ZAP! As you touch the doorknob, a spark of electricity jumps from your finger and you feel the shock and quickly jerk your hand back! Static electricity is just one of the many issues you may face when you decide to perform your own computer maintenance. Modern computers are relatively easy to maintain, and yet there are many common mistakes made that can result in damage to the computer hardware, performance degradation of the computer, or even cause physical risk to the person performing the maintenance.

Listed below are some of the common maintenance tasks that individual users may perform, common mistakes that occur while performing the maintenance, and most importantly, how to avoid those mistakes.

Electrostatic Discharge(ESD):

ESD, better known as static electricity, is probably one of the leading causes of computer failure. If you perform any type of internal maintenance on your computer, you may damage the internal components of the PC, even if you do not feel a shock. It takes as little as 30 volts of electricity to damage the more sensitive components of the computer, whereas a shock large enough for you to feel can be 3000 volts (yes that really is three thousand) or larger.

One of the simplest ways to avoid ESD is to wear an 'anti-ESD' wrist strap. This is a strap worn on the wrist that, when used properly, connects you to an electrical ground thereby dissipating and ESD generated. Additionally, before you unplug the computer, you should touch a metal part of the computer (the power supply is best) to discharge any built up static electricity through the computer's ground. If your computer is in a carpeted room, you may also purchase an anti-static spray which will help prevent the buildup of ESD.

Data Backup:

Any time that you perform maintenance on a computer, you should perform a full system/data backup. Hopefully, you will never need to recover from backup; however, if anything goes wrong, it is better to be safe than sorry. Even experienced technicians end up looking bad when Murphy's Law visits and data has not been properly safeguarded.

With modern equipment, a backup is relatively easy to perform. If you have a CD/DVD creator installed, you can have your backup written straight to a CD/DVD. A relatively low cost alternative would be the purchase of an external USB hard drive. There are several on the market that include a software package that will provide you one-touch backups of your system.

Additionally,

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