Issue 1.15
As we jump into a new year, here are a few things you may want to think about. What brought this subject up for me? Smoke alarms. I usually change the batteries in them in the Spring and the Fall. I also change my furnace filters at least that often. This year I totally forgot those things and I am realizing that was a mistake. My furnace failed the other day and I had to replace the fan motor. A contributing factor was the clogged air filter that made it work extra hard. My smoke alarm batteries were also dead and would have been no protection at all in the case of a fire. Here are some things that you may want to check as we embark on 2015.
Computer fans – Like the furnace, the fans are critical to the operation of your computer. If they fail, the chips will overheat and the computer will stop working or work badly. The damage can be permanent requiring new parts and sometimes restoring data from your backup which is time consuming and may be costly. You can tell by feeling the case if there is heat building up in your computer and you should be able to feel air flow where the fans are located. If not, have it checked. Also check to see if dust is clogging the air flow.
Internet provider – Things are changing rapidly as new technologies and special offers are coming on the market. Find out what is available in your neighborhood and then check your service to make sure you are getting what you pay for. I have run internet speed tests at a number of clients homes and businesses and found that they were not receiving the bandwidth they were promised. You can test yours at www.speedtest.net but be sure you don’t click the other “start” or “install” buttons on the page because they won’t test your speed and they WILL try to sell you something. If your speed is low, call your service provider. If they won’t help, consider switching to one that will give you fair value. Be careful of short term offers that change to a higher priced plan within a few months or bind you to a long-term agreement. They can be costly.
Hard Drive – Check to see if your hard drive is too full. Go to “Computer” or “My Computer” on your desktop or start menu and check your main hard drive (usually C: drive) and see what the total size and space remaining are. If you are under 20 Gigabytes of free space or 10% of the total size free (whichever is higher), you may want to consider a second or a bigger hard drive to give you more storage. One of my customers recently had their computer crash because they ran out of space on the hard drive and a program wrote over some of their critical files.
Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware – Check your programs to be sure they are up to date. Also make sure you have documentation if you have a paid subscription. I have had a number of people who are sure they bought a 2 or 3 year plan, but can’t find their activation codes or software download location and so they have to buy it again or install a free program. Some of the free programs are very good and sufficient for most people. I recommend AVG and Avast Anti-Vires and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware in the free category – just don’t put two anti-virus programs on the same computer because they will conflict with each other and cause numerous problems.
Finally, make sure your online backup system (if you use one) is up to date and working – and remember to always back up anything on your computer that is important to you.
Shaun McCausland has worked in the computer industry for over 33 years, 26 years of it locally with Bits ‘N’ Bytes and Musicomp and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation, service, training and repair. If you have questions you can reach him at 435-668-7118 or shaun@musicomp.net.