I own an HP nx 7400 laptop, and by now I have had it for 2.5 years. So far I have had no problems with it at all, but I would still like to describe how best to treat a laptop like this.
Shocks – Any shock can lead to the destruction of your data. The risk is much higher if the hard drive was running when the accident happened. I speak from my own experience: my laptop has a hard drive that, after being damaged, refused to spin up. The BIOS simply could not see it, yet the read head was not getting stuck. After six months I tried it again and it started up as if by a miracle, so I split the 60 GB into partitions of 0.5 GB each and ran scandisk on every one of them. Whenever it froze, I discarded that partition. I merged the healthy parts back together, and the largest one I ended up with was 25 GB, which I consider a megalomaniacal success.
Temperature – Every PC should be given time to acclimatize when temperatures change. What does that mean? Basically, if the machine was previously in a damp environment and is now in a hot one, condensation starts to build up inside it, which can gradually damage the components. But constant heat is not good either, regardless of whether it is caused by the user (blocking the airflow) or by the weather (summer heat waves). What matters is that the laptop gradually wears out this way, and you are only bringing its last breath closer.
Dust – No laptop likes it when there is dust around it. Its owner should not like it either, because it can have unforeseeable consequences. At first the fan may seize up, which causes heat to build up inside, and some components could even melt. You need to be most careful about the graphics card and the processor, which are the most expensive parts of a PC, but also the ones that give off the most heat.
Moisture – Water should never get into the keyboard or any other part, because there is a risk of a short circuit. The PC may keep working “normally”, but you can just as easily get a shock, even if you think you are sufficiently insulated. If some liquid does get in, my advice is: do not try to let it drain out or evaporate, simply vacuum it out or turn the laptop upside down. All other methods take longer and have a destructive effect.
Dirt – Watch out for crumbs in the keyboard, because it does not look nice and you have to use more force when pressing the keys. It may seem trivial to you, but life is always better when things are in order. It also does no harm to wipe the laptop down from time to time, precisely because of the dust that settles on it. Buy a cloth for the display; it may not bother you if you are the only one looking at the screen, but someone else might shake their head at it. Do not forget that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.