There is Hope!
Firstly,
most modern equipment is amazingly reliable. Massive studies of fault
and failure mechanisms have been made and, in the light of these
studies, designs changed to maximize reliability. In my 40+ years of
experience with electronic and other equipment, about 70 % of all
faults in modern equipment have relatively simple causes and are easily corrected. Another
20 % of faults still have simple causes but take longer to repair. The
remaining 10 % of faults are 'major' and repairs are likely to be
lengthy and expensive. It is with this first point, those 90 % of
faults that have relatively simple causes and solutions, that FIXit
Services may be able to help you.
Secondly, there is much that you can do to protect yourself from equipment failure. In Grahamstown the electrical supply is sometimes erratic and our climate delivers quite a few electrical storms every year. Supply voltage "spikes" can rip through a PC, television, audio or other electronic equipment rendering them almost irreparable. The use of an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) can protect your equipment in many cases. Laptop (notebook) computers may be thought of as having a built in UPS. In a sense they have but they are more vulnerable than a PC running from a "stand alone" UPS. I recommend either a UPS or at least a mains plug-top containing transient suppressors
Transient suppressor plugs are available from Grahamstown Electrical (Hill St) and Telkom's Shop
on Church Square can sell you a UPS over the counter at a reasonable
price.
Of course disconnecting your electronic equipment from the mains when
an electrical storm approaches will protect your equipment. In the
case of networked PCs/Laptops using Telkom lines, don't forget to
disconnect the Telkom line. It may also be susceptible to lightening:
Fortunately many phone lines are now underground. Disconnecting is fine
but if the storm comes while your are away from home, you are again at
risk.
Further, you can protect yourself against equipment failure by having spare equipment on hand (also known as redundancy). This may not be attractive for the home user but in offices where there are many computers, for example, there is a measure of redundancy since not all computers are in use at the same time.
