Abstract
This chapter is targeted primarily at someone studying for the A+ Certification exam. You will learn how to use proper safety practices when working around dangerous equipment, use proper cleaning products and practices when performing preventive maintenance, follow proper disposal techniques for environmentally hazardous materials, and prevent ESD damage to PC components. The chapter ends with a quiz and suggested activities.
Two of the most unexciting topics that a PC technician must know about are safety and preventive maintenance. Though these two topics are not the most fun, and preventive maintenance is not a favored task of the PC technician, performing tasks safely and performing proper preventive maintenance on PCs are very necessary.
Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to
Use proper safety practices when working around dangerous equipment
Use proper cleaning products and practices when performing preventive maintenance
Follow proper disposal techniques for environmentally hazardous materials as defined in the product’s MSDS
Prevent ESD damage to PC components
WHY CLEAN?
Imagine walking into a hospital’s emergency room and finding dirty bedpans and linens, bloody bandages and used syringes in the trash can, almost-working heart monitoring equipment and X-ray machines, and a doctor sticking an ungloved hand down your throat. A scary thought. Admittedly, a broken PC or environmentally hazardous material that was disposed of improperly doesn’t quite stack up, but you get the idea.
An improperly cared for PC can be an irritating, unstable device that is more prone to long-term failure. To keep a PC operating properly, you should follow a Preventive Maintenance (PM) schedule that provides routine maintenance to the major components of the PC. This routine should include cleaning excess dirt and dust from the components and testing the components for proper operation. Dust doesn’t usually affect the flow of electricity or get inside an IC chip, but dust can cause moveable parts to bind and block proper airflow through the case, which can cause a system to overheat, burning up expensive components.
A PM schedule is a list of tasks that should be performed regularly on equipment, much like changing the oil in a car should be a regularly scheduled task. It doesn’t make the car prettier, provide any additional capability, or fix anything that’s broken, but it will hopefully keep the car operating longer without an unexpected outage. A regular PM schedule can help extend the life of a PC and keep it operating properly for extended periods of time.
WHAT TO CLEAN/WHAT TO USE
The two main groupings of equipment that should be PMed are the external components that the user sees and touches and the components housed inside the PC case. External components can include the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Internal components include the air plenum, fans, floppy and tape drives, circuit boards, and expansion slots.
HOW TO CLEAN
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Internal components
Contacts
The external parts are the easiest to clean, because you can get to them easily. Proper cleaning equipment and technique are important; you can cause damage instead of preventing it of you use improper equipment or techniques. For example, an improper technique for cleaning the keyboard would be to use soap and water, which can short the keyboard or cause the keys to become sticky.
Monitor
When cleaning the monitor, also known as the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), you should not use standard glass cleaner. Instead, you should use an anti-static cleaner that has been made especially for electronic equipment. Standard window cleaner may strip off the special charged coating that is applied to the outside of the monitor. The CRT is actually the big vacuum tube that displays the picture on the monitor.
When cleaning a notebook computer’s Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panel, you should also use anti-static cleaner. Sometimes such cleaners are formulated specially for LCD displays. It is important not to use window cleaner or other common household cleaners on laptops. Doing so may erode the plastic coating on the LCD.
Instead of spraying the cleaner directly on the surface of the device, spray the cleaning product on a lint-free cloth, then wipe the LCD or CRT with the cloth. This technique prevents liquid from leaking into the bezel of the monitor or being applied to surfaces you did not intend to spray.
Keyboard
When cleaning a keyboard, you can encounter several different types of dirt and grime, so you may need more than one type of cleaning product. A small electric vacuum cleaner, compressed air, or paintbrush can be used to remove dust, dirt, and debris. To remove products such as oil and soda spots, use a volatile liquid, like rubbing alcohol on a lint-free cloth. Volatile liquids evaporate quickly, so the chance of a liquid damaging the keyboard is minimized.
Mouse
The most probable reason a mouse stops tracking correctly or sticks is dirt. The supplies you need to clean a mouse are cleaning solution, rubbing alcohol, and a lint-free cloth. Use the cleaning solution and lint-free cloth to clean the exterior of the mouse, then remove the twist-off cover for the mouse ball. Clean the ball with the cleaning solution or warm water and dry it off. Remove any lint or dust from the rollers inside the mouse housing.
Internal Components
Dust and dirt tend to build inside the computer case after a while. If left unchecked, dust can accumulate and cause your system to overheat and/or crash. It is wise to unplug the system and clean it routinely. You should use compressed air or a vacuum for this purpose. This process should be completed before removing the I/O cards for routine maintenance of those cards, because dust and dirt can fall into the expansion bus connectors and cause a poor connection.
Electronic equipment tends to attract dust from the air. In the rear of the power supply is a fan, which pulls air from the vents in the front of the case, across the components of the PC, and out the rear of the power supply. Along the way, heat and dust are picked up and gather in the power supply. You can normally remove the dust by blowing compressed air into the vent holes of the power supply, which will force the dust out the hole for the fan.
One critical PM procedure is checking the power supply for 5 and 12 VDC. This task will be covered in Chapter 5, Diagnosing, Troubleshooting, and Optimizing Hardware.
Contacts
Cleaning the connectors and contacts in a system helps ensure a reliable connection between devices that are attached to the motherboard. On the motherboard, be sure to clean the slot connectors, power supply connectors, and keyboard connector. For the expansion cards, clean the edge connectors that plug into slots on the motherboard as well as any other connectors, such as external ones mounted on the expansion card’s bracket.
Important: Blow the dirt out of the case using compressed air or a vacuum cleaner before removing the expansion cards to make sure no dirt or debris get into the expansion slot connectors on the motherboard.
Use a contact cleaner with lubricant to clean the I/O card’s edge connector contacts. Contact cleaner is available at most electronics parts stores. To clean contacts, dip a lint-free cloth or swab in the cleaning solution, then wipe the edge connector’s contacts to remove any finger oil or debris.
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