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If there's no TECHNOLOGY

We are living in an era that surrounded by technologies. From every small work we do is technology dependent.


If there is no technology, we can not travel to another location within short amount of time. We will still be riding horse to make a trip.

Technology made our lives much simpler but also , making us depending on it more and more. We can sit anywhere and get connected to the world. Thus making the world a global community. Communicating with a person in remote area within fraction of seconds, making a trip of the world within lesser time, all these are possible with the advanced technology that are available today.


In the health sector, technology advanced to a great extent that today a machine can assist a person in intensive care and monitor him/her, which was a tiresome and risky job to do manually before. If there is no technology there is no medicine and many will die from disease or plague.


Today the shelf life of the food products is increased with help of modern technology and even preparation time of food is reduced with the help of new machines and equipment. Thus ,making the consumer to have an ease at its consumption and also in saving a lot of productive time. Ultimately, making the person dependent on it for his own benefits. This is unlike to the times of traditional cooking where people had to spare time and even do physical labor compared to the modern technically advanced time of today.  Hence, technology plays a major role in our everyday lives.

Some Software for Preventive Maintenance

System File Checker

If a Windows Resource Protection (WRP) file is missing or is corrupted, Windows may not behave as expected. For example, some Windows functions may not work, or Windows may crash. The System File Checker tool (SFC.exe) scans for missing or corrupted system files and repairs them.

Use the System File Checker tool (SFC.exe) to determine which file is causing the issue, and then replace the file. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: sfc /scannow

The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.


To determine which files could not be repaired by the System File Checker tool, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt
Note The Sfcdetails.txt file contains details from every time that the System File Checker tool has been run on the computer. The file includes information about files that were not repaired by the System File Checker tool. Verify the date and time entries to determine the problem files that were found the last time that you ran the System File Checker tool.

1. Type sfcdetails.txt in Search programs and files and press Enter.

The Sfcdetails.txt file uses the following format:
Date/Time SFC detail



If the System File Checker tool cannot repair a file, follow these steps:

1. At an elevated command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

takeown /f Path_And_File_Name
For example, type takeown /f E:\windows\system32\jscript.dll.

1. Type the following command, and then press ENTER to grant administrators full access to the file:

icacls Path_And_File_Name /GRANT ADMINISTRATORS:F
For example, type icacls E:\windows\system32\jscript.dll /grant administrators:F.

1. Type the following command to replace the file with a known good copy of the file:

Copy Path_And_File_Name_Of_Source_File Path_And_File_Name_Of_Destination
For example, type copy E:\temp\jscript.dll E:\windows\system32\jscript.dll.

Check Disk

Check Disk utility is used in Windows to scan through the entire hard drive and find problems. It is recommend that the hard drive needs checking every month or two.

To do this, follow these steps:

Open up Computer and then right-click on the drive you want to check, and choose Properties, or just click the drive, and then click the Properties button.

Then select the Tools tab, and click the “Check Now” button.

A little dialog will pop up to allow you to choose the options you want for the disk check. You should check both options if you want to really check the disk properly, but if you just want to do a quick check you could select only the first one.

The only problem with that is that Windows can’t check a drive that’s being used, such as the system drive, but Windows will let you schedule a disk check for the next reboot.

You should keep in mind that running through a full check disk takes quite a while, sometimes hours depending on how big the drive is and how many files you have.

Defrag Hard Disk

The Windows operating system places files and programs on a hard drive where there is space; one file will not necessarily be located in one physical place. Over time, a hard drive can become fragmented with hundreds of files broken up in many locations across the drive. Ultimately, this can slow down a computer’s response time because it takes longer for it to access information. That's why using a defrag program can play an important role in speeding up your computer

The process of defragmentation places all parts of a file together in the same place on the drive. It organizes all directories and files according to how you use your computer. After this process is complete, your computer will most likely run faster.

To begin this process, perform the following steps:

1. Make sure your work is backed up to another media – copy or backup all work files, photos, email, etc., to another hard drive, CDROM, DVD or other type of media.
2. Make sure the hard drive is healthy – use CHKDSK to scan and fix the drive. 
3. Close programs currently open – including virus scanners and other programs that have icons in the system tray (right hand side of the task bar) 
4. Assure your computer has a constant source of power – The important thing is to be able to stop the defragmentation process, if there is a power outage. If you have frequent power brown outs or other outages, you should not use a defragmentation program without a battery backup. Note: If your computer does shut off while defragmenting, it may crash the hard drive or corrupt the operating system, or both.

Open the Defrag Program

1. Click the Start Button
2. Find the Disk Defragmentation program and open it

• Click the Program icon
• Click the Accessories icon
• Click the System Tools icon
• click the Disk Defragmentation icon

Click the analyze button to analyze your hard drive. then just follow what ever the result tell you to do. If it says your hard drive does not need defragmentation, you probably will not benefit from doing it.

If it says that your hard drive needs defragmenting, click on the Defragment button. Then the program will do its work.It takes time depending on the size of the drive, the amount to be fragmentation, the speed of the processor, etc.

PC Preventive Maintenance

Much as the name implies, preventive maintenance, often abbreviated PM, refers to performing proactive maintenance in order to prevent system problems. This is contrasted to diagnostic or corrective maintenance, which is performed to correct an already-existing problem. Anyone who has ever owned or cared for a car knows all about what preventive maintenance is. After all, you don't change your oil and air filter in response to a problem situation, you do it so that your engine will last and you won't have car troubles down the road.

Some types of preventive maintenance need to be performed more often than others. The frequency of preventive maintenance depends on the nature of the activity; some things just need to be addressed more often than others. It also depends a lot on what your PC is being used for.

The interval for preventive maintenance on PCs can be determined based on elapsed time or on usage metrics. This is similar to how your car's oil and filter should be changed "every 3 months or 3,000 miles, whichever comes first". PC maintenance activities are usually specified as time-based, because this is easier (a PC has no odometer) but they should be performed more frequently depending on prevailing conditions. A PC used on the manufacturing floor of a steel mill needs to be cleaned more often than one being used in a hospital. A disk that is doing heavy Internet file transfers needs virus checking much more often than one that is used standalone and has no modem or floppy disk.

One enemy of preventive maintenance is simply remembering to do. It's one thing to say "I will clean the read/write heads on my floppy disk every six months", and even to mean it. But how will you remember when the six months are up? One way to address this problem is through the use of a preventive maintenance schedule, which will remind you of when do perform key maintenance activities on your PC. Some software preventive maintenance activities can also be automated.

In the long run, preventive maintenance saves time and money, protects your data, improves computer performance, and prolongs computer life. These are accomplished by considering and planning for the risks involved in working with computers (e.g. data loss, hardware failure).

Preventive maintenance can be classified into:

• Mechanical Maintenance
• Electrical Maintenance
• Software or Hard Disk Maintenance

Mechanical Maintenance

General Cleaning

The benefits of cleaning your computer periodically are not limited to merely improving its performance. Regular cleaning is also important for prolonging your computer’s life and enhancing its performance. By removing dirt, dust and other particles that can interfere with connections in computer circuits, the efficiency of your computer is increased, and the chances of overheating lowered.

Generally, your computer should be cleaned every 4-6 months. However, if your computer is used often and operates in a dusty environment, it should be cleaned more frequently, i.e. every 3-4 months. Other factors, including the number of users and whether or not they own pets, also influence the frequency of cleaning.

Choosing a Good Location for Your Computer

Ensure that the computer is placed in an area with good ventilation such that the heat generated by the microprocessor, motherboard, and other devices is dissipated. In addition, books and other objects should not be placed on top of the monitor case, as this would block excess heat from escaping from the ventilation slots. This could cause colour shifting, screen flicker, and failure.

Electrical Maintenance

It describes the electrical aspect of maintenance, specifically surge protection, which involves safeguarding computer components such as the monitor, hard drive, and processor from voltage variations, i.e. spikes and surges. Spikes occur when lightning strikes a transformer, whereas surges occur when high-powered electrical motors are shut off, subsequently releasing extra voltage into the line. During power outages, any unsaved ongoing work is lost. Rural areas, which are more prone to surges, are recommended to make use of an interruptible power supply (UPS) to avert this problem.

Software or Hard Disk Maintenance

Antivirus Software

Antivirus software searches your computer for viruses, “A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes…A simple virus that can make a copy of it over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt.”

Defragmenting

Files are saved in sectors. As more and more files are saved on and deleted from your computer, the files can get more and more cluttered (depending on the file system used by the operating system), with their fragments scattered across the hard drive in different sectors. To access the files, the hard drive must search for and combine these file components stored in different sections, an operation which slows down file access times. Defragmenting arranges these scattered files in a more organized, continuous manner, thereby reducing the time needed by the computer to access a particular file. In addition to speeding up file access times, the life of the hard drive is extended, since actual mechanical movement is reduced. This should be done approximately once a month. Defragmenting requirements vary from OS to OS since different file systems are used.

Windows is prone to fragmentation since it tries to put file fragments as close to the beginning of the hard drive as it can. By revising these files and increasing or decreasing their size, the clutter worsens, delaying file access times further. A defragmenting tool is bundled with Windows.

PC Medic

It emphasizes the importance of removing unused and unnecessary programs from your hard disk. By removing files you don’t need, such as files in the trash or recycle bin, temporary files, and cached web pages you don’t use, you are freeing up space for programs you will actually use.

Uninstalling should be done properly, e.g. using Add / Remove Program, and not simply deleting the folder.

References

 http://www.reciclemos.net/docs/pdfs/Preventive%20Maintenance_PDF.pdf

 http://www.pcguide.com/care/pm.htm

Assembling a PC

Last week we were given a class activities to assemble a PC components into its case. This classwork activities were to be done in a group of 4 to 5 person.

Below is the PC case and its components.

First we attached the USB port and connected the USB cable to the circuit board. The USB cable is the black colored cable.

Then the Speaker and its cable.

Followed by the case switch cable.

Next is the CPU fan.

Then the diffuser fan

Followed by Hard Disk drive

 This power cables is to be connected to the hard disk. There are two pin, either the two of them can be use. For the class activities we choose to use the middle one.

The Hard Disk Cable with both ends that have pins slot.

Now for the DVD Drive

 The DVD drive cable that will be connected to the circuit board.

The power cable from the power adapter also must be connected to the DVD Drive.

Next is the Diskette driver

 Diskette drive power cable from the power adapter

Diskette drive IDE cable connected from the drive to the circuit board

Next is the Front Panel

Then the Mother board power cable

Followed by Random Access Memory(RAM)

and Wireless Card

After attaching the wireless card to the PCI slot. A bracket for holding the card is necessary to be installed from outside of the case.

Finally the wireless card antenna.

With that all the necessary components have been installed. The only thing left to do is to screw the case cover.