The computer is a complex and a delicate apparatus. It is made up of so many electronic parts and each part plays a role in running it. The computer is our train to cyberspace. Today’s era, the cyber world, we depend on the internet to function, to communicate and deliver. The smoothness of the day’s work depends on how smooth and fast we trek the net and the computer plays a big role for this.

A fast computer can be obtain by the proper maintenance not only of its software but most importantly the hardware. Just like the human body, wherein the computer hardware are the organs, proper maintenance must be observe. When one organ fails, the other organs are affected until the whole body shuts down and will be disabled. Here are some tips on hardware maintenance.

• Clean every part , remove dust particles using a soft haired brush at least once a month.
• Clean the internal portion of the CPU with vacuum cleaner often to eliminate dust and webs which inhibits the functions of the parts such as the cooling fan.
• Check for signs of melted parts or rusted I.C’s
• Turn off the power supply when the PC is not in use.
• Make sure that the computer is properly ventilated; heat causes lagging of the system.
• Check the major parts and the commonly damaged parts often such as the motherboard, processor and the video card.

Through these basic and simple routines, our personal computers can function well and fast. These routines would save as money and time as these routines slow down the wear and tear of these expensive computer hardware.

The computer system is the mostly used communication system today. A personal computer has become a necessity in the household. We use it in paying our bills online, we use it in doing our jobs, we use it to control everything and we use it as a way of recreation and fun.

The computer is useful if it performs the way that it is expected to. When our PC is lagging, it slows down work, costs us money and increases our work load. There are a lot of factors that slows our personal computers. It can be an electronic cause which involves the different parts of our PC’s as well as the electrical supply for it. Other factors that we should consider is the year age of the computer, the compatibility of the parts we installed to the system, the compatibility of the software we install to the capability of the computer and the way we used it. All of these factors affects the speed of our computers.

There are a number of simple tips so you can make your personal computer run faster. One tip is that you should make sure that your PC has an adequate power supply. The CPU is very voltage positive. The next tip is that at least twice a month, you must brush off the dusts inside the CPU especially those that accumulate in the cooling fans. This leads to the last tip which is ensuring that your PC has the adequate ventilation and cooling system. A hot computer is slow and what’s worst, it can melt some parts inside the CPU that can destroy the computer.

The operating system is specific software installed in a computer which will regulate the operations of the computer. There are specifications that an operating system requires for it to be able to run a computer. This is the reason why some operating system does not perform well when installed to some computers or laptops. The operating system is very important since it regulates the whole operation of the computer. In short, it is the brain of the computer. Choosing the wrong operating system for your computer would decrease its speed or even causes damage.

The first thing you should consider before installing an operating system for your computer is the specifications and requirements of the system. Usually, it can be found at the back of the box of your operating software installer CD’s. To make sure, you can also ask a computer technician if your computer has the requirements for the operating system. It is always recommended to buy the genuine installer CD for your operating system. Once you have found the right operating system which is compatible to your computer, you can proceed to the installation and formatting. It is important that you correctly install the operating system and properly format the computer. A computer with many format errors or issues would not perform well. The next important thing that should come with the operating system is the installation of antivirus software that will protect the system from virus. Lastly, you must schedule a regular scan and update for your antivirus and your operating system for an effective protection and a fast computer.

If these steps are followed and properly done, your computer will be very effective and there should not be a problem about its speed. If a new operating system will be available in the market and it’s compatible to your computer, you should have the option to upgrade your operating system to the latest version to ensure a faster speed and performance.

Let’s say that your PC has been seriously slowing down lately. What is the problem you start thinking. You start by running a virus scan as well as a security scan and find that nothing is amiss there. So what’s the next step in the process? What do you do next to figure out what is wrong? Well, the next thing that you might want to do is sit down and run a thorough defragmentation of the hard drives (internal and external if you have one). This is like to be the cause of your problem eight there: too many fragmented files and/or directories.
It used to be that the main file for many programs one had one main file that the PC needed to access in order to load and activate that particular program. Anymore though, it is just is not that simple! There are so many different sub-files and folders that do not seem to be connected to that particular program, yet they actually are. The good thing is that they are there for the programs that need them. The bad thing is that the yare not necessarily all in the same place on the hard drive.
This also happens to be where the problem comes in. These files and folders get so scattered and fragmented that the computer cannot easily find everything it needs to run a specific program. This is when a good defragmentation – or defrag for short – is needed. Running a defrag every day keeps things aligned better.

When you are constantly downloading and/or installing things to your PC you are going to fill up the hard drive rather quickly. This is a case when it really does not matter how much space you actually have on the hard drive – internal and/or external(s). You are going to need to keep it/ them defragmented so that your PC runs at peak speed and performance. You are going to find out that too many files and directories being fragmented and spread all over the hard drive only makes the PC work harder to find everything it needs to run any program.
Imagine this for a minute if you will; you are looking for the paperwork that you need to, let’s say, file your income taxes and you have all the paperwork in several folder in your filing cabinet. You need to spend the time hunting through each folder for everything that you need. Well, this is exactly the same thing that your PC ends up having to do when the hard drive is fragmented. This is what takes all the time.
The best thing to do is to keep running a “defrag” on your PC after each time you either install or delete anything. This puts things back in order so that the computer does not have as difficult a time finding things it needs. You also would be very wise to do a daily defrag if you are doing a lot online to keep everything in good order and aligned properly.

Routing maintenance is the best advice when it comes to improving your computers performance. Does your computer feel hot to the touch? If so then there may be dust built up that you need to remove. Dust can block the fans from doing their job of cooling your computer down. Also where you place your PC can affect if it is getting enough ventilation. Before you try to clean your PC of dust or dirt be sure to shut it down and unplug it. Compressed air or specialty vacuums are recommended to help keep your computer clean.

Depending on how old your computer is you may have to upgrade some of your hardware components. A computer is a working tool and things will wear out over time. Replacing your Graphics Card or adding more and faster RAM can make a real difference in the speed of your computer.

But other than upgrading your hardware components and cleaning out the dust you also need to clean out your hard drive. Un-install all software that you do not want or use any longer. A good house cleaning of the hard drive when you move to storage things you want to keep but do not need immediate access to and the removal of items you just really do not use or need any more. But after you clean out your hard drive be sure to empty the trash and to defragment the hard drive.

All computer systems run faster when they are new. If you keep your system maintained you can keep it running fast. It is far easier to maintain your system as you will prevent problems from occurring.

You will find many utilities in the System Tools folder under the Accessories folder of your Programs list.

You can even use the Scheduled Task wizard to automatically perform many of these utilities. Automatically rebooting your computer is a great job to set as a scheduled task. If you leave your computer on days on end without shutting down you will begin to notice poor performance. Why not just set up a task to shut it down when you know you will not be using it?

Disk Cleanup is another wizard that checks you system for files that you do not use. It allows you to remove them all of just check the ones you wished removed. It will also empty the Recycle Bin for you. This is a great utility to get rid of all the unnecessary items on your hard drive.

Defragmenting your disk drive is another utility that you should use especially when you clean out your hard drive of large files, add or remove program files or just once a month as a part of your routine maintenance plan. Be sure you disable any screen saver while it runs and if you have never run it before start it before you go to bed and it might be finished when you wake up.

Computers are tools that are meant to help you. They can perform tasks faster than you can do them manually. That is why when systems become slow it frustrates the user as it takes longer to perform routine tasks than necessary. No one wants to waste time waiting for programs to load or navigate to web sites.

Having an adequate amount of RAM is important for your computer to perform it operations fast. RAM is space that is used to write data to. It is re-writable space and is replaced by data as needed or lost if you reboot your computer or your system crashes. RAM is the memory used when your computer boots up.

Most often RAM is a fixed amount within the computer. Today, however, there are flash RAM cards that you can buy to increase the amount of RAM that is in your computer. Adding RAM to any computer usually helps to increase its speed and performance.

So Just How Much RAM Does Your Computer Really Need?

The amount of RAM a computer needs will depend on the operating system and the programs you have installed. If you have an XP system the minimum RAM requirement is 128Mb with 256 MB the recommendation for best performance. But these recommendations are for if you are only using your computer with simple programs, surfing the internet and sending email. If you use more intensive programs that use a lot of resources you may find that you need even more RAM than recommended.

Over time as you install programs, photos, video files, and other items your hard drive begins to fill up. It is important that you never completely fill up the hard drive or your system will not have space necessary to operate. You may have files and programs on your system that you never use or can archive off to a removable storage device.

The Disk Cleanup utility is a tool Microsoft provides to help you keep your hard drive cleaned up. All you have to do it to run it on a regular basis. The tool will identify items that can be removed safely. You have the option to remove them or not. It will also empty the recycle bin, remove the temporary Internet files, remove Java applets and other downloaded program files, and remove temporary Windows files. The utility will also allow you to remove components of Windows that are optional and you do not use as well as being able to uninstall software you no longer use.

You can also compress files that are older to save space. This will not remove any files it will just compress them if they have not been accessed in a specific time frame. If you do ever access these files it may take a little longer as they will have to be decompressed before they are opened.

After you run all the above utilities and archive off and delete any files you can you should then run the Windows Disk Defragmenter. This will organize the remaining files and programs so that your computer will run even faster.

With snow on the ground it is difficult to think about spring cleaning. But that is what you need to do but not just in the spring! Keeping up and maintaining your computer system is the best way to ensure that it runs well for you. Even sluggish computers can be helped when you perform routine maintenance and housecleaning on the hard drive. While performing these tasks do take a bit of time it is far less time than the accumulation of waited minutes that turn into hours waiting for your system to respond.

Organization is key. When you organize you computer and the files in it you will waste no time finding what you need when you need it. Whether you are looking for an email, a photo or file the importance of folder structure cannot be over emphasized. Organize the photos you want to use as wallpapers making them easier to locate. Create folders that have meaning to you and organized them much like you would organize paper files in a real file cabinet. You can structure your files by client, project, date, or any other scheme that works for you. The important note is that it works for you. It does not have to make sense to anyone else because if it makes sense to you that is all that matters.

Also if you find many things that you no longer need immediate access to when you are organizing your files burn them to a CD or a USB storage device. The latest devices that are USB are the most convenient and versatile around. Be sure that you organize the data on these devices and label them as well so you always know what is where when you need it.