A warning

Last night, I noticed my desktop Windows PC was behaving oddly. This morning, it shut down and restarted on its own—it didn't blue screen, though. As I tried to diagnose the issue, a thought crossed my mind: "What's the GPU temperature?" Running Speedfan revealed it was at 60°C, which is excessively high for an idle state. After a bit of effort, I managed to clean out the tower with some canned air, paying special attention to the GPU and other components. Now, the GPU temperature is much cooler 39-41°C, and everything seems to be functioning well. I must confess, I broke one of the fundamental rules of PC maintenance by allowing dust to accumulate.

I HIGHLY recommend downloading Speedfan or HWiNFO. Both are free to download and use. It is critical to watch those internal temps. Laptops are notorious for overheating, and this overheating will shorten the life of the device.

 

I utilize iOS on my smartphone and iPad while continuing to use a refurbished old Dell laptop. I don't find it necessary to invest in an Apple Desktop PC. Although I initially neglected the dust accumulation, I've found that with proper maintenance and the use of a UPS, a Windows PC can provide many years of reliable service. I took the time to install and use a Windows feature that places the GPU temp on my taskbar. In the image below the current temp can be seen to the left of the LAN icon on the far right.