Top 10 things you should Never do to your Mac

Top 10 things you should Never do to your Mac



Author: Cheryl Jencks, SMUG News, September 1993

Date: September, 1993

Keywords: tips and tricks maintenance care safety macintosh

Text:
While the Macintosh is an extremely forgiving beast, some things cause
trouble. You might think, ''I would never do that!'' or ''What's the
problem with that?'' Know that someone did each one and came to grief.
1. Never Just turn your computer off. Always use Shut Down or Restart
under the Special menu. This lets the Mac close windows and files,
check for problems, and prepare to be switched on again. You know your
system has crashed when your cursor won't move, or your screen freezes
and doesn't react when you click on things, you hear weird buzzing and
the screen goes crazy. Do turn off your Mac, the sooner the better.
When you turn it on after a crash, your Mac takes longer to start up
because it is checking all of its components for damage, to be sure
everything is in working order.
2. Never Connect or disconnect anything on your Mac unless the Mac is
turned off. 
Your computer must be the last thing turned on and the first thing
turned off. If you turn a SCSI device on or off, if you connect or
disconnect it while it is attached to a powered up Mac, you can cause
power surges that can kill your Mac dead. The same rule applies to ADB
devices such as the keyboard, mouse, digitizing pad, or trackball.
Maybe you've done this and had nothing happen -- you were lucky that
time.
3. Never Alter a document in the finder  while the document is open.
You are typing in WORD, then you are distracted and switch to another
program. When you return, you go to the Finder and dig through folders
for your working document.  When you find the document, you change its
name or put it in another folder.
When you return to the open document you'll find that WORD doesn't know
what happened. 
If you're lucky, it will save the document under a new name using Save
As. If you're unlucky -- let's just say I hope you had been saving
regularly. Be aware of what you are doing.
4.Never Let foreign matter get inside your computer. This includes
dust, beverages, food, crumbs, cat hair, and cigarette smoke. Use a
small vacuum to clean out air vents, and the keyboard. Open up the
bottom of your mouse and check the rubber ball itself, and the inside
of the case. Check the little rollers that tell the cursor where to
move -- you'll be surprised how much gunk gets built up on them and
their axles. You may need tweezers and fingernails to get out all the
dust and hair. Don't use alcohol to clean the rubber ball as it hardens
the rubber. Commercial kits can clean mice, also. Do some vacuuming
inside your printer, too. (Turn everything off first. - Ed.)
5. NEVER FILL YOUR HARD DISK TO THE LIMIT. 
It's tempting to cram every last kilobyte that you can onto your hard
disk. You need to give yourself breathing room. When you open a
document, the Mac leaves the original where it is and lets you work on
a copy. You must have more than the same room additionally, i.e. if
your document is 100K , you need 200K free just to type. If you do a
Save As, another 100K at least, will be required for your two versions
plus your onscreen display. Besides that, the more you fill the hard
drive, the more fragmented the document becomes, taking longer to find
and gather the scattered portions. 
6. NEVER PLUG YOUR COMPUTER DIRECTLY INTO A WALL SOCKET. Sometimes your
power supply is ''dirty.'' This means there can be power surges, power
dips, power spikes and  power outages. Buy your faithful Macintosh the
best surge protector you can afford (and plug the phone line into it,
too- Ed.) If lightning strikes, the power surge can travel from your
phone lines through your modem into your computer -- and fry it. If you
are paranoid about power dangers, get an ''uninteruptible power
supply.''
7. NEVER TRUST A FOREIGN DISK. Practice safe computing. Check every new
disk that gets near your computer with a virus detection program.
DISINFECTANT is free of charge from User Groups and online electronic
bulletin board services, such as AOL and Compuserve. One mishap with a
Trojan horse (virus) is one too many.
8. NEVER STICK A DAMAGED FLOPPY DISK INTO YOUR DISK DRIVE. If your
floppy has a shutter missing (the metal part that slides), or one that
is loose or bent, don't use it. It could destroy your disk drive. Don't
ever try to force a disk into a drive.  For that matter, don't force
any of the connecting cable plugs, either. The tiny pins could be bent
and your connector ruined.
9. NEVER EXPOSE MONITORS OR DISKS TO POWERFUL MAGNETS. Hard disks,
floppy disks, and removable cartridges are all magnetic. You could
erase or change them by exposing them to magnets. Monitors are also
sensitive to magnets. (A study showed the magnets in most telephones
and stereo speakers are not strong enough to do any harm, but it is
better to be safe. Remember, magnets are found in places you forget
about -- such as paper clip holders and copy holders. 
10. NEVER SWEAR AT YOUR MACINTOSH. Mac's have feelings, too. Seriously,
your Mac will tend to reflect your general attitude toward it. If
you're nice to it, it will work better for you.
Excerpted from article of same name by Cheryl Jencks in Club Mac of
Monterey Journal for May 1993. - Ed.
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