HTPC maintenance schedule??

[jam_zhou]

Hi All,

so my HTPC has died once again...looks like the PSU this time. I was wondering what you guys do to ensure that your computer has a long life. What kind of maintenance do you do and do you guys have backup plans to get it back up and running in as little time as possible? Data back up is easy...it's the hardware that's more time consuming I think.

Regards,
Jam.z

[SuMo]

Sorry to hear it died on you (again)

The most vurnerable parts are probably PSU, HD, Fans.
So what I do is make a weekly backup from the main HD, a PSU is quickly found although I have a couple of spares, same with HD's, also have a complete intallation on a seperate HD stored away somewhere but the most important thing: blow out the dust (case, cpu cooler+fan, PSU) about once every one or two months.

[gEd]

psu's can go bang, especially the cheap / unbranded ones.

i blow the dust our every few months and that's about it.

[kram_0]

Yeah, keep the heat under control, make sure that there is adequate air flow around the case and to all the "hot" components inside the case and you use good coolers.
Also, do you guys use a UPS at all? I just use a small $100 unit that will run the PC (usually running 24/7) and the signal amplifier for ~5mins. I don't live in a residential area and our power can get a little flakey, so as well as handelling the short drop-outs, the UPS filters and supplies a cleaner constant power to the PC. I have done some research about this for work and found that, although power spikes can blow your power supply, "brown outs" or lulls in voltage will generally over time cause more damage than a spike. Under supply is more likely to damage other components such as motherboard and video card as well as the PSU while a power spike will normally just blow the PSU.
I haven't lost any equipment since I installed my UPS around 5 years ago where I had lost a few PSUs and other components in the previously 5 years even though I was using surge protection. My PC sits behind the entertainment unit (with plenty of air flow though) and I probably only clean out the dust just twice a year because I forget it's there.
I would definately encourage people to look at a cheap UPS. It's worth the cost.

[Torque]

I agree with the UPS suggestion.

Antec and Enermax and OCZ PSUs have been pretty good to me. Also suggesting buying a larger PSU than you need. The internals of a PSU will age over time and not put out the power they're rated at when new. If the PSU has just enough capacity when new, it'll fail quite quickly as it ages.

I don't believe in using compressed air on PCs. If you're in a high dust environment, use filters on the air intakes of the PC case and keep those clean. I have found compressed air does more harm than good as it'll kill fans by forcing the dust deep into the bearings/sleeves. Use a vacuum after you've dischaged the wand to ground to eliminate ESD on the components.

[nitrogen_widget]

My recording drive recently ceased to exist & couldn't be detected on boot.:eek:

It turned out the sata connector on the drive had dust in it & was causing a connection problem.

A can of air fixed that.

[stustunz]

i replace my system hard drive once a year then use the hard drive as storage drive i beleive something spinning at that speed 24/7 doesnt have that longer life the rest is left upto the gods
the only thing i have stored in multiple places is my music and account files everything else i dont care about
oh and previous versions of gbpvr just incase one day sub decides hes had enough of us