[Hidden-tech] How old is too old for a computer?

Jonathan Dill jfdill at jfdill.com
Wed Jun 1 00:36:36 EDT 2005


Christofer deHahn wrote:

>>I was wondering if anyone can answer a few questions for me pertaining to
>>    
>>
>my 98 Dell computer and Dell screen.
>  
>
>>My screen all of a sudden has a dark gray, blackish  look to it in the
>>    
>>
>lower right hand side. I had just moved it >so i thought it was dirty but
>turns out its inside....does this mean my screen is on its way out??
>
>As long as you haven't recently placed something with a magnetic field
>(magnet, transformer, new speaker, etc.) in tht corner, then it may be
>failing.
>  
>
You may want to try to "Degauss" the monitor--on most modern monitors, 
that happens automatically when you power off/on the monitor, but with 
older monitors, you may have to look through the "on screen" menus, or 
sometimes there will be a special "Degauss" button, which might even be 
on the back of the monitor.  The manual for the monitor should still be 
available on the Support portion of the Dell website.  I used to work 
with a lot of early 90's 20" Sony monitors on older Silicon Graphics 
workstations, and sometimes just rotating the monitor 90 degrees could 
cause the screen to go funny until it was degaussed.  Monitors can also 
be affected by the local magnetic field of the Earth.

>>Server
>>drives that live in datacenters, with controlled power, that are on all the
>>time, can last a very long time, but when they fail, they fail big. 
>>
Overheating and power fluctations are probably the things I have seen 
kill drives the most frequently.  Physical shock or parts just wearing 
out will definitely kill a disk drive, I just haven't seen that happen 
as often.  If a disk drive seems noisy or becomes more noisy, that is 
usually a sign of an impending physical failure.  In old drives, the 
bearings may fail, or oil from the bearings will condense on the surface 
of the platters until there is not enough space for the heads to "float" 
above the disk and the heads will crash into the platters.  Failing 
bearings usually cause a grinding or whining sound--if the sound seems 
to change in timbre periodically, that is a very bad sign.

Having a UPS (power backup) should help prolong the life of disk 
drives.  It is also a good idea to have some kind of temperature 
monitoring or at least check regularly on cooling fans and replace them 
if they get noisy which probably means they are about to fail.  Also a 
good idea to dust the fans--I find the best method is to take the 
computer outside and use compressed air, good idea to wear a dust mask.  
You should immobilize the fan if possible, or use short bursts of air, 
so you don't spin the fan up to high RPMs and ruin the bearings, 
although it is fun to hear that siren whistle sound.  A regular vacuum 
cleaner can generate static electricity which can be harmful to the 
electronic components.  If you are going to vacuum, ideally you would 
want to use an electronics vac, but that is not something the average 
person is going to have.

Jonathan



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