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Computers are a money-making machine – it’s like the passenger van that lets you earn commissions and paychecks. The advancements in web development, apps, software and the internet made computers an indispensable tool for earning money. Whether you have a new or old laptop, it’s best to take care of it to make it optimize and work for many years to come. Here we present you ways how to take care of your laptop.

HARDWARE

Take care of laptop battery

Your laptop’s battery is made of lithium-ion with a lifespan of 500 cycles. If you charge it wrong, you can shorten it below that lifespan. Charge it right by:

• Avoid deep discharge or waiting for the battery to reach 0% charge.

• Unplug the adapter cord when the laptop reaches 100% charge.

• Charge between 40 and 80 %.

• Store your laptop in a cool and dry place.

Clean your laptop

Use a quality dust removal tool which could be an air spray can – no fluids and have enough pressure to blow away particulates. As for contact points such as USB ports, use an electronic contact cleaner containing pressurized and quick-drying fluid. Here are the parts you should clean:

Dust spray can

• Cooling fan

• Keyboard

• Speaker grill

• Bottom

• CD/DVD drives

Electric contact cleaner

• USB ports

• HDMI port

Warning: Memory modules and integrated circuits are susceptible to electrostatic discharge. If you’re not sure of opening the laptop to clean the motherboard, have a qualified technician repair the laptop.

Keep food and liquids away

It’s tempting to place fruit juice, soft drink and water besides, who doesn’t want an easy to reach drink instead of going downstairs or upstairs. If you’d like an easy to reach drink bottle, have a tightly closed bottle placed a few feet from the laptop. The same with food – bread crumbs, soups and sauce can clog keyboard and spaces.

SOFTWARE

Run disk clean up at least once a month.

Disk cleanups can remove unwanted files on your download, document, download and picture folders. Files can accumulate and clog your hard disk. You can access disk cleanup by typing “disk cleanup” in the type here search in the desktop bar.

Clean install the operating once every two to three years.

Clean installing the OS can make the laptop run like a new machine. To do that, here’s a guide from Laptopmag.com. After the change, clicking folders, opening menus, using browsers and clicking software.

Install an anti-virus software

Anti-virus software can scan, quarantine and remove viruses such as Trojan horses, I Love you a virus or according to their types – macro virus, boot sector virus, web scripting virus, polymorphic virus etc. Some of the best antivirus software according to seapcmag.com in the market include:

• Bit defender

• Kaspersky

• McAfee

• Norton Life lock

• Webroot

Remember that installing two anti-virus software isn’t recommended because:

• They can single out or make each other less effective.

• Running two antivirus can corrupt data and having two is almost as bad as having none.

• They will fight each other

• They will consume more energy – more battery life.

Defrag your hard drive

To defrag means to rearranged fragmented files or data so that to allow your computer to work efficiently. Defragging brings benefits such as few crashes, freeze-ups and better program runs. Windows 10 can automatically run defragging although you can check to defragment periodically. If your laptop uses a solid-state drive (a drive without moving parts but memory chips), don’t defrag SSD because it does nothing and will only use up writing cycles. Reserve defragging for mechanical hard drives.

Back-up your data

No one know is when your laptop will begin showing up the dreaded blue screen of death or BSOD. When BSOD happens, there’s something serious in your laptop – damaged hard drive sectors or some components in the motherboard. Back up your data through:

• Cloud account – Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft drive

• USB drive – 32 GB, 64 GB, 124 GB

• Portable hard disk drives

• Portable solid-state drives (take note SSDs are more expensive)

Tags: antivirus, cleaning, cleaningcomputers, computer, computervirus, laptop