It happens to all computers over time. They get slower and slower and eventually it becomes painful to accomplish tasks that used to be quite quick. Some of this is that software becomes more and more complex. No matter what you do, you can't run the latest software on a computer well over a decade old. At least you can't without a coffee pot very nearby! Some of this is generic software slowdown caused by things like the residual software gunk that gets left behind when you install and un-install programs. Using a program like Revo Uninstaller can help with this, as can running all the updates available for your software and drivers.
I'd done all of this. I'd made sure that everything, especially my video card, was running the latest drivers. I'd removed all non-essential programs and made sure there wasn't too much running in the background. But my system was still lagging. Skype video conferencing was painful. Google Video Chat no longer was a good way to share my infant daughter's smiles with her grandparents. Things would start out fine, but then we would get frozen screens and the video would get choppyI was frustrated! I didn't know what else to try short of buying a new computer.
Then, last night, while trying to video-chat with my mom, my laptop just shut down with absolutely no warning. That's when it hit me. I'd tried all sorts of software and driver solutions to this problem, but I hadn't thought about hardware! When a system shuts down with no warning it often means the power is gone (which is unlikely on a laptop with a good battery). The other thing I knew it could mean was that the CPU had gotten too hot and the computer itself (not Windows) had shut down the system immediately to keep the CPU from literally melting.
Eureka! I was pretty sure that I hadn't cleaned the fan on this laptop in quite awhile. I rushed upstairs for my computer toolkit with its little screwdriver and tore into the laptop (after unplugging it and pulling out the battery). I pulled the cover off and then pulled the cooling fan out. In this case, it's designed to push air across a series of heat exchanging metal fins. The place where the fan pushed air onto the fins was absolutely clogged with dust. I grabbed that little crevice attachment for the vacuum cleaner and, making sure all the tiny screws were a safe distance away, sucked out all the yucky dust.
Then I put it all back together and, voila, it turned right back on. Then I spent about half an hour Skyping with my brother and didn't have any problems. The chat held high quality and I could even multi-task while it was running. I haven't been able to do that in months! I'm thrilled! And I'm no longer trying to figure out if I can justify getting rid of this 4-year-old machine!
Apparently the same protections that eventually shut the whole system down were throttling back performance in order to keep things from getting too hot and melting. It never occurred to me that the problem was actually being caused by lint! So the tip of the day is to make sure you clean the fans and heat sinks of your computers and keep them clear of lint. One word of warning, make sure that you unplug the power before taking any covers off and make sure that you don't let the vacuum cleaner spin a fan too fast or it could burn out a bearing on the fan. I always hold a fan blade in place and prevent it from spinning at all.
I'd done all of this. I'd made sure that everything, especially my video card, was running the latest drivers. I'd removed all non-essential programs and made sure there wasn't too much running in the background. But my system was still lagging. Skype video conferencing was painful. Google Video Chat no longer was a good way to share my infant daughter's smiles with her grandparents. Things would start out fine, but then we would get frozen screens and the video would get choppyI was frustrated! I didn't know what else to try short of buying a new computer.
Then, last night, while trying to video-chat with my mom, my laptop just shut down with absolutely no warning. That's when it hit me. I'd tried all sorts of software and driver solutions to this problem, but I hadn't thought about hardware! When a system shuts down with no warning it often means the power is gone (which is unlikely on a laptop with a good battery). The other thing I knew it could mean was that the CPU had gotten too hot and the computer itself (not Windows) had shut down the system immediately to keep the CPU from literally melting.
Eureka! I was pretty sure that I hadn't cleaned the fan on this laptop in quite awhile. I rushed upstairs for my computer toolkit with its little screwdriver and tore into the laptop (after unplugging it and pulling out the battery). I pulled the cover off and then pulled the cooling fan out. In this case, it's designed to push air across a series of heat exchanging metal fins. The place where the fan pushed air onto the fins was absolutely clogged with dust. I grabbed that little crevice attachment for the vacuum cleaner and, making sure all the tiny screws were a safe distance away, sucked out all the yucky dust.
Then I put it all back together and, voila, it turned right back on. Then I spent about half an hour Skyping with my brother and didn't have any problems. The chat held high quality and I could even multi-task while it was running. I haven't been able to do that in months! I'm thrilled! And I'm no longer trying to figure out if I can justify getting rid of this 4-year-old machine!
Apparently the same protections that eventually shut the whole system down were throttling back performance in order to keep things from getting too hot and melting. It never occurred to me that the problem was actually being caused by lint! So the tip of the day is to make sure you clean the fans and heat sinks of your computers and keep them clear of lint. One word of warning, make sure that you unplug the power before taking any covers off and make sure that you don't let the vacuum cleaner spin a fan too fast or it could burn out a bearing on the fan. I always hold a fan blade in place and prevent it from spinning at all.
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