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Laptop Maintenance

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tony barnhill

tony barnhill

Great Pumpkin - R.I.P
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So, I've had my old Toshiba Satellite laptop since 2004...the battery is dead & its taking forever to boot up in the morning....plus, occassionally, it makes weird whirring noises....so, in just a few minutes I'm taking it in for cleaning & maintenance.

Wonder what all they'll find on it....I carry it everywhere with me - all across the US, Korea, Europe, you name it...I just toss it in my backpack & go. Man, I ike this old thing!

But, its time for a tech to seriously go through it & give it a 1,000,000-whatever checkup.

I'll have it back in about 3 days....until then, I'm using my tower in the garage.
 
Probably to much old car stuff in it Tony and the rusty LBC parts are clogging up the works. hehe.
 
I must have bought my Toshiba Satellite at the same time you bought yours. My battery is fried as well.....

I was rather tempted to get a new one, actually. The old desktop in my home office is old, and nothing is compatible with it these days and so it's time to say bye-bye.

Because the Satellite is considered a desktop replacement as much as it is a laptop, I was thinking of using that in the home office, and getting one of the new, up-to-date lightweight laptops, using that as my "portable" instead.
 
On my last two laptops I've found the batteries give out after about 2 years. There are tons of places you can get decent deals on decent batteries, no biggie.

I bought a Toshiba Tecra 12" laptop in May as a carry-around. So far my regular 15" laptop has only been used in the airplane, that Tecra is solid as can be and I've gotten so used to the smaller keyboard it isn't an issue. Total weight is about 4lb, batteries run about 4 hours, and you can get the Toshiba, Sony, or Lenovo versions from outlet places for $700 or less. Oh yeah - the newer Core Duo processors run cold too. Unless you're watching video or really exercising the machine it just stays cool with little or no fan action at all.
 
I've had good luck with batteries in my Sager laptops. My current one has many thousands of hours on it and the batteries are still 80%. Once the batteries go bad in a laptop, it's usually time to buy a new laptop. Two batteries can cost you as much as an old laptop is worth.
 
I think heat killed mine. My P4 Sager gets really hot in the airplane, not a lot of air circulation, etc. The one before that was a Dell and not all that great in any respect, the battery fit the profile of the laptop /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif
 
The key to a happy laptop is to keep the fans clean. Just a blast from a duster now and again will keep things going. On my machines, I usually blow the OS away every couple of years to keep the drives clear of crap.

It is getting time to wipe the HP notebook that I use in my garage.
 
Well, looks like my hard drive is going...we're gonna install a larger harddrive & put mine in a hard case so I can use it as an external while I move everything off it to the new drive...

That plus a good cleaning, new battery, etc.
 
mehheh. You guys know how much I like the Toshi 'books. Great machines. The Satellite and Aspire versions "back then" are still good for most things. Kinda like the LBC's of the computer world.
 
Steve - & everyubody else with this laptop...Toshiba doesn't make the battery anymore & CompUSA can't order it through their system....so, I went on-line & found one for $56 through Boss Systems USA, Inc...shipping included...just Google "PA3107U-1BRS" & lots of purchase options pop up
 
I don't know if Batteries Plus is nationwide, but they can get batteries for old computers. I've also had them put new high amp/hour cells in my Dewalt batteries.
 
There are tons of places that sell decent batteries for older laptops. Should take all of 2 minutes (if that) to swap out with the old one.
 
Yep, just pull it out & slide the new one in...

I never pulled it during 4 years of operation whether hooked to AC power or standing alone...I will though with my replacement battery since most of the time I'm operating on AC power, not battery..
 
<span style='font-size: 14pt'><span style="color: #CC0000">I HATE IT!! I HATE IT!!</span></span>....got my laptop back from CompUSA tonight...my PowerPoint program is gone...looks like about half of Frontpage is gone - <span style="color: #006600">& <u>MY ENTIRE WEB SITE IS GONE!!!</u></span> Now I've gotta figure out how to download it from my server to my laptop.....all my favorites are out of order & there are 2 new programs on my computer: Spy Sweeper & Hitman Pro (I think - at least there are icons for them!).

Plus, my left speaker isn't seated completely in its housing & my screen slowly falls backwards.....
 
Tony,
Do you have restore points that could be picked up? Like back to a week ago before you took it in?
 
I hate to say this, but that is typical of places like that. I only deal with real computer stores. The mom and pop type places are much more professional and immensely more knowledgeable.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]The mom and pop type places are much more professional and immensely more knowledgeable. [/QUOTE]
& around here wanted 2 weeks just to analyze my computer!
 
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