The most troublesome laptop components are hard drive, screen, and keyboard. While you probably would not want to replace an expensive laptop screen, anyone with the right tools and even a slight mechanical inclination can replace the hard drive, keyboard, and other components, with some patient tinkering.

Opening your laptop case may void the warranty, so if your system is still under warranty, let the manufacturer deal with repairs. Notebooks are delicate, so never force anything. One slip and your motherboard is ruined.

Before doing anything else, remove the notebook’s battery and disconnect its power cord. Remember to ground yourself before you open the case, either with a grounding strap ( the safest way), or by touching a piece of grounded metal ( a lamp or water pipe will do), while touching  a metal part on the case’s exterior.

Phishing scam is what crooks and hackers do to steal your personal information. Once they get all the information they need they can use it to steal your cash. Whenever there is a request for your personal data, whether online or not, should make you vigilant and set yourself that it can be someone trying to steal your personal identity!

By now, most of you may have already heard of phishing scams. This can happen not only online but also anytime outside so you should be on guard against it. But criminals today are very creative and imaginative in coming up of new ways to trick us and trying to con us out of our hard-earned money.

Scareware is one of methods that they have been using for quite some time now. It works by screen pop up when you are online showing you a warning message that your computer has been infected with a virus. Usually they make the box similar to Windows dialog box that you are used to so you wont get suspicious that it was a hoax.

They also include a site or a link where you can buy software that you can use the said virus or malware. But if you buy that software and run it in your computer, it will not solve the problem but install viruses and spyware on your computer. The malware installed in your system can fetch for important personal data such as credit card numbers, passwords and bank login information. Once the hacker has your credit card number he can use it and leave you with a pile of bills.

Usually those pop-up windows get into your computer when you may have unconsciously victimized by a phishing scam. Another way of getting it is when you visited a well-known and respected site that had been attacked before. There are malwares today that can be installed in your computer without any action from your part. This happens when you visit an affected site that caused a malicious program to be downloaded and installed on your system. There are many ways an attacker can use to infect your system that’s why it is important to know how to avoid being a victim of such attacks.

When you encounter a pop-up box warning you that you were infected with some kind of malware of virus remember not to close it using the red X button on the upper right of the box because some hackers have ingeniously initiate a malware to download on your computer when you close the dialog box that way. A simple press Ctrl + Alt + Delete will be able to close that box or by right-clicking the pop-up’s tab on the Task Bar which is located at the bottom of your screen then click Close. Another way to do it is to close your browser in the list of running programs then clicking End Task. You should also remember to disable pop-ups in your browser to prevent it from happening again.

If your laptop battery is not charging here are a few steps that you can do to determine why your laptop is not able to charge:

1.    Remove the battery from your laptop and try to turn on your laptop by connecting the ac adapter to your laptop. If your laptop doesn’t turn on, ask your friend or someone to lend you their ac adapter and try to turn on your laptop again using the new ac adapter. This is to determine if your ac adapter is defective or not. The power circuit of your laptop’s motherboard might be damaged if the second ac adapter does not work as well. Check your receipt if your laptop is still under warranty and if not call a technician and ask a quote for the repair.

2.    If your laptop turns on when you use your ac adapter then can conclude that your ac adapter is not the problem. Check if the battery contacts are aligned with your laptop or if it is loose then try it again. If it still doesn’t work then try using a 2nd battery. Test if the battery is able to charge or not. Make sure that the 2nd battery that you will going to use works fine on another laptop. If the 2nd battery is working fin in your laptop then the battery you have may be already be defective. You can also check if your battery is ok by testing it in another laptop. If it  is working properly then your problem maybe caused by software problems.

3.    Sometimes the problem lies on the software of your laptop. You should check if the problem is not because of any software related issues. It is possible that your laptop software is causing the problem and that your battery is ok. If your problem is software related then you should try power resetting your unit. Unplug your laptop and remove the battery then hold the power down for a minute. After that place the battery and ac adapter back in and boot your laptop. Your laptop’s motherboard probably was still holding power when the battery died causing a “glitch” in your laptop’s system. Power resetting may resolve this kind of problem.

4.    If your laptop’s battery stops charging always whenever it reaches 96-98% then you might need to recalibrate your laptop for the new battery. You can easily recalibrate your laptop properly via the Windows power management.

With Windows XP, you can change the battery settings by navigating to Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options. Once you find it change the “Power Schemes” to “Always On”. Under “Alarms”, uncheck “Low battery alarm” and “Critical battery alarm”. Under “Hibernate”, uncheck “Enable hibernation”, and then click on Apply.

This is the only time that we recommend taking the battery all the way down to zero %. You should also unplug the ac adapter and let the battery drain all the way down until your laptop shuts off. After that, plug the ac adapter back and charge it to 100%. You may need to repeat this process about 2-3 times before it actually reaches 100%.

If any of these procedures does not solve your laptop problems then we highly suggest that you bring it to repair center and let a skilled technician have a look on your laptop.