Hardware maintenance

System hardware maintenance also presents some challenges. Trial personnel at the Central location first attempt resolution of hardware malfunctions. If they are unable to resolve the problem, personnel at the central location try to resolve the problem, and if that does not solve the problem a repair order is requested from the vendor as long as there is an active warranty. If the problem persists, the participating site is instructed to ship the device to the central location. If the device is the computer, the site coordinator (SC) is instructed to back up the database before shipping the computer. Personnel... 

Although computer equipment is used differently to other field equipment, raw data are being generated consequently, maintenance records are required. All maintenance and repairs to the computer system need to be recorded. For example, software and hardware maintenance records would include system/program updates, disk scans, and defragmentation (e.g., preventative maintenance). Repair records might include communication with the software developer about problems/bugs and steps taken to fix any software or hardware problems. Documentation must include whether the... 

Acquisition cost of the system itself can be significant, but it represents, in many cases, only a relatively small percent of the total system cost over time. Many factors in addition to the acquisition cost of the system need to be considered, such as the costs of software updates, hardware maintenance, service contracts, and claims processing (Lewis, Albrant, and Hagel, 2002). Table 6-2 provides a checklist of items that a pharmacy should consider when selecting software and software vendors (Felkey and Fox, 2003b). 

Hardware maintenance (i) maximizes the likelihood that hardware will continue to function reliably, (ii) if maintenance is performed in-house, a responsible person (RP) must be assigned for following schedule and procedure for documenting the performance, and (iii) if vendor is responsible, an RP must be assigned to document that the maintenance was performed on schedule. 

For example, there are numerous military and defense-related systems, including administrative systems which assist in formulation of acquisition strategies and the development of relevant documents, battle strategy systems, and hardware maintenance advisors. Other successful administrative applications include a system used by the IRS for selection of audit candidate tax returns, and a credit evaluation system used by American Express. Successful systems in engineering areas include the XCON system which assists in configuration design of DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) computer... 

Hardware maintenance logs, mislabelled computer cabinet, concerns over disconnected wires in computer cabinets, cabling schedules... 

Checklist 9 Hardware maintenance and modification Checklist 10 Application software maintenance and modification... 

HARDWARE MAINTENANCE Dirt, Dust, and Insects Hard Drive Floppy-Disk Drive CD-ROM Drive Upgrading the Computer OPERATING SYSTEM MAINTENANCE SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE... 

There are three basic maintenance requirements for computers hardware maintenance, operating system maintenance, and software maintenance. Each of these areas will be addressed individually. The modem microcomputer has an effective life span of about 10 yr. Capacitors drift over time. It takes about 10 yr for critical capacitors to lose enough of their capacitance to adversely affect the rehabiUty of the machine. Computers older than 8 yr are Uving on borrowed time. Other critical components also fail with time (microprocessor, chipset, etc). While the actual life of these components cannot be accurately predicted, the incidence of failure increases very rapidly after 10 yr. 

In the second phase, questions of dealing with the long-term issues of having an analyzer need to be evaluated. This is a very complex metric, which can include variables such as staffing those is responsible for day-to-day operation and the per year running cost of having such an analyzer. Running costs themselves include a need to define hardware consumables, process downtime for hardware maintenance, technician time, and the process model maintenance cost. 

Moving business into virtualization brings undoubtedly many benefits. First, server consolidation allows increasing the utilization of physical servers. Many servers use only 10 to 15% of hardware re-sources (Portnoy 2012), thus other resources are wasted. Such a solution is very unprofitable. Virtualization gives the way to better utilization of resources. Moving processing environments to virtual machines decreases the number of physical machines with utilization ratio up to 90% (Portnoy 2012). Fewer servers also reduce the costs of power consumption as well as money spends on hardware maintenance. 

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