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I’m fairly certain that in a closet somewhere, I have my first “real” computer: an IBM x386. This baby trumped our old Tandy, and became the instrument for the genesis of my computer knowledge. Despite the fact that I ripped the floppy drive out, I’m pretty sure the computer still works, likely booting an old version of DOS.

Rarely do I think about how long computers actually last, however. In most cases, I’ve upgraded key components, or simply moved on to a new machine before one of my computers outright dies. I won’t say that I’ve never had a computer that’s gone kaput, but in every case I can think of, it wasn’t my main machine, but rather a “server” I threw together from excess parts, or something else I was running on the side. Reality hits, however, when I’m asked to look at someone’s computer that just stopped booting, and it’s sad when that’s the only computer they have, or at least, the only one capable of running their application of choice.

So it was that Bones Wiley came to me with his desktop having dropped its USB mouse support, and thereafter not rebooting. I’d seen this before, but it was on my dual-Celeron machine that I’d been running a Counterstrike server on some years prior. Or was I running BeOS on that badboy? Nonetheless, both machines just died like that, and all one could do was be sad.

It turns out that Wiley’s motherboard froze at the memory-reading stage, and a memory swap verified that his RAM was good, and mine (also good) wouldn’t run his box at all. Conclusion: buy a new motherboard.

The thing is, though Wiley’s box wasn’t anything to brag about, it wasn’t nearly as old as my old x386. I doubt that hardware simply isn’t as robust as it once was, so the culprit must be use; though the x386 got a fair amount of use, it was retired and replaced by a newer x486 a couple years down the road, and the thing wasn’t on most of the time, nor was it running applications as demanding. Maybe, it turns out, hardcore users will destroy their computers quicker than non-hardcore users. I suppose this makes sense, but I never considered a computer akin to a mechanical device, where use equates to enough wear-and-tear that a breakdown will eventually occur. Computers are digital after all, with few moving parts. It’s those damned dancing pieces that are supposed to break down, not digital stuff.

In any case, almost three years after purchase, Wiley’s computer churns no longer. The only question now is whether or not he uses the few pennies in his piggybank to buy a budget computer and replace the fancier parts (read: video card and RAM), or does he buy a barebones computer and insert the fancier parts?

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