Unit 25 maintaining computer systems
P1
When maintaining computer systems there are several that must be
considered, this includes things like environmental, health and safety and reporting.
When maintaining computer systems, sustainability must be considered as
there are several things that can cost a lot to resolve, like replacing
computer that are broken, buying new software, and making sure that time is
well allocated between fixing simple problems, like changing passwords, and
resolving major issues like when software goes down.
Procurement is one of the major issues that is a hassle to the it support
staff when maintaining computer systems as it limits what the staff can do with
the resources that they are given, this is a good and bad thing as it make sure
that the support staff confront the problem instead of moving it to one side
and leaving it to either get worse or to be sorted by another member of staff,
the down side to this if there is a major issue for example a class room of
computer was to be stolen, it would take a large part of the resources given to
get new one with all of the software and hardware required to replace them
The employer has many responsibilities that are required to make sure the
support staff ensure that the make sure that the support staff are doing all of
the job requirements even if they aren't the most pleasant of job like changing
passwords, the employer is also
responsible for making sure that there is on complaints about the support staff
as it has be know for IT support to ignore issues or not using the correct terminology
when talking to the user. Also the employer must make sure that all of the
systems are working as they should, this include making sure that the server
can cope with the strain of hundreds of computer all logging on all at once.
When the systems
Health and safety must be considered when working on computer systems not
just the protect the staff but also the computer and the people around, things
to conceder are making are the support staff are wearing anti-static wrist band
to protect the member of staff and the computer from damage, also when moving
and lifting computers the correct procedure must be used to make sure that the
member of staff doesn't hurt him/her self. When getting rid of computers there
are several things that can cause harm so the college can't simply put them in
the bin.
Reporting and documentation, there are several things that the student
and the lecturer must think about when reporting a computers fault, like if it
is a mayor fault like it doesn’t work or a simple fault like its running slower
than usual, both need to be reported and documented but some faults always are
more important to fix than others, but all problems must be recorded, in the
class room the lecture need to make sure that the students don’t damage the
computers, either causing damage to the systems software of to the systems
hardware, it is the reasonability of the student to protect his/her own files
and data.
Problem escalation is something that can happen a lot is problems are
left to be sorted by other or is there is an underling problem in things like
the college Moodle, so if it’s left long enough it will break in such a way
that it can’t be repaired.
Pat testing is something that needs to be done on any of the student or
staff’s laptops
The health and safety risks facing the practitioner when
maintaining computer systems P2
Health and safety
Minimising risks to users and equipment
- Electrocution
This can happen if the computer
is still plugged in with power going to components, so when the it technical
staff perform maintains on any computer systems, they must ensure that they
unplug the computer any source of power, to make sure that the technician won’t
be electrocuted.
- Fire
Fire can only happen if there is
a damage in the power cable, if the computer has a major over heating problem
and if there is damage in the fuse, even if the computer do have these problems
a fire will only start if there is a sudden power surge through the damaged
component, most of these are very unlikely to happen as most computer will
automatically turn of if the computer become too hot.
- Electrostatic discharge
Electrostatic discharge is
something that can damage all of the components in the computer if the correct
precautions are not taken to prevent this from happening, the first thing that
must all ways be done to make sure that you ground yourself by, putting both
hand on a radiator
Precautions and safety equipment
- ESD wrist strap
This is a wrist strap that that
is warn when working on the inside of the computer system, it is there to stop
any electrostatic discharge, that may damage the computer components. It does this by making sure that
the handler is grounded to ensure no electrostatic discharge.
- ESD mat
This is mat that the computer
sits on to make sure that there is no electrostatic energy built up in the case
of the computer, that may damage the components, it does this by having a lower
resistance than most surfaces to make sure that en electrostatic energy can
build up.
- Fire fighting equipment
In a college there must always be
a fire extinguisher in every room although they are rarely used as not every
teacher or lecture has the training to use them, also fire are very unlikely to
break out when maintaining computers. Around the servers there should be a
firewall, although it doesn't prevent fire, it should slow it enough so the
fire-fighters can put out the fire to prevent damage to the server and
documents stored on them.
- First aid training
First aid training is required by
most of the staff, even if it is just basic, just so they can deal with things
like small cuts and maybe a broken bone at the most, this is important for IT
technical support staff as they computers if handled incorrectly can cause some
damage to the support staff.
Performance monitoring tools P5
I will be using windows task manager to have a look at the
performance of this college computer.
I will be opening a couple of programs at a time to try and
strain the system.
Each time I will take a screen shot of the task manager to
compare the performance.
This is an image of the system when it only has Microsoft
word open.
This is the control point so I know what the computer runs
at when it is doing the minimum amount.
I will now open Microsoft PowerPoint and take a screen shot
to compare the different in performance.
As you can see, when opening PowerPoint the CPU needed to
use 38% of its power to open the program but once it was opened, it stopped
using most of the CPU usage.
I will be opening two different programs at the same time; I
will open Microsoft PowerPoint and internet explorer
When I opened the two programs the system needed to use 45%
of the CPU which isn’t that good it means that when I open a program that needs
a lot of the systems resources it will take a while, to test this I will open Photoshop and time
how long it takes.
When opening only Photoshop it took up to 64% of the CPU,
and while it was running it needed 24% while idle, it also took over a minute
to load the program. This means that the system needs to be upgraded.
I will be doing one more test to max out the system I will
be opening 3 of the adobe programs and
timing how long it take to load all three.
When opening all three of the adobe programs it took over 2
and a half minutes and used all of the CPU and the memory of the system,
although I did expect for the systems to have to use 100% of the CPU.
M2 recommend a suitable hardware and software upgrade
I recommend that the computer is upgraded as the programs
that are installed on the system need as much processing power as they can get,
also because students are normally impatient with computer it is best that they
run as fast as possible.
Hardware upgrades that I suggest are done on all of the
computers in Fareham College
I suggest this is an Intel I7 4th generation
processor (http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intel4thgeni3i5i71150/bx80646i74770k.html)
this will be powerful to make sure that the computer will be able to keep up
with what the student require of the system.
I also suggest that the ram is replaced with (http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/memory-pc/ddr3pc3-149001866mhz/f3-14900cl10d-16gbxl.html)
this is 16GB of good quality RAM that will ensure that the computer doesn’t
freeze or crash when the students are working
I also think that all of the computer should be upgraded
with a 1TB(http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sata1tbto1.5tb/st1000dm003.html) to ensure that the student can have all of
the programs required and enough space to store any file that are needed.
Software Upgrades
I suggest that the anti-virus is upgraded to make sure that
the students can’t accidently or on purpose allow a virus to get on the college
system, for this I suggest that Norton is used as it is the best at protecting
a network and individual computers.
I think that another internet browser is installed and
internet explorer is uninstalled as it is old, slow and out of date with things
like Google chrome and Mozilla Firefox, I suggest that the college use Google
Chrome as it is the fastest and most secure
