How to Increase Your Laptop Life?

As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases. Our posts may include affiliate links, at no extra cost to you.

Whenever we decide to buy a laptop, there is always a thought that it should be a durable laptop that can perform our daily tasks for a more extended period. Whether purchasing a laptop for everyday office work or playing high graphics games, spending money on gadgets is always a huge deal.

It does not mean that if we buy a costly notebook and expect it will have a longer life. Laptop build matters a lot for its life span, but besides that, many other factors are directly linked with the life of a laptop. As laptops are more portable, we often carry them for routine work, so they face more tear and wear than desktop computers.

It can be challenging to buy a new laptop every second year. If we use our old laptop with care, its life expectancy can increase by more than five years. In this article I will share some tips based on my experience to improve your laptop life.

Related: MSI Most Powerful & Durable Gaming Laptop

7 Easy Ways to Increase Laptop Life

1. Prevent Laptop from Overheating

Overheating is the primary cause that often reduces laptop life. We cannot stop a laptop from heating; when we play a game or do some graphics work using heavy software, our laptop will generate heat. It’s a normal process, but if our laptop is getting too hot, there must be an abnormality, and we need to fix it as soon as possible.

If your laptop is getting too hot, there is a problem with your laptop fan. It is not working as it should. Generally, with time dust particles accumulate at the fan’s blades, which will exert pressure on the fan blades, reducing their efficiency. An average fan speed of a laptop should be 3000-4000 RPM, but when dust piles up on fan blades, it will limit its speed to sometime 1000-1500 RPM, which will not be enough to maintain your laptop’s temperature at an optimum level.

Sometimes dust particles accumulate in spaces between the keyboard buttons, causing an increase in laptop temperature.

Also Read: Turn on Your Gateway Laptop without the Power button

Tips to keep your laptop temperature optimum

  1. Do not place your laptop on the bed while using it, as the matrix of your bed will not allow dissipation of the heat.
  2.  If you need to use your laptop on the bed, you should buy a bed table. It will help keep your laptop cool and provide you with the benefit of a better posture.
  3. Keep your workplace clean, so the dust cannot accumulate in the fan blades.
  4. Do not use your laptop in direct sunlight.
  5. You can also install a cooling tool to adjust the speed of your laptop fan to keep the laptop cooler. Popular tools are Speedfan, KAR Energy Software, and i-Cool.
  6. Make sure you use your laptop in a place with proper ventilation.

Read also: Do Laptops Stands are effective in Cooling?

2. Unplug the Laptop After a Complete Charge

Plugging in the charging cable all the time is another major mistake committed by many of us. If we plug in the charging cable all the time, it will create undesired stress on the laptop battery

Battery University suggests that if we want to increase the life of lithium batteries, we should charge them up to 80%, and then they should be a drain to 40%.

If a battery is fully charged, it will have 300-500 discharge cycles, but if a battery is charged 70-80%, it will have up to 1200 charge cycles.

3. Keep your Laptop Clean

If you are a regular laptop user, it might be difficult to clean your laptop daily. If you don’t clean your laptop, you must clean it after a specific period.

As we discussed earlier, dust particles clog the pores, causing difficulty for your laptop to breathe. Cleaning a laptop does not require any extra effort.

You can simply clean your laptop with the help of compressed air. You can point compressed air towards laptop ports, cooling vents, and spaces between keyboards. With a few bursts of air, your laptop will be free from dust particles.

Cleaning your laptop periodically will increase your laptop life and help improve the laptop’s performance. Moreover, it always feels pleasure while using a neat and clean gadget.

Also Read: Clear Your Laptop Screen from Pressure Marks

4. Don’t Eat or Drink around your Laptop

It is not a good idea to use a laptop while eating or drinking soup. There is always a possibility of falling food or liquid on the keyboard.

This food or liquid can reach your laptop motherboard through the spaces present between the keys of the keyboard. They can cause permanent damage hence reducing the laptop’s life.

So it would help if you placed your laptop aside while having a meal or drinking juice. If it is necessary to eat or drink while using a laptop by any means, you should use a silicone cover over keyboards as a preventive measure. It will help the keyboard and internal hardware components in case of accidental falling of food or a liquid.

5. Use Laptop Bag while Travelling Around

A laptop bag can protect your laptop from scratches or breakage. Today Anti-Theft Backpacks are popular and considered a valuable investment while traveling around. These backpacks provide some extra features that normal backpacks don’t have.

The durable designs of their zippers and clips are enough to stop thieves from getting into your bag. Moreover, these Anti-Theft bags consists of RFID Blockers known as Radio-frequency identification.

Your Bank cards have chips, and they work on a specific frequency. If your bag has RFID blockers and works on a specific frequency, it would be difficult for thieves to access your gadgets.

6. Install an Antivirus and Perform a Regular Scan

You should install an Antivirus on your laptop to protect it from Malware attacks. Today lot of Free and Paid Antiviruses are available. In many cases, Free antiviruses are enough to meet the requirements.

After installing an Antivirus, you should perform a Regular scan after a certain period. Moreover, it would be good to keep your antivirus database up to date because it can catch new malware/virus definitions after updating.

7. Keep System Software Update

If you are using a Windows laptop, you should allow automatic updates. Normally an update contains security fixes and driver updates which will help your laptop to run smoother and faster.

Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter are other programs that lower the stress on your laptop. Disk Cleanup will remove all the unwanted files from your laptop that you don’t need anymore. Disk Defragmenter recognizes all the data present in the hard drive and helps to put the same type of data together.

For mac users, most of the work is automated. The operating system automatically updates the software and apps. It is better to remove any unwanted apps. It releases the burden on your laptop, which will help your laptop to provide you with a better user experience.

Read also: Make your Laptop Screen a Projector

Verdict

Well, it’s not too difficult to extend the lifespan of our laptop. We have discussed many important factors, from periodic laptop cleaning to keep the system updated. The most important precaution to increase laptops life is to prevent your laptop from overheating. By following the simple guidelines mentioned above, we can extend the life of our laptop up to 4-5 years.

FAQs

If you are using a laptop that allows you to adjust the speed of your laptop manually, you can adjust it in BIOS/UEFI. Otherwise, you can use Speedfan, KAR Energy Software, and i-Cool to adjust the speed of your laptop’s fan.

Normally a laptop has a lifespan of 3 to 5 years. After that, it will be obsolete. If it lasts for 10 or more years, it will not be compatible with advanced applications.

When we asked this question to people, most people replied with the Lenovo Thinkpad Series. Lenovo Thinkpad T480 takes the crown in that case due to its durable and indestructible built quality.

Hi, I am Richard, a computer enthusiast. I love exploring innovations in tech. I am primarily an expert in exploring laptops, keyboards, and mice. I love to share my experience with gadgets and help people to resolve issues regarding their daily laptop use. I spend a lot of time generating an authentic analysis.