Take heart if your outdated, sluggish computer causes you to want to rip your hair out with every click but your budget simply won’t allow you to replace it. There are a few modifications left that might make living with an old PC more tolerable, even if you’ve already done all the maintenance to rule out a malware infestation and upgraded the hardware to the extent that you can.
Bulky software might overwhelm your system’s resources, even though hardware changes often yield the biggest speed gains (adding more RAM and switching to a solid state drive can drastically improve performance). This may result in problems, crashes, and decreased performance. In this article, we propose 5 tips that you can implement to Revive an Old Computer.
Replace the OS
If all else fails and you’re really trying to prolong the life of your sick PC by a year or two, you might want to think about switching to an Operating System that is significantly different yet leaner, faster, and more efficient. Consider one of the many Linux distributions, such as Lubuntu, which is renowned for its quick performance and lightweight. It takes a lot of work to install a new, fundamentally different OS, but you might be able to prolong the life of your less vivacious machine.
After installing the new Operating System, we recommend to install only the necessary software. Avoid heavy antivirus tools like AVG and Avast, you may opt for light ones like ClamAV. And, try as much as possible to use the built in and online cloud tools, to avoid putting more stress on the machine.
Update the drivers
You might be surprised to learn that your computer has more software installed than just Windows, apps, and games. “Drivers” are present. These are tiny pieces of software that ensure the interoperability of your device’s many components. However, you might not be making the most of your PC’s capability if you’re using outdated drivers, which is frequently the case.
Be careful! Try to install the drivers from a trusted source and avoid the driver installers since the majority of them come with add-on tools and ads that will further slow down your computer.
Defrag the hard disk
If you use a PC with a conventional mechanical disk drive, which is likely the case if you are reading this page, defragging should still be taken into account. While more recent PCs have flash-based storage (SSDs), older drives still utilise clusters of mechanical platters. The bits and bytes will be jumbled if you’ve added and removed a lot of programs and files from your drive. It will be challenging to put everything together because of your mechanical disk, which slows down the process.
The majority of operating systems comes with pre-installed defragging tools. So, look for them before installing new ones.
Physically clean the insides
There’s a good probability that a whole family of dust bunnies is growing inside your computer or laptop because the fans have been moving air in and out of the system for years. These have a tendency to cause your fans to slow down or even quit, which causes heat problems, which again causes poor performance or frequent crashes.
Because of this, we suggest to routinely open the cases of the laptops and computers and clean them out using a gas duster, which launches dust particles out of the devices using pressurized air. If you try it, have a vacuum on hand.
Rebuild the hardware
Doing a fresh rebuild is the professional method for revitalizing a computer. In essence, you bulldoze your PC there because everything is pulled down and rebuilt. However, that is a lot of work since each program needs to be reinstalled and all of your settings need to be restored.
Being stuck with an old computer is a hassle. However, by applying some of these tips we hope to give life back to your dusty machine and Revive your Old Computer.