These Five Keep Your Computer Alive - Computer Hardware Maintenance Tips

Usually people do not think about maintenance until there is a problem and then it becomes troubleshooting. To prevent or put off problems, you should take care of your computer. Please review the article Seven Steps to Improve Your Computer's Performance to take care of the hard drive. This article will help you take care of the physical components.

Make sure all plugs are the correct plugs and/or voltage for each item. Each plug should be plugged into surge protected outlet strips which are plugged into a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply). Since we are in Pennsylvania, United States, we experience several electrical or cable outages in the winter due to ice and snow storms and several outages in the spring or summer due to thunderstorms. The UPS has a battery backup that gives you enough time to save all open files and close programs to correctly shut down your computer. Then you can unplug everything from the wall to prevent power surges from destroying your equipment. Before I had the UPS, I would lose any open files when the power outage occurred. Since the UPS, I have been protected.

All items should be properly installed in your computer. You know when you replace any hardware, you must install the proper drivers. Installing new video cards can be exciting as they may not work unless seated correctly.

Remove dust from your computer and keyboard. Please turn off the equipment and do not run across the carpet in your socks before touching your equipment! To prevent shock, you should be grounded by having a plastic or rubber mat under your feet or at least wear your sneakers. Some use canned air, some use mini vacuums. My husband likes the air compressor from the garage that he used to "blow up" balloons for our wedding reception. They sounded like gun shots. I don't recommend anything that powerful that may blow the keys off of the keyboard. Personally, I just open the computer desktop tower and brush the fan with a small, previously-unused paint brush or cosmetics brush. I blow the air away like blowing out the candles of my birthday cake. That is a cheap, yet effective method. The small brush also fits between the keys on the keyboard. Whatever method works for you is fine, as long as you do it.

The power supply and the fan should be cleaned first, then the rest of the components. This gets messy, so wear protective glasses or goggles, a hat, an old t-shirt or anything that is washable. Do not bump anything loose.

Cleaning the monitor screen should be done carefully. Again, be sure to turn off the monitor. Use a soft, clean cloth such as a t-shirt and spray a little window cleaner on the cloth. Do not spray cleaner on the monitor (or computer screen for laptops) in case the cleaner runs and drips where you don't want it. Wipe the lightly damp cloth across the display area first, then the frame and outer casing. This will improve the visibility of the images.

Replace old surge protectors, UPS, electrical adapters, cables and other important electrical components that may be worn. If you had several outages while using your UPS, you may consider replacing it. Follow the warranty information and user manual for product usage. If the equipment is at least three years old, then at least inspect it and consider replacing it. Some items last longer, but like an old car, you should watch them.

These five tips are general maintenance tips to keep your computer hardware clean and safe. Routinely follow these tips and the hard drive tips for better computer performance. If after following these tips, you still have problems, then you may have a software problem or a virus. Be sure you have firewall software (built-in on routers) installed, antivirus software enabled, anti-spyware detection and removal software installed, and backup disks ready. If all else fails, reinstall the operating system, software programs and eventually any other files you wish to use. If you have a backup of the drive image, this isn't so bad. Just reinstall the entire drive image. If you only have backups of files, then get all your software disks ready. Most of us have encountered this, so we sympathise for you. Good luck and may your computer be good to you.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, February 18, 2003

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