Are Your Computers Running Efficiently?

Businesses all over the world rely on computers to get their daily tasks done and to improve their productivity. With so many people reliant on their electronic devices, it’s easy for businesses to grind to a halt once their computers fail or start to slow down due to technology failures, software errors or even just human error. Computers are, after all, dumb machines. They don’t actually do anything without input, but even when we do give it instructions, there are times when the computer’s components fail due to manufacturing defects or wear and tear.

Let’s face it, no computer is going to last forever and it will eventually start to slow down. You might be loading up your computer with lots of extra unneeded files and programs which is slowing it down, there might be a buildup of dust in the case itself or perhaps your parts are just wearing down from regular use.

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Software issues

First of all, we’re going to need some numbers and statistics to ensure that there is actually something wrong with the hardware and not the software we’re using. A lot of software is prone to bugs and errors due to programming issues or compatibility issues and not necessarily your hardware.

A great way to check for the performance of each individual application is to use an application performance management tool. These tools can monitor almost every single thing about each application that you’ve created for your business. Everything from basic metrics such as CPU and memory usage and application errors is recorded so that your software engineers can manually check what the issue is. Check out this comparison of 18 application performance management tools / APM tools if you’re unsure what program suits your business and your uses. Once you’ve diagnosed all of the issues, your IT team can then get started on fixing those issues so that your computers can run more efficiently and your business will become more productive.

If individual software packages aren’t the problem, then the cause might be a sluggish hard drive. Mechanical hard drives don’t last forever and will eventually fail, so the only way to remedy an old hard drive is to remove as much unnecessary data as possible by backing up important data and reformatting the computer. In the future, be careful of what applications you install so that you don’t clog up the hard drives and slow down the PC.

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Computer maintenance

Compared to using APM tools to fix software issues, computer maintenance is a bit more doable for regular members of staff and it doesn’t necessarily require an IT professional. For starters, you can use hardware monitoring tools to determine if there is a heating issue with your hardware. If your CPU is reaching over a hundred degrees, then it’s likely that the fans are being blocked with excess amounts of dust or they are slowing down due to a BIOS error or a mechanical failure. You can check if the fans are actually spinning by opening up the side panel of your computer and manually inspecting the fan itself. If there is a lot of dust build up, you can use a can of compressed air or an air compressor to gently blow out all the dust in an open area.

Cleaning out the case is usually good enough to keep your computer running smoothly, but if there are broken components such as a fan that doesn’t spin, then it’s best to ask a tech professional in your company to help you replace them.

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