is not air conditioned.
Now, I get my external hard drive (160GB) plugged in to my computer. I have saved all the files needed first to the external hard drive. Next, I just delete all the unnecessary files in the computer from temps, temporary internet files, recycle bin, download folder and most importantly the desktop. I know it is a pain to keep our desktop clean. Trust me, you will feel a lot better when you have a cleaner desktop background. I don’t know about other platform than Linux and Windows. Having too many shortcuts on desktop just irritates me.
Now, I opened Windows Programs (Install and Uninstall) and remove all programs that is rarely used. I just noticed that there are more Yahoo and Pogo games there compared to program files. I usually don’t buy license as I only play online games to relieve stress and 1 hour trial of gaming time is sufficient to me. So, I end up installing a lot of games and it takes up some space too. I have removed all those programs and games that is no longer used. Next, I just run Windows Disk cleanup and Windows Disk Defragment tools to get all the files neat and clean. Compressing outlook express emails also help us to save some space.
After the above steps done, it feels like getting a new computer from shop again. All the programs runs smoothly I don’t hear a lot of “krrrk… krrk..” sound from CPU anymore. Now, I need to get some DVD-R disks to get all those files burned and stored. Another big headache of sorting files according to videos, mp3s, photos, ebooks, and office files, etc. This may take few hours more but I’m happy to get rid of these files from my hard disk to get my machine work faster. How about you? Have you done any crazy computer overhaul recently to improve your computer speed? Share you experience.
Written by Atniz
Topics: Tools