Just Clean It!

I have been having lots of computer problems with my desktop lately. It just would not stay on. It did a spontaneous shut down seemingly whenever it felt like it. It also did not want to start up, sometimes taking two or three or even more tries to get it to come on and stay on.  I thought for sure it was crashing. I did a big backup save on my external hard drives to make sure I didn’t lose all of those precious things like pictures, documents, music, and videos.  I worried about viruses and ran every scanning system I have, but still no improvement.

I talked to my cousin, who is my computer guru, and she suggested running the install discs, which I could not find. I did find a paper from my laptop that said I could make my own recovery discs and that Hewlett Packard has a website (Duh! Why didn’t I think of that before!) that I could visit for trouble shooting. I made the laptop recovery discs, but they wouldn’t work on the desktop. Then I went to the website to see what trouble I could get into or out of with their tips.

When I looked up the symptoms of my desktop, it actually suggested that I make sure the inside of my computer was dirty and needed to be cleaned. You know like get all the dust out! So I took off the cover and used my vacuum to suck up and blow out all the dust and dirt, of which there was plenty! I put the cover back on, hooked all the wires back up, and VOILA! it is working again!

Really! That was it! The only thought I could think of was Occam’s razor. You know in the movie Contact where Jodie Foster’s character, Ellie Arroway, is explaining to Matthew McConaghey’s character, Joss Palmer, about the theory of all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one. Well that was my thought exactly. The simplest solution was the right one.

I do see the irony in the situation that the housecleaner’s computer problems were solved simply by cleaning the inside of her computer! But whatever the fix may be, I am glad for the fix! If you are having similar problems, you might want to try simply getting the dust out! : )