Personal computer maintenance tips

Maintaining a personal computer involves many things covering both Hardware and Software plus some healthy practices that we should develop as a discipline.

We shall look into all these aspects.

Let us start with Hardware aspects.

(1) Protect your computer from input power problems:

This is the most fundamental. In countries (like India) where voltage fluctuations and power cuts can occur at any point of time, Any unscheduled switching off of the computer is dangerous to the health of the computer. If the power goes off at a moment when hard disk is engaged in reading or writing, you are most likely to have a booting problem when you switch on the next time.

So, the fundamental requirement is to have an UPS (uninterrupted power supply) that can give back up power to your PC from 15 to 45 minutes (depending on capacity). If unexpected power cuts are not a problem, at least protect your computer from electrical spikes (sudden voltage surges lasting for a fraction of a second). Providing a Spike Buster in the input line is always a safe step to protect your PC.

(2) Avoid switching off and on of the monitor when you are running on back-up (battery) power:

In case of using CRT monitors, you must know that any switching off and then switching on of the monitor (particularly in sizes 17" or bigger) will suddenly draw a high starting current. It is always safe to have the UPS to have a higher VA rating to take care of this requirement. Laser printers too draw a higher starting current.

Make sure that when you are running the PC on back-up (battery) power, do not switch off and switch on the monitor. Just in case your UPS capacity is low, the system will become unstable and may restart on account of this!

(3) Do not frequently disturb cable connections:

USB Cables, serial port/ parallel port (printer) cables, mouse and key-board cables, network cables, power cables - the rear side of a PC always has an ugly clutter of cables. To the extent possible, do not frequently remove and attach the cables - particularly the ones with multiple-pin connections. If the cable has a provision to tighten it with screws to the PC's board, better keep them tightened and do not simply insert and leave them hanging.

(4) Avoid unnecessary opening the cabinet and meddling with connections:

It is not incorrect to have some knowledge about the internal anatomy of your PC hardware - like how the power cables and data cables are connected to the Hard disk, DVD Drive, etc. It may be better know how to fit and remove RAM. But, do not unnecessarily open the cabinet and meddle with them on your own. As long as the system is working alright, any unnecessary opening of the cabinet to do dusting etc is not advisable.

The simple rule is: Do not disturb anything unless something is disturbing you. Do not play with internal connections unless you are quite sure.

(5) Avoid unnecessary disturbances and relocations:

Frequent disturbances of your computer, shaking or rattling, removal and putting back the cables etc due to change of location are likely to create head aches. Minimise them to the extent possible.

If you have knowledge about connecting / disconnecting data cables, power cables, Ram and Add-on cards inside the cabinet, then just in case your computer fails to start after a relocation, you can undertake "tightening up" these connections by removing and re-inserting them tightly. Many times, you will find that the system starts after this exercise.

(6) Clean the mouse and key board when needed

The "legs" at the underside of your mouse will gradually attract and accumulate dust and dirt. Scraping these to clean the dirt can be done by you. You can use mild suction of a vacuum cleaner to clean the key board once a while.

Maintaining the computer from the "healthy practices" point of view:

(1) Protect from Virus/ Spyware

Make sure that you have Antivirus software, and adware/spyware removal software installed in your computer. Make sure that they are updated periodically. Make sure that the fire-wall in your Windows is kept switched on.

(2) Shut down properly:

Make sure that you shut down your computer in the proper procedure (Start-> Turn off Computer-> Turn off). Never switch off computer abruptly (improper shut-down). Alternatively, you can "hibernate" the computer instead of a turn off.

Whether you are doing a proper shut down or a hibernation, NEVER do a hasty power off WHILE the hard disk is still seen reading (i.e. the Hard disk running LED indicator at the front of the cabinet is continuously blinking). Once the monitor fully goes off, hard disk LED stops continuous blink and the fan inside the cabinet stops, then only you should switch off the computer.

If by chance, you have done such an improper shut down, and if your computer fortunately starts the next time, it is better to do a "Scandisk" immediately. (To do a Scandisk in Win XP, select My Computer-> Right click the specific Volume (say C: drive) -> Properties -> Tools -> Check the box "Automatically check file system errors".)

The scan disk can be done right there for drives not currently in use. But, in case of C drive, you require a re-boot.

(3)Create "good restore points" periodically:

After installation of a new software or after doing a new configuration of your computer (like addition of any new hardware and drivers) if you think the system is working perfectly fine, create a Restore Point at that juncture. A Restore Point is a record of your computer's current registry settings.

To create a Restore Point, do Start -> programs -> accessories -> system tools -> system restore -> create a restore point. Give an identifiable description about this restore point and then create it. At some later date, if your computer faces some problems and if you are able to boot your computer only in Safe Mode, go to Start-> programs -> accessories -> system tools -> system restore -> Restore computer to an earlier time. Then select the previously saved restore point of your liking and do the restoration. On 3 out of 4 occasions, this will do wonders to bring back health to your computer! It would be still better if you to do a Scandisk first and then do the Restoration.

(4) Have at least 3 partitions in Hard disk:

(Say C, D and E). C will be your booting (default) drive. Carefully note these suggestions:

a. Install ALL your programs in C drive.

b. Keep all your data in D drive. That is, you should shift your "My Computer" folder to D drive and keep all your documents there. If you are doing any other useful work in Computer and creating output files (like Drawing files in case of CAD, your Photoshop jobs, your Coral Draw jobs, the software program codes you write, your accounting data, any other data-base data etc), keep all of them in D drive.

c. Keep a back up of all these important data in E drive. At the end of the day, before you close your business, remember to take the back up in the E drive.

d. Keep your movie files, Videos, Photos, Music albums etc suitably distributed between D drive and E drive. If you think some music files or family photos that you have kept in E drive are very crucial to you, make a back up of them in D drive (or vice versa).

(5) Fight your laziness - take back up of critical data:

Have a pen drive hanging near your PC. At the end of the day, when you take back ups from D to E drive, also take a secondary back of your crucial files in the Pen Drive too.

Having an external Hard disk is the best option to have a back up of all the stuff important to you in your PC. Take a back up every week in your external Hard disk.

If some files are extremely crucial to you and you think you should have them as back up even assuming that all your other back ups fail, then attach the file as an e-mail and send the e-mail to yourself (your 2^nd e-mail ID). Let those files remain there safely at Internet. (Since most of e-mail service providers give you up to 5GB storage capacity, it is the best way to utilize it).

Maintaining the computer from the Software point of view:

(1) Update your Operating system periodically:

Operating system like Windows do have bugs and security holes that get exposed from time to time and developers issue periodic updates. Review those updates at the website and install the latest updates periodically.

If your other application software too have any visible, critical bugs, look for update patches and install them.

(2)Do not "delete" a software - do "uninstall":

If you do not want any of your existing software, do not simply delete the folder in which they exist. Do a proper un-installation.

(3)Don't jump in to buy the "latest" software version

If your current operating system or your other application software are working fine without hiccups, do not get carried away by any hype to switch over to the latest version. Many new versions of old software generally have only cosmetic improvements, have overloads of features that you hardly use, are hefty in size, demand more Ram for running and run slow on older computers and possess bugs which are not yet identified.

Should you really change, wait for a few months to allow for bug-fixes by the vendor; read reviews and market reactions. Unless advantages of up-gradation overweighs disadvantages, do not upgrade.