Tips on Laptop Care and Maintenance?
Just purchased a Dell Studio 15 for college. (Freshman, going to be Intl Affairs major)
Now, I need to know how to make it last all five years of college (going to Northeastern with the 5-year co-op program). I’m an Intl Affairs major (potentially) and will be using the laptop for iTunes (musc + movies), Microsoft Word, Internet, and maybe Sims 3.
I have learned a bit about laptop care from the mistakes we’ve made with family laptops over the years. I now know that leaving a laptop plugged in all the time is the worst thing you can do to a battery and holding a laptop by the screen portion and not the base (when it’s fully opened) will indeed loosen and break the hinges.
I am just looking for any advice on how to get the most out of it. Even if something is totally "common sense," you should probably still tell me
And a few ?s:
-How do I get the most out of my battery? It’s a 9 cell, just fyi. I heard somewhere that you should let the battery completely lose its charge ~once a month. I just don’t want to have issues with the battery/overheating or anything.
-I know I should always use it on a hard surface, so I will make my best effort to always use it at a desk. But will a lap desk also suffice?
-Any special ways to clean the monitor?
Any and all advice is appreciated!
I am well familiar with Google ;)
Just looking for anything that someone might not think of, perhaps.
Thanks for the well wishes! =]
Tagged with: best effort • college freshman • common sense • dell • google • hinges • intl affairs • lap desk • laptop care • laptops • microsoft • microsoft word • sims • well wishes • word internet
Filed under: Portable Computers
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Hi Brittany,
This is the best of what you can do to keep your Laptop in better condition:
1. Avoid using Laptop speakers or headphones when you are not connected to the Power Supply.
2. Avoid the multimedia when not plugged to Power Supply.
3. Try draining the battery completely and recharge full once a week.
4. Clean up the browser cache.
5. Defragment. Running the Window Disk Defragmenter program can dramatically improve the overall responsiveness of your computer, by knitting together any non-contiguous files on the hard drive.
6. If you typically place your computer into Standby mode or into Hibernation, at the end of a work session, you should
occasionally select Shut Down from the Shut Down Windows menu. — either immediately (Restart) or later (Shut Down).
The benefit of restarting Windows is closing down any processes (sub-programs) that may still be left active from applications that are no longer running, and to give Windows an opportunity to re-establish itself in the computer’s memory.
7. Delete temporary files.
8. Empty the Recycle Bin.
9. Have an antivirus program and update its virus definitions regularly.
Hope this helps.
Wireless..:)
You can use a search engine like http://www.google.com and you find plenty of websites for proper care and maintenance of your laptop:
http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop_3.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/broadband-mobility/4-tips-to-extend-the-life-of-your-laptop-battery.aspx#Laptopbatterylife
http://www.ergoindemand.com/laptop-computer-ergonomics.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Laptop-Screen-Cleaning-Tips&id=1577228
Good luck with your courses and I hope you will find this helpful!