Tekamba.com

Recently I had the honor of taking part in a situation brought about by someone making a poor decision (me) in phrasing. My twitter account (@Tekamba) had some messages that I hadn’t read so I opened it to check them out. Inside my twitter stream was a series of postings by a single person (@TomRuberto – now I am putting his name here because I think should this article get any sort of attention he deserves his fair share of it because if it weren’t for his expert handling of the situation it could have quickly deteriorated into a horrible mess).

So, getting back to the topic, there were about 10 posts from @TomRuberto in quick succession (similar to all 10 in less than just a couple minutes) telling his followers about upcoming events in and around Arizona. My first instinct was to wonder why the heck someone would post so many things so quickly rather than putting all the references in a blog post and then a single tweet to that article so people interested could go see for themselves. I posted an @ reply to him (and being as diplomatic as possible I made sure to not START with the @ so it would end up in the public timeline – I’m a real charmer!) asking if he was done “spamming” the twitter accounts of his followers. (Here is what I sent: Question for @TomRuberto Done spamming our twitter accounts? Just asking! (-:
3:28 PM Dec 17th, 2009 from Digsby) I sent my message and went on about my business, pretty much putting it out of mind and considering that was the end of it.

A few hours later my phone rang, upon answering it the person on the other end of the call identified himself as Tom Ruberto and asked me why I referred to his tweet as spam. I explained my side of it to him and he then informed me that this was a normal action for him, and that he had plenty of followers (compared to my measly handful) that considered his posts of great value. With my actions being put right back into my face, causing me to rethink them, I explained to him that while I did indeed consider it a bit overboard, referring to is as “spamming” was a bit harsh and simply a “knee-jerk” response to seeing so many tweets so quickly from a single user. The spam title to anyone that does any sort of online publishing/marketing is never welcome and I apologized for my lapse in judgement. After he suggested that if it offended me I was free to stop following him, I explained that the simple fact that he took the time to look up my number (hopefully that wasn’t too difficult since I WANT people to find and call me to request my services) and the professional way he handled it, I was not even considering un-following him since he obviously had the strength of character that is refreshing to find online.

After a great conversation that lasted about 10-15 minutes and we both were able to explain our viewpoints and I was given the chance to apologize, we said our farewells, wished each other success, and hung up. I sat and thought about the call for a few minutes, and decided that while I felt he was now OK with how it had all been handled, I needed to more publicly express my apology. So I tweeted the following: (We are now offering free online computer tech support! Visit our site for details – http://www.tekamba.com – Tekamba Computers! 1:58 PM Dec 11th, 2009 from Digsby). Shortly after, I saw he had again replied to me, thanking me for my post, and then telling his followers about me. That right there is a class act and suggests to me that Mr. Ruberto is on the right path and will do great things (IS doing actually from what I can see!).

So the point of this post? To point out that this whole situation could have gone a completely different direction. He could have just done an @ reply back at me, calling me out. That would have most likely gotten me to respond in kind, and just devolved the whole situation into an unrecoverable mess (most likely for both of us). Instead, he decided to tackle it head on, discuss it directly with me, and come to an understanding between us that while our particular methods of posting info to our followers differs, that doesn’t make either method right or wrong, just appropriate for who we are. When you are faced with a situation, make sure you take the time to think through your actions before taking them. I would like to again publicly thank Mr. Ruberto for his superior handling of the situation which taught me a valuable lesson. His reference of me to his followers brought my traffic up significantly for about the next day. There’s no telling who might have been sent to my site that could possibly utilize my company in the future for work.

When you post things into a public forum, you have to remember it is just that, a PUBLIC forum and your reputation can be built (or destroyed) based on what actions you take. So always be sure to take the high road, consider how a particular word you use in a post might come across on the other end, and ensure that you minimize your chances to offend. Be yourself (as long as yourself isn’t a huge jerk anyway). And if you do happen to make a slight slip, be as graceful as you can in recovering. Standing your ground when you are so obviously wrong is not going to win you any friends, and that is the point of writing online isn’t it? To expand your friend base?

Greg

I’ve spent the last few days going over article ideas. Jotting a few down for later, but none of them just blowing me away. So this morning I went through my normal daily routine, get up and ready while the coffee brews, go hit the power button on my PC’s (yes plural, we’ll discuss that at a later time), pour that first cup of coffee and enjoy the first sips while looking out at the wonderful view my back porch affords me as the dog strolls in the yard, before finally settling down in front of the computer to start going over my emails and getting the day started. That’s when I realized exactly WHAT I should write about today as the monitor on my desktop PC blacked out before my eyes.

DUST.

I quickly realized it had gone dark because the computer itself had shut down. “That’s odd.”, I thought to myself as I reached down and pressed the power button to bring it back to life. As the room filled again with the familiar hum of fans whirring up again I turned my attention back to the laptop and my morning emails. Quiet. After going through the bootup start process my desktop had again shut down. Then it dawned on me why.

DUST.

To confirm my suspicions I again depressed the power button, and as the monitor again sprang to life, I quickly hit the DEL key on my keyboard to get into the system BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and waited for it to finish loading to that screen. I then flipped through the various screen options until I arrived at the one showing various specifications about my system hardware. This screen is in different sections in different manufacturers motherboards, but generally you want to look for something referring to H/W Monitor or other similar phrases.

This screen will generally show you your fan speeds, different temperatures across the motherboard (and CPU), as well as various other tidbits of knowledge you never realized you needed to know. My eyes immediately landed on the CPU Temperature of my particular system. 91° Celsius. I realize many of you won’t know what a “safe” CPU temperature is, and there is no hard and fast answer as it is different for each manufacturer (and each product line from each manufacturer for that matter), but rest assured that 91°C is WAY outside the realm of “safe”. My hand immediately shot down to the front of the case and cut power to the system as I hoped for the best that I hadn’t already done irreparable harm.

So that brings us full circle to the purpose of this article, dust (and the heat that it causes). Heat is the #1 killer of electrical components. When dust is allowed to build up on various circuit boards and inside fans it can cause various problems. One of the main ones is the decreased airflow that is created as dust begins to block vents, cooling fins, and builds up on the blades of the fans which creates a slowdown in the spinning capability of that fan. It can also cause more immediate danger as the different dust particles combine together and create a layer over the top of components. The origins of those dust particles are from such a vast array of places that the possibility they contain the ability to transfer electricity is pretty great. Get enough of them together, laid out across a critical element of your computer system, and it could be akin to putting a direct electrical short across the board which could cause a hardware malfunction.

Thankfully that doesn’t happen too often, and more than likely it is just a general dust buildup, causing the heat generated by electrical devices to not dissipate as originally intended. Another benefit of more modern day systems (basically anything built in the last 5-10 years) is that the manufacturers of the motherboards have designed fail safes into their hardware that causes it to immediately power down in the event an overly high temperature is encountered. These fail-safes can be disabled (though I HIGHLY recommend against that), and they can be set at temperatures that are outside what is considered the safe zone for temperature extremes. By and large however, I think most system builders leave them at their default settings, so most users should be properly protected.

So when your computer starts shutting down mysteriously consider heat as a culprit. How long have you been running the system? If you power it back on and it shuts right back down then the heat could already be outside the safe margins. Let the system sit for about an hour, then try to power it back up. If it runs for awhile then shuts down again it is almost definitely a dust/heat buildup issue. A simple matter of opening the case, using a bit of compressed air (preferably outside or in a well ventilated area as the dust that can might come off the system will be quite extreme) and cleaning out the insides of the system will most likely get you back working in short order. Be careful to not use brushes that aren’t recommended for electronics as they can contain static buildup that will cause other system failures.

In a future article I’ll discuss in more detail how best to clean out the insides of your computer, and how to determine how often you should perform these tasks. Remember that Tekamba Computers offers free tech support via our online form to help you troubleshoot/resolve any computer issues you may have. We also offer on-site service in and around Prescott Valley, whether you have a single computer needing some help, or are trying to get a network of systems properly communicating, we can help.

Greg Hicks
Tekamba Computers
Servicing: Prescott Valley, Dewey, Chino Valley, Paulden, Prescott (and surrounding areas)
(928) 458-5865