Computer longevity

Surge protectors prevent spikes in the power supply.
When they talk about inverters, for example, they talk about 'clean' power.
A spike can happen from many sources and is not uncommon. A high quality surge protector evens out the power flow.
A cheap surge protector just does not do the same job.

Battery back ups are important also, at least where I live anyways. Most better units are both battery back ups and surge protectors
 
wiley_p said:
Ahh. is that replacable on a laptop?
Click to expand...

There is the external power supply( the power brick, per se), and the power control board, within the case of the laptop. The power supply can be found from the manufacturer or through an aftermarket vendor. Targus makes a good one for about $65.00.


CurSedVoyce said:
I would hope so.. Never gutted one to find out..
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Most are fairly easy to get apart., typically some small phillips or torx screws.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #34
I'm sort of a mac fan. At the book store, I'll start out reading the mac magazines, but I always end up at the biker mags with the girl on the cover.:roll:
 
woodworkingboy said:
I'm sort of a mac fan. At the book store, I'll start out reading the mac magazines, but I always end up at the biker mags with the girl on the cover.:roll:
Click to expand...

Mac fans are fine, I'm one. Mac zealots on the other hand are tedious... like all zealots.

I start out at the photography magazines, give High Times a look, then go back to the photography rags. The girls are always inside but rarely on the cover.
 
And protect your phone or lan hook up... Unplug the sucka in storms.... I have seen the results and it aint pretty... Surge protector will not protect from a direct or close lightening strike.
I have a lot of power outages here... That can fry things too....
 
rangerdanger said:
It's all because it's a Mac!!!!! I don't know about everyone here, but from what I've seen people get a lot more out of a Mac then they do a PC. I've seen 10 year or older Mac's that still function fairly well and are still serving the users needs.

PC wise, we have gone through 2 so far in 12 years. My parents current PC is on it's last legs, and they are replacing it with a Mac in the near future.
Click to expand...

Adrian, that's because you can actually USE a PC to do useful things. :P
 
CurSedVoyce said:
And protect your phone or lan hook up... Unplug the sucka in storms.... I have seen the results and it aint pretty... Surge protector will not protect from a direct or close lightening strike.
I have a lot of power outages here... That can fry things too....
Click to expand...

True that. Nothing stops lightening. But a Tripplite Isobar goes a long way in dealing with crappy utility power.

One of the worst things for computers is brownout, line voltage dropping below spec. When voltage goes low, current goes up and makes the power supply overheat. You can buy a UPS with brownout protection but they aren't normally something you can afford on a home computer... unless you happen to be swimming in money.
 
I wonder if'n it the power rig inside that's screwed up on mine? Takes several times to get it to start, then it will go off for no reason and may or may not start back up.
 
Could be Wiley. If there is a bad connection in there anywhere it will spontaneously reboot and it will end up messing things up sooner or later. When I worked for Gallo Wine I was the laptop "mechanic". They only had a few models. The old Compaqs that I worked on had a replaceable power supply, but the newer IBM's almost everything was built in to the system board. It made it easy for me that way.
 
you worked for Gallo Steve?

I heard they have a pretty bad rep. towards their employees
 
It could be something as simple as the little 'puter is just full of crud,dust etc .

On my old 733 antique puter I had a similar problem . Removed the processer and applied heat sink material,reassembled .Problem went away .

Now that I mentioned that little fact I should blow my puter out myself .It's been some time since I have .
 
Frans said:
you worked for Gallo Steve?

I heard they have a pretty bad rep. towards their employees
Click to expand...

I worked for a contractor (CompuCom Systems) at Gallo. They had the desktop and server support contract. I thought they were about average for that type of employer. We had one guy at their Healdsburg place. Some hugely fat computer dude, we had a meeting every monday at 4:00 PM and they would hook that guy up on a speaker phone so he could "attend" the meeting. I absolutely hated working in the corporate environment. Guys were always having these pissing contests to show they were the more important employee. Some of the women thought they were being discriminated against and some of the guys thought the women were getting a special deal. They evidently thought that me being a contractor employee would be safe to gripe to while I was installing some computer program on their computer. Anyway I escaped!
 
wiley_p said:
I wonder if'n it the power rig inside that's screwed up on mine? Takes several times to get it to start, then it will go off for no reason and may or may not start back up.
Click to expand...

That would be my bet... That was what this one dd with the bad supply. I went into town and paid a bit more, but it was a 60.00 fix at the time. Easy swap on a tower....
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #47
Gallo wine is sold in my neck of the woods as a "Fine" California wine, and priced accordingly. It cracks me up when I see that in a liquor store, because it reminds me of poor Ivan, juiced on it and living in his car out behind the gas station where I worked as a teenager. He'd buy our beer for a bottle of the swill.

Sorry for the derail.
 
Yep, the majority of that fortune was made on alcoholics like your friend. I think it is a fine wine now, but most of what they sold back in the day was fortified, inexpensive stuff.
 
This is actually a pretty nice derail, computer life expectancy to the relative merits of Ernesto and Julio Gallo's rotgut.

Well done!
 
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