The REAL Reason Your Hardware Keeps Breaking When You WFH (HINT: It's You. You're the Reason.)

With the great shift in 2020 from working in offices to working from home, a lot of regular IT maintenance duties have fallen through the cracks.

In this episode, Dwight from PTG has practical tips and tricks to help us (non-IT) work-from-home employees keep our hardware and devices from completely falling apart!

Link:  How to take good care of your laptop, while you work from home

Hosts: Dwight and Erin

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Transcript

Erin: 0:38

Welcome to another PTG podcast today. It is Dwight and myself. Again, we apologize for not putting out as many podcasts lately. It's been busy with Craig being able to take a vacation is really nice for him, but we've definitely had hell a lot of work going on. Hopefully next week we'll start doing them regularly again, but today, Dwight is really excited to talk about this topic. Dwight, do you wanna tell us a little bit about what we're going to be talking about today?

Dwight: 1:07

Yes. For the past couple of years, since we've had this pandemic thing going on, lot of people have migrated to the home some temporarily in some permanently. And it's a different environment for sure. And now we're kind of on our own as far as what to do with our computers so we don't have it. People looking after us at home, we do probably, for the technical issues that we have for connectivity or whatever, but as far as the maintenance goes with the hardware we do not. So I wanted to discuss a few things today, how we can take care of our hardware at home for, optimal performance, and then preventive maintenance.

Erin: 1:40

I'm really looking forward to this because again, as we all know, I am not a technical person, so I think I'm gonna learn, a lot, and probably some things that seem common sense that maybe aren't always so common sense,

Dwight: 1:53

Exactly. Yeah. So do you want me to start.

Erin: 1:55

Yeah. So we have a good article here we'll link it in the podcast description, but it's how to take good care of your laptop while you're working from home. So let's ahead Dwight, that first one.

Dwight: 2:08

although it's titled laptop, this can certainly apply to a desktop as well because the very similar; the reason why laptop is, was primary. Most people that are working from home, I would say 85% are using laptops. That's why the title is comes in his laptop. So point number one."Keep your computer or laptop in a clean and dust-free environment." That's important, but it's not always possible. Right.

Erin: 2:30

right. right.

Dwight: 2:31

If you're in an apartment or a place where you have limited space and your shared accommodations, maybe are you living with other people and if family or friends or roommates so basically what you'd have to do is try to isolate your area. Sometimes that's not possible, but if it's not possible to have it in a thoroughly clean industry environment, then here's some tips that we can give you for regular maintenance and keeping things clean. What I would recommend laptops are notoriously, For attracting dust. The reason why is they're so small. Everything is jammed together and this one little piece of plastic and metal, and it's very restrictive for airflow And dust can cause a lot of issues relative to heat. And the keyboard and all these different things are not fluid because there's dust there. So it's important to wipe your computer on a regular basis to keep it dust free

Erin: 3:19

what would you recommend wiping it with? Is there anything specific or is there anything we should avoid?

Dwight: 3:24

don't use tissue paper or stuff like that. That's going to generate more dust. We don't use something like a lint-free cloth, which you can get it, any kind of grocery store hardware store, Walmart or amazon? you can get them there too as well. Lint went free is very important. And you gotta be careful. So cleaners, glass cleaners stay away from that. What I do is use vinegar and water, which vinegar is stinky smells a little bit, but it's very good at cleaning getting rid of grease on your keyboard and stuff like that.

Erin: 3:51

I want to make this point real quick about vinegar, because. I am obsessed with vinegar. Maybe this is TMI, but sometimes I even take vinegar, baths, obviously water, mostly water, but throw a vinegar in there and it does smell bad at first, but I will say even if you spray it on something, like if your pet has an accident, it might smell for a couple seconds, Maybe 10 seconds, 30 seconds, but then it just takes, the smell away.

Dwight: 4:13

And not only that it's antibacterial. So it's natural for getting rid of bacteria and harmful germs that can build up on keyboard or on a laptop. So here's a key point. Do not clean, you're monitor or your keyboard with vinegar though.

Erin: 4:25

Okay.

Dwight: 4:26

So cleaned the surface areas is fine, but don't touch the screen with the vinegar.

Erin: 4:31

And how often would you recommend doing that?

Dwight: 4:33

I would recommend doing that at least every second day, because if you're working on your laptop, especially to keep word and stuff and you're over it and you're talking, so there's going to be lots of you know,

Erin: 4:43

Germs.

Dwight: 4:43

Yeah. If you're talking constantly front of keyboard on meetings too, so there's that. From your mouth there's stuff gone off your fingers. It could even be food on your fingers that sticking to the keyboard. So I would say every second day, at the end of your day, just have a nice white clean wipe. Make sure when you do your cleaning, the power off the laptop completely. and I would even pull the plug and make sure it doesn't come on while you're doing your cleaning. When it comes to the keyboard you don't want to apply too much pressure because you don't want to flip the keys. And then when you're moving side to side, you want to do it very slowly and very lightly because you don't wanna unhook one of the keys behind part of the keyboard. They can be difficult to put back on or you can easily break completely. I have to be very careful, depends on the manufacturer too, as well. Some laptop keyboards they're highly race. So you have to be careful with those. So you may have to take a little bit extra time to go in, through the different keys. If you noticed there's some dirt there go easily through your keys. And just wipe the dirt off. Another thing you can do is use a Q-tip If there's some heavy soil areas. Say you wasted some food or something on your keyboard. So a dampened, Q-tip with some white vinegar and water to make sure it's not dripping now. Just damp. And then with your Q-tip just go into those areas and clean up.

Erin: 5:48

Dwight, right now you have me looking at my keyboard. And I would say I'd get a failing grade.

Dwight: 5:54

Yeah.

Erin: 5:54

in fact, into the we're done with this, I'm going to go get my vinegar and water and I'm gonna wipe keyboard down.

Dwight: 6:00

you know It's good, though, because for that little bit of time and extends the life of your hardware too, as well, keeping things clean is not just something, to do. It's something that benefits, you benefit your computer And the way it benefits you too, is, it cuts down transfer of germs And it looks better too. Who likes looking at a dirty keyboard I don't think anybody does. then of course, keeps performance. people don't realize it, stuff can drop down into key box thoughts. They can keyboard and get right down into the heart of the laptop and order to computer. And that's where it can cause damage.

Erin: 6:30

I think I might told you about this. It's the most embarrassing thing ever. I spilt water all over my computer a couple months ago. It still works, there have been some problems since then, where, it starts overheating and it says that I'm not online, but I do have internet connection. these little problems. Right. So I have to get a new which I'm not excited about, but it's for work. work from home, it's important to have a properly functioning, laptop.

Dwight: 6:58

It is. let's get point of some dust. So keeping the the keyboard and the surface of the unit clean with the cloth good, but over time, and it doesn't take a lot of time for laptop. And especially if you're in a really dusty environment most places, if you have carpeting and you got a lot of stuff hanging around, like drapes and, certain environments, there's a lot of dust, and sometimes the way you would see it really as open your window when it's really sunny and just look in the air and you can see, if it's a really dusty environment, most home environments are very dusty. So there's stuff that you can't clean actually with your hands. So it was a good idea, I tell some computer pros, not just regular home users or, just regular work from home people if you're in a really dusty environment, every Three or four months take their computers into a computer shop and I can get a thorough cleaning. And what they'll do is they'll put a compressor. Sometimes they'll blow through all the different vans and dislodge and remove all the built up dust. And they do it professionally. And these guys are trained in that and they won't damage anything. So good idea, it's a really dusty environment and what you have to look at, in your laptop. you'll see some vents typic around the bottoms or the sides. And if you have to get a flashlight, just to see how densely the dust has been. And can usually tell it's very visible if there's a lot of dust in there. And if you notice it it's visibly built up in there, you want to take it for clean. So if you're a computer shop close by even smallest towns have a little mom and pop computer shops, and that's a regular thing that people do is clean out your computers.

Erin: 8:22

And real quick, just to give people an idea how much you would you say that that costs.

Dwight: 8:27

that will be less than$50.

Erin: 8:29

Okay.

Dwight: 8:30

And if you're working from home, a lot of the times you can put that in as a tax write off too, as a part of the working from home and a lot of times your work will cover this too. They'll give you the money for it, so I'm saying three months, sometimes it's more like six months or a year in not really heavy or really dusty environments But just say, if you're stuck working out in the garage and maybe your husband or your partner is a carpenter and there's all kinds of dust floods that's probably not going to be the case, but I'm just using that as a really volatile environment. Something like that. You'd probably have to be doing stuff every two or three months. But typically for a home environment, it's not too dusty. Six months to 12 months is more like it.

Erin: 9:04

So. 50 to$100 a year for maintenance, especially if you're working from home is probably going to be worth it.

Dwight: 9:10

Oh, definitely worth it because if you don't, your computer could overheat, it could stop functioning altogether. And if it overheats fries, internally, the CPU can overheat, the fan can stop functioning and zap, it's done, it's cooked. then you're out in a laptop and you got to wait for a replacement. If you even get one and all your bosses say, well, what happened to your laptop? well, just stop working, just going to be a lot of time and effort you could lose pay, so money, like Erin said, it's well worth the time and effort.

Erin: 9:36

And in fact, Dwight after this maybe this weekend, even, maybe I'll go get mine clean. Cause what you're talking about now, did spill that water, but I did open it up and tried to clean it and there some best in the fan and stuff like that. But obviously I'm not a professional. It person or cleaner. So I think I'm going to go try that. So thank you. See, I told you I'd learned lot.

Dwight: 9:56

well, Hey, that's good. That's good. I'm glad that we're able to share this stuff. And point number two is kind of a part of this that says, keeping the keyboard clear. And if you're closing your laptop a lot at the end of the day you close the lid on your laptop and your display goes down on your keyboard. You want to keep that as clean as possible because grease and stuff can get on it and get it could stick to the display. And that can be very difficult to remove and actually damage your display.

Erin: 10:17

I could say that.

Dwight: 10:18

another key point to talk about with keeping things clean.

Erin: 10:20

Yeah. Let me ask you a question real quick. Speaking of that, would you recommend making sure that your laptop is closed at the end of the day? Does that make a difference?

Dwight: 10:28

It doesn't really matter if you have a lot of traffic grind, your laptop, maybe kids pet, And those dogs tail may hit your laptop or the kids may slap at it or something like that. But typically people don't do that. They take their laptops and they put them away or If they're going to keep them open it's in a place where there's no one else going to be around, so they're not accessible. So based upon your situation, make that determination. if you don't need to then leave it, if you do need to then make sure your keyboard is nice and clean, so you don't get all kinds of Google over your display.

Erin: 10:54

fair enough. Very good point.

Dwight: 10:55

Point number three, picking up your laptop and moving around, never grabbed your laptop, butter display, grab it by the base.

Erin: 11:03

makes sense. Like that

Dwight: 11:04

the reason why I'm gonna do that is obvious. Maybe it's not obvious to a lot of people, but your display is Very delicate. And by grabbing it by the display, you can actually cramp and or damage the display, the pixels that display is made of a, liquid internally, Of a very volatile liquid. And the display itself is very volatile and you can damage it easily. And if you damage your display basically you won't even be able to view it. It may damage internal parts components. Say if something leaks out and goes into the main part of the laptop, it can damage your laptop, permanently or cause enough of a disruption that you could be up or down for work for a day or more. Because you have to bring it somewhere to get it fixed so never pick it up on a display, always pick it up on the base.

Erin: 11:43

I will say I did know that one.

Dwight: 11:45

A lot of people do. I've seen that. So point number four, insert and remove any cables gently. So it's not the damage supports with laptops nowadays. A lot of people using docking stations, so the documentation usually has the cables plugged to it. If you're unplugging and plugging in cables on a daily basis, or just initially make sure you take care and time to place your cables in appropriately, if you're putting in your network cable, there's a click and a lock in your network, cable, your USB, make sure you insert it the right way. Don't try to force something, make sure you look at it and observe the way you're putting it in so that it goes in proper. I've seen a lot of people break their USB ports by putting the USB connections in, in properly. Just take the time to do that. Then you don't have to worry about, oh, my network cable is broken, then my wifi is not sufficient so a little bit of due caution and care goes, a long way. here's another good point. Point number five, never leave your laptop around or close to extreme environments, like extremely hot, damp or cold. For instance, I would never place my laptop right next to an air conditioner or a heater or close to your cooking area. Where does a lot of steam, because water steam damages can actually short out electronics and cause corrosion over time cue as well, and excessive heat because the laptops are so restricted with airflow. They even adding additional heat close by can raise the internal temperature in the laptop twofold. And that could cause your laptop to crash to die. And if it doesn't do that can cause overall performance issues because the hotter, your laptop is internally, the more poorly. It will perform

Erin: 13:15

Why is that I've noticed that with, mine When the fan starts to kick on and I can tell it's super hot and won't open up apps, like it usually does. Why is it that heat causes so many issues when you're on your laptop?

Dwight: 13:29

Computer parts generate heat for the CPU, which is the central processing unit is the brain of your computer. And then also the graphics component. So the hotter it gets, the more poorly it performs. and that's just a rule of electronics really. So keep electronics cool. Any computer components. And when heat builds up when it reaches certain temperatures every component has a certain limit or range where, it'll function properly. But after he would go beyond that range, then you can see, issues. And here's how you can tell your laptop will be slow. You'll see the circle spinning more often, applications will take longer to load your computer will lock up. You'll have to reboot it. Now it's important because too many cheats on a continuous basis can permanently damage your computer. It can Cause chips to fry

Erin: 14:10

That's literally what's happening to mine.

Dwight: 14:12

Oh, really?

Erin: 14:13

yeah. So I probably need to go take it to get cleaned,

Dwight: 14:17

I would do that be well worth your time, especially if you'd never had it done. How long have you had your laptop here?

Erin: 14:21

like a year. Not that long.

Dwight: 14:22

Yeah. yeah. And usually a year. You do you need to clean it out.

Erin: 14:25

Yeah. Okay.

Dwight: 14:26

Now here's another thing too. If you're taking your laptop say you're out somewhere and maybe you want to go to eat or you're going to go out for the evening and you want to spend some times from, would you always want to work? So you take your laptop out and say, it's a cold day in the winter And you, leave it, sit in your car for a period of time. It's always a good idea when you take your computer equipment inside to let it warm up or adjust the internal temperature before you turn it off, You could shock the electronics, if it's extremely cold and you turn it on, things could just crack and it will destroy stuff internally.

Erin: 14:55

kind of like cars, Right? How you have to, warm up your car before you go.

Dwight: 14:59

Even more so would electronics. Hers are a lot more resilient than electronics are.

Erin: 15:03

Okay.

Dwight: 15:03

So wasting, he takes someone in from a cold air, it warm up to room temperature. So depending on how cold it was in your vehicle or how long you had it. Nicole, if it's in minuses, then you're probably looking at, an hour or more for it to get in temperature internally. So that's an important thing.

Erin: 15:19

That's so interesting. And I don't know if you can tell this or not white, but I'm definitely more interested in cybersecurity than I am in software and device.

Dwight: 15:28

well, cyber security is important to you, but it's a circle. We take different parts and we do the cyber security thing, but you know what? Starboard surgery is. be useless if your laptop doesn't work.

Erin: 15:36

That is so true. Yup.

Dwight: 15:37

everything. You just consider certain parts. You have to consider it a whole environment.

Erin: 15:42

all the stuff that you're saying seems so basic. And I'm like, how do I not know this?

Dwight: 15:46

It's our job as it pros and OT things. And we do these things and we work on them and, it's about being proactive. Having, less problems, not more, and helping our peers and people that we support with stuff that works and something that's, practical, a lot of people use their laptops for storage They'll put books and all kinds of stuff on top of it, to close the lid and then they'll put all kinds of stuff on top of their laptop. Don't do that

Erin: 16:10

Yeah. Avoid placing heavy materials on top of your laptop.

Dwight: 16:13

I wouldn't put anything on top of my laptop. No, Nothing. because these are computer components. They're not meant for that type of thing. Yes. To say, well, I've done that for years. One of these days you might do it for the first time and then do some damage. These are not pieces of furniture. They're not bookends. they're devices that. are very fragile, even though some of them are very tough just because something may be shows you a commercial, some drop the laptop is advertising, doesn't mean you have to actually go and do that. Nothing placed on top of the lid of your laptop or on the keyboard or anything like that. Cause it was just damage the laptop itself. And then you're left with something that doesn't function properly and, or dead. no, not at all.

Erin: 16:50

We went properly working devices,

Dwight: 16:52

We do we do. It keeps the frustration level down, work in one day and all of a sudden you've got an important thing to do. And then your keywords, all Stuckey w BU's stuff and your keys don't work. You get frustrated that, all that could have been avoided.

Erin: 17:02

Oh, here's another good point. It says also you should not place a laptop close to the appliances that generate strong magnetic field,

Dwight: 17:10

point.

Erin: 17:11

such as televisions, large speakers, et cetera. do I know if there's a magnetic field

Dwight: 17:16

Anything electronic, speakers are in one thing close to another television your typical house, all environments not going to be too too much. Now, if you're working more of an industrial area where there might be machines around with magnets in them. But typically, like you just mentioned speakers large TVs nowadays people have large screen TVs that have the old two ones and the old tube TVs and the old CRT monitors years ago. Remember those big logos, deep things, They produced a heavy magnetic field. Most, of the screen to you. He said LEDs. They don't create that kind of a magnetic environment, but speakers do.

Erin: 17:51

I've seen the, TV shows breaking bad where they use magnetic blast to mess up electronics.

Dwight: 17:58

you can actually wipe it, have a hard drive by wiping across a magnet. Pretty much.

Erin: 18:01

so crazy.

Dwight: 18:02

Like an old hard drive. I'd even venture to say you could probably do it to the new SSD drives because it's all chips, Right.

Erin: 18:08

Yeah.

Dwight: 18:08

So if the magnetic force is strong enough, it can erase stuff,

Erin: 18:11

How does it do that?

Dwight: 18:12

Opposite poles are magnets, right? Opposites attracts. Positives, attract negatives. The force of the field can rearrange and inhale memory and stuff like a hard drive. The old hard drives with the platter. They have little shovels of metal and that are pressed inside of a platter. So as data's written to those little platters, those little bits of metal are rearranged accordingly, Into usable data. So magnet will come up close it'll just alter all those little pieces of metal that were already rearranged with your data so it wipes out your data. Because the magnet it's metal inside the platter and the magnet is metal. And the magnet has that magnetic force that draws these bits towards it, So it'll just, rearrange all your metal bits,

Erin: 18:52

Basically, it just, resets it almost?

Dwight: 18:54

Resets it. Yeah.

Erin: 18:55

Huh? Okay.

Dwight: 18:56

so that's why you don't want to have a magnet close by.

Erin: 18:59

I have also seen TV shows where criminals will do that to their laptops to try and erase anything, any evidence, any bad evidence.

Dwight: 19:09

Yeah, it's a very popular way of erasing our hard drive. It's not DOD compliant now or anything like that, but it's something that can, happen very quickly. You don't have to have the magnet right on top of a hard drive for it to happen. You can just pass it over it. I can just disrupt. Now, if you want to wait something out, totally leave. Put the magnet right on top of her drive and leave it there for a couple hours,

Erin: 19:27

So basically a magnet is kryptonite to electronic.

Dwight: 19:31

Kryptonite to any kind of computer device.

Erin: 19:35

Oh my goodness. Okay.

Dwight: 19:36

Good point point number seven talks about use of a toothbrush. I mentioned Q-tip before toothbrush is a little bit more abrasive unless you get a really soft bristle. If you're wanting to clean Your is run exhaust fan this stuff, I would leave to professionals. If you're really going to get into any kind of a serious cleaning, unless you really know what you're doing, and you've done this before, I would leave this to the pros. But they do recommend getting a toothbrush to clean the areas around the exhaust fan and the gap between the keys and the keyboard. I would stick to using Q-tips for your keyboard. Don't apply much pressure You're just cleaning between the cracks. A toothbrush has a lot more pressure than there would be in the Q-tip.

Erin: 20:09

I guess they said an old toothbrush then maybe they meant literally one that's been used best kind of gross.

Dwight: 20:14

Even the used one, if the bristles are hurts still, just say use grandpa's brush that he uses for his plates just say it's well used but it can still be harsh. That can still be disruptive as far as your computer goes. And then, some people might take it upon himself. Oh there's a nice crack there. I see some Dustin just shoved the bristles in there and start working things around.Those bristles are really firm. It can cause a lot of damage.

Erin: 20:34

yeah. cause it can cause the desk to go further into it.

Dwight: 20:37

Or it can buckle and rearranged the plastic and metal internally, a Lot of those places like the vents, that's very, light metal. Sometimes it's just like copper and the end, a very light metal because it's heat sinks very thin pieces around there, and it's easily manipulated. You can just touch it. with your fingernail sometimes and bend something. It's very similar to an air conditioner, those little sins that you have in the air conditioner, cooling area, where the coolant is passed over to cool the air. So they had these little fins there they're really close together. And they're very thin. It's so easy to touch one of them. And when you touch one of them, you can bend them so quickly. It's the same thing with your laptop. Be careful there. another thing too. Point number eight you're going to use your laptop try to keep it on the flat clean surface. Don't use your laptop on your bed or on an area where it may restrict airflow into the computer, unless a specific laptop, some laptops are specifically made for laptop use just because it's called a laptop. Doesn't mean it's for your lap.

Erin: 21:31

False advertising.

Dwight: 21:33

it's an acronym, it's a name that stuck with it. It was short too. It's short. Who wants to say, Miniature on his computer

Erin: 21:40

The laptop is easy to say.

Dwight: 21:41

It's easy to say and laptop notebook, whatever the case may be. Keep it on a clean, flat surface it's going to benefit for cooling and Dustin stuff, as you put it on your laptop or on your bed or on a blanket, it's going to restrict air flow. And then it's going to bring Dustin drags dust internally and damage your computer in the space of a couple of minutes by placing a laptop. That's not meant to be placed on your lap or on a blanket You can kill it in a couple of minutes.

Erin: 22:05

Heats right up. I have noticed that before.

Dwight: 22:08

Now Point nine talks about clean up the internal temporary files. We're not really gonna get into that cause more operating system stuff. And that stuff that I didn't really want to touch much on that today, but you can do that. If you know how to erase temporary files run discipliner but, that's a topic for another day. Let's just keep it to the hardware. So point Kansas keep liquids in the foods, away from your laptop. A lot of people do not. Peoples that don't eat around your computer. Well, I eat around my computer all the time. what I do do,. Is I have a designated spot for my food, when I'm eating or drinking, I'm always doing away from a laptop. Just be aware of it and make sure that, your drinks are not close to, they can't spill up. And maybe you want to elevate your laptop a little bit too, just to avoid that. So if your table that you're working on you happen to spill something. If your laptop elevated, it's not going to get the water or the fluid. So it doesn't say you don't have to eat around your laptop. It just says be smart about it.

Erin: 22:55

wish I had that a couple months ago.

Dwight: 22:58

and I've done this from personal experience because I've dumped stuff on my keyboards before.

Erin: 23:01

Oh my God.

Dwight: 23:02

So now my drinks are far enough away and my laptops elevator.

Erin: 23:06

Yeah. my laptop's elevated too, but not elevated enough to where it didn't spill water on it.

Dwight: 23:11

mine is probably about six inches off the desk. that's efficient.

Erin: 23:14

I have a little bamboo desktop. it's flat, but it's got side so I can put my mouse, and something else there, like a drink if I wanted to. then in the middle, it, goes up and down, so you can adjust the height of the desktop.

Dwight: 23:27

Okay.

Erin: 23:28

Yeah. It's pretty nice. was 20 bucks on Amazon. That's

Dwight: 23:31

Oh, cool. Nice. On the same topic just say if you're in a really warm environment there's lots of really good cooling pads that you can buy for under 50 bucks that you can sit your laptop on. And it serves two purposes, keeps your laptop off the desk and allows good circulation and it'll help prevent us buildup. it'll keep a nice constant movement of air over your laptop or on the bottom where your air comes in and out. So it keeps your laptop clean and performance is good too. So that's a side note. That's not in our list, but you can put it on your list.

Erin: 23:57

I actually do have one of those. my family does white elephant Christmas, and that was one of the presents. My younger brother actually. Submitted to our elephant Christmas. And I really liked it and I use it all the time.

Dwight: 24:12

And it's beneficial, right? Most of them do serve a good purpose there's a lot of them out there. I've seen laptop cooling pads going from 20 bucks to$300. And very little difference between a$30 one and a$300 as far as performance and benefits go.

Erin: 24:25

My little brother is an it guy. You guys would get along. Great.

Dwight: 24:29

Yeah. A lot of gamers who use laptops for gaming.

Erin: 24:31

yeah. Yeah,

Dwight: 24:33

they're right into that. they got to keep your machines cool, because gaming is so demanding on a computer Harbor, Generates a lot of heat So, Moving on to point 11, it says, what You need to do if you drop your laptop? So this kind of gets into a whole different zone Dropping a laptop can be very minor or it can be very major. And it all depends on how far you drop, but, and what you drop it on.

Erin: 24:54

I dropped A laptop couple of years ago, about two feet and it broke. It completely stopped working.

Dwight: 25:00

Yeah. And It all depends.

Erin: 25:01

It was literally like two feet.

Dwight: 25:03

Sometimes you don't see external damage. Other times you won't, other times things might look minor and they're not. Basically you can't tell and you can't say, I just dropped it a couple inches and it's going to be fine unless you check it out after the fact and test you don't know, no one has any idea. And it also depends on the weight of your laptop too. right, would smartphone really same kind of deal. The heavier newer smartphones. have you dropped those? They're going to sustain more damage because of the weight.

Erin: 25:27

right.

Dwight: 25:27

just be aware of That there's a checklist here we can go through. First check to see if the laptop has any external damage. Scratches metal cracks indentation, that usually come from pretty serious drop. they say, try to switch it on. And if that doesn't work, it's probably permanently damaged. That could be the case or may not be the case. May have to bring it to a computer shop or get your it department on the phone. And you diagnose further. So this is a checklist you can use, but if you're working from home and you're using company hardware I would get the, it people on the phone, first as protection for both yourself and for the company. If you take it upon yourself to start doing all your troubleshooting on a particular incident, like a drop and you damage your computer, you could be liable for it.

Erin: 26:04

Right. right.

Dwight: 26:05

get your it department or your it people involved. If you have them, if you're not, you're kind of left up to your own devices. Maybe we want to tell your boss what happened and just say, I'd like to take it to a shop because you don't have the wherewithal or time or the expertise to deal with it. So that might be the best avenue. Point number 12, it says what to do if you spill liquid on your laptop. This could get pretty tricky too. Depends on what it is. Pop is really bad because of the sugar

Erin: 26:28

And just for those of us in the south pop is soda or Coke.

Dwight: 26:31

Soda. Yeah. anything was sugar in it, even coffee with sugar, that can quickly become coded an inches. It turns into a glue type substance. If you've got a hot coffee, you don't put it on the keyboard, all of a sudden starts cooling and you can see it, it'll start to harden up

Erin: 26:46

Oh, like caramelized, almost.

Dwight: 26:48

Caramelize. Yeah. So here's another case too, where you probably have to bring it to the shop. I think best left to a professional. Thing is you can think everything is clean. Just say you take a rag, It's not just a surface you got to deal with. If that liquid penetrated the case, Went inside the keyboard, then it's down in your motherboard. It's down in internally and you might think the exterior looks clean, but inside it's a mess you turn it on and zap and smoke and everything and fireworks start happening. so. this is something best left to the professionals.

Erin: 27:16

you said you, weren't going to go point by point, But I think that it is important to let people know, definitely unplug it.

Dwight: 27:24

Absolutely. So that's a good point. We'll do that and remove the battery straight away So unplug and remove the battery. So we'll go down through the points. The next point, try to keep the laptop upside down to prevent the flow of liquid into the motherboard after you disconnected it. That's fine thing to do. And then if available, use a microfiber cloth or handkerchief to clean it, that gets into professional. Stuff. if there's a lot of water shore, you can just put it there to absorb some but you really don't want to go start swishing stuff across the keyboard.

Erin: 27:50

Right.

Dwight: 27:50

Jess absorbed existing water by doing a pat with the cloth to clean up the visible then bring it to a computer shopper let your boss know first And the Katie is a big spills tilt the laptop upwards and an air vent and shake it gently. Removing the hard drive is also helpful, but needs to be done carefully. That's a Professional. thing We don't want our homeworkers to be doing this on their own. contact your boss. Internal it when something like this happens and they will direct you as to what to do.

Erin: 28:15

This last point, I didn't know. So I think it's really important. Or the second, the last point it says after cleaning is done, as suggested above. Story the laptop and a warm, dry place for one to two days. Because what I learned after doing that, there is a possibility, even if you've wiped it up and it seems dry, don't necessarily know what's inside. Right.

Dwight: 28:36

No.

Erin: 28:38

it is so important to not turn it back on for a couple of days, at least. Ideally you want to take it to a professional, but if you don't just make sure it's dry. Cause there could be water in there and it could just all of a sudden fry it afterwards.

Dwight: 28:52

we'll throw this scenario. Just say you don't have your own onto external staff. You tell your boss, your bosses do whatever, So if you're left up to your own devices and you know, it's just water. You pack, all of us will water off, and then you're going to let it sit. And then another thing you can do, in that scenario is to have a fan close by Put the fan off on the side and the fan blow air across your laptop, that will speed up the evaporation process. and be more thorough For liquids, because a lot of the stuff is inside your case now. So if you can create some air movement that will speed up the evaporation and make the evaporation process more thorough. I've done that myself personally, so I don't work. Okay. Moving along. I think that's pretty much it. So we've come to the end of our list. anything else that you can think of Aaron that we might've missed or any other questions

Erin: 29:37

Oh, when we were discussing this Dwight, you sent me a couple of articles to take a look at, right?? Because we like to prepare a little bit,

Dwight: 29:45

Yeah.

Erin: 29:45

and there's another article we had discussed talking about, but you like this one better? And I agree. I think it is really good cause it's about hardware. One thing when I was reading the other one it says to unplug your computer to avoid overcharging. I didn't know that.

Dwight: 30:00

I tell you, that's a good point or removing the battery so if you're working from home all the time, you're not on battery par not much, but you want to have the battery operated optimally. The best thing to do is to remove the battery and just put it to the side, because if it's constantly being charged, some laptops and certain brands are more resilient and others aren't The best thing if you want to preserve your battery, life for as long as possible is to remove the battery while you have a plugged in AC. And then when you want to charge up for any kind of a mobile excursion, then you charge it up, put your battery in, charge up the battery fully. Didn't take it on your excursion to come back and then maybe charge the battery up fully again, and then just disconnect it or take it out if it's possible. Some, laptops you can't even do that. Some of these smaller notebooks and stuff the batteries are built in.

Erin: 30:40

I battery is built in which I don't like,

Dwight: 30:42

Yeah. So you can't really do much there, but those are really resilient. nowadays the batteries are more, they can take continuous charging and a lot of them have built in functionality so that when it reaches the full charge it just disconnects. So it's not like, there's, power constantly flowing into the battery. It just electronically disconnects from AC power And will only come back up again. When it goes down to a certain percentage of start charging again. If you can do it, remove your battery, if you hot, don't worry about.

Erin: 31:06

What are the best ways to protect your laptop? do you recommend or screen protectors? what sort of physical would you recommend? The skins or the snap on covers sleeves, things like that. Do you use those.

Dwight: 31:24

well, I always carried a laptop. Typically. You want to carry it in a proper case, if you're going to go outside with it, So I have a proper bag. Don't just throw it in a grocery bag and get yourself a proper bag.

Erin: 31:35

Added bag.

Dwight: 31:36

Either your employer supplies it, you go and purchase one from Amazon or from the particular computer vendor, like a Lenovo HP they'll usually have something for a very good price that you can use the car at your device around in. Right. And when it comes to screen protectors I've never, ever used them, not on laptops. But If you're, going to be sitting in sunshine on your laptop and you want to have a glare screen that's okay. I don't recommend working direct sunlight anyway. I like computer period, whether it's a laptop or desktop, it's just difficult at best Steven was a really good monitor. any other purposes? I can't think for a screen protector, I don't to keep dirt off your screen, but then again, you're still gonna have to clean your screen cleaner or your screen protector too. right

Erin: 32:16

right. yeah. And you did say that it's a good idea to wipe it down. Oh, What do you recommend using clean your screen?

Dwight: 32:23

Yeah, What I would do is stuff that you. can get on the Amazon, and even could local computer shopper, even your Walmart. That's specifically for that. If you go into the electronics section first, per se, for a Walmart or some grocery stores, they all have display cleaners and stuff like that. There, you can find them pretty much anywhere. They'll have that stuff. so don't go use them. Windex. Don't use Windex, don't use anything like that or, any kind of window cleaner. You see Amazon would have lots of stuff there. So you just go into Amazon And just type in a laptop screen, cleaner fluid, or spray, or typically that spray. It is a spray, but you don't spray it on directly. It's frayed on a lint-free cloth and then wipe your display with it. Right.

Erin: 33:03

Well, that makes sense.

Dwight: 33:04

Now that being said, too, if you don't have any of that on hand get a link free cloth put some warm water on it and make sure the water is not excessive. It's just dampening and then squish your cloth and make sure that the waters will absorb. Slightly damp cloth and then wipe the screen with that,

Erin: 33:17

And you recommend doing that when the computer's off I'm guessing, right?

Dwight: 33:21

Yeah. All maintenance Will be done and conducted with power off. and the power disconnected.

Erin: 33:25

Okay.

Dwight: 33:26

I do that a precaution.

Erin: 33:28

Yeah. Might as well. Right.

Dwight: 33:29

So the water thing, though, it's a last resort. if your need to clean it, something's got dumped on it or it got dirty really quick. You don't have any of these proper cleaners around. So it's kind of an interim situation. Emergency situation. Water is not ideal in a way, because water can be hard to, Right. if you all know what I mean by hard water,

Erin: 33:45

Yeah.

Dwight: 33:45

It can be full of calcium and stuff like that. You can wipe that across your screen. I can make your screen a little worse. So it all depends on where you live.

Erin: 33:52

Yeah. I visited my friend in Houston a couple of weeks ago. man, I will tell you I have some high-maintenance hair, their water. They have really hard water. Oh my goodness. It was extra frizzy.

Dwight: 34:02

yeah.

Erin: 34:02

And that's saying a lot

Dwight: 34:03

So that would be just as brutal on a piece of hardware, You can look at the screen afterwards, like, oh, I can't even read my text on here. All that grimy smears across my screen. So it's just a last resort.

Erin: 34:14

last resort.

Dwight: 34:15

If you don't something, something happens, something across your screen. We have to clean it right away and you don't have the proper tools can use a lint-free cloth moistened very slightly with some warm water.

Erin: 34:25

All right.

Dwight: 34:26

I don't feel like I've been tired and talk this much in a long time.

Erin: 34:28

I love it. I knew you were like excited to talk about this and share your information with everyone. And I think that it's really practical and useful. I feel like I should have known that, but I work for Petronella technology group. I should have known these things, but I didn't. So thank you for bringing these to our attention.

Dwight: 34:45

Sure much appreciate. Hey. There's a lot of people that don't know. about it, I mean, even software developers they just don't take the time to think about these things. But it is important especially now, because people are working from home we're directing this, towards that group of people that are working from home, because you're away from the work environment. You're away from What might be regular routine maintenance done by internal it staff so regular maintenance not available. And these are things you can do on your own self maintenance to enhance the life of hardware you're working on. Make life easier for you, less downtime, and peace of mind.

Erin: 35:18

What do you think about using compressed air?

Dwight: 35:20

That's the thing to get into it. A professional because too much here. And too much pressure in the wrong place can damage something severely.

Erin: 35:29

feel like I heard that before.

Dwight: 35:30

I've seen people do that They're go to buy an air compressor. Oh yeah. I'm going to bring it over here to my friend's shop here at the garage and clean up my computer. So to go over there with the industrial strength, air compressor, and they blow parts off the whole keyboard it's go fly in. As soon as they hit him with some pressurized air

Erin: 35:45

H is and ends going everywhere. Got a pound sign.

Dwight: 35:49

Yeah. So what, was the laptop turns out to be many parts.

Erin: 35:52

my F 10 go. I don't know.

Dwight: 35:54

yeah, leave that to the pros. When it comes to compressor, you'd stuff that people buy online, but there's a little vacuum cleaners. I'll be honest with you. Those things are useless. Vacuum cleaners. You need pressure and you need it from compressed air. And it has to be done by a pro who knows what they're doing. And they have the proper tools. You can do some light, superficial cleaning or yourself, but for anything internal where you'd seriously built up dust or goo or debris, then you need to bring it to a professional.

Erin: 36:17

Okay, I'm going to go take my laptop to professional, literally probably this weekend,

Dwight: 36:22

Yeah. If you need to,

Erin: 36:24

I do. Cause I spelt that water and you know, I just assume that the performance issues were from the water, but that was a couple of weeks after I build it. I started noticing the performance issues, but it very well could be that I live on a boat and I don't properly maintain my laptop. So,

Dwight: 36:40

You said you did the water spillage thing. Just say if the laptop was heavily dusted and watered and got applied to it. Water and dust, And makes more of a congealed,

Erin: 36:49

Vicky?

Dwight: 36:49

Yeah,. taken that dustin liquified it it's probably gonna be hardened and more restrictive for air flow. I think a visit to local computer doctor would probably be an order.

Erin: 36:58

I think you're right. Next, podcast after I get it done, I'll let you know how it goes.

Dwight: 37:02

Good.

Erin: 37:03

Well thank you so much, Dwight, this is a lot I really liked how practical this was.

Dwight: 37:07

I enjoyed the last one too, as well that I was. onto. I don't get to participate in them every day, but whatever I'm doing, I try to input something that's useful, something that's going be beneficial. Something that I believe in, and I do. Regular computer maintenance is very important.

Erin: 37:19

Maybe the next one we can do could be more of the software especially if you work from home.

Dwight: 37:25

Sure we can do That Yeah, absolutely.

Erin: 37:27

That sounds. All right. Thank you everybody for joining and we will see you soon.