3 BIOS settings
Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset
settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings
is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.you can change bios settings.
Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a
good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the
screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more
unstable, you will know what bios settings xp to revert to.
A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to
the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has
a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong
figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.
Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any
BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow
Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and
Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).
4 Hard disk drives
After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive
starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the external sata hard disk drive every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze.
Go to
* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Derangement
This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write
data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a
good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task
Scheduler.
The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the
bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).
Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems
can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by
going to
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File
System-Hard Disk.
Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do
some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on
it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet
Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.
Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard
disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to
* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk
Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this
operation at night when the computer is not in use.
