Lengthen the Life of Your Laptop: Keep it Clean and Away From Harmful Products

Even the least-expensive laptop computers are still pretty pricey. For this reason, you'll definitely want to take good care of your laptop so that it lasts for years to come. Below are several maintenance tips and precautions to help keep your laptop running as long as possible.

Do Not Drop Your Laptop or Allow Anything to Fall on it

This is probably the most important (as well as the most obvious) step you can take to ensure your laptop functions as long as possible. Inside any laptop are very sensitive components and hardware that can be damaged if the suffers any blunt force such as being dropped or having an object dropped on it.

Yes, most laptops are made of sturdy plastic and the delicate hardware inside is fitted with shock-absorbers but these defense mechanisms only go so far. If your laptop is dropped frequently, chances are eventually some component will cease to function. Besides this, laptop screen are very easy to break or crack and are often damaged the first time the laptop is dropped.

To avoid accidentally knowing your laptop off a desk or table, ensure that no power cords or any other wires connected to it are in walkways. When transporting your laptop on foot or in a vehicle be sure to put it in a laptop case or any other bag with enough padding.

Turn Off Your Laptop and Close the Lid When it's not in Use

Unlike desktops, most laptops are not designed to be left on for days or weeks at a time. In general, laptops do not have the effective cooling methods of desktop computers and as a result become hot much quicker. After long periods of time, heat can cause laptop components such as the CPU to wear out or short circuit faster. To prevent this, simply turn off your laptop or put it in hibernate mode when you're not using it.

If for some reason you must leave your laptop computer on while you're not actively using it (if you're downloading a large file, for example), at least close the lid. Laptops use less power with the screen off, therefore by closing the lid, you lengthen the life of your laptop's screen as well as the internal hardware.

Clean the Dust Out of Your Laptop and Apply thermal Paste to Keep the CPU Cool

Most laptops are kept from overheating by using a heatsink to absorb heat from the processor and fans to circulate cool air through the laptop. Over time dust will accumulate in and around the fan and heatsink. When this happens, your laptop will begin to run hotter than it should. Every now and then you should open the fan compartment on your laptop (make sure you're electrically grounded first) and clean the dust from the fan.

If you know where your heatsink is located, it's a good idea to clean the dust from it as well. You can also apply thermal paste, a compound used to better connect the CPU to the heatsink, to lower the temperature of your laptop. You can find information on how to apply thermal paste in this article.

Don't Bend the Power Cord Sharply

The power cord is an important (and expensive) part of your laptop. If the power cord is damaged you will be unable to charge your laptop or use it for any extended period of time. When you store the power cord for your laptop, be sure not to bend any part of the cord at a sharp angle. Over time, this will cause the cord to fray and possibly cause some of the copper conductive wire inside to become exposed and/or break.

Keep All Liquid Away From Your Laptop

No matter how graceful you may be, accidents happen and everyone makes mistakes sometimes. To avoid making the mistake of knocking over a glass of water or some other liquid onto your laptop and short circuiting the motherboard or other components, just keep any open liquids away from your laptop.

If by chance you manage to spill something on your laptop, be sure to disconnect the power and remove the battery as quickly as possible. Then store the laptop in a dry place for a few days so that any water inside it can dry before attempting to turn it on again.

Perform Regular Software Maintenance

Part of keeping your laptop functioning correctly is making sure the operating system and installed software are running efficiently. After all, no one enjoys reformatting and re-installing their operating system. Don't forget to perform regular software maintenance such as hard drive defragmentation, spyware removal, and virus scans. Most laptops and operating systems come with software to do these things, however, if yours did not, a simple google search will unveil plenty of freeware programs to accomplish these tasks.