These 12 Common Mistakes Could Ruin Your Computer

Everyday habits can damage your computer without you knowing. Dust builds up and blocks the fans. This makes your machine overheat and slow down. If you place your laptop on a bed or pillow, you'll block the vents and trap heat inside. Ignoring software updates invites hackers and malware. Over time, this wears out your hardware and makes your system unstable.

You can make mistakes in other ways, too. Defragmenting an SSD burns through its limited write cycles for no reason. Weak or recycled passwords are a favorite for hackers. They make stealing credentials too easy. A small zap of static electricity can fry your motherboard. Letting your battery drain to zero will wear it out faster. Spills, opening too many tabs, rough handling, or skipping surge protectors can also lead to disaster or lost data. Sometimes its hard to keep up with everything not to do, but developing positive practices can protect your rig. Here are 12 mistakes to avoid for a smoother, longer-lasting computer and to save on expensive repairs.

Most threats to your computer are invisible and silent. Dust is one of them, and it builds up faster than people think. It may take anywhere from weeks to a few months to start harming your computer setup, depending on your environment. Dust settles on cooling fans, heat sinks, and fan assemblies. This accumulation creates a blanket layer over the components thick enough to block airflow over time. Fans also get clogged and stop spinning efficiently, thus reducing the amount of cold air they suck in as well as the amount of hot air they push out.

Consequently, your components begin to cook from the inside as the internal temperature rises. This level of overheating then leads to thermal throttling, system damage, and ultimately hardware failures that will cost money to fix. Even if your hardware survives, the risk of issues such as short circuits, fire from overheating, and reduced computer lifespan increases.

Fortunately, you can avoid all these problems by simply cleaning your computer's internal components every three to six months. A soft brush or computer blower will always do the trick. Also, consider elevating your computer away from carpets to reduce dust accumulation. Good workspace ventilation and investing in PC cases with dust filters will also help.

Binge-watching Netflix in bed can be fun, but it may harm your laptop. Placing your laptop on soft surfaces such as mattresses or blankets can block its vents, which restricts airflow. Your computer will overheat, and the fans will spin faster to cool it down. However, without air circulation, this effort fails. This leads to thermal throttling, which can make your computer slow or even unusable.

Your battery will also take a hit, as lithium-ion batteries typically start degrading when exposed to heat for extended periods. Anytime your laptop overheats, you'll notice your battery draining up to 40% faster than usual. If this happens too frequently, your battery may start swelling. Swollen batteries mean they age faster, which will result in the need for a replacement sooner than you'd like.

Actionable advice here is pretty straightforward — always use your laptop on a hard, flat surface. Invest in a cooling pad if you have to use your laptop on your bed or couch. Cooling pads allow air to circulate under your laptop, and some even have built-in fans to help with cooling. Nevertheless, consider placing your laptop where it belongs: on your lap or desk.

Besides heat, letting your battery drain to zero is another leading cause of degradation. Frequent discharge-to-full recharges will take a toll on the battery's chemistry. For this reason, the sweet spot for optimal battery health is charging between at least 20% and 80%. Working within these levels helps reduce charge cycles and ultimately maximizes lifespan.

For perspective, laptop batteries that get charged from zero to full capacity can generally cycle between 300 and 500 times before needing replacement. On the other hand, following the 20 to 80% rule can yield between 850 and 1,500 cycles. The significantly better battery lifespan ensures your laptop serves you reliably for much longer.

In a nutshell, it's wise to always keep an eye on your battery level at all times. Fortunately, many modern laptop models come with a feature that warns you when your power drops below a certain level. They also let you automatically stop charging at about 80% capacity or slightly higher. Extending the battery charge cycles ensures your laptop serves you for longer with a healthy battery that doesn't hinder your workflow when you're not plugged in.

You can defragment any hard disk (HDD) for improved performance, but this is a bad idea when it comes to solid-state drives (SSDs). Defragging improves HDD performance by rearranging files in such a way that reduces read time, thus boosting speed. SSDs use flash memory and access files differently than their mechanical counterparts. Also, SSDs rarely face performance issues due to their solid-state design. For this reason, defragging an SSD is unnecessary.

Besides being unnecessary, defragging can damage or ruin your SSD. SSDs have a finite number of write cycles available, and each defragging instance uses up the limited cycles. As a result, your SSD will wear out faster than it should, ultimately reducing its lifespan. You'll have to reach out for your wallet sooner for a replacement. To avoid this problem, leave your SSD alone unless you run into specific performance issues. Modern SSDs automatically optimize themselves using TRIM technology.

You most likely do this at least once a day — opening your laptop using one hand from one corner. Handling your laptop in this manner subjects its hinge mechanism to uneven stress. You are technically carrying your laptop by the screen. This action pulls on the hinges and the display assembly. They may start to crack, creating a situation that worsens over time. Hinge repairs should not be ignored, or you risk damaging the delicate wires connecting your display to the motherboard. If that happens, repairs could be very costly. You may need to replace the hinge mechanism, the screen, and the display casing.

Be gentle with the hinge mechanism and display by always opening your laptop with two hands. Handling it this way ensures even pressure distribution, allowing the hinges to work as they should. Furthermore, you minimize the risk of dropping your laptop, which can also result in costly repairs. Two hands are always better and safer than one when handling any delicate gadget. You can even go further by investing in a protective case for your laptop to prevent screen and hinge damage from falls.

A power surge is rare, but it can cause thousands of dollars in damage to your electronics, including your computer. It may occur due to sudden voltage changes, lightning, wiring problems, or appliances turning on and off. For computers, even a single surge can fry the motherboard, power supply, and CPU. These damages are often costly to fix or can't be repaired at all.

Here's when you need a surge protector. This device detects excess voltage and safely grounds it to prevent damage. It protects your computer and other connected devices. The surge protector works well for standard surges but may fail during severe overloads. Keep in mind that its effectiveness decreases with each overload it handles.

UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is another alternative you can consider to keep moderate to minor power surges at bay. UPSs can manage multiple power surges. They also offer temporary backup power, giving you time to save your work and shut down safely. For desktop setups, this solution is highly recommended. If you still want to use a surge protector, ensure it has a joule rating of 2,000 or more. However, you must replace it after every major power event — the indicator lights will let you know when that happens.

Static electricity is a silent and often underestimated threat to computers, especially when doing self-repairs or cleaning internal components. An electrostatic discharge (ESD) can cause irreversible damage to your computer's motherboard, RAM, GPU, and other sensitive parts. A tiny invisible zap carries enough voltage to do all the damage. The risk is always imminent, even when performing simple maintenance tasks like changing your RAM or opening up your computer.

Preventing ESD damage is as simple as grounding yourself before opening and handling the internal components of your computer. You can achieve this by just touching a grounded metallic part of the case, working on a static-safe mat, or wearing an anti-static wrist strap. But don't worry, you don't have to spend money on a wrap or mat — simply grounding yourself before opening or handling internal parts should suffice. Be sure to avoid carpeted areas whenever you're opening your computer. Carpets prevent grounding, thus increasing the risk of ESD.

It's quite common to get carried away and find yourself with 87 tabs open when working on your computer. This habit takes a toll on your system's resources. Each tab you open runs its own process, and they add up fast. For example, having 20 or more tabs open at a given time will hog at least 2GB of RAM or even more, depending on the kind of webpages you open. Assuming you're running a system with 8GB, there is little left for other applications or background tasks that you'd want to run. As a result, your system becomes sluggish.

Continuous excessive tab hoarding may result in freezing, extreme slowdowns, and random crashes. Your system may fail to manage the load completely. Besides RAM, CPU usage will also increase if some of the open tabs are displaying video content or running scripts. Consequently, your computer starts to overheat, which becomes detrimental to your battery and other components, as you've seen in the previous sections of this article.

Solving these issues is as simple as closing any tabs you're not actively using at any given time. Make it a habit to close a tab as soon as you're done with it — it may seem tedious at first, but it becomes second nature quickly. Also, consider bookmarking important pages instead of keeping them open. You can always locate them later without taking up your computer's resources.

Reusing your password across multiple sites or platforms may feel convenient and necessary since it makes it easier to remember. However, your favorite websites and services are subject to data breaches every once in a while. When one service gets breached, hackers and other malicious actors are likely to find your username/email and password combination on the affected website. If you've used this combination everywhere else, including your email, social media accounts, work-related accounts, or even your bank account, you could be in big trouble.

Bad things may start happening. Here are some of them: identity theft, loss of finances, unauthorized access to sensitive accounts, and overall account takeovers, among others. The first layer of security to prevent all these is to use a unique password for each of your online accounts. Second, always use multi-factor authentication where applicable. However, remembering numerous unique passwords can be a headache, but there's a simple solution to handle that.

Password managers solve this problem by generating unique passwords that you don't have to remember for each site. They then store these passwords securely under one master password. Memorize the master password, and you have tens or even hundreds of passwords ready whenever you need them across different devices. There are many great options to choose from if you need a reliable password manager. You can try Google Password Manager, or if you don't fancy Google-owned services, Proton Pass is another potential option.

BIOS controls how your computer starts up and hardware initialization. Every once in a while, you may need to update your BIOS for one of these reasons: to fix bugs, address an urgent security issue, or add hardware compatibility. However, performing a BIOS update is risky, as it modifies the firmware that runs your computer. The motherboard becomes corrupted if anything goes wrong during the update, and you must replace it. A corrupted motherboard becomes unusable — your computer will fail to boot up, and data recovery becomes difficult and expensive if you seek professional assistance.

Interruptions, power outages, or hardware incompatibilities can be the cause of a failed BIOS update. For this reason, it would be wise to avoid performing BIOS updates unless absolutely necessary. Before going ahead with an update, back up your data, verify hardware compatibility, follow the manufacturer's instructions closely, and ensure you have a stable power supply before starting the process. The only time that you are safe during a BIOS update gone wrong is if the motherboard has a dual BIOS, a CMOS battery, or a recovery jumper.

Software update notifications can be annoying or even disrupt your workflow. However, they are critical in keeping your system up to date at all times. Outdated software usually contains known vulnerabilities, and hackers actively exploit them. They may use automated tools to scan the internet for computers running outdated software and launch attacks. These attacks range from installing malware, stealing personal information, wiping bank accounts, or installing ransomware on their target's computer.

Apple, Microsoft, and Linux distributors always release security patches to fix zero-day vulnerabilities in their operating systems. These patches are the primary defence and must be downloaded and installed as soon as they are available. Never delay on anything labeled as a security update — these are more important than feature updates. After checking for operating system updates, also check for app updates, with browsers and antivirus software being the priority.

You probably do this every day, but having coffee or any other type of drink next to your laptop is a recipe for disaster. If you make just one clumsy move, your keyboard will get drenched, and the internal components of your laptop will be at risk. Liquids will seep into the motherboard and damage circuits. A damaged motherboard can result in complete system failure, which may be irreparable. If you get lucky and your laptop survives the splash, the leftover moisture from the spillage will quietly start corroding components from the inside. Weeks or months later, your computer could just stop working due to the extensive corrosion.

Motherboard repairs are expensive and frustrating. The best way to avoid this mess is to keep drinks away from your laptop. If you can't work without coffee or snacks, use a spill-proof mug. Keep ordinary mugs as far as possible and stay alert, especially with hot drinks. This small change can save you a big, expensive headache later. Eating food over your computer can damage your keyboard, too. Crumbs can compromise keyboard switches and make it harder to press some keys.