I thought it would be useful for everybody to share their input on how to prolong the life of their notebook, including what to do to avoid dealing with potential costly repairs. This applies to notebooks only because desktops are in their own class (you have more peripherals involved including displays, keyboards, mice, etc), and notebooks tend to be more expensive to repair when they're broke.
So without ado, here's some ideas based on my 4 years of iBook experience:
That's some of my input, but I encourage everyone to share their tips.
So without ado, here's some ideas based on my 4 years of iBook experience:
- Battery Maintenance: Always remember to drain your notebook battery once a month and recharge if you are the type of user who mainly works off of the AC adapter. Check out Apple's battery page for more info.
- Sleep Mode: If you put your notebook to sleep and you're not taking it anywhere--it just remains on your desk, for instance--avoid merely closing the lid. Excessive opening and closing of the notebook wears out the hinge mechanism, but even more importantly, you wear out the fine threads of wire that run through the hinge up to the display. Breakage in those wires cause problems such as the reed switch failure, backlight dropouts, and other displays malfunctioning. Instead, just put your notebook to sleep via the Apple menu.
- RAM upgrades: Be generous on the amount of RAM you install in your system. OS X is a resource hog, so generally the more ram the better. Plus, you avoid excessive churning of the heads in your HD, which can wear out the mechanism and cause HD failure.
- Don't be stupid: Don't place your notebook on the balcony 4 stories up, and don't run the power cord across an area where someone can trip. There's nothing worse than damaging your notebook because of poor judgment. This is your investment. Try protecting it.
That's some of my input, but I encourage everyone to share their tips.
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