Our old one died yesterday morning. We like to use a PC because everything is bigger. Like the screen and keyboard. Our previous unit was one of those small ones, about the size of a metal school lunchbox of 1955 vintage. It was several years old and if I remember correctly, was a factory recon unit. It started freezing up, then would work when restarted. Until it froze up again.
One of the reason some people have children is to have someone to help them in old age. I guess that has come into play for us to some degree. I don't know how to diagnose and fix computers. Our son Robert is our IT guy. He's pretty good keeping our limited equipment going. By the time he got over here yesterday evening, the old PC, the small unit, could barely be opened up. He determined that it wasn't a virus but likely a hardware issue. He was unable to get it going properly again here so took it to his home for deeper diagnosis. Once there, he found that the hard drive was still functional and he saved all of our data that was stored within. Which was transferred to the new PC. Which was a relief because we have lots of various files stored in it. I need to come up with a more permanent back-up solution for that situation.
Just about anything can be repaired. But I guess there is an issue of time economy involved. In this case, once the problem has been isolated to somewhere in the hardware (board, power supply, etc) it's just cheaper to let it go and start with a new unit.
Robert has computers at home, including several spares. He has built some of them as a hobby. One such, he had all the new guts acquired about 10 years ago but no "box" so recently he bought one of those and put it all together. This one is a dinosaur-looking thing, the tower type, measuring about 18x18x8 inches. I asked him, "How long ago did you buy that?" He said, "Oh, I just got the box about two weeks ago, it's new." So next I asked, "Who buys those great big things these days?" He said, "Gamers." Who apparently have PC's that have big guts, put out lots of computing power, and need lots of capability for heat dissipation.
This situation is analagous to the automotive world, to some extent. Vehicles (like mini-vans, for instance) that have all of their power train crammed into one small space generate a lot of operating heat that over time degrades components. And that may be what happened to our last PC. Too many components stuffed into a small box. I'd noticed that it would cut out and go into high fan mode once in a while. Then I'd open up the cover and sure enough, there was dust collected on the heat sink fins that needed vacuuming off. After cleaning, it would go back to normal operation.
So now we are happily using the big, new dinosaur. It's very speedy. One thing we found out is how dependent we have gotten on having a computer to use. Having it gone for 24 hours was like a death in the household. Yes, I have a smart phone. Tiny screen, tiny keyboard, different format than the PC. No printer capability. Mrs. Merkt has a Kindle-like device, uses it mostly for reading but has internet access. Small keyboard, rather small screen. We are happy to have the PC back. Like addicts who have just scored.
One of the reason some people have children is to have someone to help them in old age. I guess that has come into play for us to some degree. I don't know how to diagnose and fix computers. Our son Robert is our IT guy. He's pretty good keeping our limited equipment going. By the time he got over here yesterday evening, the old PC, the small unit, could barely be opened up. He determined that it wasn't a virus but likely a hardware issue. He was unable to get it going properly again here so took it to his home for deeper diagnosis. Once there, he found that the hard drive was still functional and he saved all of our data that was stored within. Which was transferred to the new PC. Which was a relief because we have lots of various files stored in it. I need to come up with a more permanent back-up solution for that situation.
Just about anything can be repaired. But I guess there is an issue of time economy involved. In this case, once the problem has been isolated to somewhere in the hardware (board, power supply, etc) it's just cheaper to let it go and start with a new unit.
Robert has computers at home, including several spares. He has built some of them as a hobby. One such, he had all the new guts acquired about 10 years ago but no "box" so recently he bought one of those and put it all together. This one is a dinosaur-looking thing, the tower type, measuring about 18x18x8 inches. I asked him, "How long ago did you buy that?" He said, "Oh, I just got the box about two weeks ago, it's new." So next I asked, "Who buys those great big things these days?" He said, "Gamers." Who apparently have PC's that have big guts, put out lots of computing power, and need lots of capability for heat dissipation.
This situation is analagous to the automotive world, to some extent. Vehicles (like mini-vans, for instance) that have all of their power train crammed into one small space generate a lot of operating heat that over time degrades components. And that may be what happened to our last PC. Too many components stuffed into a small box. I'd noticed that it would cut out and go into high fan mode once in a while. Then I'd open up the cover and sure enough, there was dust collected on the heat sink fins that needed vacuuming off. After cleaning, it would go back to normal operation.
So now we are happily using the big, new dinosaur. It's very speedy. One thing we found out is how dependent we have gotten on having a computer to use. Having it gone for 24 hours was like a death in the household. Yes, I have a smart phone. Tiny screen, tiny keyboard, different format than the PC. No printer capability. Mrs. Merkt has a Kindle-like device, uses it mostly for reading but has internet access. Small keyboard, rather small screen. We are happy to have the PC back. Like addicts who have just scored.
