Not so long ago

We are pleased to read the descriptions of the work of enthusiasts who are restoring old equipment. But this equipment had to be serviced. We know that the advent of computers made unnecessary, for example, the profession of a typist, but maybe something was changing even in those days when computers came into our everyday life?


We will open the Decree of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of the Russian Federation of July 23, 1998 N 28 "On the approval of interindustry standard norms of time for work on maintenance of personal electronic computers and organizational equipment and maintenance of software."

To begin with, according to the text of the order, the norms indicated in it are not taken from the ceiling

2. The basis for the development of the norms of time are:
...

• materials for studying and analyzing the existing organization of labor and the best practices of workers engaged in the maintenance and repair of PCs and OT and software maintenance;
• photographs, self-photographs of working hours and timing observations.

It's funny to read not so old documents and see how the terminology has changed. Who will now say for example like this: "scientific and technical services for the implementation of software"?

Or for example, who remembers the existence of work gymnastics? And then it need not just take into account in the rules of the time, but even there as an instructor of industrial gymnastics (also the memory of the past - a position occupied by the author's wife while studying at the institute)

The rules take into account the time to work on the maintenance of the workplace, leisure and personal needs, including physical breaks - at a rate of 5% of operational time

But we will pass to the direct duties of IT specialists. Let's start with the weekly work:

• checking the performance of devices on tests in accelerated mode;
• cleaning the magnetic heads of external memory devices (floppy disk drives), which is necessary to reduce the wear of information reading elements, damage to information carriers and increase their reliability;
• scan and removal of computer viruses from PC external memory devices in order to exclude their impact on user information and the operability of PC devices;
• defragmenting hard disk drives, which increases their efficiency and increases their service life;
• checking lines and devices of a local area network (LAN) using stand-alone tests

Cleaning the heads of the floppies (0.09 hours per head according to the standard)! Which of the young generation remembers that the heads had to be cleaned periodically (by the way, the youngest son no longer understands what kind of thing is shown on the save icon)? But it was!

But viruses were supposed to be removed once a week and only from external media. We are not even talking about any constantly working file anti-virus monitor. Only antivirus scanner. And it should have taken 0.20 hours per machine

And checking the network. At that time, the author was administering a network on Lantastic , where network cables were connected to the network card by T-connectors . Periodically I had to look for places where the signal disappeared. And what figures were assembled from unnecessary connectors!

And disk defragmentation was allocated (per disk) 0.27 hours (as we remember, taking into account the time for rest and personal needs).

Once a month, the work was done more seriously.

For PC and peripheral equipment:
...

• full disk scan for viruses;
• lubrication of mechanical devices (HDD, streamers, printers);
• cleaning from dust and dirt of internal volumes of PCs with disassembly, screens of video monitors, printheads of matrix and inkjet printers, mechanical assemblies of plotters, reading element in scanners.

For office equipment:

• flushing magnetic heads in audio and video recorders, as well as dust removal from the internal volumes of these devices;
• adjusting mechanical components, cleaning and lubricating typewriters;
• cleaning from dust and dirt of knots, laminators and binding devices, their mechanical adjustment, removal of waste toner in copy machines, alignment of optics, lubrication of mechanical components, refilling with toner;
• dust cleaning and rinsing of the fax head;
• cleaning and washing of optical nodes and their adjustment, dust removal from internal volumes for EPI projectors;

...

“Cleaning and lubricating typewriters”, “cleaning ... facsimile heads.” But recently it was all. And faxes and typewriters. I remember the delight of the girls from the secret department when they saw how easy it is to fix errors in typed text on a computer.

Once every six months, everything was serious

dust removal of internal volumes of personal computer power supplies, external modems, independent power supply devices (UPS) with their subsequent testing, screens of video monitors and LCD panels, adjustment, adjustment, and lubrication of fans

Dismantling monitors, power supplies and other equipment. Honestly, I don’t remember this even in the days of SM computers. If anyone did, share your memories.

And by the way, no unlicensed software and home-made equipment:

2.4. Repair and maintenance work is carried out using:

• proprietary tool for the development and assembly of hardware;
• branded consumables, accessories, cleaning and measuring tools that have passed the relevant checks;
• licensed test, antivirus and special software.

Good memories and friday!