How much will BitLocker eat my battery? [more inside]
posted by @homer on Aug 31, 2009 - 3 answers

What's the best way to get a laptop ready for a sibling's trip to college? [more inside]
posted by yellowbkpk on Aug 3, 2009 - 22 answers

Is there a way to selectively disable the CD/DVD drive in my computer? [more inside]
posted by brandman on Feb 22, 2009 - 8 answers

Replacing my laptop's hard drive. I think I've almost got it but have some questions about the cloning process. [more inside]
posted by nomad73 on Aug 29, 2008 - 8 answers

My fantastically unstable IBM T42 (which is on it's 3rd, soon to be 4th, life) died a little while ago, no longer booting into Ubuntu. However, it loves to boot into Windows. How do I nuke both? [more inside]
posted by tmcw on Jul 11, 2008 - 8 answers

I'm looking for instructions, guides, or suggestions of something fun to do with my camera or laptop during an upcoming cross-country drive. [more inside]
posted by hworth on Jun 4, 2008 - 8 answers

Trying to install a new optical drive in an old laptop. Windows recognises it, but the BIOS does not! [more inside]
posted by edbyford on Feb 9, 2008 - 8 answers

I need a new laptop harddrive. Can I use any that is physically the same size, or must I stick with HP? [more inside]
posted by simonash on Mar 2, 2007 - 9 answers

I've got an older notebook, and I was thinking it would be an interesting project to replace its 2.5" hard drive with a solid state flash drive. I'd probably just go with a 4 GB drive, and keep all my data out on the Internet. I was thinking it would extend the battery life, speed up data access, and make the machine a little quieter. Has anybody done this?
posted by fcain on Jan 5, 2007 - 17 answers

My CD-RW drive will not firmly attach to my Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop. If I push it with my thumbs, it will make a connection, but as soon as I remove firm pressure, it loses its connection. [more inside]
posted by UKnowForKids on Aug 10, 2006 - 3 answers

Hard drive password: the Samsung laptop my wife uses suddenly started asking for HDD 0 password on bootup. Checking in the bios confirms that a password has been set on the HDD. She swears she didn't do it, and has no idea what happened. What to do? [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on May 20, 2006 - 15 answers

LAPTOP HELP!? I have an alienware laptop, whose warrenty just expired and am now having problems with the removable cd/dvd reader burner. [more inside]
posted by nosophoros on Jan 25, 2006 - 2 answers

H2OFilter: Laptop disaster! The cat spilled a vase-full of water on the keyboard of my Dell Latitude C800 laptop. I managed to avoid getting the thing completely drenched, but the machined did shut down immediately, unprompted. [more inside]
posted by yellowcandy on Dec 16, 2005 - 14 answers

My laptop is dead. What's the best way to dispose of the body? [more inside]
posted by CMichaelCook on Sep 27, 2005 - 13 answers

I just got a new used laptop, and it has a lot of error messages showing up, so I want to completely clean it up before I start using it. Is it better to use the manufacturer's Quick Restore discs (Compaq), or to reformat the HD completely and install an operating system clean? [more inside]
posted by ruwan on May 19, 2005 - 9 answers