The following are the reasons why computer hardware components must be maintained regularly.
- Dust
Dust is a major killer of speed if you haven’t cleaned it up in over a year. This can block filters, and prevent air from flowing through the computer. It causes the machine to overheat. It also affects disk drives and can even block USB ports and interfaces. Dust also acts as an insulator which can add to the heat build-up. More importantly, dust can also cause a short in circuit boards and integrated circuits causing computers to crash and, in some cases, even catch fire!
Overheating
Overheating is your computer’s biggest enemy; too much heat can fry its delicate circuitry and chips and send you shopping for a brand new system. Its fast spinning hard drives and quick microprocessors packed inside cramped quarters can lead to dangerous overheating and potential equipment damage. In fact, some high-performance hard disks can produce an astonishing amount of heat. If this heat is not safely dissipated, it can cause serious performance problems or even damage the hard disk. Because today’s high-performance computers generate a great deal of heat – as much as 175 watts for the typical full-sized desktop.
- Major Causes of Overheating
Among the primary causes of computer overheating are the PC’s components themselves, poorly ventilated environment, direct sunlight and dust. Dust build-up can insulate components, compromise their ability to cool off, and cause them to burn up. Unfortunately, in addition to cooling your PC, your computer’s internal cooling fans also manage to suck a fair amount of the dusk that has settled into the immediate environment. A big pile of dust of can also attract moisture, causing a deadly combination of liquid and filth that can corrode the metal parts inside your computer.
Electrical disturbances
A disturbance may be caused by a problem that occurs on Eskom’s transmission or distribution lines, such as a lightning strike. A disturbance may also be caused by circumstances within your home or office building. For example, starting a motor will cause the voltage to drop briefly (a sag) because the motor pulls a large amount of energy. Turning the motor off may cause a brief, sudden rise in voltage (a surge) because the energy needed to run the motor is no longer required.
Disturbances like these, along with noise, spikes, and momentary interruptions of power, may affect your computer equipment without your realizing it. An electrical disturbance is described by the way it changes the shape of the voltage waveform. The five basic disturbances that can occur on an electrical system are illustrated and explained below. A normal waveform of the 60 hertz (Hz) alternating current provided by the utility is also illustrated.
Normal 60 Hz waveformVoltage Sag
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