Shopping Articles
15 March 2009
Looking after Your Laptop PC
Top Tips for Prolonging the Life of Your Laptop Computer
A brand new laptop - provided that it is configured correctly, in the first instance - should run smoothly, without interruption, data loss or failure, for years. Nevertheless, there are several precautions that you can take to make sure that your laptop performs to the best of its ability for as long as possible.
A laptop screen - which is made from thin, flexible plastic, not glass - is the single most expensive component, and, as such, should be the starting point for laptop care. An LCD ("Liquid Crystal Display") employs individual transistors to control the behaviour of each of the hundreds of thousands, or millions, of picture elements, or "pixels", in the display. Poking the screen with your finger, or the point of a pen, or pencil, can therefore cause irreparable damage, and should be avoided. Similarly, any cleaning of the screen should be performed with a soft cloth and specialised, ammonia-free cleaner, rather than glass cleaner.
Heat is the main enemy of laptop computers, as it is of computers in general, so you should also make sure that air events are free from dust. Clogged vents prevent air from circulating freely throughout the chassis of a laptop, causing cooling fans to work overtime - in turn, reducing battery life - and, in the worst cases, component failure.
Heat - rather than any charging, or discharging, patterns - is also a major contributor to short battery life in lap-top computers. A fully charged battery, if left in a laptop running on mains power, may reach a temperature of 45°C, and its life may be limited, consequently, to between 12 and 18 months. Removing the battery when operating on mains power can, therefore, be an important part of your laptop care routine.
Compare LapTop Prices
© Upshot Media Ltd
A laptop screen - which is made from thin, flexible plastic, not glass - is the single most expensive component, and, as such, should be the starting point for laptop care. An LCD ("Liquid Crystal Display") employs individual transistors to control the behaviour of each of the hundreds of thousands, or millions, of picture elements, or "pixels", in the display. Poking the screen with your finger, or the point of a pen, or pencil, can therefore cause irreparable damage, and should be avoided. Similarly, any cleaning of the screen should be performed with a soft cloth and specialised, ammonia-free cleaner, rather than glass cleaner.
Heat is the main enemy of laptop computers, as it is of computers in general, so you should also make sure that air events are free from dust. Clogged vents prevent air from circulating freely throughout the chassis of a laptop, causing cooling fans to work overtime - in turn, reducing battery life - and, in the worst cases, component failure.
Heat - rather than any charging, or discharging, patterns - is also a major contributor to short battery life in lap-top computers. A fully charged battery, if left in a laptop running on mains power, may reach a temperature of 45°C, and its life may be limited, consequently, to between 12 and 18 months. Removing the battery when operating on mains power can, therefore, be an important part of your laptop care routine.
Compare LapTop Prices
© Upshot Media Ltd
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