Local St. Petersburg Florida
Merlin's Computer
Repair
Myth Solving
This is a written explanation of common tech myth's in everyday life, made easier for people to hopefully understand at a glance.
Laptop Batteries
Laptop Batteries can only last for so long. When I was at a repair shop I was working at the most common thing everyone asked all the time was what should be done with there laptop batteries while using there machine.
The most any battery is expected to last for under normal conditions is 5 years.
If you don't use your machine for well over an extended period of time there becomes the possibility that your machine wont turn on. Even if you use the charger that came with you're machine your battery can be the piece of the puzzle in how your machine is used to power on. You can flat line a battery by allowing the battery to be dead shorted by the machine not being used, which can resort the machine to not power on.
You're totally fine with keeping the power adapter plugged in for as long as you want. Laptops will just use wall power primarily until you disconnect the power cable. The only time when this matters most is that if you don't use the battery to put some kind of use into the battery then it may not be there when you most care about it.
Batteries are a specialized combination of Lithium, cobalt, zinc & more rare earth materials that are wound together in thin sheets so that current can flow from the Anode to the Cathode while being suspended by small addition of an electrolyte liquid that brings it all together into one package.
Lithium Ion Batteries don't have a so called memory to them like how older battery technology did. The main rule is don't hard discharge them by allowing the battery to hitting 0% repeatedly hammering your battery to reach 0% is so bad that you can speed up the lifespan the of battery from lasting what you should it expect it to last for within reason. The best thing to do is if you see 20% on any device weather if its a Phone, Laptop, Tesla, E-bike, Smart Watch & more is start a plan to start charging up your device so that you don't start to damage it reaching 0% too many times. You can start charging and stop charging whenever you like too due to Lithium Ion Batteries no having a memory to them at all.
Its best to slow charge devices when ever you can! for an example I own a S23 Ultra and I have turned off fast charging I don't use the high refresh rate mode, I use the middle resolution mode I don't need my screen to run at 1440p (1080p is just fine anyways), I will not have GPS on 24/7, I keep NFC off (only for payments). This type of setup allows my device to last 2 days at most. Samsung doesn't give you the full use of your battery capacity when pushing a higher wattage & amperage into your phone. They have made and allowed it to be safe, but you're expected to think okay my battery might only last 4-5 hours but I am always surrounded by chargers or a battery bank to charge up. If you turn off fast charging you will be rewarded with you're battery lasting longer, you can use what ever charger you want even if its a Laptop Charger the phone is able to negotiate the charging to a low threshold so that you can still with-in under 1 hour and 30 mins be good for plenty of hours afterwards. With having fast charging mode on the long term effect is that your battery may be shorter so if your expecting to feel like I love replacing my device every 1 to 2 years then sure use fast charging all you like. If your on an older device like the S21 Ultra or older 5G phones switching to 4G LTE can help too! 5G modems on flagship bleeding edge phones such as the S24 Ultra or S26 Ultra have come along way so you can have less of a hit to the performance to the battery while using 5G data. The S21 Ultra 5G Data was a major hit to the battery and it could impact the phone quite a lot that's something else to consider. For laptops just use the original manufactures Charger that's intended for the device always.
For a lot of devices the manufacturing average is 2 hours until fully charged.
Heat is major: No No for Lithium Ion Batteries you should never leave a battery in a hot car ever! Even if you think it will be for a short time. Lithium Ion Batteries can be sensitive to hotter than normal temperature's. The only time its okay its allowed to keep your device in a car is when its Winter time or Raining (as long as its not getting wet). Florida is able to make some really miraculous things happen.
Then Lithium Ion Batteries start to get to form the shape of a pillow is when you start to immediately removing the battery from out of the device to replace it. If you start to notice you can't use your touchpad/ trackpad on your laptop to left or right click at all then you're experiencing a design decision that's made to trigger a response about okay whats wrong? why do I have to resort to an external mouse to use my computer instead of if you like to use the trackpad. It can also on some machines make you have a hard time typing as well. Lithium Ion Batteries are made with a specialized combination of Lithium, cobalt, zinc & more rare earth materials that are wound together in thin sheets so that current can flow from the Anode to the Cathode while being suspended by small addition of an electrolyte liquid that brings it all together into one package. So after 4 to 5 years the electrolyte and other internal components break down and create gases (such as carbon dioxide and other hydrocarbons). Unlike a car battery, a lithium-ion cell is sealed, so those gases have nowhere to escape. The gas expands and pushes against the outer casing.
Since the battery pouch or cylindrical cell is flexible, it begins to swell outward — making it look like the battery is “pregnant.”
Mac's don't get viruses
Mac's not getting viruses is true for if it was about 10 years ago but this is only true due to the fact that the highest targeted user base for the issues are the Windows user base because of Windows having the highest market share. So with Windows being the highest targeted user base that means a .EXE Application doesn't by default run on MacOS.
MacOS is running on the Unix/ Linux Kernal Customized by Apple. The file structure is different. There's enough of an architectural change at the core you wont have to deal with low hanging fruit that a Windows user would have to deal with.
You can run Windows on MacOS in a Virtual Environment but that program or service is bound to that Sandbox created by MacOS to allowing you to completely separate how the two Operation System behave if you must run Windows.
Mac in 2026 and beyond is essentially writing its own playbook in terms of custom hardware such in terms of Apple making there own silicon, there hardening the operating system with each newer release of there OS. Every application on MacOS needs permissions so if you don't allow an application to have access to the hard disk then your application is already not going to function as intended. So if a malicious application wanted wreck havoc You have to deal with:
• Permissions!
• Gatekeeper
• Turn off verifying code signatures for the application called "XProtect"
• System Integrity Protection or SIP
• Apple also use's "Signed System Volume" meaning that Apple is Cryptographically sealing the operating system files, guaranteeing that the system boots from a verified, uncompromising state every time you turn on the machine.
This is why Apple has a very hard time with there being any kind of nasty software being on the platform if at all in the first place or for very long.
Apple has such a unique platform with what they do with their operating system they have essentially eradicated software piracy to the extent that there's such a small number of pirated software on MacOS its encouraging the user to pay for the software instead of windows being the wicked wild west where you never know what it is that you're installing or running on your Windows device it becomes to be a huge problem. Yes that means too that MacOS Applications can be harder to develop for and maintain for the developers which means there's a higher level of quality to be expected by what software is allowed to be ran on the hardware in the first place.
If Apple devices didn't normally cost well over $1,100 for the experience to use one of Apples device's then that's a sort of positive factor that plays into how Apple maintains how the brand image. In 2026 Apple released a $599 Laptop called the Macbook Neo meaning if you want an entry level MacOS experence you could only ever do that by getting the Apple Macbook Air for about $899 to $999. If all of a sudden MacOS becomes the dominate lead market share and dethrones Windows there's going to become bad actors that are going to want to make up random things that could become to bring a threat to what Apple has created. Apple has done a good job of covering there basis, even if something does effect Apple it never lasts for to long to where its a huge major impact to the user base wanting to revolt using the device or hate Apple.