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Description: What to avoid when using a computer Difficulty level: Easy System version: Not applicable Required: Discipline
This tutorial is going to be a bit different from the others.
Most of the time, I teach tricks and tell you how to do stuff on
your Mac. This time, I wish, with all the arrogance that this
implies, to educate you regarding things that you should not
do.
Computer users, and this includes Mac users, have very bad
habits. It is a fact that hardware will fail one day. The only
question is when it will happen. Our daily habits usually determine
the critical moment. Without knowing, users shorten their Mac's
lifespan. Let us try to end such behavior and help our Macs to
achieve longevity.
Sleep vs. Shutdown
To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question. The principle
behind sleep is that your computer takes a nap in a low power mode.
This means that your Mac uses less electricity while remaining
powered on. The sleep option is great for the Mac user who leaves
his desk for a limited time. If you leave your desk for 30 minutes
or a few of hours, put the computer to sleep.
If you are to leave your Mac unused for an extended period (8
hours or more), putting it to sleep is a bad idea. Shut it down.
The mechanical parts and transistors of your computer need to cool
down every once in a while, and an 8-hour nap achieves just
that.
The exception to this is the "deep sleep" mode. Some newer Macs,
when put to sleep, will do the equivalent of shutting down. The
processor will rest, the fans will stop spinning, the hard disk
drive will turn off, and the monitor will turn into deep sleep,
too. The only visible difference between the "deep sleep" mode and
shutdown is the flashing power button. If your computer can enter
such a level of sleep, then putting it to sleep is the equivalent
of a shutdown, since waking it up will power up the hard drive and
processor in a similar way to a shutdown's.
Restarts and Startups
Frequent restarts are not good for your Mac. Of course,
restarting is a great way to refresh your memory, but you have to
avoid abusing the restart. In every boot process, components
receive an electric charge to power up and get ready for use.
Repeated electric charges add up to the abuse that the components
take, and thus they can contribute to shorten the life of your
hardware.
With everything I said about sleep, restarts, startups, and
shutdowns, you can feel confused about what to do. The best tip I
can give you is to leave your Mac running during the time when you
are likely to use it. Put it to sleep if you are going away for a
30 minutes to a few hours. Restart it only when you have to, and
minimize the number of startup processes it goes through during
normal day.
The Battery
Long shutdown periods are bad for your Mac. If you leave your
Mac turned off for weeks, the battery inside your computer will use
up much of its energy to maintain some of your settings, such as
the time. It will dissipate its energy faster than it should, and
when your battery dies, you will have a few problems.
First, your Mac will not be able to keep its clock right. At
every restart, it will revert to something like 1956. In addition,
a dead battery can cause startup problems. Moreover, we did not
even mention having to spend money on a new battery.
Disk Optimization
Defragmenting and optimizing a hard disk drive with utility
software is part of maintaining your Mac. It allows gaining speed
through more efficient hard disk accesses. On the other hand, a
hard disk is like an audio cassette: the more you write and rewrite
on it, the more you abuse it and risk failure.
Optimizing your disk too often is foolish - it is a nasty crash
waiting to happen. You have to choose between two strategies. If
you use your Mac for not-very-demanding tasks, optimize your drive
every 6 to 8 weeks. If, on the contrary, your disk gets fragmented
because of your taxing work habits, it is a good idea to defragment
every two weeks.
The idea: reducing the punishment taken by your hard disk. A
fragmented disk will have to work harder to retrieve and write
files. On the other hand, optimizing a drive with insignificant
fragmentation will make your disk go through a long read and
rewrite process for nothing.
Cold
If, for some reason, your computer has been sitting in colder
temperature than the typical room conditions for a while, do not
start it up right away! Your Mac has to gradually adapt to the
normal room temperature before being ready for use. A 24-hour
transition period is a minimum requirement if your computer has
been subject to freezing temperatures. Ideally, wait 48 hours
before turning it on. Doing otherwise punishes your hardware
greatly. Quick temperature changes are never good for electronics
and computers.
Cigarette Smoke
Make sure to keep your Mac away from cigarette smoke. Your
computer is a non-smoker; you should respect its rights :-)
Seriously, smoke and computers do not mix well.
Going on Vacation
With what I said about the battery and temperatures, going on
vacation is tricky. As I would never recommend that you stop going
away on vacation, here is something that you should do. Ask the
people who live with you to turn your Mac on for a couple of hours
every 2 or 3 days to make sure to save your battery. If nobody else
lives with you, you always have an automated option. Go to the
Energy Saver control panel. Click on the Schedule tab and set up a
schedule that turns the computer on at a given time of a chosen
day, and that shuts it down a few hours later. Make sure not to
unplug the power cord before leaving :-)
If you leave your Mac in a cold place during your vacation time,
be a little patient before turning it on.
That's it. You should know how to increase your Mac's longevity.
If lucky, you could extend it by a few years.
Mac of the Day: PowerBook 500 Series, May 1994 - 25-33 MHz 68040 powered PowerBooks with smart batteries, grayscale and color displays.
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Best iMac G4 deals, Low End Mac Deals, 05.14.
Used 15" 800 MHz Combo, $320; SuperDrive, $380; 1 GHz Combo, $400; SD, $485; 17" 1.25 GHz, $459; 20", $750.
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Mac OS X 10.0.3, $40; 10.1, $49; 10.2, $60; 10.3 DVD, $50; CD, $100; 10.1 Server, unlimited users, $109; 10.3 Server, $130.
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