Computer 101: The Danger of Static Electricity to your computer.

Have you heard of the words Static Electricity? Okay, maybe yes or maybe no, not clear? static electricity is not dangerous to humans or people like us but it is dangerous to the internal component of your computer, especially does inside your system unit, the motherboard, hard drive, memory and all those electronic component that you see inside when you open your computer casing. Now where do we get this static electricity? You'll probably surprise that it's fairly simple to acquire or build -up your bodies static electricity. Our body has always static electricity in very small amount of charge. Building them up also is very simple, by just walking in or on object like carpet or electrical charge object we can build up our static charge. The discharge process is also simple just touch a metal object connected to the ground and the static electricity is gone from your body, well not of all of it.

Now it is not dangerous to people like us, but this static electricity is very dangerous to the component inside your computer or electronic devices. Do not try touching the inner working of your computer if you feel that you have not touch a metal object connected to the ground. A simple precaution not to damage the inner parts of your computer is Do Not Open the Computer Case Unless you have a very valid reason to do so. One simple discharge from your body to that component that you touch on the inside of your computer and that component is toast. Electronic component is very susceptible to  static electricity. They are made of microscopic circuit that small amount of static electricity can really destroy or damage that electronic component. But if you cannot avoid opening and touching the inner parts of your computer, try to keep in mind to first touch a metal object that is connected to the ground to discharge the static electricity stored in your body, at-least try to minimize the damage that you can do to your computers's inner working.

Since the entire component inside your computer is made up of micro circuit, meaning they cannot be seen by the naked eye. You need a special device to see this circuit inside those complex integrated circuit found on every computer motherboard. Oops did I mention integrated circuit.  IC is the short term for them they looked like a square or rectangular piece of black colours things that is attached to every motherboard. Also they have a lot of metal feet connected to their side. They are called pins and they are use to connect the micro circuit in every one of them to the main system and to each other. Each pin is also numbered according to their design. Take a look at every IC inside you computer they are small right. But on every IC contains thousand of component that forms that micro circuit. They are very-very small. How can a static electricity affect damage or destroy those micro circuit and component?

Let’s put it this way, the micro circuit is the big city or town and the component on those micro circuit is the building and houses. Therefore you got a picture of a highly dense city or town. Also the static electricity is represented as the biggest and strongest storm which is depending on the charge of the static electricity. If you put them together guess what will happen. The city or town will be in ruin, there will chaos and all sort of things. All basic services will cease to function. We have seen this scenario played out in our present day. And since the static electricity has damage the inner working of your computer, then it will no longer function properly or if the damage is worst then it the end game for your computer. A word of precaution, whatever you do, leave the inside parts of your to the professional.

  

Computer 101: Upgrading your old Computer or Buying a New Computer

Happy New Year to all, this is my first blog for this year 2011. I’ve been very busy in the last part of December and during the first week of January on my family and my home business. That why I’ve been missing in action this past weeks. Since this is a new year for all of us, new beginning and a new time to get going on something for each in everyone of us. In a more personal manner if we own a computer this time around a questioned comes to mind, is my computer needs upgrading or do I buy a new one? Of course this is only for those whose computer is at least 6 months to one year old. Because by this time you’ve pretty much know how your computer works. How fast it is or it has become a lot slower in all about its performance. With all those new computers being advertise these past months. One would be very tempting in having them in parts or as a whole unit.

Now here comes the al important question. Do I upgrade or do i need to buy a new one? This question comes because I’m no longer satisfied with the performance of my old computer. It seems the more I use it, the more my dissatisfaction grows towards its performance. But first before doing any upgrading or buying. You need to check if your computer really needs to upgrade or where just being swayed by all of those thoughts that most of my friends and their friends has in part upgraded their computer or has bought a new one. You need to know what wrong with your computer. What part seems slow. To do this you need to have it check by qualified service personnel but you as the owner of the computer must be present during this activity. You must explain it to the technical guy what’s wrong with your computer, why are dissatisfied with its performance. What part is slowing down as its get older? You must describe you problems in detail to the service technician so he can know exactly what to do as not to waist both of your time while the technician or engineer figures outs what wrong with your computer and the solution needed to fix it.

Most of the time we brought our computer to the service centre then tells the service guy there its broken and need to be fix then off we go. Leaving the service personnel clueless on what is the real problem with the computer. The result of this is longer time to detect and fix the problem. The hours will become day sometimes will turn into weeks before one is reunited with the computer. Most of us has the wrong notion that all computer service personnel know what wrong with your computer the moment we brought it in for repair and maintenance. Well guess what, where wrong, this only makes the work for them a lot harder and more time consuming because they don’t know where to begin. So next time you walk in and have you computer with for repair or maintenance make sure to really explain it all to the technical guy in detail and don’t leave it there alone, be there during the process, because questioned may needed to be to the owner and the answer to that is always the solution to the problem.

Now after having it checks by a qualified technician. He will advised you on what to do with your computer, whether to upgrade some of its part or if your computer is very-old and you want to use newer software version of your old software then rather than upgrading some parts only. You must buy a new complete set of it. But how about all my information on my old computer? Well don’t panics, all of it can be transferred to the new computer and it can be erased from the old computer. You can also ask to service to do the whole job of configuring the new and transferring all of your data into the new computer from the old ones. But only consider this option if your computer is really very old or new but has been damaged by wear and tear that repairing or upgrading parts will cost more than buying a new one. It is always up to you the owner of the computer to decide which path you will take. You will have the final say in all of this, because you will be the one to pay for it literally and use it every minute, hour and day in most your activity. So remember to always carefully weigh all the information and facts before your decide what option to take regarding the improvement and maintenance of your computer.