Did You Know?
Dirty Computers
How dirty is your computer? That’s actually a two part question. Most of the time, computers get “dirty” from viruses, Trojan Horses, Ad-ware, and other unwanted programs slowing down the machine, or stealing your information. We can clean those up here on the bench doing what we call a “tune-up”.Computers can also get physically dirty, especially inside the case. They can have as many as 4 fans inside, for the power supply, CPU, video card, and one for the case. All of those fans move a lot of air, which can suck dust and hair into the works. That then collects in the cooling fins of heat sinks, inside the power supply housing, and inside of the CD/DVD and floppy disk drives. We’ve seen computers on the bench here that were so dirty that it looked like a small animal was living in them. That buildup then causes the computer to run hotter, shortening the life of its components. If things get too hot, the computer may even freeze or shut down.
You can open the computer case and gently blow the dust out yourself with a can of compressed air. But don’t try to use a vacuum cleaner. Vacuuming can generate static electricity (especially when the air is dry) which can zap the integrated circuits on the motherboard, rendering your computer inoperable.
Or, you can bring it in to us for a tune-up, and we’ll clean both the operating system, and the inside of the computer.
Innovative Concepts http://www.in-con.com/tips.asp 805 545-9562
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| May 2008: | “Free” email accounts |
| Apr 2008: | Mark your calendars! BATTER UP!! |
| Mar 2008: | Label and save your system disks! |
| Feb 2008: | Cell Phone Tricks |
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| Aug 2007: | Dirty Computers |
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