PCinfospace

Why would you want to worry about air quality? Because it may have everything to do with how good the network functions and how long the components on the network last.

Heat

If the air temperature is to hot it may affect the way certain components act.  If a mother board of a computer, router or other component gets to hot, they may start malfunctioning or just plain fail. Some products will keep shutting down if they keep overheating.

Dirt

Dirt will cause components to overheat and therefore malfunction or fail.  Some environments contain dust, smoke particles, hair  from humans and animals as well as many other pollutants. A computer has a fan that actually brings in outside air for cooling purposes.  Many computers end up under desks or in an area that can easily pull in large amounts of dust, dirt and other pollutants. Other components such as the mother board, network card and even the power supply may eventually accumulate particles that will make them over heat and fail.

How can you prevent this?

First and foremost, do surveys of the area you plan to put network equipment and especially computers. If you must put equipment in a polluted or overheated environment take action to help prolong the life and function of the equipment.  You may need to cool the area and maybe even filter the air.

Preventive maintenance

Be sure that your computer is turned off before starting this procedure. One way to prevent failure or erratic behavior is to do a periodic maintenance. This normally includes removing the cover from computers and using canned air to blow out all fans.  Be sure to blow out the processor fan and fins of its heat sink.  The surface of the mother board and other components should be blown off also.  You should also blow out the fan of the power supply. If the power supply fails you will not have any power to any part of your computer. This could be embarrassing if you have a critical job to do on the computer.

We’ll Start With the Computer

When things get hot they expand and when they get cold they contract.  I know this sounds like science class but it is very important to consider. To much expansion and contraction can affect the chips that are inside of your computer or any other component for that matter. This can cause the Integrated Circuits to loose contact.  This effect is called Chip Creep. This can cause problems in sending or receiving signals. The temperature inside a computer is more than room temperature as it is. Adding components such as a network or sound card only makes it hotter.

What are the symptoms of overheating?

This may vary according to what type of computer you have but here are some symptoms:

• The computer keep rebooting or will not stay on
• The computer does not complete its boot process
• You see a warning on the screen before it boots to the operating system
• Some computers may warn you through software that is installed
• You may hear a wining or strange noise that indicates one of the fans is about to fail

How to prevent failures

• Be sure you have enough fans installed inside the computer.  You should have one for the processor itself and at least one case fan.  I recommend two fans if possible. Replace any fan that isn’t working or is making a noise. It makes a wining or howling noise.  This may vary. If you suspect a bad fan be sure to check  replace it immediately.
• Keep you computer clean.  Periodically remove the covers and use canned air to remove any dust or dirt.  Especially clean out the fins of the heat sink located under the processor fan. If the processor overheats it will fail.
• Blow out all fans including the one for the power supply.  If the power supply fan and vents get to dirty it will over heat and fail.
• Blow off the mother board and all components

As you can see dirt can be a big enemy. Keeping your computer clean may extend the life of the computer by quite a bit.

Other parts of the network to be concerned with?

Routers, switches and any other component must be kept as cool as practical.  These all have motherboards and electrical components and are subject to the same environment effects as the computer is. If one of these components overheats it will eventually fail.

Most computers and network components are made much better than in the past. However, you must take the environment in consideration when designing your network. DO NOT TAKE A CHANCE! You want your network to work efficiently and you don’t want it to fail.  Doing it right the first time will prevent years of headaches.