Chapter 7

Preventive Maintenance Concept

Overview:

Objectives:

Upon completion of this Chapter, students will be able to

perform tasks related to:

 Explain the purpose of preventive maintenance

 Consider hardware preventive maintenance

 Consider software preventive maintenance

Lesson 1: Preventive Maintenance Concept

They say in medical phrase that “Prevention is Better than

Cure”, it is as true as maintaining your computer system.

Anticipating than an error can occur anytime under normal

operating condition. This topic of preventive maintenance is

needful to prevent or in any way lessen the risk of computer

failures, being proactive in its sense means doing things now to

prolong the life of your computer. Maintaining your computer is

as good as saving money in the bank because without preventive

maintenance means you are just waiting to spend money on

computer parts and labour. One thing to consider also is the

downtime, the span of time that it will take to be able to

repair your computer after an error or failure occurred. We can

categorize preventive maintenance in to two major groups the

hardware preventive maintenance and the software preventive

maintenance. Preventive maintenance is used to reduce the

likelihood of hardware or software problems by systematically

and periodically checking hardware and software to ensure proper

operation.

Lesson 2: Hardware Maintenance

Any tangible part of your computer is considered computer

hardware. It only means that partly you need to exert effort in

maintaining such hardware. Do the dirty work as they say. You

can perform hardware maintenance to computer external parts and

internal parts this also includes hardware peripherals such as

printers, scanners and other devices as long as you are capable

of doing so. In the long run, computer is consists of moving

parts such as fans, which means that your computer in any way

accumulates dirt. You need to take into consideration also the

external factors affecting the hardware such as smoke and dust.

Hardware preventive maintenance is also dictated by the

environment where the computer is placed, the often you perform

hardware maintenance the better but you need to take into

consideration your location.

Dust Removal

 Fans

o CPU fan

o Casing or Chassis Fan

o Power Supply Fan

o Chipset Fan
 o Video Card Fan

 Circuit Boards

o Motherboard
o Memory Modules

o Disk drives

o Expansion Cards
Cleaning

 System Case
 Input and Output devices

o Monitor

o Keyboard

o Mouse
 o Other Peripherals

Cable Connections

 Power lines

 Data cables

Lesson 3: Software Maintenance

Computer Software is a set of instructions that commands the

hardware how to perform a specific task. Software preventive

maintenance is required to verify that the installed software is

current. You need to follow the policies of the organization

when installing security updates, operating system updates, and

program updates. Many organizations do not allow updates until

extensive testing has been completed. This testing is done to

confirm that the update will not cause problems with the

operating system and software. You can use the acronym R-U-S-H

for software preventive maintenance:

REMOVAL

 Unwanted temporary files

 Unwanted programs

UPDATES
  Software

 Anti-virus

 Device Drivers

SCAN

 Viruses

 Spyware

HARD DRIVE CHECK

 Scan for errors

 Defragmentation

 Backup

Benefits of Preventive Maintenance

• Be proactive in computer equipment maintenance and data

protection. By performing regular maintenance routines, you

can reduce potential hardware and software problems. This will

reduce computer down time and repair costs.

• A preventive maintenance plan is developed based on the needs

of the equipment. A computer exposed to a dusty environment,

such as a construction site, will need more attention than

equipment in an office environment. High-traffic networks,

 such as a school network, may require additional scanning and

removal of malicious software or unwanted files. Document the

routine maintenance tasks that must be performed on the

computer equipment and the frequency of each task. This list

of tasks can then be used to create a maintenance program.

• Data protection

• Extends the life of the components

• Components stability

• Repair cost reduction

• Reduces the number of equipment failures

Review Questions:

1. Can you think of any other benefits that a preventive

maintenance provides?

2. What other software maintenance tasks can you add?