Assignment 5 - Health & Safety when Connecting Peripherals

Health & Safety Working Practices

Whilst sitting at a computer you must ensure that you take the right precautions, before and during so that you are able to work in a safe environment. Working in a safe environment is important when operating with computers systems. These are the following actions that you should undertake.

 When sitting at a computer you must make sure than you are seated at an appropriate height, ensuring that you are working at a safe distance. Working for long periods of time without regular breaks may cause stress and lack of motivation. Without these regular breaks this could affect the positive drive required to produce ‘good’ work they wish to achieve. Users should undertake a 5-10 minute break every 45 minutes. Working for too long will cause strain on the eyes and make the quality of work not up to the user’s ability.

Not only sitting at a computer for too long can cause strain to your eyes but sitting incorrectly can also cause discomfort. You must make sure that your arms are placed at a comfortable position to avoid strain from wrists while you are typing. Make sure that you are seated in an upright position and having the computer screen parallel to eye level, this will prevent any to all discomfort and strain to your neck muscles. Your arms should be placed parallel with the desk you are working at.

For school or in the work place, users must keep bags in a safe place so that they are avoided from tripping or falling over them. These bags should be kept either on a table away from the computers or under a desk in which the user is working at. It can also be advised that keeping muscles regularly stretched can be beneficial to each of the users.

There may also be wiring exposure that could cause problems, if there happens to be any sort of loose wiring you must always make sure that it has been tucked away so that nobody can fall or trip over it, this could be very dangerous not only for the person in question but for the systems in which it operates from, always double check and make sure and avoid any form of wiring exposure.

In following these instructions this should ensure that working at a computer is done safely and the user is able to enjoy working at a computers systems stress free.



Health & Safety when connecting peripherals

When working with all the different ranges of hardware components users must ensure that they do it safely to make sure that it doesn’t damage any of the systems devices. These are the following pieces of equipment I will be discussing throughout this task.

·         Printer

·         Speakers

·         Scanner

·         Digital Camera

·         Microphone

Printer – When connecting up a printer you must check the printer has sufficient amount of paper inside. There must be a working connection between the computer and the printer itself, this piece of apparatus is a USB cable. You must then ensure that the plug is inserted into the socket in the wall. You must then to turn on the switch at the mains. Make sure that the cable has been put into the correct connection and then try and do test prints to see if the systems are in working order.

Speakers – When connecting up the speakers to computer systems you must make sure that the plug has been inserted into the socket, after this has been done you can turn on the speakers by flicking the switch from off to on. Then look for the wiring that connects the speakers and the systems together so that it is capable of producing the sound from computer.

Scanner – When connecting up a scanner you must check that the wiring for the USB cable connecting the computer with the scanner is connected into the correct area. You can then connect the plug has been by inserting into the socket. You may do a test scan to ensure that the scanner is in working order.

           

Digital Camera – When connecting up a Digital Camera you must make sure that the cable connecting both the computer with the camera is inserted into the correct USB port. Turn the computer on at the mains by turning the switch from off to on. Connect up the camera by inserting the USB cable into the correct USB port. There should then be a working connection between the computer and the camera, an icon should then appear on the desktop to show the camera is connected.

Microphone – When connecting up a Microphone you must make sure that the mains of the computer have been switched on by turning the switch from off to on. You may then test check in to make sure that the equipment is in working order.

Screenshots

Once the camera has been linked up to the computer you will notice an icon at the bottom right hand corner of the screen showing “Finepix JX300.” This shows that the device is installed and ready to use.

In “My Computer” it will show on the left hand side of the folder that you are able to click into the camera device, once it has shown “Finepix JX300” you may click into this.

Once you have clicked into the device you will notice all of the images that the camera has stored into its memory.

Speakers

Take the cable that connects the speakers to the computer

Insert the cable into the appropriate area and the speakers will have a working connection.



Insert the plug into the mains

Turn the plug on and there should be a working connection between the computer and the speakers.


I then did a test to see in the speakers were in working order by playing some music.

Camera

Take the USB cable that connects the camera to the systems

Insert the cable that connects the camera and insert it into a USB port

Insert the cable into the camera

Once you have inserted the cable and there is a working connection it is now ready to use.


I did a test check to make sure that the camera was hooked up to the computer by clicking into the icon titled “Finepix JX300.”