Johnson Yip Computer Help Page

I mainly write computer help articles, and sometimes make computer help videos online about computer hardware and software.

I plan on creating a few websites about computers, mobile devices, and electronics, and publish them on the internet. I also plan on adding more videos to my computer help YouTube channel, and finding other places to publish my videos.

On a daily basis, I am usually writing computer help articles for beginners to more advance users to publish online on my websites, Hubpages, blogger, and other sites.

I also sometimes upload computer help videos to YouTube to help people with computer problems which they need help on because I think video is one of the best ways to help people out with computer problems because viewers can hear my voice, and see what I am doing on videos.

My hobbies include computer games, video games, upgrading my computer parts, installing and using new software, websites, and features on my computer. I am still mainly using my desktop for my daily computer needs like e-mail, word processing, gaming, and web browsing because I find the desktop computer the best type of computer because it has a big screen, big keyboard, and comfortable mouse, so I can easily sit back, and watch a movie. It is also very powerful, so I can play games without any lag which is more common on laptops, and mobile devices like tablets and smartphones which can be a lot slower than a desktop pc.

It is important to keep your desktop, or laptop computer hardware well maintain, so it does not break or crash a lot.

1. You should buy a surge protected power bar for plugging your computer into the wall's power. A surge protector protects your computer, printer, and other electronics from power surges.

2. Use a can of compress air, or a computer vacuum to suck or blow out dust from the inside of your computer which you can access by opening the side panels which are usually held together with screws. You can get compress air or a computer vacuum from a computer store, or online stores like Amazon, eBay. It is best to try to clean your computer's inside on a monthly or yearly basis. Cleaning out dust will prevent your computer from overheating, prevent short circuits, and other problems caused by too much dust build up.

3. Make sure your computer is located in a dry place where there is not a lot of moisture in the air, or near it since moisture is bad for electronics.

4. Put your computer on a desk which has plenty of breathing space, so the computer can suck in a lot of fresh air.

5. Regularly run disk defrag on your hard drive to keep your files from getting fragmented which can slow down your PC's hard drive. Also, run disk scan to fix errors, and disk cleanup programs like Windows Disk Cleanup, CCleaner, Bleachbit, etc to clean up junk files to free up space on your drives.

6. If your computer fans, power supply, and hard drives are making loud weird sounds, it is best to replace them since they are probably breaking.

7. Getting a lot of computer freezes, error messages, blue screen errors, random restarts, or no picture on monitor may mean your computer's memory is bad, and needs to be replaced, or the computer monitor's gold contacts are dirty, and need to be cleaned with electronic contact cleaner. A broken hard drive controller, or hard drive can also causes freezes, crashes, and can't boot to operating system problems.

8. Sometimes the CD and DVD drives gets clogged with dust, but there are DVD disc cleaner disc which has a tiny brush to brush dust out of drives to remove dust build up on your disc drive, so it can read disc again after the drive has been cleaned with the cleaning disc.

Make sure your computer's operating is updated by using Windows Update, or Software Updater on Ubuntu Linux. It is a good idea to keep your operating system up to date because updates fix problems, keep your computer safer from viruses, and they fix stability, and usability problems.

Keeping programs like Adobe Flash Player, Java, Shockwave flash, Adobe Reader, MS Office Suite, and other programs updated is also important to keep your computer secure, and more stable. New versions of programs also come with new features and better performance compared to the previous versions in most cases.

If you use Windows, or Mac, you should install an antivirus, antimalware, antispyware, firewall, and other security software on your computer to protect it from hackers, viruses, and malware. Make sure your security software is set to auto-update to get the latest definitions to protect your computer from virus, and malware programs. Your antivirus, and antispyware should be set to realtime protection to protect your computer when your computer is logged into Windows, or Mac. Your Firewall software should always be on to stop hackers and malware from trying to hack your computer. It is important to scan your computers for viruses at least once a week, or more, and regularly change your passwords for your online and user account a few times a year since some operating systems like Windows 8 uses your online Outlook e-mail address, and passwords to login to Windows, and your Outlook Microsoft account.

For Windows based computers, you should run disk defrag, disk cleanup, and disk scans in Windows to keep your hard drive and Windows in good working condition, and running quickly.

Remember to backup your important files like documents, photos, music, and movies on an external drive, or online backup services like Dropbox to keep them safe if your hard drive or computer breaks. Plus, you still have your important computer files if your computer is stolen or lost.

If your computer has a lot of software which you never use, it is best to uninstall software you never use to free up disk space, and make your computer faster.

There are start up manager programs like MSconfig, CCleaner, Advance System Care, Tune Up Utilities, iolo System Mechanic, etc which can disable startup programs and services which you do not need to free up RAM, and CPU on your computer which would make your PC run faster during start up.

Using a System Utility program like Advance System Care, Wise Care 365, Tune Up Utilities, System Mechanic, etc is the easiest way to maintain Windows since many of these system utility programs automatically maintain Windows for you, or you can manually maintain Windows by only clicking a few buttons on their easy to use Wizards and user interfaces.

When your computer operating system is no longer supported by Apple, and Microsoft, it is best to upgrade to the latest operating system like Windows 8.1, or Apple OS X Yosemite to keep getting operating system updates. You can also pay for extended support from Microsoft Windows XP, but it cost more money than buying Windows 8.1, or buying some computers with Windows 8.1. If your computer does not meet the minimum requirements for newer operating systems, you would need to upgrade your computer parts to better parts which meet the minimum requirements, or buy a better computer which comes with the latest version of Windows or install Windows yourself on a newer computer. Alternatively, you can install a version of Linux like Ubuntu Linux which is a free operating system for Desktops and Laptops. All updates are free, and the operating system is free to use. Linux can also run pretty well even on older computers with less RAM, and a slower CPU.