Computer Hardware Cambridge

You may sometimes ask yourself if you should repair or replace your computer. Firstly, you must think about how your computer has served your in the past. Has it been reliable or not? A computer that has been unreliable may be less worthwhile of an investment. But a computer that has performed well and just become slow over the years would probably be more worthwhile to repair.

How old is your computer? If it’s more than 7 years old then it may not be worth repairing. Or if it’s running the now defunct Windows XP then it would be worth considering a new system. If it’s less than 7 years old then a repair would probably be worth doing. The less it has been used over the years, the more viable it may be for use into the future.

Does the system suit your needs? With a laptop, if it’s too large or the keyboard is too small then an upgrade may be worth considering. Also, with laptops the battery life may be quite short, but a new battery can be purchased for less than £50.

What kind of applications do you use? If you’re looking to upgrade your applications, then you need to ensure that your old system can cope with the extra demands that these may require.

Your computer is a long-term investment and may be one that changes over the years.

This week I was called out to a customer in Hadstock, near Linton, their HP desktop computer was exhibiting some rather strange behaviour. It would take an age to boot up and then Internet Explorer would refuse to display any web pages.

I booted the computer from my special diagnostics USB memory stick and checked the state of the hard drive. Sure enough, the hard drive showed as failing with a fair few bad sectors.

After discussion with the customer, I took the computer back to the workshop and cloned the entire hard drive on to a new one. After booting the new hard drive, I checked the system out and checked that all the Windows system files were in order. The computer was running a lot happier after this.

The filesystem was then purged of all unnecessary temporary files, and a suite of malware detection and removal tools was used to remove about twenty or so viruses.

The computer was running BT’s version of McAfee, which in my experience is not the most effective anti-virus, so it was removed and cleaned from the system. Then, my recommended anti-virus software was installed and configured.

The computer was then taken back to the customer, plugged in, and the Internet connection and printer tested to ensure that all was well.

I was called to an address in Cherry Hinton to resolve an issue with a Windows 7 computer that had become very slow and becoming unresponsive when using Internet Explorer to view web pages.

The first thing I noticed that, while the computer had 2GB of memory, some 0.5GB was being reserved by the graphics adaptor. After realising that there was no way of changing the reservation in the CMOS setup, the only option was to add more memory. More memory was added and the computer checked out. There were no indications that the hard drive was failing, and checking the task manager revealed that part of the font system within Windows was using a massive 50% of  the processor. The font cache was deleted which helped, but checked for malware to find a virus that had hooked itself into the font system. The virus was removed and the Windows services permissions and default startup were restored.

Next was a cleanup, temporary files were removed and Windows and software updates were applied. The network was also reset which had the side effect of causing the network to not functioning for about five minutes after the computer was switched on. Simply removing the network drivers and allowing Windows to install them on the next reboot resolved the issue.

The computer was taken back to the customer the very next day, connected up and internet and printing tested.

Called out to a home laptop owner in Milton Road today, the laptop was running extremely slowly and was very noisy too! Cleaned the insides of the laptop, and set about checking the state of the hard drive. The hard drive was indicating imminent failure so replaced it with a solid state drive which improved the spreed of the laptop no end! Checked for viruses, found a few but nothing malicious and removed them. Ensured that all of the latest Windows Updates were installed and updated any other applications and software which needed it. Clean up temporary files and the laptop was good to go!