You purchase a computer. You use it daily without any thought to its needs. And yet, your computer, just like your car, requires scheduled TLC: Take care of the machine, Learn to maintain & Clean the machine.

Taking care of the machine is important because inside the case you call a tower, desktop or laptop is a whole world of electronic gizmos that get hot and stressed just like you do throughout your work day.

1. Location. Location. Make sure to place the computer on a sturdy, well-ventilated and level table, desk, or on the floor in a location where the “box” will not be kicked, bumped or jostled.
   • Ventilation is required because most computers have a fan to blow the hot air created by the Central Processing Unit (CPU-heart of the computer) out the back. Cool air must be constantly drawn into the computer through vents in the back or sides of the unit.
   • Don’t move, kick, jostle, bump or tip your computer when it’s turned on. The hard drive spins about 100 revolutions per second. At that speed, the read/write head and drive axle are very vulnerable to damage if moved. (For those of you old enough to remember, it’s like bumping a record player.)
2. Electricity and all that snaps, crackles & pops. Make sure all of the peripheral devices (monitor, printer, scanner, modems, etc.) are connected securely to their respective ports and that the computer and all* things plugged into it are connected to a surge protector or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to protect your investment from electrical surges. Before you power up your computer, turn on the peripherals so the computer can see (detect) the devices as it boots up. When turning off: computer first, peripherals next.
   • To learn more about Surge Protectors Click here - surge protection.
   • Don’t turn your computer on and off like a light switch because the electronic components inside are stressed by the power surge that flows through the entire computer. This doesn’t mean you should leave the computer on for weeks at a time. Turn it on in the morning and off at night. To save electricity you can enable the power-saving features to put the monitor and hard disk to “sleep” when not in use.

Learn to maintain your computer. Unlike a car, you don’t have to take your computer into a shop for scheduled maintenance. Maintenance is a job YOU can handle. The first and foremost maintenance task is to BACKUP your data! While this won’t necessarily take care of the computer, it will save you much time and aggravation if you have a system failure of some type.

1. House keeping. Schedule time to delete temporary files, run disk cleanup, disk defragmenter and scan disk.
2. Check for updates. Most software will have some type of update. Make sure to check for Microsoft Windows updates. And without question, keep your “protections” software updated.
   NOTE: Anti-virus, firewall and spyware removal software are only good if they know what the newest threat is to your computer. All protection software requires updates to both their definition files (the newest threats) and their scanning engine (what makes the software work). So update, update, update.

Clean the machine: Like a car with clean oil and fluids, your computer will perform better if it’s clean.

1. Delete unwanted document files and folders including photos, music, video clips and text files.
2. Delete old shortcuts, installation files and various junk.
3. Remember to empty the recycle bin on the desktop after deleting files.
4. Uninstall unused software. A good motto is “Don’t use it? Loose it!”
5. Clean out your old e-mail. Look through the Inbox, Sent Mail folder and any subfolders you’ve created.
6. Flip the keyboard over and shake the crumbs out. Take a damp cloth and gently wipe it down.
7. When the computer is off, pull it out and vacuum the back ventilation grates and wipe off the case with a damp cloth to remove dirt, dust and grime.

* Never plug a laser printer into an Uninterruptible Power Supply