Routine Maintenance revisited

This is one topic that is paramount in the overall performance of computers and peripherals. It’s a good idea to keep all your computers and peripherals cleaned, inside and out. You’d be surprised how much dust can build up over time. This of course depends on your day to day activities. If you are industrial scale such as a computer room for a data center, you should at least do weekly cleanings of your equipment. If you are a home user, then you don’t need to be as drastic, but, regular cleanings inside and out are helpful. Dust can slow down a computer system. Fans don’t do everything. They are more for keeping the PC cool. If you are using industrial size printers, you should probably clean them after every major print job. Dust can really build up with just one big print job and have drastic effects on the printers performance. Dust can also interfere with your PC as well, which is why I am suggesting blowing your PC out now and then with canned air. Dust can build up on wires, ports, and other crucial areas inside the PC.

I want to warn you that if you open up your PC, make sure that you are not standing on carpet. You can fry your PC with static electricity. I know this, because, years ago, that is exactly what I did. You see, we all learn from our experiences.

For long term savings, instead of regular purchases of canned air, why not purchase an air compressor with a long hose. You can get one for around $99.00 I believe. This would help you save over time the cost of purchasing cases of canned air. This would also eliminate the need to take inventory on canned air since you would no longer need to order it.

For businesses, you may want to keep some kind of log to keep track on your Routine Maintenance. This is a good idea, to look back to see if it was done, to try to iron out problems. You’ll have to judge this one yourself. A simple log, can just be to indicate whether or not cleanings or maintenance was done at all.

Another good idea for those who are in business, is to do weekly restarts of all your PC’s if you are in the habit of keeping your PC’s up all the time. This clears up the RAM and gives your PC a fresh start. Depending upon the complexity of your systems, doing a “shutdown” instead of a “restart” may be a better option, then just start them manually.

For additional information check out an earlier post on Routine Maintenance.