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Benefits:Laptop cleaning is a quick fix for sticky keys and blurred screens. In just a few minutes, cleaning also can improve the overall performance of your notebook.

Cleaning Tools
Tools for cleaning a laptop are easy to find and inexpensive. A lint free cloth and an old toothbrush will generally do the job. However, for some areas of cleaning, in place of the toothbrush you may want to use compressed air or invest in a computer vacuum.

1. Turn off your laptop. Give it a minute or so to totally power down and then unplug it.

2. Clean your screen. LCD screens are fragile. Do check your manufacturer抯 recommendation for the best way to clean yours. However, in most cases, all you need do is wipe it with a damp cloth, making sure to wring out all excess moisture. Most importantly, unless you manufacturer recommends differently, don抰 use alcohol or ammonia based cleaners.

3. Wipe down the keyboard. Remove crumbs and debris using your toothbrush (or compressed air or vacuum). Wipe again.

4. Remove dust and debris from vents with the toothbrush. The propellant in compressed air may contain moisture. Some manufacturers suggest that computer vacuums may damage electronic components. Remember always to check your manufacturer抯 recommendations.

Tip: Always use a lint free cloth to clean your computer. Instead of picking up debris, paper toweling can scratch your screen and leave paper lint on your machine.
Tip: Never spray any cleaner directly onto your computer. Always wet the cloth with the cleaner whether using water, a homemade solution, or a commercial preparation.

Laptop keyboard is a very important part of the books, but also a very simple failure by the idea of   laptop repair helps  we can easily start to use, every day we enter text via the keyboard symbols, keyboard problems when it equal to one less capable assistant, they might also affect the performance of the whole life. Not long ago one of my colleagues think of buying a used laptop, get it back the next day, accidentally spilled the drink on the keyboard. Symptom is half of the keys on the keyboard ( Acer Laptop Keyboard   ) can not be used and there must be two keys simultaneously in order to break out words. Preliminary judgments are keyboard short circuit and open circuit board where, when I open the keyboard, and found inside a plastic film with printed circuit! In cables and printed circuit connections have few connections because the short is blown the. Because it is plastic film printed circuit, so can not use conventional welding methods, so I use conductive silver paint and the fine particles of silver mixed with special paint used to draw the circuit, the conductivity after freezing is very good.

Installed a try, ok back to normal notebook keyboard! Laptop keyboard the most common failure is encountered: keycap off pretend not to go back, stent fracture, accidentally splashing water or dirty need to clean up. Laptop keyboard keys used by a small   contact, coated with conductive adhesive, each click will trigger an electrical pulse. If the seepage of key contacts, conductive adhesive dissolved out, the key will not work. In addition, the notebook is ultra-compact construction, the core of the computer ( Acer Laptop Keyboard  ), the following is part of the circuit, once the water to percolate through the keyboard, the result is even more unthinkable. So we use a laptop computer, be sure to pay special attention. A glass of water may make you pay a heavy price. Troubleshooting laptop keyboard: laptop ( SONY VPC-EB Series Keyboard  ) failure, laptop keyboard off, channeling laptop keyboard keys, laptop interface to repair. Laptop does not recognize it so boot-screen notebook computer does not turn dark laptop into the system.

Repair laptop keyboard failure phenomenon: the keyboard no key, the keyboard with keys and the keyboard automatically. Laptop ( Acer Laptop Keyboard   ) water rescue methods: If it is accidentally splashing water into the keyboard, it should be the first time the machine upside down to prevent water flow into the motherboard catastrophic consequences. Then unplug the power forced shutdown with the battery, simply press the power button to force shutdown is not enough, because the main battery may still be short, so be sure to remove the battery and disconnect the power adapter. Laptop is very expensive, must be showing your care or else we may have to pay big bucks to repair it! This site has a lot of notebooks with the maintenance of the tutorial, have time to look, and soon you will can easily solve their own computer  laptop repair helps  failure had.

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Due to excessive typing or just because the keyboard is not sturdy or so, these parts of the laptop can easily break. It does happen with usual keyboards, so imagine this is very likely to occur when we are dealing with a portable system. But if just a key is broken, you can easily fix it with the help of the  laptop repair helps service , without having to replace the entire keyboard. If you want to manage a key repair on Gateway laptop keyboard , you don’t have to take your laptop in service or see professionals, with some useful steps you can manage everything yourself. All you need are some fine tweezers and a replacement key kit.

First of all, remove the key cover from a key that is working, so you leave the inside intact. You can see this way how the key should be put back correctly. Locate the key retainers, which consist of small plastic parts that hold the rubber gasket in place. In most occasions, there are two of them and snap together in four different points. Use the tweezers and lift the retainers gently and see exactly where they snap together and where do they connect. Unsnap the retainers in order to replace the rubber gasket underneath and start by unsnapping the inner retainer from the outer one, take your time and do one side at a time. Pull the gasket with your fingers in the end. If you replace the retainers, assemble the plastic key retainers to resemble the key that is working. If the rubber is broken, replace the rubber gasket instead. Moreover, push the key retainer over the rubber gasket until you snap it in place on the Laptop Keyboard   and follow the revere procedure with the retainers linked together, snapping one end in and sliding the retainers over the gasket and the other end on the keyboard base. Finally, just snap the key cover back on and push until you feel the key snaps in place. Now open a document or something and see if the key is working properly. You can find single replacement keys for sale online, so that should not be a problem.

You might also want to replace the key on a Gateway laptop and for this you need the laptop key replacement kit and the flathead screwdriver. The process will take around 15 minutes, so you should be able to finish it when you have all the needed parts and a bit of patience. Grab the flathead screwdriver and pry up the broken key out of the keyboard. Remove the two retainers of the broken key (these hold the key to the  Gateway laptop keyboard ). You can do it with your fingers, or using the flathead screwdriver. These are connected to the laptop via four points located in the corners. Now insert the new key retainer in the empty slot and make sure that all four screws are secured. Attach them the same way your old retainer came out. Press the key in the slot until you hear a solid snap.

Both processes are easy and they are alternatives to getting a new  Gateway laptop keyboard . There is no use if only one key is broken or a few. If the entire keyboard is not working properly and you can’t use the majority of keys, then you should buy a new keyboard. Replacing it can be done personally and you can find any part you want for your laptop online.

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Now I am going to show you how to remove the Apple APPLE PowerBook G3 keyboard 

1. Turn off your APPLE PowerBook G3 and disconnect the power adapter.

2. Remove the battery.Using a flat head screwdriver or a coin such as a nickel, turn the battery lock to the unlock position as shown. Keep the coin or screwdriver in this position, and simultaneously lift out the battery.

3. Open your APPLE G3 and remove the screw securing the  APPLE PowerBook G3 Keyboard   .

4. Rotate the  APPLE PowerBook G3 Keyboard   up 90-degrees and lay it on the palm rest.

5. Unscrew the four screws, and remove the memory module cover.

6. Now, you can find the connector of keyboard cable, uplug it and remove the APPLE PowerBook G3 Keyboard  .

7. Reverse the procedure to install the new APPLE PowerBook G3 Keyboard.

For more laptop repair helps , please visit :

After our early experimentation with ThinkPad T410 review, we have the opportunity for a follow-up with Lenovo’s new Sandy Bridge ThinkPad T520. The T520, like most of Lenovo’s new kit, offers support for bootable mSATA SSDs, like Intel’s SSD 310. On the performance side, the T520 gets a second generation Intel Core processor and either Intel HD integrated graphics or nVIDIA discrete graphics. A big boost in power is also on the horizon with an optional slice-battery, increasing runtime of the ThinkPad T420 to an eye-popping 24 hours. Lenovo has also bettered the 3G performance by 15%, thanks to a new antenna design. Read on to see what we think about this new system from Lenovo.

In terms of storage, the ThinkPad T520 is configurable with either an HDD or SSD as the primary drive and it supports the Ultrabay for use with an optional data drive. As noted, the mSATA port provides a third storage option, and is bootable with a special SSD like the Intel SSD 310, replacing the WWAN module. In our full review we’ll run the T520 through a our gammut of HDDs and SSDs to test, but for now look at performance using the suite of new Intel SSDs including the SSD 310, 320, and high performance 510.

Lenovo ThinkPad T520 Specifications

15.6-inch Widescreen 1366×768 WXGA LED-Backlit Display (Matte finish)
Intel Core i5-2540M Processor (3M Cache, 2.66 GHz)
Intel GMA HD 3000 Graphics
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit
8.0GB DDR3 System Memory
Intel 82579LM Gigabit LAN, Intel Centrino 6205 802.11AGN
6-cell 57Wh Extended Laptop Battery

Aesthetics

At first glance it doesn’t look like much has changed in terms of the design of the ThinkPad T520. Lenovo has the same black rubbery paint covering the boxy shell of a body, with large stainless steel hinges displayed on both sides. The only thing displayed on the screen cover is the ThinkPad brand logo and the Lenovo name, keeping the rest matte black.

The bottom of the notebook does have one significant change. Unlike previous generations, the bottom is made entirely of plastic now which you can tell from the moment you scratch your fingernail across it. I am undecided on if this weakens the durability of the notebook though, since the system still features the strong alloy unibody chassis. It also doesn’t appear to increase flex at first glance, which is a very good sign.

Ease of access to system components like the RAM and hard drive are still included on the T520 through two covers on the bottom of the chassis. One houses the lower memory slot, while the other gives access to the primary 2.5-inch drive bay. The rest of the components are accessible through the top, directly underneath the keyboard. This includes the upper memory slot, CPU, Wi-Fi card, WWAN/mSATA slot, and SIM-card slot.

Storage Upgrades

I think its safe to say the mSATA standard is probably one of the best things that’s happened to notebooks in a long time. With some additional circuitry, mobile platforms can now have up to 80GB of storage space included on a card roughly the size of a house key. What this means for consumers is now systems can be built smaller and still retain a user-replaceable storage drive, or on large systems the legacy 2.5-inch bay can be used for media storage. In the past you might have to make the compomise between storage capacity and the high cost of an SSD. Now you can stick a high capacity platter drive in the primary bay and still have a fast SSD as the boot drive.

The ThinkPad T520 also supports the same secondary hard drive UltraBay adapter as the T410 we reviewed earlier this year, meaning users can have a total of three drives in their 14 or 15-inch notebooks. How cool is that?

System Performance

In terms of storage performance, one area did concern us greatly. When most people think of the Sandy Bridge platform, one of the first things that pops up intheir their heads is faster processors, less power consumption, and SATA 6.0Gbps speeds. In our review system with the latest Intel drives installed, the fastest negotiated speed from the primary storage bay was 3.0Gbps. This brings back some memories of older systems that were held back to 1.5Gbps speeds when 3.0 was the new standard. We are investigating right now to find out if this was intended and if so, how many new ThinkPad models it applies to.

Update: After further testing and many benchmark runs, we are now seeing full SATA 6.0Gbps negotiation speeds through the primary drive bay. We either ran into a strange driver quirk after drive cloning, but from what we can tell right now is things are back to where they should be. Crisis averted! Stay tuned for our full review where we test the ThinkPad T520 with the Intel SSD 510, Micron m4, and the OCZ Vertex 3 showing their full potential on a mobile platform.

Even with reduced potential from the SATA bus, we still saw very strong performance from the ThinkPad T520. For a system with “only” integrated graphics, it still easily beat the overall system performance of the ThinkPad T410 we reviewed by a factor of two. PCMark Vantage scores doubled, coming in at 12,329 PCMarks, even with the base mSATA 80GB SSD. The latest generation of Intel integrated graphics also handily beat the NVIDIA NVS 3100M at 3DMark06 scoring over 5,000 3DMarks.

Power Consumption

To get as close to a baseline power consumption rate as possible, we decided to test the Lenovo ThinkPad T520 using the 80GB Intel mSATA SSD 310 as the only drive installed. In the full review we will show runtimes including two drives, to show how that would affect battery life. Our initial test was setup to our road-warrior standards, which includes the screen brightness reduced to 50%, the CPU set to power saving mode, wireless on and refreshing a webpage without Flash-based ads, and Bluetooth disabled. In this profile the system used as little as 5.6 watts of power and showed an expected runtime of 11.5 hours halfway through. Not too shabby for a 15.6-inch notebook with a 6-cell battery. Just imagine the amount of time you could get on the 9-cell battery plus slice.

Stay Tuned

We expect to wrap up our full review of the Lenovo ThinkPad T520 in the next couple of weeks. We will be following the same review style as our previous review, which included benchmarking the notebook using a set group of drives. Since the selection of drives has changed drastically in the past month, our test group has changed to now include the Crucial m4, Intel SSD 320, Intel SSD 310, and OCZ Vertex 3. If you have any questions or requests during the review process, feel free to shoot a question our way in our Test Lab forum. If your request is reasonable we will do whatever we can to get you an answer.

Battery and Power Consumption

Our Lenovo ThinkPad T520 included the standard six-cell battery option, offering a 57Wh capacity. A larger nine-cell battery with a capacity of 94Wh is also offered, which would add about 60% onto your overall battery life. The biggest difference between each of these batteries is their respective sizes, with the smaller six-cell mounting flush to the back of the notebook, and the larger nine-cell battery sticking under an inch.

An optional “slice” battery is also offered as an option for the ThinkPad T520, which when combined with a 9-cell lenovo t520 battery boasts an impressive 24-hours of runtime. Sadly, we were unable to get a slice-battery with our review unit, so we are unable to provide measured runtimes of that configuration.

To test the lenovo battery life we used the Windows 7 Power Saver profile, with the display backlight reduced to about 50% (9/15 brightness), Bluetooth disabled, Wi-Fi on and refreshing a webpage without animated or Flash-based ads, and the system set to hibernate at 5% power remaining. Our goal with this test setup is to try and mimic the road-warrior situation, where you are trying to squeeze as much time as possible in-between charges.

Using the above conditions, the ThinkPad T520 stayed on for 6 hours and 59 minutes, with an average power consumption of 6.2-7 watts. Compared to our original estimate of over 11 hours, it appears the battery gauge wasn’t as accurate as a stopwatch.

You’ve got a five-hour flight from Los Angeles to New York City, and one battery in your laptop. You’ve got work to do, DVDs to watch, and games to play. How are you going to get that battery to last? Well, hidden inside (and outside) your computer are lots of tricks to help you.

Dimming Your Screen

Your screen and hard drive use up more battery power than any other parts of your computer. You can dim down your screen to a point where your eyes still feel comfortable but you also save energy. On most laptops, you first dim the screen by holding down the “Fn” key (go ahead and find it because you may never have used it before). Then you look for a key on your laptop that either has a picture of a sun or a half-moon. (On my Sony Vaio that key happens to be F5.) If you find it, go ahead and hit it while still holding down the Fn key. A brightness adjustment box should show up on your screen. If you can’t find a key with a sun or half-moon on it, try hitting your various arrow keys while holding down Fn, to see if that works.

Turning Off Your Screen Altogether

If dimming your screen is good for saving battery life, turning it off when you’re not using it is even better. To turn off your screen, we’re going to have to go into some settings in the Control Panel. You’ll soon see these settings are not only good for turning off screens; they perform a whole host of battery saving functions.

Click on Start, then on Control Panel. If your Control Panel is shown in the “Category View”, click first on Performance and Maintenance, then on Power Options. If your Control Panel is in Classic View, simply click on the Power Options icon. Next click on the Power Schemes Tab. Underneath where it says Running on Batteries and across from where it says Turn Off Monitor, choose how quickly you’d like your monitor to shut off when you’re not actively using it.

That Power Options Properties box we just opened brings us to a whole host of other enticing options we can employ on our cross-country flight!

Choosing a Power Scheme

Windows XP offers two Power Schemes appropriate for laptops on the go. These are Portable/Laptop and Max Battery. They can both be chosen in the Power Schemes tab of the Power Options Properties box. Both power schemes conserve battery power. But Portable laptop adjusts what it conserves to the amount of power you need at the time, while Max Battery is much less flexible. It keeps your computer at a very low constant power rate no matter what you may be doing. So if you are planning on watching a DVD on that flight, which uses a lot of battery power, I don’t recommend using the Max Battery power scheme. It might not give you enough power.

Each power scheme also has its own settings for when the monitor and hard disks should be turned off. Remember that both are huge energy hogs, and that both the monitor and hard disk remain on longer under Portable/Laptop than they do under Max Battery.

The power scheme you choose also determines how long the computer will wait to go into Standby mode or Hibernate after remaining idle. Standby conserves energy because it turns off your hard disk and monitor. However, whatever you were working on at the time stays in memory (RAM) instead of being saved safely to your hard drive. The upside of Standby, though, is that when you press any key your computer will come out of the mode rather quickly.

Hibernation saves even more energy because it saves your work to the hard drive and then shuts your computer down almost all the way. Inherently, of course, this means it takes the computer longer to wake up to its normal state, but when everything does come back on, it looks the same as before. To switch your computer to Standby mode manually, click on Start, then on Turn off Computer, then on Standby. To make your computer Hibernate manually, click on Start and Turn off Computer again, but this time hold down the Shift key down afterward. The Standby key switches to “Hibernate”. Click it and your computer will go into Hibernation mode.

Creating Your Own Profiles

Maybe you don’t like the two power saving choices Windows gives you. Maybe you want to create custom ones to suit your own needs. You can do that! I created one for “Long Plane Rides”. I adjusted the settings in the Power Options Properties box. For instance, I indicated I wanted my monitor to turn off after only 2 minutes of idle time, and my hard disks after 3 minutes. Then I clicked on Save As, named my profile, and clicked OK. Now maybe the battery will last even longer on the flight.

Let’s go through some other choices in the Power Options Properties box. Under the Alarm tab, you can check boxes to either be alerted when your battery is low and/or when your battery is critical. You can even use the slider to make your own determination of just what is low and what is critical. Then you can click on Alarm Action to tell your computer to, for instance, sound an alarm or go into Standby mode when those moments are reached.

Under the Advanced tab, you can choose what you want your laptop to do when you close the lid. You can choose it to go into Standby mode, Hibernation, or even do nothing if you wish. You can also choose what you’d like the computer to do when you hit the power button.

If you’re interested in using your laptop’s Hibernation feature you should check the box under the Hibernation tab that says Enable Hibernation.

Turn Off Wireless Network Card

Your wireless card can also be a drain on your battery’s resources, so disable it if you don’t need it. (You don’t need it obviously on a plane, for instance.) If your laptop has a wireless card, simply take it out. If your laptop has wireless built-in, you can disable it in Windows XP by clicking on Start and going to your Control Panel. In Category View, click on Network and Internet Connections, then Network Connections. In Classic View, simply click on Network Connections. Once you’re there, right click on the wireless connection you’re using, and click on Disable. You can also disable your wireless network card through the Device Manager. Right click on My Computer and left click on Properties. Click on the Hardware tab and then the Device Manager button. Next, click on the small black cross next to where it says Network Adapters. Locate your wireless network adapter, right click on it, and left click on Disable.

You can also left click on Properties instead (after you right click on your network adapter), click on the Power Management tab, and check the box that says “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.

Some newer laptops with the Intel Mobile Pentium® chip have a button somewhere on the laptop itself, for instance on the front, to enable you to easily turn your wireless on or off. You may have to check your laptop’s manual to find out if you have a button and if so, where it is.

CPU Throttling

The Intel Mobile Pentium® laptops also sport a feature known as CPU Throttling (and named SpeedStep™ by Intel), that actually slows down your processor when you’re running on the battery. When you’re plugged into your AC, your processor runs full speed ahead. But when you unplug that cord, it shifts into a lower gear. A processor running at a lower speed and using less voltage saves your battery even that much more juice.

So now you have a number of tools to implement in order to save your computer’s precious battery power. But maybe instead on that next long distance flight, you might want to think ahead and book a seat with a power outlet.

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