5 Best Upgrades to Breathe New Life Into Your Older Computer

The price tag for purchasing a new computer often means that individuals and businesses struggle instead with a device that has become increasingly slow and problematic.

People also tend to get very attached to their computers and don’t like the thought of changing or having to move their “computing life” over to an entirely new environment.

But you don’t have to choose between inefficiency and frustration of an old computer and the cost of buying an entirely new one. There is a third option that can breathe new life into an older system and give you the best of both worlds.

Houston computer repair services are about more than fixing a broken screen or crashed hard drive. They also include efficiency upgrades that can speed up your PC and give it more years of usable life.

Do you want to hold onto your personal or work PC a little longer before replacing it? Read on for the best upgrades to consider that can make your computer nearly like new again.

PC Upgrades to Improve Performance, Speed & Productivity

The average replacement cycle for a desktop computer is about 5 years. But many users hold onto them longer than that. It’s also not unusual for a computer to start becoming sluggish and problematic well before the 5-year mark.

If you’ve been wondering whether or not to throw in the towel on your PC due to performance issues, try one or more of these upgrades first to give your computer a new lease on life.

Upgrade the Hard Drive to a Solid-State Drive (SSD)

Do you avoid rebooting because it takes forever? Can you get a cup of coffee with cream and sugar in the time it takes a program like Photoshop to open on your PC? These are problems that may be cleared up by switching from a hard disk drive (HDD) to an SSD.

Solid-state drives do not have any moving parts and use flash memory to read/write to the disk. This results in much faster response times when you’re doing things like searching in file explorer, opening software, and rebooting.

Benefits of upgrading to SSD on your desktop or laptop include:

Increase Your Computer’s Memory (RAM)

Not having enough memory on a computer can slow down a number of processes. It can cause slow and “sticky” response times when you’re working in programs and make your browser freeze up if you load a webpage with too many graphics and videos.

Those automated updates can also ruin your day by taking up critical memory when you’re in the middle of creating a document, causing the app to completely lock up.

Upgrading the memory in your system can be like getting an entirely new computer because it will speed up just about everything you do. 

Computers will often have open memory slots that allow additional RAM to be added or in some cases a current chip can be replaced with one that has double the RAM (like a 4GB memory chip being replaced with an 8GB chip).

Add Another Monitor

One thing that laptop users often have to deal with is lack of screen space to do things like work in programs side-by-side. This is especially true if their system has a lower resolution screen.

Not having enough screen area to work faster can be frustrating. But you can fix this without needing to replace your PC or give up the portability of a laptop to move to a desktop.

Add an additional monitor that you can use alongside your laptop screen when using it on a desk. This type of setup will allow you to drag items from one screen to the next and use the screens in tandem as one large working area, making multi-window workflows much more productive.

Replace Your PC Cooling System

Another problem that can impact performance throughout your computer is a failing cooling system.

When your computer runs too hot, it impacts your Motherboard along with all the other components inside your PC, making them less effective.

Over time, cooling systems can degrade, which leads to overheating. Having this replaced can make a big difference in overall PC performance.

Upgrade Your Graphics Card

Any type of graphics heavy computing can be slowed down with an old graphics card. This includes everything from gaming to working in video or graphics intensive programs.

Before you resign yourself to purchasing a new PC so you can be ready for that big game release, check out the potential for a graphics card upgrade. 

By upgrading both a graphics card and memory, you could be looking at an entirely new PC experience with no more problems with game response times or sticking in graphic and memory intensive programs.

Give Your PC a New Lease on Life!

Digital Crisis can help you improve the speed and performance of your older PC, allowing you to enjoy it for years to come.

Contact us today to schedule a PC upgrade consultation. Call 713-965-7200 or reach us online.

Important Tech Concerns When You Reopen Your Office After 6-8 Weeks

Many business owners are looking forward to reopening after a long shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Around Houston, Texas, and the rest of the country, things are slowly opening back up bit by bit.

But if you just walk into your building after six to eight+ weeks, turn on all your technology and think you’re ready to hit the ground running, you could end up running in to some big problems.

Over those weeks of shutdown, equipment has been dormant. If tech has been completely turned off, then updates and patches normally applied though managed services will not have been. 

You may also find a layer of dust covering your IT infrastructure and find that you have workstations or customer-facing tech too close together to meet social distancing guidelines.

Ensuring six feet of distance for customers and employees is among the requirements for businesses to reopen.

We’ve put together a checklist of technology-related concerns you should address to ensure your reopening goes smoothly and without any tech problems. 

Use This Technology Checklist for a Smooth Post-Quarantine Reopening

It can feel like walking into a museum when you first open the doors after your office or building has been shuttered for two months. As you begin to breathe life back into the environment, these IT tips will help ensure an effective reopening for your IT infrastructure.

Do a Thorough Dusting of Equipment

Dust built up in fans and areas of your technology that expel heat can cause equipment to overheat once put back into operation, which can in turn cause a hard drive crash.

You’ll want to use compressed air and a microfiber cleaning cloth to clean any built up dust off all of your equipment.

Sanitize Equipment

Even if equipment has been sitting so long that the virus would’ve been long gone, it’s still a good idea to sanitize your electronics anyhow.

This will instill trust in both your employees and customers, something that’s vital to a healthy reopening.

You’ll want to sanitize all computers, keyboards/mice, phones, printer/scanners, customer-facing tech, etc.

Tips for safe disinfecting of your electronics: 

Have All Updates & Patches Applied

If your computers and other internet-connected devices have been shut off during the shutdown, before you begin using them, they need to have any waiting updates and security patches applied.

This includes operating system updates, application updates, and firmware updates for devices.

Have Equipment Serviced by a Professional

When your technology has been turned off for weeks, you want to make sure there are no hardware or software issues that need to be addressed.

It’s a good idea to have a professional, like Digital Crisis, service your equipment to ensure there are no hidden problems that might cause systems to go down shortly after you reopen.

Carefully Distance Your Technology

For this item, you also want to have a pro helping you, otherwise you could end up with a serious mess of disconnected systems on your hands.

Per social distancing guidelines, companies need to have employees and any customer-facing technology, seating, etc. at least 6 feet apart. This may mean a major reworking of your office technology layout.

This isn’t something you want to do without having a plan. You’ll want to ensure that all your wired and wireless connections are still fully intact and that no weak Wi-Fi signal zones have been created by moving things around.

Plan for Regular Disinfecting

While many companies have already planned on regularly disinfecting touchable surfaces like doors, chairs, and desks, they may not have thought about their technology.

It’s also important to develop a regular schedule for disinfecting your electronics, including any customer-facing tech (like POS devices), keyboards, copiers, etc. to continue to keep your workplace safe and prevent potential spread of the virus.

Evaluate Your Cloud Infrastructure

Most businesses didn’t have much time to transition to a remote workforce, but they’ve been working with one now for several weeks. Now that reopening is on the horizon, some companies will find that keeping some workers remote part or full-time is an advantage. 

Now is the time to evaluate your cloud services to see if they are still serving your needs well. Are they allowing you to smoothly coordinate on-site and remote employees, secure data, and integrate your business processes? 

Streamlining your use of the cloud not only can make your team more efficient, it can also provide some much-welcomed cost savings.

Reopen with a Solid Technology Plan!

Get the help you need to reopen smoothly by working with Digital Crisis. Our experts can help you ensure your computers and other devices are ready to support your business needs.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Call 713-965-7200 or reach us online.