COMPUTER CARE &
MAINTENANCE
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Protecting Your Computer
From Damage
• Like any kind of equipment, your
computer requires care and
maintenance to run smoothly.
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• A number of factors can cause
damage to your computer’s
hardware (the physical parts inside
the computer) or media (storage
devices like CD-ROMs and hard
drives)
Protecting Your Computer
From Damage
• Extreme heat, cold, or humidity
• A damaged cable will prevent the
computer from communicating with
input or output devices.
• Dust can damage hard drives and
floppy disk drives and can prevent
computers from cooling properly.
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Protecting Your Computer
From Damage
• As you know, computers require electricity to
operate. As such, problems can arise when there
are power outages and power irregularities (called
power spikes or power surges). If the power goes
out while a file is open, the computer will shut off
and all changes to the file since the last time you
saved will be lost. Power spikes are sudden surges
of increased electricity that usually occur when the
power comes back on after an outage. They can
also be caused by atmospheric conditions (such as
lightning) in buildings with poor or defective wiring.
Power spikes can cause physical damage to many
of the components of your computer, especially the
hard drive.
Protecting Your Computer
• Computer Environment
• □ Place computers in temperaturecontrolled rooms.
• □ Keep computers away from air
conditioning or heating vents.
• □ Keep computers in an area free of
dust.
• □ Keep computers and media a safe
distance from electrical or magnetic
fields.
• □ Make sure cables are not kinked or
twisted.□ Route cables so they will not
be stepped on or rolled over by chairs.
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Protecting Your Computer
• Power Spikes and Power Surges
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• □ Connect all power wires in a way so that
they cannot be accidentally disconnected.
• □ Connect the computer to a surge
suppressor to help avoid damage from power
spikes. Do not connect the computer directly
to
• □ Employ a UPS (uninterruptible power
supply) device that will keep computers
running in the event of a power outage.
Keeping Your Computer Clean
• Poor maintenance is often the cause of many
hardware problems. If a mouse becomes dirty, it
will not track smoothly. When a keyboard is
contaminated with food particles (usually caused
when people eat at their desks) the keys become
“sticky,” meaning they do not spring back up
immediately after you press them. Dust particles
(including paper dust) cause printers to jam and
smear your printouts. Keeping these and other
devices well maintained will make them work
better and last longer.
Keeping Your Computer Clean
• There are several simple things you can do to
help maintain your computer.
• Regularly clean the keyboard and mouse.
• Clean the printer of any dirt or dust to prevent
jamming.
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• Carefully remove any paper jams. Damaging
the printer will make it jam more often and
decrease print quality.
Keeping Your Computer Clean
• While there is a lot that you can do to
your computer to keep it running
smoothly, there are some maintenance
activities that should only be performed
by an experienced professional.
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Keeping Your Computer Clean
• These include:
• Replacing or upgrading internal components of
the computer.
• Repairing physical damage to peripheral
equipment.
• Re-routing or adding electrical connections.
Maintaining Your Hard Drive
• If you do not regularly take the time to organize
your desk, it will become harder and harder to
find what you need. Just like your desktop, your
hard disk will become cluttered if you do not take
the time to organize it. Poorly organized files will
lead to a decrease in the performance of your
computer. It will take longer to locate the files you
need. Keeping a clean and organized hard disk
will result in better system performance. The
easiest way to do this is to delete unused or
temporary files regularly.
Maintaining Your Hard Drive
• A variety of utility programs are
available to help keep your computer
safe and running without errors. Some
are supplied with the Windows
operating system, others are available
for free, and some are available for
purchase.
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Maintaining Your Hard Drive
• Defragmentation software like Diskeeper or the
one supplied with the Windows operating
system gather files into one area on the hard
disk to make searching faster.
• Disk Compression programs like Virtual Drive
and FarStone are designed to minimized the
amount of space used by files on the computer.
• Disk Scanning programs like ScanDisk
(supplied with the Windows operating system)
check for and attempt to repair errors on the
hard disk.
Maintaining Your Hard Drive
• Firewall software like ZoneAlarm and BlackICE
keep others from accessing the computer through
the Internet.
• Spyware Detectors like Spybot SP and BPS
Spyware Detector check and remove spyware
programs that send information from the computer
to the Internet.
• Virus Detection software like Norton AntiVirus and
McAfee VirusScan detect and remove potentially
damaging viruses from the computer.
Maintaining Your Hard Drive
• Firewall software like ZoneAlarm and BlackICE
keep others from accessing the computer through
the Internet.
• Spyware Detectors like Spybot SP and BPS
Spyware Detector check and remove spyware
programs that send information from the
computer to the Internet.
• Virus Detection software like Norton AntiVirus
and McAfee VirusScan detect and remove
potentially damaging viruses from the
computer.
Excercise: Defragmenting
Your Hard Drive
Defragmenting your hard disk is an important part of maintaining your
computer. The activity below will guide you through the steps to analyze
and defragment your hard disk. Note: Analyzing and defragmenting can
take some time (from several minutes to several hours). Make sure you
have enough time t o perform this activity before you start. Also, make sure
to have the permission of your teacher before beginning this activity.
Excercise: Defragmenting
Your Hard Drive
• On the Windows taskbar, click start, then
navigate to All Programs, then Accessories,
then System Tools, and then click Disk
Defragmenter.
• The Disk Defragmenter dialog window open.
Use your mouse to select the C: drive (see
Figure 3).
The Disk Defragmenter Window
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The Disk Defragmenter Window
Click Analyze. Once the analysis is complete, the
Disk Defragmenter analysis dialog window opens
and reports the current percent of defragmented
files on your hard disk.
Click Close, and then click Defragment on the
main Disk Defragmenter dialog window.
Figure 4
Disk Defragmentation
In Process
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The Disk Defragmenter
• When defragmentation is complete,
the Disk Defragmenter complete
dialog window opens. Click Close.
• Close Disk Defragmenter.
Simple Maintenance
• Check your hard disk for bad sectors and
error (Scandisk, then defragment)
• Remove unwanted and junk files
• Delete browsing history
• Clean out your email
• Remove any programs that you do not use
or have a trial period that has expired
• Keep up to date with Windows updates
• Don’t install too many programs
• Have an external drive for instant backup
• Keep your computer organized
• Guard your computer from viruses