Myths About Laptops You Should Stop Believing In

But you have to work on something — and laptops have become just the tool that has helped out millions of people. From prolonged use, the laptop can start to slow down or warm up — only these two problems are associated with many myths.

Drop-in performance.

The first and most noticeable problem is the drop in performance. However, it is almost never associated with wear on the components of the device. People, on the other hand, readily believe that, for example, a processor works on the same principle as the engine of a car, whose “horses” run away from under the hood over the years.

But no — the old processor gives outperformance no worse than the new one, and the reason for the drop in performance should be looked for in something else. Often it lies in physical damage: if your laptop falls to the floor or water gets inside, anything can happen to the internal components of the device.

Therefore, so that your car does not slow down, first of all, you should think about its physical safety: do not drop it, do not hit the walls when walking, do not put heavy objects on top. If you are just choosing a laptop, it is better to immediately buy a model with a shock-resistant and moisture-resistant case.

They are very different: starting from devices of the Acer Enduro level, which are needed for working on the street / at a construction site / in the rain / in the mouth of a volcano — such laptops are protected as much as possible and therefore are expensive.

For ordinary users, a basic degree of shock resistance and water resistance is sufficient. Such devices are produced by many manufacturers, the same Acer has a line of TravelMate business laptops, which have a shock-absorbing bumper around the perimeter of the case and a special drainage system for water drainage.

Overheat.

Another popular reason for slowdowns is overheating. There are also many myths around it, let’s deal with them. The first thing that a person reflexively does when his laptop starts to slow down is to go to Google and look for a cooling pad there in the hope that this will save him from overheating. However, this is just a myth — in fact, the stands have practically no effect on cooling.

How the problem is technically arranged: over time, cooling channels, radiators, and coolers become clogged with dust, and cold air stops getting inside. The stand does not contribute to this in any way, it just drives air between the surface of the stand and the bottom of the laptop. To solve the problem, you need to get rid of the cause — to clean the cooling system.

It is better not to do it yourself, but to have the device cleaned by a specialist. At the same time, you can ask him to replace the thermal paste — it is applied between the processor/video card and the processor/video card heatsink and allows for more efficient heat dissipation.

If a person decides to change it on his own, with a high degree of probability he is doing it wrong. It is a mistake to believe that the thicker the layer of thermal paste, the better it removes heat. The correct solution is to apply a small amount of paste (the size of a grain of rice) and spread it with a match or a plastic card over the mirror surface of the chip.

If you are not confident in your abilities, you can skip this step: when you put everything back together, the heatsink will press against the chip and distribute the paste evenly over the surface.

Do not forget to observe the order of tightening the screws — usually, each screw is marked with a corresponding serial number. If a person decides to change it on his own, with a high degree of probability he is doing it wrong.

It is a mistake to believe that the thicker the layer of thermal paste, the better it removes heat. The correct solution is to apply a small amount of paste (the size of a grain of rice) and spread it with a match or a plastic card over the mirror surface of the chip. If you are not confident in your abilities, you can skip this step: when you put everything back together, the heatsink will press against the chip and distribute the paste evenly over the surface.

Do not forget to observe the order of tightening the screws — usually, each screw is marked with a corresponding serial number. If a person decides to change it on his own, with a high degree of probability he is doing it wrong. It is a mistake to believe that the thicker the layer of thermal paste, the better it removes heat.

The correct solution is to apply a small amount of paste (the size of a grain of rice) and spread it with a match or a plastic card over the mirror surface of the chip. If you are not confident in your abilities, you can skip this step: when you put everything back together, the heatsink will press against the chip and distribute the paste evenly over the surface. Do not forget to observe the order of tightening the screws — usually, each screw is marked with a corresponding serial number.

To prevent overheating from threatening your laptop, you need to follow a few basic rules. First, it is obvious that dust will not get into the laptop if it is operated in a dust-free environment. As trivial as it may seem, keep your home clean — then your laptop will be cleaner as well. Secondly, try not to work on your laptop from the bed: when you put the device on the bedding, it closes the air ducts, preventing the normal distribution of airflows.

HDD.

The next myth is related to the hard drive and to some extent echoes the drop in performance. Many people believe that the more clogged the disk, the more the computer slows down, and they are very surprised that the laptop did not work faster when they deleted a couple of dozen unnecessary “gigs”.

However, this can only be called a myth: the device can really slow down if the disk on which the system is installed is completely clogged. It lacks space for normal operation, so the laptop may lag.

At the same time, if any other HDD is crammed to failure, this is unlikely to become the cause of “brakes”. Particular attention should be paid to solid-state drives (SSD) — experts recommend leaving at least 25% of free space on them to ensure normal operation. If your hard drive starts to slow down, you cleaned it up, but it still slows down — see item 1: it is probably a matter of mechanical damage.

Take care of your laptop, and it will serve you faithfully for many years.