A Clean Computer is a Happy Computer

If you've noticed that your computer has been freezing up, shutting down unexpectedly, or very warm to the touch, it may be clogged with dirt, dust and grime.

Many computers I come across to clean malware, optimize performance, reinstall the operating system,etc. are dirty.  Some more than others.  This doesn't only apply to desktop computers either - it could be a game console (like one I recently cleaned out because of exactly this reason), a laptop, and other devices like audio mixers.

Electronic devices such as these emit EMR, or electromagnetic radiation, that attracts dust like flies on dog shit.  It clogs the case fans and main processor fans, coats the main board and other components and sometimes evens causes a funny smell from your computer.

If you feel up to it and it's not too dirty, power off your computer, open the case and keep in contact with it to stay grounded (so you don't statically shock it to death).  Take a vacuum cleaner with a brush-head detailing attachment (very small) and gently wipe/vacuum away the dust.  Be careful around the main board components so you don't break a connection.  You may need to take some of the fans off to clean them out adequately.

If you aren't the hands-on type or don't trust yourself to do this, or if your computer is as dirty as this one, email me for some help!

As you can see from some of these photos, computers can get quite dirty and just need some TLC.

                                                                                  

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Redbox Rip and Return!

NOTE:  I am not promoting or condoning piracy in this blog post.  For private use only according to federal copyright laws!

Here's a tip: text DEALS to 727272 to get an occasional promo code from Redbox!

In fact, I just got one this morning, like this:


So I stopped a Redbox on my lunch break and rented Son Of God but unfortunately I don't always have time to watch a movie before having to return it the next day (or else start paying $1.27/day).

Fortunately, I know how to use VLC Media Player to rip a DVD movie onto my computer to watch any time after returning the disk. =D

If you don't have VLC Media Player installed on your computer, you can download it for free at www.videolan.org.

Put the DVD into your CDROM drive and fire up VLC Media Player to get started.  If you get a Windows Autoplay window that appears, just close it.

Once VLC Media Player launches, click the Media menu at the top-left and choose Open Disk...





On the Open Media window, put a check in the box next to No Disk Menus to avoid having them appear in your final video file.






At the bottom of the window, click the small down-arrow next to the Play button and choose Stream instead.





On the Stream Output window, click Next and then on the next window, click Add to add a new file destination.  Name the file and then click the Browse button to choose a location on your computer to save the video file to.  Click the Next button.

On the next window where it shows the Transcoding Options click Next to accept the defaults.

On the next window click the Stream button to begin streaming the video from the DVD to your file you specified.

That's it!!!  Wait a few minutes and you should see the progress bar moving as if the movie is playing. Depending on how fast your computer is, it may actually encode the DVD to your file faster than normal play time.  Mine encodes slightly faster than real-time play speed so a two hour movie might finish encoding in, say, an hour and a half.

Conclusion

I've done this several times since I seem to get lots of promo codes via text from Redbox and while I haven't run into a movie I couldn't rip to a video file, I can't really say that this will work for ALL movies.

Enjoy

                                                                                  

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boost Boost BOOST !!!

ReadyBoost

Unless you are lucky enough to have a brand-spankin' new computer or one that has a solid state hard drive, you may benefit from some extra speed.

Windows 7 includes a seldom used feature called ReadyBoost.  Take an extra USB flash drive sitting around and plug it into your desktop computer.  You may see an AutoPlay window pop up showing an option near the bottom of the list called Speed up my system using Windows ReadyBoost.  Click this option.

If you don't see this AutoPlay window appear when you plug in a flash drive, you can right-click the drive letter of the USB drive, choose Properties, and click the ReadyBoost tab to get to the same place.

You can choose to dedicate the flash drive to maximize the performance increase, or if it's a large flash drive, you can choose to allocate only part of it to ReadyBoost and leave the rest for storage.

I used to use this all the time!...  Until my hard drive died and I got a new solid state drive!  If your computer isn't brand new and you have an extra USB stick laying around, try this for a speed boost.  =D

Cheers