Laptop Repair---need a geek with parts.

some suggestions when in a truck

Buy a can of air and blow out the fans at least weekly.
Buy a laptop lap desk or a cooling pad.
Buy an external hard drive and save all your files to it instead of your C drive.

 

Cant say it any better myself

 

So you hit the power button and nothing happens? No lights show up on the laptop at all? I would venture to say your laptop is toast then.

 

If you cant get bios then yes it is toast. If you can get bios yet it wont recognize the drive correctly or you dont hear the drive spin up (sometimes it starts, most of the time it doesnt) means the bearings in the drive are pooched. If a drive is pooched there is a way to get data off of it but it only works for the one time it starts. Take the drive out and place it in a deep freeze freezer for 24 hours (around 0 F). Put the drive in the new machine and copy the folders "Program Files" and the "Program Files(86)" as well as "User" to your new drive. Hopefully it isnt Vista as it erroneously marks it so that a copy cant happen. Yet those three folders are where most of your programs and files were saved. Presuming that you are using windows platform.

 

OK if you are worried about the files, then don't. you can recover them as long as the hard drive isn't toast, and then if it is, there are companies that can recover that.

I think what you describe is a battery problem and need to replace it. but I don't have the machine here and can't test it to see.

Microsoft has phased out XP, that means no more support for anything from them. but that doesn't mean that drivers for things are not available. Unlike Apple, MS opened up development a long time ago, gave away code and programs to write applications and since than still dominates the market. The drivers come from the vendor of the product, not MS so MS didn't phase out XP because of the costs of support but because of their plan to move forward.

Also swapping out one laptop to another can be done easily for someone who has the tools. the problem is that "techs" are clueless to how it is done and what it takes to get the laptop up and running. Many will just reinstall the OS and that seems to defeat the purpose of the swap. What happens with an MS product is the registration protection scheme kicks in and forces a re-registration of the OS (not always the MS products installed on the computer). The main trigger is the change in the cpu and the video card - both have serial numbers that are read and stored by the OS.

What I would do is just get yourself a new one, and plan on doing it in 2 years. If you like HP, then get another one, if you like Dell, get one. As mentioned a Panasonic tough book is good, you can get a used one or a referb for about the same price as one of the highend laptop.

I would also recommend a back up scheme for your files, a good USP memory stick or one of them on line services so you can have what you need to keep backed up.

 

Hello All, I am a newbie here. Getting my first truck on Tuesday next week. Would like to know what internet services do you use on the road? I use my laptop quite regularly, have not bought an IPAD yet. Would an IPAD be better than a laptop on the road? what is the normal monthly cost should I budget for the internet access? Thanks.