There are many reasons why a computer slows down after years of usage, but the most common reason is the lack of computer maintenance from the user. Owning and using a computer requires basic knowledge on the hardware and software, and computer troubleshooting. The bit of know-how is important to sustain the life of your computer and its performance.

If you have a computer that has the best hardware and software features, you still need to check the integrity and the performance of your machine. It is not enough to leave your computer on its own especially if you are connected to the internet and using it extensively.

A weekly or monthly computer maintenance check will make a difference in the performance of your computer. You need to know the basic tools that can help maintain your computer’s good-as-new performance. If you are awkward and daunted by this task, you can pay a computer technician to do the job for you.

Do-It-Yourself Weekly Computer Maintenance

There are some basic tasks that you can do to maintain your computer. But always remember that your need to do these tasks on a weekly or monthly basis to help protect your computer from deadly elements that can penetrate it through a number of ways.

* Defrag your computer at least once a week. If you do so, your computer can write and rewrite data files in order, improve your computer’s speed, organize scattered data files and utilize blank spaces in the hard disk accordingly. Defragging your computer allows it to work at a minimal a mount time, speeds up processes efficiently
* Computer scanning is a must everyday, so make sure your anti virus software is turned on and running real time. Updates are quite crucial for anti virus software as viruses are being developed each day.
* Spyware scanning. Use you anti spyware software everyday and make sure it is updating every time. You want to make sure that this is happening everyday to prevent spyware from penetrating your machine.
* Extensive virus and spyware scanning. You can do this weekly apart from the daily live scans. Extensive scanning can detect and destroy remnants from viruses and spyware that have been deleted. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Compute maintenance is a small responsibility that makes a huge difference. Being careful and conscientious about your computer usage will extend the life of your machine.

Computer error beeps could be your worst nightmare. It usually indicates computer problems or errors within your computer’s system. Computer error beeps are also early warning signals that aim to trigger the user that there is something wrong with his computer.

If you encounter computer error beeps, you should immediately save a back-up copy of your files. Use a CD or flash drive in saving your files to make sure you’ll have a spare in the worst of times.

When you experience error beeps, don’t ever take it for granted. These could be just warning beeps that indicate potential problems with your computer. Once you hear a beep, take it seriously and make the necessary move.

Different Types Of Computer Error Beeps

POST or Power On Self Test failures are the worse types of computer errors that sometimes do not manifest in error beeps. At the start of your computer, you will usually hear the beeps that accompany information about your computer. Once you turn on your computer, it is the process called POST.

A single beep indicates that everything passes the POST. If your computer produces a series of beeps during POST, this means that there is a problem. Often times when this happens, the computer just ‘dies’ and nothing works. There are also cases that the computer continues to operate but on very minimum capacity.

Operating system errors trigger warnings and pop-ups that indicate your computer’s current problems. Computer error beeps will also be heard when these problems occur.

Here are some operating system errors:

* Blue Screen of Death - This is a dreaded error since users are left out with only a blue screen staring back at them. Although the Blue Screen of Death is not the worst, it is still a serious condition that needs immediate attention. It is a manifestation of hardware error and accompanied with a computer error beep.
* Corrupt or missing system files - Computer error beeps occur when files become corrupted. Usually, files can still be recovered and repaired.
* Damaged or corrupted registry - When a computer’s registry is corrupted or damaged, it creates errors that trigger computer error beeps. Computer registry stores information about your hardware, software and settings.
* Improperly installed software or device drivers - Computer error beeps are also triggered by improperly installed programs.

Computer error beeps will help you take immediate action whenever there are errors encountered by your machine. You should take it as a warning and precautionary indicator. Though there are drastic problems that could not be repaired immediately, occurrence of computer error beeps will help you fix the problems initially and allow you to further investigate the underlying errors.

Are you ready to purchase a new computer? Great! The choices can be daunting, though. Just looking at the price aspect, you can spend anywhere from three hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, quite easily.

The first choice youll need to make is whether to buy a desktop or a laptop. If you need any amount of mobility at all, we’d suggest a laptop. If you don’t plan on moving your computer around or using away from your home or office, you might want a desktop. Desktop computers are easier to repair and are cheaper for what you get.

Next, youll need to make a choice on some of the major features and components of the computer.

Memory is a big factor in determining how quickly your computer performs tasks - I would not buy a computer with less than 512 MB of memory. 1 GB of memory would be even better. If you are planning on doing lots of multimedia work or other tasks that require a lot of operating resources, you should probably get 2 GB of memory. Also keep in mind that memory is classified by speed as well as storage size.

Youll also need to decide on what processor you want and/or need. If you’re not familiar with the technical aspects of computer processors and you are going to need a processor that’s more powerful than standard, you might want to consult with a computer expert to help you make the choice.

Youll also need to choose the hard drive size youll need. This is any easy choice to make - just see how much hard drive space youre using now, add in any increases you expect to need, then add some space for expansion.

Then choosing a optical drive such as a cd burner or dvd burner drive. Today there are alot more choices including cd & dvd burners and dvd combo multi format drives.

The case or enclosure can be a big choice for some, while others could care less. There is your standard mid tower case or you can go fancy with a cube or slim design. Now not only is size a choice but you can pretty much choose any color you want but if might cost you a little extra.

There are many, many different components of a computer that youll have to choose. Its worth a little time to think about exactly what you need so you make the right choice the first time.

If you have ever looked at the list of processes that are running on your PC, you will find nearly a dozen different processes that are all running under the same name: svchost.exe. These are usually not related to any process that you have started yourself, and you can’t get rid of them. So what are they?

Microsoft says that the svchost.exe processes are just a generic name for services that run from dynamic link libraries. In simpler terms, when Microsoft switched service files to the .dll extension, there was no way to directly launch the .dll file from Windows. So to get around this problem, the svchost.exe was created.

The svchost.exe processes will usually not get in your way. Even though there might seem like a lot of them running at any given time, you will find that if all of the processes were completely separated instead of grouped together in svchost.exe files, you computer would not be able to function.

Want to do something about all of these files? Well, there are really no clear cut ways to cut down on the svchost.exe files that are running. To get your computer to run efficiently, make sure that you are only running the services that you need at any given time. And if you get a svchost application error, there are a few svchost application error tips that you can follow in order to check out the process and see what is going on.

First, you will want to know what the particular svchost.exe process is connected to which service. This will require you to open up your Task Manager and then check the “show processes from all users” box. You can also check this from the task list command from the command prompt if you prefer.

For Windows Vista, all you have to do is right click on the process and select “Go to Service” in order to see what svchost.exe is running what service. Once you have found out what svchost is connected to which services, you will have a few choices. First, you can leave the process alone. Second, you can disable the svchost.exe process and see if this corrects the problem. Windows will also give you other options if you think that you will still need this process, but do not want it running all the time. You can choose to keep is a manual process so that you can turn it on and off whenever you like. You can also keep it automatic, or automatic with a delayed start. This can help with the time is takes for Windows to start up if you feel that it is too slow.

If none of these svchost application error tips have helped you, you can always check out Microsoft’s online resources to see if they have any further information for your particular system. Since you will find these processes on any system that works with Windows, there are a lot of resources available to discuss the topic further.

During my years in business many people have asked what is the best printer. After reading this article you will be in a better position to determine the best printer for you.
The major manufacturers are Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Canon, Epson, Xerox and Brother. Lexmark makes many printers for other manufacturers such as Xerox and Compaq. So you may see printers with another manufactures names that are actually Lexmarks.

The biggest names are Lexmark, HP.Epson and Canon. There are two major categories of inkjet printers. On one the print head is built right into the inkjet printer cartridge itself. This is a cheap print head meant to last a short time. The other has the print head built into the printer itself. This print head is meant to last the life of the printer. Now the reason this is important is that there is a huge difference in the cost of cartridges between the two types. This may be one of the main factors in your choice of printers.

Hewlett Packard from now on called HP and Lexmark are the ones with the print head built into the inkjet printer cartridge. These are the expensive cartridges sometimes costing $35.00, $40.00 or even more. These cartridges are much more expensive to manufacture. Also these companies have patients that keep other companies from making cheaper substitutes. This keeps the prices up.

The other style of printer cartridge is just a plastic container with a sponge in it .Ink is injected into the sponge. This makes for a very inexpensive cartridge. Many companies are making substitutes for these costing less than 25% of the cost of the Lexmark and HP cartridges. The print quality of both types is of cartridges is excellent. So at first glance it might seem that the obvious choice of printers would be the printer with the lost cost cartridges.

However there are some other factors to take into consideration. If you print once a week or perhaps every two weeks the print heads can dry out on the printers with the built in print heads. These can be hard to get going again. In some cases You may not be able to get them going at all. This means a new printer. Never take the cartridges out of this type of printer for long periods of time. Such as for shipping as they can dry out so bad you may not be able to get them going. New printers are shipped without cartridges but the print head doesn’t have any ink in it so there is nothing to dry out. The other style of print head also dries out but On the Lexmark and HP this isn’t so much of a problem since you can get the cartridge out to clean it and in the worst case you can always get a new cartridge.

Now after all of this you may be confused as to which is the best one for you. It really depends on how much printing you do or if your willing to print a test page daily then The Epson, Canon or Brother type printer might be right for you. The print quality on some of these is incredible. Some of these manufacturers recommend printing a page at least every two weeks. I have found this is not nearly often enough. I suggest a page every day or two. If you don’t print often then one of the HP or Lexmark might be better. The print quality is very good on either type.

In this case you can use refilled cartridges to cut down on costs. Well I hope this helps I’ve been I the refill business several years and I have seen the problems people face with these. But it’s worth it the printing quality is incredible. Some of these printers are capable of gallery quality prints.