Sudden forces such as dropping or swinging a laptop while it is running can damage the hard drive. To help protect against this, put the computer to sleep and wait until the hard disk activity light stops flashing before carrying the laptop. You can put the computer to sleep by closing the lid or hitting Fn+F3 on the keyboard. The computer is sleeping when the power light pulses slowly.

When your laptop is running, try to keep the area around the sides and rear clear in order to improve air flow and keep the laptop cool.

A lint-free cloth or a paper towel is the best way to clean your laptop’s screen. When a more thorough cleaning is required, a rubbing alcohol solution will do the job. Using Windex (or other ammonia-based cleaners) is not recommended because the ammonia may yellow the screen over time.

To clean your laptop’s keyboard or trackpad, a soft cloth or paper towel with a small amount of rubbing alcohol will get rid of any oils that have accumulated. Do not attempt to remove your keys in order to clean under them, they are broken very easily.

Over time, your battery’s maximum capacity will decrease. There are three things you can do to minimize this:

1. Always store your battery in a cool dry place. High temperatures can drastically reduce a battery’s maximum capacity, and extreme temperatures may cause it to explode.
2. When storing your battery, it is best to do so at about 40% capacity. If you intend to keep your laptop on A/C power for a long time, you can disconnect the battery and run the laptop completely on A/C power. This has the added benefit of keeping your battery and your laptop cooler, helping them both last longer.
3. When charging your battery, many small discharges with frequent recharges are better than one large discharge. For example, it is better to drain your battery down by 10% and then fully charge it often than it is to completely drain it and then completely charge it.

Running your tablet at maximum brightness can increase load on the battery. You can lower the screen brightness by launching the Windows Mobility Center with the shortcut Windows+X and adjusting the brightness slider as desired. You can also have the tablet automatically adjust the screen brightness depending on your environment by hitting Fn+F11.

To greatly extend your battery life, you can force your computer to limit its resource use. To do this, open the Windows Mobility Center (Windows+X) and under the battery gauge, change the power mode to Power Saver. Note that this will reduce overall system performance in order to increase battery life.

When you are not using your wireless internet connection, you can reduce the load on your battery by turning off your wireless adapter. This can be done by flipping the switch on the left side of your laptop. When the switch’s light is blue, the wireless adapter is on. When the light is orange, the wireless adapter is off.