It
is important to take care of your laptop to keep it in good shape;
prevention is always better than cure. There are a number of easy things
that you can do to keep your laptop in great shape; following these
easy steps will help to ensure that it lasts longer and will need less
maintenance. As an added bonus, many of the steps will also maintain
your laptop’s speed.
Keep liquids away from your laptop.
As tempting as it might be to drink coffee, soda, water or any other
liquid near your laptop, accidents can happen all too easily. Spilled
liquids may damage the internal components or cause electrical injury to
the laptop. Short circuits can corrupt data or even permanently destroy
parts. The solution is very simple: Keep your drinks away from your
computer. Even if you’re careful, someone else might bump into your desk
or you. Or you can use a cup with a cover on it, so even if it does
spill, the liquid doesn’t go any where!
Having an available antivirus software would help.
Even if you know what you download, it may contain a virus that can
lead to a circuit error in your system hardware or slowness in the
software.
Keep food away from your laptop.
Don’t eat over your laptop. The crumbs can go down between the keys in
the keyboard and provide an invitation to small bugs. The crumbs can
also irritate the circuitry. Worse, it makes the laptop look dirty if
there are crumbs and food stains on it.
Always have clean hands when using your laptop.
Clean hands make it easier to use your laptop touchpad and there will
be less risk of leaving dirt and other stains on the computer. In
addition, if you clean your hands before use, you will help reduce wear
and tear on the coating of the laptop caused by contact with sweat and
small particles that can act upon the laptop’s exterior underneath your
wrists and fingers.
Protect the LCD display monitor.
When you shut your laptop, make sure there are no small items, such as a
pencil or small ear-phones, on the keyboard. These can damage the
display screen when shut; the screen will scratch if the item is rough.
Close the lid gently and holding from the middle. Closing the lid using
only one side causes pressure on that hinge, and over time can cause it
to bend and snap.
Hold and lift the computer by its base, not by its LCD display (the screen).
If you lift it by the screen part alone, you could damage the display
or the hinges attaching it to the base. The display is also easily
scratched or damaged by direct pressure – avoid placing pressure on it.
Don’t pull on the power cord.
Tugging your power cord out from the power socket rather than putting
your hand directly on the plug in the socket and pulling can break off
the plug or damage the power socket. Also, if you have the power point
near your feet, avoid constantly bumping into the plug or you could
loosen it and eventually break it.
Don’t roll your chair over the computer cord.
Stick the cord onto your desk with tape or a special computer cord tie
which can be easily undone when you’ve finished using the laptop. Always
try to keep most of the cord away from the floor or your legs;
sometimes you can be so engrossed in what you’re doing that you move
your legs and forget the cord is there.
Plug in accessory devices into their proper slots.
Always look at the symbols on the laptop carefully before inserting
devices. Jamming a phone line into an Ethernet port or vice versa could
damage the sockets, making it impossible to use them again. It is very
important to observe this step.
Handle any removable drives with care.
Floppy drives or CD drives that have been removed from your laptop can
easily get crushed, dropped or pressed if you are careless. Put them
straight into a bag or a storage box/case for safe keeping if you are
not putting them back into the laptop.
Insert drives into their slots carefully and at the correct angle. Pushing the wrong drive into a socket, or at an angle, or even upside down can jam it.
Check to see if labels are affixed securely before inserting media into your laptop computer.
Media such as CDs, DVDs or floppy disks should not have any loose label
parts that might jam inside the laptop drive. Never insert undersized
CDs, as these can damage the disk player permanently.
Don’t expose your laptop to rapid temperature fluctuations.
When bringing your laptop indoors during winter, don’t turn it on
immediately. Instead, let it warm to room temperature first. This will
avoid any potential for damage to the disk drive from condensation
forming inside the machine. Avoid heat from sunlight as well.
Don’t leave your laptop in a car.
Not only do the insides of cars experience large temperature swings
that could damage a laptop, but a laptop (or laptop bag) is an inviting
target for a smash and grab thief.
Have the unit cleaned once a year to remove internal dust.
Get this done by a computer professional. If dust accumulates, the
system cannot cool itself correctly. Heat can destroy the motherboard.
Avoid placing heavy materials, such as books, on top of your laptop and keyboard.
This can push the LCD screen into the keyboard, and will eventually
damage it. Also, the CD-ROM insert will also be squished and,
eventually, will break.
Use a properly-sized laptop case.
Whatever you use to carry your laptop around in, be it a case, a bag or
something you have made yourself, make sure that it it large enough to
contain the laptop. This will avoid scratching, squeezing or even
potentially dropping it.
Look into getting a laptop bag. Many breaks happen because of laptops being dropped or bumped. A bag greatly reduces the risk of damage.
Use and store in a well-circulated area.
When you are using your laptop, do so in a place that has a constant
air-circulation. Lots of people ruin their laptop by using it in an
enclosed area and thus making the laptop overheat. It also helps if you
store it in a well circulated area.
Use an old tooth brush to clean the area around the exhaust fan screen. If that gets plugged up, air flow is diminished and overheating can most certainly occur.
Try and keep the laptop on a flat surface.
This prevents damage to the laptop. This step can be hard, particularly
if you are going out with your laptop, but if there is a flat surface
available to put your laptop on then do so.
Don’t use your laptop on the bed.
Repeated use of the laptop on the bed will cause the fans to suck up
the dust and further debris which lies in the bed, ultimately blocking
the fan. Refrain from this by using the laptop somewhere else than the
bed.
Warning
- Avoid putting your laptop on a carpet. The air vents on the back of the laptop help air to travel in and out. Anything which blocks the air vents is preventing hot air from escaping and only invites it back in again, which can result in overheating; leading to excessive lag and potential damage.
- Be aware of the “no excess” or “zero excess” of some laptop insurance companies; while it appears to be free of excess, you may have to pay again for the year in full to restart your insurance after a claim.
- Pets (like parrots that fixate on clicking, shiny objects) and children should be supervised when within a close proximity of your laptop.
- If you are not going to use the laptop or the computer for the next two hours, better shut it down. The energy it takes to start it up is far lesser than the energy it will take if the laptop is running continuously.
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