Clean your computer, people!

[Archosaurusrev 12]

Alright, there is no section for stuff like this so I put it here.

To start why I made this thread: I have a fairly good family use computer which is capable of running ArmA2 CO at a steady 40 - 60 FPS, in the past months it hasn't been that way. I rarely got over a steady 25 FPS and I just had enough and opened this monster up, to my surprise there were dozens of nut sized dustballs in it and more.

So, lesson learned, before you come bitching about "hurr optimisation" even if you have a 1000+ dollar PC, go clean it.

It made my PC perform to it's full capability, before my PC was running like an old Windows 98 :D.

Now you may all say Cool story bro and we shall move on.

[nettrucker 142]

After every patch applied a defragment of your harddrive where ArmA is installed is always recommended. Patching causes a lot of fragmented files which has negative effect of your PC's performence in general.

cheers

[dmarkwick 261]

Defrag, or use an SSD :)

---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 PM ----------

To expand on my earlier:

I use an app called Ultimate Defrag which does a great job of defragging, and has the feature that I can arrange all my .PBO files on the outer tracks of the HD, meaning I get unfragmented fastest access to them :)

[sgt gul 0]

thanks for the tips guys, i started to defrag harddisk. Last time i did it was some 8 years ago....

[Archosaurusrev 12]

After every patch applied a defragment of your harddrive where ArmA is installed is always recommended. Patching causes a lot of fragmented files which has negative effect of your PC's performence in general.

cheers

Extreme PC noob here, I don't even know WHAT defragging does. I'm familiar with the name although.

[Maio 293]

Yup , clean your PC at least once a month , apply thermal gel once every 6 months on your CPU and use defragmentation and cleaning software on a weekly basis .

I use Defraggler and Ccleaner to do this .

It should keep your PC on it's toes for a longer time without you needing to re-instal windows .

[dmarkwick 261]

Extreme PC noob here, I don't even know WHAT defragging does. I'm familiar with the name although.

Windows is a very "dirty" operating system, it sprays your hard drive with all kinds of temporary files all the time. This means that over time, the "empty" spaces on your HD are not necessarily next to each other. And the files you do have, are not necessarily contiguous, they are fragmented. To read a file, your HD might have to read parts of it from all over your disk as Windows chops it up to fit into the empty spaces.

As you might imagine, over time your HD can become seriously messy.

What defragging does, is to rearrange your files so that they are contiguous (all in one place) and packed together, meaning that your empty spaces are also packed together.

It's kind of like taking everything out of your cupboards, and putting it all back in an orderly fashion, giving you more space at the front.

If you haven't defragged in a long time, you should defrag 2 or 3 times in succession. It may take a few hours.

Edited July 8, 2011 by DMarkwick

[Archosaurusrev 12]

Windows is a very "dirty" operating system, it sprays your hard drive with all kinds of temporary files all the time. This means that over time, the "empty" spaces on your HD are not necessarily next to each other. And the files you do have, are not necessarily contiguous, they are fragmented. To read a file, your HD might have to read parts of it from all over your disk as Windows chops it up to fit into the empty spaces.

As you might imagine, over time your HD can become seriously messy.

What defragging does, is to rearrange your files so that they are contiguous (all in one place) and packed together, meaning that your empty spaces are also packed together.

It's kind of like taking everything out of your cupboards, and putting it all back in an orderly fashion.

If you haven't defragged in a long time, you should defrag 2 or 3 times in succession. It may take a few hours.

Thanks for the explanation.

[Leon86 13]

Windows 7 does a weekly defragmentation by default, so this is primarily a windows XP tip. After patching arma is heavily fragmented, so manually defragging after patching is a good idea.

I just use the disk defragmenter built into windows.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Leon86

[sgt gul 0]

ahh thats the reason my system gave a note that the last defrag was 7-7-2011 :S i am using windows 7. So like Leon said, Win7 does it by default. I still did it, because drive D was not defraged. I install most stuff on D instead of C

[Nicholas 5]

My suggestions:

1. Run CCleaner every day.

2. Scan your computer for malware every 2-5 days.

3. Defrag every week.

4. Check for the latest drivers every two weeks.

5. Clean the dust out every month. (Or every two weeks.)

On number 5, when I cleaned out my PC last week, before I got my new hardware, it ran so much quieter and cooler. A dusty computer is bad! And hardware that is hot does not perform as well as cooler temps!

Edited July 8, 2011 by Nicholas

[polecat.uk 11]

I cleaned my own pc afew weeks ago, its first in 3 years, all fans blocked solid my gfx card temps were in the 80s on full fan load playing arma 2, now there in the 60s with 70% fan load, but the game still plays as it did, why would the game get more fps with just cleaning it? if your pc gets to hot ie gfx card or cpu the pc will just shut down, if my gfx card hit 83 while playing arma my pc crashed,

I had to buy a new cpu cooler as the old one fell to bits when i remove it, so take that into account when cleaning your pc

[liquidpinky 11]

I have to vacuum the shit out of my PC every week thanks to a shitload of high cfm fans for my radiators, Mrs Liquid on the other hand gets to hoover up less because my PC has already filtered out the house.

I know when it's cleaning time as I will start getting BSODs as the rads can't shift the heat quick enough when they get dusty.

[Tankbuster 1733]

I've got one of these. It's VERY expensive and very noisy, but it's pretty powerful. Dust doesn't stand a chance.

http://www.mrpcclean.co.uk/datavac-electric-duster-ed500-p-261.html

[Nicholas 5]

why would the game get more fps with just cleaning it? if your pc gets to hot ie gfx card or cpu the pc will just shut down, if my gfx card hit 83 while playing arma my pc crashed,c

I never said that the game would get more FPS I just explained that the hardware will perform better at lower temps. It won't shut down your PC like you explained if it is kept clean, thus performing better. Hardware that shuts down your PC because it gets too hot is not performing good, because it shouldn't get that hot in the first place.

[pipscouse 10]

I would recommend My Defrag

http://www.mydefrag.com/

[[frl]myke 14]

I think by "clean your Computer" he doesn't think mainly about defragging but about things like this:

[Leon86 13]

that site is awesome :)

Anyways, I have an antec p182, it has dust filters that work very well. My uncle has the same case, he never cleaned it and when it was time to upgrade (pentium D to i5-750) years later it was still quite clean, a little bit of dust in the corners and on the fans but that was it.

[sgt gul 0]

Leon, any tips on system cleanup? i may be able to find something in Holland, if you have any suggestions.

[instagoat 133]

This is true. My performance also got better when I cleaned my PC a couple of weeks ago.

Unfortunately, then, the stuttering became apparent which I noted here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=121861

On total though, keeping the PC interior clean from dust is important, reduces the stress on components, and ensures proper displacement of heat from the hard working parts.

Before I cleaned the PC, the radiator of the processor was completely clogged up with dust. It looked horrible...

Cheers

Insta

[Hud Dorph 22]

So now we can gain fps by removing dust ???

While i do agree with the importance of keeping dust away from cooling hardware i doubt any will get xtra fps by doing so. I might keep from crashing due to overheating but more fps - i doubt. BIS start selling dustbrooms..

Edited July 8, 2011 by [HUD]Dorph

[[frl]myke 14]

Dorph, it's not about gaining FPS, it is about losing FPS. A dusty CPU cooler will not be able to cool down the CPU enough. To prevent damage from overheating the CPU might throttle down resulting in a loss of FPS. That's the point, not getting 100% of the possible performance due to self-protecting mechanisms of the CPU.

[tj72 0]

The virus problem in web searches seems to be worse than ever on my end. Ive had to clean malware out of my systems a couple times now. So far I havent had to rebuild from scratch, yet.

One was my home PC and the other was my work laptop. I used to only use Malwarebytes as it would get everything and its still a good product (free or pay). I had to use another program called Hitman Pro and it got what Malware bytes missed. I havent been using AV but Im going to add it and use Symantec AV with Malware Bytes and Hitman Pro (have to buy it after 28 days but it seems worth it). Im thinking of getting a new browser as the older firefox versions seem vulnerable more than ever. Im also thinking of buying Macrium reflect to back up an image of my configured system. I have used Macrium reflect on professional jobs and it works well for me. Acronis DriveSpy is another product that is supposed to be good for image stuff.

When cleaning the inside of the PC its not a bad idea to re seat things if you know what your doing. I always press the power button twice on a benched system before re seating things because I have noticed that there is often latent power in the mother on alot of different machines and pulling things off a mobo that has juice in it can be very very VERY BAD! Just watch the fan if you turn off the computer and unplug it and if there is latent power in the board it will spin for a second when you press the button. Newer boards and PS probably not so much of an issue.....

I often find fans failing to be the most common problem when checking the ol' box and they are usually cheap and easy to replace. Keep it cool and dust free and your system will have maximum life span.....

[Nicholas 5]

I haven't gotten any malware in years. Although, I do like to fire up a virtual machine and purposely infect the virtual machine and see what the malware does.

I've been running Microsoft Security Essentials, which is very light on the system resources, and it's also free if you have a genuine copy of Windows. I also bought Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Pro lifetime license for $30. It is also a really good real-time protector.

And yes, you can run Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Microsoft Security Essentials together.

[Hud Dorph 22]

Myke;1976743']Dorph' date=' it's not about gaining FPS, it is about losing FPS. A dusty CPU cooler will not be able to cool down the CPU enough. To prevent damage from overheating the CPU might throttle down resulting in a loss of FPS. That's the point, not getting 100% of the possible performance due to self-protecting mechanisms of the CPU.[/quote']

Ahh ok i just didnt know that cpu's would throttle down if getting too hot, i always thought they would shutdown.