Gateway P-6825 Manual

CHAPTER7
83
Maintaining Your Notebook
Caring for your notebook
Cleaning your notebook
Maintaining the battery
Cleaning CDs or DVDs
Overclocking the processor
Recovering your system 

CHAPTER 7: Maintaining Your Notebook
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Caring for your notebook
To extend the life of your notebook:
Be careful not to bump or drop your notebook, and do 
not put any objects on top of it. The case, although 
strong, is not made to support extra weight.
When transporting your notebook, we recommend that 
you put it in a carrying case.
Keep your notebook away from magnetic fields. 
Magnetic fields can erase data on hard drives.
Never turn off your notebook when the drive indicator 
is on because data on...

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Cotton swabs
A CD or DVD drive cleaning kit
Cleaning the exterior
Always turn off your notebook and other peripherals before 
cleaning any components. Also, remove the battery before 
cleaning any components.
Use a damp, lint-free cloth to clean your notebook and other 
parts of your system. Do not use household abrasive or solvent 
cleaners because they can damage the finish on components.
Your notebook is cooled by air circulated through the vents on 
the case, so keep the vents free...

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Maintaining the battery
The life span of a notebook battery is about 1.5 to 3 years, 
under normal conditions. As the battery begins to die, you will 
have to recharge the battery more frequently because it 
cannot hold a full charge.
Do not expose the battery to high heat or freezing 
temperatures. Hot batteries discharge very quickly, and cold 
ones cannot create as much power. Short battery life is more 
likely to be caused by heat than by charge/discharge...

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Consider removing the battery from your notebook when 
running on fixed power. However, remember that when you 
have removed the battery from your notebook while using it 
with an electrical outlet, the automatic battery charger no 
longer keeps the battery charged.
Cleaning CDs or DVDs
Wipe from the center to the edge, not around in a circle, using 
a product made especially for the purpose.
Overclocking the processor
If your notebook comes with an Extreme Edition CPU, the CPU 
is...

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Recovering your system
You can solve most notebook problems by following the 
information in “Troubleshooting” on page 113 or in the 
technical support pages at www.gateway.com
. Problem 
solving may also involve re-installing some or all of the 
notebook’s software (also called recovering or restoring your 
system). Gateway provides everything you need to recover 
your system under most conditions.
If only one or two items of software or hardware have 
stopped...

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Recovering pre-installed software and drivers
You can perform a partial recovery by recovering the software 
and device drivers that were pre-installed at the factory. If you 
need to recover software that did not come pre-installed on 
your system, you need to follow that software’s installation 
instructions.
You can recover pre-installed software and drivers from a set 
of recovery discs (you must create the discs) or by using 
Gateway Recovery Center.
Preparing for software and...

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To create discs for recovering pre-installed software 
and drivers:  
1Click (Start), All Programs, Gateway Recovery 
Center, then click Gateway Recovery Center. The 
Gateway Recovery Center opens.
2Click Applications and drivers external media, then 
click Next. The What would you like to do? dialog box 
opens.
3Click Create system recovery discs, then click Next.
4Insert a blank, recordable disc into the recordable disc 
drive, then click Next. If an AutoPlay...

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5If you have enough blank discs of the specified type, click 
I have enough discs, then click Next. If you do not have 
enough discs, choose a different disc type, or click 
Cancel.
The disc recording begins. Label the discs as they are 
completed.
6If multiple discs are required, insert the additional blank 
discs when prompted. 
7When the process is finished, the Congratulations! 
window opens.
8Click Finish.
9Remove your final disc, then label all of the discs and 
store them in a...

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2To recover software that was pre-installed, click 
Programs, then click Application recovery.
- OR -
To recover device drivers that were pre-installed, click 
Hardware, then click Device driver recovery.
3Click the software or driver you want to recover, then 
click Next.