You love your Gadgets and so does your gadgets in return, by providing the best platform they can. Every Gadget you use does their job, what they are best at and it is your responsibility to keep them healthy.
Laptops are more delicate objects which performs jobs which are impossible without them. You get most of your work done by it and it never complains, except in some situation where you are the only one “guilty”. You have to take care of it at all situations and not to act lazy.
Here are some common pratices you can adapt to take care of your Laptop (or any other similar Gadget):
- Keep it clean: When you get your new gadget you keep it as if it’s a “King of the world” and after few months it’s your “servant”? You have to change this attitude. Your gadget is your property and it is your responsibility to keep it clean. Always clean your gadgets twice a month for longer life span, cleaner you keep it longer it will be available for you and do your dirty jobs done. Clean your battery’s metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. This keeps the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.
- Do not use improper sanitation: ok, i am getting little into vacubular disaster, but you have to understand how delicate your gadgets are. They seem tough from outside but are never from inside. Never use manufactured detergents or any other similar household cleaner which contains acetone, ammonia, or alcohol, it can ruin the beautiful coating on your laptop or any other gadget.
- React to the accidents immediately: You dropped your laptop, spilled water on it, bumped it on the desk or it is just banged against the wall, always react to such situations immediately. When you bump your laptop on the floor or spilled water on it, immediately remove the battery and check if anything damaged from the outside or clean the water immediately and make it dry (using your hair dryer or just the natural sunlight will do). Never act lazy. Some people suggests that you can place your laptop in a bag of rice, which helps soaking the water.
- Never leave your laptop unattended for longer: You don’t use your laptop at regular intervals, well that could be the problem, specially when you live at someplace where climate is not stable (sudden temprature drops or environment change). Never leave your laptop in too cold or too hot situation, it might crash your harddisk. Yes you heard it right. Your hard drive can expand and fail in the heat and freeze in the cold if left unattended. Just like liquid, heat, cold, and your laptop are not good bedfellows. Not only do hot and freezing temps suck the life out of your battery, but they also cause damage to your internal components.
- Always use Shutdown button: Some people just put their laptop on hibernation or standby mode. Well these options can come handy at some situations when you are in a hurry, but making it a habbit isn’t a good step for your laptop. Always use proper “Shut Down” process after work, which can help protect your internal delicate components.
- Use Anti-Virus: Some people thinks if they are not using the internet or are just so careful they won’t need an Anti-virus to protect their laptop or computers. Well, this assumption is totally wrong. You must have a gatekeeper to protect your castle, it is not like your home where you live. Your computer stores sensitive data and some personal stuffs which you won’t like the world to see. For such purpose their must be a proper Anti-virus installed on your computer or laptop (DigitFreak suggests “Kaspersky Internet security 2012”). Some virus or malwares are capable of destroying your hard disk or other internal componetns, so better protect it.
- Defrag regularly: The faster your hard drive does its work – less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. Make your hard drive as efficient as possible by defragging it regularly. (but not while it’s on battery of course!) Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation so it may not be very applicable for Apple systems.
- Dim your screen: Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.
- Protect your investment: If you’re going to be lugging a laptop around, make sure it’s protected in a padded case.
- Cut down external devices: USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.
