Month: June 2016

How To Prevent Laptop From Overheating

Posted on | by Vladimir Sobur

As the summer weather heats up, you might take notice of how the change in temperature affects the performance of your laptop computer. . What can you do about this?

Use our helpful guidelines on how to protect the precious components inside your laptop by preventing it from overheating.

Elevation is the Key to Keeping Your Laptop Cool
The position of the venting fan in the bottom of the unit makes it important to always place the laptop on a flat, hard surface when in use. This could be a table top, tray table, lap desk or even a wooden cutting board.

The soft, malleable surfaces such as a pillow, cushion, quilted fabric, carpet or a plush sofa all cling to the underside of a laptop and cut off any possibility of ventilation. The answer: Elevation.

Methods of creating better airflow through elevation include:
1. Propping up the computer using a small book.
2. A commercially-made, ventilated, adjustable laptop stand available on such sites as Amazon, Newegg or Best Buy.
3. A laptop cooling mat made by some of the following manufacturers: Thermaltake, LapGear, Xion, Targus.
4. Use an external heat sink, which uses a thermal conductor to draw and dissipate the heat away from the CPU.

All of these ideas, and even some you might creatively invent, allow enough of a lift, tilt or cooling surface to provide airflow and help to prevent overheating.

The Technical Approach
Adjusting the settings on your laptop to maximize energy saving mode helps lower the draw on the battery cell during use or inactivity.

It is simpler for Windows users to go in and change settings than it is for Mac users.
The following power usage adjustments can be made:
1. Reduce screen brightness
2. Reduce the timer for sleep mode while on battery power
3. Reduce the timer to turn off the screen from inactivity
4. Reduce the apps that run in the background
5. Engage power saver mode
You can click on the battery icon to access these options or go into settings from the start menu.

At LaptopMD, we know these are the best methods to extend the life of your laptop battery while preventing your computer from overheating.

12 Ways To Increase Your IPhone Battery Life. Part #2

Posted on | by Vladimir Sobur

Having an iPhone with enough battery life to get you to your next charging station is important for everyone. It’s a terrible feeling to need your phone only to find out that it has unknowingly died in your pocket.

The second part of tips can help you extend your battery life so that you can use your phone when you need it most.

7. Dim that Screen
The LED screen on the iPhone provides you with beautiful picture quality, so it can be tempting to turn the brightness all the way up to enjoy it to the fullest extent.

This can drain the life out of your battery quickly, though, so as tempting as it is, if you want to save your battery life, dim your screen.

8. Don’t Neglect Updates
It may seem like a pain to constantly update the apps on your phone, but most of the time it is worth it.

Many updates feature bug fixes that can improve the way the app runs and decrease battery usage as well.

9. Put Those Emails to Sleep
It’s always nice to get a notification when a new email hits your inbox, but the constant push can quickly drain the life from your battery. If you don’t need to receive notifications for new emails, you can fetch your email manually by going to Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Fetch New Data.

Make sure Push is off, and you can set it up to fetch the mail at certain intervals or set it to manually fetch mail.

10. iPhones Need Rest, Too
If you never Auto-Lock your phone, your screen will remain on, draining that precious battery life. It’s a good idea to allow your phone to sleep when you aren’t using it, and you can do this by going to Settings, General, and then Auto-Lock.

Choosing the shortest time possible (usually 1 minute) will put your phone to sleep quickly and save your battery from working overtime.

11. Geotag No More
It can be fun to look back and see all of the places you’ve been, but it really isn’t necessary, especially when it drains your battery to have Location Services on at all times. There are many apps that utilize Location Services unnecessarily, so it is a good idea to turn the setting off until you actually need to use it.

You can do this by going to Settings, Privacy, Location Services and then turning it off. Whenever you use an app that needs to use it, you will be prompted to turn it on once again.

12. Stop Sharing
If you aren’t constantly sharing files over Air Drop or Bluetooth, there is no reason to keep these features on, slowly draining your battery throughout the day.

You can deactivate both of these features by swiping up on your screen to bring up your phone’s Control Panel and then making sure that neither of these is highlighted, indicating that they are active. If they are, simply touch each one to turn them off.

It is not the end…
Now you know almost everything there is to know about saving your valuable iPhone’s battery life.

These very simple tips can make a big difference and may mean that you have your phone when you need it most. But if you ever need help, LaptopMD is always here for you.

12 Ways To Increase Your IPhone Battery Life. Part #1

Posted on | by Vladimir Sobur

We’ve all been here…you leave the house in a hurry with your phone in hand, but you forget to grab your charger. As the day goes on, you watch your battery draining and know that the battery will die before you get home to charge it.

No one wants to be left with a dead phone. iPhones are amazing devices, but so often the battery doesn’t last as long as you would like it to. There are many ways you can extend the life of your iPhone’s battery by simply changing a few settings.

1. Use Low Power Mode:
One of the best parts of iOS 9 is your ability to change your phone to Low Power Mode to extend your battery life. Your iPhone will automatically prompt you to engage the Low Power Mode once your battery dips down to 20%.

Simply click the button that will send you into Low Power Mode. You will most likely not notice any difference in the way your phone is functioning in this mode.

2. Don’t Share
Your Every Move: It can be nice to keep in touch with friends and family and let them know where you are. iOS 9 has a feature that allows you to share your location with your friends and family in Messages. While it is nice for people to know where you are, is it really important that they see your every move?
This little feature can aid in draining your battery. One way to extend your battery life is to shut off this feature.

3. Kill Hungry Apps:
You may not realize it, but some apps are more hungry than others and eat away at your battery life all day long. In desperation, you may often go into your phone and try to close all of the apps, trying to save your battery life. However, now you have another option. If you go into Settings and click on Battery Life, you can see which apps are most proficient at draining your battery.
Close the apps with the highest percentage of battery drain in the last 24 hours. Social media apps are often the worst culprits, but after a few times of checking this feature, you’ll get to know which ones should be closed and which can remain open.

4. Stop Apps Refreshing in the Background.
Whenever you are on WI-FI or even on your mobile network (which is pretty much all the time), your phone is working overtime trying to make sure that all of your apps are refreshed for you. You can extend your battery life by turning this feature off completely, or you can turn it off app by app by going to Settings, General, and then Background App Refresh.
Your apps will then refresh only when you open them, and your battery will not have to work overtime when you aren’t using the apps anyway.

5. Don’t Close Every App:
This sounds counter-intuitive, as we have been taught that if the battery life is draining that we must close each and every app. Believe it or not, the new operating system is designed to efficiently handle apps running in the background.
Closing the app and then reopening a sleeping app over and over again wastes more battery life than simply having the app open in the background. So if you have a few apps that you continually use, it is okay to leave them running in the background.

6. Use WI-FI Wherever Possible:
You may have been told to turn off your WI-FI to save battery life, but the opposite is actually true.
Using mobile data uses far more of your battery life than using WI-FI, so whenever possible, have your WI-FI setting on and connect to the local WI-FI.
To be continued…..

How To Take Good Care Of Your Laptop

Posted on | by Vladimir Sobur

Laptops are often expensive and nobody wants to go spend an arm and a leg to buy a new one. Why would you buy a new laptop every year or two when they can cost upwards of $1,000? Your best bet is to keep your current laptop working as long as possible, so here are some tips on how to do just that!

Keep liquids away from your laptop.
You may think that you won’t spill it, but accidents will inevitably happen. If you must have a drink near your laptop, at least be careful and use a cup with a cover on it!

No food near your laptop, either.

It may not seem as dangerous as liquid, but crumbs can easily get stuck under your keyboard and invite bugs to crawl in and ruin the circuitry.

Download antivirus software.

The internet is a dangerous place, and no matter how careful you are there is always going to be a risk of getting viruses. Minimize that risk with an up-to-date antivirus program.
Protect your monitor.

Your screen is one of the more important parts of your laptop, so treat it gently.
Make sure it isn’t hitting anything when it closes and never slam it shut. You’ll keep your screen scratch-free and save yourself the need to replace anything!
Let your laptop adjust to the temperature.

Don’t just bring it in from the cold of winter and start it immediately, let it adjust to room temperature before starting it. This will protect the disk drive and stop any condensation from forming inside of your laptop.
Don’t leave your laptop in your vehicle.

The inside of a car can either get very hot or very cold, neither of which will be good for your laptop.
As extra incentive, remember that unattended laptops often function as “please steal me!” signs to potential thieves.
Clean your laptop cleaned annually.

You can do this professionally or by yourself if you have the know-how.
This will keep dust from piling up inside and stopping the laptop from cooling itself, which would destroy the motherboard.
A helping hand.
Accidents will always happen, but do not despair if you damage your laptop. That is precisely what LaptopMD is for, and we are always happy to give a helping hand!