How To Fix A Stopped Or Loud Fan

Does your computer seem to be louder then when you first bought it? Well there are a couple of things that could be wrong. One would be that your hard drive is getting old and starting to die out or it could be just a case or power supply fan. First you will want to open up your computer case to see where the noise is coming from. If it is your hard drive that is making the noise then you may want to consider backing up most or all of your stuff because the drive may or may not have much life left in it. If it is just a fan that is a very simple fix. You have two options here you can either just go out and buy a new fan (they are pretty cheap $10-$20) or you can choose to clean the fan. Cleaning the fan is actually a really easy process from what you may think it may be.

First you will want to turn off your computer completely and then unplug the power cord so there isn't any power going to the computer. Now you will need to take the fan out of the case (usually just a couple screws). Now there are a couple things that could make it so you fan isn't working correctly one could be that it is clogged with dust and the other could be that it is not being lubricated enough.

If the fan is clogged with dust you will just want to go pick up a can of compressed air (do not use a normal air compressor). Once you have the can of compressed air you will want to blow all of the dust out of the fan while keeping the can upright. After you have all of the dust out you just need to put the fan back into the case the same way that you took it out. Now start up your computer again. Take your can of compressed air and blow into the rotating fan to get the remaining dust out of it. If the fan is still not working correctly you may need to oil up the fan.

Can of compressed air

To oil up the fan you will first need the fan out of the case. I suggest that you use some type of 3 in 1 oil (Do Not Use WD-40) you can usually pick it up for around $3. Now to put the oil into the fan there should be a sticker on one of the sides you will want to peel back the sticker just until you can see a little cap. You will want to take this cap off so you can put the oil into the fan.

Sticker peeled back and cap off

Now you will want to take your 3 in 1 oil and put just one or two drops into the fan depending on how bad the fan really is.

Oiling the fan with 3 in 1 oil

Now you will just want to put the cap and sticker back on the fan and put the fan back into the case. You will then need to start up your computer again it may take a minute or two for the fan to become fully lubricated and working smoothly. That is it for cleaning and lubricating your fans so I hope that this can help you out so you don't have to go out and buy new fans.

Multitask With More Speed Using Shortcuts In Firefox

Do you ever feel like you are using a ton of time because you have to move your hands from the keyboard to the mouse or just having to click so many things? Well there are shortcuts for many things in Firefox some of them I have already mentioned Here but in this article I will show some navigating shortcuts that I use almost everyday. So here they are, enjoy.

Open New Tab: Ctrl + T

Move Forward A Tab: Ctrl + Tab

Move Backward A Tab: Ctrl + Shift + Tab

Search For Words: Ctrl + F

Jump To Navigation Bar: Ctrl + L

New Tab With New Url: Type In your suggested Url the hit Alt + Enter

These are just the main shortcuts that I use in my everyday browsing but if you have some that you would like to add that you use on a daily basis just post them into the comments. Now you can get more things done in a shorter amount of time.

Surf The Internet Faster Using Firefox Url Shortcuts

Have you ever wanted to just type the Url of a site but not have to type the .com. You can do this very simply with shortcut keys with .com's and many of the others.

.com - Type the Url without the .com then hit Ctrl + Enter.

.net - Type the Url without the .net then hit Shift + Enter.

.org - Type the Url without the .org then hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter.

Those are the main ones that are used and can really help getting you to where you need to be faster without having to type as much. Also if you do not have Firefox installed you can get it here: www.firefox.com.

Using CCleaner To Clean Up Your System

Have you wanted a program that can clean up your system easily. Well that program is called CCleaner and can be downloaded from Filehippo. This small program does a very good job at cleaning up all of the tmp files and all of the information left in your web browsers. CCleaner also will clean up your registry too. Also there is a function to uninstall programs but I would suggest using Revo Uninstaller to do this instead.

First when you open up CCleaner your main window should look like the one below and should be on the Cleaner tab. Depending on your preferences you can check whichever options that you would like to use. You then have two choices you can either just push Run Cleaner or you can hit Analyze. Is doesn't really matter which one you use but I personally like to use the Analyze first because then you can see how much space that is going to be freed up on you hard drive. Then after it is done analyzing I will then click on the Run Cleaner button.

Main CCleaner window


After Analyze


After Cleaning is completed

Now that you have run the cleaner you can move onto the Registry tab. This one is pretty strait forward all you need to do is click Scan For Issues. After that is completed you will want to then click Fix Selected Issues. You will then get a prompt window asking if you would like to backup your registry first before you delete the files. You will want to click yes just to be safe and you may want to designate a specific folder to keep these backups in so you have them in their own little place. Then from there you will just need to click Fix Selected Issues.

Registry scan


Prompt to backup the registry


Fixing the registry values

That is that main use of this program but if you do look through it a bit more you can find some more advanced options and you can really tweak what is deleted and what is not. Just play around with it for awhile and you will get more used to it and find out what certain things do. Have fun and keep your PC cleared of junk with CCleaner.

Making Text Boxes Larger In Google Chrome

The other day I started playing around with the Google Chrome browser and noticed that you can resize text boxes.  This can be usefull if you need to see all of your writing but the normal box is just too small so you have to scroll instead.  To do this all you will need to do is go to a site that has a text box (the comment box below works) then you just have to click inside the box. After that you will need to click in the bottom right hand corner of the box and drag it to what ever size you see fit.

Comment box before being resized

Comment box after being resized