Bristol and Bath Home Computers

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Bristol and Bath Home Computers is the reincarnation of Bristol Clone Centre, Bristol Clone Centre was set up in 1992 and supplied a personal build service of personal computers to home and business, the price of personal computers dropped in price drastically and in the year 2000 I started Marked For Life Limited selling security products and pest control products through our internet sites.

The security and pest control business experienced huge growth and demand was ever increasing and Marked For Life Limited went from strength to strength, because of this reason Bristol Clone Centre became a bit neglected and suffered because of a lack of investment in time and money, the increase of competition on the market and relative expense involved for the amount of profit gained made it take a back seat and I stopped trading in 2001.

Throughout the time I was building Bristol Clone Centre I was fully employed as a Computer Server Engineer, My duty for much of the time was the main server engineer based in Bristol for Specialist Computer Centres , my responsibility was to repair the most expensive and business critical computers for some of the companies top customers, Companies such as Zurich, Alliance and Leicester, Next as well as many others.

As Marked For Life Limited Grew, it involved a larger degree of work to maintain and keep track with customers orders, because the time taken was mainly process, packing and despatch the website had to take a back seat, this and the inability to find suitable staff to help the amount of orders declined, I would then start to concentrate on the website and generate more business then the orders were neglected and customers suffered by reduced customer service, realising that I was in a vicious circle I decided to sell Marked For Life Limited and concentrate on building websites and supplying web hosting through Rentablog , Renbtabiz and Web Traffic Sponge , I had proved my ability to get web traffic and used this as a lever to gain more business.

My web business involves very little work because I have affiliates generating business and some of them actually do the work involved in building the websites, I now have some spare time on my hands, I have started Bristol and Bath Home Computers so I can return to my real love of repairing computers.

Link: http://milsom.biz

A link back to our main site, Bristol and Bath Home Computers for computer repairs for home and business computers in Bristol, Bath and surrounding areas.

Looking after your computer is a priority to ensure it has a long and trouble free life, there are many things that can be done easily by you and things that need to be done by professionally qualified people only.

The easiest way to ensure you do not damage your computer is to leave the covers on, by leaving the covers on there is no way you can damage the computers internal working, the only way you can damage the computer working from outside is by plugging in leads incorrectly but a little care with that can prevent any major repair expense.

Dust
Dust is not a major cause of damage in a computer, removing dust can be, contrary to popular belief removing dust can cause more problems than it cures, there is no guaranteed way to remove dust safely so provided it is not obstructing any major airway it is best left where it is.

The dangers in removing dust
As soon as you remove the cover from a PC there is danger of damage from static electricity, this is a very real danger the results of the damage may not show up immediately, but will degrade your computer components and can possibly cause a failure later.

The ways to remove dust are

a/ Air duster, this is probably the safest way to remove dust but has its dangers, air dusters come in the form of aerosols with a compressed gas inside, squirting the cannister releases a low pressure jet of gas that dislodges the dust and sends it elsewhere, the main danger is the dust finding a new resting place that is worse than it had originated from and a small amount of static can be formed on the can tube.

b/ brush, using a brush will build up static electricity and can damage the internal components of the computer, using an electrically conductive brush could prevent this but I have never seen one in my lifetime of computers.

c/ Vacuum, this is without doubt the most dangerous way of removing dust, it is almost guaranteed to degrade your computer, using a standard domestic or industrial vacuum cleaner will produce ten’s of thousands of volts of static electricity on the tube, as soon as this gets near your computers internal components are going to fry or become degraded, using a Toner Vac® reduces the likelihood of static damage because the whole vacuum is earthed.

When people talk about portable computers most people refer to them as Laptops, the truth is many of you (Age dependant) may never have seen a laptop let alone used one.

When the portable computer was introduced it was called a transportable computer, it quickly gained a name as a “Luggable” the reason it was called such is because it was huge by todays standards, it was the size of a sewing machine and weighed 34lbs it had a detachable keyboard and built in CRT display.

As time went by and technology advanced the luggable was replaced by a smaller version the “Laptop” this had a full sized keyboard and an LCD display it folded away to be carried and was the size of a briefcase, these were popular for many years and recently (last 13 years or so) they were replaced by the notebook computer.

The notebook computer is what is called nowadays the laptop, it is in fact a lot smaller than a laptop in fact often the size of a “notebook” , current manufacturers are bringing out all types for different uses, from ultra slimline, ultra light weight, and extra tough so not to be damaged easily.

Unfortunately there is always a drawback to making things smaller, functionality is the main one, many notebooks have external AC adaptors to run from the mains, external floppy drives (remember them?) cd rom drives and other accessories, these were often needed to be carried in the notebook bag unless you had a spare at the office, never the less the notebook has come of age and is taking the world by storm.

Static is a computers kryptonite, the danger of static is often underestimated by many people, you read the warning on the packet, break the seal and install the component, switch on the machine and it works.

There you go all this static malarkey over rated, or is it? I have looked around the internet to find a reliable source of information about this and to my surprise I have been unable to find any.

Static can build up on you when you walk across a carpet or materials rub together, at low levels you can not feel it but it is still enough to damage an electronic component at higher voltages you can see a spark and feel it as it goes to earth.

CMOS chips are susceptible to static discharge because the components of the chips are microns thick, imagine a 12000 volt spark on a wire so small that you can not see it with the naked eye, its not going to like it is it?

OK so zap it takes a hit at 12000 volts and it still works, the circuit can break but may regrow, this is Ok you have got away with it, think again that circuit has become weakened and is a likely candidate for the next breakdown in your system, static can degrade components, it does not always destroy them.

All training courses I have been on have a section about static, this is because a large majority of break down in components is caused by static discharge.

At Bristol Home Computers we always practice safe handling practices, I have seen engineers put down the portable static handling mat connect to earth and attach a strap to the computer, they take the component out of the bag and place it on top of the bag while they prepare the slot to put it in, all those precautions have in a second been negated, the bags are designed to keep static away from the component while it is inside the bag, this means the static is on the outside of the bag, the result a damaged or degraded component, I ensure all our engineers are adequately trained on static (ESD Electrostatic Discharge) procedures.