Bonza Mobile Computer Repairs

This week I received this….

Hiya Ros,
Did you hear that my Mum’s computer caught on fire while she was on Facebook and burnt down part of the house !
The insurance company refurbished the place, so now she has new carpets, new furniture, walls painted, HiFi and computer replaced.

As much as I’d like to blame Facebook, Twitter and any other social networking tool ( that’s right, I’m not a fan), there’s only one thing that can cause a computer to go up in flames – DUST.  

                                                                               
Dust in a computer acts like a thermal blanket keeping everything nicely overheating, add a closed in cabinet with no airflow, keep a bunch of loose papers or any flammable material, say curtains, nearby and before you know it you’ve lost your house!

How many of us forget to put oil in the car? Computers need the same level of maintenance.

As dust accumulates in the case it can cause overheating, disrupt air flow and even deteriorate some component connections. The overheating is caused when dust gathers on top of heat sinks, circuits on the motherboard, in vents leading into and out of the computer as well on the power supply. Dust prevents cool air from reaching the components that need to be cooled in order to operate efficiently.

In a very bad situation dust can completely stop fans from working. When that happens the computer will overheat and will “most of the time” shutdown in order to prevent damage. In this case it caused a fire!

You can clean dust away yourself using portable vacuum cleaners and anti-static compressed air. Do not use a standard vacuum as it can generate a lot of static electricity that can damage your computer.

I PREFER TO LEAVE IT TO EXPERTS… it’s worth getting a computer technician to do an annual maintenance and security check on your computer.