| February
21, 2008
How Long Should Your Computer Last?
Interview
with Chip Reaves, National Director for Computer Troubleshooters
www.comptroub.com |
Mike
Carruthers:
You know that computer sitting on your desk? How long before you should upgrade
to a new one?
Chip Reaves:
Our recommendation is generally
every three years. There are moving parts that start to wear out as the computer
ages. Also, computers make great vacuum cleaners because they have an airflow
that's going through the box to keep things cool and that tends to suck in a lot
of dust and dog hair and whatever else. Chip
Reaves, National Director of Computer Troubleshooters, a computer service and
repair company… And
once the computer passes the three year mark, the odds of the hardware failure
go up pretty rapidly at that point because it's like a car - you'll start to have
more and more maintenance issues and you'll find it just easier and cheaper to
get a new one. Although
we hear a lot about computer viruses, technically viruses aren't really a big
problem today - it's spyware. Which
are programs that don't necessarily replicate themselves in the way a virus does
but maybe somebody sends you an email address with a link. And when you click
on that link it downloads a program to your computer that really takes over your
computer for nefarious purposes, I call it. With spyware in particular, once it's
actually gotten on the computer it can be very difficult to clean off. We oftentimes
find computers that have a hundred or a thousand or tens of thousands of spyware
programs that have all infected it. So
Chip says it's important to keep your virus and spyware protection working and
up-to-date. The
truth is, really every day we're seeing new viruses and new spyware programs being
introduced into the wild, even a virus program that's a month out-of-date is really
not doing its job.
At
somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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