A stuffy office is no good for your workers. A BBC Radio 4 broadcast found a working temperature of between 19 and 23 degrees to be the best for productivity. An overly hot office is also bad for the devices that you use day in, day out to run your business. An overheated computer doesn’t just hamper productivity. Heat build-up can actually damage the hardware inside and even cause it to become unstable. Looking after your computers and ensuring they are sufficiently cooled is the key to keeping employee productivity high and your investment in technology protected.
As leading providers of data centre and server room cooling, we help organisations everywhere access the highly efficient cooling systems they need to work more capably. Ensuring a stable IT environment is essential, optimising it for the best possible performance. Here we take a closer look at how you can stop your computer from overheating so work can continue as usual – or even better than before.
Give it a spring clean
Sometimes the simplest and most straightforward steps are the most effective. So many forgo cleaning their computers on a regular basis. In homes and office environments, computers are exposed to all kinds of contaminants, including dust; hair; skin cells and carpet particles. These can easily enter your computer system, particularly if your tower sits on the floor. It’s recommended that you clean your computer every three to six months to ensure dust and other contaminants don’t clog up the heat sinks; fans; air vents and computer casing that is essential to cooling success.
By regularly dusting out your computer case you can ensure the maintenance of air flow and prevent overheating. Cleaning your desktop is relatively easy with the right knowledge and tools. This guide from How-To Geek is a great starting point.
Explore your cooling options
As computer cooling specialists, we work closely with our clients to identify the most effective source of cooling for their computer systems, data centres and server rooms. There are many cooling methods to explore, from the use of heat sinks and thermal compounds (also known as thermal grease; thermal gel; thermal paste and heat sink paste) to water and immersion cooling. Additional fans can also be added to aid the continued removal of hot air.
Think about computer placement
Where you place your computer is just as important as regular cleaning and the addition of cooling technologies. Lifehacker offers some words of wisdom on positioning office computers:
It’s also important to check the physical location of your computer. If you have devices nearby that are blowing hot air into the computer’s intakes, that’s not good either. Ideally, the flow of air where the fans are should be steady and adequate, with room for the computer to breathe.
Understand the signs
Being able to identify the signs of overheating is imperative. As well as taking steps to monitor your computer’s CPU temperature, being aware of the system instabilities that are signs of overheating will ensure you can cool your computer quickly and get back to the job in hand. Abrupt shutdowns; freezing and blue screen crashes are all tell-tale signs of overheating.
Brushed up your cleaning schedule, improved your cooling capabilities and changed the placement of your computer, but still experiencing the issues detailed above? Overheating occurs for several reasons, many of which must be identified and remedied by a professional. Contact our team today for support.
