At Noteb.com our main concern is helping you find the right notebook for your needs and budget. How you handle your newly acquired gaming machine or your fresh office companion should not be our concern. However, since we’ve put our famous search engine in place, people have been asking us questions pertaining accessories, bags and recommended software.
We don’t sell any of these and never will, but we can assemble a brief list of hardware and software advice that will help you keep your notebook cool and clean. If you’re a power user, you won’t really find any novelties on this list, but if your notebook smells like new, you might want to take a look! Don’t take them as imperatives, but as mere guidelines that we will not be held accountable for, but will write anyway.
On the Hardware Side
1.Keep It Steady
The first step to avoid overheating, dust collection, and potential accidents is keeping your laptop on a firm and hard surface. We know this advice sounds redundant, but even if your notebook is an ultrathin aluminum marvel, every bit of cooling helps. If you must use it as a “lap top”, try to avoid keeping it on your lap too much . Buy a special support or portable table that you can find in both computer and furniture stores. Some fanless cooling pads will even incline your machine a little, for extra heat dissipation.
2. Keep It Cool
Speaking of pads, do cooling pads work? Even better: do expensive cooling pads work? Not only will these “marvels of technology” increase the weight of your backpack, most of them won’t really do much for your performance either. Surely, the extra airflow will make your experience a bit more comfortable, but it will rarely help with the internal strain. If your notebook has conveniently placed intake fans, if it can’t dissipate heat well enough or if it’s made out of conductive materials (such as aluminium), a cooling pad will deduct a few degrees from its running temperature. However, most of the time, using a proper support and choosing the right kind of machine for your workload is a much better advice.
3. Keep it Dry
If you have to clean your laptop, and trust us, you have to, use a compressed air can for its fans and keyboard and a dry cloth for the screen (preferably made out of microfiber and with anti-static properties). Don’t use alcohol based substances to clean the screen and, if possible, say no to “specialized” products. Your screen already features protective coating and your keyboard doesn’t really need a drink. Also, note that you shouldn’t use any type of cloth on exposed boards and circuitry, if your notebook allows access to them. It might sound unachievable, but try to use your notebook in dust-free environments.
4. Keep it Powered
Many will recommend periodically unplugging your notebook from the power outlet, so the battery can run a few power cycles on its own. While this is advisable from time to time, especially if you use your laptop as a desktop replacement, you shouldn’t really perform the famous “full reset cycles” (formatting or priming) on the battery. Draining the power to 0% and then trying to raise it to 100% can wear out the Li-Ion cells. Just unplug the notebook from time to time and then plug it back in.
5. Keep it Together
If overheating and fan noise become a serious issues, you might want to think of thoroughly cleaning your notebook. For this, we recommend enlisting the help of an authorized or local service (if the warranty allows it), or simply do it yourself, by using lots of care and an official manual or guide. Beside the cleaning methods explained above, you will want to remove the HDD, Ram and fan covers and clean the exposed components. Furthermore, if we’re talking about an older notebook, changing the CPU paste and cleaning the computer’s insides with isopropyl rubbing alcohol might also be required. Again, use this on the inside parts, as advised by a guide or professional, and avoid using alcohol on the screen.
On the Software Side
1.Keep it Lightweight
The ideal “start-up” grid for a new notebook? System software and a lightweight antivirus. Don’t bother with quick start, cleaning, or optimization software. Use them sparingly and don’t cause additional strain to your CPU or HDD. They don’t need to start once you’re your computer does. Messaging software and cloud computing apps should also be running only when required.
2. Keep it Tidy
While constant defragmentation and “hard disk optimization” might have been all the rage back on Windows XP, most modern HDDs don’t require that much maintenance. That’s why it’s ok to disable or change the frequency of Windows’s own maintenance processes. If you happen to have an SSD on-board, defragmenting is strictly forbidden (luckily, most modern versions of Windows won’t let you do that, since they have their own optimization routines, but older software might). Also, SSD drives should not be indexed or used as virtual memory depositories and neither should they become an endless collection of restore points. The less unnecessary writes, the longer the SSD’s life. Also, a SSD works best when it features a decent amount of free space. You do need to perform some sort of maintenance and junk file cleaning from time to time, but don’t abuse it.
3. Keep it Up to Date
We’re not going to lecture you on the importance of updates, but we will lecture you on the importance of updates. Seriously: keep your operating system up to date and, if possible, do the same for your most important drivers (if they’re new enough, you won’t need any “driver updating” software for that, since Windows will often include them as direct or optional updates).
4. Keep it Backed-Up
Since we promised not to recommend specific software, all we can say is that a secure cloud back-up or an external drive one should be enough. You can manually copy the desired content, or use a specific software that might also offer the possibility of properly backing-up registry entries and installed applications.
5. Keep an Eye on It
A tracking software solution might seem a bit much for some, but such solutions don’t usually occupy too much space or memory and they won’t nag you with unnecessary pop-ups or ads. If you happen to be running a legal copy of Windows 10, simply enable Find My Device from the Updates & security tab, under the Settings Section.
There’s plenty more to tell the owner of a new laptop, but the best actual advice we can give you is simply buy the notebook that best fits your needs and budget, rather than an overpowered beast or an underpowered beauty. If you’re not sure about that, we might know a website that can help…
P.S: While we’d like to see how a machine that small would handle, the notebook from the image is actually a small mirror and this is its source.
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