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Unit of Competency: Implementing Maintenance Procedures

Elements of this competency:
Determine best practices for equipment and software maintenance
Revise practices where appropriate
Identify and analyze IT system components to be maintained
Apply maintenance procedures
Objective of this competency:
 To give knowledge, skill and attitude about the importance of preventive
maintenance .
 To give knowledge , skill, and attitude how to develop equipment and
software maintenance procedure.
 To understand how to conduct a research, how to develop maintenance .
Basics Computer Maintenance
 Definition of maintenance
Maintenance is an activity that ensures the fullest availability of equipment,
utilities and related buildings for the purposes they were designed at optimal cost
and under satisfactory conditions of quality, safety and protection of the
environment
Maintenance is part of the full life-cycle of equipment or building or machine etc,
from purchase to final disposal.
Types of Maintenance strategies
- Preventive maintenance
- Breakdown Maintenance
- Corrective Maintenance
Corrective Maintenance
This planned but unscheduled maintenance is defined as the work performed to
adjust loose equipment, prevent a major failure and return the equipment to as new
operational condition. The Actions requiring corrective maintenance are generally
found during preventive maintenance activities
Breakdown Maintenance
Breakdown maintenance, sometimes known as emergency maintenance,
is defined as maintenance resulting from the occasional and
unavoidable unavailability of equipment due to unforeseen
circumstances requiring unplanned repairs.
 It is unplanned and unscheduled

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Purpose of Preventive Maintenance

 Preventive maintenance is used to reduce the probability of hardware or
software problems by systematically and periodically checking hardware and
software to ensure proper operation.
 Check the condition of cables, components, and peripherals. Clean
components to reduce the likelihood of overheating. Repair or replace
components that show signs of abuse or excess wear
Use the following tasks as a guide to create a hardware maintenance program:
 Remove dust from fan intakes.
 Remove dust from the power supply.
 Remove dust from components inside
the computer.
 Clean the mouse and keyboard.
 Check and secure loose cables.
CAUTION: Before cleaning any device, turn it off
and unplug the device from the power source
 Some benefits of preventive maintenance
include the following:
 Increases data protection
 Extends the life of the components
 Increases equipment stability
 Reduces repair costs
 Reduces the number of equipment failures
 Verify that installed software is current. 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.
 Use the tasks listed as a guide to create a software maintenance schedule
that fits the needs of your computer equipment:
 Review security updates
 Review software updates
 Review driver updates
 Update virus definition files

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 Scan for viruses and spyware

 Remove unwanted programs
 Scan hard drives for errors
 Defragment hard drives
As a computer user or a technician, you should be aware of all possible dangers. A
safe workspace is clean, organized, and well lit.
Safe Lab Procedures and Tool Use
- Safety in the lab and in the workplace is an important issue when working on
computers and other electrical devices.
General Safety Guidelines
 Follow the basic safety guidelines to prevent cuts, burns, electrical shock,
and damage to eyesight.
 As a best practice, make sure that a fire extinguisher and first aid kit are
available in case of fire or injury. Here are some general safety guidelines:
 Remove your watch or any other jewelry and secure loose clothing.
 Turn off the power and unplug equipment before opening the case and
performing service.
 Cover any sharp edges inside the computer case with tape.
 Never open a power supply or a monitor.
 Do not touch areas in printers that are hot or use high voltage.
 Know where the fire extinguisher is located and how to use it.
 Know where the first aid kit is located.
 Keep food and drinks out of your workspace.
 Keep your workspace clean and free of clutter.
 Lift heavy objects with your legs to avoid back injury.
 Fire Safety Guidelines
 Follow fire safety guidelines to protect equipment and lives. Turn off
and unplug the computer, before beginning a repair to avoid damage to
the computer or a shock to the technician.
 If there is a fire, you should follow these safety procedures:
Never fight a fire that is out of control or not contained.
Always have a planned fire escape route before beginning any work.
Get out of the building quickly.
Contact emergency services for help.
Caution

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Power supplies and monitors contain very high voltage. Do not wear the antistatic
wrist strap when replacing power supplies or monitors. Also, some printer parts
might become very hot when in use, and other parts can contain very high voltages.
Make sure that the printer has had time to cool before making the repair. Check
the printer manual for locations of various components that can contain high
voltages. Some components might retain high voltages even after the printer is
turned off.
 Identify Safety Procedures to Protect Equipment from Damage and Data
from Loss
 Static electricity is the buildup of an electric charge resting on a surface.
This buildup and sudden release of energy, called electrostatic discharge
(ESD), can be destructive to the electronics in a computer system.
 ESD, harsh climates, and poor-quality sources of electricity can cause
damage to computer equipment. Follow the proper handling guidelines, be
aware of environmental issues, and use equipment that stabilizes power to
prevent equipment damage and data loss.
ESD Protection Recommendations
 ESD can cause permanent damage to electrical components. Follow
these recommendations to help prevent ESD damage:
 Keep all components in antistatic bags until you are ready to
install them.
 Use grounded mats on workbenches and on the work area floor.
 Use antistatic wrist straps when working on computers.
 Avoid working on carpeted areas if possible.
Climate also affects risks when working with computer equipment. Consider the
following recommendations:
 If the environment temperature is too high, equipment can overheat.
 If the humidity level is too low, the chance of ESD increases.
 If the humidity level is too high, equipment can suffer from moisture
damage.
Power Fluctuation Types
 The following types of AC power fluctuations can cause data loss or
hardware failure:
 Blackout: Loss of AC power. A blown fuse, damaged transformer, or downed
power line can cause a blackout.

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 Brownout: Reduced voltage level of AC power that lasts for a period of

time. Brownouts occur when the power line voltage drops below 80 percent
of the normal voltage level. Overloading electrical circuits can cause a
brownout.
 Noise: Interference from generators and lightning. Noise results in unclean
power, which can cause errors in a computer system.
 Spike: Sudden increase in voltage that lasts for a very short period and
exceeds 100 percent of the normal voltage on a line. Spikes can be caused by
lightning strikes, but can also occur when the electrical system comes back
on after a blackout.
 Power surge: Dramatic increase in voltage above the normal flow of
electrical current. A power surge lasts for a few nanoseconds, or a few
billionths of a second.
 Sag: Decreasing of power from the wall outlet
Power Protection Devices
 To help shield against power issues, use power protection devices to protect
the data and computer equipment:
 Surge suppressor: Helps protect against damage from surges and spikes. A
surge suppressor diverts extra electrical voltage on the line to the ground.
 Uninterruptible power supply (UPS): Helps protect against potential
electrical power problems by supplying electrical power to a computer or
other device. The battery is constantly recharging while the UPS is
connected to a power source. The UPS is able to supply a consistent quality
of power when brownouts and blackouts occur. Many UPS devices are able to
communicate directly with the operating system on a computer. This allows
the UPS to safely shut down the computer and save data prior to the UPS
losing all electrical power.
Identify Tools and Software Used with Personal Computer
Components and Know Their Purpose
 For every tool there is the right job, and for every job
there is the right tool. Ensure that you are familiar
with the correct use of each tool and that the right
tool is used for the current task.

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 Skilled use of tools and software makes the job less difficult and ensures
that tasks are performed properly and safely
 In addition to hardware tools, software tools are also available that help
diagnose problems and determine which computer device is not functioning
correctly.
 Identify Hardware Tools and Their Purpose
o A tool kit should contain all the tools necessary to complete hardware
repairs. Using the wrong tool for a job might lead to bodily injuries or
result in equipment damage. As you gain experience, you will learn
which tools to have available for different types of jobs. Hardware
tools are grouped into the following four categories:
 ESD tools
 Hand tools
 Cleaning tools
 Diagnostic tools
 ESD Tools
 There are two common ESD tools:
o Antistatic wrist strap: Protects computer
equipment from ESD damage when grounded
to a computer chassis.
o Antistatic mat: Used to stand on or to place
hardware on to prevent static electricity from building up, thereby
protecting the equipment from ESD damage.
 Hand Tools
 Most tools used in the computer assembly process are small hand
tools. They are available individually or as part of a computer repair
tool kit.
 The list that follows describes the small hand tools that you will most
commonly use:
 Flat head screwdriver: Used to loosen or tighten slotted screws.
 Phillips head screwdriver: Used to tighten or loosen cross-head screws.
 Torx screwdriver: Used to tighten or loosen screws that have a star-like
depression on the top, a feature that is mainly found on laptops.
 4. Hex driver: Sometimes called a nut driver, this tool is used to tighten
nuts in the same way that a screwdriver tightens screws.

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 Needle-nose pliers: Used to hold small parts.

 Wire cutters: Used to strip and cut wires.
 Tweezers: Used to manipulate small parts.
 Part retriever: Used to retrieve parts from locations that are too small for
your hand to fit in.
 Flashlight: Used to illuminate areas that you cannot see well.
 Cleaning Tools
 The appropriate cleaning tools are essential when maintaining or repairing
computers. these tools will ensure that computer components are cleaned
correctly.
 The list that follows describes the cleaning tools that you will most
commonly use:
 Soft cloth: Used to clean different
computer components without scratching or
leaving debris.
 Compressed air: Used to blow away dust and
debris from different computer parts without touching
the components
Cable ties: Used to bundle cables neatly inside and outside of a
computer.
Parts organizer: Used to hold screws, jumpers, fasteners, and other small parts to
prevent them from getting mixed together.
 Diagnostic Tools
 To test hardware, you will use the following diagnostic tools:
 Digital multimeter: Used to test the integrity of circuits and the
quality of electricity in computer components
 Loopback adapter: Used to test the basic functionality of computer
ports.
 Identify Software Tools and Their Purpose
 A technician must be able to use a range of software tools to help
diagnose problems, maintain hardware, and protect the data stored on
a computer.
 The sections that follow describe the various disk management tools
and protection software tools that you will encounter.
 Disk Management Tools

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 Disk management tools help detect and correct disk errors, prepare a
disk for data storage, and remove unwanted files.
 Disk management software includes the following:
 F disk: A command-line tool used to create and delete partitions on a
hard drive and set active, or boot, partitions
 Format: Used to prepare a hard drive to store information
 Scandisk or Chkdsk: Used to check the integrity of files and folders
on a hard drive by scanning the disk surface for physical errors
 Defrag: Used to optimize space on a hard drive to allow faster
access to programs and Data
 Disk Cleanup: Used to clear space on a hard drive by searching for
files that can be safely deleted
 Disk Management: Used to manage hard drives and partitions,
initialize disks, create partitions, and format partitions
 Protection Software Tools
 Each year, viruses, spyware, and other types of malicious attacks
infect millions of computers. these malicious attacks can damage an
operating system, application, and data. Computers that have been
infected can experience hardware performance problems or
component failure.
 To protect data and the integrity of the operating system and
hardware, you should use software designed to guard against attacks
and to clean out malicious programs.
 Here is a list of various types of software used to protect hardware
and data. Examples of protection software tools include the following:
 Windows XP Security Center: Allows you to check the status of essential
security settings on the computer. The Security Center continuously checks
to make sure that the software firewall and antivirus programs are running.
It also ensures that automatic updates are set to download and install
automatically.
 Antivirus software: Protects a computer against virus attacks that can
infect other computers.
Spyware remover: Protects against software that sends information about
web surfing habits to an attacker. Spyware can be installed without the
knowledge or consent of the user.

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 Firewall: A program that runs continuously to protect against unauthorized

communications to and from your computer.
Identify and analyze IT system components to be maintained
 Identify and analyze system components to be maintained
 Computer cases: Computer case is an enclosure that holds
all the primary electronics of the PC. It is also called
chassis.
 Computer Case:
 house all the internal components
 offers access to the external world through ports
and connectors
 prevent delicate circuits from damage and EMI
 EMI-is a radio frequency that is emitted from electronic or electrical
device. It interferes with surrounding equipment.
 A computer interferes with radio, telephone, TV, etc when it generates EMI.
 Running a computer without cases causes interference to surrounding
devices.
 There are different types of cases:
o Full-sized tower
o Mid-size tower
o Mini-tower
o Desktop
 When we consider a case, the following things are cared about:
o The bigger the box, the more components it can hold.
o This gives it more expansion capability, better air flow which is good
for cooling. Large cases are easier to work with.
o The more compact the box, the less expansion potential it has.
Working with such cases is difficult and usually air flow is reduced.
 Definition of Motherboard
o At the heart of every PC live certain core components. Motherboard
is the PCs center of activity. All devices in a computer are in some way
or another are connected to motherboard.
o It defines the computer’s limit of speed, memory, and expandability.
 The following are some of the common form-factors:
1)Obsolete form factors:

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• Baby AT
• Full-size AT
2) modern form factors:
• ATX
• Micro-ATX
• Flex ATX
 Central Processing Unit
 CPU, also called
microprocessor or simply
processor, is the brain of PC.
 It performs the system’s data processing activity like
calculation, comparison, etc.
 It is the most expensive single component in the system, costing four
or more times than the motherboard it plugs into.
 The first CPU was created in 1971 by Intel. It is called the 4004.
 Brain of PC: it directly or indirectly controls the functions and activities of
your computer. It transmits information between devices and tells the
devices what to do. This is done by sending control information.
 Major producers of CPU are:
 Intel
 AMD
 Cyrix
 Sparc
Troubleshooting
1. If the CPU does not work, the system gives beep sounds when turned on.
The number of beeps varies
2. from BIOS to BIOS. On AMI BIOS, five beeps indicate CPU problem. Visit
the internet for list of such errors.
Replacing and Upgrading CPU
1. Upgrade: installing another device which is better than the previous one in
terms of performance. Poor upgrade may lead to total failure.
2. Replace: substitute with equivalent device in case the previous one failed.
3. One thing to consider when we replace/upgrade CPU is the CPU socket on
your motherboard.
Three most common sockets are:

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 Low Insertion Force(LIF)

 Zero Insertion Force(ZIF)
 Single Edge Contact(SEC)
Overheated CPU causes:
 System crash
 Random reboot
 Memory errors
 Disk problems
 Application errors
 Computer Memory
 physical devices used to store data or programs On temporary or
permanent basis
 Represent information in binary code, written as sequences of 0s and
1s.
 could be an on-off switch, an electrical capacitor that can store or
lose a charge, in primary storage
 usually meant to refer to the semiconductor technology that is used
to store information.

Types of RAM
 DRAM
 This memory id dynamic. Because of this, it must be constantly refreshed
periodically (every few milliseconds). Otherwise the memory will drain and
the data is lost. During the process of refreshing, the CPU can’t access the
memory. It is called wait state.
 The memory cells in DRAM use tiny capacitors that retain charge. Capacitors
are devices that can keep charge for some time until discharged. They use
one transistor per bit.
Note: there are 256million transistors in 256MB RAM chip.
 SRAM
 It is called because it does not require periodic refreshing unlike DRAM. It
is much faster than DRAM and able to keep pace with processor. As long as
there is power, SRAM keeps what is stored.

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 SRAM uses transistors for storage purpose, no capacitors are used. Because
of this, no recharging required. SRAM is used to build cache memory.
Type speed density cost
DRAM slow high low
SRAM fast low high
 RAM Modules
 There are two types of RAM
modules (memory packages)
 Single Inline Memory
Module(SIMM)
 Dual Inline Memory
Module(DIMM)
 SIMM
SIMMs are available in two forms:
Apply Maintenance procedure
Maintenance procedure should be done by
- Considering organizational policy
- Considering SLA
- Referring documentation regarding their handling and maintenance
requirement.
Maintenance of computer system includes:
- Checking system event logs regularly
- Viewing post results
- Checking the dust accumulation, particularly around funs.
- Updating operating system and application software with the latest service
packs.
Maintenance schedule specifies
- Each preventive maintenance task that should be completed.
- How often task should be repeated
- An estimate of the time required to complete the task.
System documentation
- Outlines the manufacturers recommended maintenance procedures.
- Defines how often maintenance procedures should be done
- Specifies any equipment/material/ consumables that are required for the
maintenance.

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