Whether you’re a student, gamer, employee, or business owner, there’s no denying that our laptops play an essential role in the things we need to accomplish every day. That’s why you must know how to maintain it. That said, this guide will provide you with tips on laptop maintenance and basic troubleshooting if you encounter a few problems while using your device.
There is a long list of maintenance tasks you need to conduct on your laptop to help you prolong its lifespan. It might take us all day to discuss them all. That’s why we’ve decided only to include some of the basic yet essential ones below.
Keep Food and Liquids Away
It’s a common habit for people to eat and drink in front of their laptops, and it’s a bad habit. Drinking soda, coffee, or any other liquid near your laptop increases the risk of spilling it and ruining your laptop’s electronics. Additionally, you must not eat food while in front of your laptop since the crumbs may fall onto the keys and cause them to malfunction.
Install Antivirus Software
Never, under any circumstances, forget to install an antivirus software program. We can’t possibly tell you just how much malware can be found and accidentally downloaded over the internet. An antivirus helps identify these threats and prevents your laptop from downloading and installing them. This is very important if you are an entrepreneur.
Businesses are now encouraged to use digital systems to make their operations easier. However, this also means that they opened the door for a wide array of problems in the technological world. That’s why part of business continuity plans for managed service providers is cybersecurity to ensure that their business data is safe and they can sustain their operations.
Avoid Extreme Temperatures
Extreme temperatures will affect your laptop’s performance. Make sure that you place it away from direct sunlight. Having small fans placed near or directed to your laptop will also prevent it from overheating. On the other hand, make sure that you adjust your thermostat to maintain room temperature during extremely cold temperatures to keep your laptop functioning smoothly.
Common Laptop Problems and Solutions
No matter how careful you are with your laptop, there’s a huge chance that you will still encounter issues with it. You can fix some of these concerns on your own. Here are some of the most common laptop problems and the best solution for each of them.
Overheating Followed by Shutdown
Overheating is often caused by under-performing exhaust fans, which forces your laptop to shut down. That is often because the fans don’t get to take in or release air, especially if your laptop is flat on the surface. Additionally, dust can accumulate in the laptop’s fan and reduce its efficiency.
Make sure that you avoid blocking the laptop’s fans and vents. If it’s still overheating, clear the dust using compressed air or bring it to a laptop service center and have it cleaned.
Slow Performance
Many things can cause your laptop to perform slowly, and it’s also one of the most common laptop issues. Slow performance may either be caused by hardware failure, low storage capacity, too many applications running, or malware.
The first thing you can do is restart your laptop or shut down all the applications. Make sure that you also delete large junk files that aren’t important. If it’s still running slow despite having antivirus software, it’s best to bring it to a service center.
Short Battery Life
Another issue that is just as common as slow performance is short battery life. This is quite frustrating, especially when you consider the fact that one of the best features of laptops is that you can use them without plugging them in.
Make sure that your laptop’s power connections are properly secured and that the charger does not have any damage to it. Another useful solution is to drain your laptop’s battery until it dies and recharge it. If it still dies quicker than it should, you may need to replace the battery.
Black Screen
A black screen occurs when you turn the laptop on, and you hear it running, but there is no display on the LCD.
One thing you can do to fix this issue is to unplug it from the power source, remove the battery, and hold the power button for one minute. After doing so, put the battery back in and reboot. If it still doesn’t display anything, the LCD connection might be damaged, which means you need to have it repaired immediately.
Who knows what our lives would be if we don’t have our laptops beside us whenever we need to work, study, or play? It’s rather difficult to go about our day without using this technological piece of equipment. That’s why you must always make it a point to take care of it as much as you can.
