Jeff Dray from ZDNet Australia sister site TechRepublic describes some of the stranger setups he's encountered in the field (wood smoke coming out of a box, a system meltdown caused by a dust cover...) and offers recommendations for placing a PC so that it has a long, healthy life.
Blocked ventilation slots, obstructed fans, proximity to dust and debris, restricted airflow -- all of these conditions can lead to overheating, diminishing performance, and eventually, system failure.
Sometimes, in our rush to make sure that the screen, the keyboard, the mouse pad, and the coffee cup are in the right place on our desks, we forget to look after the PC itself. Over the years, I have seen PC system boxes located in some strange places, leading to some big problems.
Bizarre occurrences
I remember visiting a customer who had called me complaining
that his PC was smoking. Sure enough, when I got there, smoke was coming out of
the ventilation slots -- but curiously, it was wood smoke. The PC was in an
office next to a woodworking shop and the customer explained that it had been
in the workshop up till the day before. I opened the case to find that the box
was half filled with saw dust, which was smouldering.
The customer was keen to show me that the system still worked properly, so I took it outside and used an air duster to remove all the dust. It still smelt of burning wood, the inside of the case was sticky with resin from the wood, and most of the components were a lovely golden brown colour. It still works beautifully.
Another time, I was called to a customer with a faulty CD drive. Apparently, it would not play CDs. Every time he put one in and closed the drawer, nothing happened on the screen. Checking My Computer showed that the drive wasn't reading anything. I took a new drive off the shelf and drove to the client's house. When I got there, he showed the drive opening and a disk sitting there. I tried my standard test, right-click on the drive icon and choose Eject. I heard a drive open, but the drive didn't open. The mystery was soon solved when I noticed another system box under the desk. Its drive was open. He had been using a PC he never turned off in the belief that it was his new one, which was on the desk.
When I visit customer premises, I often notice that the system box has been situated in a place that can be unhealthy for it. The usual thing I see is that the box has been fitted into a space that does not allow free low of air around it or where it's vulnerable to contamination.
This week, I was asked to look at a system that kept freezing up. It sounded like it was overheating, so I pulled the cover off to find a solid wad of fluff blocking the vent slots and filling the cooling fins on the processor. The wad of fluff was so compacted that it lifted off as a solid lump of felt. A fresh dab of thermal transfer paste on the CPU and it's been a lot happier since. It had collected fluff because it was sited on the floor, next to a heavily used thoroughfare. Dust and fibres had been drawn into the vent slots and collected for a couple of years.
Blocked ventilation slots and obstructed fans are also serious problems. The early symptom is poor performance; the PC will lock up and need restarting. The first thing to check if this occurs regularly is the box itself. The fault is usually diagnosed in the first few seconds of the phone call:
"It starts up okay and works for a few minutes, then starts to run slowly, and then it crashes."
In one case, a customer who was determined to make sure his office equipment was clean had bought a set of plastic covers for his PC. Trouble was, he left the covers on while it was being used, resulting in overheating and an expensive failure.
Image vs. efficiency
I once worked for a company whose poorly located equipment
stemmed from vanity. The owners of the company wanted the office to have an
image rather than be set up as an efficient environment. One day, we arrived to
find that all the PCs in the office had been relocated so that the right-hand
side of the office had all the monitors on the right side of the desk. All the
desks on the left were aligned the opposite way. Moreover, all the desktops had
been set to the same image and had been locked. This arrangement took no
account of the people who were left-handed and wanted their mouse on the left.
(I was ordered to put mine back on the right of the screen on the grounds that
my desk was making the place untidy.) It wasn't surprising that many
experienced people resigned from that company, and a lot of its skill base
walked out the door.
Location is everything
You can clean the dust out as often as you like, but unless
you correct the environment, the problem will reoccur. Too much overheating and
the CPU will fail. So what options are available to ensure the health of a PC?
You can raise the box off the floor with a stand or even a couple of thick books. You can use an industrial type PC case with removable filters that trap the contaminants before they can do harm, although they're expensive, bulky, and heavy. I regularly service some of these where 4.7mm steel cases weigh more than 10kgs, and it can be hard to drag them from their shelves to clean them. You can arrange for the units to be stored in a clean room environment, but that's an expensive option and somewhat over the top.
A tower case will take up less desk space but may not conform to the office aesthetic. The old favourite desktop-style case with the screen plonked on top ensures that the case does not lurk in the dust and fluff under the desk or get buried among the other office furniture. The downside is that the available space for other work on the desk is limited unless you have a large desk or workspace.
With the dramatic reduction in the price of LCD screens, lots of people have more room on their desktops, making a desktop location a realistic option. This allows better access to the power buttons, USB ports, and CD and DVD drives, as well as keeping the works away from scuffed up dust and carpet fibres.
Preventive maintenance
Many PC users are unaware of the need for cooling and
ventilation. A few words of explanation are usually all that is required. Once
they're aware of the problems, they can make the right choices for their own
environment. I also like to institute a program of regular case cleaning. This
allows for a quick inspection of the system condition and highlights machines
in high risk environments. Then, I can alert users to the problem and take the
appropriate action before the situation gets any worse.
Challenging environments
If you're supporting equipment in less-than-ideal
conditions, check out further suggestions in "10
things you should know about deploying technology in harsh environments."
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