Every computer system fails eventually. Therefore, computers need a certain level of ongoing maintenance in order to deliver maximum performance over its full life cycle. These preventative maintenance procedures can extend the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) period considerably. Its not unusual to extend the MTBF from 200% to 300%.

If you do nothing else in the preventative maintenance area, do these two things:

• Get all your documentation, driver disks, software program disks, computer invoice, any records of maintenance and any hardware changes and additions and put them all in a binder.
• Do regular backups.

• Backups: If you have any data that you want to keep, be sure to have a backup. There are companies that specialize in recovering data from failed or damaged computers. Yes it can be done but its expensive and there’s no guarantees. Depending on the size of your organization, backups can be as simple as copying data files onto a floppy disk or burning them to a cdrom or having servers totally dedicated to doing backups only. However you choose to do your backups, make sure one copy is kept off site just in case of fire, water damage, theft, computer viruses or operator error.

Security Software: You should have two types of security software:

• Antivirus software
• Firewall software

• Computer viruses and all the other bad software that plagues us in this internet age will do more to cause your computer to fail and will do it more often than just about anything else. If you are on the internet or you get files from somebody, you must scan your computer on a regular basis.

Firewall software is something else entirely. While viruses are bad software programs that are introduced to your system and then run. Firewall software protects your computer from people attacking your computer from an outside network connection and trying to takeover your computer. The attacker will try to gain control over your computer to use it for their own purposes. By taking over your computer, the attacker effectively hides his/her identity and can therefore do whatever they wish to do without being identified.

Dust: It gets into everything including computers. It damages all moving parts eventually such as disk drives and fans and ruins contacts between the motherboard, RAM chips and cards inserted into the motherboard. The computer case should be opened on a regular basis and the dust cleaned out.

Heat Buildup: Excessive heat can cause premature aging of components. In most cases, heat related problems are a direct result of lack of knowledge. 6 things to watch out for that affect heat buildup:

• Direct Sunlight from an outside window
• Locations of portable heaters and radiators
• High humidity areas
• Paper/books piled up around the equipment
• Putting computers in enclosures
• Leaving dust covers on the computer while in operation

• Rough Handling: This is normally a matter of neglect. You shouldn’t put a computer anywhere it’s likely to be kicked (ie in a aisle) or knocked over (ie on the edge of a desk).

Hard Drives: Your data is stored on hard drives magnetically. The data is stored on a disk (similar in shape to a record or cdrom) in tracks which spiral towards the center of the disk. Because the information is stored magnetically, if you put the hard drive near a strong magnetic field your information likely to corrupted. So, keep your hard drive away from CRT monitors, television sets,and power supplies. Also keep your hard drive away from appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, vaccuum cleaners, and other equipment containing motors.

Because the information is also laid down in tracks, you must use several hard drive utilities to check the disk for problem areas. Use CHKDSK, ScanDisk, and Defrag to check the disk integrity.

Input Devices: Your keyboard and mouse generally don’t need a lot of maintenance but they do need regular cleaning. A damp cloth will clean a keyboard nicely. However, the mouse needs to be opened up from time to time and the rollers cleaned. You will know when to do this because the mouse will not function properly.

Media: Information that you store on portable media such as cdrom, DVD, floppy disks, Zip drives, Sandisks etc are all affected by the environment they are in. Storing the media in a cool, dry, clean environment away from direct sunlight and magnetic fields will protect your data. Also, when storing cdroms and DVDs, be sure to put them in a jacket to protect the surface from scratches.