The previous pages in this section and those of Unit 6 have described the various individual items of hardware that you may come across when servicing or supporting a PC/computer. This section will look at the different aspects, and the issues involved, in bringing those individual items together and carrying out an installation or repair of a PC/computer system. When repairing a system at the customer’s premises some of the items given below will not be necessary.

There are several areas concerned with bringing a system together and installing it at a customer’s premises. Click on the hyper link to read more about that particular area:

• Collect all the required items for an installation together in one place
  this means ensuring that all items are together for you to use or work on.
• Fitting individual items-modules into a case
  this may mean fitting a VGA card on to the main motherboard of a PC or fitting a processor board to a printer.
• Connecting the correct items of a system together
  this means connecting the individual items of a system together, e.g. monitor, main system unit, keyboard, mouse, printer and scanner to make up a system.
• Testing the system as a whole
  this means testing the system throughly to ensure that each item of a complete system works as an individual unit and as part of the whole.
• Checking the customer’s premises for suitability
  this means going to the customer’s premises and making sure that the place reserved for the machine is suitable for the purpose. A risk assessment for the site also needs to be carried out
• Transporting the system to the customer’s premises
  this means packaging the system correctly and ensuring nothing gets damaged in transit.
• Installing the system at the customer’s premises
  this means putting the system back together.
• Checking that the system still works
  this means that all functions of the system should be checked to ensure that nothing untoward has happened during the journey and re-connection process.