P1 & P2 - Maintaining Computer Systems

Jacques Harris - P1 and P2

Issues: 

When using IT in an organisation, there are certain procedures and laws that must be obliged, and guidelines that must be followed. Taking these laws seriously is a must, otherwise legal action will be taken on you and the company resulting in you losing your job or paying a large fine.

Some of the more common laws that must be taken into account are the Copyright Law, the Computer Misuse Act, and the Data protection Act. If any of these laws are breached, you can face a fine and/or jail time.

Things like, PC upgrades, updating software and hardware, just general PC maintenance, are all included in these laws. In a company, all electrical appliances must be PAT (Personal Appliance Test), this is just a test that is done to check that everything is in check and there are no faults with the appliance. It is the law to have everything PAT tested, under the Electricity at Work regulation.

Procurement: 

This refers to how a company buys things, like software for the computers, hardware, office chairs, pens, etc. The company can acquire everything by either buying it themselves in bulk, which will reduce the price a little, or they can simply borrow everything from other companies.

Now most companies use a mixture of both depending on the situation. For example, if they are going to need a bunch of anti-virus licences for a thousand computers, then buying this in bulk will save them a heap of cash, opposed to buying them individually. If they wanted to lease something, rather than buy it, then although they won't be spending as much money, they have the risk of it getting damaged whilst in their care.

Sustainability and Environmental Issues:

Many electronic appliances just get thrown out when they are broken, which can be harmful to the environment. Any organisation will need a plan for what happens when the systems its components are no longer able for service. Recycling parts is a very good way to make sure you are doing your part for the environment, and this means that new things can be made from your unwanted or broken computers and its parts. But you can't simply just put the parts in bin, there are many things that the company will have to sort out, for example, you will need to sort out how it will be transported, whether your company already has its own transport of if they will have to get an external company to do it for them. They will also have to find the correct recycling plant for it to go and whether they will accept these parts. Another form of recycling you can do is selling working, but old, parts to other companies. This means that rather than just throwing away usable parts, you can get a little cash back from them. 

Reporting and Documentation:

It is important that any faults are reported when they arise. Having a way to document any faults that occur can be a real help to the system maintainers later on. By having a fault log for instance, if the fault occurs again, you can quickly reference back to the log to see how the problem was fixed. This will reduce the time it takes for the fault to be fixed dramatically compared to if you were to try and fix it without help. Over enough time, you would have acquired the solutions to a lot of faults, meaning that they will be solved almost instantaneously whenever they arise. 

Problem Escalation Procedures:

Escalation procedures is where a problem of any kind, gets made worse by the technicians. If a problem occurs that the technicians try to fix, but they don't know entirely or at all what to do to solve the problem, they can make the problem worse without them even knowing about it, when this happens, it's best to either stop what you're doing immediately and get the more experienced technicians to solve it, or to get an external company to try and fix the problem. 

Employer to employee responsibilities: 

Health and safety is a massive policy that everyone must abide by. When dealing with electronics, such as computers, the employer should make sure that all employees are working risk free and in a safe environment, otherwise if an accident occurs, the company will be looking at a fine or worse.

Having the correct equipment for the job is essential as it will reduce the chances of an accident dramatically. When working with computers and other electronic software, you are need items such as, anti-static wrist bands, mats, and the correct tools for the job, at a minimum to just work. The employer should always have all the needed equipment by the employees and all tools and equipment should be replaced when the time they become unsafe to work with. 

When fixing electronic equipment for customers, it is especially important that the job is done to a high standard, otherwise there could be serious problems. If the customer gets the electronic device back and is then later electrocuted, the company could be looking at going to court.

Legislation e.g. health and safety, personal appliance testing

Risks

Electrocution: Electrocution is always a possibility when working with computers. The only real way you can get electrocuted is by messing with components whilst there is still power being given to the computer. The best way to prevent this it to turn off the power to the computer before you work on the components. If you need the power on for whatever reason, make sure you are wearing gloves, and/or anti-static bands. This will stop the current from travelling around your body.

Surges: Just like electrocution, surges occur when the components are being over used and there is too much power going into the PC. You can prevent this by changing the components in your PC to meet the requirements of the motherboard.

Hardware Frying: Hardware frying occurs when the hardware components are being overused or there is not enough air intake to cool it down. To prevent this you will need to have your PC in an open space for the air to get to it, and/or buy better fans for your PC to cool it down when in use.

Tools: Hurting yourself with tools is the most likely to happen out of all the things listed. This is because humans are much clumsier than machines. Now the only real way to prevent yourself from getting hurt by tools is to wear safety gear, for example, safety gloves, safety shoes, or even a safety hat.

Water cooler: The water-cooling system is a great way to cool your PC down, but when it breaks, that can cause a major problem. The water from the pipes can leak over your components causing them to surge. This can result in fried components and if not, they will most certainly be damaged by the water anyway. There is no real way of preventing this, but i guess you could inset your own draining system for it, and when it breaks, it could drain out somewhere, but this will take up hardware space in your case, which could prevent hardware from working somehow.

Fire: Fires are a possibility when working with electronic equipment so it is essential that you know what actions to take to prevent it. The two ways a fire can occur, is from the components overheating, and electrical problems with either the hardware or the plug. To prevent a fire you should have a fire extinguisher nearby at all time, this could be the difference between life and death in some situations.

Fans: To prevent being hurt by the PC fan when changing parts in or around the motherboard, you can either turn off the power, put on gloves, and/or buy a fan with a cover over it. Being hurt by the fan is not really possible as the fan is not travelling fast enough, nor sharp enough to penetrate the skin.

Electrostatic Discharge: This is where to electrically charged object come in contact with each other causing sparks or components to short circuit. This can be dangerous as it can cause a fire, or electrocute the user if you are near the components. The ways to prevent this is by grounding yourself, wear anti-static clothing like rubber gloves, ESD wrist-straps, and many more.

ESD can also cause your hardware to fry, which can be costly for the user if they want to replace. The best way to stop this from happening is if you are going to move hardware in your PC, make sure there is no current flowing through the motherboard when you take the insides of your PC apart.

Precautions:

ESD wrist-strap: the wrist strap is very useful if you don't want to get an eclectic shock. By wearing the strap it will stop any static charge from travelling through your body.

The ESD strap safely channels the static electricity to proper ground so that it causes no harm to you of the components of your PC. Wearing a strap is simple, you just put it around your wrist. Most companies will give these out to their employees as part of the job to make sure that everyone is that little bit safer.

ESD mat: ESD mat helps you stay grounded so that you don’t get electrocuted when handling electronic equipment. It does pretty much the same job as the wrist-strap, as it will reduce or stop any static charge from your body. To use this, you just need to make sure you are on the mat and it will do its job. Quite a lot of companies will have these for their employees to make sure that they are safe when working will electricity.

Fires and firefighting equipment are essential to have when working with electricity as you may well know, many fires are caused by faulty electronic products. Having things like a fire extinguisher, fire exits, fire hoses, are all necessary in the workplace. Not having these basic things is against the law and your company can be closed down if found out. You will generally have a fire safety zone where if the alarm rings, everyone will evacuate and head down to the safety zone in case of a fire.

First-aid training is very important in any kind of company as the difference between knowing what to do and what not to do can be the difference between saving a life. There should be at least a couple of people who know what to do in case someone is seeking help to make sure they don't die between the time it takes to ring the ambulance and them getting the hospital. Just knowing the basics can be a huge help to someone in need.