Summer Computing Tips

I don't professionally do technical support anymore, but I did in days-gone-by. I actually enjoyed it and supported over 1000 desktops.

Here are a couple things I thought I'd pass on, thoughts that cross my mind related to technical support, as the summer settles in here in Gloucester, MA:

1) Heat Kills Computers

Not only does it kill computers, but it kills monitors, flash drives, hard drives, graphics cards, and especially laptops. If your computer is in a room that is above 85 degrees you have an accident waiting to happen.

What can you do? Air conditioning certainly, but think about getting a small fan just to blow air on the back of your computers/laptop. I got a small $8.00 fan that runs behind my laptop and it keeps my laptop nice and cool (and I rarely use the air-conditioner for cooling).

Too bad I didn't get it last week... before my $800 graphics card crashed!

To add insult to injury... I'm two weeks out of warranty. Ugh.

2) Dust Kills Computers

Dust kills computers because it usually clogs up the air vents in your computer housing that are required for effective cooling. Look for where the air can come into your computer and make sure dust isn't plugging up the holes. Usually, you'll find these air-holes on the sides of your computer. Remember, there is a fan in the back of most computers that effectively creates a vacuum for dust to find its way into your computer - to be sucked INTO it!

Dust can also create static electricity problems and in a worse-case scenario - a fire.

Where does all this dust come from anyway? Yikes!

3) Back-Up

Backup the most important files on your computer at least once a week. Backup your FLASH drives too. These cute little plug-in hard drives work great - but do fail.

And they do get lost. I love mine but back it up regularly.

4) Bad Weather

Lightening strikes are almost guaranteed to cause problems for any electronics they can find there way into: modems, cable modems, ethernet cards, home networks, PCs, laptops, smart phones plugged in and charging. When I see those big boomers approaching I run and disconnect everything. Call me crazy, but I haven't lost a thing yet. My neighbors have lost a computer, their Internet connection (cable modem), and a printer.

5) The seasonal change is also a good time to make sure you're anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-spam filters and software is up-to-date. Trust me, it will cost you a lot more than $200 to have a computer fixed after a virus attack or a spyware removal.