Laptops price have significantly dropped over the years and you can easily get a cheap laptop in no time. Still, if you want to heavy duty, fully loaded system, they are still quite expensive. You don’t want to blow your investment by not properly feeding and caring your laptop. For the caring part, read the following recommendations and protect your laptop.
Keep your portable computer safe
Watch out! One of the major reasons people lose themselves with guilt and contemplation over their laptop is when they tangle themselves to the laptop’s power cord and trip over, tossing the laptop off the desk. Something of a memory you don’t want. This is especially more likely if you plug it in a public place like cafe, restaurant, airport etc. Suddenly both you or another person will realises what has just happened when the laptop makes surprising sound of getting wrecked on the floor.
Safe storage
If you are not going to use your laptop for a while or something, store it in a safe, cool place (not the freezer!) will make it your long time companion. A high quality case for your laptop worth the investment, especially one with enough padding. This protects your machine on daily basis when you are travelling to your home to office or anywhere with it.
You are also able to protect the machine from battery leakage, especially with the removable batteries, by simply removing the battery from the device and keeping it somewhere safe. Whether it is removable or not, it is incredibly a good idea to charge the battery half way and occasionally fully charge.
Travel advice
If you happen to travel a lot with your buddy (laptop), keep an extra eye out for it and take the necessary measures to safe guard it against fishy gentlemen out there. Backpack with well padding is a great pick for your laptop for travelling and seems less tempting to the want-to-be gentlemen. Yet, watch out for some of the bag which is visually appealing, can draw attention. Make sure you have necessary accessories and modules with you like spare batteries, AC adapters and so on. If you have a CD-ROM, remove any optical disk out of it. Top of checklist, MUST backup all of your data before leaving the home.
Always make sure to leave the laptop with a little power and not completely drained the battery. For instance, inside an airport you might have to prove this is a laptop by turning it on. Failing to do so in heightened security airport may either prevent you from getting on-board or you have to leave the laptop behind. Also, if you have to go through the x-ray, request a manual checkup. This is in case, you did not make it before the laptop made it to the other side, anyone can pick it up and there goes your laptop!
In a foreign country, beware of the electricity. In USA, most of the power outlet is of ~115-V while most of the world have ~230-V outlets. Although, most of the portables now come in with auto-switching power supplies. This power supply automatically detect the voltage coming out of the outlet and adjust itself to that rate. People also call it charger. You will find the the input voltage rate on the power brick. For instance, my power supply rates 100 – 240V. This is the limit. Above this, may damage or toast your motherboard or other vital component.
Security flash
If someone has a crush on your laptop, they will find ways to steal it from you. Still there are somethings you can check and make to keep your device safe from your end. The very first thing is to disguise it and make it look cheap rather than “Dude! Look at my 50 inch Mac Book Pro!”. The joke won’t do you any good than harm. The joke will be on you.
One of the best physical security measures is to have a laptop lock. It comes with a cable. Whose one end has a loop and other end a lock. You can lock it down to solid object. Another alternative is software tracking system which uses GPS. This won’t prevent from getting theft but can lead you to be a detective and recover it.
These are the very common look-outs you can look out for, no pun intended and can save you from ‘gotcha’ so soon.