1. Computer Maintenance
Chelsea Hynes

2.  Keyboard and mouse- you should clean your keyboard often, dirt, dust, hair,
and food can accumulate, this can cause the keys to jam of malfunction. You can
use compressed air to clean your keyboard.
A mouse with a ball can be difficult to move if the rollers are clogged. You should
clean your mouse often to help eliminate jerky or erratic movement of the mouse
pointer. To clean your mouse remove the bottom cover of the mouse.
 Inkjet Printer/laser printer- After so much usage small deposits of dry ink
accumulate in your printer this can clog the printer’s ink jets and affect the print
quality of the document. Laser printers should be cleaned when the print quality
deteriorates or when you change the cartridge.

3.  Computer memory- one way to measure the computers power is by it’s memory. RAM is
made of small memory chips that form a memory module. These are installed in the RAM slots
on the motherboard of your computer
 Adding RAM to a computer generally helps increase performance , speed, and usability. Every
system has a maximum amount of RAM that it can support.

4.  Ergonomic keyboards- Allow for a more natural positioning of your arms and hands. These
have a smaller width, which keeps the mouse closer to you. This will reduce the reach and places
the mouse in a more accessible position.
 Wireless Keyboard- reduces the clutter of unwanted wires and other cable problems and
improves mobility, If necessary you can move around with a wireless keyboard and not be
bound to a desk.

5.  A variety of mouse devices are available, like wireless, optical, and combinations.
 Touchpads are another pointing device you can use instead of a mouse. This devices sences
the position of your finger and then moves the pointer accordingly. Most notebook computers
contain touchpads, but these are also available for desktop computers.

6.  All computers slow down as you add and delete files, install and uninstall software, and
perform normal activities. To eliminate these problems Microsoft comes with a set of utilities
the perform special functions. You use theses tolls to defragment hard drives, empty recycle
bin, delete temporary files, and remove cookies.
 Disk defragmentation- When the computer is new the operating system, like Windows
Vista, writes the file data in a set of side-by-side clusters. As the drive becomes clustered and
space becomes limited, Windows divides the data for newly created files into sectors
 Disk Fragmentation occurs when a piece of data is broken up into many pieces that are not
stored close together.

7.  Sectors are stored in blocks of nonadjacent clusters, creating
fragmented files.
 Seek time is one of the more time-consuming elements in a
computers performance and can slow the speed of the processing
cycle.

8.  Recycle bin is a holding area for files and folders before their final
deletion from a storage device.
 A cookie is a small text file that a web site uses to identify a specific
computer.

9.  Various application programs, such as those in the Microsoft Office
suite, create temporary files. This action is used for the following reasons:
 To free memory for other programs
 To act as a safety net to prevent data loss
 For printing

10. Generally, you can provide routine Maintenance . However you should not
attempt some Maintenance procedures, here is a list of hardware maintenance or
repair that generally should be performed by a computer professional
 Replacing the power supply or opening the power supply case
 Replacing other electrical components
 Replacing the processor
 Replacing or adding a hard disk
 Replacing or adding additional RAM