1. Personal Computer Maintenance
Jeff Balvanz
Iowa State University Computation Center
4/7/2019
Personal Computer Maintenance

2. Your computer needs two parts to work correctly:
Hardware
Software
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Personal Computer Maintenance

3. Maintenance Categories
Software maintenance
Backup
Disk errors and defragmentation
Virus checks
Hardware maintenance
Clean the environment
Clean the outside
Clean the insides
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Personal Computer Maintenance

4. Personal Computer Maintenance
Software Maintenance
Software is the “soul” of the computer; if it’s moved to another computer, you’re back in business.
The software and information on your computer can easily be damaged without a hardware failure.
If you’ve done software maintenance, you’ve a reasonable chance of recovering it without a big hassle.
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Personal Computer Maintenance

5. Personal Computer Maintenance
Backup
Complete Backup
Create an image of your hard disk
Incremental Backup
Backup files changed since last backup
Backup Current Projects
Make copies of your current work
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Personal Computer Maintenance

6. Personal Computer Maintenance
Complete Backup
More important on modern systems than on older machines
Modern hard drives demand a large backup device
DAT tape
CD-Recordable
Removable disks (Syquest SparQ, Iomega Jaz or Zip)
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Personal Computer Maintenance

7. Units to Backup 8 GB Drive
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Personal Computer Maintenance

8. Cost in $ to Back Up 8.0 GB Drive
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Personal Computer Maintenance

9. Personal Computer Maintenance
Incremental Backup
Copies just files that were created or modified since last backup
Most backup software can do this automatically
NOTE: many Windows or MacOS system files will get copied in an incremental backup; they’re always getting changed
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Personal Computer Maintenance

10. Backup Current Projects
Like an incremental backup, but only of files you know need to be saved
Do it manually to diskettes, Zip or other disk
Rolling backups: use a different media for each day of the week
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Personal Computer Maintenance

11. Backup the Registry (Win 95/NT only)
The Registry is where all your system settings (hardware, software, etc.) are stored.
Click “Start”, then “Run”
Type REGEDIT{Enter}
From the Registry menu, select “Export Registry File”
Name it something like BACKUP.REG
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Personal Computer Maintenance

12. Personal Computer Maintenance
Check for Disk Errors
Disk errors come from several causes
Physical wear and tear on the disk
Software errors writing to the disk
Power surges during disk writes (use your surge protector, and don’t try to work during lightning storms)
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Personal Computer Maintenance

13. Tools for Fixing Disk Errors
Windows 95/NT
Properties/Tools/Error-checking
MacOS
Disk First Aid
Norton Disk Doctor
DOS
6.0 and higher: SCANDISK
Pre-6.0: CHKDSK, Norton Disk Doctor
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Personal Computer Maintenance

14. Defragment Your Hard Drive(s)
As your hard disk “ages”, the spaces available for files become smaller and more scattered
Disk access slows down as files become fragmented
Defragmentation speeds disk access and improves chances of recovering files
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Personal Computer Maintenance

15. Tools for Defragmentation
Windows 95
Properties/Tools/Defragmentation
Windows NT
Diskeeper (Executive Software)
MacOS
Norton Speed Disk
DOS
6.0 and higher: DEFRAG
Pre-6.0: Norton SPEEDISK
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Personal Computer Maintenance

16. Personal Computer Maintenance
Anti-virus Scanning
Viruses tend to be overhyped
But…they are a real and present danger
Word/Excel documents
Attachments to messages
Use a good resident scanner/interceptor
Scan the hard disk every time you update the anti-virus software (monthly)
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Personal Computer Maintenance

17. Personal Computer Maintenance
Anti-virus Software
DOS/Windows
Dr. Solomon’s Anti-virus Toolkit
McAfee VirusScan
Norton Anti-virus
F-PROT (DOS, free for personal use)
MacOS
Dr. Solomon’s Virex
Norton Anti-virus for Macintosh
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Personal Computer Maintenance

18. Personal Computer Maintenance
Hardware Maintenance
Keeping your machine clean will:
improve the working of keyboard, mouse, etc.
keep the works cooler to last longer
prevent dirt from gumming up disk drives, CDs, etc.
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Personal Computer Maintenance

19. Clean up the computer’s environment
Make sure your work area is clean!
Don’t smoke around the computer
Keep food and liquids away
Keep dust down with regular vacuuming
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Personal Computer Maintenance

20. Tools you’ll need for a clean machine:
Screwdrivers and/or nutdrivers of appropriate size
Vacuum cleaner
Can of clean compressed air
Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol is fine)
Lint-free cloth or wipes and swabs
Floppy and CD-ROM cleaning kits
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Personal Computer Maintenance

21. Clean the Computer’s Exterior
Begin with the vacuum cleaner; remove dust from the outside of the computer and monitor cases
Using a cloth dampened with isopropyl alcohol or glass cleaner, clean the outside of the monitor and sides of the computer case (check a small area of the case plastic first!)
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Personal Computer Maintenance

22. Polish Up the Peripherals
Tip over the keyboard and blow out dust with your air can
Remove mouse ball; clean with mild detergent
Blow out mouse with air can
Scrub mouse rollers with a swab moistened with alcohol (not dripping!)
Clean outside of mouse, top of keyboard with alcohol dampened cloth
When everything is dry, reassemble
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Personal Computer Maintenance

23. Cleaning Out the Insides
Make sure power cord is disconnected
Open computer case; set cover aside
Remove loose items (bugs, gecko eggs, etc.)
Check: is battery leaking? If so, replace
Using air can, blow out dust beginning at power supply and working towards ventilation holes
Reassemble (make sure cables are connected!)
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Personal Computer Maintenance

24. Personal Computer Maintenance
Don’t Do This at Home!!!!!
Use a vacuum inside your equipment
Static charges build up on the tip of a vacuum that can crisp microchips
Open your monitor
There are high voltages inside that can crisp you, even with the power unplugged!
Blow out or vacuum out a laser printer
Toner powder is not good for the lungs, and will go right through a conventional vacuum
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Personal Computer Maintenance

25. Where to Go for More Info
Books
The Cheapskate’s Guide to Bargain Computing, Bill Camarda (Prentice Hall)
Teach Yourself PCs in 24 Hours, Greg Perry (Sams)
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Personal Computer Maintenance

26. Where to Go for More Info
The World Wide Web
Preventive Maintenance from ZDNet
This presentation + more Web sites
This PowerPoint presentation
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Personal Computer Maintenance