Getting Your Devices Summer Ready

Brace yourselves, summer is here and along come the high temperatures, putting pressure on your PC hardware, thus making it harder to stay cool. Cooling a PC is a challenge even under regular conditions, and harsh summer weather comes as a sour cherry at the top of a not-so-sweet cake. Not only is your computer affected, but your peripherals as well. The secret to avoiding all of the issues summer brings to your precious equipment is in getting ready on time. Here are the steps that have to be taken as a part of the preparation process for the looming heats.

Another one bites the dust

Dust is the No.1 enemy of every PC owner. Whether you own a desktop or a laptop, the problem is all the same, as the filth easily gets in through every crack and opening. Nevertheless, dealing with it is not too hard. First things first, equip yourself with an air compressor. Just make sure that you don’t use the strongest setting, as you will surely damage the fans or, in the worst case scenario, chip off a capacitor. Even with lower power settings, you need to jam your fans so that they don’t spin during the cleaning process, as it might lead to wearing off bearings. For very sensitive pieces of equipment, especially laptops, it is advisable to use cans of compressed air which every electronics store should have in stock.

While you’re at it and your PC is open, it is highly recommended to replace the thermal compound on your CPU and GPU. Thermal compounds tend to dry off from the numerous cycles of heating and cooling, what eventually leads to them losing their thermal conductive capabilities.

Gone with the wind

Of course, cleaning your PC is going to enhance the thermal condition within your case, however, to be fully prepared, consider upgrading the cooler and adding a few new fans. Today, tower-shaped copper CPU coolers can be bought for as low as $10 USD in any PC shop. Many computer experts agree on the fact that even the cheapest one has better cooling capabilities than the stock cooler of both AMD and Intel.

Creating a push and pull effect inside your case is a great way of battling hot conditions at affordable price. All you are required to do is to place one fan in the front of the case and one in the back. This way, the front one pulls the fresh air in and the back blows it out, creating somewhat of a draft effect.

Peripherals

Your PC won’t be the only piece of equipment affected by the growing heat of these summer days, as peripherals like printers, scanners and projectors suffer greatly too.

Toner in cartridges can literally turn into rock if exposed to excess heat during a prolonged period of time. Checking the toner is quite easy and replacing the entire hp, canon or ricoh toner is affordable, while getting an entirely new printer could cost you an arm and a leg if it is of any quality.

When it comes to scanners, they utilize light to scan images and files, thus producing enough heat as it is. Consequently, it can lead to distorted scans and even problems with scanner rails which need to be greased for a scanner to work properly. In all honesty, the only plausible solution for this issue is to keep the scanner in a well-cooled area.

Likewise, projectors operate at high temperatures and already have fans that are mostly capable of doing their jobs. Alas, some manufacturers have a habit of cutting corners when designing the most essential parts of equipment. You can bypass this issue by either replacing the fan entirely or by adding an external one as a precautionary measure.
Indisputable climate changes that we are witnessing are bringing hotter and hotter days even to the regions that used to enjoy moderate summer climate. As the longevity of PC hardware lies in proper maintenance, preparing your computer and other electronic appliances for these modern weather conditions is of utmost importance.