3 enemies of computers
What are the 3 enemies of a computer?
Heat is the number one enemy of a computer. This is the one that will make your system crash and burn. Computer chips create an enormous amount of heat. A heatsink and fan is positioned directly over the processor and we ensure that the best heat conducting grease is spread over the chip to give it the very best heat conductivity. These chips work normally at temperatures up to 55 degrees Celsius and that is only with the fan keeping the heat down to that temperature. If you didn’t have a fan and heatsink working the chip would fail completely destroying the chip within seconds, so it’s a good idea to make sure that not only does the fan work but the heatsink has the best grease applied in the right way.
The fans do create a bit of noise which is why when you turn your computer on there is that “white noise” going on in the background. With the computers need to move air to cool air flow around a computer is so important.
Dust build up can cause electro static discharge happens when there is too much dust in a computer. This can cause failures in the components themselves or cause the computer to crash so it is important to keep the computer area as dust free as possible.
How do the computers get so dusty in the first place?
Because of the need to have a fan on the main CPU, a fan on the power supply unit and sometimes another fan to expel the hot air from the computer it actually brings in dusk. In some respects it’s unavoidable.
What can be done about it? The best way to keep the dust down is to periodically Hoover the dust away or use an air duster. It is best left to when the computer is in the workshop.
Viruses have cost computer owners billions of pounds in repairs and lost data. Viruses are regarded by most computer users as quite benign, something that can be just rid of without problems.
Never be complacent with viruses, some of them can cause massive losses and the makers are getting mor and more clever into tricking you into thinking that you are installing something quite normal rather than the virus which is about to cost you a lot of money and risk your valuable data.
The past 10 years in particular have seen waves of different threats and my computer workshop has dealt with viruses every single day since that time. I know the computer workshop only sees problems but viruses are a problem for all computer users lives and it is rare that I come across a user that hasn’t been troubled by one or knows someone who has.
The computer virus problem is mainly an issue for Microsoft Windows users rather than Macs or Linux systems but that could change especially as the market share of Windows systems reduces.