Protecting your PC-DVR
From EZWatch Wiki
Protecting the PC
Computers are very sensitive electronic devices; while they can last years and years in optimal circumstances, an installation into a harsh environment or a failure to properly protect your system from dangerous heat and power can decrease the lifespan of your system drastically. To ensure that you get the absolute most out of your system please follow the guidelines posted here.
Heat Protection
Keep the PC in a cool, clean environment. Every PC generates heat as it runs; generally faster or more powerful components generate more heat than slower or less powerful ones. The system uses fans and heat sinks to channel the heat away from the components to prevent failure from overheating. If the PC is kept in a cool environment then the interior cooling components don't have to work so hard and will last longer. If the PC is in a warm environment, then the unit may overheat and shut down or suffer damage.
Because PC's use exhaust fans to cool themselves they will pull in dust, smoke, debris, etc. from the environment around them. The dust can very easily get into the bearings of fans, can coat heat sinks and reduce their ability to shunt heat away from sensitive components, and can block intake ports and decrease air flow within the PC (preventing cool air from entering and warm air from exiting). Keeping the PC in a clean place will prevent system failure from excessive dust buildup.
If your system has dust built-up on any of the components, the most effective way of cleaning them is to use compressed air in a well-ventilated (Outdoors is recommended) spot to blow away as much as possible. In most homes or offices, we would recommend checking your computer every 3-4 months to see how much dust has built up, and to clean it out if there is a layer of dust present.
In the more extreme cases where the system is set up in an industrial environment (A wood workshop, metalshop, or anywhere else where there may be larger amounts of debris in the air) then you may need to get a dust cover for the system. The Dust Cover will ensure that a minimal amount of debris can enter the system. We still recommend regularly checking it every 1-2 months and cleaning it out frequently with compressed air, as it is far easier in this type of environment to suffer a failure from an obstructed fan or port.
Power Protection
Perhaps the most common cause of failures on most PC's is electrical damage. The system has extremely precise power requirements - too much power (a surge) can burn out components, while a lack of power can cause a component to suddenly fail or cause information on your system to become corrupted. The best remedy is prevention - getting the right equipment to make certain the system is protected from surges, and has an additional source of power in case of loss.
The lowest level of protection is a simple Surge Suppressor/Protector. If you have no other protection, then this device is a MUST. The surge suppressor will discharge any voltage increases before they have a chance to reach the computer. More powerful models will also protect your network from surges through the network cable, or if you use a dialup modem they may have a port to protect the dial-up line as well.
While a Surge Suppressor will keep you safe from too much power, it cannot keep your system safe if there is a LOSS of power. Losing Power is not as harsh on the system as a surge is, but it can still do damage. The system is constantly writing and reading data to and from the hard drive; if it loses power in the middle of writing data, then the information it is writing is incomplete and becomes corrupted. If this data is part of the operating system, this can have some serious consequences, such as an inability to start the PC. Even if no files are corrupted, any unsaved information is lost entirely.
A UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply - is a battery backup for your computer. When power is lost, its internal battery kicks in to keep the system up. If the power loss is brief, then the system continues on as if nothing had happened; if power loss is extensive, the UPS can instruct the system to do a controlled shutdown, powering off without losing or corrupting any data. A good UPS will also function as a surge suppressor and keep your system safe from surges.
Surges can come from places other than just the power outlet; if a surge strikes your camera, for example, then it's possible that surge could travel through the video cable and end up hitting your computer's video capture card. This type of surge is extremely dangerous because it bypasses both a surge suppressor AND a UPS. These types of surges are most common in outdoor cameras, where a lightning striking nearby may introduce a surge. To keep your system safe, we recommend making certain that your cameras are not touching any metalling surfaces which could cause them to become grounded, that they also have surge suppressors on their power sources, and that you use an Inline Coaxial Surge Protector to prevent a surge that travels through the video cable from reaching the PC. Even if a surge does manage to strike the camera, the Inline Coaxial protector will ensure that the PC card does not suffer damage and that only the camera would need to be replaced.
