Caring for your Electronic Devices

Technology has become as much a part of our everyday lives as cars and transportation.  As we perform preventative maintenance on our cars such as regular oil changes, the same must be done for our computer equipment.

The majority of these devices aren’t cheap, so proper care is important in order to keep them around for a while and in good working condition.
Many devices have small internal surge protectors which make them not as effective as traditional ones that plug into the wall. Always use a surge protector with a desktop system. When working for long periods of time on the laptop at home or in the office use an external surge protector as well.

Only use recommended accessories. The use of a pen or stylus that wasn’t built specifically for a tablet could end up damaging it. The use of anything other than a special screen cleaning cloth could potentially scratch or damage the screen or monitor. While cleaning the screen with a damp screen cleaning cloth, make sure the device is unplugged.

Another accessory that must be specific to the device is the power cord. Due to varying amounts of electricity do not use a cord from another device, even if it looks the same because it can damage internal components. The care of power cables is also important. Always place cords out of the way of heavily traveled areas or wheeled office chairs. It only takes a few times of getting stepped on or run over for cables to become damaged.

Heat is any electronic device's worst enemy. Keep the system as cool as possible and out of direct sunlight, even when the device is not powered on. Components in PCs such as the processor produce large amounts of heat and in order to keep them cool, fans and cooling systems are integrated. Unfortunately many of these fan systems will suck dust into the device. After a while, the components will get clogged with dust which will act as a thermal blanket making the device run hot. It may eventually fail; thus, in addition to heat and sunlight, keep the device as far away from dust as possible.

However, no matter how clean the environment is where the computer system resides, it will still manage to attract dust and must be cleaned. After turning off the device and discharging any static electricity by touching a metal section of the computer case remove the cover and use compressed air to regularly clear out the dust. Keyboards and laptops like compressed air too!

Contact TechFarmer for more tips on keeping your system running well and we will be happy to share our experiences and expertise.