Archive for February, 2010

PC Repair in Ohio Tips: Spring Cleaning

February 22, 2010

Spring is a refreshing time, and many people celebrate the arrival of warm weather with an inspired cleaning regimen. Spring cleaning can be a great way to prepare your house for nice weather, but spring cleaning doesn’t have to end there. Why not use the good weather to perform some basic PC repair in Ohio jobs that will leave your computer feeling fresh and organized?

Spring cleaning for a computer can do a lot to make a clunky PC run faster. And performing some preventative maintenance or other techniques for PC repair in Ohio can help stop problems before they start. Regular use can weigh down an good computer with unnecessary programs and files. And too many files scattered across a hard drive can waste valuable time. For example:

  • The average PC contains some 1,800 files.
  • The average executive wastes six weeks every year looking for lost information or items.
  • Americans waste 9 million hours a day looking for lost files or items.
  • When it comes to PC repair in Ohio, one of the most common problems people have with their computer was that it runs slow.

If you’ve even spent time searching through your computer directories, looking for a misplaced file, you know how frustrating computer clutter can be. And if you’re like most PC users, you probably know how much a slow-running PC can slow down your entire productivity.

At Kingpin Computers, our professionals have handled all kinds of PC repair in Ohio jobs. We’ve seen all kinds of data setups and we know some of the best practices for organizing files and data within a PC for easy retrieval. We also know how to get slow PCs running like new again. If you think your PC could use a little spring cleaning, then contact Kingpin Computers. We can optimize and repair your PC for less.

Computer Remote Support: Help Map the Milky Way

February 15, 2010

In an earlier blog post, we listed several ways that can put your computer to work while you sleep. Those were mostly housecleaning tasks that would help your PC run faster and more efficiently. But that’s not all your computer can do while you doze at night. Believe it or not, your PC is capable of offering computer for remote support to researchers in need of massive amounts of processing power.

It’s called distributed computing. Distributed systems are made up of several autonomous computers that can communicate with each other in order to achieve a common goal. In other words, distributed computing lets you donate your PC’s processing power via a computer remote support architecture when you’re not using it.

There are several big projects that are harnessing the potential power of computer remote support and distributed computing. Many people who take part in these projects leave their computers on overnight and make their PC’s processor available for use. Here are a few of the most popular:

Folding@Home–Probably the most powerful distributed computer remote support system in the world, the Folding@home project uses “donated” processors to simulate protein folding and misfolding. Better understanding protein folding can lead to advances in fighting diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cystic fibrosis and cancer.

MilkyWay@Home–Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is huge. Creating a useful model of it is a massive undertaking. But you can help take part in a project that aims to do just that by donating computer remote support to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s galaxy-mapping project. Some 24,000 people have already lent their computer remote support to the project.

Seti@Home–SETI is an acronym for the Search For Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. It seeks to find and analyze radio signals that may lead to the discovery of life on another planet. Launched in 1999, SETI@Home is one of the oldest projects that allows people to offer up computer remote support for a large project. While the program has not yet found any extraterrestrial intelligence signals, it has identified some locations that seem to be producing unexplainable radio intensity.

PC Repair in Cleveland: Your PC can Work as You Sleep

February 8, 2010

One great thing about computers is that they don’t need to sleep. But if you’re like most people, you probably power down your PC when you go to bed. There’s really nothing wrong with that, but our PC repair in Cleveland experts like to get the most out of every computer we work with. That’s why we’ve gathered a list of tasks you can have your computer perform while you’re fast asleep.

One of the most useful tasks that our PC repair in Cleveland team has discovered are the backup, updating and cleaning tasks that every PC needs if it’s going to keep performing at the top of its game.

The first thing you can do while you doze is to backup your hard drive. Whether you use your PC for business your personal life, or both, chances are there are files and programs that you don’t want to lose. Whether you choose to backup your files to an online storage space on the Internet or to an external hard drive, our PC repair in Cleveland team knows that it can take a while. For a roundup of the five best online backup services, check out this post on LifeHacker.

The next thing you can set up your PC to do overnight is to repair your hard drive. You may be thinking that your hard drive is fine. And it probably is. But regular defragmentation and checking for errors will help keep it that way for a long time. Our team of PC repair in Cleveland pros recommend scheduling hard drive maintenance one night every week or so. This is also a great time to make sure your computer is up to date. If you’re a Windows user, scheduling regular updates at night with Widows Update is a great way to keep everything running smoothly while not having to deal with Windows downloading updates while you’re trying to get work done.

But that’s just the beginning of what your PC can do while you sleep. Next week, we’ll discuss how you can use your PC for more altruistic purposes while you’re sleeping by letting its processing power be used for important research functions.