Foreword By The Editor

I think it’s fair to say that laptops and netbooks have now become an essential part of everyday life, at least in our affluent western society. This excellent article by Francua Smith highlights some of the best ways to get the most out of them.
Mike Alexander
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Make It Last

You definitely want to try and make your laptop last as long as possible, whether to save having to buy a new machine every year or two or to get the best deal for it when you’re ready to change. If you want to extend your laptop’s life, there are some specific things you can do. No matter what it originally cost you, you’d do well to learn the following tips to extend its life.

Keep It Cool

The first thing I always do to extend my laptop’s life? Well, it’s simple. Keep it cool. The more heat your laptop accumulates, the more likely it is to suffer from component failure. Note that, if you like to slump into a couch to type on your laptop, you will most likely block the machine’s air vents and prevent the air from circulating. This spells heat for the machine; which is not  a good thing at all. To cool a laptop, one good way is to get a cooling pad. These things draw heat away from the system and usually cost about $30. You will, at the same time, prevent your laptop’s internal fans from spinning unnecessarily, thereby saving your battery life as well.

Carry It Carefully

I’ve seen some folks treat and carry their laptop as if it’s a piece of junk. If you throw your laptop onto the bed and it lands on the floor, or you leave it in the hot sun on the back seat of your automobile… well, fine, and good luck! No laptop is going to survive long in those circumstances. You need to treat it with respect and carry it with care. As an extra precaution, get a bag that is specifically made to offer maximum protection. Targus is an excellent maker of laptop bags, many come complete with padded sidewalls with air-protection technology.

Choose An SSD

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a next generation kind of hard drive. There are no moving parts, no platters or read/write heads (hard drive jargon) and everything is stored in non-volatile flash memory, like in a pen drive. This does wonders for your laptop. You will have longer lifespan because you don’t have a moving hard drive that breaks down. It also generates less heat since there’s no hard drive whirring away in the background. Unfortunately, the prices of SSDs are still quite high and currently cost about $15 per GB of storage. These prices are, however, gradually coming down. I think the maximum size now is about 128 GB so they certainly have capacity. Remember to look out for them if you’re in the market for a new laptop.

Protect The Battery

Your laptop’s battery is really sensitive. Don’t charge and discharge it all the time. Whenever you plug your laptop into an outlet, make it a habit to unplug the battery. If you leave it in, the AC force could cause the battery to overheat and overcharge. Then, when running on battery power, utilize the laptop until you get a low-battery warning, then plug in the charger and let it recharge fully. That will extend the life of that battery.

Reformat The Hard Drive

If you find your laptop running really slow, one option is to reformat the hard drive. Remember, we all let all sorts of junk software clog up our operating systems but Windows tends to get bogged down by orphaned files, funny registry entries and spyware. Reformat the hard drive and install everything afresh (or get a friend or a shop to do it if you’re not sure how). I guarantee you will get your laptop functioning and running faster. One trick I like to use is to install all my essential software (Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, etc.) then take a backup using imaging software (e.g. Acronis True Image). When you feel the laptop going sluggish, simply backup your data files and do an image restore. Your system will be refreshed with all the original clean, intact programs and it will run faster.

Avoid Standby Mode

One last thing is regarding the ‘Standby’ mode. It’s nice but it consumes battery power so you run the risk of reducing the life of your battery. Next time, use the ‘Hibernate’ mode instead of ‘Standby’. It preserves your laptop’s current state by writing it to the hard drive as a file. And it does not require any extra power. It takes a few extra seconds to use ‘Hibernate’, but it will extend your laptop battery life.

Conclusion

I hope you feel that this article has shown you some good tips for extending your laptop’s life. A laptop computer is a pricey investment; do your best to keep it safe and it will keep working for a long, long time.

About the Author

Francua Smith is a skilled Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He can help you choose your own laptop computer. If you are interested in laptops or want to learn more about them, feel free to check out his free guide.