Your computer is a powerful machine and a big investment. To protect and care for your investment, there are several things you should know that could save you and your family time and money in the future.

     A computer and an audience.

     Give a demonstration on keeping your computer healthy. Your audience could be other members of your 4-H club who also have computers, members of your class and your teacher if you have computers in your school, or your family. (After all, if you're the only one that cares for your family's machine, it won't be protected from all the awful fates that could await it!) Look in the DATA-BANK for information for your demonstration.

• Describe your demonstration and how you prepared it.



• What kinds of questions did your audience ask? How did you answer them?



• How is demonstrating a good way to give information to a group?

     Think of and implement ways to make your computer's good health more automatic. Set up a backup procedure that is easy to do, and create a reminder to the users to do it. Schedule a weekly or monthly scan and defragmentation of your hard disk, depending upon how much your computer is used. Windows 95 comes with a tool to schedule these processes so they occur when you tell them to occur if your machine is idle.

     Take a moment right away to make a record of just what kind of computer you have. Also, make a record of anything you have in it. If you need to call an 800 number for technical help, the technician will ask for this information. Keep all of this information in a safe place near the computer, but do not keep it in the computer. In case you have a "crash," you'll need to have the information handy. Include in the record where and when you bought your computer, the serial number and model number of anything inside your computer, as well as the printer, monitor, and computer itself, the amount of memory, size of your hard disk, etc. Some of this information is probably on the sales slip that you received when you purchased the computer or with booklets and manuals that you received. Another good thing to have on record is your computer's BIOS settings. Most PC compatible computers tell you when they are booting up how to enter setup to get these settings. Give it a try and use the print screen key to print your computer's setup to store with our records.

     A computer needs a permanent place. A dining room table is not the answer. You need to be able to set your unit up and leave it. As the computer becomes more a part of your family's daily life, you'll all spend a considerable amount of time with it. Most families aren't lucky enough to have a home office, so they need to find a corner of the house that's both safe for the computer and comfortable for the user.

     Because we spend much time looking at our computer screen, lighting is very important. Avoid spot lamps and lamps that expose the light bulb. Diffused and evenly distributed lighting reduces eye strain.

     You need a comfortable chair that firmly supports your back. If you do not own an office chair, look for one at garage sales. Sitting up straight in a good chair can prevent back problems and help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. When we use a computer, there are many repetitive movements that can create stress and eventually injure our bodies. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a very real and painful problem that affects the wrist. If you're going to spend hours at a time at your computer, make sure you comfortably support your wrists and keep your back straight.

     That little hum you hear when your computer is running comes from small fans. Most computers have little fans that pull cool air in from the front and sides of the case and send it across the electronic components. The warm air exhausts at the back near the power supply. The air coming from inside your PC can be as hot as 85 degrees. To operate efficiently, your PC must be able to draw the cool air in, cool the components, and exhaust the warm air. If you locate your unit without adequate circulation space, you could be asking for trouble. Keep the area around the computer free of papers, books, clothing and anything else that could reduce the air flow.

     Keeping your computer clean is an easy way to protect your investment. The inside of your computer will get dusty because the fan inside pulls in air. Periodically unplug the computer, remove the cover, and use a vacuum cleaner with no attachments to pull dust from the components. Don't touch any of the components with the vacuum cleaner; just let the suction suck the loose dust from inside the machine. If your mouse begins to get sticky, remove the ball from the mouse, and clean it and the pocket it lives in with rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip or cheesecloth. Keep food and beverages away from your computer area. Do not eat or drink when using the computer.

     The household current supplying your computer with power also can destroy it. The voltage flowing into our homes is far from consistent. There are frequent variations called spikes or surges. These spikes in power can "zap" your PC and result in serious damage.

     To prevent harmful zapping, you need to buy a surge protector. There are many kinds of surge protectors on the market, and most of them are not very good. You should go to your computer store and look at the line of surge protectors. Don't buy a cheap surge protector and think you've solved your problem. Look for protectors that have a "first stage peak clamping voltage" of at least 190 volts. The smaller the voltage number, the better the surge protector.

     Probably the best way to deal with electrical surge is to buy an uninterruptible power supply, sometimes called a UPS. The UPS will convert the "dirty" electricity coming in from the wall into a "clean" regular supply. A UPS will continue to supply power for a period of time after the power goes off. This gives you time to save your work and shut your computer down safely. As you might expect, an uninterruptible power supply is more expensive than a surge protector.

     A good piece of advice is to shut down your computer and unplug it during electrical storms. Also unplug the telephone connection to the modem if you have one. That way, you're sure not to get zapped!

     Another kind of electrical problem you need to be aware of is static electricity. Static electricity can destroy chips and transistors and create havoc in your PC. Fortunately, the solution to this problem is inexpensive. While you're at the computer store, get a can of anti-static spray to treat the area around your computer.

     Here's a warning: Every computer eventually crashes! Today, hard drives are big, reliable and inexpensive. They are, however, not immortal. Ask anyone who uses a computer often and they'll tell you a horror story about how they lost information because they didn't back up. As a new computer user, this could be the most important piece of advice you ever get: Back up your files! The simplest way to back up is to copy your efforts to floppy disks. Most new computers, both PC's and Macintoshes, come with backup and restore programs. Windows 95 includes a backup program that's very easy to use.

     If you have a lot of information to copy, floppies can be time consuming. Backup devices that record information on removable hard disks are better than floppies. The disks hold more information, but they also cost more. As the use of your computer grows, you may eventually need to look into purchasing a tape drive or other storage device such as a zip drive.

     Your computer should have arrived in good health. Once you start exchanging information with others or surfing around the Internet, you run the risk of catching something. Viruses are the bugs that you catch from other systems or software. In their worst form, they can crash your system or erase information.

     The risk of getting a computer virus is really very slim. It does happen, but not often. In spite of the limited risk, you should probably buy and install an anti-virus program. You'll find a large supply of them at your dealer. These programs scan your system and diagnose your problem. If you have a virus, the program can often remove them from your programs. Some anti-virus programs act as gatekeepers and attempt to identify virus strains before they have a chance to inflict damage.

     Your hard disk is an indispensable part of your system. It contains the programs you use, any work you do and the operating system that makes your computer work. Hard disks are mechanical devices that suffer wear and tear as you use your computer. When files are written, they are often not stored together. The first part may be at the head of the hard disk and the middle and end in another area. The drive must spend time looking for these parts. On today's large hard disks, this can slow down your computer. This is called "hard disk fragmentation," and it happens on PCs as well as Macs.

     To solve this problem you need to defragment your disk. The process is known as optimization. This involves moving the files together or rewriting the material into continuous blocks. There are a number of utility programs that will do this for you. Windows 95 includes such a utility. If your computer is a Macintosh, you may need to buy a disk maintenance program such as Norton Utilities or MacTools Pro.

     As your computer knowledge grows, you'll discover other ways to care for your machine. You'll also discover that with the new software created every month, "feeding" your computer will be far more expensive and difficult than just keeping it fit. As any seasoned computer owner will tell you, there's always something new you've just got to have. Computing is an ever-changing and exciting world. Your new computer will bring you many hours of pleasure. In a few months, you'll find it hard to believe that you ever got along without it.

Adapted from material developed by Illinois 4-H. Used by permission.

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