Is repairing a computer really that hard?
For some people yes and for others no. If you are one of those people who have always been afraid to set the clock on your VCR (or other electronic device) because you were too afraid of messing something up or it just seemed to complicated, then you should probably not attempt any repairs on a computer.
Repairing a computer is usually the easy part, it is diagnosing the problem that is sometimes the hardest. Repairs may involve some of the following:
- Replacing hardware (motherboard, cpu, memory, hard drive, etc)
- Installing or Updating drivers for hardware
- Reinstalling or updating software
- Repairing your operating system installation
- removing viruses, spyware, trojans, malaware, etc.
- Replacing cables
- many more....
As stated above diagnosing a problem is sometimes the hardest part of computer repair. There are also times where it is relatively simple. For instance let's look at a possible scenario below:
Bob turns his computer on one day and starts visiting his local news website. After getting caught up on all the news he decides to finish editing his families home movies and after about 30 minutes the computer suddenly just shuts off. He looks up to double check that his light was still on, thinking maybe the electricity just went off. Then he decided he needed a break anyway and goes to get himself some more coffee. He then comes back proceeds to turn his pc back on and it comes back up and he tries to continue with his work. After about 20 minutes the computer shuts off again. Bob now sits there and wonders if there is something wrong. He doesn't have any of his pictures or videos or any other important documents backed up and he is now afraid he may have lost them. So he decides to have his computer looked at.
Now given the information in the above scenario what do you think could be the cause of the problem? The answer is, dust. There was a good amount of dust accumulation inside the pc and editing and processing video uses more cpu power which in turn makes it run hotter than just simply browsing the web. The dust buildup was not allowing the cpu to be cooled properly. Modern processors (cpu) have built in safety measures that will shut down the cpu if it reaches a certain temperature to prevent damage. While the problem seemed detrimental to Bob, it was actually a simple fix.
Now diagnosing the problem may seem relatively easy. just take off the cover of the case and look inside, right? Well that gives us an initial diagnosis that we have to prove or disprove which will help us determine if that is indeed the true cause. The dust buildup could be the root of the cause, or one of many causes. For example maybe dust buildup caused a fan that blew over the cpu to fail. So while the dust is the root cause of overheating it is not the only cause. You could also add that maybe the processor overheated too many times and it is now an issue as well.
I hope this short blog gives you some small insight about diagnosing and repairing computers. I would love to hear any feedback on the matter, so please feel free to comment.
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