Care to share any tips for keeping the desktop computer hardware healthy?
I know I have to clean the CPU fan every year or two
anything else?
thanks Y! Answers Family
not sure if there are any hard and fast rules except by going how you feel about your stuff. i mean if you feel things are getting sluggish physically you can reset things. other than that it's mainly running programs such as cc cleaner, anti virus, spyware programs etc to keep it in tip top condition. you may need to reinstall windows now and then as sometimes it is the only way to really get rid of unwanted things
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Theres not a whole lot you can do except ALWAYS keep dust and any other contaminates away from the components. Also watch out for ESD (electro static discharge) Computer hardware doesn't take much energy to fry the whole system.
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A+ certified
It's not just the CPU fan, it's also the blades of the CPU heatsink - if that gets clogged up with a woolly blanket of dust you're in big trouble - and it's easier to keep it clean than clean it, so every three months is better than every year or two. Google 'how to clean a pc'.
Not spilling your beer over the keyboard helps, too
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I would recommend routine maintenance about every six months. Open the computer and look at it. If you see anything out of the ordinary, fix it.
Clean all visible dust and blow dust out of the CPU heat sink, graphics card heat sink (if any), vent openings in the case, and the power supply. Remove any loose dust around the edges of the case. Make sure all fans spin.
That's probably the most important thing. Keeping proper airflow will make the parts run cooler which should help them last longer.
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First of all you should clean it a little more often than that. All depends on how much dust you have around the computer, but you should notice if theres dust stuck to the CPU-fan.
You could get a thin layer of dust behind the fan on the heatsink, that's really important to get rid of. Just spin the CPU-fan the other way fast (the computer needs to be turned off of course) and the dust should pretty much come out of by it self, you can then just pick it by hand.
Don't forget to clean the fan to the graphic card too as it's just as important as the CPU-fan (same procedure goes here with the dust on the heatsink).
Keeping the system cool is basic knowledge, so make sure it's cool inside the chassis (it can be a little warm, but if you feel that it's really hot air inside, you should consider adding some fans or changing the chassis-model)
Also, remember not to vacuum inside the computer as it can kill your hardware if you touch it, you should use compressed air (you can buy it in cans), or if you decide to vacuum inside of the chassis, be really careful.
Last but not least, nothing with actually keeping the hardware healthy actually what not to do so that you accidentally kill your whole PC by the touch of a finger. You need to know that if you accidentally charge yourself with electro static and then touch for example the motherboard and hear the "kchh"-sound that you get when you discharge the electro static on something, or even see the little flash that you can see, you can say bye bye to your hardware as it's pretty much dead (fried).
To avoid that, you can buy bracelets that ground you and prevents you from charging up electro static and destroying your hardware. Or, be sure to always hold on to your chassis with one hand (that will ground you) when you touch something inside the computer.
Hope this helps!
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Other things you can do are clean up the hard drive by opening my computer and then right click on your hard drive and select properties. then click disk cleanup this gives you a lot of space in your hard drive sometimes also while in the disk clean up windows click the more options tab and you can gain tons of disk space and keep your computer clean by cleaning up system restore which don't do this if your computer has any big problems
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worked on computers
not sure if there are any hard and fast rules except by going how you feel about your stuff. i mean if you feel things are getting sluggish physically you can reset things. other than that it's mainly running programs such as cc cleaner, anti virus, spyware programs etc to keep it in tip top condition. you may need to reinstall windows now and then as sometimes it is the only way to really get rid of unwanted things
References :