A Spring Cleaning Checklist For Your PC Part 1: Hardware Cleaning

Whatever the operating system, be sure that the software or process you're trying to close isn't vital. Run a web search to check what it is for and establish if it has any relevance to system stability or your game. If it is irrelevant, proceed to close


You can carefully vacuum the keyboard to remove loose particles and dust. Afterwards, wipe the keys with a lint-free cloth that is lightly dampened. Finally, disinfect the keyboard using alcohol wipes or spray some alcohol-containing cleaner on your cloth. If the keyboard is seriously manky, you can also take it apart and wash the keys in bulk. Be sure to take a photo of the keyboard first, so that it's easier to re-assem


Installation is as you would expect. Just insert the screws into the holes drilled in the case and then through the holes in the fan itself. Righty-tighty until the screw is flush with the mount and can't be tightened further. Because the screws usually have a very flat base you may find that inserting them is difficult. That’s another reason to temporarily tape the fan in place – it will make inserting the screw eas


Also make sure that you have the fan mounted so it blows in the proper direction. The fan should have a printed or molded arrow that shows the direction air flows. Fans can be installed as either an intake (air blowing in) or exhaust (air blowing out). There may also be an arrow that shows the direction of s


Keeping the fan in place is before the screws are installed is a common difficulty. Expensive cases usually have brackets that can hold a fan even without screws, but budget cases do not, making installation a chore. My recommendation is to use a few pieces of masking tape or duct tape to temporarily hold the fan is pl


If the fan is installed and has power it should start to spin as soon as the system begins to boot – if it does not, check the power connection again. Something may have come loose or the fan may be fau


A solid state hard drive is one of the best upgrades available for a modern computer. It increases the load times of programs dramatically, which in turn makes a PC feel snappier. Results can be dramatic. Some games, for example, loaded several times more quickly from an SSD after I replaced my own mechanical dri


Unlike media player playback, streaming video from the web doesn't require specific additional codecs. However, other issues preventing playback can be reset with a reboot---and who knows, by the time Windows 10 reboots, the Prime Video server could be back up and runn


Like with the graphics cards, again we have two choices: AMD and Intel . Both are valid options and popular in the computing community. Nevertheless, Intel still seems to be the more popular candidate. Don’t be confused by the numbers they tend to put in their product names, those aren’t specs, but low-level competit


While upgrading a mechanical hard disk drive (HDDs) to a faster model (say 5400rpm to 7200rpm) might help, switching to an SSD is a better option. Solid-state drives are based on the same technology as USB thumb drives; as such they're far fas


You can use this list as a guide to switch to a faster ISP. While a new ISP might still throttle data, if the upper speed limit is faster, and the bandwidth is available, throttling shouldn't impact gaming on St


The motherboard is the battleground of your computer. It’ll be the host of all your hardware components and will allow them to interact. Below we’ll review the things you’ll have to consider upon picking yourself a motherbo


Contrary to what most people think, Pcbuildinsight.Com serious gamers don’t have to spend a hundred bucks on that gaming mouse. It all depends on how you intend to use it. For everything except First Person Shooters, you’re probably well off with an optical mouse of five to ten bucks. Believe me; these will work a lot better than you’d exp


If your keyboard is dirty, obviously so is your mouse. You can clean the top surface with a lint-free cloth. Also make sure to give the light diode at the bottom a careful wipe with a Q-tip. If you have an old mechanical ball mouse, take out the ball to remove dust, hair, and partic


Whether you have a desktop computer or a laptop, your CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processing unit) need cooling. This is generally achieved through a fan that cools a heat sink, which disperses heat from the processor/s. When the air intake grills, the fan/s or the vents are blocked by dust, the cooling is less efficient. Consequently, the processor/s run/s hot faster and more frequently, which can cause the processor/s to become slower or even break prematurely. Hence, it is in your best interest to give the fan/s, intake grills, and vents a good cleaning to ensure optimal air flow and cool


With the arrival of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, houses across the globe get a nice cleaning to rid them of dirt and clutter that has accumulated over the past year. Dust and junk also settle on our computer. Whether your PC is suffering from a clocked up fan or an overloaded hard drive, it is time to give it a thorough spring cleaning. With the following checklist this will be a bre