With more and more technology finding its way into our lives, the cost of repairing, replacing, and maintaining devices can soon add up. This coupled with the environmental impact of manufacturing and disposing of electronic devices makes maximising the lifespan of your computer good for the environment and your back pocket.
Read on for some handy tips on ways you can increase the life of your devices. These include good habits, proper maintenance and potentially part upgrades.
Keep Your Computer Clean
We’ve seen our fair share of dusty PC’s over the years and two things that don’t go well together are caked on dust and a computers inner workings. Dust and debris build up inside your laptop or computer, especially around the air intake vents and cooling fans. This build-up can lead to overheating and poor performance.
Just like any cleaning it’s important to keep on top of it and not wait until the dust and grime is noticeable from the outside. Make sure to add “dusting my computer” to your list of household chores for maximising the lifespan of your computer.
Regular cleaning ensures enough airflow to keep your computer cool. Check out this detailed breakdown of how to clean your computer.
Regularly Update Your Computer
Make sure to update your operating system, software, and applications regularly or whenever updates become available. Updates often include patches and fixes which can improve your computer’s performance.
Also update the various applications or programs you run to get the best possible performance levels.
Whilst updating your computer and the software you run, it’s also a good idea to do a declutter of unused and unnecessary programs you no longer use.
Properly Shutdown and Restart
Are you someone who’s laptop goes weeks without shutting down? Just like people computers need a rest sometimes. Processing all that information is a pretty tiring job, and shutting down your computer properly is good for it.
Make sure to follow the correct shutdown procedure for your device by going to the main menu and select “shut down”. This helps with the longevity of the RAM and the PSU (Power Source Unit).
Restarting your computer can also help to clear temporary files and refresh system processes, improving the overall performance of your computer.
SSD Upgrade
Running out of storage space? HDD slowed to a crawl? If your laptop or computer has an HDD or Hard Disk Drive this will contribute to slower performance. An SSD or Solid State Drive is faster, lighter, quieter more energy efficient and most importantly has no moving parts.
This means upgrading to an SSD improves the speed and performance of your device as large amounts of data are loaded at once. The lack of moving parts in an SSD also lowers the risk of a drive being damaged during a knock.
Annual Warrant of Fitness
Some issues you might not pick up on until it’s too late. Just like with a car it’s a great idea to get a Warrant of Fitness for your computer. Doing this annually is what we recommend at Geeks on Wheels. Having a professional assess the overall health and condition of your device makes sure you keep on top of everything we’ve mentioned and more.
A Geeks on Wheels WOF will include a check of your drive health, running temperatures, backups and updates. We’ll also scan your computer for malware and viruses and run a cleaner to remove any unnecessary temporary files or double ups.