Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley May 2007 Issue April 4, 2007 Why Computers Hate the Valley Summer Summer is nearly here and I’m already worried about the heat. More specifically, I’m worried about the heat and my computer systems. Computers hate warm temperatures, even though you can use some systems as space heaters during the winter months. How can anything so hot hate summer days? Typical computer chips are not very efficient. While electricity powers millions of transistors in a processor or memory chip, most of the energy is lost as heat. As a computer warms, it becomes even less efficient. This is because heat increases electrical resistance… causing more heat! So, though computers don’t like heat, they create it. Eventually, the ever-increasing resistance interrupts data flow and serious data loss occurs. In the worst cases, chips literally “fry” and motherboards melt. As a technician, I have seen melted parts first-hand. When I ask if the system had been acting ...
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