How to keep your laptop running smoothly

Many people ask the question – what is the lifespan of a laptop? – What they do not realise is that this question does not have an exact answer; it all depends on how you maintain your laptop and the type of laptop you use. The average lifespan of a laptop is 4-5 years, but whether it runs for this long all depends on several factors.

By the end of the 4 years, the battery has been uncared for, keys may be missing, the screen could be cracked and the laptop may not be the smooth running laptop it was before. However, there are ways to look after your laptop to increase its lifespan for a few years more.

Keep your laptop cool – you may have noticed your laptop has a tendency to overheat, sometimes to the point where it warms your legs. To prevent this from happening you should check your laptop fans are working and clear the air vents on the outside.

General spring clean – unused files, folders and programs take up space and this will slow down your laptop as a result. Firstly, start with a disk clean-up, removing everything in the recycle bin and deleting temporary files. Laptops run more efficiently when the memory utilisation is between 30%-60%. You should also move files and program shortcuts from your desktop to specific folders as this will increase the machine start-up time

Battery care – to start with, you should never let your laptop battery run all the way down to 0%. When your laptop is on, avoid running too many programs at once and dim your screen to save your battery life. When you are not using your laptop, use hibernate mode rather than sleep or standby and turn off hardware, such as an external mouse and your Wi-Fi receiver when not in use.

All these factors should enhance the lifespan of your laptop.

Posted: 10/07/2013