PC Maintenance Class 1: Term 2

Welcome back after the Christmas break, and without further ado, we jump straight back into it, from where we left off.

At the end of term we considered the factors involved in whether when a computer get’s to the end of it’s life, do we upgrade or do we replace, but more specifically, would we build it ourselves, or would we buy one ready assembled.  I went over over this for the group, as a refresher exercise, and then we started another topic.

Tonight’s session was based on, being given an old computer to rebuild and get going. Often many people give away their old computers because they have treated themselves. Maybe its for the grandchildren to use, and they want it wiped, and setup again from scratch. The procedure to do this is the same as if you were going to wipe your own computer, and reinstall the Operating System. After months, and years of use, the computer gets bogged down with all the software that is installed and no longer used, so to wipe it, can give the user the opportunity to reassess the actual software needed, and the computer tends to perform much better after such an installation.

The demo computer I used this evening was about 4 years old, and was of Windows XP generation. Therefore this was the operating system to be installed.

The majority of the class tonight, went through the process of getting XP onto the computer, a process which, the more you do, the more second nature it becomes.  In the end, all was well, however the sound card failed to install, which was to be expected. I checked the manufacturers website but there didnt seem to be any download section, but I am assured by the computer’s previous owners, that the software is available for me to collect as they have it on CD.  This proved an important lesson to the group, in ensuring you keep the necessary disks that come with the computer, because just this scenario can occur!

For the remainder of the class, we had a Question and Answers session, which proved as usual very helpful to those that posed the questions.

Next week we are going to look at Applications – join us, here online to read all about it!