Healthy Computing at DePauw University


Maintaining Your Computer and Getting the Most out of Your Investment

A new computer is not cheap, and frankly, a new one is not in the typical college student's budget. Random software crashes and performance degradation can make your computing experience suffer and greatly damage your budget.. Here are a few tips to help keep your computer healthy:

Get a Surge Protector: Computers need reliable power, so the first thing you need is a surge protector. If you rely more heavily on your computer, get a battery-powered UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), which gives you time to save your work if case of a sudden power outage.

Keep your Software Updated: Software designers often make updates or patches to a program to improve speed, resolve hardware or software conflicts, combat new viruses, or close security holes.

For all other software, see your documentation or the company Web site.

Defrag your hard drive: Like a real-world closet or filing cabinet, a hard drive can get pretty disorganized if you leave it alone. Therefore, you should "clean up" or defragment your disk every so often, to improve the performance of your computer. In Windows operating systems, use Disk Defragmenter program under Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools to begin defragmenting your disk. For the Mac, it is more difficult since the MacOS doesn't include its own utility, but you can use third party software such as Symantec Utilities.

Scan your hard drive: Whenever your computer crashes or you improperly shut it down, problems may arise with your hard disks. In that event, you should check your hard disk to make sure everything is alright and to fix any problems that arise. Fortunately, Windows 95,98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP, and MacOS automatically do this for you at startup when your machine wasn't shut down correctly, and you should let the disk scanning utility run uninhibited. You should periodically check anyway as part of routine maintenance for your computer. The Windows utility, called "ScanDisk," is available under Programs->Accessories->System Tools in your Start Menu. For the Mac, the equivalent tool ,"Disk First Aid," is in the Utilities folder or is available as a download at Apple's Web site.

Get the most out of your battery life: Ever wondered how often you should plug your computer in or how often you should turn it off? Here is a useful website for Dell users, as well as one for Mac users to answer these quesetions and more. Batteries are typically expected to last for one year or approximately 200 battery cycles. Once they have hit those limits, Apple will not replace them for free. To check your cycle count: Click on the apple icon at the top left of your screen. Click on 'About this Mac' and then click on more info. On the left-hand side scroll-panel, click power. Under battery information, look at cycle count.