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How often should I clean my computer?


Cleaning your computer and your computer components and peripherals helps keep the components and computer in good working condition.

Depending on the environment that your computer operates in determines how often you should clean your computer case. The below list is our recommendation and may change depending upon your computer's environment.


The frequency of how often you should clean your computer varies on several different factors. To help you determine how often you need to clean your computer we've created the below chart. Check each of the boxes below that apply to your computers environment to determine how often it should be cleaned.

Where is computer located?
In a home environment
In a clean office environment
In construction / industry environment
In school environment

Computer environment

Have cat / dog in same building as computer
Smoke in same building as computer
Smoke next to computer
Computer is on floor
Room that the computer is in has carpet
Eat or drink by computer


Who uses it?

Adult (18 and older)
Young adults (ages 10-18) use computer
Kids (younger than 10) use computer
More than one person uses computer

Based off what has been checked above you should be cleaning your computer every months.

10 Reasons Why PCs Crash


Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Microsoft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

1 Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device  Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Microsoft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

2 Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programs.

3 BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up, It may different in different make PCs .

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).

4 Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. For Windows Xp users Go to

Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Cleanup

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.




5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6 Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures or database in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus program is Quick Heal. Another is Norton AntiVirus,

7 Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.

8 Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU  internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

9 Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

How to Fix 0xC0000005 Error

The 0xC0000005 Error

Every day many people see this message on their computer screens:
‘Error: access violation 0xC0000005’
Did you encounter this error too? Read about possible solutions to 0xC0000005 errors on this website. If you don’t find a fix for your case here, leave us a message describing your 0xC0000005 error and we will add information on possible fixes and prevention for your particular case. Let’s free ourselves from 0xC0000005 errors together!


Solutions to 0xC0000005: Access Violation Error

When 0xC0000005 Error Occurs

0xc0000005 is a critical Access Violation error that requires your immediate reaction. As a rule, you get the 0xc0000005 error message when you try to start one of your software programs in Windows. After that the program terminates and you can’t get it work. Also, the 0xC0000005 error code may appear in other different error messages, depending on the software you are trying to start or install or the action you are trying to execute on your computer. The most typical causes for the ‘0xC0000005: Access Violation’ error are: corrupt registry, malware, faulty RAM or device driver, incorrectly written, installed or updated software or even Windows security features.
Below are some examples of 0xC0000005 error messages and possible solutions. However, if you are not a computer technician we strongly advice to contact an expert on this issue or use specialized software.
Variations of 0xC0000005 Error Messages:
  1. An application error has occurred and an application error log is being generated. Exception: access violation (0xC0000005), Address”
  2. “The application failed to initialize properly (0xC0000005). Click OK to terminate the application”.
  3. The "Stop 0x0000008E (0xC0000005 ...) combination on the blue screen.
How to fix the 0xC0000005 error
0xc0000005 error case 1: Registry

The 0xC0000005 error is often caused by poor maintenance of your computer and corrupt registry entries that pile up as you install and delete programs, especially when you install new programs over old ones that were not completely deleted. To get rid of the 0xC0000005 error you could check all the registry entries manually but this procedure is long and complicated. If you are not a computer expert checking your registry manually may take a few days. In addition, you may damage important registry entries. So if you are not a PC guru use special software to repair your registry.

0xc0000005 error case 2: Virus

Your computer may have a virus and the 0xC0000005 error informs that the system prevented execution of a malicious application. Install the latest

0xc0000005 error case 3: Bad RAM Memory

Quite often this problem results from a faulty RAM memory. This is most likely the reason if you started getting the 0xC0000005 error message after installing a new RAM memory. To check this you can remove the new memory and see if the 0xC0000005 error disappears. If so, get a refund or ask to replace the faulty memory with a good one.
Don’t forget to do the following before you start removing the memory:

1) Turn off your computer and remove all cables (power, network, etc.)
2) Remove the battery (if you have a laptop)
3) Ground yourself out before you touch the memory!!(for example, touch metal screw on a lightswitch).

0xc0000005 error case 4: DEP

Quite often the nasty 0xC0000005 error occurs because of Data Execution Prevention (DEP) introduced by Microsoft in Windows SP2 and used in later versions. DEP is a set of security features that prevents code execution from non-executable memory segments. It’s a vivid illustration of a typical 
0xc0000005 error case 5: Printer Drivers

Sometimes 0xC0000005 error occurs when your current printer profile is incompatible with the updated settings of one of the programs you are trying to use. You may reinstall the program, printer drivers or even the entire system over and over again and that won’t help. The reason is that every time you will install the same default user profile included in your printer installation package by the manufacturer. The simplest way to fix 0xC0000005 is to create a new, clean user profile for the printer.
0xc0000005 error case 6: Bad Video Driver

Sometimes 0xC0000005 errors occur after video card driver updates. If that is the case rollback to the drivers you’ve been using before the update. And inform the vendor about the issue.

0xc0000005 error case 7: IE6

The ‘Access Violation (0xC0000005 exception)’ message may appear in IE6 when a web page or a html document contain a SPAN tag which was not correctly closed. As to solutions, why use IE6 at all? Install a later version or use another browser like Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome.

0xc0000005 error case 8: Google Chrome

If you are using Google Chrome you may get the following message: ‘The application failed to initialize properly (0xC0000005).

0xc0000005 error case 9: Windows Service Pack

Install the latest Service Pack for Windows. Sometimes that removes the 0xC0000005 error.

0xc0000005 error case 10: Development Issue

If you are a software developer and you keep getting an exception with status code STATUSACCESSVIOLATION (0xC0000005), your program might attempt to violate DEP. You could try the following: If your application is designed to use executable memory, it must have this attribute set on the appropriate memory by specifying PAGEEXECUTE, PAGEEXECUTEREAD, PAGEEXECUTEREADWRITE or PAGEEXECUTEWRITECOPY in the memory protection argument of the Virtual memory allocation functions.
If the above solutions don’t help run your program in debugger. Maybe you haven’t initialized the pointer correctly. When debugger stops on a violation simply check the call stack and open every file until you see what piece of code produced the violation. And don’t forget to check for useful tools listed on this site.

0xc0000005 error case 11: Symantec Antivirus

The 0xC0000005 error may appear if you are using Symantec Antivirus. If the the error message mentions SAVRT.SYS, that must the case. All you have to do is update Symantec Antivirus, that removes the 0xC0000005 error.
We hope the information above helped you resolve the 0xC0000005 error.


0xc0000005 error case 12 : Excel and other Office application

If in case you happen to encounter 0xC0000005  error while working on Microsoft office application,

1.        First thing you can try is to try and update the office product to get the latest update that should resolve the issue.
2.       Try to perform Online Repair of the Software suite to repair missing or corrupt files go to  Control panel-->Program and features-->Office 2013-->Change-->Online Repair
3.       If you still see the error try uninstalling the Office completely and go to run type cmd right click on that and run as administrator. Type sfc /scan once verification is complete restart the PC and install the Office suite again.