My girlfriend's Thinkpad T23 is infected with a virus. [more inside]
posted by Student of Man on Mar 29, 2009 - 10 answers

Is it possible to buy a new laptop for around $500 with Windows XP? [more inside]
posted by nzero on Sep 30, 2007 - 6 answers

I was attempting to resize the partitions on my laptop when accidentally my laptop shut down and now I can't boot back into windows. [more inside]
posted by sk381 on Apr 4, 2007 - 10 answers

Dropped my laptop (IBM Thinkpad T42) from about 3 feet. It seemed ok for a week except that it randomly rebooted from time to time. However now it says it can't even load the operating system. I don't have a recovery disk. I don't have the original XP CD. I can't send this to a repairman because I have very sensitive information stored in files on the desktop. How sunk am I? [more inside]
posted by zaebiz on Nov 24, 2006 - 19 answers

Windows XP help needed! I suddenly can't copy photos onto my laptop. I'm getting a weird error... [more inside]
posted by kdern on Oct 31, 2005 - 11 answers

I'm trying to burn the Knoppix 4.0 DVD ISO on my wife's second-hand Averatec Windows XP laptop. I have tried almost a dozen DVD burning programs without success. Most of them can't see there's a blank DVD in the drive. What's up? [more inside]
posted by rwhe on Jul 1, 2005 - 10 answers

I have a Toshiba e310, that mysteriously stopped starting up when I turned it on. It's not completely dead, it comes up with the default bootscreen and then just sits there. Windows XP detects an unknown device, and that's it. I've tried doing a hard reset, soft reset, and letting the battery drain. Is there any use for it? Does anyone know of a way to recover it? [more inside]
posted by jackofsaxons on Feb 13, 2005 - 5 answers

Laptop Clean XP Install:
1] My (on board?) sound card is unrecognised. How do I find out what drivers to use?

2] What programs do you really think I need? I already have VNC, VLC, Firefox, Thunderbird and AVG installed. What else should I add? (Freeware/OS appriciated but not needed.) [more inside]
posted by twine42 on Dec 16, 2004 - 8 answers

WinXP: my laptop downloaded a windows update (not sure what sort). Now, when I shut down, it tries to update my machine. I get a message saying that Windows is updating, and it advises me NOT to turn off my machine until it's done. But it continues to "update" forever. I've let it sit for two hours, and it still claims to be updating. Finally, with clenched teeth, I shut off the machine and rebooted. Everything seems okay. Now, whenever I shut down, it asks me if I want to install the upgrade or not. If I say yes, the machine stalls on that upgrading message. If I say no, it shuts down fine. I'm ok with saying no all the time, except that now I can't ever add any new updates. What should I do?
posted by grumblebee on Oct 27, 2004 - 14 answers

My laptop can no longer receive the Internet! The internet comes, via DSL, into my DESKTOP pc. The Desktop's DSL modem is hooked up to a LinkSys Wireless-B router, which broadcasts the Internet signal to my laptop. The lights on the LynkSys are blinking as usual. My desktop is receiving the web just fine. My laptop IS showing the little "connected" (two-computers) icon in the system tray, and when I hover over it, it says "Wireless Network Connection... Speed 11.0 Mbps, Signal Strength: Excellent." But when I start of a browser, I can't get to any page. I CAN get to the same pages on my desktop. Help! [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Aug 30, 2004 - 11 answers

Is there any way to make my laptop run faster? Two-year old Dell Inspiron 2500, Win XP, some Celeron craptastic processor, 256 meg RAM (max). My computer expertise: 3 o/o 10, which encompasses disc tools and Spybot, but not much more. Does it matter how full the drive is?
posted by gottabefunky on May 31, 2004 - 18 answers

My laptop has taken to switching itself off at random intervals, but only at my parents or in-laws houses. The general consensus is that these houses are hotter than my own and it may be just enough to upset my system.

Can anyone recommend a good freeware (pref OpenSource) program to check up on the internal temperatures of the system? I'm running WinXP.
posted by twine42 on Jan 21, 2004 - 8 answers