Newly bought notebook worked fast. Then after a while the performance of your notebook dropped noticeably. Startup process became longer and the software programs that worked fast before became slow. It is time to perform some maintenance.

Normally when you just bought your notebook and started using it, you are happy how it works. However, in most cases, after several months the performance of your notebook starts to degrade noticeably. It takes longer and longer to start up your computer. The software programs that worked fast before become sluggish. And eventually, your overall productivity starts depending on speed of your computer. What happens? How to restore the performance of your "assistant"?

Maybe it is hard to believe but your notebook is slow because it is dirty. To fix this issue you need to clean software and hardware. Yes, the hardware too. The reason is that dust clogs the vents, which causes CPU to heat up. When temperature increases, Pentium-4 and later models go slower until they are no longer at a critical temperature. Your notebook even can burn if you do not keep it clean. Generally, heat is the biggest cause of component failure in computers. So that regular cleaning also can help to avoid costly repair and replacement costs.

For mentioned reason, it is important to limit the use of your laptop at high temperature and to keep your notebook in a open area that has a good air circulation during the power on. Clean your notebook regularly. You may use an old tooth brush to rid of the dust in the area around the fan. Shut it down before cleaning. Keep drinks and any liquids away from your notebook because short circuits by liquid destroy notebooks quite often. Also it is wise to not eat over because crumbs can go easily in the keyboard that cause PC to fail eventually.

Now software. The first step is to rid of unwanted and not-used-anymore programs. Normally programs are provided with uninstall option that can be used to completely uninstall programs and their components form your PC. If some software does not have this option, the best way is to use the Add or Remove Programs tool in the Control Panel of your MS Windows. Doing so ensures that any registry items associated with that application are removed safely.

The second step is not necessary but recommended. You need to find and remove all invalid registry items on your PC. It might be not easy to do manually because it is difficult to determine which items correspond to which applications (you might accidentally remove a valid registry item, causing software crashes and errors). So that for this purpose it is better to use some tool, for example, Windows Live OneCare safety scanner or Norton tools.

The third step is to delete all unnecessary data files. If some files are rarely used, you may archive them. If you have MS Windows XP or later OS, open any folder, right-click on blank area, select New, then Compressed (zipped) Folder. After creating empty zip file, move in it all files that you want to compress. Also as one-time measure to make the next step more effective, it would be good to clean Recycle Bin - right-click the Recycle Bin icon and select Empty Recycle Bin.

The final step to speed up your PC is to defragment the hard disk of your notebook. In case if you have MS Windows XP or later OS, open My Computer, right-click the local disk volume that you want to defragment, and then click Properties. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now. Click Defragment. If your OS does not have a disk defragmenter, you may use some software tool, like, Norton Utilities. For the defragmenter to properly run, ensure you have no other applications running. Also note, the defragmenter can take a considerable time to run.

In conclusion, remember about the preventive maintenance that helps your computer to work faster, better and last longer.

© Alex Smartson. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

LaptopScreen.com is a subsidiary of Vancouver Laptop Inc.— an established worldwide trader of laptop screens (notebook computer screens). We focus on providing high quality laptop screens at incredibly low prices. Today Vancouver Laptop Inc. is recognized as one of the largest sellers of laptop replacement screens in the World!

Our company has been involved in laptop repair business for over 10 years. As a result, we have extensive knowledge and experience in both repair and installation of notebook screens. Our inventory has a wide range of LCD screens, including many very unique models. We stock of everything we offer on our website www.laptopscreen.com.

We welcome international customers and are proud to announce that we have shipped to over 80 countries worldwide, even though we focus on US and Canadian market!

We made ordering from our website both quick and simple.

Our knowledgeable sales staff and award wining tech support will ensure that your experience with our company is pleasant. We respond to your urgent needs by offering speedy same day shipping for all models, extensive product knowledge, and exceptional technical support.

Here at LaptopScreen.com, our primary focus is customer service. Since customer satisfaction is of great importance to us, all screens that are on sale carry our quality warranty and all items are packaged with shipping safety in mind.   

We sell screens that are compatible with Dell, Acer, HP, IBM-Lenovo, Compaq, Gateway, Toshiba, Sony, Apple, Samsung, Fujitsu, Packard Bell, NEC, Asus, Cicero, Eurocom, MDG, Averatec and many other laptop brands.

Here is an email from one of our customers, asking how are we able to maintain our rock-bottom prices (customer's name has been changed for privacy reasons):

First, the LCD screens sold by our company are identical to the ones used by laptop manufacturer's during the laptop assembly. LCD laptop screen is not something that is easy to manufacture, and, as a result, there aren't any types of fake, after-market screens available on the market.

Why do laptop manufacturers charge so much? Technical information about laptop screens compatibility is not publicly available. As a result, it is very complicated to derive which screen models are compatible with any given notebook model. Laptop manufacturers are the only ones who possess this information and they try to conceal this data as hard as they can. As a result, they can charge people as much as they want.

Besides, a couple of years ago laptop screens were indeed quite expensive due to high production costs.

Today, things have changed, production cost for LCD display has been significantly reduced. Compatibility information has been collected and put together by third-party companies. Ultimately, this resulted in the availability of laptop screens from sources other than laptop manufacturers.

Today, there are many third-party companies on the market that are selling laptop screens. All these companies offer more or less same prices. However, our prices are still the lowest, with the same or higher service quality!

Here is what we do to keep our prices the lowest on the market:
1. Everything, including ordering, processing, payment and customer support, is done over the internet. This results in fewer employees involved in the process, fewer human errors, and lower overhead cost.
2. We use cost effective packaging, which at the same times gives incredible 0.032% damage rate.
3. We are always searching for better suppliers. We always will. Currently we are buying directly from manufacturers.

On a side note, we specialize in laptops only. We retail not only laptop screens, but laptops as well. Currently we operate 6 retail laptop stores in Canada. We've been doing in this business for over 10 years, and that's the reason why we know which screen model is compatible with your laptop. Check www.ottawalaptops.com for more details.

To conclude:
Yes, notebook manufacturers quote unreasonably high prices for replacement screens while our prices are the lowest on the market, and it always will be!

(c) Vancouver Laptop Inc.