Computer Overheating?
March 2, 2010
Like most of you, I spend a good deal of time working on my computer. Whether it’s in my HTML editor writing this newsletter, on MindJet working on mind maps for upcoming programs, or in QuickBooks dealing with the mundane details of business finance, most of what I do in any given day has my fingers on these keys.
So when my laptop computer started making a new strange noise, I noticed it immediately. The noise was the cooling fan. Every computer – desktop, laptop, or room-sized mainframe – has them. They have to, because the CPU – the “brain” of the computer – generates a lot of heat, and if not cooled properly will quite literally start melting the components around it on the circuit board.
That’s why all modern computers have built-in heat sensors that will increase the speed of the cooling fan to reduce the heat of the CPU, and when there’s no more speed to give, will step in and shut down the computer – immediately, and unceremoniously, causing you to lose any unsaved work.
Okay, so much for the computer hardware lesson, now on to the marketing lesson!
My computer wasn’t getting so hot that it had to shut down, but the fan was running at a high enough speed that the noise was, well, annoying. At the normal speed, the fan is so quiet that it’s barely a whisper and tends to get lost in the normal background noise of an office environment. But when it’s working overtime, it sounds like there’s a constant gust of wind blowing through my office.
I looked for an explanation (and a solution) on several different tech support sites. I called a friend of ours who fixes computers for a living. I downloaded utility software that showed me the CPU temperature and fan speed.
But nothing seemed to work.
Then I started noticing something interesting. Whenever I restarted the computer, the fan ran normally. Whenever I put the computer into “sleep” mode by closing the screen to pack it up in my case, upon awakening, the fan would kick in after about three or four minutes.
When I put the computer into “hibernate” mode and then closed the screen, when I started it up again, it ran fine.
I’d like to know why putting the computer to sleep made the fan kick in when I started it up. I really would. But my primary objective throughout all of this was to get the noise to stop so I could get my work done without the constant distraction of the noise and worry that the computer might spontaneously shut down in the middle of something important.
There are things in life, and in marketing that are unexplainable, and yet undeniably and observably true. You can spend hours of time trying to understand them; you can bang your head against the wall trying to change them; or you can accept that they just “are” and use that knowledge to your advantage.
In any case, the third option will probably keep your own CPU – your brain – from overheating and shutting down!
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