Electronics

[glb613]

A neighbor had a hard drive failure and asked me to fix it. The computer is a 5 year old HP notebook I sold her 3 years ago. She was lucky to have enough warning of the potential hard drive failure, she was able to get her pictures before it died. If you don't regularly save or make copies of your important data, start today.

When I got the notebook, I was appalled at how dirty is was. It was so bad, I had to remove the vent cover to vacuum out the lint and dust. Heat build up is the number 1 cause of notebook failures. If you use a notebook, make sure you regularly vacuum the vent openings. DON'T use canned air because it will blow the dust back into the computer.

The same type of cleaning needs to be done with a desktop computer. Open the case and use either a vacuum or canned air to get rid of the dust. If you open the tower/case, make sure you discharge any static electricity before touching inside the computer. People who have pets that shed or have the tower sitting close to the floor need to do this on a regular basis. The closer to the floor, the more dust/hair there is to remove. I also vacuum keyboards to get rid of crumbs and other debris.

Not only is there operating system maintenance, there is physical maintenance to keep your computer running properly.