MW Computer Design and Service Tutorials

Basic System Maintenance

  Instructions

 



Every now and then you may experience some quicky error message or lockup when using your computer.  It doesn't necessarily mean that your computer is broken, most of the errors are due to the nature of your operating system (Windows 98, NT, etc).  Your operating system is constantly writing, erasing, and re-writing data to your hard drive.  Sometimes, during this process, data can get corrupted and cause vague errors or lockups or even corrupt other data.  In most cases, error messages will, at most, close down the application you are using.  All you need to do usually is to just restart the application or restart the computer.  However, if the problem persists, there may be some corrupted data stored on your drive.  Follow the instructions below to "Clean Up" your computer and hopefully rid yourself of those pesky errors.

Virtual Memory 

Virtual Memory is hard drive space set aside by the operating system for the purpose of storing temporary information used by the operating system and your applications.  In this space data is constantly written and over-written.  It is possible for this data to get corrupted and cause problems in any application you subsequently use.

So the first thing to do is to reset (remove and re-create) the virtual memory space on your hard drive.  They can be found by going to the Control Panel, then double-clicking on the System icon.

Choose the Performance tab. Then click on the button labeled Virtual Memory.

On the screen that comes up, select the option “Let me specify my own Virtual Memory Settings”.  This will cause the gray boxes below to turn white.

Set Minimum and maximum to “0” (zero)

Click OK until you get back to Control Panel.  You should get a prompt that says, "You must restart the computer".  Reboot.

When the system comes back up (it will seem slower), go back into the Virtual Memory settings as above and set it back to “Let Windows Specify”. Click Ok until you get the reboot prompt and then Reboot again.

When the system comes back up, you have successfully reset your Virtual Memory.

Temporary Files

Another area that has the possibility of data corruption is your temporary files.  Windows uses temporary files to store information used by applications.  Temp files are usually deleted when the application using them is closed, but sometimes they remain on your hard drive, possible causing data errors.  These files generally end with the extension .tmp but may start with a "~" as well.  Deleting these files will get rid of any corrupt files and new files will be created by Windows as needed. To delete these files:

From your Desktop, click on the START button.  Choose FIND – Files or Folders

Search for “ *.tmp “ and delete everything that comes up.  Do the same for “ ~*.* “

Reboot the computer.

Scandisk

The last thing we want to do is to run Scandisk.  This utility checks your hard drive for corrupt data and physical problems as well.

To run Scandisk:

Click on the START button, and choose RUN.

In the RUN dialog box, type "scandisk" and hit ENTER.

Scandisk will check your drive for errors and fix any problems it finds.

Now that you've completed the above steps, the only thing left to do is test the computer.