Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 15:27:14 03/29/02
Go up one level in this thread
On March 29, 2002 at 11:29:28, Ed Schröder wrote:
>On March 29, 2002 at 10:12:41, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>>On March 28, 2002 at 20:32:40, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>>
>>>Some things come to mind, thinking a little more about this.
>>>
>>>First is electromigration. When current goes through circuits, the paths are
>>>eroded by miniscule amounts. This basically only matters within dense chips like
>>>microprocessors, where the connections are only a few hundred molecules wide.
>>>The point is that these chips wear out when you use them, but they're still
>>>designed/manufactured for 10+ years of continuous use, so it doesn't really
>>>matter. The problem is when you start overclocking and upping the current
>>>through the chips--some people claim that with high current, CPUs can be
>>>destroyed because of electromigration within 2 years. Again, not a problem if
>>>you don't overclock.
>>>
>>>The only other parts of a computer that wear out are the capacitors and the
>>>moving parts, i.e., the fans and hard drive. Old capacitors leak, but I don't
>>>know how usage patterns affect this leakage. I also don't know if fans wear out
>>>faster if they're left on or if they're cycled on and off. I know that hard
>>>drives used to wear when they were turned on and off, but now that we have
>>>autoparking heads and so forth, I don't think that's an issue. Laptop
>>>power-saving software is constantly turning hard drives on and off, and I
>>>haven't heard complains frop laptop users about hard drive lifespans.
>>>
>>>Really, I don't think it matters. I know people who leave their computers on all
>>>day and I know other people who turn theirs on and off many times per day, and
>>>the compuers all last a darn long time.
>>
>>
>>
>>Where I live leaving computers on matters a lot, but for a different reason.
>>
>>Here in Guadeloupe, we are living under a tropical climate.
>>
>>The climate is very humid, and when I leave a computer off for say one month,
>>this computer stays at "room temperature" and is subject to water condensation.
>>
>>Water molecules contained in the air condense when they touch the metallic parts
>>of the computer, everywhere including on printed circuits. This leads to slow
>>corrosion of the unprotected metallic parts.
>>
>>Older computers were better protected against this problem because they were
>>built with higher standards and also because the printed circuits paths were
>>larger (it took longer for corrosion to eat them completely).
>>
>>Current motherboards for example are really poorly protected. You can find
>>unprotected copper paths everywhere on the surface of a modern motherboard.
>>These unprotected areas are time bombs where I live: sooner or later the climate
>>will eat them up.
>>
>>By leaving my computers on all the time I let them stay at a higher temperature.
>>Condensation cannot happen when the computer is warmer than "room temperature",
>>and this provides some protection against corrosion.
>>
>>By experience, every time I leave a computer off for a long period of time, I
>>have 50% chances to be able to get it working again.
>>
>>Half of the times it simply won't boot. Generally I have to replace the
>>motherboard of the video card to get it working again.
>>
>>
>>As a side note I would say that current hardware is real shit. I have several
>>computers built around 1990. They still work fine, and they have been subject to
>>corrosion for 8 years now.
>>
>>Modern hardware cannot resist more than a few months here.
>>
>>
>>
>> Christophe
>
>
>I wonder if "salt" is also an issue. I heard when you live close to the sea your
>car is going to rust much earlier. I am not sure that still holds for nowadays
>cars but perhaps the computer industry just doesn't care for people living near
>the sea.
>
>Ed
Yes you are absolutely right. Remember the two P200 motherboards you sent me 3
years ago? One of them was mounted inside a normal PC box. The other one was
mounted without box. Just a power supply connected to the motherboard and a
floppy disk. Both were running 24/7.
Because it was not protected, the second one died in a few month. The second one
still works. At that time I had not understood the problem with the climate and
the salted air.
Indeed, I have actually _tasted_ the surface of the motherboard. The taste was
salty. And salt is extremely corrosive for metal parts.
Now that I have moved my office far from the sea, I hope to have at least
partially solved this problem.
Christophe
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