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How to Care for Your Laptop’s Battery

When you buy a laptop, you undoubtedly want it to work for you for a long time. Unlike the phone, which changes every few years, many people are not interested in replacing their personal computers. What do you think is the reason for this? As the saying goes: “As long as it works, why should I change it?”

Laptop care has many similarities to car care. You can use this equipment for many years with proper maintenance, use, and care. Forgetting important factors such as cleaning up and applying the updates provided can cause problems for your device and be nerve-wracking.

If you also want to maintain your beloved laptop for a long time, it is not bad to read the following articles about seven essential maintenance methods in a month. Of course, doing these methods alone is not guaranteed to extend your laptop’s life because other factors such as the different performance of different brands are also effective in reducing this issue. So please fasten your seat belts and get your car ready to go; we will get acquainted with the compassionate care procedures required for a travel laptop on the road.

1. Clean the laptop hard drive by deleting old files

It does not matter if you use your laptop for work or pleasure. There are undoubtedly many files in it that are unused.

These files may include photos you have already downloaded from Facebook, songs you no longer want to hear, or installation files in your downloads folder.

Before starting the cleanup operation, ensure that the items you want to delete are not in the “vital” folders where the system files are located. These files are usually in your Windows System32 folder.

2. Clean and tidy your desktop with Windows or Mac.

Crowded desktops do not have a good view. We almost all agree on this. You can tidy up your desktop using simple tricks. You know that by selecting and dragging an icon on the screen, you can arrange them in order, but this takes a lot of time, and it is much better to do the sorting operation with more rest with your mouse.

Fortunately, there are options for organizing your desktop on Windows and Mac operating systems.

In Windows, you can do this with a simple right-click on the desktop. Next, using the Sort by option and selecting one of the options Name (by name), Size (by volume), File type (by file type), or Date modified (by creation date) Desktop icons Arrange. If you select the Name option, the icons are sorted by name in alphabetical order. By clicking on this option, all the icons will be placed next to each other in a row, after which the programs you want to stay or delete will be easily recognizable.

On a Mac, all you have to do is right-click or use a combination of the command and click buttons to open a Clean Up menu. Clicking on this option will automatically sort the icons on the desktop.

If the Clean Up option does not appear after right-clicking, it may be because your system has arranged the icons differently. Click on Desktop and select View from the menu, then select Sort by tapping Sort by.

3. Clear cookies and cache or cache of your browser

This step plays an important role in increasing the speed and security of your laptop (and browser). Even a simple internet browsing can lead to many cookies in your system browser, so taking the time to clear these cookies is not without merit.

There are different browsers, each with different methods for clearing temporary files and cookies. Of course, we have explained how to clean most of these browsers and the importance of doing so in previous articles.

Since most of our readers use the Google Chrome browser, it is not bad to review how to do this operation in this popular browser.

Click the three-dot icon at the top right corner of the browser to get started. Then, click on Settings and scroll down. You can see more details from the menu by selecting the Advanced option. Scroll down again and find the Clear Browsing Data option. This option will clear cookies, cache, and even browser history.

You can also make time settings to allow the browser to perform a clean-up operation according to the defined time; just as a precaution, keep some essential parts of the browser history that you may need.

4- Clean the screen and keyboard (of course, with the right tools!)

After we’ve cleaned up the laptop digitally, it’s time to look at its hardware cleanup. Underestimating the issue of cleaning your personal computer in principle can have devastating consequences for the system and its durability. Imagine how many bread crumbs, dead skin cells, and dust particles fit into your keyboard holes!

Now think about how these pollutants accumulate over several years. Not an interesting picture.

You can prevent this contamination by doing a brief search on reputable computer cleaning products. These products are suitable for use on laptops and personal computers and are structured so that they do not damage sensitive parts of your system.

The best option is to use a monitor wipe to clean the screen. These wipes contain a certain amount of moisturizer and do not damage your screen, and can also increase the clarity of the image.

5. Clean the ports

Laptop ports, like keyboards, can get a lot of dust and dirt over the years.

As you all know, there are different types of ports in a laptop (except for the new MacBooks, which only have USB-C ports). Each of these ports has a different shape, so clean each one. They can challenge novices.

You should have an air spray if you’ve followed the instructions so far. Like the keyboard cleaning operation, the air spray plays an important and colorful role here and removes all the dust and dirt inside the ports safely without the slightest contact.

Of course, the safety of using air spray depends on how you use it. The instructions can say such details, but it is worth noting that the compressed air coming from the spray is very cold. If done at very close distances, spraying air temporarily creates a layer of moisture on that surface.

Most compressed air manufacturers offer a narrow tube next to their product to help distribute the airflow properly, although not all brands have this feature. To clean the ports in the safest way possible, make sure that the tip of the spray tube is at a distance from the port before spraying air, and press the spray gently for more control.

6- Check the laptop camera and microphone

Of course, not every laptop is equipped with this hardware, but these components are increasingly used as common components in personal computers today. Having these tools is very important for communicating with friends, and even for bloggers or YouTubers, they are considered income-generating tools.

To keep these parts clean, you can wipe the camera lens with the cloth we mentioned in the previous articles and use a soft, dry cloth to clean the microphone. Never use compressed air to clean the microphone, as this will transfer all dust and contaminants into it and cause it to malfunction.

Today, privacy and security are among the mental concerns of most of us. Of course, these issues are not a concern for industry leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, and you can read his comments by clicking here. Of course, Zuckerberg does not deny that there are people who misuse a laptop camera and use it for espionage.

Under normal circumstances, the microphone and the laptop camera do not pose a threat to you, but to ease your mind, it is better to cover them. To do this, you can make a sticker the size that covers the entire surface of the camera. We recommend using 3D labels, as you can easily remove them whenever you change your mind.

7- Update laptop software and middleware

One of the most important ways to increase the life and security of your system is to use this trick. And what is certain is that as the system goes viral, the life and performance of your laptop will decline.

To combat stubborn hackers and cybercriminals, software and hardware providers constantly update their products to maximize system security. Even if some of these updates are not very interesting, they should not affect the implementation of security operations.

Older or outdated operating systems also need these updates, so it’s not too late to do so if you’re one of those people who still adhere to the “new features” principle. Keep in mind that this is a critical operation.

To update in Windows 10, click on the Windows icon at the bottom left of the screen, select Settings, and enter the Update & Security section. The latest updates and patches provided for your system are displayed in this menu.

First, open the App Store app on a Mac and then click Updates on the left side. This will show all the available updates that Mac can download.

Keep your system up to date and see how it improves performance over time. It’s one of the strongest defenses against security breaches, and doing it consistently is very helpful in preventing emerging threats that have a detrimental effect on your system.

Tricks to increase battery life

Trick number one – Turn your laptop upside-down and let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes every day.

Many people ignore this issue.

Excessive heat and damaging your processor (and laptop) are also harmful to the device’s battery.

A high-temperature battery has a much shorter lifespan than a cooler one.

It is best to watch the temperature rise when working with a laptop and keep in mind that this care is essential to extend the life of your device.

According to the Battery University website, the best way to protect your battery is to keep it cool.

If you keep the temperature of your laptop between 32-55 degrees, the device’s battery loses only 4% of its total charge after three months.

Trick number two – do not let the laptop battery be fully charged

Have you heard about the 40/80 rule?

This rule is more common in nickel batteries, according to which you should always keep your battery charge between 40 and 80%.

Although this rule does not apply to new lithium batteries, it is generally a good general guide to battery protection. For longer battery life, try to keep the charge as much as possible.

And if it is 100% charged, disconnect the charger immediately. Of course, most of us usually do this, and now you realize that doing so increases battery health.

Trick # 3 – Discharge the battery properly to recharge

Instead of waiting for the lithium batteries to charge to zero percent, you can improve the performance of these batteries by recharging them just before they reach zero.

Battery University research shows that the best time to recharge a battery is when it has reached 50%, and this rate has a greater impact on battery life than short-term (90%) or long-term (0%) recharge ranges. . (Recharging the battery after 50% discharge is the best way to use it.)

Trick # 4 – Completely drain the battery once a month

(This trick may contradict what has been said before, but trust what we have to say.)

Lithium batteries should not be completely discharged before recharging; most new batteries, called “smart batteries,” can tell you how long they will last. (For example, “2 hours and 15 minutes left”)