Why Your Computers Frequently Run Poorly

Written on the 5th of October 2007 by Scott Jones - Generl Manager IT Leaders

As an IT provider dedicated to achieving the unthinkable goal of 100% client retention and satisfaction each year, there are some tough realities to face.

We need to not only provide fast and accurate repairs to problems, but we also often need to be able to explain these issues simply to the clients. Often all the client knows is that their computer is broken for the third time, it's very frustrating, and its holding up their work.

Many clients expect a computer to work like a TV. They want to get 5 years of trouble-free use out of it, and then expect it will die shortly thereafter, or become obsolete. The purpose of this article is to give the non-technically minded an insight into why computers are not at all like this, and why they will only behave in this way on a minority of occasions. It is my hope that it will encourage small businesses to set a realistic budget for the expected maintenance costs of their IT.

1. Hardware.

The hardware of a computer is the physical bits you can see and touch. Mainboard, Hard Drive, RAM, CDROM, monitor and so forth. All these different pieces of hardware plug together by standardised cables and sockets and slots, and together create a working computer, ready for software to be installed.  Simple.

When you look a bit deeper into any one of those hardware devices, this simple idea starts to get murky.

A typical mainboard is a rectangle of plasticy printed circuit board, on which sit various components. All the components on it, are made by different manufacturers in different factories. The connectors on the board are made by several different manufacturers again. The cable makers are different. The chip on the mainboard which controls how all these thing interact (BIOS) is a different manufacturer, combined with a different company that writes the piece of code (firmware). In all, there might be 50 or more components from 20 different manufacturers, all mashed together onto a circuit board, all talking together via internal wires a fraction of a millimetre wide.

Do the same analysis on the 10 or so other common components in a PC, and you might find 50 or more hardware manufacturers with many hundreds of tiny bits of equipment inside a standard looking PC. Now with thousands of different brands and models of motherbaords, RAM, hard drives and cards, you may start to realise there is going to be a percentage of combinations of these products that don't communicate perfectly with one another.

There are standards for manufacturers to design against, with the aim of making components which all talk the same language. While a manufacturer may try to produce a component according to the exact specifications, sometimes they do not quite get it right. That tiny electronic component may work in 99% of the situations it is used, and no flaw is detected in testing, so half a million of these products go into the market place and get plugged in to PCs around the world. In a percentage of situations, this flaw will cause problems.

These hardware flaws are a recognised part of modern microcomputer production. You couldn't buy computers under $1000 unless the hardware makers were churning out millions of units every year in highly-automated state of the art production factories. The accuracy of these factories improves constantly, but bad batches and minor flaws are unavoidable.

2. Software

So you've now got your shiny new PC, complete with all its amazing power and accepted flaws.
Before it's good for anything, it needs software, right? So on goes Microsoft Windows, an Office software suite, some essential antiVirus and antiSpyware software, and a pile of other things you find useful or amusing. A big list of perfect software.

Wrong. Each of those pieces of software you just installed has bugs. A bug is a flaw in the software due to code being written incorrectly. Creating bugs is a natural part of software programming. Humans are not perfect and do make mistakes. Testing software thoroughly and removing the bugs is a crucial part of pre-release software production.

Unfortunately it seems quite rare these days to use a piece of software which has no apparent bugs when it is released. An increasing number of companies release software knowing it has bugs, and work to fix the bugs as they are discovered and reported by end users. This is little comfort to business owners losing productivity because a software maker produced an imperfect product. The software company may provide you with a fix to the software bug, but they sure wont send you a cheque to compensate you for the lost time!

On a typical PC there is likely to be software from 30 or more different software makers. Most of it with flaws of some sort, which may or may not cause you a problem. In an installation of Windows, many of the individual programs as a part of Windows (eg, Defrag) was purchased from a different software company at some point in time. Microsoft has bought out a lot of software houses over the years, and accumulated a lot of great software in the process, which it bundled into Windows.

3. Add The Internet, and stir well...

OK, so you've now got a complete computer system that has been made by 100 different companies, and god knows how many individual people had a hand in it. You know there is a 100% chance that it's got hardware flaws and software bugs, and you are starting to think that it's an absolute miracle that it works at all.

It might surprise you to know that 10 years ago, computers were MORE reliable than they are today. They were far less powerful, far less useful, far less fun, and significantly harder to use, but they were MORE reliable. Strange?

Ten years ago, most PCs were not connected to the Internet. These days, 70+ percent of businesses in Australia are Internet-connected. Here are some fun Internet facts:

• There are around 500 new Viruses and virus variants every MONTH 
• There are around 2000 new Spyware, Adware and other Malware infections created every month 
• Malicious Spyware can install on your PC just by visiting a website and will often cause system instabilities.
• A great number of free software downloads from the Internet contain some form of Spyware or Adware.
• Trojans open a backdoor into your system which allows (amongst other things) other malicious software to be installed remotely.

Now thinking back to what you know about software development and bugs, how many writers of Spyware would be concerned about how perfectly their software interacts with other programs on your computer, when their only intention is to spy on your Internet habits? A vast amount of software downloaded from the Internet, is so badly written that it's like shooting your computer in the foot, and then blaming it for not running well.

4. What can I do?

So now you realise that a PC is not just a box with a few components plugged in. It is a highly complex piece of equipment which relies upon a lot of humans and machines making perfect hardware and software which talks together well to obtain functionality. With current hardware and software production techniques, this is simply not possible to perfect, and it's made worse by the random events on the Internet. There is no such thing as a PC which runs perfectly, anywhere on this planet. There are only computers which work adequately for your tasks, and those which don't.

So how can you predict what sort of problems you might get? You could try writing to the 100 different companies that made it, and another 100 Spyware and Virus authors and ask them all to sit down and come up with some answers for you over a cup of coffee. I doubt you'll get much of a response though. Fact is, you can't preempt most of the problems. By the time the average new PC has been connected to the Internet for a while, and had 10 pieces of software installed, you're back to pot luck as to what kind of problems you are going to have, and when you are going to have them.

You can, however, go a long way towards reducing the problems you'll have, and at the same time, improve the performance of your computers (and staff).

Here are the top tips if you want your computers to run at full steam:

1. Buy brand-name computers that are suitable for your specific purposes. More testing done in the assembly of the components equals a reduced chance of problems. Also, work with your IT provider to develop a Standard Operating Environment (SOE). An SOE minimises the number of random problems by ensure that all equipment you deploy has a pre-tested set of hardware and software.  This also results in reduced costs for supporting your network(s).  If components need replacing, insist on quality instead of just the cheapest.

2. Get your systems serviced regularly, and preferably have the health-monitored 24/7.  These types of services reduce problems and prevent failures, and are far cheaper than the ocst of having staff sitting idle during technology failures. Maintenance generally involves things like:

• Updating your Microsoft Windows software every week or ensure it is auto-updating. (www.windowsupdate.com). These patches fix known stability and security issues within Windows. Some versions of Windows can update automatically, but even when its still worth checking periodically to be sure the updates are installing properly. 
• Also updating your applications. Microsoft regularly releases Service Packs for all their major software titles. These are a collection of the latest bug and security flaw fixes. Many other major applications have patches available to fix known bugs. These patches are generally free. 
• Monitoring and checking for hard drive problems - often failures can be predicted before the event. If the drives are fine, then defragmenting as required helps maintain the speed and life of your drives.
• Ensure Antivirus software is up to date.  Use Spyware checking and cleaning tools to find and remove accumulated spyware.
• Clean the dust out of your computers regularly. Dust and fluff build up on components prevent heat escaping the computer chassis. Additional heat does more to shorten the life of components than any other environmental factor. The time frame depends a lot on your office environment. They may only need doing twice per year in clean offices, but perhaps once per month in a dusty environment.

3. Have a good relationship with your IT providers so when all else fails, you can get fast and accurate support.

4. Budget for your IT expenditure instead of putting your head in the sand and hoping for the best.