this is crazy!

[no vocals]

a third dell computer just crashed on me. worked fine last night, now, poof! is anyone else experiencing troubles like this, because it's insane! granted, they were a dell D520, an inspiron 9100, and an inspriron 600 so they were older systems, but jeez! three in one month?!

[ddouglass]

And of course they are out of warranty. It does happen, especially if they are laptops. They seem to burn out more usually because of dirt getting inside and blocking the cooler air flow.
As a recommendation I would definately consider having them clean about every 6 months and use a cooling stand as well.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by no vocals

a third dell computer just crashed on me. worked fine last night, now, poof! is anyone else experiencing troubles like this, because it's insane! granted, they were a dell D520, an inspiron 9100, and an inspriron 600 so they were older systems, but jeez! three in one month?!

I had two in a month four years ago. But I had the two year extended warrantee. Both replaced for free with much newer models.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

And of course they are out of warranty. It does happen, especially if they are laptops. They seem to burn out more usually because of dirt getting inside and blocking the cooler air flow.
As a recommendation I would definately consider having them clean about every 6 months and use a cooling stand as well.

Yes, I use a stand and a fan-cooler underneath. But I know of video DJ's (video uses more ram = more heat) that actually mount a fan next to it and blow across underneath the stand, however, laptops (as Doug said) are notorious for this.

[no vocals]

Bryant - glad to know it's not just me!

unfortunately of the systems that crashed two were craigslist finds so obviously no warranty and the third and most recent was my wife's old laptop that i had to use in a pinch. fortunately my two shows are just a side thing for fun. i have a "real job" so it's not critical like a livelyhood or anything. i bought two new toshibas WITH the two year warranty for my "real job" and i used one of those this weekend....hadda lay out $60 for vga converter though, which sucked!

about fans - since smoking is still allowed in my venue i use a fan around my equipment for a few reasons. 1. i'm in central Texas which gets HOT so i use a fan to stay cool. 2. it blows the smoke around so it's a little easier to breathe, haha and 3. i use it to cool down the equipment. i STILL should clean out my stuff more often than i do.

as always, thanks for the good advice, conversation and sharing experiences!

S