Overheating Kills: Computer Hardware Susceptible to High Temperatures

Whether it's the dog days of summer or a cold day in winter, your PC can overheat. A cool room doesn't always make for a cool PC because the parts which get hot are contained within a metal casing and individual components can get very hot.

Add to this the fact that many of us pack our PCs with more hardware than ever before (scanner cards, modems, extra drives, special adapters), reducing room in the case for air to move. We also tend to buy more of the super-fast, hotter running hard drives can trap heat if not thoughtfully installed.

The rule of thumb to remember is that the more computing power your PC has, the more heat it will generate.

What you need to know is that hot components can fail and ultimately wear out much faster than components cooled to reasonable temperatures. To keep your system running well, you have to watch the temperature.

Since our PC cases usually feel warm to the touch anyway, not everyone will know when their PC's innards are running too hot. Add to this - background noise may keep you from noticing a fan not running or components starting to groan with heat distress.

Too often, the first indication you are having a problem occurs when hardware begins to fail under the stress, and you develop intermittent keyboard or drive access/ write errors, for example, which resolve after you shut down the PC for a bit (effectively letting the unit cool down).

However, you can begin to encounter real and permanent failures the longer you run an overheating unit. Plus, a PC should never be allowed to operate for more than a very short period without a working fan or you may end up with a virtual meltdown.

Special and even mundane circumstances may conspire to make a PC overheat. For instance, overheating is a frequent result of serious over- clocking of a system.