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Laptop Care

Operate your laptop on a safe and stable environment. Do not place on uneven or unstable work surfaces. Placing you laptop on the floor where it can be stepped on or kicked should also be avoided. Seek servicing if the casing has been damaged. Keep your computer centered on your desk. It should not hang off the edge.

Keep liquids away from your laptop. As tempting as it might be to drink coffee, soda or any other liquid near your laptop, accidents can happen all too easily. Spilled liquids may damage the internal components or cause electrical injury to the laptop. Short circuits can corrupt data or even permanently destroy parts. The solution is very simple: Keep your drinks away from your computer. Even if you're careful, someone else might bump into your desk or you.

Protect the screen (LCD) and body of your laptop. Do not place or drop objects on top and do not shove any foreign objects into the Notebook PC. When you shut your laptop, make sure there are no small items, such as a pencil or small ear-phones, on the keyboard. These can damage the display screen when shut; the screen will scratch if the item is rough. Close the lid gently and holding from the middle. Closing the lid using only one side causes pressure on that hinge, and over time can cause it to bend and snap.

Keep food away from your laptop. Don't eat over your laptop. The crumbs can go down between the keys in the keyboard and provide an invitation to small bugs. The crumbs can also irritate the circuitry. Worse, it makes the laptop look dirty if there are crumbs and food stains on it. Always have clean hands when using your laptop. Clean hands make it easier to use your laptop touchpad and there will be less risk of leaving dirt and other stains on the computer. In addition, if you clean your hands before use, you will help reduce wear and tear on the coating of the laptop caused by contact with sweat and small particles that can act upon the laptop's exterior underneath your wrists and fingers.

Protect the LCD display monitor. When you shut your laptop, make sure there are no small items, such as a pencil or small ear-phones, on the keyboard. These can damage the display screen when shut; the screen will scratch if the item is rough. Close the lid gently and holding from the middle. Closing the lid using only one side causes pressure on that hinge and over time can cause it to bend and snap. Do not press or touch the display panel. Do not place together with small items that may scratch or enter the Notebook PC.

Don't expose your laptop to rapid temperature fluctuations. When bringing your laptop indoors from a cold environment, don't turn it on immediately. Instead, let it warm to room temperature first. This will avoid any potential for damage to the disk drive from condensation forming inside the machine.

Don't pull on the power cord. Tugging your power cord out from the power socket rather than putting your hand directly on the plug in the socket and pulling can break off the plug or damage the power socket. Also, if you have the power point near your feet, avoid constantly bumping into the plug or you could loosen it and eventually break it. Do not expose to strong magnetic or electrical fields.

Don't roll your chair over the computer cord. Stick the cord onto your desk with tape or a special computer cord tie which can be easily undone when you've finished using the laptop. Always try to keep most of the cord away from the floor or your legs; sometimes you can be so engrossed in what you're doing that you move your legs and forget the cord is there.

Hold and lift the computer by its base, not by its LCD display (the screen). If you lift it by the screen part alone, you could damage the display or the hinges attaching it to the base. The display is also easily scratched or damaged by direct pressure – avoid placing pressure on it.

Use a properly-sized laptop case. Whatever you use to carry your laptop around in, be it a case, a bag or something you have made yourself, make sure that it is large enough to contain the laptop. This will avoid scratching, squeezing or even potentially dropping it. Use your SSIS laptop bag when carrying your laptop. Many breaks happen because of laptops being dropped or bumped. A bag greatly reduces the risk of damage.

Care Tips

  • Don’t place anything between the screen and keyboard when you close the computer.
  • Be careful with your charger. Don’t roll over, step on or “yank” the cord. Keep your charger in a separate area from your laptop. If you carry your charger in your laptop case, be careful when you lay your laptop case down. Be sure the charger is on the top to keep the screen from cracking.
  • Do not pick at your laptop keys or remove them for any reason.
  • Don't leave a pen or pencil on your laptop when you close it.
  • Condition your laptop battery, meaning charge and drain your battery a few times when you first get it.
  • Use a soft cotton cloth, such as a handkerchief, moistened with non-alkaline detergent to clean your computer.
  • Do not place your laptop on a pillow or other soft material when it's on, because this may block the airflow vents on the bottom of the laptop and cause the computer to overheat.
  • When using your laptop or charging the battery, it is normal for the bottom of the case to get warm. For extended use, place the computer on a hard flat surface. The bottom of the laptop case acts as a cooling surface that transfers heat.


Taking care of your laptop at home

  • Be sure to store the laptop in a safe place and be sure nothing is stacked or thrown on top of the laptop case.
  • Place your laptop on a sturdy work surface clear of all food, drink, and sharp obstacles.
  • Plug in your power adapter then open and power up your laptop.
  • Be sure to unplug your laptop if there is an electrical storm.
  • IF YOU HAVE A WIRELESS NETWORK AT HOME, YOU MAY NEED TO SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER WHEN YOU FINISH WITH IT AT NIGHT AND RESTART YOUR COMPUTER WHEN YOU GET TO SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY. This keeps the computer from getting confused as to which network it is on.


Keep the notebook free of dust and crumbs. Dust can cause a notebook to overheat. Use a can of compressed air to blow dust away from ports and the keyboard. Wash hands before touching the keyboard to avoid dirty or sticky keys. Invest in a microfiber cloth to clean the LCD screen.

Portables risk losing data. Stored data is the notebook’s most important commodity. A good rule of thumb: Protect valuable data by backing it up to an external USB drive, or a CD or DVD if possible. Any hard drive (the laptop’s most sensitive part) can go bad — through no fault of the user — at any time and without warning. Back up, back up, back up work you cannot live without. SSIS provides iFolder, which will automatically backup your files to our servers, but this should never be your only backup.

Fragmented files slow down performance. As modern file systems are used and as files are deleted and created, the total free space in the notebook’s memory splits into smaller, noncontiguous blocks. Eventually, newly created files and extended old files can no longer reside in a single, contiguous block. They scatter across the system. This degrades performance because multiple seek operations are required to access one fragmented file.

3,000 viruses threaten PC notebooks daily. Protect against viruses. You must make sure virus definitions are up-to-date. Please check this weekly by right-clicking on the Avira Antivir icon in the system tray and selecting “Start update”.