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Chapter 3 described the right setup for your PC, one free of the moisture, dust, and clutter that can get in the way of the proper operation of your PC.
Even though you might not need to go inside your PC case regularly, you should designate an area in your home or office that meets the basic requirements for a decent PC repair area. For too many users, failure to have such an area could have one of two results:
You procrastinate and end up losing more time/productivity with your PCs.
You try to work in sub-optimum conditions where you can’t always see what you’re doing, causing other types of disasters to occur.
Let’s learn how to do create the right environment.
Depending on the type of PC you have and its case design—some are more user-friendly than others—you’ll need a fair amount of physical space to open up your PC. You’ll need room for the case, the chassis (in which the PC guts reside), and the monitor. Even if you’re not repairing the monitor, you may want it close by so you can watch the display to see how a change is affecting the bootup process.
Too often, this is usually more space than many small desks or workstations allow. A good PC repair area should have these qualities:
Clean and dry
A stable work surface with adequate room to accommodate the PC, the PC cover, and if needed, the monitor
Access to a phone line so you don’t have to run back and forth between the phone and the PC and to allow hooking a modem to a phone line for testing
Access to a working electrical outlet (for when you want to test)
Excellent lighting
Free of food and drink
Away from children, pets, and other prying hands
Tools readily accessible, with documentation and instructions close at hand
Free of major distractions
There’s one another element I’d add to an optimal PC repair work area: a first aid kit.
If you’ve been inside your PC case, you know it’s a sharp, dirty, semi-dark (depending on your case type and lighting), and perilous world in there, replete with near-razor edges, cables, and wires to ensnare you, and things to prick through your skin.
Through the years, I’ve heard some real horror stories about injuries incurred while working on PCs. I’ve even driven a few victims to the doctor or emergency room for suturing.
Now, I’m not saying this to scare you. Almost every instance I know about happened not just because of working in a poor space but because of inattention or deliberately choosing not to follow common-sense rules like removing all power from the PC before working on it.
Take the case of a fellow I once worked with who managed to do just about everything wrong when he went to install his first-ever network adapter and hard drive. As soon as he had the cover off, Mark sliced his index finger on the frame of a case. After applying a bandage, he forgot to put his anti-static grounding strap back on so that within a moment or two, he and his video adapter both took a good static Z-I-N-G.
Next, he didn’t follow my advice to remove all jewelry and tie back long hair before you work, so as Mark reacted to the static discharge, he caught his college ring on a pin on his video adapter, snapping the pin off. He would later discover the video adapter had problems as a result.
But I haven’t gotten to the worst part yet. Mark had never disconnected power to his PC, so when he went to plug the ribbon cable from the new hard drive into the IDE channel on the motherboard, he not only fried the new hard drive. Mark got his finger bandage wet and then managed to get it on a part of the system as he plugged in the hard drive to power. The result made the static zing feel like a simple tickle.
When the emergency room doctor checked him out that evening to make sure he was all right, he asked Mark how he managed to make so many mistakes. Mark replied, “It was too dark to read the instructions.”
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