Obtain and maintain a good quality case that provides some cushioning for
your laptop and protection against rain. If it’s really pouring, find a strong
plastic bag to wrap around your laptop within the case. Take it out of the bag
as soon as you can, though. High humidity and large temperature swings are
hard on things in plastic bags.Don’t do the following:Don’t drop a laptop off the desktop.And don’t let it tumble from an
unzippered carrying case. Just don’t. Although it is possiblethat the
laptop and its components will survive, this is a chance not worth
taking.
Don’t place a heavy object on top of the case.The cover of the laptop
sits only a few millimeters from the delicate LCD screen and you could
end up warping or breaking the display.Don’t allow the laptop to get wet.Keep it away from cups of coffee,
cans of soda, and glasses of water.
Don’t turn off the computer while it’s writing data to the hard drive,
a recordable CD or DVD, or a floppy disk.Information on the drive or
disk could become corrupted or lost.Don’t expose your laptop to extremes of temperature.Very cold tem-
perature could make your case and LCD brittle and subject to cracking;
the battery life will also be shortened by cold. Very hot temperatures
could warp the case and LCD. Keep this in mind if you need to store
your laptop in the trunk or passenger compartment of a car.
Don’t let the laptop near strong magnetic fields.They could corrupt
or erase data on your hard drive or any floppy disks you may carry with
you. Magnetic fields exist in and around large audio speakers, television
sets, and some other electronic devices that aren’t shielded to keep
magnetism within their case.Don’t use your laptop in extremely dusty or dirty environments. Dust
or sand can get into the case through ventilation holes and cause damage
to the hard drive, CD or DVD, and other internal mechanisms.
Don’t open the cover to external ports on your laptop unless you are
using one of the connections. These ports include serial, parallel, and
PS/2 connectors, all of which have been mostly supplanted by USB
devices. Keep the cover closed to avoid damage to the pins and inadver-
tent electrical shorts from contact with metallic objects.Ironically, among the most dangerous places to use a laptop is on the seat-
back table of an airliner — one of the most common locations people use
them. To begin with, the table is small and somewhat flimsy. Then there’s the
nearby presence of cups of coffee and soda, cabin attendants pushing heavy
carts through the aisle, and unexpected turbulence. You may secured by a
seatbelt but your laptop isn’t.16 Part I: Putting a Computer in Your Lap