Getting ready to start your computer equipment at work after the long hiatus can be a challenge for anyone. Here are a 8 tips that can help you avoid damaging your equipment and having a very successful restart with your technology.

Plan Additional Time: It’s going to take time to restart your office. Time to dust, clean and work through the technology start-ups that are going to happen. The first tip is to plan plenty of time to get your technology up and running. There will be hardware failures, dead batteries, slow networks, dead equipment and a multitude of glitches that are going to happen in the first few days. Planning time around working through the equipment issues will save you frustration and make the tasks easier to complete.

Vacuum and dust:  If you have to dust your desk off, do it before you turn on your computer so the dust doesn’t go into the insides of your computer. Vacuum off your keyboard – after 3 months of sitting in the office, more than likely there will be quite a bit of dust on – and in – it.  

Check for Critters who may have made new homes in your electronics:  It’s always good to remember that after an extended absence, other ‘residents’ may have decided to make a townhouse out of your hardware.  Mice will often go inside printers, copiers to get paper for their nests.  Prior to running your equipment- inspect it to insure no unwanted guests have made a home or shredded some things for a nest. (No kidding!)

Dead Batteries:  If you were used to coming in and charging up a laptop in the office, if it was left in the office, more than likely, the battery is going to be dead, or the charging of the battery may have stopped. You may need a new battery so check your laptop out before you go out to any important meetings to see if it is still holding the charge. Also, you may need new mouse and keyboard batteries..

Your network will more than likely be slow when you return.  With everyone coming into the office and needing updates, expect your network to be slower than usual for the first few days as people return.  Once the updates have processed, things will start getting back to a normal load for the network.

Office Servers need updates too. Remember that even when your desktop is operating with full updates, your office servers may well need to be updated once they are back up and running. Plan extra time for the servers to be updated as well as your desktops.

Expect Equipment Failures:  After a prolonged shutdown, when hardware is rebooted there will be equipment failures.  Hard drives will seize, routers will crash and multiple different devices such as laser printers that have been off won’t perform properly.  Expect to have delays should some of your equipment not come back online or may need repairs. Plan to run tests on all peripherals.   

Email Programs: Many people still use a desktop version of Outlook or similar program.  When you first open Outlook, it will take time to sync your emails that you’ve been doing offline to your desktop version.  Updating for a few hours may be reasonable considering the level of email you’ve had over 2-3 months.

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