9 Proven Ways to Take Care of Your Laptop

It is imperative that you take care of your laptop and keep it in its best condition so you can take advantage of its full life. It can also help maintain your laptop speed. What follows are a few proven, easy ways to protect and extend the life of your laptop.

1. Keep food and drinks away from your laptop. As much as possible, you should refrain from drinking beverage and eating your meals while working on your laptop. Spilled liquids and fallen food crumbs and bits can easily damage the sensitive circuitry inside.

2. Avoid touching the LCD screen. When shutting it off, be sure to hold it with both hands while closing the lid gently. Screen repairs don't come in real cheap so you may want to clean your monitor with approved cleaning materials only.

3. Keep it cool by using and keeping it in a well-ventilated area. Laptops generate a lot of heat which can damage the internal circuitry. It is also a wise move to install a laptop cooler or chill mat to reduce the machine's operating temperature. Laptop coolers come in two designs. Some laptop coolers draw away heat from the laptop's underside while others blow cool air towards it. They may run through a power adaptor or a USB hub.

4. Use your laptop's battery. At least once a week unplug it from the wall and let it run on battery power until it tells you to recharge. This will make the battery life lasts much longer.

5. Do not let it run for straight two days, even on powerful laptops. Laptops can get very hot and leaving it on for a longer period of time may cause overheating. It is advisable to install software that automatically puts your laptop in a sleep or hibernate mode or even shut it down after a period of inactivity.

6. If you need to move and take your laptop more than a few feet away, shut it down or put it to sleep before moving on. Do not walk with your laptop on because you are risking the hard drive with every stumble, stump, or jar you make.

7. Don't close anything inside your laptop. There is a little clearance between the screen and the keyboard and even a couple sheets of paper can put stress onto the screen. Also, avoid putting heavy objects on top of your laptop. These careless actions can damage and break the screen.

8. Get your laptop a carrying bag to reduce the risk of breaks because of laptop being bumped to or dropped accidentally. Moreover, your laptop bag should be big enough to avoid scratching and squeezing to contain the laptop inside the bag.

9. Guard its health by using antivirus software and firewall. Install antivirus and keep it updated from time to time. Your internet-connected laptop is always at risk of being infected with viruses, so you may want to take the necessary precautions. Data loss because of viruses can give you headaches.

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