Your laptop is one of the most important and expensive devices you own and carry around on an almost daily basis. You can use your laptop for almost anything, whether it is for work or school, gaming, shopping, consuming different forms of media, and much more!
Laptops are very useful but their structures can be delicate and prone to damage when not handled with care. Thus, it is important to protect your laptop whenever you are traveling with it, regardless of how short the duration of travel is! The best possible way of transporting your laptop is in a backpack that meets certain specifications that can make it safer to do so!
How Laptops Can Be Damaged
Although your laptop may seem durable, its structure consists of many fragile parts which can easily break or become damaged. While some types of damages can be fixed, others cannot. Such breakages will lead to you having to purchase a new laptop and can cause a huge dent in your pocket!
Here are 10 of the most common ways laptops generally become damaged.
Cracked Screens
One of the most fragile and easily breakable parts of your laptop is your screen. It is also the most exposed yet important part of your laptop, spanning its entire length and is its very display! Closing your laptop improperly, in a manner that is too fast or rough, or closing different types of objects within it can cause the screen to crack. In other cases, external pressure can also cause the laptop screen to crack.
Dropping
An expensive and delicate object like your laptop should never be dropped, no matter how small the distance may seem. Even harmless acts such as tossing your backpack onto a bed, kicking your bag, or dropping it to the ground can cause huge damage to the external body of the laptop and maybe even its internal components.
Food/Beverage Damage
Storing your laptop and any food or drink together might prove to be harmful to you in the long run. Even if your food is properly packed and your drinks are covered and capped, accidental spills can always occur and could cause bigger problems than just stained or wet notebooks. Instead, your laptop could be soaked or covered in your lunch and your precious data might be irrecoverable.
Trauma
Banging your laptop into walls, seats, desks, or any other hard object can be handled by your backpack or other items, but your laptop can get damaged by any such trauma.
Shaking
Although many laptop owners do not know this, shaking your laptop roughly could also lead to internal damage. Although most laptops now have SSDs, which means there is less of a possibility of shaking damaging it, if your laptop has a mechanical disk drive, rough shaking can cause a disruption within the components and can even cause a loss of data. Yikes!
Weather Damage
While purchasing laptop bags, many people don’t consider whether their backpacks are weather resistant. However, this later proves to be a huge mistake, especially when a short walk through rain or snow can cause your laptop to be wet enough to permanently damage it.
Pressure
A laptop is very fragile and is not constructed in such a way as to endure heavy weights. Letting heavy objects, such as textbooks and other bags, rest on your laptop can cause damage to your laptop.
Overheating
Leaving your laptop on in your backpack or otherwise can cause it to overheat and can potentially damage it. To prevent this, shut down your laptop or put it to sleep in order to not cause it to overheat.
Overloading
Packing a laptop into a full bag can cause the surrounding notebooks or other items to crush it. Packing light and keeping your laptop safely on top is a good way of preventing any damage that can occur because of this.
Inserting and Removing
Being rough with taking out your laptop or putting it in can cause damage to the exterior or even the screen, especially with more fragile versions.
How to Correctly Carry Your Laptop
Now that you know all the different ways laptops can be damaged, let’s look at the correct way of transporting your laptop within your backpack!
These next few steps can make a huge difference when it comes to caring for your laptop while transporting it. Follow them and increase your laptop’s life span!
Shutting Down Your Laptop
Keeping your laptop running while you aren’t using it will cause it to overheat. Shutting it down or putting it in hibernation mode will prevent overheating.
Unplugging All Cords and Devices
Doing this will prevent damage to any ports that the devices or cords are connected to.
Closing Your Laptop
Closing your laptop carefully and gently, while also making sure nothing is between your screen and the keyboard, will help make sure your screen does not become damaged.
Using a Protective Case
This may be the most important point of all! Using a protective case helps minimize any damage to the laptop’s exterior and screen.
Securing it Within Your Backpack
Making sure your laptop is safe within your backpack and no food, drink, or sharp items are in its proximity is important to prevent any sort of damage.
Zipping it Up
Fully closing the top zipper of your backpack is important; otherwise, your laptop can easily fall and sustain damages.
Handling Your Backpack With Care
Make sure not to throw around your backpack or put any pressure on it.
Using all these tips can make sure your laptop is safe and secure while you’re traveling so you won’t have to worry one bit!