By Englebert Hyperlink | Beacon Tech Wizard

Q: Let me introduce myself. I have a 2009 iMac. After it’s been running for a couple hours, the fan kicks in. Usually, if I shut down the machine, unplug it, then restart it, the fan doesn’t run anymore — for a while, anyway. Then it starts all over again. What can I do to eliminate the fan running in the first place? Is there a problem with my computer? Also: I have OS 10.6.8. Thanks! — Blake

A: First, congratulations on the purchase of your 6-year-old computer! He’s in kindergarten now, right?

Secondly, the first thing I would say is you may be the problem. You stated what operating system you have. That’s better than 90 percent of computer users would know. Even so, that makes no difference for our discussion.

Thirdly, the next thing you should do is to remove the hard drive and throw it in the lake. If you wish, back up premium content (some call it “personally important data”) on a cloud drive prior to that. That’ll solve everything. You do know what a cloud is, do you not? I’m not talking meteorology here.

You believed me when I said to destroy the hard drive, didn’t you?

All joking aside (some of it serious) … Solution: Stop worrying so much. If your decade-old system dies, buy something newer. Also, don’t keep your computer on for hours and hours without a break. Turn it off and go wash your dishes or something.

Whenever he feels like it, Beacon technology guru Englebert Hyperlink answers challenging tech questions from Beacon readers.