When your computer’s warranty period has expired and your PC quits functioning or slows down significantly (and it always happens after the warranty is gone), fix your PC for free. Now days it is almost as expensive to have one repaired as it is to buy a new one. The local big box store has a staff of geeks onboard ready to help. For $50 they will take a quick look and tell you they need to look further and that will cost much more.
A computer has very few mechanical parts. Keyboard (on a laptop) and the hard drive are about the only things that can have physical problems. Everything else is electronic. From the mother board, RAM, video, sound, even the power supply is relatively simple in structure. So, unless your computer has been dropped or beaten with a hammer (yea we’ve all wanted to do that at some point), those components should give you many years of trouble free service.
If you have some patience and maybe a book on basic computers, you can fix your PC for free. Let’s look at what can (and does) go wrong with the typical computer.
Computer slows down or hangs up on power up. There may be several problems here but the most common is either a registry entry problem or convoluted files found on startup. Whenever files or programs are deleted some bits and pieces are left behind. These bits then find a new home within some other program and create confusion. Running the defrag program (defragmenting the hard drive) will help put most of the scattered pieces back where they belong or isolate them to be deleted. If defrag doesn’t help, perhaps a registry repair program may be of use. In either case, Windows will have a fix for it or you can find help online and fix your PC for free. Another reason for slow computers is a virus has been picked up somewhere along the way. Depending on the type of virus, your Widows software should be able to help. Set up the firewall and some anti-virus program to help guard against those “nasties” attacking your PC and fix your PC for free. A really quick and free speed up for most computers is to clear your internet cache. The temporary files (including cookies) we all collect each time we browse around online really add up and will slow your internet experience down to a snails pace. Another reason for that firewall protection is to cut down on the number of pop up ads that will slow things down as well as bring in viruses occasionally. Not enough memory is a common problem, especially with the huge files and graphic programs we run now days. You can double what you have for less than $50 or so. Look in the owner’s manual that came with your PC or look it up online. You’ll find slots for memory on the mother board. Hard drive full? If you have a smaller hard drive (under 250GB) a bigger one might help. Programs are really space hogs now and even 500GB drive can fill up before you know it if you keep lots of pictures and videos. A 1TB (terabyte or one thousand gigabyte) drive can be found for less than $100 today and fix your PC for free. Look for help on the internet. There are many helpful forums run by people just like you who have learned the hard way how to fix your PC for free.