Emerald Green Hardware

There are a few ways to upgrade your computer?s hardware, but Memory is both the easiest, and the most likely to improve your system's performance.

Of course, you should know in advance whether or not more memory will aid in your system performance. Fortunately it's not that hard to find out. First open the start menu, then the control panel in the right column. Among the options in the control panel will be for System. The system menu has a lot of options, but what's important is that it will open to a summary page. Here you'll see information on your processor, your memory, and some details on your OS.

Which are interested in is a wine labeled Memory(RAM). This will be on number followed by either MB or GB. If it's MB, then additional RAM will definitely improve your computer's performance. In the GB range, additional memory will improve performance, but the degree of improvement will diminish with each GB.

Basically, if you're running Windows XP, 1 GB will be plenty to get by with most tasks. Though more intense applications will run better with more memory (My mother upgraded her Ram from 1 GB to 2.25 GB and found the improvement to XP's voice recognition software was noticeable and quite appreciated.)

If you're running Vista, the system has a lot more going on in the background, so it's usually a good idea to consider upgrading if your memory is below 2GB.  But if you?re thinking of a major memory increase, make a point to look at the OS information on the System menu.  If it doesn?t say 64, then you?re using a 32 bit OS, which means it can?t use more than 3.5 GB of RAM. 

As to what memory to buy, that varies from motherboard to motherboard, so you always have to do a little research. If your computer is brand name, then the odds are it's make and model are printed right on the front. If your system is more handmade, just open the side panel, and look at the motherboard to record it's make and model. Then when you go to wherever you're shopping for more RAM, either online or at a local source, there's pretty much always a location where you can input this data and get a list of the memory that fits it's requirements.

Here?s the underside of a stick of DDR2 Memory (Pretty common now, with the current advanced machine memory being DDR3).  While all the sticks of modern RAM are about the same dimensions, each standard is made with a differently located ofset slot.  This serves the dual purpose of both allowing the memory card to only be inserted into it?s slot the right way, and preventing incompatible memory from being installed in a machine. 

Once you have your appropriate RAM card, Installing is straightforward.  Open your system, and look for the memory slots on the motherboard.  The number of slots vary from board to board, but their design has been consistent through several generations of RAM cards.  Each slot has two latches on the side.  Besides clicking into two notches on the sides of each memory card, the latches also hook to small levers at the bottom of each slot.  This means that if you need to remove a memory card, pushing down the two latches will also pop the card from it?s slot.

In addition, this means that once you have the memory sticks lined up so the slot in the card matches up with the slot, pushing the card down into place will also close the two latches on the side.  And there will be a soft click when the memory card is fully in place.

That?s it.  Just reconnect your power, turn your machine back on, and it will recognize the upgrade and should handle memory intensive programs a bit faster now.

Of course, sometimes defective memory will be shipped out.  It?s not common, but when my mother upgraded her system?s memory, a few weeks later irregular instability necessitated a memory diagnostic that found an error on one of the sticks of RAM.  Though of course, the manufacturers warranty meant we simply identified the defective RAM and exchanged it for a new one.

The free tool for diagnosing RAM can be found at http://www.memtest86.com/.  Download the ISO file, use any cd burning software to burn it onto a blank CD, then have it in your computer?s optical drive when it reboots.  It will open into a simple window showing very basic data as it? runs a series of memory tests.  Let the tests run for about half an hour, and if they haven?t reported an error, you know that there probably isn?t one on your RAM cards.  If they do report an error, to find what?s defective you?ll want to power down your computer, remove all but one of the Memory sticks, and reboot the memory tester, repeating until you?ve identified which RAM stick is defective.  Since virtually all memory has a manufactures warranty, it?s just a matter of trading it for a working stick of RAM.

Basic physics says that when electricity flows through any non-superconductor, it generates heat in the process.  Computers need to get rid of this heat in order to keep working, so cases are built to maintain an airflow across hot components to cool them.  Of course, another side effect of flowing electricity is that it generates an electromagnetic field, and electromagnetic fields tend to draw dust.

This photo of my mother?s computer is actually not the dustiest system I?ve ever cleaned out, that would be my older brother?s system which hadn?t been cleaned for several years when I opened it up.

Dust isn?t just an aesthetic problem for computers, it?s potentially much more serious.  First of all, dust can act like a heat barrier, reducing the effectiveness of your computer?s cooling systems.  Overheating makes a system less stable and more error prone.  Plus it pushes the fans harder making the system noisier.  Also, some dust is conductive, which means that exceptionally dusty systems actually have a risk of short circuits forming.

To clean your system, you?ll want to first power down and unplug your system.  And considering how much dust can be thrown into the air, it?s a good idea to consider moving your system someplace with good ventilation. 

In the case of my mother?s system, I was able to use the deck behind our house.

The first step is to open the side panel of your system.  The how varies from system to system, but the majority of computers made today try to simplify the process, securing the panel with either thumbscrews or some form of latch mechanism.  Once you?ve opened the computer, it?s time to start using the compressed air to blow away the dust.  Keep in mind, this is going to be blowing a fair bit of dust into the air.  Many sources recommend using a cheap dust mask you can buy at any hardware store.

Or you could improvise if you don?t think to pick one up.

Anyway, try working in short bursts, starting with the visible clumps of dust.  Next, you?ll want to go to work on the the hidden dust surfaces.  Look over the power source (The big box that your system?s power cord plugs into) and alternate blowing puffs of air into the openings both inside and outside the case (The changing airflow should help dislodge more of the dust.)  Now look at the CPU cooler.  It?s the big fan and assembly at the center of the motherboard.

Take a little time to look it over to figure out which direction the metal fins are lined up in (Note, if the style of cooler has the fins exposed, don?t touch them, their sharp.)  Direct a few shots of air from both sides to dislodge as much dust as possible.

Then you?ll just want to give a quick once over to the motherboard and peripherals with your can of air to blow off the remaining dust that you can?t see.  Then angle the air on the bottom of the case to blow the dust there out and you can close up your case, return it to it?s normal resting place, hook the cables back up and power it on.