High Temperature Trouble

My seven-year-old laptop has been getting more and more temperamental and failed twice last year (typically at least 3 months after the last back-up had been made).  Luckily Hubby is a whizz with all things technological and, despite these troubles, we he managed to restore the system to working order and the only casualty was my free time while I laboriously copied the un-backed-up files back into place.  I got better at doing regular back-ups too ... every month like clockwork.  This year, real life took over and I kept meaning to do another back-up ... soon, perhaps after lunch, tomorrow at the latest ... but never quite managing to find the time.

During the last month my laptop fan was almost permanently on, no matter how little processing was happening.  That should have been a clue, a signal that things weren't right and that a back-up would soon be needed in earnest!  Sadly I kept prevaricating and last week, just before several deadlines, the inevitable happened ... major failure again!! 

Hubby asked me when I had last backed-up ... I looked on my External Hard Drive and was very red-faced to admit that it was four months ago :-(

Luckily Hubby has just treated himself to a new machine and so now I am working on his old one, with a restored system that is finally up to date after only two days of file-copying!  *sigh*  I've now marked my calendar and promise faithfully to do better in future.

He showed me why my old laptop was overheating ... masses of dust inside and just look at the state of the air-vent!

That should definitely not be there, no wonder the fan was having to do overtime!  The only upside is that item #9 in Rinda's Summer 2013 Scavenger Hunt is "someone or something that is clearly out of place or doesn't belong" and I reckon this dusty fluff will get me started on the hunt, though I'm not sure where it should be, other than inside the bin!