How many computers have you fried?

I'm killing my third in less than 4 years

[TomWaits]

Alright, I don't know what I'm doing to these suckers, but is it normal for webmasters to go through roughly a computer per year? My first two lasted about a year each, and the one I'm on now I've had for a year and a half, and it's showing the early signs of heart failure. It's become a running joke.

[digitalghost]

What are ya doin to those poor machines? ;) I cook the occasional drive, lose a memory stick here and there but I don't annihilate an entire system every year.

Things I would check:

Humidity Level - terribly hard on PCs and often overlooked
Temp Level - I watercool my PCs now. That way I don't have to run the AC all Spring and Summer.
Dust Level - They make HEPA filters for PC intake fans.
Critters- I lost a $200 vid card to a giant black ant.
If you smoke, keep the ashtray away from the intake fans, smoke residue is hard on components.

<added />Do you get clean power? Has anyone checked? Some of the good surge suppressors also come with regulators. Constant fluctuations are hard on ANY electrical components.

<more />Do you shut your system down every night? The on/off switch is hard on PC's too, think about when most lightbulbs blow.

[edited by: digitalghost at 2:24 am (utc) on June 14, 2003]

[kevinpate]

sorry to be dense. How does one watercool a pc?

[digitalghost]

With a manifold and some tubing. Check out Coolerguys.com for water cooling kits. They also sell water cooled cases. Water cooling extends the life of critical components and keeps heat from degrading performance. You can even water cool your drives now.

<important />Make sure you unplug your system before working with any water cooling components. ;)

[Key_Master]

22 years of computer ownership and not a single fatality yet (not counting the few I've thrown across the room). To add to digitalghost's suggestions, purchase a good surge protector for both the data line and the AC power.

[vibgyor79]

DG - I thought water cooling was required only for PC's with overclocked processors or graphics cards. Correct?

[SlowMove]

>>sorry to be dense. How does one watercool a pc?

a cup of water? ;)

[digitalghost]

Athlon processors run hot, I prefer water cooling because I know that I'm taking the heat away rather than just blowing less warm air over my chips.

I can get nifty little water coolers that fit over memory sticks, vid cards, hard drives, etc. The lower you can get the temp the better. Heat degrades performance and increases wear and tear on moving parts. I'll never rely solely on fans again. If I could I'd run liquid oxygen through the manifold.

I don't recommend overclocking to anyone, just buy a faster chip. ;)

[JonB]

nopt a singe fatality and i was having c64,amiga 500,286,p133,celeron366, amd xp1900+

all were replaced because i bought better.i didnt treat them with repsect except amiga so i am kinda suprised that nothing really happened...

[mack]

Not had anything major happen that couldent be repared.

I tend to keep my computers then upgrade them. The old box generaly goes into gentle retirement with a refurbishment and a bit of tweeking. Then it gets passed onto someone in the famnily or becomes a test server.

Mack.

[outrun]

No dead computers but I have gone through 3 floppies drives, 3 modems two external, one internal, 2 cdrom drives all dying on me, and a lot of mouses or should i say mice, my mouse .The buttons always die on me doesnt matter how expensive the mouse is I go through at least 2 a year even after taking them apart and bending the spring, to try revitalize them.

regards,
Mark

[peewhy]

My office is like a graveyard for PCs, I keep them looking alive, but know they're dead... I just can't part with them, a bit like a museum really - the Tandy TRS 8K level 1 is the most curious one.

I was brave once and asked someone to call around and let me know what could be reborn ... he laughed at me and left a PC World sale catalogue for me to peruse.

[caine]

In the last 6 years, all and all i am now on my 27th MS OS, don't ask me why, i would say i know more than most about the OS, but i am very quick to format when i see corruption of the OS coming along.

Regarding the hardware, once properly - fried the CPU and the a motherboard together a while back.

[visibot]

> a cup of water? ;)

my daughter tried that on my laptop keyboard awhile back

result was a nice doorstop

[requiem]

I always sell my computers when they are one years old, so I have fried exactly none.

[idiotgirl]

I go through one every year or so - easy. It's all attributed to environment. Pet dander (bird) and second hand smoke. The inside of my case looks usually looks like the stuff you find under the fridge: dust bunnies, crud, gooey stuff, lint, and other nasty "unidentifiables". I seem to be hardest on CD-drives, though. I've fried three in the last year. Two were briefly resurrected by cleaning, if that tells you anything.

Being as Mr. Idiotgirl is constantly pillaging whatever machine I have for parts, I don't get too attached to whatever configuration I happen to be using at the time. Besides, they "pass away" with enough frequency I can't form an emotional attachment.

Backup, backup, backup....

[JudgeJeffries]

I bought a cheap 'Tiny' computer in the UK 4 years ago and every one told me it would implode in months mainly due to the fact that it was 'glued' together. Its used a lot, 16 hours a day, in shifts, its on 24 hours a day, got throught 4 keyboards and it just wont collapse and give me an excuse to buy another. So much for cheap and cheerful.

[peewhy]

Similar to Judge Jeffries, I bought a cheap Time in 1998 and have just replaced the HD.

[werty]

In the last 2 years I have burned through 2 hard drives, one motherboard, one network card and one power supply. In addition to that I had a few complete hard drive failure.

I know one of my hard drives was faulty, it failed within 2 months of purchase. lost 90 gigs of music)c: Both have been under warranty.

The motherboard I blame on my friend. We were filming a movie and he pulled the power cord on my surge protector not knowing the pc was on. Later on I had bootup errors like there was no videocard. Replaced the video card...still no go. At least the MB was under warranty.

I think heat is a big thing on my pc's as well. I run a few fans and the noise drives me mad. The extra heat is nice in the winter but hell in the summer. I used to run them for 24/7 which I do not think helped.

How loud are the water cooling set-ups? I have also heard of Peltiers(sp? like cold plates).

My next pc will be a laptop and may be from the MAC family, I will also opt for the extended warranty and accident protection...in the last week of the warranty I think I may drop the machine(c:

[olwen]

I once had a motherboard burst into flame after I replaced a power supply on an old 286.

[Macguru]

20 posts and not a single Mac user in sight yet. ;)

My Apple ][, yes the one I bought 25 years ago, is still flying like a humming bird.
Unfortunatly, I had to replace the floppy drive on the Mac I bought 19 years ago. Sad...

[peewhy]

I bought an IBM in 1986, I've only replaced the motherword twice, installed 3 new hard drives, gradually increased the ram, bit by bit from 4 to 8 to 16 to 32 etc, changed the processor three times, had two new motors, four keyboards, two floppy drives, three monitors, three CD drives, two new cases and maybe a few other bits - apart from that it's quite a good unit.

[richardb]

Ours seem to suffer from alcoholic &/or caffeine poisoning 3 down 2 to go.

[TheWebographer]

Never "fried" any computer or part thereof....what are you guys doing to accomplish all this destruction?

My first computer system came from Micron in 1998 and still works fine.

Have two Dells 1999 and 2003 with nary a problem. The 1999 model I use at work sees 50-hours of hard use per week. Even the mouse still works with occassional cleaning. The keyboard has one problem I should fix...the "3" key on the number pad stopped working.

No bad drives, keyboards, motherboards, etc and etc.

[TomWaits]

Thanks for the posts! Sounds like the environment might be what's doing it (fluctuating humidity), and the power isn't entirely clean, so maybe I need to use a better surge protector, too.

[lawman]

I bought an IBM in 1986, I've only replaced the motherword twice, installed 3 new hard drives, gradually increased the ram, bit by bit from 4 to 8 to 16 to 32 etc, changed the processor three times, had two new motors, four keyboards, two floppy drives, three monitors, three CD drives, two new cases and maybe a few other bits

Other than that, it's all original. :)

lawman

[digitalghost]

>>How loud are the water cooling set-ups?

Once you get it set up, you never hear it. Even the whisper quiet fans are louder than the water-cooled setup I use. What I appreciate the most is the consistency of the temperature, you simply can't get the same consistency with fans.

Since I switched to water-cooling I've noticed that a lot less dust ends up in the case. You can filter the fans but that reduces the efficiency of the fans.

[peewhy]

Lawman
>>>>Other than that, it's all original

That's the phrase I was looking for thanx!

[werty]

The most solid piece on my computer is the MS ergonomic keyboard, that has lasted me around 5 years. I forgot about that. Probably for health reasons I should replace it.

I have been rocking an optical mouse for about 2 and it is holding strong. It was a cheap blue logitech, like 16 dollars.

I will have to look into the water cooling option, but like I said I am thinking MAC the next time around.

Digitalghost, have you ever had leak problems?

[digitalghost]

No leaks Werty. A leak is fatal though so while I was installing it I took extreme care to make sure there wouldn't be any. I also turned the cooling system on and inspected everything before I plugged the system in and powered up.

I'm looking at a chiller box that further reduces the temperature. You can add propylene glycol to the water and actually refrigerate the coolant. :)