Basic Computer Maintenance:
Aside from hostile programs and viruses, heat is one of your computer's worst enemies. Your computer needs to take in cool clean air to prevent it from overheating. Keep the case, vents and fan slots free of dust and debris. Open the case occasionally and vacuum out all dust and hair, paying extra attention to dust-clogged fan blades and heatsinks on the CPU or power supply. Spin the fans gently by hand and listen for sounds like bearings dragging. If you start hearing fan bearings screech, replace the fan as soon as possible. If the noisy fan is inside your power supply, replace the power supply.
Some motherboards have a plastic cradle mounted around the CPU (Central Processor Unit) socket, into which metal clips are hooked that apply pressure to the top of the heatsink assembly, which sits on top of the CPU. I have serviced several computers that have had some or all of the cradle gripping arms break off from heat buildup, or manufacturing defects. This causes the heatsink to come loose on one or both sides of the CPU, and this causes the heat to buildup to dangerous levels on the CPU. Most computers have a thermal runaway sensor that will shutdown your computer if the heatsink loses intimate contact with the processor. If your computer is suffering from random sudden shutdowns this is one place you should inspect, just in case you have such a plastic heatsink cradle, and it is breaking up.
After cleaning out any dust, or animal hair from the fans, heatsinks and vent holes, be sure to leave some open space around the computer so it can breathe and stay cool. Vacuum dirt & hair out of your keyboard and mouse. Use your fingernails to scrape dirt off of the rollers inside a mechanical mouse. Crud on the rollers causes jerky pointer movement. If the mouse is worn out buy a new one, or buy an optical mouse with no moving parts. Ditto for the keyboard. It is a mechanical device and has a finite life span.
System maintenance:
Run Scandisk (scandisk.exe) for Windows 9x, or Chkdsk (chkdsk.exe) for Windows 2000 or XP, and Disk Defragmenter (defrag.exe) on a weekly basis, or at least every two weeks. If you have bad shut-downs it is a good idea to run Scandisk/Chkdsk upon rebooting. Most Windows operating systems will do so automatically, after a bad shutdown.
Protect your computer!
Get yourself a decent anti virus program that is frequently updated online, and set it to scan for viruses once a week or more. Equip your computer with good hardware and software firewalls if you are on broadband, or a software firewall if you are on dialup Internet access. Get at least two well respected spyware/adware detection/removal programs, keep them updated and have them scan every night.
I have more information about these security programs on these pages: anti-virus programs, security & spyware removal progams, firewalls, and current security threats.
Proper Windows Shutdown Procedure:
The normal shutdown procedure closes all running processes, offers to let you save any altered open documents, writes session data to the hard drive, flushes the disk cache and de-initializes the protected mode drivers which are the heart of the operating system. Only when all the assigned tasks are finalized does the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen appear (older operating systems), or your computer automatically shuts itself off.
On the other hand, killing the power before all the shutdown procedures have run will close altered files without saving the changes, will scatter pieces of programs all over the hard disk (= fragmentation), can create cross-linked files (= crashes), can create bad filenames, and generally screw with your otherwise smooth running computer. In those unfortunate situations where there is no other option but to do a forced reboot, be sure to run Scandisk, or Chkdsk, then Disk Defragmenter, to fix the damage before it gets out of hand.
Security software resources:
Learn how a firewall can protect your computers against external and internal phone-home attacks.
Protect your PCs from unwanted or hostile incoming and outgoing Internet communications. Get the ZoneAlarm Pro Personal Firewall, now with anti-spyware protection. Protects 3 PCs for one low price!
Protect your laptop or home PC from MITM or Evil Twin wireless hijacking attacks. Anonymizer Total Net Shield provides a secure way to conduct personal online activities anytime, anywhere. In addition to shielding your IP address from cyber criminals, Total Net Shield also encrypts Wi-Fi connections, email, chat and instant messaging communications. Anonymizer Total Net Shield works by creating an encrypted 256 bit SSH "virtual tunnel" to and from your computer to shield you from even the most complex methods of online spying and snooping. Total Net Shield is similar to the secure Virtual Private Networks (VPN) that corporations use, but is designed for personal use.
