Computer maintenance

J

jamesweir12345

New Member
What are some good habits/ general good practices to maintain a computer, ie to keep it running smoothly. :good:

Secondly, should you turn your computer off each night or "close the screen", which is better for the computer, I am not too bothered about electricity costs or the hassle of having to reboot the computer
 
Ccleaner and Malwarebytes yes. Ccleaner will delete all the temporary files that will slow the computer down. A traditional virus program won't catch most of the malware that is out today. Browser addons and toolbars will kill performance really fast. ADWcleaner is used when Malwarebytes won't detect it.
 
further to that i would recommend malwarebytes premium.it has realtime protection and is well worth the 24.95 for a lifetime licence.
 
Electricity: Turn on during the day. and off at night. I don't leave it on 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. Its on all day only when it goes on.
 
For a laptop I'd just turn it off when not in use.
Keep it plugged in whenever possible to reduce charge cycles on the battery.

If you have a mechanical hard drive, defrag every so often.
Malwarebytes as stated is a useful investment.
Uninstall the crap you no longer use.
Don't click on everything you see on the Internet.
Keep a tidy folder of downloads/etc.

There's usually not too much to it other than not installing things like toolbars, limiting how many applications run at startup and background services that senselessly suck up RAM.
 
beers said:
Keep it plugged in whenever possible to reduce charge cycles on the battery.
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Very bad idea. I've seen way too many laptops that die because they are plugged in 24/7. Batteries will need to be replaced much more often and you take a chance on doing internal damage by keeping it plugged in.

If you have a mechanical hard drive, defrag every so often.
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There is no need to defrag but once every few months or even up to 6 months. Really the only people that need to defrag are the ones that constantly install and uninstall programs all the time.

Malwarebytes as stated is a useful investment.
Uninstall the crap you no longer use.
Don't click on everything you see on the Internet.

There's usually not too much to it other than not installing things like toolbars, limiting how many applications run at startup and background services that senselessly suck up RAM.
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Agreed.
 
johnb35 said:
Very bad idea. I've seen way too many laptops that die because they are plugged in 24/7. Batteries will need to be replaced much more often and you take a chance on doing internal damage by keeping it plugged in.
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Do you have a source? I've seen the opposite of people with ~1 year old laptops and dead batteries from unplugging it and subjecting their unit to multiple charge cycles per day. The charge circuit is regulated and isn't going to over toast your cells. My 8 year old MX6959 still operates on hours with the original battery.
 
If ya have a smart charger and battery. JohnB is right. It can and will destroy a battery.
Best way to destroy a battery is overcharge or run battery down to zero volts.
 
tremmor said:
Best way to destroy a battery is overcharge
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There's really no such thing as overcharging a laptop these days.

beers said:
Do you have a source? I've seen the opposite of people with ~1 year old laptops and dead batteries from unplugging it and subjecting their unit to multiple charge cycles per day. The charge circuit is regulated and isn't going to over toast your cells. My 8 year old MX6959 still operates on hours with the original battery.
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All rechargeable batteries have a amount of cycles they can perform. And as long as you don't run the battery down past 10% your battery is more likely to last longer.
 
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imsati said:
Surprised no one jumped on this. Ditch it. Seriously. It's not that great and will bog down your system. Uninstall it and use Avast instead; much lighter resource-wise, better results, and free. Amazing program.
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I totally agree but there is just a lot of people you can't persuade to use something else.
 
yeah your right.you can lead a horse to water but you cant make em drink it.ive used avast and malwarebytes pro for years and cant say ive ever had a problem.
 
jamesweir12345 said:
Secondly, should you turn your computer off each night or "close the screen", which is better for the computer, I am not too bothered about electricity costs or the hassle of having to reboot the computer
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After having all my equipment damaged by a lightning while sleeping I always turn off my computers and everything and pull the plug from the main power socket, whenever I sleep or are away, or, of course, during a thunderstorm.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
There's really no such thing as overcharging a laptop these days.



All rechargeable batteries have a amount of cycles they can perform. And as long as you don't run the battery down past 10% your battery is more likely to last longer.
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Didin't know about the 10% part. So I shouldn't let it go under 10%? I plug my laptop without battery when home or when possible, that's better than using the battery right?
 
radical24 said:
If it's a desktop PC then it's a good idea to open it up and clean it every 1 or 2 months
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To do that cleaning, is it better to blow it out (e.g., with canned air) or vacuum the dust/cathair/etc out? I remember there was a debate about that among the tech guys at my last job.
 
PPBart said:
To do that cleaning, is it better to blow it out (e.g., with canned air) or vacuum the dust/cathair/etc out? I remember there was a debate about that among the tech guys at my last job.
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I always use a can of compressed air, just make sure you keep it upright or you'll expel the liquid instead of just air. Even a small air compressor would work, just turn down the psi if possible. Unless you live in a place that really gets dusty like next to a farm field during planting and harvesting season then you should only have to clean it out once every six months or so. If you have cats or dogs maybe every 3 months.
 
Punk said:
Didin't know about the 10% part. So I shouldn't let it go under 10%? I plug my laptop without battery when home or when possible, that's better than using the battery right?
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Depending on what you read, some people claim to not let it get below a certain percentage, some say run it down and not continuously plug and unplug it, others say you should keep it charged as much as possible. Lots of this stems from different battery technologies, the older batteries kept a memory, however newer ones are a lot more robust to various charging methods. I don't have the correct answer for certainty though.
 
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