ESD: The Silent PC Killer

The most underrated and yet most deadly attack a user can have on their PC is ESD. "Electro Static Discharge".

Chips can be electrocuted by very small amounts of static electricity (much smaller than can be felt) can kill, or make a computer chip intermittent. We as human beings create a generous amount of static electricity, through even the most mindless of tasks. All of the people who have touched the chips inside your computer; from manufacturing the chip, building or repairing your computer, or adding new parts to the inside of your computer, have each had the opportunity to touch or mishandle the chips inside your computer.

ESD Damage
Before	After

The above is an electron-microscopic picture of one of 43-million transistors in the Intel Pentium 4 computer chip. Each transistor is smaller than a microbe. (And getting smaller each new generation.) One small touch from the finger of a careless person can damage or destroy hundreds of these microscopic transistors in an instant.

One klutzy computer technician mishandling the insides of your computer can easily cause one of the hundreds of integrated circuits in your computer to become prematurely aged through ESD. Simply taking the covers off your computer and touching its internal components can cause a chip that should have lasted for decades to die, or become intermittent, in just a few weeks or months. Did someone take the covers off your computer a year ago? Well… That could be the cause of your problems today! Don't allow anyone that doesn't understand ESD, or work in an ESD safe area, to touch the insides of your computer!

Tips to avoid destroying your computer:

- Always turn off and unplug your computer before opening it for any reason.

- Spray yourself with Static Guard, or wipe your clothing with a fabric softener sheet.

- Wear an anti-static wrist strap when opening the case. You can find one at Radioshack for about $6.

- If you don't have any anti-static devices, make sure that one hand frequently touches the metal frame inside the computer case when trying to install/remove a component inside.

- Try to avoid cold, dry areas when working on your computer.

- Last but not least, avoid using magnetic screw drivers internally. (Although this is not related to ESD, it can severely disrupt the electric current inside your computer components.

This article is adapted from JRWhipple.com, and provides very helpful insight on an issue that many people are unaware of.

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IOT is a Certified HP Business Partner, providing pc repair, printer repair, and networking support; as well as sales, service, and supplies to the Minneapolis, Saint Paul area; since 1995. Located in Eagan, MN, we proudly serve the entire Twin Cities metro area. Contact us at 651-605-2500, http://www.iotsolutions.com/ or email us at info@iotsolutions.com for more information.

How to Recycle Computer Memory

Wouldn't it be great if we could recycle our long and short term memory? Unfortunately we don’t have that convenience. Our chips are too small. However, for your PC or Laptop you can recycle the memory chips (RAM). Not only will you earn a little money in the process, you will be protecting the environment too, as memory chips contain toxic levels of lead. When recycling memory chips it is important to sell the memory chips you replaced as soon as possible, because their value decreases over time. With a little time and effort you can find ways to sell or recycle your old chips.

Instructions
Things You'll Need:

• Computer Memory
• Resources to Recycle
• Craft Ideas

Step 1

Recycle at home by upgrading your son or daughter's computer. This is just like money in the bank. They always need additional computer memory to run programs for online games and graphic programs.

Step 2

Recycle in your computer business to help the environment. If you are a computer service center, you can recycle computer memory through your store by repackaging it, after testing, and displaying it for discounted prices. You can offer memory upgrades to your customers at a discount. You may want to keep some old memory on hand for testing and replacing damaged memory (RAM) in customer computer systems. This will save your customers money and they will return for more business.

Step 3

Visit computer sales and servicing stores in your local area. If they are interested they may purchase your old chips outright or may sell the computer memory for you. If you decide to sell the PC or Laptop memory yourself, they might test and price them for you.

Step 4

Sell the memory online to make some money for family activities. If you have an account on EBay, Amazon, Uncle Henry’s, or Craig's List you can advertise or auction off your PC or laptop memory. Check the memory first to guarantee your product is working before selling.

Step 5

Get a tax break by donating computer memory to a school or non-profit organization. Check with your local school technology coordinator to see if they might need memory to upgrade PCs or Laptops in their school. Remember to get a receipt for the value of the memory for taxes at the end of the year.

Step 6

Advertise on the bulletin board at work to sell your PC or Laptop memory. Most businesses have an employee bulletin board. Check to see if you are allowed to post selling your PC or Laptop memory. You might end up selling the memory and getting paid to install it for the buyer. Then they could give you their old memory or ask to how to sell it. If they want to sell it themselves, you can refer them to this article.

Step 7

Go to a company online to recycle your computer parts and memory. There are a lot of companies that do recycling of computer parts online. Some will recycle or trade in your PC or Laptop memory when you purchase new memory. Many companies recycle metals from old computer parts to focus on environmental concerns. So if you do a little research you can find the best place to recycle your PC or Laptop memory the way you see fit.

Step 8

Make a conversation piece with old memory and computer parts. If you are the crafty type person you can design a clock, sculpture, jewelry or a centerpiece for your table from the old memory. Maybe a flower that remembers to bloom every year. I always think of making “memory clips” to give as gifts for someone’s desk to hold their notes. I always wanted to spell out someone’s name using keyboard keys from old computer parts. But I will leave the crafty ideas up to you, and just have fun.

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This article was found @ eHow.com.

IOT is a Certified HP Business Partner, providing pc repair, printer repair, and networking support; as well as sales, service, and supplies to the Minneapolis, Saint Paul area; since 1995. Located in Eagan, MN, we proudly serve the entire Twin Cities metro area. Contact us at 651-605-2500, http://www.iotsolutions.com/ or email us at info@iotsolutions.com for more information.

So What Exactly Is "Cloud Computing"?

The business term known as the "cloud" seems to be getting thrown around a lot nowadays. It's one of the latest buzzwords for companies big and small. But what exactly is this "cloud", and what does "cloud computing" refer to, anyway?

Most people just think of a cloud as one of those giant white puffballs up in the sky. In the business sense, it's much different. According to InformationWeek Magazine, a cloud is "A model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."

Although this may sound confusing, the definition of a cloud can be easily simplified. Sys-con's Don McVittie had this to say about the cloud: "The “Cloud” is someone else’s data center running your app." Yeah, it really is that simple. Software As A Service evolved.

The hype-sters will no doubt howl about this with the following (and maybe more) chants - “reliability!” – because Salesforce.com didn’t have that already? “redundancy!” – because “redundant data center” didn’t mean anything? “Agility!” because you can’t spin up another VM in your own data center?

So if you’re interested and want to delve past the hype, “the cloud” means moving all or part of your application to someone else’s data center and letting them worry about uptime, etc. While many will wrap a ton of verbiage around claiming there’s more to it, from an enterprise IT perspective there still isn’t. If your web farm got over-burdened you would bring up another instance and put it behind your load balancer or ADC, which is what a cloud provider would do. The difference being that you’d pay your staff to do this work, and in the cloud you pay them to do it. Staff being a sunk cost, this might not be your best option. So make certain you know what you’re about when moving work to the cloud."

IOT is a Certified HP Business Partner, providing pc repair, printer repair, and networking support; as well as sales, service, and supplies to the Minneapolis, Saint Paul area; since 1995. Located in Eagan, MN, we proudly serve the entire Twin Cities metro area. Contact us at 651-605-2500, http://www.iotsolutions.com/ or email us at info@iotsolutions.com for more information.