Avoid these bad habits on your PC

Avoid these bad habits on your PC

Nothing lasts forever, particularly technology, but your PC can last for many years if you manage it correctly.

These are the worst things you can do to a PC without even realizing you're doing it wrong.

1. Ignore the drawbacks of overheating

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Heat is the deadly enemy of your PC.

If you use your PC intensely, the processor can slow down, throttling to sustain reasonable temperatures, or even shutting down completely.

Performance at high temperatures for long periods of time can shorten the life of your processor, fans and set, not to mention that makes your PC loud and crackling to the touch.

For desktop PCs, the alternative is convenient Simple: Make sure your room has a convenient breeze flow, with enough vents and fans to keep clear air moving through the elements.

Keep it away from narrow cabinets and other spaces that trap heat.

The portable PCs, on the other hand, need a bit much more caution.

Its portability creates several bad habits, like putting it on a blanket or other fluffy area.

This disables downwind flow from the notebook and possibly through the laptop (if the cover covers the vents).

Whenever possible, use your notebook on a flat area (where the rubber feet generally lift it off the desk), or at the very least make sure your lap is clear of blankets and other things that might impair fluid flow. wind.

Lap desks are an acceptable way to support keeping things cool.

Other than that, exactly the same rules apply to notebooks as they do to desktops: don't leave them in hot places (like a car on a sunny day), and occasionally blow dust out.

If you overclock, be careful enough to monitor those voltages and temperatures.

It's also always a great idea to monitor the temperature of the central processing unit just in case.

2. Letting dirt, dust and liquids run wild

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Each and every PC gathers a little dust over time, heating up the media and making the fans work that much harder.

While cleaning it regularly can help, you also want to prevent things from getting into your PC in the first place.

To serve as an example, cigarette smoke and pet fur will exacerbate these issues, and putting your desktop PC on the floor will ensure that a lot more dust, hair, and debris are drawn in through the doorway.

And if you have a mat on the floor, it's probably blocking the power supply intake fan.

Support your PC on a desk or other high place, if feasible, and make sure there are filters on your intake fans.

Next, don't eat or drink near your PC, or at least be careful when you do.

Getting crumbs on the keyboard is not only disgusting, but it can also damage the switches or make some keys rather difficult to depress.

And I'm sure you've heard enough horror stories about people pouring coffee into their laptops, which can destroy it.

Even fairly premeditated moves, like cleaning the screen with Windex, have the potential to get liquid where it shouldn't (in addition to this, Windex is pretty hard on your monitor). Spray your screen detergent slowly on a microfiber cloth, not on the screen, and it won't go away, a bit goes a long way.

3. Driving your laptop without caution

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While desktop PCs have the pomp to sit comfortably in your office, notebooks are subject to all kinds of abuse.

And the more you abuse it, the more likely it is that you will do little damage.

I've seen people pick up laptops by the screen, open the hinge on the side with great force, and throw their PC onto the couch from across the room.

(Sure, a couch is pretty slow, but one day, you'll miss it and regret it.)

I have even seen people use closed notebooks as coasters for their drink!

This kind of regimen could leave you with a worn notebook hinge or a gap in the frame.

But if your notebook has a classic spinning hard drive instead of an SSD, tossing or wiggling the PC, particularly if the drive is active at the time, can get your boot to dislodge or touch the disk area.

It's not popular, but if that happens, you're going to have a bad day, especially if you haven't backed up your data.

Your notebook is an expensive property, so it is essential that you treat it as such.

4. Mishandling your old battery

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Since your notebook battery starts out with “eight hours of battery life” you don't want to ensure that it will stay that way for a lifetime.

Batteries degrade over time: you can get eight hours on a full charge when you first buy it, but after a few years, that can degrade to six or seven hours.

There is no way to escape this decline, but you are possibly degrading it much faster than necessary if you always use your notebook at 0% at all times.

Follow our tips for better battery management and check the battery health report in Windows to track your battery charge history.

To increase the long-term health of your battery, it is preferable to carry out superficial discharges and recharge it regularly.

Don't stress enough about it: if you're on a plane and need to work, an occasional discharge won't kill your battery, but after a while, getting confused by charging regularly is better than draining it. empty.

However, you should be concerned if your battery is swollen.

If your battery is so bulky that it pushes against the frame of your notebook, creating a gap between the frames, you should stop using your computer at this time and (safely) replace the battery, lest a rupture occur. explosive.

When you replace the battery, look for an original or similar brand.

Poor quality batteries, in the most notable of situations, will not effectively hold a charge well and, in the worst case, have the potential to be dangerous.

The same applies to other chargers: just stick to the official developer proposal or, in the situation of notebooks that charge via USB-C, a certified USB-PD charger.

5. Ignore electrical safety

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Your PC consumes an extraordinary amount of power and is susceptible to damage from power surges: small, temporary increases in voltage coming through the power line.

This can happen after power outages, turning on another high-capacity device in your home, or due to an unreliable power grid at your entrance.

The power supply in your PC includes some basic surge protection, but you'll get much more lasting protection from a dedicated surge insurer.

Keep in mind that o is different from a power strip, which provides multiple outlets without surge protection.

Be sure to replace it every three to five years, since that protection wears off over time; if his is old, it is very possible that it does not offer protection.

Keep in mind that surge protectors won't protect against large voltage spikes (such as lightning), but they have the potential to protect against much smaller surges and increase the life of your PC.

You can also invest in a Nobreak or (UPS).

This device has a backup battery inside that prevents your PC from losing data in the course of a sudden outage.

Notebooks need a little more caution thanks to their portability.

While the power cable of a desktop PC remains immobile for years, the cable of your notebook accompanies each and every part, subject to dislocations, strong pulls of the last and other poor handling.

Not only can this make the cord unreliable, but it can also present a fire hazard, so always remove the charger from the plug socket, not the cord.

6. Tensioning cables and ports

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While damaging a USB port or cable isn't as risky as misusing the power adapter, it can still do avoidable damage to your PC.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but don't force cables into ports if they don't slide properly (I once knew a certain guy who forced a USB cable into a FireWire port and broke both).

Also, if you leave a little connected, be careful not to bend it.

If you have a flash drive in your notebook's USB port, using your notebook cross-legged can bend the flash drive and damage the drive, the port, or both.

And with USB ports so expensive on today's laptops, you definitely don't want to ruin one of them.

The same goes for your cables.

If you regularly make sharp bends on all sides, you are much more likely to break the internal connection, which can make the cable fussy or useless.

Keep them away from hungry little ones and pets who might chew through the plastic, and when you roll them up, avoid wrapping them tightly enough.

Fortunately, a damaged cable is cheap to replace compared to your PC, but why spend currency when it's not required?

7. Surfing the Internet without protection

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Contrary to common belief, "grounded feet," while highly regarded, should not be your only protection against malware.

Even legitimate sites have the potential to become infected with malicious software and pass those inconveniences on to you, so treading carefully won't always save you.

In your corner, you must use an antivirus on your PC.

Fortunately, the feature inside Microsoft's Windows Security turned out to be quite good, after a few years of below-average scores.

Just leave it on and let it do its job.

If you want added protection, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a bit more aggressive with its protection, and I've found that it uncovers several things that Google Chrome and Windows Security prominently overlook.

The free version is good if you just want to do an occasional scan, but the paid version includes always-on anti-exploit features that block potentially harmful sites before they reach your screen.

By the time it is used in conjunction with a classic antivirus such as Windows Security, it will be quite well configured for protection.

Other than that, some other basic security practices still apply: keep your software up to date (both Windows and the programs you use), use a great password manager (instead of using the exact same password in each and every location ) and learn how to spot phishing scams Don't hack software (which often has malware inside) and keep your home Wi-Fi network secure with a WPA2 password.

It may seem trivial, but one bad piece of malware or ransomware can do you quite a bit of damage, so check out our guide on virus removal to get many more tips.