Computers are by their very nature, fickle beasts. They don’t make mistakes, they do exactly what either we as the user tell them to do, or what the original programmer designed them to do. Unfortunately humans are imperfect machines at the best of times and therefore, so are the computers we use. It doesn’t help that the environments that we expect our computers to operate in are most often less than ideal.

There are several factors that can determine how reliable a computer is, while some of them may be obvious, others may not. In point form, they are:

• The Quality of the Parts we use.
• Age of the system.
• Environment
• Task Requirements
• Our Attitude

Quality
Not all computers were created equal. May seem obvious but most people seem to think that a computer is a computer is a computer. This is simply not the case. In my experience, the only reliable way to get a top quality computer that you will be able to rely on is to purchase what used to be called a clone or white box computer from someone you trust. This may mean paying more than buy one off the shelf at your local big box retailer, but down the road, your TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) will be much lower.

My approach has always been to mix and match only the best parts from the best manufacturers to build a computer custom for the job it needs to do. This does not mean it needs to be expressive, it just means you want it to work properly out of the box. Custom built models will generally cost anywhere from 5%-20% more than an off the shelf model from a big box retailer, but it won’t be loaded full of crap that just gets in the way, will generally be more attractive (not covered in sticker etc.) and will be far easier for a technician to do work on down the road.

Age
Computers these days (just like everything else it seems) are not designed to last. Manufactures are only designing their systems to last 3 years (some high end server equipment is designed for 5 years). There are three basic reasons for this; power, cost and environment (see below).

Computer software is advancing so rapidly that a 3 year old computer is probably too slow to run some current release software programs. That said, many of the programs that most people use on a daily basis don’t need the power that today’s computers have available, so it’s a double edged sword. So this reason is subjective, relevant to some, but not to others.

Design and manufacturing costs are such that it is cheaper to purchase a piece of hardware that will last for 3 years twice, than it is to purchase a piece that will last for 6 years. Of course we see this everywhere in industry these days. Nobody wants to pay for the $3000 custom desk when they can get the flat pack model from IKEA for $399. But for the truly image conscious…

Environment
We don’t like to work in hostile environments, yet we require our computers to work in them every day. Dust, humidity, heat, vibration and dirty power are all work place hazards for your computer. The more you can do to minimize these threats the better your computer will perform and the longer it will last.

Dust is an everyday thing, unless you are working in a clean room in a space suit, you can’t get away from it. There are ways to minimize your computers exposure to it though. The most expensive would be to house the computer in an environmentally controlled cabinet or computer case. Failing that, don’t put it on the floor. If you can, put your computer on top of your desk or inside a compartment of your desk designed for it. This will reduce the amount of dust it collects. Also, make sure your computer technician checks inside the case regularly to clean it out.

Humidity is very hard to control. But if the computer is in the same room as you are, and you are comfortable, then your computer is probably fine. Remember that your computer is full of exposed electrical traces and contacts, and electricity and moisture are not friends. Excessive moisture can combine with the dust in your computer to form a sort of pasty mud that is electrically conductive (household dust contains iron etc.). These conditions may or may not do damage, but they can cause irregular signal disruption that shows up as errors while you are working with the computer. Very annoying!

Heat, nobody likes too much heat, especially your computer. The hotter the computer, the higher the resistance in the conductors, therefore the higher the error rate. Computers like it cold, the colder the better. Make sure that the room or cabinet it is in is adequately cooled and that the cooling fans are all working properly.

My favorite environmental enemy is dirty power. It is my favorite because it has the potential over all the others mentioned here to do the most damage, and is the easiest to defeat. Kind of neat how that works. Most people have a basic surge protector on their computer; however, these household surge bars are basically worthless for protecting sensitive electronics. The only thing they are capable of doing is stopping a fire (maybe) in the case of a massive surge. They have no effect on the insidious little spikes that happen every day. These are the ones that do the damage.

Every time you turn on or off a bank of lights, warm up a laser printer, use a power tool, run the washing machine or anything else that draws current in the building, you generate a transient power spike. And every time you do this, it’s like taking a pot shot at your computer. After a while, a sensitive component gets hit and either an error is generated causing a program (or the whole computer) to crash or the component is damaged. More often than not, when a computer part fails early in it’s life, its because of dirty power.

The beauty here is that just by installing a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) onto each of your computers; you can both greatly extend the life of your computer parts, as well as improve the day to day reliability of your computer. I personally have a UPS on every single piece of electronics in my house. Every computer, TV stereo even my cordless phone. I no longer have problems with power spikes…

Task
Most of the roads we drive on have a speed limit of around 50 or 60 km/hr, some go as high as 100 or even 110 km/hr. How many people do you know that have a car that can only go 110 km/hr. In fact, almost all cars go well beyond this speed limit, even though we can’t legally use it. Why?

For the same reason that we should not buy a computer that is just powerful enough to do the one job we ask of it. Stress. If you run any piece of equipment at 100% capacity, it will fail far sooner than if we run it at 50% capacity. Just look at a NASCAR race car, if they are lucky, the engine will last one 500 mile race, then it needs to be overhauled, while at the same time our passenger cars will go 250,000 miles before needing the same treatment.

If your computer just doesn’t seem to be keeping up with you, then you may either need an upgrade or even a new computer. If you try and push it, more errors will occur.

Attitude
This is probably the simplest area to deal with. Remember that a computer is just a machine. It is doing exactly what you are asking it to do. It does not deserve your wrath. Please do not beat the computer, you will only make the situation worse and anger your technician. Remember to stop, take a deep breath, cont to 10 and then try again. If it still doesn’t work, then call me, I am the voice of reason on the other end of the phone.