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If you want to extend your laptop’s life, there are some specific things you can do. You definitely want to make your laptop last as long as possible, and not have to buy a new machine every year or two. No matter what price your laptop cost you, you’d do well to learn the following tips to extend its life. Read on to find out some great tips on this topic …

1. Keep It Cool The first thing I every time do to extend my laptop’s life? Well, it’s simple. Keep it cool. The more heat your laptop accumulates, the more probable it is to suffer from element failure. Note that whether you like to slump into a couch to type on your laptop, you will most probable block the machine’s air vents and prevent air from circulating. This spells heat for the machine – which is not a fine thing. To cool a laptop, one fine way is to get a cooling pad. These things draw heat away from the system and normally cost about tell $30. You will, at the same time prevent your laptop’s internal fans from spinning overly much, saving your battery life as well.

2. Carry The Laptop Carefully I’ve seen some folks treat and carry their laptops like junk. If you throw your laptop onto the bed and it lands on the floor, or you leave it in the hot sun in the back seat of you automobile – well, fine luck. No laptop is gonna survive long in those circumstances. You need to make confident you carry the laptop with care. In addition, get a fine bag that offers maximum protection. Targus makes excellent laptop bags and they have padded sidewalls with air-protection technology.

3. Choose a 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). Everything is stored in non-volatile flash memory, like in your 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. You also generate less heat since there’s no hard drive whirring in the background. Now, the prices of SSDs are still quite high and cost about $15 per GB – these are however coming down. I think the maximum size now is about 128 GB. Remember to look out for them if you’re trying to get a new laptop.

4. Protect The Battery Your laptop’s battery is also 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’ll extend the life of that battery.

5. 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. Windows tends to get bogged down by the orphaned files, funny Registry entries and spyware. Reformat the hard drive and install everything clean (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 a image restore. Your system will be refreshed with all the original clean, intact programs and it will run faster.

6. Avoid The Standby Mode One last thing is regarding the Standby mode. Standby mode is nice but it consumes battery power. So you risk 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 no power. It takes a few extra seconds to use Hibernate, but it will extend your laptop battery life.

Conclusion I hope this article has shown you some good tips for extending your laptop’s life. Note that a laptop is a pricey investment – do your best to keep it safe and working for a long, long time. By the way, if you’re interested in laptops or want to learn more about them, feel free to check out my free guide.

Francua Smith is a wise Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He will help you to choose your own wise laptop computer.

If you’ve ever had your laptop stolen before, you will know how painful it is. I lost a laptop in the office over the weekend before (I forgot to secure it). Imagine all your documents, your contacts, your schedules, etc. all taken away. And having the niggling feeling that thief may know all the details about you. Needless to say, protecting your laptop is an extremely important activity. This article runs through some good tips for securing your laptop.

1. Use A Physical Lock The most basic way to protect your laptop is to secure it – with a physical lock. Laptop locks are pretty cheap and normally allow you to secure the laptop to a table or desk. Make sure you pick out a good quality laptop lock (I like Kensington laptop locks).

2. Set A Notebook Alarm A notebook alarm, you ask? Yes, there are notebook alarms, much like there are car alarms. You can buy and set a notebook alarm ensure that it goes off when a thief tries to cut your laptop cable. It’ll definitely give the thieving fella a good scare! The Belkin notebook alarm below is quite a good buy.

3. Motion-Sensing Alarm Another kind of notebook alarm is the motion-sensing kind of alarm. These types of alarms effectively create a ‘force field’ around your laptop. If a thief steps within that zone, the alarm goes off. Very effective, and the Doberman security series is a good recommendation if you’re keen to get something like that.

4. Recovery Tags Just like lost baggage bags, the fine aged recreation tag can be used for laptops. If someone finds your laptop, he or she can refer to the recreation tag and call an 800 number to return it to you. Some of these tag manufacturers even bid prepaid returns to give some award or incentive for the guy who picked it up.

5. Software Recovery Services Here’s an interesting bent to laptop theft. Imagine having a software that’s installed in your laptop that tracks its location. If your laptop has been stolen and booted up, the software can track down the location of the machine! Some software programs (e.g. Absolute Software’s Lojack for Laptops) can even function whether the burglar successfully re-installs the operating system.

6. BitLocker If you own Windows Vista Enterprise or Ultimate editions, they come with a drive-encryption feature called BitLocker. You can use this to encrypt your hard drive – if the laptop gets stolen, the thief will have a tough time accessing your confidential documents.

Conclusions Well, as you can see, there are tons of ways to defend your laptop from thieves. The next time you are out and about and need to leave your laptop alone, apply one or two of the tips above and ensure the burglar doesn’t get to your stuff. Good luck!

Francua Smith is a wise Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He will help you to choose your own nice laptop computer.

Have you ever wanted to share your files with another laptop but didn’t know how? The ability to transfer files between laptops is important in the working world. For example, a last minute amendment to a presentation might need to be transferred to the colleague who is presenting the information to the audience. Knowing how to transfer files quickly between laptops is an essential skill to know.

1. Overview There are two main ways to transfer files from one laptop to another. One approach would be to use a storage medium (e.g. such as a CD / DVD or USB drive). The other approach would be to use a network and transfer the files. Either option is viable, it just depends on your preference.

2. Copy the files to an USB flash drive The fastest and most fool proof method of transferring files to another laptop is to copy the desired files into an USB drive. The device acts like a hard drive and it comes pretty cheap. You just drag and drop the file you want copied into the flash drive’s disk icon. However, this approach is not suitable if you have huge (e.g. a few GB) file sizes.

3. Burn Files to CD or DVD The other way to transfer files between laptop is to burn the files to a CD or DVD. Most laptops now have a DVD burner and a DVD disc costs just pennies. You can typically get the burning done in not more than 10 minutes of burn time. If you have super large files that don’t fit into a flash drive, then burning the files into a CD or DVD is the next best method of transferring files.

4. Transfer the files over a network The next approach is to transfer the files to another laptop via a network. You would need to have some technical know-how to do this. What you do is to connect a wireless laptop to another wireless laptop, with a wireless router in-between.. You will need to ensure that the administration access rights, network protocol TCP (e.g. TCP/IP protocol), workgroup names are set up properly on the target machine. You also need to ensure that the “File Printer and Sharing Services” option is enabled. If you sharing a folder using Windows XP, make sure you select “Allow network users to change my files” in the options for the shared folder. Another option is to email the files, but if these are huge in size, then they might get blocked by the recipients email server. You can also implement a laptop to laptop connection using a cross-over Ethernet [wired] connection. This approach is supported by almost 99.99% of all laptops. Finally, you can also connect laptops to laptops using a standard Ethernet connection (connected to a hub or router). This is also a commonly used approach used to share and transfer files.

Conclusion Transferring files between laptops is clearly something that is important. This is usually quite easy to do. Make sure you are aware of the above tips, so that when the time arrives for you to transfer files to another laptop, you know exactly what to do.

Francua Smith is a good Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He will help you to choose your own good laptop computer.

Have you ever used a laptop in a warm or hot surroundings and get worried that it might overheat? I occasionally feel like my laptop is flaming hot and get worried that it may melt at anytime. This article runs through some tips for using your laptop in hot weather to make confident it doesn’t heat up overly much. Read on and allow your laptop to cool down when it needs to …

Tip 1: Hot Cars One of the most usual mistakes is to leave your laptop (or other mobile gear) in a hot car. Inside a hot automobile exposed to the sun, you will find your laptop heating up extraordinarily rapidly. Just like you won’t leave people or animals in the hot car, you shouldn’t leave your laptop in there either.

Tip 2: Safe Temperature Range Most laptops have a safe operating temperature range. This tends to be between 50 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 to 35 degrees Celsius. Make sure you normalize the temperature of the laptop before using it indoors or outdoors. For example, if you intend to use your laptop outdoors, warm it up slightly to the outside temperature before starting it up.

Tip 3: Humidity Remember another thing besides heat – the humidity. Humidity is the amount of moisture in the air and normally the appropriate range for laptops is 10 to 80%. If you have excessive humidity, you can have moisture forming on the laptop (or worse, its internal components). So beware of humidity.

Tip 4: Removable Hard Drive One of the most important tips is to store your important data in a removable hard drive. If you find your laptop operating in hot temperatures, it is always safer (and assuring) to know your data is backed up elsewhere.

Tip 5: Pack Wisely This point tends to be overlooked – packing of the laptop. Try to pack your laptop intelligently, and insulate it against heat, direct sunlight and moisture. A good, solid laptop case will also make confident the machine is well-protected.

Tip 6: Watch The Weather You should beware of the weather too. Severe storms and cause your laptop to malfunction, particularly whether it is not surge protected. Make confident your mobile gear includes a surge protector and a spare battery. The surge protector helps to shield your laptop from electrical surges. The spare battery is a backup in case your main battery gets damaged.

Tip 7: Use A Laptop Stand A laptop stand is increasingly more important as more and more folks turn to laptop usage. Ensure that you get a good model that can disperse heat that your laptop generates. The best ones include fans to help with the heat dissipation.

Conclusion Hopefully, the above tips have shown you a thing or two about how to protect and use your laptop in hot weather. Make sure you apply these tips the next time you are computing in a hot environment – it will go a long way towards protecting your investment.

Francua Smith is a wise Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He will help you to choose your own good laptop computer.

Have you ever wondered whether your laptop was going to fail? Perhaps you hear some bizarre noises arrival from the machine. Perhaps your laptop is taking overly long to boot up, or perhaps the screen is appearing kind of dim. In this article, we will take a see at some of the hazard signs that could mean your laptop needs to be upgraded or replaced.

1. Weird Hard Disk Noises This is the most worrying sign from a laptop – a claking, or loud whirring sound from the laptop hard disk drive. Usually, a whirring hard disk drive means that the drive is starting to falter or fail. You should immediately back up all your important data! I once heard such noises from the laptop hard drive and within 2 days, the disk had crashed. And this tell tale sign of hard drive failure is usually spot on – so please watch out for this one.

2. Dead Pixels In The Screen Usually, if you have dead pixels (unlit pixels) in the laptop screen, you can return them to the manufacturer to get a replacement laptop. This depends on the manufacturer’s policy though – some of them only replace the laptop if you have more than say, 9 dead pixels across the whole screen. If you suddenly see several dead pixels in the laptop screen, it usually points towards LCD monitor damage, so watch out for this.

3. Boot Up Takes Too Long This one is beautiful common. Usually I hear of folks’ whose laptops were good originally but later starting booting up very, really slowly (10 minutes or more). The number one culprit in such situations is a lot of startup bloatware. Make confident you uninstall any software you don’t need (excessive firewall or anti-virus programs cause a enormous delay in startup times). If you’ve done that and the boot up is still slow, you might want to re-install the operating system. Many laptops come with a recreation disk to make this an simple occupation (just make you back up your critical information and documents first).

3. Battery Power Runs Out Too Fast Yet another usual problem is a battery that runs out of juice within 10 minutes, even though it is fully charged. The problem here, fortunately, is normally with the battery unit and not the laptop itself. So in these circumstances, get yourself a fresh battery. In certain cases, it could be due to defective circuitry in the laptop body, though this is rare.

4. The Trackpad Fails If you have a trackpad that is suddenly responding sluggishly, then it is also a sign that you need your laptop navigation system replaced. Usually, if you use an external mouse, this might not be a problem, but many folks I know use the trackpad and it is immensely irritating if the trackpad fails. So watch out for this sign of laptop failure (and bring an external mouse just in case).

5. Memory Problems Laptop memory modules are also prone to failure. When you boot the laptop up, try to check the amount of memory (RAM) available in the machine. If you know your laptop has 2GB of RAM, then the boot up screen or BIOS should show 2GB of RAM. If it shows less, it means you have a faulty memory module – which slows down your system immensely.

The other way to check your laptop memory is to go to the Computer icon (in Windows Vista) and click on it. Next, click Help followed by About Windows. The amount of memory available to Windows should be displayed in the dialog box that pops up – make sure it tallies with your understanding of how much RAM you have.

Conclusion I hope this article has shown you 5 signs that could signal your laptop is going into critical, degradation mode. Watch out for these signs and try to prevent them where possible – it could save your laptop before it really crashes on you. Until next time, happy computing!

Francua Smith is a wise Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He will help you to choose your own wise laptop computer.

A appropriate laptop for today’s student would absolutely be the one that most closely fits his or her lifestyle both as an individual and as a occupied young adult who is struggling to construct the establishment for his or her future. In addition, the ordinary student (especially those in college), want a laptop that fits with their image of being hip, cool, or in. That makes the selection of a laptop rather hard indeed.

1. Overview When choosing a laptop suitable for today’s student, one must take into consideration many factors. For one thing, since the student will most likely want to carry the laptop from class to class, you must consider the weight of the laptop. If he or she carries a load of textbooks and articles all over campus on a regular basis, a lightweight laptop is more suitable. In addition, the most suitable laptop for college students must also have a long battery life and still be affordable enough to fit the often low student budget.

2. Low Budget Affordable Laptops Many students are low on finances and even those who have cash will naturally assume of better thinks to do with it. It stands to reason, therefore, that low budget laptops are fine ideas for most, whether not all, college students. “What is a low budget laptop in today’s high tech computer world and the economy?” you might ask. I would tell that any laptop under one thousand dollars is a low budget laptop. There are several fine manufacturers (Dell, Toshiba, HP and Sony) who carry budget laptops but my two favorites in this category are: The Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 which provides an AMD based dual nucleus CPU, a really big 200GB tough drive and more than enough input and output ports. The Sony VGN-NR160E/S features the Intel nucleus 2 Duo T5250 processor, 1.0GB of RAM and a fine size 160GB tough drive.

3. Thin and Light Laptops Thin and bright laptops are not necessarily the lightest in weight but I have discovered that most college students do not truly mind that at all. Lenovo, HP and Sony make thin and bright laptops that adapt into any college student’s budget as well as his or her backpack but my first two picks would be: The Sony VAIO VGN-FZ280E is thin and bright and comes with a Bluray compatible writer for flaming DVDs and CDs, an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and a enormous 250GB tough drive. The HP Pavilion DV6675US provides the Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 4GBs of RAM and 250GB of tough drive space.

4. Ultraportable Laptops The ultraportable laptops provide adequate performance in very small and very light packages usually weighing in at approximately three or less pounds. The ultra compact laptops tend to be somewhat pricier than the others but with a little shopping around they can still be found at the low budget range, albeit the upper limits of that range. I would vote for the Toshiba R500-S5001X which, at 2.4 pounds and less than one inch in thickness, is the most portable laptop on the market.

Conclusion Before I bid you fare well, allow me a moment to congratulate you for continuing your education and to wish you all the best with or without a laptop.

Francua Smith is a good Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He will help you to choose your own nice laptop computer.