Computers Damaged in Canterbury Earthquake

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:46:28 +1300

Check for computer damage

BY DAVE THOMPSON

Last updated 10:05 14/09/2010

When a shake of the magnitude of the recent Canterbury earthqake hits, damage to property is almost inevitable. People will be finding even more things broken in the weeks to come.

My computer is a good example. Before the quake, it was powered down and awaiting my morning rituals. After the quake, it was still where I left it, though my monitor lay face down on my now-broken keyboard. Luckily, though, both sported no obvious external damage, and I trusted they would fire up once power was restored.

When power was eventually restored, things came unstuck. My wife's machine booted fine and my monitor powered up, but not my computer. A quick once- over confirmed my worst fears - it was dead.

My troubleshooting skills instinctively kicked in, and I determined the problem to be power supply or motherboard. Either way, I could do nothing on a weekend.

Hardware can be damaged even if not running at the time. Problems caused by excessive vibration are notoriously hard to track down. Like most electro- mechanical devices, computers don't take well to being shaken around, and any one of the multitude of soldered connections in a typical computer could fail and cause all manner of weird behaviour, as can the loosening of internal expansion cards and modules in their sockets.

If the machine runs, it may be intermittent or slow, it could hang or freeze randomly, or it might even shut down and/or restart all by itself. This behaviour is consistent with bad connections as well as failing power supplies, motherboards and graphics cards.

Other, more serious problems may be caused by the hard drive failing. Easily the most fragile and vulnerable part of your computer, it is also the most important because all your data lives on it.

They are extremely averse to impacts, and throwing them around is a huge no-no. Any sudden movement or excessive vibration, especially when running, will surely hurt a hard drive.

Again, such damage may not be readily apparent; your machine might run relatively fine with only the odd glitch. However, if your machine has done anything weird since the quake, I would be very suspicious of it and back up your data immediately, before getting it to your computer repair agent for further testing. Better safe than sorry when possible data loss is involved.

And remember, if something is broken, you may have grounds for a claim with the Earthquake Commission.

Have you ever considered a rugged computer for tough environments?

Tips

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:38:27 +1300

1/ PC Quick Fix.

Are you experiencing recent unusual problems with computer behaviour?

Try the System Restore feature to roll computer status prior to the problem occurring.

Click on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Restore

2/ Windows 7 Games.

How to turn on? Click here

3/ Three important words...BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP

Why? Theft, fire, loss or disk failure will reveal the sudden value of the missing information!

As partners with Nexus Data Security we provide an extract from their site relating to Online

Backup. Click here ...suitable for any business.

4/ Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats

Click here

2010 ELECTRA Business Awards - Finalist

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:08:29 +1300

Each year THE ELECTRA BUSINESS AWARDS are organised by Business Kapiti Horowhena.

In 2010 Veritas Computer Service Limited was selected as a finalist in the Marketing and Image Building Category.

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Computers Damaged in Canterbury Earthquake

Tips

2010 ELECTRA Business Awards - Finalist