COMPUTING FUNDAMENTALS AND

CONCEPTSBy: Donald Holyfield

Maintenance Issues

Performance of a hard disk starts to slow. Printer problems start to occur. Keyboard and mouse start not to work

properly. To keep these problems from occurring

invest in Cable management.

Hardware Maintenance

To keep computer repair down try doing a little bit of preventative maintenance.

Also clean your computer every 3 to 6 months.

Depending on the environment you may need to clean it more or less.

Preventative Maintenance

All computers will slow down the more you install uninstall and perform normal activities.

With Microsoft's Windows you a set of utilities that perform special functions.

The utilities will defragment hard drives, delete temporary files, empty the Recycle Bin and remove cookies.

Mouse and Keyboard

Check your mouse and keyboard every once in a while.

If you don’t food and other small particles can cause these devices not to work.

I recommend using compressed air to clean the mouse and keyboard.

Inkjet and laser printers

With inkjet printers you should check to see if small amounts of dry ink are on the printer head.

With laser printers you should clean them when print quality deteriorates or whenever you change the toner cartridge.

Upgrades and Consumables

After awhile you may need to upgrade your computer like adding memory.

Also upgrade the keyboard by investing in a ergonomic keyboard.

With these upgrades you will be more comfortable and your computer will run better.

Disk Defragmentation

This happens when a piece of data is broken up into many pieces that are not stored close together.

This will keep happening until you delete some files and add new ones.

Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin is a holding area for files and folders before their final deletions.

In the Recycle Bin their would be files that can be deleted from the hard disk.

Whether accidentally or intentionally after you delete a file from your Recycle Bin you cannot restore it.

Vocab. and Terms Cable Management- A technique or kit that gathers cables together and stores them so

they are not a hazard. Corona Wires- Wire used to generate a field of positive charges on the surfaces of the

drum and the paper. Defragmentation- A utility that reduces the amount of fragmentation by physically

organizing the contents of the disk to store the pieces of each file contiguously. Ergonomic Keyboard- A keyboard that allows for a more natural positioning of your

arms and hands. Fragmentation- Files that are not stored in contiguous clusters, but rather are divided

into subparts and stored in different disk locations, it takes longer for a disk drive to access fragmented files than un fragmented files.

Maintenance- Task you perform to keep equipment in working order. Recycle Bin- A holding area for files and folders before their final deletion from a storage

device. Sectors- Divisions on a magnetic media used for storing digital information. Seek Time- The time it takes for a read/write head to move to a specific data track; one of

delays associated with reading or writing data on a computer disk drive. Touchpad- A pointing device you can use instead of a mouse. Wireless Keyboard- A keyboard that uses radio or infrared frequencies to connect to a

computer rather than a cable.