Temperature, Humidity, and Altitude All computers are designed to operate within specific ranges of temperature, humidity, and altitude. Exceeding the allowable ranges places stress on the system and can cause it to fail prematurely. Therefore, keeping an eye on the conditions where you both use and store your computer is impor- tant for the successful operation of the system. Temperature, humidity, and altitude variations can lead to serious problems. If extreme variations occur over a short period, expansion and contraction can cause signal traces on circuit boards to crack and separate, and solder joints can break. Extreme humidity can cause contacts in the system to undergo accelerated corrosion or condensation to form in the system and disk drives. Extremely dry conditions can cause problems with static electricity. Operating at high altitudes causes problems with cooling (lower density air renders the cooling system less effective) as well as the internal “air bear- ing” on which the heads float in the drive while operating. To ensure that your system will be operated in the temperature, humidity, and altitude ranges for which it was designed, I recommend you consult your system specifications for the environmental range limits. Most manufacturers provide data about the correct operating temperature range for their systems in the owner’s manual. Two sets of specifications are normally listed—one that applies to an operating system, and the other for a system powered off. As an example, IBM indicates the following allowable environmental limits for most of its ThinkPad portable systems
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 20:47:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015