IT Support - Can You Extend a computer's "Life Expectancy"?
How long does the average computer user manage to have a system running smoothly
?
Most will have experienced their first system failures in the first month of buying their first PC. Those, fortunately are mostly software related and data corruption due to improper use. Time eventually allows you to get used with how you should operate it properly and less traumatizing and you even get less and less Blue Crashes and " freezing screens". As first 2-3 months pass, your computer gets slower and slower and can't figure out what on Earth is going on. You run the usual defragmentation on schedule and what not. The programs you keep installing all the time are not even taking a lot of disk space.
It is Very often when you get asked about how to stop the performance degradation. If a computer runs on a company network in a Domain, it is easier to control this by restricting User Rights when it comes to installing software and other functions to which normally just Power Users and Admins have access to. What do you do with the other quite big part of domestic users or small business users running their systems as freely as it gets?
You can often find Windows XP users with more than 80 services/programs running simultaneously. Imagine what a Vista or Win 7 would look like. Many are unaware how many background running system services each program they install adds to the load. Some of these will place a heavy load on your Hard Disk and Processor. Add some 3D gaming to it and there you go. Perfect recipe for a soon to die computer.
Almost everything you try to do, is being processed very slow. Your Hard Disk at some point will start making funny noises and at this rhythm it is likely to happen before the first year, the screen will eventually start showing strange artefacts, white bands and other unusual effects and some times the computer shuts itself down or restarts on its own when you expect it the least.
If this sounds familiar the bad news is that it may be quite late and it is already a case which involves repairs at hardware level.
Some may want to argue that software configuration cannot really affect the hardware in a destructive way, but they can be proven wrong easily. The problem is that most computers bought from the high street stores or most other retailers already come with a lot of pre-installed software which is in no way configured properly. Add to that the software the user installs... and we know where we are heading.
Proper software configuration can be done once the user defines clearly (ideally to an IT person) what tasks a computer should be capable of and/or what it will be mostly used for.
There are also a few hardware related measures every one should consider in order to keep their systems in no need of physical repairs for as long as possible.
Heat is one of the most common factors which can damage components. So always make sure that both Desktops and Laptops have a reasonable ventilation space around the entry and exit cooling vents. On laptops this is even more important as they have a very limited space inside their cases and heat is always a problem for them. This is one of the reasons for which Laptops almost always have a shorter life time than desktops. Don't put your laptop on your lap, floor, bed (to name some of the more common places), don't switch it on while is still in the bag or briefcase. If you live in a city expect to need to clean the cooling system about once a month. The entry vent and cooling fan will normally gather enough dust to stop them from performing efficiently. Generated heat will increase, the dust gathered on the cooling fan and entry/exit vents will not allow the heat to be pushed out, the hardware will suffer more tear and wear than usual and will eventually collapse. That is about the only physical care you'd need to worry about with the laptops.
On Desktops things are fortunately more flexible. You cannot modify much inside a laptop, but in the comparatively spacious Desktop case you can really do so much more. First thing, like for laptops, make sure there is sufficient space around the case for the cooling entry/exit vents. If you are using Air cooling make sure the heat sink under the processor fan, the one under the graphic processor and any other active and passive cooling Heat sinks are dust free. Again, many ignore this issue, but if you live in a city, dust is a major issue. It normally takes maximum a month for the insides of a computer to fill up with enough dust to mess up the initially efficient cooling. If you use liquid cooling and you fitted it yourself, you are not really likely to to need to read much of this thread as you probably know already quite a bit about efficient cooling. Some companies do build Liquid Cooled customised computers though. Those of you who bought such a system, must be aware of the physical maintenance of such an efficient cooling; the cooling agent must be topped up every couple of months and, if it does not contain an anti-corrosive and anti-algae substance, you would probably need to rinse and change the cooling agent about twice a year.
Know your system specifications and be aware that if they don't meet the recommended requirements, you are likely to load it with something which may lead to a shorter life... at least for some of the components.
Always try to get help with a proper software configuration if you cannot do it yourself.
It costs you little or nothing to ask (ideally the right questions), should you not be 100% sure, when buying either a computer, components or software.
IT Support - Can You Extend a computer's "Life Expectancy"?
By: Christian Gabriel C
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