with that kind of condensing humidity, i'm sure you should leave everything running. for people in more moderate climates i'd say spinning down the drives when they aren't in use is probably a good idea, they do have bearings of course, and those bearings can eventually wear out. disk drives are very sensitive to the quality and health of their bearings. myself, i spin down the drives but leave the machine running seti at home, it's probably best to avoid power/temperature cycles for the processor and to a lesser extent the ram. the primary failure mechanism in chips is breaking of the bond wires that go from the chip to the leads on the chip package, and temperature cycling does stress those connections which are tiny thiner than hair gold wires. my condolences on your humidity, sounds like a place i'd like to avoid! re: the dead imac, i'd also definately clean the contacts if it's that bad, they likely have some corrosion as well. just goes to show what works for some is bad for others.
Alan Sargent wrote: ----------- > A friend of mine did that when moving house, didn't use his iMac for a few > weeks. Doesn't boot at all now. I'm about to dismantle it to take out the > CPU and RAM and dry it, see if that helps. Where I live we get extreme > humidity -- up to 97% for days on end. Leaving a computer off in this > climate for a few weeks can kill it -- fungus on the hard disk (no, I'm not > joking), and general electric flakiness. Having it on keeps it dry, and the > air flowing out rather than crap creeping in. Makes my monitor weird too -- > almost totally black screen until it warms up and presumably dries out a > bit. Thank God we're down to only 90% humidity now. ------------ -- "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." (Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights.) -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
