Wednesday 7 December 2011

On Changing Trends in Computer Hardware Problems

We often spot the most unlikely trends in hardware failure – it’s a bit like the old adage of waiting for ages, and then three come at once. This can be as simple as a specific model of laptop which will come in with, say, a failure of the graphics chip due to overheating. Followed quickly by several others of the exact same model. Sometimes this can be explained by, in this case, the first flush of spring bringing unseasonably warm weather to thermal paste that has spent a cold winter decomposing.

Sometimes it can be a little sinister – several laptops, again of the same make and model, all failing just days out of warranty, again with, GPU issues.

Nathan has recently spotted an new trend – we get an inordinate amount of MacBooks that come in  with damage caused by white wine spillage. Recently we’ve noticed that this has, with the colder weather, changed to red wine damage. I wonder if there’s a demographic indicator in there somewhere?

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