Does Your Computer Need A Tune-Up?

Look For Problems

Take a look inside your computer. Are there so many devices installed, and so many loose wires and ribbon cables that you had a very hard time blowing it out with canned air? Are you fooling yourself that there could possibly be any kind of airflow inside your case at all, to cool down it's operating temperature?

Overheating can cause all kinds of frozen applications, system lockups and mysterious reboots. So what can you do?

Well, aside from buying a new case (and that is an option in some situations), you can tidy up the cords, wires and ribbon cables by removing some of the slack and grouping what you can together. Use plastic cable ties for this purpose. Do not use rubber bands!

That's another problem you can look for at this time. If they weren't blown out, or vacuumed up previously, check for old rubber bands wrapped around components. Some places tidy up the wires and cables with rubber bands. The heat and air flow inside your computer quickly dries them out and they rot and fall off onto the circuit boards. Remove them carefully.

Check for open slots on the back, or plastic covers missing from the front of external bays. Maybe a device has been removed from your system and the resulting hole wasn't covered. Probably not a really big problem, but a good case is designed to optimize the airflow inside, and an opening will change that. Find and install the plastic faceplate, bezel or slot cover.

Next, check that all the ports and connectors on the back of the system are properly and securely installed. If they are loose, they may be missing the little bolt with the hexagon head that the cables screw into. Here's what happens:

The screws on the cable connectors are just meant to keep the cables from falling off. They don't have to be tightened up. Users often tighten these up too much, and then when they are undone, the hex bolt comes off with them. The biggest problem with this, is that there is a small nut on the inside that holds that bolt in. When the hex bolt comes off with the connector, that little metal nut can fall inside onto your circuit boards. If any are missing, replace them (And check your motherboard and expansion cards for a little tiny metal nut that could be jammed between components).

Remember your ESD precautions!

Make sure your cards are installed properly and securely. See that the contacts are inserted evenly into the expansion slot. Each card should be screwed to the chassis. These screws are sometimes neglected and cards can possibly creep from the slot enough to cause problems.

Don't unnecessarily touch your SIMMs or DIMMs, but have a peek to see that they're in properly and look level. Their levers should be all the way up, or their clips should all be properly secured.

Recheck all connections. Take two fingers, and give a firm push to the ends of all the ribbon cables just to make sure they are securely attached to their respective connectors on each drive, and on the MB.

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