As you might know, heat is not a laptop’s friend. We all like to snuggle up to our laptops once in a while and hit up Facebook, YouTube, or Netflix.
A good thing to remember is to not block the vents on your PC. If you are like me, you don’t usually realize you are until it’s ridiculously hot to the touch.
This mostly applies to laptops, but it is good not to block the vents on a desktop as well.
What problems can heat actually cause?
First of all, more heat causes your fan to run more often, increasing wear and tear. Just remember that heat causes expansion, and in extreme excess, it can do irreparable damage.
You should worry about this more if you use your laptop for a ton of video editing, graphic design, or gaming.
These things take more processing power which produces more heat. All this being said, most computers now are built to deal with heat pretty well. We just need to be aware that excessive heat within your laptop can hurt it.
Think about what you use your laptop for and be sure you have the proper cooling. Don’t block the vents, and check out the next step.
This is more of a reminder than a tip designed to wow you. It is always good to understand why, so we have more motivation to do so. Often times dirt or crumbs have ignored that collect on the laptop.
The dirt and grime can accumulate in ports or vents and over time cause problems. It can not only do damage to the ports but also make it harder for the laptop to ventilate. This will cause your fan to run more often to keep it cool as we mentioned above.
Ideas for Cleaning your Laptop:
Before cleaning, or performing any kind of hardware maintenance, you should power off and unplug your computer.
A common and safe way to get rid of dust, dirt, or even hair, is to use a vacuum or compressed air. When it comes to wiping or scrubbing, you should always use a microfiber cloth to keep from scratching your computer.
Always be extra soft on your screen. You can use a little water to clean, but a specialized computer cleaner is probably best.
Put the water or cleaning solution directly on the cloth before cleaning. Remember not to spray water or any chemicals directly onto your computer.
The hard drive is obviously critical because it holds all your precious files. The hard drive is a hard-working and essential part of the laptop.
This being the case, over time, it is pretty common for your hard drive to eventually fail. There are preventative measures that can be taken that will help us slow, or prevent, this from happening.
How to Maintain Your Hard Drive?
First of all, you want to reduce the amount of time your hard drive is on and working. Turning your laptop on and off multiple times a day can be rough on your hard drive. You can reduce wear and tear by utilizing the sleep and hibernate modes.
You can also protect your hard drive by utilizing all of the other tips mentioned in this article. Heat, dust/dirt, power surges, and bad software can all harm a hard drive.
Remember to back up your files to reduce the negative effects of a hard drive failure. Backing up your PC is pretty easy to do and can save you a lot of trouble.
4. Be Mindful of Power Issues:
Power surges can damage your laptop over time, or unluckily fry it in a flash. Common causes of these surges are just electrical devices in your home that require a lot of power.
Using a surge protector is a relatively inexpensive way to reduce your risk of damage caused by power inconsistencies.
Surge protectors sit between the incoming power surge and your electronic devices. When a surge occurs, the extra electricity can be diverted through a ground built into the surge protector. Make sure you have enough surge protectors for the electronics you want to protect.
Joule Rating: This is the amount of energy the protector can handle before it finally breaks. For a personal computer, you will want a rating of 1000 at least. The higher the joule rating the better.
UL VPR (Voltage Protection Rating): This is the clamping voltage for the surge protectors. In other words, this is the amount of voltage it will let through before it starts protecting. You want a low UL VPR rating such as 330V, which is the lowest you will probably find.
Response Time: Some surge protectors will list the response time. This will tell you how long it takes for your surge protectors to react to surges. You will want your surge protector to act fast so look for a low response time.
Normal household surge protectors don’t protect from surges caused by lightning. They are more designed to help with daily power flow fluctuations. Surges caused by lightning strikes are rare, but it might not be a bad idea to unplug important electronics during a rough lightning storm.
5. How to Protect your Laptop from Malware:
Yes, of course, you know you need to protect your laptop from viruses. It is important, however, to learn more about types of malware. This will help enable you to better protect your laptop from it.
Malware is a term used to encompass all malicious software that is designed to harm your PC. There is a good size list of what is considered malware: viruses, worms, trojans, adware, spyware, ransomware, scareware, etc.
Yes, most of these are just as bad as they sound. Most people notice when their laptop starts acting weird and assume they just have a virus. The truth is it could be a different form of malware that may not be detected by your Anti-Malware software.
Do you have Antivirus software installed?
If you do, are your virus definitions up to date? Viruses are ever-changing and advancing in complexity. Antivirus software companies will frequently update the definitions for detecting viruses.
Even if you feel like your antivirus software is doing a good job, it is a good idea to make sure your virus definitions are up to date.
Most antivirus programs will scan on a regular basis, but manually running a full system scan every once in a while is a good idea.
While most antivirus software is pretty good, it will also benefit you to have another scanning program dedicated to anti-malware. A great example is Malwarebytes.
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