Theresa,
> I am always hesitant to check that or clean my computer. Mom has the
> problem of having too much electrical energy or something; she can
> not wear a regular watch or a watch ring, for example.
Sounds like some confusion. I have never heard of anyone having 'too much
electricity'. The watch thing often has to do with body chemestry, not
eletricity. And then only that the person get skin problems from the
reaction between skin and metal. My wife has that problem. I have never
heard of any electrical devices being damaged by a persons body chemestry or
'electricity'. When the computer is opened and the computer electroncs is
touched by someone who has a stative build up on his body, that is not a
result of the person's own body but from having built up static electricity
because they did not discharge their body by touching a grouned object, like
the computer case when the AC cord is plugged in [assuming that the ac
outlet is properly grounded. You can use a ground fault tester to verify
that it is OK. ]
> They run for a while, and then die.
Forgive me if I doubt that your mother's physiology is causing this. Were
all of these dying computers in the same location when they died. There
could be some electrical problem, like the faulty outlet mentioned above
where they case does not get grounded because the ground prong [the round
one] is not connected properly to the electrical system ground. This could
happen in old buildings that have not been updated electrically, OR if
someone replaced an damaged outlit and did not connect the ground wire
correctly. [This would be a bare wire, not the white one or the black one.
> Anyhow, early Wed morning I was merrily tooling along when the
> motherboard fried. The technicians blamed it on a combination of a
> power surge and the power supply being on its last legs.
Those are some of the things that can fry a motherboard. As are damage from
static electicity. This damage can happen with no apparent effect until
later. That is why manufacturers require buiders of electronics to be
grounded. Most electronics today has circuity to reduse the effect of static
damage. So sometimes instead the eamage being immediatly apparent, the
circuitry is only weakened, waiting for that inopprertune moment to finally
fail. This kind of serupticious damage can be from bad mfg. practices or
careless handling by repair personnel or the owner.
> happy camper when the head technician showed me the blown capacitators.
Capacitors used to fail frequently in the old days. Capacitors do not fail
often today and when they do it is most likely due to excessive volatage
applied, and possibly due to heat.
> The dust inside of that box was horrible! It was not a
> two week buildup - no way. I asked; clean up is now an extra
> $25!
You need to find a different repair station. Or do the cleanup yourself,
it's not difficult. I like the idea of using a vacuum cleaner creavas tool,
i.e plastic, not metal. Just be careful not to bang around. If the computer
is in a dirty environment, i.e. dirt builds up, [this could be why your
mothers 'puters fail]. Then a cleaning is a good idea, what? twice a year or
something.
> The upsides to all this is that now I have a new computer, improved
> electrical connections in the outlet, a new UPS/surge protector,
UPS is good, as are surge protection. But no substitute for defective
electrical outlets, see above.
> and more knowledge.
Yes, my knowledge base includes things learned from bad experiences, this in
spite of having been both an electronics technian and a teacher of
electronics.
Jim
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