Five Steps to Extend Your Computer’s Life

The following article has been archived due to outdated material, links, or other content. It may still have helpful content but please visit our Learning Center for more current articles that may cover a similar topic. If you wish to update this article or have questions about our archiving process, please contact us at writeforus@techsoup.org.

The first part of this article is adapted from John Avellanet's position paper, "Simple Computer Maintenance for Small Businesses and Nonprofits," which can be found on Cerulean Associates' Resource Library.

Early this year, a quiet turn of the calendar marked Year Six for $1.8 million worth of desktop and server computers at a cutting-edge product-development company where I was chief information officer. The strategy used to ensure that the computers reached this landmark birthday was simple — we based their maintenance schedule on that of our cars.

The average automobile, if you follow its maintenance schedule, protect it from rust, and drive reasonably, should last you six to 10 years. The maintenance schedule is based on your use of the car as a complex tool to get you from Point A to Point B. Your computer is also a complex tool and your usage will determine its maintenance and protection needs; how you follow through with those needs will determine how long you'll get to use your computer and when you'll need to shift monies away from your mission toward your computer.

This five-part routine to extend the life of your computer is based on my experience since the early days of personal and "mobile" (Kaypro II) computers in the 1980s. It is equally applicable to both Windows- and Macintosh-based computers, although I use Windows XP as an example throughout this article simply because of its ubiquity. By computer, I also mean an office-based computer; if your computers are located in a dusty warehouse or a building under heavy renovation, step up the physical annual maintenance routine to be performed quarterly.

1. Verify Your Physical Setup

   Just as it's hard to keep a car in top condition out in a pasture, it's difficult to keep a computer functioning well if it's in a poor environment. There are three factors to consider: temperature, air quality, and electricity.

   For most computers, room temperature should be between 60 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 to 29.5 degrees Celsius) with a humidity level between 50 and 75 percent (to minimize any static buildup). While most offices are kept at this level during the day, check with your landlord to ensure when you leave at night that the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system does not rise above or fall below these levels.

   Air quality is important because computers require air circulation to prevent overheating. There are two rules of thumb:

   1. The vents on the monitor, case, and printer need a good three to four inches of space (roughly the width of your hand from thumb to pinkie) to get good air flow. Move them away from any cables or cubicle walls blocking them.
      
      
   2. If you use air filters or ionizers, keep them at least two feet from the computer or any dirt or dust particles heading for the filter will be drawn into the computer.

   Electricity is a key factor in determining the longevity of your computer. It's akin to the oil, fuel, and coolant in your car's engine: whereas poor or dirty engine liquids will take their toll on your car and shorten its life, so-called "dirty" electricity (brownouts, surges, sags, spikes, and so on) will damage your computer, and your files, far more effectively than any virus.

   There are four steps you can take to create good electrical conditions for your computer:

   1. Ask your local power company to provide you a power profile or graph with the range of electrical sags and spikes entering your building during a typical billing period (if you lease, you may need to ask your landlord to obtain this information). This will show you your problem areas and times. I recommend you obtain this report once per season or quarter. We discovered a spike in power that occurred at 8:32 a.m. every morning when the neighboring manufacturing plant started its production lines.
      
      
   2. Get good surge protection with battery backup (also called an uninterruptible power supply or UPS). The typical computer needs a UPS that is rated at the 650-VA (390-watt) level; it does not necessarily need to be a "for business" model. What's key is the amount of surge it can handle and whether the manufacturer offers a monetary protection guarantee. Plug only your computer case and your monitor into the battery backup portion, along with your docking station if you have a laptop. Everything else (including your printer) simply receives surge protection. This five- to 10-minute backup serves three purposes: it provides you with enough time to save your work; it allows you to assess whether you're experiencing a momentary flicker or a longer outage; and, if you are experiencing an outage, it gives you time to turn off your computer.
      
      
   3. After an outage, wait five minutes before turning back on your computer. If the power grid has problems, these will usually appear within three to four minutes after power is first restored.
      
      
   4. Power sag problems can be discovered when your local printer suddenly outputs comic-book characters ("@#!l%^", and so on) in the midst of printing. If a stand-alone battery backup for your printer doesn't resolve this brownout issue, contact the power company or a company like American Power Conversion Corporation (APC) to work with you on battery backup options.

2. Verify Your Electronic Setup

   Automation is the name of the game when it comes to preventive computer maintenance for the busy nonprofit (this is one area where automobiles are playing catch-up). There are three items that you must automate: virus protection, critical software updates, and computer firewalls that are either part of the operating systems (such as Windows XP's firewall) or part of your antivirus software.

   I recommend getting virus protection software that combines virus and spyware protection at a minimum; add the firewall option if you do not use an operating system with a built-in firewall. Critical updates are just that — software patches rated "critical" by the vendor; all other patches, enhancements, and updates can wait for the end of the year.

3. Monthly Preventative Maintenance

   Once a month, perform two tasks: Clean your temporary files and empty your trash or recycle bin (you can do this with the "Disk Cleanup" utility in Windows XP) and defragment your computer (you can do this by running the Disk Defragmenter utility in Windows XP). Think of this as checking your oil, tire pressure, window-washer fluid, and clearing the kids' toys out of your car.

4. Annual Computer Maintenance

   Just as a car needs a tune-up once a year, so too does a computer. There are two aspects to this process: electronic and physical.

   The electronic tune-up consists of the regular monthly maintenance plus a disk scan of your hard drives and a manual check of all software for updates. In Windows XP, utilize the Check Disk utility — check both boxes to fix file-system errors and scan for bad sectors.

   For each application, such as Adobe Reader or Microsoft Office, check for updates using their built-in method or via the support or download section of their Web sites. Although you may not be required to do so, I recommend restarting your computer after each software package has been updated. This will allow the various bits of code to properly "register" with the computer and cause any error messages to be isolated to the last update you did (versus just "something").

   The physical tune-up, while short (it takes five to ten minutes from start to finish), might seem intimidating at first. Don't let it scare you, though. There are only five simple steps: unplug, unplug, look, lift, and dust.

   First, turn off and unplug your computer and your monitor. Next, unplug the rest of the cables from the computer case, including the network cable, the printer cable, and so on. Inspect the cabling for any broken or frayed bits. If you have a laptop, take out the battery. For desktop computers, unscrew the case (generally in the back) and lift it off (some computers, like Dell and HP, have flip cases that you open by pressing a plastic button).

   Now, with the hose and bristle-sweep attachment of your vacuum, clean off the air vents on the outside of the computer case, the monitor, and the keyboard (and the docking station if you have a laptop). Then, gently vacuum out the dust from inside the case. This is not a detailed spring cleaning; go lightly and quickly (it should take you less than 30 seconds).

5. Independent "Health Check"

   At least once every 18 months, if not yearly, ask someone you trust, or who comes recommended, to do a "health check" of your systems and processes. Think of this as your 10-point check or other type of review you might subject your car to prior to a big trip. You want this done by an IT professional who is a generalist, not someone specialized in a particular aspect like backup software or databases or who has a solution in need of a problem. You want personalized advice focused on your technology, nonprofit, and environment.

   For recommendations, look on the Web at generalist IT and consulting professional societies like Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA), Society of Professional Consultants (SPC) or Institute of Management Consultants USA (IMC USA), as well as N-TEN or TechSoup.

   If you want to try tackling the "health check" on your own or if you are uncertain about what to keep an eye on with different IT professionals and technology service firms, I recommend the following 10 items for the core health check.

   1. "Cold-Start" Check
      Just as cars frequently display symptoms upon startup, so do computers. To the trained ear, a high-pitched whine or inconsistent grinding noise can quickly identify a failing monitor, fan, or hard drive. The cold-start (or "cold-boot") process starts up the computer from a completely powered-off state, skipping any welcome or other splash screens to look for error messages that may appear during startup and to listen for any warning beeps or other sounds.
      
      
   2. On-line Performance Checks
      Cars can be hooked up to automated diagnostic utilities to quickly see any issues, and so can computers. First, go online to a free antivirus or spyware scanner, such as those provided by Trend Micro. Next, go to a PC diagnostics site like PC Pitstop and run the free full tuneup. Print out the site's suggestions to consider later.
      
      
   3. Error Logs
      In Windows XP, check all three default Event Viewer logs for errors or warnings. Copy and paste the errors and warnings into a plain text file and print this out. Then delete the log entries.
      
      
   4. Isolation
      Disconnect the computer from the network or Internet and exit all programs like Instant Messenger, virus-scan, and so forth.
      
      
   5. Temp File Cleaning
      Run Windows XP's Desktop Clean-Up. This only cleans out the temporary files created by the person logged on at the time, however; many others are left to build up. A file and folder search for files named "~*.*" will find the rest. Most files beginning with a tilde (~) can be safely deleted.
      
      
   6. Defragment and "Warm-Start"
      Defragment the computer's hard drive twice in a row, then reboot the computer checking for errors, warning beeps, and other telltale noises. This tests the computer's restart ability. Check the Event Viewer for any errors or warnings that haven't already been captured.
      
      
   7. Inventory
      Download, install, and run BelArc's BelManage or other inventory and software checking utility. (I often recommend BelArc because its software is straightforward; its stand-alone, non-commercial version is free; and it provides charitable software donations to nonprofits.) Make sure to print out this report.
      
      
   8. Updates
      Using the report you printed in Step 7, check for and install all the updates recommended by both the report and the software manufacturer, including software patches and drivers.
      
      
   9. Troubleshoot
      Once you've installed the updates, restart and check the logs again for errors or warnings; this time, you'll want to capture and print any that are left so that you can troubleshoot them. As appropriate, make sure to back up the computer's data first.
      
      
   10. Test Drive
       Finally, take the computer for a test drive, starting it up the same way the user does in the morning, opening email, the word processing application, Internet, and so on to ensure no errors are present and nothing is unusual from the user's perspective.

   Additional items to consider during the "health check" include viewing and documenting configurations of common software, network settings, and other configurable options. Problems standardizing these configurations on computers in the same environment typically indicate issues either with the computer or with the network.

Final Thoughts

If your nonprofit has more than 30 computers, you may find it challenging to consistently take time away from your mission to devote to this maintenance routine. If this is the case, consider asking for help from a local technology service provider or an independent IT contractor. Likewise, if you are uncomfortable handling this maintenance, treat it no differently than your car and seek help from a professional.

I have laid out the core ten items in the annual "health check" process so that you can use the process as a benchmark for a provider's quality of work prior to any long-term commitment. You may also want to review ICCA's 10 Tips on Hiring a Computer Consultant.

Just as you can expect to get a long, useful life out of your car by following the recommended maintenance schedule, following these simple guidelines will help you get the best benefit out of the technology you have for the least cost.