Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
Yes folks, you have to clean inside your computer (not if you have a laptop, but we’ll touch on that later).
Clean inside my computer????
Yes, I said it! Do you know what the inside of your computer looks like? It’s a metal box with parts all over it connected by a huge board called “the motherboard” or (fatherboard as the ladies like to call it).
If you are interested in seeing what’s going on and how many dust balls are in that box, let’s take off the cover or “shell” as geeks call it and find out! (reminder…if you have pets, expect A LOT of dust and fur!)
1.) Unplug all cords! This machine must not be connected to any power.
2.) Take your computer outside
Usually there are clips on the side that snap and you slide off half the case, it’s not just as simple as opening a box, but it will slide open.
For other models, you may have to unscrew some of the exterior screws. Sometimes half the cover comes off, other times the whole thing will come off and there you will be seeing your computer naked!
Most people I have seen clean out their computer, just get a vacuum and suck all the dust balls out. (even I do that usually…) But…there are some concerns with that. Electric static can zap your computer and fry some of the pieces. So for you “Average Jane/Joe”…I just recommend just hand grabbing all the big pieces. Then after you have them out, get a can of “Dust Air” and start spraying air on all the dirty components.
You will especially want to get the back area where the power fan is, and where you plug in your internet cords, monitor, etc. Those are very dusty! (as they are so close to the fur and dust in your house).
After you find it all clean and good to go, put the cover back on and plug it all back in. Your computer will may or may not run faster or better, but I have seen some really scary fur balls in one of my computers and I feared fur fire LOL. Never know….it was a huge furball.
LAPTOP USERS
Nope, you can’t just take it all apart and dust it out (ok, shouldn’t…it’s a pain to put it together)…but you can clean the keyboard and I do recommend that. Why? Because the keyboard is a part of the “machine” unlike a regular computer that has it detached. Keeping your keyboard clean will help keep your laptop working especially after warranty. Just get a can of dust air and give it a good “spraying down” and then check for huge crumbs and what not. A cookie crumb can cause a key to stick and give you hours of drama….so just check that out on occasion and you’ll be in great shape!
If you have any questions about this or want Call That Girl to do a regular computer cleaning and show you how to dust out your computer, call 612-865-4475 for an appt.
I started feeling sick last Wednesday and somehow made it through to Saturday without being bed bound, then all of a sudden on Sunday I got nailed with it. I hate having no energy to do anything! As a workaholic, even my “to do list” was abandoned! I just had nothing to go on. I drank tons of juice, still nothing.
Luckily, my clients booked for Sunday and Monday all rescheduled and I still took in 2 phone supports yesterday! WIN WIN. Today I woke up with a new energy and have 6 clients on the books today, life could not feel any better. Bye bye sick. Game on! (Speaking of which, I watched my first Vikings game on Sunday and I screamed like a happy man seeing Rice catch those awesome throws, I couldn’t help myself!)
Trust me, many of us are! It’s very hard for some folks to hit that “delete” key and further…”permanentely delete”! Why is it so hard to let go one of one small little email that probably has no use for you or your email program ever? For me, it’s not the content, but the person it came from. My personal email habits, on a level of 1-10 (1 being bad, 10 being excellent)…I am a 7 probably.
Here are a few rules I have (and I have 3 computers checking the same email accounts, so if you think you have it bad, try being me!)
If you are bombarded with email in your inbox and feel overwhelmed with how unorganized it is, we can help at Call That Girl with getting those 100’s or 1000’s of emails managed a bit better so you can be relieved of your email hoarding.
This is for all email service/programs too! Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, MSN/Hotmail, etc!!
For Outlook users: We will create a PST and many rules, start running the rules and moving emails around to their proper homes. Then work on moving email to that PST file so you can figure out where your mail is after we are done.
Many of my clients will call and say their computers are slow and usually they say “I think my computer is out of memory, I have deleted a bunch of stuff and it’s still slow”
I explain to them that their memory is not out of space, but rather their hard drive may be out of space, and that’s not usually the culprit of a slow computer. Let’s first start with explaining what memory is and what a hard drive is.
Today’s blog is to help the basic user understand the differences!
MEMORY: Your computer comes with 2 types of memory, but the only one we will talk about is RAM (random access memory). These are little green sticks that are installed inside your computer. Every computer has RAM installed, but it’s usually the bare minimum. You need to purchase more to make the computer go faster. Or rather I should add, do more work. With more memory, you can run more applcations and work much more efficiently.
Here is what memory looks like:
The easiest tool on the internet to find out how much memory you have installed and how much you can upgrade to, is to use the Crucial Scanner, Their scanner is awesome and also allows you to buy the memory you need to get your computer up to it’s optimal speed.
HARD DRIVES: This is where your operating sytem and programs are installed and what makes the computer start up and get going. This is also the place where your pictures, music and your documents are stored.
This is a picture of a hard drive. It’s in the computer right next to your DVD player.
MOTHERBOARDS: Finally, here is what a motherboard looks like. It’s like your car’s computer, it makes it run. Without it, you have no computer. There is really no reason a basic user will need to do anything with this componet of the computer unless you want to install your own memory. I don’t recommend you get in there and play!
Many of my clients will call and say “I defragged, but it isn’t faster”…
Defragmenting a computer or “defragging” will not speed up your computer. I think it’s an old wives tale that comes from years ago when it probably did help the computer. But in these days, a computer running slow can be from many other issues.
What does “defrag” mean?
Simply put…
It means to clean up the fragmented parts of the hard drive (fragment means scattered bits that need to be put back into place that have been moved caused by uninstallation of programs or just Windows installation issues).
If you defrag, your computer will run more efficiently, but not necessarily faster.
*For a faster machine, you can have a computer cleaning done by Call That Girl. Charges run about an hour for this service.
*You may also need to add more memory. Especially if you are running alot of programs at once.
*As well…your hard drive may be getting close to full. With music and game downloading so popular now, it’s not hard to get your hard drive to max capacity.
Buying an external hard drive for the music is a great idea! (and you can back up your data there too!)
For a consultation about your hard drive, computer cleaning or anything else in regards to defragging, please contact me at info@callthatgirl.biz.
Thanks for Bloggin with That Girl!
How do you know what programs should be on your computer or not? I generally do a quick scan and see what looks like it should be there and what should not be there
What should be installed?
What shouldn’t be there? Spyware programs! You can easily tell a spyware program by 2 things.
If you want to delete those little buggers, you can. Just a reminder that sometimes a removal of those spyware will take you to an internet site and require a download of a tool to uninstall it. Generally that is the safest way to go, follow the spyware instructions. Back in the day it was hard to remove the spyware, but today it’s a big easier.
Sometimes the computer will require a reboot after removing. Make sure you watch for that window or option in a window because you may want to wait to reboot until you are done.
TIP…many “coupon” saving websites will download a tool, so if you’re a coupon maniac, you may want to remember that those coupons you are cyber clipping is maybe adding spyware. Most people hate it when I remove that coupon tool, but it’s really best for your computer.
