How to maintain your PC in tip-top condition!

[HPD.]

This is a general maintenance guide for those of you who do not know how to maintain your PC. A well-maintained PC gives you relatively fewer problems and hopefully helps to improve your PC's performance and stability. Some of them maybe simple, however you just never know who might need it.

Let's just say i'll try to cover all aspects of good PC maintenance and if i do miss out anything, feel free to add your suggestions too! Any recommendations or mprovements are welcomed.

1- Firstly, anti-virus. Make sure u update it regularly and always leave it on at all times. Do a full scan at least once a week / fortnight. You can set a schedule for it if you want.

I recomad these, it is free and it is BEST:

http://forums.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=9988

2- Spyware cleaners. I'll recommend 3 types of spyware cleaners to do the job. Lavasoft's Ad-aware, Spybot Search & Destroy & Webroot's Spy Sweeper 3.0. Update the definitions and do a scan regularly with all three anti-spy programs... you never know what you might find.

More about that read here:

http://forums.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=9988

3- If you're behind a NAT/Router, make sure you open port 1716 for your computer to play AA, or if you're using UPNP (Universial PnP) router, enable it and the router should automatically open the ports that you need. If you're running WinXP, make sure this service is started as well for UPNP to work too. Go START > RUN > type in SERVICES.MSC > press enter. Go to 'Universal Plug and Play Device Host' & 'SSDP Discovery Service' and enable both these services. UPNP & SSDP basically detects and configures UPnP devices on your home network.

4- Make sure you're using at least Directx 9.0B or C. AA only runs on Directx.

5- Make sure you update all your drivers. This is important for those slackers who only want to play and don't bother to update your drivers. There are essentially 3 types of drivers to update. Motherboard / Chipset drivers, video card drivers, sound drivers. For those of you who changed your video card from Nvidia to Ati vice versa, you might want to use a driver cleaner to clear out the old files. These drivers, driver cleaners etc could be found at http://downloads.guru3d.com/ or if you're using ATI cards, some people found http://www.omegadrivers.net/ to be good for them.

6- Make your pagefile / virtual memory a custom size. Reason being if you set to system managed size, your pagefile will be fragmented easily. Go START > CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM > ADVANCED > PERFORMANCE SETTINGS > ADVANCED > CHANGE > CUSTOM SIZE. Set the initial size and the maximum size to be the same. Typically a rule of thumb would be 1.5 times of your physical memory. However for those of you who have less than 1GB ram, you might have to ignore that and set to maybe around 1024mb for your virtual memory. If you still find that windows / AA or whatever is complaining about low virtual memory, try increasing it somemore by 256mb increment.

7- Defrag your HDD regularly. Good defragmenter programs are Executive Diskeeper or VoptXP depending on your needs. Use this progam call pagedefrag which can be found at http://www.sysinternals.com It defrag files that are locked for exclusive access on the next boot. Eg. pagefile, registry hives etc.

8- For WinXP only. Set your system to Automatic Updates for Windows patches. I couldn't stress more on this, but know that alot of security loopholes or breaches are due to window's vulnerability. Go START > CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM > AUTOMATIC UPDATES > select Keep my computer up to date choose the appropriate setting for yourself.

9- For WinXP only. Disable any windows services you think you do not need. Go to http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm to see what is your configuration type and read on. Disabling services you do not need will save you memory & CPU resources.

10- For WinXP only. Do you know what is system restore? Do you know that system restore by default can possibly take up alot of your HDD space? To lower it, go START > ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS > SYSTEM RESTORE > SYSTEM RESTORE SETTING > lower it
to a size you're comfortable with.

11- Registry cleaners. Have you used before? Basically installing & uninstalling oftware, games, programs etc wil invariably leave some residue of your unwanted apps behind. Blame it on Microsoft, LOL!. Anyway, even a registry cleaner would not be able to entirely clear away those unwanted registry settings. Before we start with these, for those faint of heart, you can backup your registry before you start. Go START > RUN > type in REGEDIT > press enter > select FILE, EXPORT > select All range > type in the name and save. Good registry cleaners are Registry Mechanic, or Regsupreme from http://www.macecraft.com/ Do this on a weekly / fornightly basis.

12- Are you overclocking your system? Doing this can possibly result in greater instability or increased heat. Both of which is definitely not good. AA could be quite sensitive to such overclocking although your overclocking might work fine for other games. If you're those hardcore overclockers, i'm sure you know what you're doing and you won't need the advice here. *GRINS*

13- Your PSU (power supply unit). Especially for those running MATX or bare-bone chassis or some no brand PSU etc. You might want to monitor your system if you're running juice heavy hardware like ATI 9800 Pro, 2 HDD, 1GB ram, P4 3.2EE etc...Use a
program like Motherboard Monitor to check your CPU temperature, your +3.3v, +12v, +5v. In extreme system activity where all of the components are being used voltage deviation could become greater and could correlate with some system instability. If
these voltages are regularly flunctating more than +/- 5% as a rule of thumb, you might want to consider a higher wattage PSU that is of a decent brand.

14- Are you suspecting a faulty memory? Try http://www.memtest86.com/ to diagnose any memory errors.

15- To reduce the possibility of spyware infection, it is recommended not to use Internet Explorer as your default web browser. Use others like Mozilla Firefox or Opera. If you find you have problems with surfing a particular website, then switch back to IE for that website.

16- Does your video card support FASTWRITE? If it does, you might want to disable it. Some users have notice system instability when FASTWRITE is enabled. It can be found by right-clicking on the desktop > PROPERTIES > SETTINGS > ADVANCED > look around in here

17- Some of you might have your comp restarted all of a sudden when something crashed. It could be possibly due to your windows setting. Go to START > CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM > ADVANCED > STARTUP AND RECOVER SETTINGS > untick AUTOMATIC RESTART.

If you're still with me good. Upon doing all these, hopefully your system is in tip-top condition. And also hopefully you'll get more gaming done and less critical errors. All these advices are provided as it is and done at your own discretion, I will not be held responsible for your actions so don't go flaming me if you stuff it up. If you're not sure on any of the steps, ask first.[/url]

[HPD.]

Fiew more tips:

1. Disable some things from startup if you can.
Start > Run > msconfig
Click the Startup tab
Disable things from startup that don't need to be there. Things to keep are Driver software & AntiVirus software everything else can go.

2. Clean up temp files regularly as well too.
I would suggest using this FREE little program... http://ccleaner.jump.to
This thing will clean out Temp Files, URL History, Registry, Uninstall cleanup too.

3. Keep your antivirus Up to Date!
If your antivirus isn't up to date it's worthless.
If your subscription needs to be renewed?... DO IT!
If you don't want to pay to have it renewed then uninstall it, and get AVG FREE... http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php
This is a free antivirus utility and is just as good as Norton or Mcafee.
Scan regularly for viruses.

4. If you don't have one already get a spyware removal tool!
Spyware can be a Cuase for alot of unwanted popups, system slowdown, internet LAG, and general funkyness of the computer. Popup blockers only mask the underlaying problem.
Spyware are just as bad if not sometimes worse than viruses, so get at least one removal tool for spyware.
There are a few good FREE programs out there that do a really good job at cleaning up spyware...
www.lavasoftusa.com Ad-Aware 6 (Consult the FAQ about setting up for a Full Custom Deep Scan.)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html Spybot Search and Destroy
Both of those work great and is the most suggested to use.

If these tools remove spyware, and the spyware keeps comming back then you might have a BHO (Browser Helper Object).
These are very hard to remove at times but this program will help...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html Hijack This
At thas point I would consult the Lavasoft team www.lavasoftusa.com to help you.
Register an account on thier forums.

If you come across viruses or spyware that won't quarantine or delete then run the scan in Safe Mode.
Restart your PC and keep pressing F8 during boot up until you see a boot menu. If you don't see this boot menu you missed it restart and try again.
Select Safe Mode and run your Virus/Adware scanner to do a Full System Scan.

If all else fails try this program... http://www.adwareaway.com
It's only a trial version, but it WILL without a doubt kill any hijack\trojan\adware persistant problems you may have.
If you seem to have alot of them and keep getting them I would suggest purchasing this product, as they can create a custom remover plugin for your perticular problem.

5. Running a Disk Cleanup and Disk Defrag every week.
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools
Pretty self explanitory here just run them.

If you come across alot of files that won't defrag or defrag stops suddenly then do a disk check.
Start > Run > chkdsk c: /f
DOS window will open with a y/n question say y
Restart and let the system do it's thing before windows loads.

If you are still having problems with bad sectors/clusters consider doing a Thorough Disk Scan with a different utility.
Open My Computer and Right click Local Disk C: and select Properties.
Click on Tools and you'll see Error Checking.
Click it and set Auto Fix and Throrough with Free Space. This will take a while.

If problems persist Backup Data, and get a new Hard drive!

6. Keep Windows Updated!
Launch Internet Explorer > Click Tools > Windows Update
Do ALL Windows Critical Updates!
This is for security and stability don't neglect them.
You can set Automatic Updates to do this automaticly for you as well.
Start > settings > Control Panel > System.
Click the Automatic Updates tab and enable it.

7. Keep your Drivers updated.
If you don't know what manufacturer your parts came from try this FREE tool to get the info you need.
www.belarc.com/programs/advisor.exe
Once you have got the information on the hardware you have you can visit the manufacturers websites to get drivers for those devices.

Most common are...
Nvidia Vid Cards www.nvidia.com
ATI Vid Cards www.ati.com
Intel Chipsets www.intel.com
VIA Chipsets www.viaarena.com
nForce Chipsets www.nvidia.com
Sound Blaster Sound cards www.soundblaster.com

[thedevilznight]

thanks for the info.. some tools i didnt know existed here.. good work :)