Looking after your Gadgets

January 2021

This issue, I wanted to talk about looking after your gadgets.

Turn things off occasionally

Every week I tend reboot you laptop or desktop computer. as it allows updates to be run and give the memory a fresh start. Turn your printer off after printing as you will save power as we don’t print as much as we used to..

Don’t forget your router – switch it off every now and again. Do this once every three months or when the Internet seems slower than usual.

The wireless extenders quite often need a reboot, probably once a month. And don’t forget your TV devices – if you are using a sky box or Fire TV stick, it’s worth giving those a reboot as well.

Phones – tend not to need a reboot unless there has been a software update. Always keep the number of running apps to a minimum so that it does not get overloaded. The same for tablets (iPad, Samsung etc).

Check your internet speed

It is worth checking your internet speed every now and again. There is a good website to do this called “Speed of me”. At the moment it is the top search result in google. You can also browse directly by going to https://speedof.me.

The test will give you three numbers – Download, Upload and Latency.

If your Download or Upload is less than 1MB, then you should consider contacting your broadband provider.

Latency is measured in thousands of a second (ms) and tells you how quickly the internet is responding to you. If your Latency is higher than 100ms, then there may be a fault on your line, or your computer Wi-Fi is not working correctly. Contact your broadband provider in the first instance.

Clean your gadgets

Highly recommend purchasing some computer cleaning spray so that you can give your gadgets screens, keyboards and mice a nice clean. It’s amazing what a difference it makes. Keyboards, Phone sand tablet screens and mice do get grimy over time. Don’t forget the games console controllers, screens and the remote controls.

Run “Disk clean-up”

If you are a Windows user, type “Disk Clean-up” in the windows search bar. The top app will be the “Disk Clean-up App”. Open it. When it has opened, click on button near the bottom left called “Clean-up system files”. This will re-load disk clean-up and included the option to include files that have been used for windows updates. Ensure the option to remove “Windows Update Clean-up” and “Previous Versions of Windows” (if applicable) are checked. This usually frees up a lot of disk space and is worth doing every few months.

Next issues topic will be about connected devices around the home. If anyone has any specific requests, then please let us know.