10 Top Ten » Computer http://www.10topten.com Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:12:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Top 10 Ways to Make Computer Fast http://www.10topten.com/2012/05/top-10-ways-to-make-computer-fast/ http://www.10topten.com/2012/05/top-10-ways-to-make-computer-fast/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 05:43:51 +0000 hamza http://www.10topten.com/?p=3031 I assume that you are here because when you turn on your PC, and then go catch a 5-10 minutes sitcom, then if you get lucky it starts working. So you go on internet and Google the problem that how to make your computer faster. Well no worries, you are at the right place dude. All these problems can be fixed even on oldest computers. Some of these methods are free and some of them cost a little money.

Well you don’t have to be a super-computer-genius to do that. Here are the top 10 methods used to make your computer’s performance much much better.

10. Get an Antivirus

Norton-Antivirus

Believe it or not, there are many people who are using internet without using an anti virus and yes that sounds creepy. This is the most simple and well known way to speed up your computer more and thus it stands at number 10.

An anti-virus does not only inspect and eliminate viruses from your computer, but it also blocks them from attacking again on your PC. If you have got a good anti-virus, no need to worry about any viruses infecting your computer. The anti-virus does it all you just sit and enjoy using your computer and surf internet free of all worries. And if you want a recommendation, Norton is on my top list.

9. Optimize Windows

Optimize-Windows

Windows might look cool with some extra effects like wall paper changer and different shadows and opacity and transparency but most importantly you cannot imagine how much system speed it utilizes. These things should better be unselected if you want to make you p faster. Now it all depends upon you whether you want to make your computer faster by compromising on the cool look or not.

You can always turn this cool and amazing look on and off simply by opening control panel, and then opening the properties of the system, then advanced settings and then deselecting the extra effects like shadows and opacity, in Xp and 7 respectively.

8. Get an External Hard Disk Drive

External-Hard-Disk-Drive

You might have noticed one thing, when you format all the drives and do fresh windows your computer’s speed is at its peak. Then you start adding stuff to the hard disk drives and the system starts becoming slow. This happens because as you keep on adding things and filling up the drives it adds load on the system as it has to read all the data all the time in order to provide quick search results to you. So more data slows down the system, and thus I suggest an external hard drive. You cannot use it for the installed programs of course, but you can put the extra videos, music and pictures which you don’t use frequently. This will help running your programs faster. To see how much data is stored on the hard drive you can right click on it and open its properties. There it shows a pie chart displaying the free space in blue.
Always keep a check on the free space on the hard drive. And do not put extra load on your pc if you want it to work fast.

7. Add a RAM

Random-Access-Memory

Ram makes a computer much faster. Just buy a new ram and insert it on the mother board and I bet you will feel the difference. What makes a RAM (random access memory) is a special operating system component which is known as VMM (Virtual memory manager).

When you are using a program such as internet browser or a game, the processor of the computer extracts the executable files from the hard drive and then injects it into ram. More programs require more memory. If you have a ram of 128 MB and you are running programs which are consuming more memory than 128 MB then of course the load on the RAM will be much and thus it will slow down the system. So in order to overcome this slow speed you have to upgrade the PC with another ram. I know it costs some bucks but believe me once you invest you will not regret it.

I will suggest that go ahead and get one more ram if you really want to make your computer faster.

6. Turn off all unnecessary Startup Applications

Startup-Applications

There are a lot of programs that think that they should be kept running in the background. There are many programs as such. A few of them among them are those which we want to use in the background, like the ant viruses. But there are others like Skype, windows messenger, Yahoo messenger etc, etc.

I will suggest you to turn off such unnecessary apps and programs which you do not use in order to boot faster. You can use MS Configuration tool for that. To open MS CONFIG just open “run” and type MSCONFIG in it and then hit enter. It will show you a list of programs that launch at your system start up. Uncheck the ones you use rarely. Then it will ask you to restart your system. Restart the computer and feel the difference.

Yes, one more important thing that needs to be mentioned here is only turn off those programs which you recognize. There are many applications of the Start up that are essential components of the windows. Do not turn them off , or even if you do, do not blame me that I corrupted your operating system.

5. Get Rid of Pesky Spyware

Pesky-Spyware

Here are some ways you might have received Spyware

i.    Most of the files and music sharing programs like Kazaa install some sort of spyware to the system. They might not tell you or they might do in the license agreement which most people don’t read.

ii.    Many links say that you have won something and click the link to receive your prize, all these things are just ways to give you a special prize of Spyware on your system which will slow down your PC. Or some sites might say that download some special player to play a specific song or visit the site. I advise you don’t do any such thing.

iii.    The Spyware might be in some special offer which may look very important like free drivers scan or virus scan or make your computer fast or something else.

iv.    Sometimes a call just keeps on appearing on the screen you better not click on it because weather you reject or accept it will install the Spyware in your PC.

And now the solution of this big problem is Spyware remover. It is sold among 8.5 million people and the sale doesn’t stop. So many people cannot be wrong. So I suggest go for it and make your computer stable and secure.

4. Find and Repair Disk Errors

Check-Disk-Drive

Hard disks are also one of the components that can make your computer a lot fast or may cause your computer crash. So it is very important that you keep a check on them. Mostly the disk causes a bad-sector and that troubles the user a lot. But keeping a check is simple and easy. Just right click on any hard disk drive and open properties, then in the tools menu besides general tab, you will see scan disk option. Yes right, go ahead and scan the disk for errors and bad sector. Just scan the disk of errors and they remove all the errors. Simple isn’t it?

Just turn on the task scheduler and set the time when you want it to scan disks. See you don’t have to worry about scanning the disks again and again, windows’ SCAN DISK tool will do it for you from now on.

3. Run Disk Cleanup utility from time to time

Disk-Cleanup

You might keep your disks free from data, and store the extra videos and pictures and music files in external hard but still there are many things which you do not see. Well this is why Microsoft made the disk clean up utility. There are a few type of files that is the target if Disk clean up, which when removed lessen the load on the disks. These files are:

i. Downloaded Program Files

These are Java applets and activeX controls and downloaded from sites that are momentarily stored in the Downloaded Program Files folder.

ii. Temporary Internet Files

Selecting this type does not affect your personal settings, neither deletes any cookies. It just deletes your browser’s those cache files that are saved for quick reviewing.

iii. Recycle Bin

Emptying the recycle bin files lessens a lot of burden of the hard disk drive, and moreover it does not affect the user as well.

IV.Temporary Remote Desktop Files

If you use remote desktop files repeatedly then these files are saved for delivering quick results, deleting those does not harm the personal file folders.

One can easily compromise on these kinds of files in order to make one’s computer fast.

2. Keep Registry of Windows Fixed

Registry-of-Windows

When you do a fresh copy of windows on your system, never ever try to edit the registry if you are an amateur because once the registry gets corrupt it slows down the Computer to a great extent. Keep your registry fixed with windows update.

Windows registry is very much important to make the computer get going.
And yes one more thing, do not use certain registry fixers they all are merely Spywares, most of them.

1. Defrag your Hard Drives from time to time

Hard-Drive-Defragment

After some time, when the data is stored in the hard disks, it starts becoming fragmented which results in hanging the PC or a system crash as the hard drives become weak. The solution to this problem is keep on analyzing the disks from time to time that how much fragmented they are. If they are fragmented then defragment them. Now the point is how?

Well, Microsoft Windows makes it simple and user friendly.

Go to My Computer> Right click C (or whatever drive you want to analyze)> click properties> Click tools> click defragment disk

And there it is, The Defrag tool will analyze the disk and then defragment it. The only drawback is that you cannot write anything on the disk on which this operation is being done.

So you can assign the task scheduler to analyze and defrag the disks when you are not using the Computer.

I hope that following these 10 ways you will see a major change in the speed of your computer. I hope the article helped in making your computer fast, you can always comment and give suggestions.

]]> http://www.10topten.com/2012/05/top-10-ways-to-make-computer-fast/feed/ 0 10 Reasons Why PC Crashes http://www.10topten.com/2012/04/10-reasons-why-pc-crashes/ http://www.10topten.com/2012/04/10-reasons-why-pc-crashes/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:52:33 +0000 hamza http://www.10topten.com/?p=2725 Wait! Does your computer become stuck at times? Or do you come to see the blue screen of death when you are using Windows. Then you have to press Ctrl+Alt+Del and open the task manager and wait until the computer starts working again or otherwise you will have to restart it. In other words, it is computer freezing when computer stops working.

Well, are you tired of all this? Don’t you want to know what are the reasons behind this computer jam? Here you are, at the right spot and it is never too late. Here are the top 10 reasons why computers hang or crash with probable solutions.

10. Power Supply Problems

This is the problem of all the whole world, the supply of electricity is disrupted in most of the countries around the world. A sudden electric surge easily causes a computer crash as a power cut.

And here comes its solution, go to the market and buy an Uninterrupted Power Supply i.e. UPS. Though it consumes some of the money but it will provide smooth and steady electric supply to the computer and in case of a power cut it provides plenty of time to save your data and do a controlled shut down. Such investments never make you feel regretful.

9. Over Heating

The brain of the computer is central processing unit, i.e. CPU. CPU contains processor chips and graphics cards that produce a lot of heat. That is why every CPU casing comes along with several fans that keep the system cool. If somehow the fan stops working or if it gets old, the CPU may start to overheat and generates a special kind of error which is known as kernel error.

Chips, when over clocked using certain softwares like RivaTuner, become unstable or over heated and thus cause a crash. These problems can be solved by disabling CPU’s internal cache in the BIOS. This makes the machine run a bit slowly but it becomes much more stable.

8. Software

One of the common causes of a computer crash is a badly installed software. If the software is not installed properly, uninstall it from Control Panel so that the references in the system registry are completely removed too. Only then a new fresh copy of the software should be installed.

Old references might corrupt the system registry files. You can also use Reg Cleaner to fresh up the system registry. It works perfectly with windows. If you want to download reg cleaner you can download it from www.jv16.org.

Do read the instructions before using it otherwise don’t blame me for causing a permanent damage to your windows registry and of course failure is a step towards success.

7. Printers

A postscript file is created when we send a document to print. This file is usually bigger than the actual one. Printers have a very small amount of memory which is known as a buffer. A printer when prints a document, it consumes a lot of amount of CPU’s power. This slows down the performance of computer to a great extent. If the printer tries to print unusual characters, which are not recognized cause a computer crash. These unrecognized characters cause confusion in the buffer and thus, the printers cannot overcome this crash. The solution lays here, clean up the buffer memory, but again how can you do that. It is simple, just unplug the printer for 10 seconds and reconnect. And taddan ! it is back in form.

6. Fatal Exceptions OE and VxD Errors

Often video card causes this fatal exception OE error and sometimes VxD errors. To resolve this error, reduce the resolution of your windows screen. Right click on the desktop and in the properties menu just change the resolution or if you are using windows 7 it has the option when you right click any where on the desktop. For all 16-bit depth should work fine. In the graphics menu press the “+” which lies besides display adapter.  A line where it is written that your video card should appear select it and right click on it and select the properties option. There check the box of No Conflicts.

Video card conflicts can also be settled using the same method. Another solution is there, just go to my computer’s properties and then open device manager. Here right click on the display adapter you have and upgrade its driver from internet or CD whatever you have.

5. Hard Disk

After a few weeks the data stored on the hard disk starts getting fragmented. Thus slowing down your PC and causing a computer crash. It is a good suggestion that you defragment your disks after every two weeks.

Well, now you might be thinking’ that what the hell am i talking about and how to do this thing. It is quite simple you see, just right click on a drive for example “C”. Then go to properties, Click on tools and there you will see an option of defragmenting the disk. Just click it, analyze it how much it is fragmented and taddaann!! defragment it.

Remember that the more data your hard drives contain the more they become fragmented.

You can also set the time for the task scheduler to defragment the disks after a week or two. And yes note that during the process of defragmentation you will not be able to write any data on the disk drive.

Also keep on scanning the disks from time to time with the disk scanner  in order to check if there is a bad-sector. That can be done from Accessories > disk scanner.

4. Viruses

The simplest thought that comes to your mind when you think about computer crash is “virus”. And yes that is absolutely true. Viruses make your system vary unstable and after time being it even stops working.

Well here is the solution too, MacAfee Virus scanner is the best virus scanner, Scan your disks regularly. Especially the USB sticks, memory cards and DVDs you insert in you PC, do scan them before opening the files in them, because 90% probability is that viruses come through such devices.

3. BIOS Settings

BIOS is one of the most necessary tools to run a PC. A range of Chipset settings, decided by the manufacturer,  is provided with every mother board.

To enter these settings you can press F2, delete or whatever option the BIOS says to enter setup. Once you open these settings, handle it with great care, one wrong selection and it might go bang. Well no worries, you can always reset the factory settings anyways.

Set the IRQ no’s to automatic in the setup settings. Doing this allows windows to dedicate numbers and of coarse windows allocates better than BIOS.

2. Bad RAM

Random access memory, also known as ram, problems mostly cause such errors which are fatal, like the blue screen of death. These are fatal exception errors. A fatal error is not normal; it means that there is a serious hardware problem. It also indicates that some part needs to be replaced like it might be damaged.

Ram when over worked causes a system crash. Like if we insert two different rams i.e. one of 70 nanoseconds and other of 60 nanoseconds, it will force both of them to be slow and thus crashing the computer.

One solution of the problem is BIOS setup. Open it and change the waiting state of RAM. This might help in making it stable.  Or sometimes you can just remove one ram.

Parity errors are also caused by ram. And it is also by the same problem, mixing up of two different types of rams; one is ECC and the other non-ECC.

1. Hardware Conflict

System crashes and the number one reason behind it is hardware conflict, yes it might seem very simple, but still it stands in the reasons of system crash at number one. Then you can guess how simply important it is to maintain the hardware in a good condition so that your system remains stable.

Hardware conflict is there either because the driver of the hardware is not installed properly or the hardware is damaged, if the ram or anything else is damaged, the Blue screen of death appears because of a fatal error. But if the hardware’s driver is not installed properly, then it keeps on prompting the other programs of the system as well leading to making the system unstable.

These are the top 10 reasons why your computer crashes, if you have any comments or suggestions or problems, you can comment and share.

]]> http://www.10topten.com/2012/04/10-reasons-why-pc-crashes/feed/ 0 Top 10 Best Gaming Computers 2012 http://www.10topten.com/2012/03/10-best-gaming-computers-2012/ http://www.10topten.com/2012/03/10-best-gaming-computers-2012/#comments Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:42:33 +0000 Musaddique Ayaz http://www.10topten.com/?p=1929 Computers are more often used for playing games and 3D games have demanded more and more heavy systems to run. Game lovers are always in search of best gaming computers to buy. The craze for games have developed in teenagers for which they need high quality video card in CPU. Further, they require video memory for better performance of computer when playing game. The games we refer to are not online video games, these games are run from computer. So, here is the list of top 10 best computers for games in 2012. The details of all the best gaming computers have been given for buyer’s ease.

10. Falcon Northwest Mach V

Processor: Intel Core i7 950

CPU Speed: 3.06GHz

RAM: 6GB (DDR3)

Storage: 500GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

Video Memory: 1.2GB

9. Origin Genesis

Processor: Intel Core i7-950

CPU Speed: 3.06GHz

RAM: 6GB (DDR3)

Storage: 64GB + 1TB (Secondary)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

Video Memory: 1.2GB

8. CyberPower Cobra

Processor: Intel Core i7-960

CPU Speed: 3.2GB

RAM: 6GB (DDR3)

Storage: 120GB + 1TB (Secondary)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

Video Memory: 1.2GB

7. Maingear X-Cube

Processor: Intel Core i7 2600

CPU Speed: 2.8GHz

RAM: 4GB (DDR3)

Storage: 500GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Video Memory: 1GB

6. Velocity Raptor Signature Edition

Processor: Intel Core i7-990X

CPU Speed: 3.46GHz

RAM: 6GB (DDR3)

Storage: 1TB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

Video Memory: 1.2GB

5. iBuyPower Level 10

Processor: Intel Core i7-960

CPU Speed: 3.2GB

RAM: 12GB (DDR3)

Storage: 1TB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

Video Memory: 1.2 GB

4. Alienware Area-51 ALX

Processor: Intel Core i7 960

CPU Speed: 3.2 GHz

RAM: 6GB (DDR3)

Storage: 1TB

Video Card: Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

Video Memory: 2GB

3. Maingear Shift S

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K

CPU Speed: 3.4GHz

RAM: 8GB (DDR3)

Storage: 120GB + 1TB (Secondary)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Video Memory: 2GB

2. Digital Storm Hailstorm

Processor: Intel Core i7-970

CPU Speed: 3.2GHz

RAM: 6GB (DDR3)

Storage: 80GB + 1TB (Secondary)

Video Card: Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580

Video Memory: 6GB

1. CyberPower PC Black Pearl

Processor: Intel Core i7-980X

CPU Speed: 3.33Ghz

RAM: 12GB (DDR3)

Storage: 80GB + 1TB (Secondary)

Video Card: Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580

Video Memory: 6GB

]]> http://www.10topten.com/2012/03/10-best-gaming-computers-2012/feed/ 0 10 Best Windows 7 Themes to Download in 2012 http://www.10topten.com/2012/01/10-best-windows-7-themes-to-download-in-2012/ http://www.10topten.com/2012/01/10-best-windows-7-themes-to-download-in-2012/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:34:43 +0000 Musaddique Ayaz http://www.10topten.com/?p=329 Windows 8 is said to be released in this year. Till its release, Windows 7 is the operating system which is favored by most of computer users all around the world.  Microsoft Windows 7 is not an old operating system. It is an enhanced version of Windows Vista and its release opened the way for addition of several enhancements that users wanted. This version of Windows satisfied the thrust of users that loved to see everything in HD. Windows 7 allowed the enhancement to take place and we saw the change coming in OS through custom made themes. The themes in this gallery will make your desktop look better and up to your wishes. While picking the themes for this collection your wishes  have been taken under consideration. Here is the list of top 10 best Windows 7 themes to download this year. All the themes in this collection are free to download with direct download links.

Windows-7-Logo

10. Official Modern Warfare 3 Theme

Download Link

Official-Modern-Warfare-3-Theme

9. Windows Electric

Download Link

Windows-Electric

8. Clownfish

Download Link

Clownfish

7. Fantasy Art

Download Link

Fantasy-Art

6. Future 3D Theme

Download Link

Future-3D-Theme

5. Extreme Snowboarding

Download Link

Extreme-Snowboarding

4. Windows Glass

Download Link

Windows-Glass

3. Underoath Theme for Windows 7

Download Link

Underoath-Theme-for-Windows-7

2. Windows7 Black Transparent

Download Link

Windows7-Black-Transparent

1. Windows 7 Skull Visual Style

Download Link

Windows-7-Skull-Visual-Style

]]> http://www.10topten.com/2012/01/10-best-windows-7-themes-to-download-in-2012/feed/ 0