With the warm weather upon us, something that is often overlooked in computer hardware is taking the appropriate steps to minimize the chances of your devices overheating.
A number one killer of anything electronic is heat. Also, the accumulation of hair and dust tends to slowly suffocate the sensitive electrical components found inside most desktops, laptops, tablets, printers and any other device that gets plugged into your wall. For computers, this can be especially troublesome as the cooling devices built into the computer become clogged, which in turn starts to slow down the fans designed to cool these devices.
Whether you take your computer into a computer store you trust, or you use a can of compressed air yourself, it is important to clean out the inside of any computer at least once a year.
Doing this yourself is actually quite simple. For laptops, unplug from the wall, remove the battery (if possible) and then spray through the different vent openings in the back and bottom of the laptop. Spraying under the keyboard can sometimes remove debris, as well. For a desktop, again unplug from all power sources, remove the side panel, and use the compressed air to blow out any fans and vent openings you see. Take the computer outside as you can sometimes get a lot of dust blowing into the air.
I look forward to answering questions from readers each month, so please send me your computer/tech questions at: questions@tekamba.com. QCBN
By Greg Hicks
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