Keeping a PC healthy without buying anything
Most of the slow computers we're called out to don't need replacing, and don't need a product bought. They need four things done that cost nothing.
// overview
Slow is a symptom, not a diagnosis.
"It's just got slow" is probably the most common thing we hear on the phone. It's rarely age. Computers don't wear out the way a car does, they get clogged, hot, or full, and all three are fixable.
Before spending money on a new machine, it's worth ruling out the handful of causes that account for most of the callouts we do across Toowoomba, Highfields and Oakey. Often it's a twenty-minute job.
The other thing worth saying up front: don't buy a "PC cleaner". More on that below, because it matters.
// the usual suspects
Four causes, in order of likelihood.
- 01
Dust and heat
Far and away number one, and worse out here, dust, and a good few hot months. When airflow chokes, the processor deliberately slows itself down to avoid cooking. A dusty laptop can lose a third of its speed and sound like a hairdryer. Compressed air twice a year fixes it.
- 02
A mechanical hard drive
If the machine has a spinning hard drive rather than an SSD, that's the bottleneck, full stop. Swapping to an SSD is the single most dramatic upgrade available and typically makes a seven-year-old machine feel newer than a cheap new one.
- 03
Too much starting at boot
Every program that installs wants to launch with Windows. Twenty of them later, the machine spends its first three minutes busy before you've done anything. Task Manager's Startup tab, and be ruthless.
- 04
A drive that's nearly full
Windows needs breathing room. Under about 10% free and things degrade noticeably. Usually it's photos, downloads, or years of accumulated installers nobody needed.
// the routine
A maintenance routine that takes minutes.
None of this requires software you have to buy, and none of it is difficult. Twice a year is plenty for most people.
- Blow the dust out, vents, fans and heatsink. Outside, with compressed air, and hold the fan still so it doesn't spin up
- Restart properly once a week. Closing the lid isn't a restart; Windows updates often need a genuine reboot to finish
- Let updates install. Most are security patches, and the ones you keep postponing are the ones that matter
- Trim the startup list in Task Manager to what you actually use daily
- Keep 15–20% of the drive free, move photos and old files to an external drive or the cloud
- Check the backup is still running. Backups fail quietly; a monthly glance costs nothing
- Run one Windows Defender scan. Free, built in, and genuinely good these days
// a warning
Skip the "PC cleaner" products.
We remove these constantly. The ones advertising themselves as speeding up your computer or cleaning your registry range from useless to actively harmful, and a fair proportion are effectively scams, they run a scan, report hundreds of terrifying "errors", and ask for a payment to fix problems that were never there.
Registry cleaning has no meaningful performance benefit on modern Windows, and a bad one can break things badly enough to need a reinstall. Windows already includes the maintenance tools that matter, and they're free.
If a program has appeared on your machine that you don't remember installing, and it's warning you about problems and asking for money, that's worth a phone call before you click anything.
// questions
Good questions, straight answers.
How do I know if I need an SSD?
Open Task Manager, go to Performance, and look at the disk. If it sits at 100% while the machine crawls, and it's listed as HDD rather than SSD, that's your answer. It's the best value upgrade in computing and we do them regularly as a same-day job.
Is it worth repairing an old laptop?
Depends what's wrong. RAM, an SSD or a battery in a decent machine is usually worth it. A cracked screen on a cheap laptop often isn't, and a spilled drink is a lottery. We'll tell you honestly when something isn't worth fixing, it's cheaper for you and saves us both an afternoon.
How often should I actually restart?
Once a week is plenty for most people. If it's been running for a month you'll usually feel the difference immediately, and it lets pending updates finish.
Do I need to defragment my drive?
Not if you have an SSD, it does nothing useful and adds wear. On an old mechanical drive Windows already does it automatically on a schedule. Either way, it's not a task you need to think about.
$ inspyred --book-a-callout
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