A laptop is an expensive piece of hardware that is quite often poor to damage mainly due to the fact that owners do not usually know how to keep it out of harm's way. In this article I will teach you how to take care of your laptop in order to make sure you will be able to enjoy it for years.
Many of the laptop's problems are generated by the things that make it attractive for buyers in the first place: its compact size and the fact that it's by definition a portable device. Due to the fact that the laptop case is so small, all its internal components are stuck close together inside with little to no room around them. This generates a big problem when it comes to cooling and having a good air flow around the components. With time, heat causes irreparable damage to all the sensitive electronics inside the computer.
So, the first thing to get after buying a new laptop is a good quality cooling pad. The pad is nothing more than a slim board with a couple of fans in it that sets underneath the laptop. I suggest you buy a cooling pad that draws its power from the laptop itself via a USB port. This ensures that your laptop will remain a portable machine and not become dependent on a plug for the cooling pad.
Dust and minute sand particles are a real danger for your laptop. Dust is sucked into the casing by the coolers and quickly gathers on the internal circuits. This clogs them up and makes them overheat even more. Make sure to keep your laptop on a clean table and also clean the cooling pad regularly. You should also take your computer for a thorough internal cleaning to an authorized service center once a year.
Laptop casings are usually made out of black plastic. Needless to say this visits sun rays like a magnet which will in time deteriorate the fragile case. So make sure you do not leave your machine in direct sun light (a balcony, the dashboard of your car, or even a table that gets a lot of direct sunlight daily).
Laptops are also sensitive to shock. The hard drive is especially fragile and the disks inside it can get quickly damaged if the computer gets trashed around. A good option to consider is buying a laptop with SSD hard disks. The SSD has no moving parts and can take any kind of punishment without getting damaged.