How To Tell If Your Computer Is Dying

All computers have a shelf life, and there’s a good chance that you have suffered from plenty of broken PCs or Macs before in the past. Maybe it was old age, or perhaps you spilt a full can of coke over your keyboard. Now, the latter issue we can’t help you with – save for telling you to keep drinks well away from your workspace. But with the former problem, there are a few signs that you should watch out for. Let’s take a closer look and see if you can learn some of the clues and cues.

Noise

Loud noises can emanate from one of two places on your PC – your hard drive or your fan. If it’s your hard drive, you will hear things like clicking or grinding sounds, and it’s a sure sign that something is up. Your best bet is to run a diagnostics check – although you should back everything up beforehand. According to industry experts DatLabs, the vast majority of data will be retrievable. But, it’s best to plan ahead and transfer your favourite movies, photos, and music as soon as you hear the warning signs.

The fan is a solvable issue, though. You will need to unplug your device, take your computer apart, and clean it with compressed air. Dust can build up a real treat in there, and it will mean your computer’s fan can’t cool your parts properly. If the fan is clear, then the fact it is working hard points to another part being too hot. Processors, for example, can rise a great deal in temperature if they are being pushed too hard. Try an online temperature gauge to see if it can identify the issue, and think about replacing any part you think might be faulty.

Slow performance

If your laptop or computer is being laggy and takes an eternity to boot, or load a program, then something is up. You could clear some space – try something like CCleaner to get you started. If your hard drive is full, move over some of your old photos or music to a remote drive instead, to free up valuable space.

You should also think about getting some anti-virus software, to root out any malware or similar dodgy program. If nothing seems to fix the speed issues, it is likely old age is going to win. It might be time to recycle it and get a new computer.

Glitches

If you run into glitches on programs or hardware that you use, it’s another sure sign that something is up. If it’s just one program or device that is playing up, it is more likely to be a fault within that, rather than your PC. However, if the same thing keeps happening in other programs, you will need to investigate further.

CrystalDiskInfo is great for checking out the data on our hard drive, and should point out any problems. If it gives you the heads up, make sure that you act quickly. As we mentioned before, a lot of your data will be accessible, even after a hard drive failure. But, there are no guarantees.

Good luck with the old PC – and the new one, of you, end up calling it a day!