Computer Tip

[Brad_M]

I shut down my computer when I went on vacation last week and when I came back, it wouldn't start.

The power light came on, but Windows wouldn't load.

Nothing came on the screen at all, it was totally blank.

I checked all the wires and they were ok.

I gave up and figured it must have been on it's last leg and died at that moment.

I thought the Motherboard or the Hard Drive must have failed and it wouldn't be worth taking it into the shop and pay them to tell me that and then pay more to get it fixed.

Today, a friend at work told me he had a similar problem with his computer once and when he took it into the shop they found a lot of dust and dog hair that got sucked inside and when they cleaned it out, it worked fine.

I have seven cats and I figured that might be what's wrong with mine.

When I opened it up, I was surprised that there wasn't much dust or hair at all, (prolly cuz I vacuum the floor every other day and brush the cats once a week).

I thought, oh, well, must be something else but I though it wouldn't hurt to vacuum out the little bit that was in there just to see if it works.

It worked!

I think from now on, I'm going to make it a chore to open up the computer shell and vacuum inside at least once a month or two to keep it running well.

So if you ever have a similar problem, try cleaning out the inside before taking it into the shop.

It could save you a lot of money.

[MindCrime]

do you have a desktop PC or laptop?

[Uncle Joe]

I have both...but it's the desktop tower that need to be cleaned periodically.

[Brad_M]

Desktop PC

[Earth-Angel]

It's mostly also to do with the cooling system (the little fan - pathetic in most PCs but it's the standard). Depending on the age of the PC - the older ones are usually the worst. There isn't sufficient cooling inside the machine often due to there not being good space between the back of the machine and other obejects like the wall, a desk etc. The more the fan/holes are blocked, the less air gets inside to cool things (mostly the graphics card) which causes them to overheat = shut down.

Clearning out the dust and hair helps clear out the things that are blocking the PCs ability to cool itself.

I wouldn't recommend using a vacuum, rather a dry dust cloth as static inside the machine can cause worse damage to your other components (they're hardy things, but can be finicky at the best of times).

Also any humidity + dust = cloggy, clumpy dust so keeping things dry is the best solution.

/nerd.