Tips to take care of your laptop:
Laptop cleanliness:
-Keep liquids away from your computer: Liquids can damage or short internal components, corrupt data and make keys stick or not function.
-Keep food away from your computer: Crumbs can damage the keys preventing them from depressing totally, invite small bugs, damage circuitry and make the laptop look dirty.
-Have clean hands: Dirt and oils from your fingers and wrists can eat away from the protective finish on the laptop, keyboard and track pad.
-Use an old clean toothbrush to clean parts of your computer: Cleaning around the keys on the keyboard, exhaust fans and around the bezel of the screen will help promote airflow and reduce heat buildup inside the laptop.
LCD Monitor:
-Prevent damage to the monitor: Make sure there are no obstructions (paper clips, pens or pencils, cats, motorcycles, etc.)on your keyboard when you are shutting the lid. Items like these can dent, scratch or even crack the screen.
-Close the lid properly: Close the lid gently and hold from the middle of the screen. Closing the lid using only one edge causes extra pressure on the hinges which over time will crack and break them.
-Hold your laptop by the base: Lifting and holding the laptop by the display creates unneeded pressure on the hinges. This action may direct pressure to the LCD and deform or crack the screen itself.
-Be aware of what you put on top of the laptop:Placing heavy items on the laptop (open or close) can cause serious damage to the LCD, hinges and chassis. Placing heavy items on your laptop can also squish the optical drive (CD-ROM) and if there is a disk in the drive, shatter that too.
Transport:
-Do not expose your laptop to rapid temperature changes: Large temperature fluctuations can cause major damage to your laptop. The metal platters inside the hard disk can expand and contract rapidly. If the metal platters are being accessed at the time, they may even crack causing partial, if not total, data loss. The temperature change can also form condensation within the laptop and short internal components.
-Do not leave your laptop in your car: Leaving your laptop in the car will expose it too severe tempertures and possibly further damage. Even in a laptop bag, leaving a laptop in the car is an inviting target to a thief.
-Use a laptop bag: Laptop bags reduce the chance of accidental drops or bumps to the laptop. If using another bag like a book bag, consider a laptop sleeve. A sleeve is not as protective as a bag but it will reduce damage and scratches too.
-Use a laptop bag that fits: Make sure your bag is large enough to fit your laptop but still remain snug. A properly fitted bag will help prevent damage to your laptop during transport and is a good place to store the power adapter and other laptop accessories.
Power:
-Do not pull on the power cord: Pulling on the power cord can damage the cord, socket, and plug. Instead, grab the actual plug and disconnect from the wall socket.
-Do not roll over the power cord with your chair: Rolling over the power cord with your chair can lead to a short and further damage to the power cord, power supply and laptop.
-Power Conservation: If not using your laptop for more than two hours, shut it down. The power consumption of the laptop within those two hours is far greater than that required to power on the laptop.
-Battery Maintenance: Leaving a laptop plugged in after the battery is fully charged will reduce the overall lifetime of the battery.
