YOU PROBABLY WANT TO KNOW THE BASICS TO CARE FOR YOUR COMPUTER

KEEP IT CLEAN! Dust, dirt, animal hair, etc., WILL accumulate in and around your computer. Every so often you should use a can of air (dust remover) and blow out dust and debris from the vents and ports on your laptop. Also, I have wiped and dug out smoke grime and goop from tobacco and cooking oil that accumulates in and around the exhaust fans, power supplies (and inside) of the computers that have come into the shop. Need your computer cleaned up inside and out? Bring it in!

KEEP YOUR COMPUTER COOL! You don't want your computer to over heat and risk the chance of burning (or frying) something important. You want to keep your computer in a well ventilated area, with all vents open enough for air flow. If you are doing everything possible and your unit is still getting too warm too fast- quite possibly your CPU chip needs to be repasted with thermal paste. Since the CPU is the brains of the whole unit- you do not want it to overheat! Any good tech will be able to take care of that for you. We have repasted hundreds of CPU's!

KEEP IT PROTECTED! By having a good anti-virus program, a couple of good anti-spyware /anti-malware/adware programs AND and a good firewall. And even better yet .... there are excellent programs that have FREE versions for you to use.

KEEP IT UPDATED! You want to keep your operating system updated along with updating your protection programs. Remember to check for and download any important update patches for your OS (operating system) and your browser (Internet Explorer / Firefox..etc.)

RUN THOSE SCANS! You will need to make sure that you scan for adware, malware, spyware and viruses AND then remove any infections found. Infections can slow you down, reroute your browsers, take control over your computer, or keep your computer from booting up. Some think that all you need to do is run a scan ... they don't think about deleting/removing any problems which are found.

DEFRAGMENT The defragmenter will help keep your files neat and organized on your hard drive. Defrag every couple months or so. (Depends on usage of computer)

DISK CLEAN UP Helps you to free up disk space on your hard drive. Clean it up every so often.

UNDERSTANDING A little about your computer will help you take better care of it. At least by doing the basics, you will help to keep your computer running. Be patient with your computer, give the programs time to run before you go click happy. Back up the documents, pictures, videos and music you want to save... you never know when your system will crash and you will lose everything on it.
Back Up........ Back UP!

AVOID The websites you think, even MIGHT, cause you problems in the future. Many websites will download various infections into your computer when you download anything from their site. Active X is a must for many downloads, and for the trusted sites you won't have a problem, but the bad guys use the Active X control to their advantage, so be aware of the sites you give control to. Some people will download music with infections in the file, or pictures which may contain infections, or even click on links to a website, which may open up a can of ..... INFECTIONS.
My advice: BE AWARE, BE SAFE