Preventive Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance

Today we're going to bring all this information together. No matter how old or new a computer may be, the tips listed below will help the computer to perform with the fewest errors and breakdowns.

What is Preventive Maintenance?

Computers cost a lot of money. Although they continually drop in price, the average computer you work on will probably range between P25,000 and 35,000. If all that equipment was yours, you'd want to make sure it was working properly as much of the time as you can, right? That's 100% of what preventive maintenance is about. You want to keep the computers you work on running properly, as every time they fail there is an economic cost involved.

When Should You Do What???

The biggest problem with preventive maintenance is that no one knows how often it should be performed. Here is a standard list of hardware actions that you should use when asked, although you should make your own list depending on the priorities assigned in your job description.

Routine	Component	Action
Daily	System	Run A Virus Scan
Daily	Hard Disk	Make Backups
Monthly	Hard Disk	Defrag The Drive
	Keyboard	Clean the Keyboard With Compressed Air.
	Mouse	Clean the Ball and Rollers.
	Monitor	Turn Off and Clean the Screen with Antistatic Wipes.
	Printer	Clean Print Heads, Rollers, and Other Components to Remove Dust and Paper.
Yearly	Case	Clean With Compressed Air To Remove Dust.
	Motherboard	Tighten Standoffs and Screws, and Check for Chip Creep.
	Adapter Cards	Clean Oxidization from Connections and Check for Chip Creep
As Required	Floppy Drive	Clean Drive Head to Remove Dust.
	CMOS	Write Down CMOS Settings And Update BIOS.
	System	Record Hardware and Software Changes.

Virus Scanners

As seen with the recent SirCam virus, a major threat to your computer's ability to remain functional are constantly bombarding your system. Viruses destroy files on your computer, replicate themselves on other's computers, and can adversely affect hardware. You should not only know how to remove viruses, but how to avoid them as well.

The easiest way to prevent viruses is to have an active virus scanner on your system. (Check out McAfee.com for a virus scanner for your system) You also should know that 90% of the viruses today use e-mail as their primary method of transfer and infection. If you receive a file with the extension .exe, .bat, .com, .zip, or .sys, DO NOT open the e-mail. Delete it ASAP. Simple as that. You can avoid 90% of the viruses 90% of the time with this simple rule.

Keyboards

To clean a keyboard, you need compressed air, a slot screwdriver, and q-tips. Pop up the Ctrl key on one corner of the keyboard with the screwdriver by prying lightly up under the key. Then tip the keyboard down in that direction and blow the compressed air through the keyboard from the opposite side. Flip the keyboard over and dump out the debris.

If you have keys that are stuck, attempt to pry them up. Clean their contacts using the q-tips and isopropyl isopropyl alcohol. (ONLY use isopropyl isopropyl alcohol to clean internal components like these. It evaporates with no residue.)

Mice

To clean a mouse, look on the bottom for the method used to open the mouse ball chamber. Remove the ball, and clean it using a non-abrasive, rubber-safe cleaner. Check inside the ball chamber for the rollers, and remove any debris stuck to these rollers.

Monitors

First of all, you should NEVER open a monitor case unless you have a death wish or a specific purpose in being there. Cleaning is not one of these purposes. All cleaning should be done externally. Use compressed air to blow dust from the top of the monitor, and use a mild cleanser to clean the glass on the monitor. The monitor should be off when you attempt this.

If a dust buildup is occurring inside the monitor, you MUST unplug the monitor and leave it unplugged for several hours. Then used compressed air to remove the dust through the vent holes. You still should NEVER open the case, as there are large capacitors that store power even with the power disconnected. Give enough time for the internal parts to cool, and only blow enough to remove the dust.

Floppy Drives

If your floppy drive stops working, purchase a Floppy Drive Cleaning Kit. If you want to do it on the cheap, use isopropyl alcohol and q-tips. Clean the drive heads and the gears, but try not to get excessive amounts of isopropyl alcohol on the drive.

Hard Drives

Hard Drive maintenance involves backing up, defragging, and using Scandisk on a regular basis. You can't do anything inside the hard disk, because merely opening the cover of a hard drive is detrimental to it's functioning. If you set up a schedule for Backing up, using Scan Disk, and defragging the hard drive, you have performed all the maintenance you can on the drive.

The Case

Although the outside of the case doesn't normally affect the function of your computer, the inside does. On a regular basis you should open your case and check for loose wiring, dust accumulation, and make sure the motherboard screws are secure. (This obviously should be done with the computer power off, AT cases plugged in and ATX cases unplugged.)

The outside of the case does have a small amount to do with the health of the computer. You should keep the outside of your case clean, as dust and dirt that sits on the outside of your case will eventually get inside. Get rid of this dirt before it gets inside.