Free Computer Fixes

When something goes wrong with your computer your first instinct is probably to panic a little bit-after all, your computer is a major part of your life! It needs to work correctly all of the time! The good news is that often you can fix your computer yourself-for free! Here are some of the free computer fixes that you can take care of, all by yourself!

Often, your computer starts to malfunction because its memory is being used up. The memory of your computer can be used by a few things when your hard drive gets too full, it pulls away from the memory that your computer needs to run its processes properly. Another way your computer's memory can get eaten up is by having too many programs running at once. Often you might not even know that these programs are running!

First you will want to check your start up menu to find out how many programs are scheduled to run as soon as you turn on the computer. Usually, if you are not careful, you will install a program with the provision that it do just that and as a result you can end up having a lot of programs running under the surface of your operating system. These programs use up resources that your computer needs to work properly. This is one of the most important free computer fixes that you will do: Run your msconfig and edit your start up menu. Look at the programs you have installed and select the ones that you do not want to run immediately at start up.

The next free computer fix you can do is to clean out your documents folder-once a month or so, take a look at all of the files that you have saved and decide what to keep, what to toss out and what to burn to a CD or an external hard drive (an external hard drive can be your new best friend). You can upload your photos to a free photo server like Flickr or Photobucket and an external hard drive is a great place to store your mp3 collection.

You obviously should run a spyware and virus check. Spyware and viruses can spell death for your computer so make sure you check for them regularly.

If you suspect that something more serious is wrong with your computer, a great place to find free computer fixes is on the computer forums. It is here that people who know how to fix computers give out free advice to people who are experiencing computer problems. You will probably be able to find a thread of information for your exact problem and if you don't, it is incredibly easy to start one then just sit back and wait for the advice.

There are a few ways to get free computer fixes-you can either do them yourself or get help through the online computer forums. Free help is available, you just have to go out there and find it!

Slow Computer Problems Tip #1

Check your internet cache. Not only does every single page you look at on the internet get stored into a history folder in the depths of your computer, but every single part of those pages gets saved as a separate file in what is known as the cache folder. Yes, every single tiny graphic gets stored in its own file. That green dot that repeats twelve times as an illustration of bullet points? Twelve separate gif files in your cache. Make sure you clean out the cache often.

Slow Computer Problems Tip #2

Ad ware is the devil. Ad ware can be attached to your computer by any number of sites (though it is most famously used by sites of an "adult" nature). This ad ware keeps track of where you go online like a cookie does, but ad ware is typically a covert program that slows down the computer to make it easier to track where you go. Run a spy ware or ad aware program on a regular basis to keep these programs and files at bay.

Slow Computer Problems Tip #3

Defragment your hard drive regularly. Sometimes parts of your files get corrupted. The more files that are corrupted or "fragmented," the more slowly your computer will run. A defragmentation of your hard drive should be done on a regular basis. It is a long process, so the defragmenting program is best run overnight.