Preventive Maintenanace Guide For Your PC

Introduction

What is Preventive Maintenance?
Preventive Maintenace is a precautionary measure which includes performing a series of maintenance tasks to prevent system problems and also to avoid future problems. This is very different from corrective maintenance - diagnosing and troubleshooting problems, which are measures to correct an existing problem.

What does Preventive Maintenance include?
In Preventive Maintenance, we take appropriate security measures to protect our PC's hardware, software and which is also very important, data. But first it is wise to note that the future problems that we are avoiding can either be related to hardware or software. The good news is, they can easily be prevented by performing appropriate procedures.

Hardware problems, mostly, arise due to:

• Dust
• Heat
• Magnetism
• Water or corrosive agents
• Irregular power supply

Hardware Preventive Maintenance includes the use of maintenance products which keep the computer components free from dust, water and also control power supply. These products include:

1. Liquid cleaning compounds: These compounds include soapy water and different forms of alcohol such as isopropyl and denatured alcohol. These are used to remove dirt from the outer surface of the PC components such as monitor, outer case of the system unit, and keyboard. A sponge dampened with soapy water or mild detergent can be used to clean these components.

While using the liquid cleaning compounds to clean the PC components, follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer regarding their usage.

Cleaning fluids can contain ingredients that cause corrosion. It is recommended to be cautious when using sprays or liquids around computers.

Note: Liquid cleaning chemicals should not be used to clean internal circuit boards.

2. Vacuum cleaners: Dust particles enter the system unit through its air ducts and obstruct them. Obstructed air ducts affect the air circulation. This results in heating up of system unit. Dust particles inside the system unit are also responsible for wear and tear of components and conduction of charge. Therefore, the components of the system unit are prone to high risk of damage.

To prevent this problem, you can use vacuum cleaners to remove dust particles from inside the system unit. When you blow the dust off using vacuum cleaners, make sure you are not just blowing it back into the computer.

Small, portable vacuum cleaners are also available in the market. They are economical and easy to manage.

3. UPS and suppressors: Irregular power supply and voltage fluctuation due to overvoltage or undervoltage in power supply is harmful for PC component. To guard the computer against damages caused by irregular power supply and voltage fluctuation, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and a Suppressor( provides voltage within the specified range. It does not provide power backup in case of a power failure. It protects the computer from surges and spikes) can be used.


The software related problems arise because of:

• Viruses
• Fragmentation of data
• Spywares

Software Preventive Maintenance includes the use of software utilities such as:

• Disk Fragmenter
• ScanDisk
• CHKDSK

B68EVR8RK5MS