Servicing a PC

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Hi all. Just a general question.

What would you include as tasks to do for a general PC service? Some things I have in mind are

clean the case inside and out
remove all the dust
reseat all the cables to hdd, power, graphics etc
visually check for bulging capacitors
*pull out all cards and RAM and reseat them (would anyone recommend this?)
run disk cleanup to remove all temp and old web page files
defragment the disks

Anything else?

 

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I wouldn't bother pulling out cards and ram then reseating them. I would just check that they are in correctly.

I would however put a small drop of oil or grease on the bearings of each fan to help prolong the fans lives. Apart from that I would do everything you have mentioned.

 

Maybe run Eusing free registry cleaner or another similar registry cleanup utility.

 

same, wouldn't bother reseating them, just to be on the safe side like
Remove any unneccesary applications
Run ccleaner and the usual spy/ad ware utils.
and finish of with a defrag, or what ever 3rd party app you would use.

 

Hi with all as above stated Degauss your Monitor too.

 

CCleaner is great thank you for a good Link.

 

ya, reg clean, but don't forget bout temporary files, defragment hdd and some other tasks like checkin registry run keys for example.
psotek

 

Thanks for all the advice guys. All the tasks are just what I generally do every 6 months with my PC.

I'm not really looking for any way to earn extra money.

I'll be starting a new job next week and just looking for some things to do in the slow times (in about 6 months or so).

 

As many posts have said above, dont bother reseating the cards etc, just make sure there's no dust on the pcb, and do a nice software cleanup. If it is for other people, don't forget they're only going to notice a performance increase... they won't open up the case :P
Good luck with the job!

 

Quick overview and removal of unnecessary start-up apps?

I've done a couple of PC 'services' for my other half's family, this normally a pretty key offender

 

CRT's lovem

 

errr ....

checking windows updates esp that critical patches have been installed.....

and antivirus definition file is up-to-date

 

Yes definately remove start up items, imediate performance boost, get yourself a can of compressed air, at least to the fans and bits you can see on the outside, may help make it quieter and cooler. as others have said spyware check followed by ccleaner to get rid of dead reg enteries caused by ripping out all the spyware.

Check AV status install free alternative if none exist, advise on what a bad idea, kazaa or similar is. Also if they are parents you could advise on the use of opendns to help protect their Inet traffic and give basic stats.

As the others have said good basic work to make the system seem more stable or faster, advise on lots of other things that could be extra's which is where you could charge the real money.

Beware though as soon as you touch a pc any subsequent problem related or not and they will expect you to fix it for free/same day. Private jobs are generally more hassle than they are worth TBH, especially if you are the type of person that feels guilty for charging 90 year old mrs goggins the 5 hours it took you to remove her spyware problem (which I am).

 

before open case, ground yourself (ESD)

 

or touch the case regularly

 

Moonwalks round room first
Takes side panel off case
Turn case upside down
shake vigorously TIP:what full out you probably don't need.
Put side panel back on job done.

----
Nothing better then a rebuild & can of compress air
when loading programs back on think do I really need this?

 

There's the old saying that 'if it ain't broke then don't fix it' meaning don't touch cables or reseat ram ect unless you suspect they could be causing a problem.

As said before most people will notice a performance increase rather than a case that's been cleaned inside.

Maybe to add to this is advise on perhaps a memory upgrade if they are running very little ram as this can be big performance booster. A conversation on what they use there pc for to would be helpfull as you could also advise a ne w gfx card ect.

Hope this is helpfull.

 

Once again i tend to agree with Sparky.

Obviously if the PC is suffering from a problem my advice would be different but assuming all is ok with it, then i would not start messing around too much. you are likely to make matters worse. for example, a couple of people here have mentioned cleaning the registry. i have known this to break things, so why you would take a chance on a PC that is working ok baffles me a little.

Also, defrag takes time and with NTFS file systems is highly unlikely to give you any tangible performance boost. waste of time

Check the thing has ample hard drive space and if it's getting full, advise the user to uninstall any applications they don't really use.