# General computer improvement tips: feedback welcome



## Thou Dog (Jan 10, 2011)

Hi y'all,

I am not a computer expert, so please feel free to correct me if I make mistakes. Still, I've worked for a while at a computer services place that's almost synonymous with computer services, so I'd like to think I picked up a few things...

But I just wanted to write down a list of things you could do to get your computer running faster and more reliably. Including hardware tips. (I think this makes it different from the performance tweaks thread... right? I guess I'll find out.)

So here:

One big thing? If you have a 32 bit OS, have as much RAM as your system can possibly use. Find out the max your computer can take, which will be up to about 3.5GB on most recent computers (I would get 4 GB, honestly). If you have a 64 bit OS, have at least 6 GB. A good place to find RAM for your computer is Crucial (crucial.com), which my colleagues at work are also very fond of.

Clean up your computer. Most of your temp files are unnecessary. Delete them regularly, whether using the built-in tools of your OS or with a software tool like CCleaner (free from Piriform). Any other unnecessary files and programs? If you don't want to just delete them straight away, back them up onto DVDs or something. Use a slower burn speed for lower error rates. Label your DVDs well, store them somewhere safe, then remove the originals from your computer's hard drive.

Clean up your computer physically, too. If it's a desktop, crack it open, blow out the dust. You can use canned air, if you like, but I'm fond of blowing through a drinking straw. If it's a laptop, well, I don't recommend the drinking-straw tip so much, but canned air or even a small compressor (NOT the one down at the gas station, seriously, never use that) can be helpful. Blowing out the fan and radiator is the most important part here. Make sure your computer can breathe - that the air intakes and exhausts are clear of obstructions. Heat buildup can lower your computer's performance and will shorten the life of components.

Get a good anti-virus package and maintain your subscription. This can cost you somewhat - Kaspersky AV will cost you about $30-70 a year, depending on what deal you go for - but it's worth it. There are also free-to-start AV packages, like AVG, although AVG also has a paid/full version for $40-55. Viruses and malware really suck. An AV package isn't foolproof, and isn't absolutely virus-proof either, but think of it like a condom for your computer, right? It's certainly better than nothing.

See if you can swap out some of the components in your computer for faster ones. The SATA drive interface is generally faster than IDE, so if you are upgrading a drive or adding a new drive and you have an open SATA slot, I'd recommend using that one. While motherboards have a very limited number of SATA slots, you probably don't need more than four. (Two hard drives, two optical drives... that's pretty good.) Also, a hard drive with a larger cache is better than one with a smaller cache, all else being equal; a hard drive with a faster rated speed is generally better than one with a lower rated speed. HOWEVER: be aware that the faster a drive spins, the more power it consumes! There are power-saver hard drives, but these generally spin rather slower than their rated speed. This can adversely affect performance, but will hog less electricity.

Do you do video-gaming? Check out your video card. See if there are upgrades available. Of course, any card you get has to be physically compatible with the motherboard and has to be able to fit into your computer's case - so if you aren't absolutely 100% confident, make sure the vendor you're getting your upgrade parts from has a very good return policy.

Download OS updates. Download updated drivers and firmware. Really, do it. It generally fixes bugs and improves security and stability. And it's generally free. Why wouldn't you want to do this? Well, except that drivers don't always play nice with each other, which leads me to the next point:

In Windows, one of the features that may slow your computer down is  System Restore. I would not recommend disabling this. I would recommend  not disabling it, really. It is very useful in case you download some  update that breaks things with a driver conflict or whatever. Yes, it takes up hard drive space, but in my judgment, it is totally worth it.

BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT STUFF. DO THIS NOW. Most DVD drives these days can burn DVDs as well as read 'em. DVDs are best for music, videos, and other things you download or install but don't generally change afterward. If you don't want a static backup, say if you are constantly changing the files you back up, then I recommend an external drive of some sort. An external hard drive will give you the best speed and storage-per-dollar, but do you need 320GB ($65), or will 8GB of flash ($20) do? But whatever you do, make multiple backups and keep them in different places. Those priceless wedding photos? Keep one backup in a safe deposit box, another in your home filing cabinet, and a third in the form of the originals on your computer.

Consider buying an external hard-drive enclosure. This will allow you to use a hard drive designed for internal use as an external drive. They come in SATA and IDE designs. For SATA drives, I would recommend the Thermaltake BlacX cradle. If you have an eSATA port on your computer, get the eSATA version of this cradle (which also has USB); otherwise, save a few dollars and get the USB-only version. This can save a lot of headache if your favorite computer suddenly isn't booting up for some reason - just take out the drive and pop it into the cradle, plug the cradle into another computer, and see if you can rescue the data and perform disk-checks.

Other than this - generally, don't download software from organizations you don't trust, don't click "Yes" on suspicious-looking alerts, don't visit sketchy websites, and above all DON'T PANIC.


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## Kihari (Jan 10, 2011)

Thou Dog said:


> Clean up your computer. Most of your temp files are unnecessary. Delete them regularly, whether using the built-in tools of your OS or with a software tool like CCleaner (free from Piriform).



It's worth mentioning that the developers of CCleaner offer a slim installer on this page here (scroll to the very bottom) which, unlike the standard installer, does not try to entice you into installing a browser toolbar.



> BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT STUFF. DO THIS NOW.


^This. ^This a thousand times.



> Consider buying an external hard-drive enclosure. This will allow you to use a hard drive designed for internal use as an external drive. They come in SATA and IDE designs.


HDD-to-USB enclosures can be bought online for five to ten bucks, but be wary of these cheap models. I've got one that surged (though not fatally) my USB port whenever I plugged it in, but another of a different make for my old laptop drive that has always worked flawlessly. In general, you get what you pay for.

Also make sure to get one that is the appropriate size for your disk, as they are available for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives (though if you're the type who has internal hard drives  laying around, you know that already).


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 10, 2011)

It seems to me that telling someone to upgrade everything they can ignores the cost of such things.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 10, 2011)

Thou Dog said:


> Get a good anti-virus package and maintain your subscription. This can cost you somewhat - Kaspersky AV will cost you about $30-70 a year, depending on what deal you go for - but it's worth it. There are also free-to-start AV packages, like AVG, although AVG also has a paid/full version for $40-55. Viruses and malware really suck. An AV package isn't foolproof, and isn't absolutely virus-proof either, but think of it like a condom for your computer, right? It's certainly better than nothing.


You forgot to mention firewalls. Those are the internet condoms. The AV would be more like an anti-biotic. They prevent things going in before the AV has to deal with them.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 10, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> You forgot to mention firewalls. Those are the internet condoms. The AV would be more like an anti-biotic. They prevent things going in before the AV has to deal with them.



Uhh... No...  The firewall won't prevent you from getting viruses and malware.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 10, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> Uhh... No...  The firewall won't prevent you from getting viruses and malware.


Really now? Here is something copied and pasted from Windows help.


			
				Microsoft said:
			
		

> *What is a firewall?*
> 
> A firewall is software or hardware that checks information coming  from the Internet or a network, and then either blocks it or allows it to pass  through to your computer, depending on your firewall settings.
> A firewall can help prevent hackers or malicious  software (such as worms)  from gaining access to your computer through a network or the Internet. A  firewall can also help stop your computer from sending malicious software to  other computers.
> ...


I think Microsoft knows what they are talking about.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 10, 2011)

It still doesn't stop the user from unknowingly downloading malicious software that's packaged in what he thinks is ligit software or from even sites being browsed using exploits in the browser or operating system from installing themselves.  So to say that a firewall is like a condom is inaccurate.  You can still very much get that stuff and the only defense (Which isn't even 100%) from that stuff taking hold is the antivirus program.

The firewall more or less just stops your computer from being *completly* idiot proof to infect and leaves it just mostly idiot proof.


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## Thou Dog (Jan 10, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> It seems to me that telling someone to upgrade everything they can ignores the cost of such things.


Whoops. Yes. There is a monetary cost associated with these things, of course. You can get the components at a greater or lesser price, but still, it costs money.

However, if you absolutely need a computer that runs better than yours does right now, and you don't have the $500 for a nice and reasonably powerful one (or the $1000+ for a top-of-the-line PC), you can upgrade your own for much less. RAM, disk cleanup, physical cleaning and data backup can be accomplished all for $60 plus the cost of data backup media.

Let's see...

7200rpm 500gb SATA HDD with internal mounting kit - $60
24x SATA LightScribe optical drive - $26
Cables for same: $5
4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 - $60-$90 depending on platform and brand; avg. to $75
DVD 100pk - $25
DVD burning software - free
Disk cleanup software - free
Physical cleanup tools - free
Kaspersky Internet Security (includes AV and firewall) for a year - $60
Video card hardware upgrade - $100-$250 depending on brand, not counting anything you can make by selling your old one. Avg. to $125
Thermaltake BlakX SATA 2.5"/3.5" external drive bay - $33 (no point unless you have access to another home PC)

Total: $409

Less expensive than a new computer that has the power to do gaming, media creation etc.


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## Runefox (Jan 11, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> I think Microsoft knows what they are talking about.


 
Except Windows Firewall does the job, and most people are behind routers, which are by design firewalls. If you need something bigger, you're usually talking a firewall like Comodo which also intercepts unauthorized outgoing traffic and inter-process communication, which actually _will_ help prevent some malware infections, assuming you're not stupid enough to ignore both your AV and your firewall. It usually causes issues with programs from time to time, and it's often very chatty about blocking things, so you'll have to trade off between user-friendliness and protection.



> Kaspersky Internet Security (includes AV and firewall) for a year - $60


Not that I'm saying Kaspersky isn't a good product, but you can grab Avast!, Microsoft Security Essentials, or Avira, one of AV-Comparatives' Advanced+ (top-tier) AV products for free and if you really needed a third-party firewall, Comodo is one of the better ones out there and also free. Personally, I very much recommend Avast! for its low resource usage and high speed.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 11, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> So to say that a firewall is like a condom is inaccurate.  You can still very much get that stuff and the only defense (Which isn't even 100%) from that stuff taking hold is the antivirus program.


 Well that would the AV the condom for storage drives. In the rare instance it would get through, the AV would pick it up on the HDD with it's real-time scanning.


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## Aden (Jan 11, 2011)

Defrag your shit.
But before that, get a disk space visualizer and delete all the big crap that you forgot you had. If you have less than 10% free space on your hard drive, this is _necessary_.
After that but before the defragging, back up your shit too. Just do that all the time anyway. Jeez.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> In the rare instance it would get through


 
Wow, if you think that only RARELY can malicious things get past a firewall, it almost makes you cute.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> Wow, if you think that only RARELY can malicious things get past a firewall, it almost makes you cute.


 And yet my firewall has blocked everything and I have never had a virus.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> And yet my firewall has blocked everything and I have never had a virus.


 
I assure you, the firewall isn't the major element in there. Effective use of adblocking and antivirus is far more signifigant in defending your computer. Why? Cause yes, there are truck loads of malware that's installed via advertisements on websites and your firewall will do dick all to stop it. The majority of malware either relies on the user to unknownling install the bug itself or use flaws in the operating system to make the operating system install the bug without the user ever knowning. Since it's a bug in the OS, the firewall does squat cause everything seems like normal operation.

Let's just be honest here.  Your source of 'expertise' is 'Because the windows help file said so', so your experience is pretty limited.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> I assure you, the firewall isn't the major element in there. Effective use of adblocking and antivirus is far more signifigant in defending your computer. Why? Cause yes, there are truck loads of malware that's installed via advertisements on websites and


Hold on there. You don't use Adblock? I am just speechless.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> Hold on there. You don't use Adblock? I am just speechless.



Do you have literacy problems or something?


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> Do you have literacy problems or something?


 No I'm just in disbelief.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> No I'm just in disbelief.



Let's review here.  You say that firewalls are the prime element to keeping things from getting on your computer.

I state that that just protects you from what could be called 'brain dead easy attacks' and that there are other, effective means that malicious software getting onto a machine.  I then state that effective adblocking antivirus is a better defense agianst these.

You then say 'Hold on there. You don't use Adblock? I am just speechless.'.  See?  This is where it's like you are suddenly responding to an ENTIRELY different conversation.  When confronted with it, you keep on this track and so I can only assume that you have reading comprehension issues.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> Let's review here.  You say that firewalls are the prime element to keeping things from getting on your computer.
> 
> I state that that just protects you from what could be called 'brain dead easy attacks' and that there are other, effective means that malicious software getting onto a machine.  I then state that effective adblocking antivirus is a better defense agianst these.
> 
> You then say 'Hold on there. You don't use Adblock? I am just speechless.'.  See?  This is where it's like you are suddenly responding to an ENTIRELY different conversation.  When confronted with it, you keep on this track and so I can only assume that you have reading comprehension issues.


I just can't believe you would not do something as simple as using Adblock. I mean if malicious ads are an issue, then why not fix it. It's just such a common sense thing.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> I just can't believe you would not do something as simple as using Adblock. I mean if malicious ads are an issue, then why not fix it. It's just such a common sense thing.



See?  Here we are agian, where you are saying I don't have adblock, where I have not made that statement or anything that would even indicate that.  I only said that there is crap that a firewall wouldn't stop, and cited examples that would be more effectively defended agianst by an adblocker than a firewall by a long shot.

I'm seriously thinking that you have problems with reading comprehension now.  Three times I've pointed this out and do you now understand that I never said that at all?


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> See?  Here we are agian, where you are saying I don't have adblock, where I have not made that statement or anything that would even indicate that.


 Well do you use Adblock?


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> Well do you use Adblock?


 
*burts out laughing* This is awesome, though I do appologise to the OP for what's happened in this thread. This kinda derailing stupidity wasn't necessary. But... Man... XD


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> *burts out laughing* This is awesome, though I do appologise to the OP for what's happened in this thread. This kinda derailing stupidity wasn't necessary. But... Man... XD





AshleyAshes said:


> See?  Here we are agian, where you are saying  I don't have adblock, where I have not made that statement or anything  that would even indicate that.


 So you made no indication that you use one, and you expect me to know if you use one?

Edit: Wait a minute. You say I have no comprehension but you can't even spell "again". Along with apologize and burst.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> So you made no indication that you use one, and you expect me to know if you use one?


 
You've made no indication that you have not raped a ten year old girl and you expect me not to think that you haven't raped a ten year old girl?

Do you not understand that this is irrelevent to your previous statement of 'Firewall protects you from anything getting into your computer'?  Or have you just forgotten about that?


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## ArielMT (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> And yet my firewall has blocked everything and I have never had a virus.


 
A firewall can block what you don't allow through it into your system, but no firewall can block what you do allow through it into your system.  The trend in malicious software for the last five years has been to either exploit vulnerabilities in 'Net-facing applications, violate users' trust by executing untrusted code (mainly JavaScript) for malicious ends, or to socially engineer users into performing the very things that they claim to prevent.  Web browsers aren't the only 'Net-facing applications on end-user systems; there's email clients, PDF viewers, file sharing programs, Flash viewers, and many, many others.  The thing is, though, any firewall is going to allow every single one of these malicious activities to be performed.  If the malicious activities are not performed, then it's only because the application either recognizes it as malicious or the application doesn't understand how to do it.  [Edit: Or because a resident and stateful anti-malware program (such as today's antivirus and Internet security suites) is able to sense and quarantine malicious actions on the user's computer.]

But the firewall will allow these attempts in anyway; it will not block it.  Any firewall will allow 'Net-borne maladies through to these applications.  No firewall will block these maladies unless it blocks the application, because it's your applications that allow them in.

Unless your firewall blocks every Web and email port, I assure you that it hasn't blocked everything malicious out there because it can't.  A good firewall is part of a reasonably secure computer, but it's only a part of the solution.  A user's blind faith in it as an all-purpose tonic is a significant part of what allows a computer to be compromised by malicious software.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

ArielMT said:


> A firewall can block what you don't allow through it into your system, but no firewall can block what you do allow through it into your system.  The trend in malicious software for the last five years has been to either exploit vulnerabilities in 'Net-facing applications, violate users' trust by executing untrusted code (mainly JavaScript) for malicious ends, or to socially engineer users into performing the very things that they claim to prevent.  Web browsers aren't the only 'Net-facing applications on end-user systems; there's email clients, PDF viewers, file sharing programs, Flash viewers, and many, many others.  The thing is, though, any firewall is going to allow every single one of these malicious activities to be performed.  If the malicious activities are not performed, then it's only because the application either recognizes it as malicious or the application doesn't understand how to do it.
> 
> But the firewall will allow these attempts in anyway; it will not block it.  Any firewall will allow 'Net-borne maladies through to these applications.  No firewall will block these maladies unless it blocks the application, because it's your applications that allow them in.
> 
> Unless your firewall blocks every Web and email port, I assure you that it hasn't blocked everything malicious out there because it can't.  A good firewall is part of a reasonably secure computer, but it's only a part of the solution.  A user's blind faith in it as an all-purpose tonic is a significant part of what allows a computer to be compromised by malicious software.


 Sorry about that. When I said "everything" I was assuming people would think "everything bad".


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> You've made no indication that you have not raped a ten year old girl and you expect me not to think that you haven't raped a ten year old girl?
> 
> Do you not understand that this is irrelevent to your previous statement of 'Firewall protects you from anything getting into your computer'?  Or have you just forgotten about that?


 Why are you avoiding the question. Do not realize it is relevant to computer security? Yes I remember the firewall thing but I felt it was necessary to stop and discuss the blocking of advertisements, which you brought up.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> Sorry about that. When I said "everything" I was assuming people would think "everything bad".



Everything bad?



ArielMT said:


> The thing is, though, any firewall is going to allow every single one of these malicious activities to be performed


 
'malicious' means 'bad' and a firewall will let all of those in.  Did you actually understand what ArielMT said?


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> Everything bad?


Well considering the fact I have never have an infection in my life, I'd say yes.



AshleyAshes said:


> 'malicious' means 'bad' and a firewall will let all of those in.  Did you actually understand what ArielMT said?


 You didn't read that correctly. He said it would allow it to be performed not let through. This is why we have Anti-Virus programs.


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## Kihari (Jan 12, 2011)

A hardware firewall isn't going to protect you from requests that originate from your side of the tubes. If you use IE to visit a page with ads that deliver LOL DRIVE-BY DOWNLOAD (this is where adblocking saves you), or if you download a virus-ridden attachment from an email, your firewall isn't going to know that malign code is coming down the wire. All it knows is that your browser requested that data (because the webpage told it to, or because you clicked the attachment link), and will happily oblige.

A good software firewall is smart enough to know that keylogger.exe (or whatever) is not allowed to broadcast to the Internet. Like the router-based firewall, though, it is designed to weed out _invalid data packets_, not _malicious-looking software_. It won't stop you from getting malware.

inb4 I don't like AdBlock.

EDIT: Ninja'd by a mod. Golly, I feel silly.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

I guess this must be my firewall not doing anything.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> I guess this must be my firewall not doing anything.


 
You do know that ESET Smart Security is a firewall and also an antivirus program as part of a suite of softwares? That's the anti-virus portion of the suite catching that.

...No, you don't know that at all.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> You do know that ESET Smart Security is a firewall and also an antivirus program as part of a suite of softwares? That's the anti-virus portion of the suite catching that.
> 
> ...No, you don't know that at all.


 It says connection terminated. Which means it stopped it from coming in. But you probably aren't smart enough to comprehend something like that so you'll just say I'm wrong.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> It says connection terminated. Which means it stopped it from coming in. But you probably aren't smart enough to comprehend something like that so you'll just say I'm wrong.



You really havn't understood anything about firewalls that was explained to you in this thread, have you?


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> You really havn't understood anything about firewalls that was explained to you in this thread, have you?


 Yes I have, but the information was wrong.

Edit: I'm just going to report him he's obviously a troll.


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## Runefox (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> It says connection terminated. Which means it stopped it from coming in. But you probably aren't smart enough to comprehend something like that so you'll just say I'm wrong.


 
I can write anything that can say "Connection terminated", but that aside, I'd like to point out that many anti-viruses also have web scanners, which detect known-malicious URL's and files before they're transferred to the hard drive.

Firewalls literally have nothing to do with what your browser can and cannot download, unless you mean "can access the internet" and "cannot access the internet". Even Comodo isn't that picky about data going through - It's picky, sure, but only for applications, not what the applications do. That's where anti-virus software comes in.

Long story short, a firewall deals in the lower-level stuff, stuff you don't normally see. If you're behind a router, you by default have a firewall because the router stops incoming connections at the gate unless you specifically route them through (this is usually by protocol (UDP/TCP/ICMP/etc) and port number (1-65535)). It doesn't care one way or another what data passes through as long as it's allowed by the rules, and that same principle applies to any other firewall - If the application is allowed through, it can download whatever it wants, from MP3's to e-mail to child porn - It's all good.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> Yes I have, but the information was wrong.


 
Me and THREE other people have pointed out how a firewall works, but you think that information is wrong, because your firewall and *antivirus* software detected a mock virus and that must have been the firewall and not possibly the antivirus portion of the antivirus software?

...Yeah...


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## ArielMT (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> Sorry about that. When I said "everything" I was assuming people would think "everything bad".


 
I know you meant "everything bad."  It is still, unfortunately, a factually incorrect conclusion.

Also, I edited my previous post to mention resident antivirus protection.


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## Aden (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> Edit: I'm just going to report him he's obviously a troll.


 
No, he's not, please don't abuse the report function for petty (on-topic) squabbles like this.


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## Kihari (Jan 12, 2011)

^This was all pretty ridiculous.

Anyway.

Some laptop models have a tendency to overheat, either because of poor cooling design or an unusually trippy sensor; when it happens, the computer will shut itself off. At best this is an annoyance, and at worst a serious ailment to productivity, as you could unexpectedly lose valuable work. Consider buying a cooling pad, which will prop up the computer to allow cool air underneath and provide an additional fan for added circulation. If using your laptop on your lap (as nature intended), make sure that you are not covering up the fan with your legs. On a similar note, don't set the computer on a soft surface (like a bed) for long periods of time while it is running.

EDIT: If you're cheap, using something from around the house to prop up the back of your laptop a little (when it's sitting on a desk, obviously) can work well enough. Find something that's about half an inch tall and won't slide around when you set the computer on it.

If your computer is tooth-grindingly slow, infected with multiple malware programs, and has more useless crudware installed on it than you could ever track down and be rid of, consider reinstalling the operating system from scratch. You'll need to make backup copies of your files to carry over to the new installation (and as OP said, you really should have backups anyway). If your machine has the specs for it, now may be the time to upgrade to a newer version of your preferred OS.

When something on your machine conks out, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of your computer's useful life. If the rest of the system is working properly (or if it would, if not for the busted piece), you can find a replacement part that costs much less than replacing the entire computer. You'll need to be somewhat handy to replace or repair some components that require rather more than unplugging the old and attaching the new, like a laptop's LCD screen (especially if your manufacturer felt like being an ass when they designed your particular system). Consult guidelines posted online or locate your nearest techie neighbor-kid if you're not up to the challenge.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 13, 2011)

Laptops really arn't supposed to overheat.  They're supposed to be designed to dissipate effectively enough to allow continued operation.  Really, if your laptop has an overheating problem, return it for repairs before your warrenty has expired.


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## Kihari (Jan 13, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> Really, if your laptop has an overheating problem, return it for repairs before your warrenty has expired.



Something new and it happens quite a lot, definitely send it back.

I was thinking of an old Toshiba Satellite belonging to a friend (which has long exceeded its warranty, I'm sure). Made a rather better hotplate than a computer even with the built-in fan running properly, and shut itself off all the time. I don't know. Bad design, or a problem with his individual machine?

Whichever, it reportedly hasn't shut down due to heat since he set it on the extra fan.


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## Thou Dog (Jan 13, 2011)

I would definitely not recommend someone who isn't really, _really_ comfortable having to keep track of up to two dozen screws and a couple different sets of wires and handling very delicate pieces of hardware to try replacing his laptop's screen. If the screen fails but there's still video output, I think it's better to give up portability until you can take it in to have it professionally repaired, and use a stand-alone monitor in the meantime.

(I'm comfortable enough with screws and fiddly bits, but I saw the tech senior break a replacement screen - setting us back not only the cost of an additional screen, but also a couple of days for the replacement part to be delivered to us. Then again, "tech senior" is not a technical position, and the tech senior I had was not a technician.)


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## RedFoxTwo (Jan 13, 2011)

If you have virtual cores, disable hyperthreading. It allows some software written before multiple cored processors to run correctly. The disadvantage is difficulty in multitasking.


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## Runefox (Jan 13, 2011)

RedFoxTwo said:


> If you have virtual cores, disable hyperthreading. It allows some software written before multiple cored processors to run correctly. The disadvantage is difficulty in multitasking.



An easier method is to use a program called Prio and when you launch the program that has difficulty, open Task Manager, find it in the process list, and then right-click and choose Set Affinity. Uncheck all processors but one and hit OK - With Prio, every time you launch that program, it will remember that it should only use one processor. Simple! It also remembers priority.


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