Preventative Maintenance

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Purpose Of This Module

Preventative maintenance is done in time available in an attempt to avoid costly failures later.

Learning Objectives ---- What do we hope to accomplish here?

Learn what is important to do periodically for your computer.

1. Determine and record reasonable actions which will improve the reliability of computers. Set up a schedule for preventative maintenance that is cost effective.

2. Identify symptoms that indicate that preventative maintenance needs to be improved.

BACKGROUND & DISCUSSION
Preventative maintenance includes cleaning, adjusting, and recognizing incipient failures before they occur.

Electromechanical devices are the most likely things to fail in any system. Solid state electronics will generally work properly for years after an initial burn-in period unless they are stressed.

INSTRUCTIONS:
You will create a preventative maintenance checklist.{Notebook}

EVALUATION CRITERIA:
Is your checklist complete and clear?

Is your PM schedule practical? 


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Background & Discussion ------ Some help in getting started. Why is this important?

Preventative maintenance is done in time available in an attempt to avoid costly failures later.

Preventative maintenance includes cleaning, adjusting, and recognizing incipient failures before they occur.

Electromechanical devices are the most likely things to fail in any system. Solid state electronics will generally work properly for years after an initial burn-in period unless they are stressed.

CLEANING:

  • Generally, the systems should be cleaned regularly, both to assure that dust and dirt don't interfere with operation and to present a professional appearance.
  • Dust and dirt will wear out bearing surfaces on any moving electromechanical device. Removing accumulated dust is important. How often should it be done?
  • Electrostatic fields such as those of the CRT monitor attract dust and need special attention. Dust on video tubes can lead to electrical arcing and can be dangerous.
  • Computers like dust-free smoke-free environments.
TESTING:
  • One expects users to report failures when they occur. However, users may not notice incipient failures that haven't gotten serious yet. DOS will attempt to read a file several times before it posts an error message. By the time the user notices it may be too late to recover data.
  • Monitors may begin to get fuzzy in any of several ways. This causes eyestrain and indicates that adjustments must be made. But users often don't notice or don't report problems that show up slowly over a long time.
  • It isn't a bad idea to run diagnostics of the systems from time to time to catch the problems while they are small. What kinds of problems should you test for? What should you use to test? How often should you test?

    • ADJUSTMENTS:

    • The most likely thing to need adjustment is the monitor. Users often don't know what the controls do so they just accept colors that are off, fuzzy focus, and other things that can easily be set right. When should you check these things?
    • Floppy disk controllers may change speed or track registration may drift. Your shop may be set up to make these adjustments or may simply pull marginal drives and replace them. A cost benefit study may show either course to be right under different conditions. Of course, it isn't a good idea to adjust anything if you don't know how.
    • Cards and connectors may vibrate loose over time causing intermittent failures. They may have to be tightened or snugged up.
    WHAT TO MAINTAIN?
    • Keyboard
    • cables / connectors
    • Floppy drives
    • Hard drives ????? Maybe/maybe not
    • CRT screen surface
    • All computer surfaces
    • Printers and other peripherals with electromechanical parts
    • Inside the computer and monitor
    ------------ WHAT ELSE? HOW OFTEN?

    ============'If it aint broke don't fix it' When does this apply? 

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    Exercise Description -------- Procedures for completing this exercise

    You will create a preventative maintenance checklist.{Scrapbook}
    1. In this exercise you will search for things to do periodically that will improve the reliability of the computers in your charge. Add this checklist to your scrapbook.
    2. Create a Preventative Maintenance schedule for a large computer lab.

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