A notebook PC can be a huge investment, especially if you use it for a variety of business and/or personal purposes, and this article shall deal with the various tips and tricks you can utilize to extend the life of your investment and keep it working in optimum condition.
The Screen
There are several notebooks that come with a handy cleaning cloth. If not, ask your local pc store about a spray or what is best for cleaning the display. Store-bought household cleaners, obviously, are verboten. Use a damp cloth if AND ONLY IF your budget cannot even afford a special cleaning agent for laptops. Always power down and unplug the machine before beginning the cleaning process.
For those who are using a spray, do not directly aim at the screen, as the cleaner may seep into the circuitry from the screen area. What you would want to do instead is to spray a tiny amount onto a soft piece of cloth, then gingerly wipe against the screen. Make sure you are not exerting excess pressure on the screen. To avoid scratching or fiber residue on the screen, you also have to pay attention to the type cloth you use — wool and tissue is not at all recommended. The type of cloth normally used to clean sunglasses would be a much more advisable material for cleaning a laptop screen.
The Battery
If your notebook is going to be left idle for more than two weeks, or it will be continuously plugged into AC power, take the battery out. And in case of the latter scenario, where it will be mostly reliant on AC power, you might find it useful to allow the battery to run down once a week until it is completely used up before fully recharging it.
The Keyboard
Over time the keyboard on your system will collect dust, food crumbs and all sort of other rubbish. And as this waste material finds its way right between the keys and actuators, typing may become difficult or inaccurate as a result.
As a way of dislodging some of the build up in your keyboard, turn off your notebook, open up the screen and then turn it upside down. Again, you want to be extremely gentle when shaking the laptop sideways, tapping underneath the machine and around the edges like so. This can remove some larger particulate matter buried underneath the keys of the keyboard.
If you are looking for a more expeditious way to remove the teeny-tiny rubbish, then a can of compressed air should do the trick pronto. The risk here would be making objects even more taut, so be careful when using compressed air.
To clean the keys themselves, use a soft cloth without any lint, modestly dampened with water. Go very easy on the water as you don’t want the water to seep anywhere.
The Chassis
It might be necessary to make a quick call to the manufacturer’s technical support department to get model-specific advice on how to clean the chassis of your laptop. Instead of letting the vagaries of chance dictate your cleaning techniques, follow the tech agent’s advice as materials for constructing cases can vary a lot.
