how to maintain a PC ?

[alex_loh33]

Hi :

I've bought a new PC recently. It's a Pentium III with Windows 98 operating system. I don't know much about computing. Can you give me some advices in maintaining the computer system, so that it may perform well at all time ? What are the considerations for maintaining a PC ? Also, what is 'Disk defragment' & 'chk corrupted files' ? Pls reply .
Thank you http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

alex

[Paleo Pete]

Disk Defragmenter is a utility that rearranges the locations of files stored on your hard drive. As the computer operates, Windows stores and deletes data as needed, and usually drops it in any available spot. This creates various empty spaces all over the drive, and scatters data so the drive's read/write heads have to search longer for information pertaining to any one application. Disk Defragmenter moves all this data to different locations, so that it's all stored in one place, usually either toward the outside or inside of the platter, making it easier for the read/write heads to find data, since it's now stored in one place, instead of scattered everywhere.

Turn off all applications running in the background when you run Defrag, anything that tries to access the hard drive will make Defrag start over and never finish. Right click anything in the task bar at bottom right and disable or exit.

Scandisk is the utility that checks for damaged or corrupted files, it basically does exactly that. Checks for damaged files, and damaged areas of the hard drive. System file checker will also check for corrupted files.

How to use them depends on how you use your computer. If you're like me and spend a lot of time on it, and several hours on the Internet per day, it's a good idea to run Defrag about once a week, possibly more. I run Scandisk about once a month, and whenever I have to shut the power down while Windows is running.

Also I set my Temporary Internet files to minimum size, and empty them every few days. The setting is in Internet Options, either use the Tools option in the menu bar at top in Internet Explorer, and click Internet Options, or right click the Internet Explorer icon on your desktop and click Internet Options. In the Temporary Internet Files area you'll see a Settings button, to set the size, and a Delete Files button to delete them. If you save webpages for offline viewing don't check the "Delete all offline content" check box in the box that pops up when you delete the temp files. Set the History using the arrows to set how many days to save info, and empty it using the Clear History button.



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[pctech1972]

I agree with Paleo Pete about the ScanDisk and Defrag utilities. One simple check is often overlooked, but is good to track. Go to My Computer, right-click, and select Properties. Then go to the Performance tab. This tells you how much RAM you have and how much of that is available. For example, it might read "62MB RAM" and "85% Available". If you see this, don't worry that it doesn't show all 64 MB of your RAM. Some of it is kept for housekeeping. It is the XX% number you need to watch. If that goes below 80%, the mouse starts locking up, commands don't execute quickly (or not at all) and the system seems to stall. Usually, this means that too much junk is in the Startup menu. If that occurs, you can turn off features that are in the Startup menu by going to the Start, Run and typing in msconfig. In Win98 this brings up a dialog box, one tab of which is Startup. All of the applications and services that load when Win98 boots up are listed there, and a check mark means that it automatically loads the application. Most of these are placed there by either the manufacturer or were installed when you load an application such as Microsoft Office. The intention is to make it convenient so that all you have to do is click on the icon on the system tray (that little block on the lower right of the desktop) and it's already loaded, so it's faster. The result, however, is that some of your RAM is eaten up, even if you are not going to use that application! When you place a shortcut icon on your desktop, it takes up only a few KB of RAM, and you can still access any application you need. Then you can turn it off, and free up RAM when you are done. When you are in the Startup menu list, you can disable the automatic loading by clicking (unchecking) the application. It will give your computer more horsepower.

[Paleo Pete]

Careful when you tinker in msconfig. In the Start Up tab you should always leave these:
Scan Registry
Task Monitor
System Tray
Load Power Profile and anything related to your virus scanner. Don't disable these, you need them running. Task Monitor might not be absolutely necessary, but the rest are needed.

------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)