Page Seven / La Paz
Production problems in China, increased demand and high transportation costs cause a shortage of chips or microprocessors motherboards, video or power supplies to assemble or repair computers and other electronic devices.
Antonio Ore, a hardware professional, explained that factories in China and other countries in the world that manufacture microprocessors reduced their production stock due to the pandemic and that affects the whole world. With the outbreaks of the virus, manufacturing is also paralyzed.
The smaller supply of chips is in turn facing a greater demand for computers to work or study virtually from home.
According to Ore, microprocessors with the brain of any piece, be it motherboards, video cards, power cards and others for computers are also fundamental pieces for cars, phones, refrigerators and other smart equipment.
He added that this makes assembled computers more expensive, which previously cost 5,200 bolivianos on average and now are between 5,800 and 5,900 bolivianos.
Another computer sales technician noted that video cards are difficult to find and, if found, they are at a higher price, having risen from $ 200 to $ 350 in recent months.
Carlos Laredo, from Computech, indicated that there is not much supply of motherboards, power supplies, which is why the latest generation equipment has become more expensive.
He explained that motherboards were up 20%, since previously they could be found at $ 350 and now they are between $ 400 and $ 420. He added that if a brand computer such as Dell, HP, Lenovo suffers some damage, depending on the anomaly, it is difficult to find spare parts.
In the company Yanapa Computadoras, they reported that there is a general increase in different components of computers, equipment and printers due to the high costs of maritime transport from China and other countries that rose from 4,000 dollars to 16,000 or 18,000 dollars per container.
As an example, he mentioned that an Epson printer increased in price from 1,400 bolivianos to 2,060 bolivianos.
According to a report published on the portal www.elfinanciero.com.mx in 2020, the coronavirus caused the rupture of supply chains of manufacturing companies, leaving a shortage of semiconductors or chips that are essential to assemble products such as cell phones, computers and cars.
Santiago Cardona, general director for Intel Mexico, explained that the demand for processors that is seen is only a small sample of what the world will need in the near future, derived from new technological trends such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G and IoT.
He stated that a processor takes approximately 20 weeks to leave a factory and, in the case of Intel, it is carried out in specialized centers, whose cost can amount to 10 billion dollars for each of these plants, which also take around two years to build.
General care
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Use The hardware professional, Antonio Ore, recommended to those who have a home computer to carry out periodic preventive maintenance of the equipment.
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Observation He explained that computers need cleaning every three months if they are on throughout the day and every six months if the use is not prolonged. This will extend the life of the equipment. The most frequent damage to computers is to power supplies or fans.
