Importance
• Taking care of our things whether it’s our books, clothes, is important. Taking care of electronic devices, such furniture or gadgets as computer and mobiles helps them to work properly. Just as we take care of our body by taking bath, brushing our teeth and eating food every day we need to take care of our machines. A computer is a delicate machine with a lot of moving electronic parts. We need protect it from dust and damage. If we are careless it will not work efficiently.
• Computers and mobiles are very expensive. When we take good care of them on a regular basis, we can use them for a longer time. This will help us save money as we do not need to buy new devices to often.
Basic Tips for Taking Care of Devices
1. Keeping Device Clean
Keyboard: First we should not eat anything over a keyboard. Crumbs can damage the internal parts of a keyboard. You can clean a keyboard with a soft brush to remove crumbs and dust particles.
Screen: You can wipe the screen with a soft cloth to remove any finger marks.
Be Careful with food and drinks: Avoid eating and keeping glasses of water or cups of coffee near a computer. Any liquid spilt over an electronic device can spoil it beyond repair.
Handle device carefully: Handle and move your laptop carefully and avoid dropping or banging it against a hard surface. Even a short fall can damage the screen or the hard disk and make the device useless. Using a cover for your mobile and a padded case for moving your laptop to protect the device from damage.
Keep the computer cool: If a computer , laptop or mobile device etc. overheated, the internal parts can be damaged. The CPU has an internal fan to keep it cool. We should make sure the fan is functioning. You can also use an external fan. Avoid leaving a device in the sun or in a closed car. We should be careful when using a laptop while sitting in bed and make sure that the fan in not covered.
Do not overcharge your Battery: Sometimes we keep a device plugged in for charging even after it is fully charged. If we leave the device plugged in for a long time it can overheat the battery. This reduces the battery life. Always unplug the device once it is charged 100%.
Always plug in devices carefully: Any device being connected to a laptop or computer such as a USB drive or headphones, should be done gently. It should not be forced into the port. If you find it difficulty to plug in a device, change the direction and try instead of trying to force it in.
Do not run too many programs at a time: When too many programs are running at the same time the computer can become slow and even crash. If a program is not being used. It should be closed so that other programs can work smoothly.
2. Prepare a Maintenance Schedule
• We need to prepare a plan or a schedule for maintenance to keep the computer running in perfect condition for a long time.
• This can include:
Daily Maintenance:
1. Clean up your E-mail inbox
2. Download E-Mail attachments and save in proper folders.
Weekly Maintenance:
1. Clean your keyboard
2. Clean your monitor
3. Dust CPU and printer
4. Backup your data to an external drive.
Monthly maintenance:
1. Transfer photographs to computer and delete from drive.
2. Organize photos into folders or albums
3. Clean up ‘Download’ folder
4. Uninstall unused programs and apps
5. Run disk-cleaner software
6. Run full system virus scan.
Yearly maintenance:
1. Clean up contacts list on social media accounts.
2. Clean up e-mail contact list
3. Update your operating system
4. Check for expiry of anti-virus software and review.
3. Backup Your Data
Backing up data means to save the information present on your computer on another device, such as CD/DVD drives or hard disk. Data can recovered from here in case the computer stops working completely. Computers can crash, humans can make mistakes and natural disasters, such as floods can happen. So, it is important for companies, hospitals, banks etc. to keep their information safe – so that their business can continue to function smoothly and their customers do not face problems.
4. Scanning and Cleaning Viruses
Sometimes computer viruses can enter a computer from such attacks we can install anti-virus software. This will prevent any viruses from entering and will also clean any viruses that may enter our system before they affect the data.
5. Increasing Computer Performance
If we have been using a computer for a long time we have a lot of unnecessary files and data, such as temporary files and images. When they use too much hard disk space, the performance of the computer goes down. It is important that we keep cleaning by removing any extra files. We can use some disk cleaner software, which help us clean up the unnecessary files.
6. Removing SPAM from your Computer
Sometimes we get mails from companies who are advertising a product or trying to attract your to their website. Such mails are called SPAM.
We should never respond to SPAM and delete it on a regular basis. It is possible to set filters in the settings to prevent SPAM from entering our mail box. Most e-mail software have a SPAM folder and automatically put all such emails into this folders.
I liked when you mentioned that something as simple as keeping the computer clean, can ensure it works properly. I recently bought a new computer and I was looking for some maintenance tips, so I appreciate you shared these. I also think that the smart thing to do would be to call a professional in case something happens because I am not an expert, just to be sure maintenance is properly done. http://medictek.com/it-services/
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