Futurama Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 An easy guide to computer optimization, by Futurama. This guide was written on a 512mb, 2400+ AMD Athlon computer running Windows XP Home, so if something doesn't make sense on here, it's probably cause you're running something different! Why use this guide? Because you're probably sick of your computer being half the speed it was when you bought it and it won't take more than a few hours to get it running up to scratch again. Also, if this get's stickied, it'll stop people asking about computer performance all the time. You Will Need: 2 hours or so of free time, access to the inside of your computer and the confidence to go in there, large plastic sheet(s), rubber trainers, duster, x-headed screwdriver, vacuum cleaner, internet access. 1: Physical Computer Cleaning. Fans Loud? Computer a bit dodgy? Here's one of the reasons why: most computers have two fans inside of them to help cool internal hardware; and they accumulate a LOT of dust over long periods. Never opened up your computer before? You're in for a shock... Pop your rubber trainers on and sit on your plastic sheet to earth yourself and prevent any static shocks; open your computer by any means nessecary: if you have the name and manufacturer of your case, there's more than likely a guide on how to open it up correctly on their website; once it's open, touch the metal chassis to discharge any possible static, and remove any dust you can see using the vaccuum and a duster. Once all of that's off, take off the two fans inside your computer. Filthy, filthy computer or what! Remove all of the dust using your duster and vaccuum. Once that's done, pop the fans back on and close up the case: your computer will go from sounding like an F1 racing car to a Nissan Micra. Awesome. Give your mouse and keyboard a proper clean too, cause they're probably disgustingly filthy aswell! 2: Cleaning Software Run ALL of these! Ad Aware - Removes Spyware and Adware Spybot: Search & Destroy - Removes Spyware and Adware. Again. Registry Fix 3.9 - Removes old registry entries, broken links to startup items, old DLLs, etc! HiJackThis - Open this and click "do a system scan and save a logfile". Now ask your nerdiest friend (or on this forum) to go over it and tell you what you need to remove with this. Be careful though, because if you tick something wrong and remove the wrong thing, it can mess up your computer bad. Disk Cleanup - Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Removes old stuff to give you more space on your computer. 3: Defragmenting This is a tool within windows that takes a few hours to run, but basically rearranges everything within your harddrive so it can access it more effeciently; it speeds your computer up awesomely, so do it! Start - All Programs - System Tools Just choose your hard drive from the list and hit defragment, then go watch a movie or something. 4: Manually deleting the junk you don't need any more. 1,000 pictures of Melissa Joan Heart eh? Or that secret stash of Family Guy episodes you never got round to deleting after someone bought you the box sets as a gift? Get rid of everything you don't need on your computer any more. This includes clicking add-remove programs on control panel and getting rid of that copy of Barbie Riding Club your "Sister" wanted to buy, and anything you just generally have no use for anymore. 5: Windows & Drivers Updates! You should be updated anyway, but update windows by clicking Start - All Programs - Windows Update to give yourself full security and fix bugs in your computer. After this click Start - Run and type "DXDIAG". Find out what graphics, soundcard, and anything else that requires you installing drivers you have, and update the drivers! This'll get your equipment running at full whack so you can get the most out of it. 6: Configuration Don't worry, you're almost done: go into Control Panel and select System. Hit the advanced tab and choose performance: then set your computer to "adjust for best performance" (or tick boxes manually depending) - this will just generally make your computer run faster. 7: Protect your computer! Read Ard_Choille's guide on how to protect your computer from threats. 8: Breathe a sigh of relief, make yourself a big long drink and have yourself a mini apple pie. Wallow in your inflated sense of self esteem. You're finished! :) Credits: Me Me Me, Me Me and Meeee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiser Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 Once all of that's off, take off the two fans inside your computer. Filthy, filthy computer or what! Remove all of the dust using your duster and vaccuum. Generally a bad idea to be telling lots of computer illiterate people to be taking fans off heat syncs and case mounts. A can of compressed air and a garage/outdoor area will get you much farther than a vacuum cleaner will also, even with the fans still mounted. 6: Configuration Don't worry, you're almost done: go into Control Panel and select System. Hit the advanced tab and choose performance: then set your computer to "adjust for best performance" (or tick boxes manually depending) - this will just generally make your computer run faster. This won't help newer computers much, especially those that have higher end graphics cards. It can definitely help out older, slower machines though. Decent little cleanup guide overall, I just wouldn't advice taking things apart (unmounting fans, ect.) unless you already know what you're doing. :mrgreen: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futurama Posted January 8, 2007 Author Share Posted January 8, 2007 Yeah I guess you've got a point, then again i'd never been inside a computer until I cleaned mine and found it pretty simple! Suppose not everyone will be as lucky as me though... As for the compressed air, I never even knew you could get that, hence why I was trying to find household items everyone has...still, if you have that, use that. I'm not sure if it's common or not :) As for the configuration, it worked wonders on mine, with 2400+ processer and 512mb RAM... Cheers for your comments mate. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bufoman Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 well your registery fix program only fixes 50 problems for free. I had over 700... unfortunately when I chose fix problems I dident get the oportunity to chose which ones. ah well thats 50 less problems than I had before. Clan Moderator from December 15th 2006- August 20th 2007Founder of: Terran Gamers, formerly known as Militos Deci Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiser Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 You can find cans of compressed air in Walmart's electronics section and just about every other office supply store you can find. They can cost a few dollars a can sometimes but it's useful. An example (slightly pricey) from Thinkgeek. :mrgreen: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinslayer777 Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 I've heard of people blowing up balloons, attaching to straws, and releasing. But that'd take loads of time for a large dust bunny party, luckily i merely use my compressor :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrel104 Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Awsome guide, you should also include how to several things like clean up your system tray. Also a can of compressed air is much better then a vac. Also you should say to startup in safe mode when defragmenting. Could you this webpage as a refrence link at the bottom? click here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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