5 Easily Overlooked Things That Can Damage Your Laptop

Laptops are among the most breakable things around. They aren’t breakable because they are fragile, though. If anything, laptop manufacturers make sure that laptop parts are encased in some of the hardiest computer chassis ever.

No; laptops are breakable because of their portable nature. After all, the more mobile something is, the more susceptible it is to outside forces. Often times, these outside forces even include user mishandling.

Below are five easily overlooked things that can surprisingly do a lot of damage to your laptop components. 

1.       Not providing adequate ventilation conditions

Laptop parts are housed in chassis that, if current trends continue, seem to be getting smaller and smaller. To counter this, said laptop parts are designed to be more efficient with their power-to-heat-generation ratio.

That said, heat is still generated. To that end, adequate ventilation has to be maintained, and this entails clearing the pathways for air to flow through, i.e. the laptops’ air vents.

 

The problem comes in when people place their laptops on collapsible “surfaces” (such as they are) like blankets. These tend to fold over and cover the vents, forcing the heat to accumulate inside the laptops and making them overheat.

2.       Too much shaking

While solid state drives are slowly but surely becoming the norm for laptops, many current ones are still equipped with hard drives. These HDs contain a lot of moving mechanical parts. When a laptop with an HD is shaken for prolonged periods, there is a very real danger of the HD’s parts moving too much, possibly leading to corrupted data; or worse, the HD itself being broken.

  

3.       Using the screen half of the laptop like a handle

Some people are just so irresponsible that they handle their stuff with less care than one would like them to. Some of them are just too filthy rich to care (although that doesn’t necessarily mean I condone their actions); but others are just unforgivably unaware.

And it doesn’t even stop at laptop screens. Some grab their laptops by one side of the chassis (increasing the chances for violent shaking, which leads to Item #2); while others shockingly dangle theirs via opened optical drives.

The only proper way to carry a laptop is with both hands, balancing the computer by carrying both its sides. Any other way is just asking for trouble.

  

4.       Cord-mangling

As many people whose “OC senses” tingle at the sight of tangled cords, there are probably just as many who couldn’t care less.

They should, though, because tangled cords do have a breaking point, after which they just become mangled. This is worse if the break occurs inside the wire and not out, since it could be a while before users can come to the conclusion that their laptops’ problems probably lie in severed connections.

  

5.       Foregoing a laptop bag

Finally, some people take laptop bags for granted, deeming them as mere accessories that most can do without. However, the fact of the matter is that laptops are meant to be taken outside; and when out, sufficient protection is an absolute necessity.

What’s in a Laptop LCD Screen?

 A laptop part that many people consider when buying a laptop is the LCD screen. There are four things to take note of when assessing a laptop screen’s ability to display images: Screen size, resolution, screen type, and graphics processor. Let’s break each factor down.

Screen Size

Laptops come in various shapes and sizes to accommodate as varied a range of user preferences as possible. Whether you’re a casual computer user who does a lot of travelling, a hardcore gamer who goes out to attend the occasional LAN party, or any kind of user in between, rest assured that somewhere out there is a laptop tailor-made just for you.

There are four major laptop categories, grouped according to size. The general rule of thumb is, the bigger a laptop is, the less portable, but more powerful its laptop components are. The smaller it is, the less powerful its laptop parts become, but it gains an advantage in portability.

Since laptop screens account for the whole top half of a laptop, it follows that a laptop’s size dictates its screen size as well. Screen size is measured diagonally. Many laptops now come with screens in a wide aspect ratio to accommodate a more cinematic display and/or to reduce the screen’s depth dimension (and therefore its overall size,lowering the cost of production).

From the largest to smallest, here are the four laptop categories and the common screen sizes they have:

·         Desktop replacements: 17” to 19”

·         Thin-and-lights: 14” to 16”

·         Ultraportables: 13.3” and below

·         Netbooks: 12” and below

Resolution

Screen resolution refers to the number of pixels that a screen is able to display. Basically, the more pixels a screen can show, the sharper the image will be since more pixels equals finer individual image points.

Think of it like this: Usually, the farther you are from an image, the more defined it is; but as you get closer, you begin to see individual colors (or image points) that make up the whole picture. Now, if these image points were smaller (meaning there were more of them that made up the whole picture), then you’d have to go pretty damn close before the image broke up again into distinguishable image points. That’s how pixels in LCD screens work.

Most widescreen LCD’s give a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768, which is par for the course. If a laptop LCD can go beyond that (preferably the hi-def standard of 1920 x 1080), all the better.

Screen Type

Most people aren’t aware of this, but there are two common variants of LCD panels commonly used in laptops today. The first is TN (Twisted Nematic), which is cheaper to produce and has faster refresh rates. The other is IPS (In-Plane Switching), which offer better color density and wider viewing angles. The pros of one are the cons of the other.

Refersh rate refers to a screen’s ability to switch from image frame to image frame. The faster it is, the smoother the video moves. If it dips below standard speeds, screen-tearing ensues. Color density refers to the amount of colors an LCD can display onscreen at the same time. Finally, viewing angles means how well you can see an image in its full splendor when you’re not exactly front-and-center.

Graphics Processor

Finally, we have graphics processing units (GPUs), or video cards. The two major manufacturers of GPUs are AMD and NVIDIA. Video cards from each company have their own strengths and weaknesses best detailed in another article. The bottom line is that if you’re not the type of user who plays video games or watches hi-def media content a lot, then the GPU your laptop has really doesn’t matter much. If, however, you use graphics-heavy programs like the aforementioned video games, Blu-ray players, Photoshop, and the like, then GPU choice should factor into your decision.