Computer slow, Computer hot, Computer hangs - How to solve?

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Computer slow, Computer hot, Computer hangs - How to solve?


In order to increase the speed and performance of your computer, buying a new computer is not the only solution. You can upgrade your existing computer. It is not very expensive to upgrade computer. You can upgrade selected parts. Here let us see some tips for upgrading your old computer to speed up your computer and increase performance.

Upgrade the BIOS

BIOS - Basic Input Output System - is a software in your computer. BIOS determines how to communicate with the basic hardware installed in your computer such as Memory, Drives, Display, CPU, Keyboard etc.

After you bought your computer new devices may have been introduced in the market. Security may have been enhanced. There may have been Patches for detecting and rectifying system errors. If you upgrade your BIOS you can get all these.

Go to your Motherboard manufacturer's websites and see if you can upgrade your BIOS. There are also third party BIOS providers. You can buy and upgrade your BIOS software for your old computer.

You can Use Overclock

If the speed of your CPU is not sufficient then you can increase the speed of CPU using Overclock. See your 'User Manual' of your motherboard and see if there is an Overclock upgrade facility.

You can do Overclock by changing the jumper settings in your motherboard. You can search for manuals on how to do this from internet.

But if you do Overclocking the CPU will be overheated very fast. Hence the CPU may get worn out soon. If you do not want to take the risk then do not do overclocking. If the warranty period of your computer is not over then do not do overclocking. Because some comapnies do not give warranty if they come to know that you used overclocking.

Use a new hard disk to Boot.

If you already have a hard disk and it is almost full then you can buy a new hard disk. In which case, you should change your new hard disk as C: drive and your old hard drive as drive D:.

You can make the new drive as Master and the old drive as Slave. The hard disk drive user manual will have details on how to configure the hard disk as master or slave. It is done using a jumper at the back of the hard disk.

The Operating System and the Application software can be installed in Drive C. and these data has to be removed from the old disk properly. This may take some time. If you are not prepared to spend time on this then there are software that can be used to transfer the systemd files, hidden files and data files from your old hard disk to the new hard disk.

Power Quest's Drive copy ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ), Micro House's EZCopy
( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ), Symantec's Ghost ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ) can be used for this.

Additional tips for increasing computer performance

If your computer often hangs or you get 'General Protection Fault's then the CPU or the RAM memory is not fixed on the motherboard properly and may be loose. Open the cabinet and remove and refix the CPU and RAM.

If your computer get very hot after some time or if the computer hangs after a few hours then the CPU fan and SMPS fan may be faulty. Or there may be dust and dirt around these fans. So open the cabinet at specified intervals (every month once) and clean the computer's motherboard, fan etc using a vacuum cleaner.

At frequent intervals check whether all the cables are connected tightly. Similarly check that all cards in the motherboard's expansion slots are tightly secured.