Protecting the PC from Mother Nature

It’s the time of year when Thor is angry. Or it could be Zeus and his quiver of lightning bolts. Regardless of your favorite mythology, are you doing anything to protect your PC against lightning strikes?

A bolt of lightning can fry a computer in a nanosecond. That surge of electricity flows in through the electrical lines and your poor PC’s power supply just can’t stop it. The delicate electronics inside the console are instantly fried to a crisp. The PC’s hard drive and your data might survive, but the rest of the computer is junk.

Most folks I know unplug their PCs when there’s an electrical storm. That’s a good idea. Even when you have a UPS or spike protector, don’t chance it: Power off the computer and unplug it.

This is most important: Unplug the phone line to the modem. Unplug the network cable as well. A friend of mine in the power industry says that most spike protection devices are junk anyway; they may or may not work. Regardless, most computers are fried by their modem or Ethernet connection, not the power cord.

Better be safe: During an electrical storm, power down the PC and unplug everything.

Moving Things Cause Trouble

When trouble comes to PC hardware, it’s going to strike the things that move. Electronics is pretty reliable. (When was the last time you saw a TV repairman?) But things that move always need fixing. (When was the last time you saw an auto mechanic?)

Moving things break first. In your computer the list of moving things includes the spinning media, the hard drive and optical drive. But it also includes two mechanical things you use for input: the keyboard and the mouse.

You probably clean the computer mouse often. Optical mice are notorious for collecting pet hair and pieces of lint from the desktop. I have a pair of tweezers right by my computer that I use several times a month to pull crud from the optical mouse hole.

The keyboard gets less of my attention, probably because pat hair doesn’t accumulate there as much. But when it needs it, I give the keyboard a blast of air from a can or once-over with the vacuum.
Regular keyboard and mouse maintenance will keep your PC’s mechanical input gizmos happy and functions, and keep you from going insane when they fail to work.

And if they do fail: Buy new ones. Keyboards and mice are cheaper to replace than to have fixed.

Looking Better

You never really know that you have a crummy display adapter on your PC until you find a PC with a better display adapter.

Oh, sure: At first you might just credit the other PC’s monitor with being better. Perhaps it’s a fancy widescreen with a glossy display. Those look nice, but what makes the graphics on the screen look good is more the job of the display adapter than the monitor.

It’s relatively easy to replace a display adapter in a PC; if you have troubles or concerns, PC Live can help you through the process (especially if you get stuck). More frustrating than installation, however, is choosing a display adapter.

I recently saw a display adapter priced at $2,300. It’s probably a good one, but you don’t need to spend that much because you’ll probably never use the features such a display adapter offers.

Look for a display adapter with at least 256MB of video memory. Ensure that the display adapter will fit one of your PC’s internal expansion slots. (Again, PC Live can help.) If you have software that recommends a specific adapter, get it.

With a new display adapter, your PC will be looking good in no time. Plus, because the new adapter will most likely use less of main system memory, so you might also see a performance boost as well.

The External Optical Drive Bonus

Your PC has more than just hard drives for storage. Another way you can breath new life into your computer system is to add more optical storage, such as a new CD or DVD drive.

Just like external, USB hard drives, it’s super cinchy to add an external optical drive to your PC. In fact, if you’re a laptop user, I recommend getting an external optical drive that may offer more features than the laptop’s own optical drive (if it has one).

It’s also possible to add a second, internal optical drive — if the console can support it. I really think that two optical drives will be the standard in the future: one, a recordable optical drive for making DVDs and CDs, and the second as a DVD-ROM.

For example, I could use a second DVD-ROM to store the disc that must always be in the drive for a game I like to play. (Not that I’m admitting I play games when I should be writing computer books, of course.)

I believe you’ll find that another optical drive or perhaps one better than what you have now, will help extend the life of your PC. That’s a good thing.

The Joys of an External Hard Drive

Buying your computer a second hard drive is one way that you can extend its life. But there’s no need to buy an internal hard drive when you don’t want to do as I did and re-install Windows and migrate over your files and programs. In that instance, getting an external hard drive makes more sense.

The prices of external hard drive appall me because they’re just so cheap! You can buy an external 500GB drive for well under $200, and 500GB is probably more than the storage capacity of your PC’s internal hard drive. So, heck, get a 320GB drive for under $100. Get two.

Aside from the price, the other insane thing about an external hard drive is how easy it is to connect it to your PC: Plug in the USB cable and you’re set to go. (I still have nightmares about configuring external SCSI hard drives back in the 1990s!)

I use external hard drives for backup. The Backup program in Windows Vista is totally automated and well-suited for using external hard drives. So not only does an external hard drive give you more storage, it provides for backing up your stuff. I highly recommend that!

That Second, Internal Hard Drive

Most of my PCs sport a second, internal hard drive. Yeah, I like to splurge.

In some cases, the extra internal hard drive sits empty. Other times, when I can remember, I’ll install new software on the second hard drive. That way the first hard drive doesn’t get so crowded. But more important, I keep that second hard drive around in the event the first hard drive decides to poop out on me.

For example, the main hard drive on my primary computer was starting to act funny. I got a few disk errors. The drive was only three years old, which is middle age for a computer hard drive. (Most hard drives last about six years.) Nevertheless, I installed a second, larger internal hard drive.

Using technical magic I cannot begin to explain in this short space, I installed Windows on the new hard drive and migrated all my files and programs over to it. Then I removed the original hard drive before it died on me — or it exploded. You never know.

If you like the idea of having a second hard drive as a backup, but are puzzled about re-installing Windows on that drive or migrating your software, consider giving the people at PC Live a call. They’ll happily guide you through the process, and help you add few years to your computer.

Your PC Needs More RAM

Performance is always an issue with computers. For a while there, the myth was that performance was directly related to the CPU. Poppycock.

The CPU plays a big role, but so does the bus that connects the CPU to the other parts of the computer. Folks who thought that they could improve their computer’s performance by merely replacing the CPU found out that a full motherboard replacement are more in order. And, heck, if you’re going to replace the PC’s motherboard, you might as well buy a brand new computer!

Nope. A better way to improve your computer’s performance is to buy it more memory.

Your computer must think that it’s Christmas when you add more memory to the system. Mr. PC loves it!

Computers today are designed to use virtual memory to supplement regular memory. Though virtual memory is a solution, it’s not as good as packing your PC with as much RAM as it can old. Believe me, you’ll notice a performance increase right away when you add more memory to your computer.

Keep It Clean (Digital Version)

As with cleaning out the inside of the computer case (see yesterday’s post), you’ll want to clean up the digital leftovers on your computer’s hard drive. File fragments can little the hard disk landscape like leaves and twigs after a wind storm.

Don’t be alarmed: digital detritus is common in a computer. So are lots of file leftovers: remnants of improperly-installed programs, temporary files, and lots of other junk. That stuff not only takes up extra space, but it can slow down hard drive performance as well.

The Disk Cleanup tool that comes with Windows is ideal for cleaning up your computer’s mass storage closet. Choose Disk Cleanup from the Start button menu: All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup.

For your own stuff, you should go through the things you’ve saved to disk and ensure that there aren’t things lurking there taking up space that you no longer need. If so, delete ‘em!

Keep It Clean

There are places few men dare to tread. No, I’m not talking about the Forest Of Evil, or the Fire Swamp, or the Anvil of God, or even my brother’s closet. I’m talking about the inside of your computer console.

Of all the nasty things in the world, you’ve probably never seen nasty like the inside of a PC.

Yes, I know: The PC console is a closed box. That’s not only to protect you from the scary electronics, but to keep the radio frequency interference (RFI) safely inside. No one recommends using a PC with its case open.

The PC console features a fan to help keep the internal components cool. That fan draws air in from vents in front of the console, and then blows the air out the back.

Especially when you have pets, you may find lots of non-electronic things dwelling inside your PC’s console. Clean it out! All that fuzz and dust helps trap heat, especially when it clogs the PC’s fan and air vents.

But to take care: unplug your PC before opening the case. Then use a vacuum or can of air to blast away years of crud. Your PC will last longer from such routine maintenance.

Sometimes It Helps to Wait

There are so many terms for a computer that refuses to run that it makes me believe that computers fail to run quite often. Consider the lot: freeze, hang, crash, die, stop, halt, gone AWOL, stuck in a loop, and so on. Man!

Your first reaction to a stuck computer should be verbal. You can try the safe phrase, “Oh, what now?” If you’re by yourself, you can use some spicier language.

Some folks blame themselves. They’ll say, “What did I do.” I’m one of those who likes to verbally interact with the computer. I’ll say, “What did you do?” Then I try reasoning, “Don’t hang on me.” And a threat, “If you crash, I’m not buying you any more RAM. Ever!”

Above all, it pays to wait. I’ve found that many times when the computer has seemed to gone to the mall to order a coffee drink and scone, it’s actually just really busy inside. As Obi-Wan Kenobi said to Luke Skywalker, “Patience!”

But how long is too long? I’d say give it a minute. If the mouse pointer can still move, good. If you can press the Caps Lock key on the keyboard and the light still blinks, better. Just wait it out. The PC might just come back. Patience!