Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with laptop and computers

What Bay Area stores carry the Dell Adamo?

Susan PG — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:32:58 -0800

Where can I see a Dell Adamo (not the new XPS, but the one that was released last year) in person, in the San Francisco Bay Area? Frys doesn't seem to carry it, and I don't know who else would. I'm considering buying one, and want to handle it and check out the keyboard, weight, etc., in person, before making a decision. Thanks for any help you can provide :-)

Is there good sites that provide ranking of computer processors performance?

idyllhands — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:35:47 -0800

Is there good sites that provide ranking of computer processors performance? I am looking to buy a new PC, but am being patient for the right deal to come along. It would be nice to have a trustworthy source of which processors are "better." Any links to PC and/or laptop rankings is appreciated.

Why does my laptop think I'm pushing ctrl?

Pope Guilty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:50:34 -0800

My Inspiron 1545 thinks I'm pressing ctrl and I don't know why. I picked up a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop awhile back, and the only problem I've had with it is that it frequently activates the ctrl key regardless of whether or not I'm actually pressing it- or even have my hands on the keyboard! Sometimes this is just annoying, like randomly crouching in an FPS or tab-targeting grabbing friends instead of enemies in WoW, but if I type a "w" while it thinks I'm pressing ctrl, I lose the Firefox tab I was working in! If I hit tab in Firefox, I frequently go to the next tab instead of the next field. Perhaps most bafflingly, it is only ctrl that this happens with; it never randomly types another character, nor does it ever wrongly activate shift or alt or any other key.

So far, I've talked to Dell about it; they sent me a replacement keyboard, but this did not resolve the problem. Googling indicates that many people are having this problem, but nobody seems to have any solutions (besides one suggestion, bizarrely, to reduce trackpad sensitivity, which did nothing).

Anyone out there know what's going on or have any ideas?

What computer offers me the best bang for my buck?

jserdula — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:07:51 -0800

I've got $500.00 to spend for a new computer. I want to get the most bang for my buck. My needs are: - Play music - Edit and view photos - Edit and view videos - Create DVDs & Surf the Internet. My past history has been in PCs. I am open to building my own computer. So what should I get?

Windows Vista Doesn't Work with VGA to HDMI Converter Box

ao4047 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:46:02 -0800

We have an HP Slimline machine running video with an Nvidia Geforce 6150 SE graphics card. We are wanting to use a VGA->HDMI box to convert the video output of the desktop and connect it to our television: 1) We know the VGA->HDMI box works correctly.

We tested with an Asus EEE Laptop running Windows XP and the video successfully outputs to the TV.

We tested with a Macbook Pro laptop and the video successfully outputs to the TV.

2) We know the HP Slimline desktop works sometimes.

When we boot up the desktop the 'HP INVENT' splash screen shows on the tv.

Then, the green status bar with 'Microsoft Corporation' displays.

Then, something happens to the video and the signal stops. I'm guessing that once the boot begins and then Vista settles in something is interfering with the signal being sent to the the VGA->HDMI box.

Any ideas? Thanks!

I found this previous thread but I think we're a bit further along in our testing.

Cloning a laptop hard drive

nomad73 — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:40:39 -0800

Replacing my laptop's hard drive. I think I've almost got it but have some questions about the cloning process. I'm replacing the 60GB EIDE main hard drive (C: drive) of my 4 year old laptop with Win XP Home. I've got a new 160GB EIDE drive, a 2.5" hard drive enclosure, and was planning on using XXCLONE to get the job done. All has gone well so far - I've connected the new drive to the laptop via the USB enclosure, and formatted it. Here are my questions:

1) When I formatted the new drive (using the Windows disk management tool) it asked me to pick a drive letter. I picked a random letter down the alphabet - H: - so as not to get confused with the other two external USB drives I've got running. If the idea is to make a clone of my C: drive and then take it out of my laptop and install my new drive, will the drive letter matter? Will the OS simply see the new drive as the C: drive even though I named it H: when I formatted it? If not, how do I go about naming the new drive C: while I've still got to clone the actual C: drive?

2) XXCLONE has the option, when cloning, to make the new drive bootable - which is what I would like to do, I assume. It copies the master boot record and all that. Does that mean that no matter the drive letter I assign to the new drive, when i pop it into my laptop, it will just boot from the new drive and everything will be fine?

3) Other cloning programs seem to either create a bootable CD that you then run while the C: drive is cloned. XXCLONE does not do this - it operates in XP. Will that present any problems in terms of not copying EVERY exact OS file? I'd rather not spend the $ on Norton Ghost or the full version of Acronis True Image, hence why I'm using XXCLONE - free.

Thank you for any advice you may have. Much appreciated.

Here a Drive, there a Drive...

TeachTheDead — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:35:08 -0800

What to do with a spare laptop hard drive...please help At my last job, our company gave away a bunch of laptops since they were older and I love mine still (after a year, the laptop is a Panasonic Toughbook and is a few years older).
I was given 2 removable Hard drive with it.
On one I have Vista and I use it every day, the other I installed Unbuntu and I dont see the point...knowing how to use it won't get me a job or even let me do any thing "cool".
So I have a spare Hard Drive, what can I do with it? I have been pondering this question for several months and I still can't pin it down.

Since the computer is older its just not prime for games, and furthermore, I dont play too many as it is....
Any ideas friends?

Help me Geek Squad these laptops!

whiskey point — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:00:37 -0800

2 used laptops: what to do with them? One will be new to me (from my wonderful girlfriend), one will be new to my grandma (from me) Part 1:
I'll be getting a ~2 year old Toshiba Satellite laptop, a pretty basic model with probably 512 mb of RAM and a smallish hard drive (no big deal, I have a My Book and am willing to upgrade RAM). What would you do with this machine, that has been taken care of very well - no downloads, etc., and only used for typing papers and surfing the web? I'm down for anything-I just want to make sure I optimize this computer as soon as possible. I'm into web surfing (generally 10-15 Firefox tabs open at a time), watching DVDs, and typing papers on the go (I have MS office). I'm also into photography, burning DVDs, and listening to a ton of music on itunes-but I deal with all of that on my high(er) performance desktop. Would Photoshop kill this machine? What are some of the applications you can't live with out? This will basically be a backup, take to school, and travel computer for me.
Part 2:
I'm going to give my grandma my 4.5 year old Compaq 2100. It's not in the best shape (I can no longer watch movies on it, probably a software problem I haven't taken the time to fix) and it runs slow. I'm thinking I'll re-install XP and start over from scratch-but what should I do after that? Does your grandma have a computer? She's kind of wary, but she's willing to give it a try. I'd like to make this as simple for her as possible: a gmail account, something to play DVDs, maybe something to help her with recipes-either looking them up or storing them, and any other suggestions you guys can throw out for me.

I'm sure some creeping on the MeFi archives would have helped a little, but I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and get both of these computers working to the best of their abilities.

Which laptops will last, which will break? Online ratings anywhere?

salvia — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:47:58 -0800

Where can I find online laptop ratings about durability, repairs, or typical problems, the way Consumer Reports does for cars? I'm not interested in the reviews about the latest, greatest, and fastest. I want to know what laptop will let me do word processing, surf the web, and listen to music for the longest period of time without breaking.

Right now, I have a Dell Inspiron. The speakers stopped working. The earplug jack stopped working. The CD player stopped working. Then I hear another friend with a Dell Inspiron had their speakers stop working, and I started to wonder whether there were patterns in how, and how quickly, particular computers break.

What I want is a laptop version of Consumer Reports' Car Reliability Histories: "How well do cars hold up? Our reliability history charts give you the most comprehensive reliability information available to consumers, based on detailed ratings from 1998-2007" and lets you "find out which cars owners would definitely buy again." It has information like "jettas tend to have transmission problems" (I made that up).

Has this been compiled anywhere? Thank you.

Best computer buying/selling strategy?

moedym — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:59:33 -0800

What's the best strategy for buying new laptops and selling old ones? I usually buy a new computer once every five years or so and then sell my old one. Say I spend $3000 for a new one and sell the old one for $300. Would I be better off buying a new one every year and selling the old one each year? In other words, would I get more for the old one that it would make up for the depreciation in waiting five years? For my purposes, I'm talking about MacBook Pros probably.

I'm guessing that I wouldn't come out ahead, but what would the premium be per year to always have a (relatively) new laptop vs an old one most of the time.

To fully explain: which is better and why:

1: Buy new laptop for $3000ish and sell five-year old laptop for $300ish
2: Buy new laptop for $3000ish and sell it a year later for $??? Repeat every year or so. Would I be selling it for $1500? $2000? Less?

RAM Woes

MrHappyGoLucky — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:25:01 -0800

I own a Dell Inspiron 9100 that uses 200-pin DDR PC3200 SODIMM RAM. I've found a good deal on 200-pin DDR2 PC2-5300 667MHz SODIMM RAM. Would this be backward compatible? Can't seem to find a quick answer on this, many thanks mefites.

Hopefully not dead yet?

Pants! — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:32:53 -0800

Without warning, my laptop suddenly turned off. It was plugged into the wall. Now, when I try to turn it back on, I don't get a response from any lights or booting up, etc.

It's currently plugged in, and the power/charging light is not lighting up.

The only recent changes are:

(A) Let the battery run down past the time that it could recover what was running (however, once I plugged it in again, it charged, operated as normal, then died several hours later)
(B) Installed nethack from the main nethack website.

This is a work computer, so while I can just trade it in, it would be nice to resolve this myself.

It's running (or ran, rather) Windows XP and is a typical HP laptop.

How to create a file library?

mrgreyisyelling — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:40:33 -0800

[NoseBleedFilter] How to maintain a file library on Big Computer, and a small selection on Little Computer, so Big Computer Looks like Little Computer, but Little Computer doesn't need to carry all the files in file library? Maybe this is simple, but I can't figure it out - I want to create a sync situation without needing to maintain a duplicate version of whole file system on each machine. : (forgive the metaphors)

1. I have a large computer with extensive backup situation - basically holds everything I own digitally. Lets call this the Library. There are two parts to the Library - Public Stacks, and the 2 weeks of daily backups. We are talking about the Stacks here - they are about 500gbs big.

2. I have a small computer that follows me where ever I go, that I copy a selection of files from the Stacks on to - current projects, music, books, files-that-change-daily.

3. Files checked out on Small Computer's maintains same file structure as Stack's - but not all the files are present.

GOAL:

To have changes made to the files and file structure checked out effect only that part of the Library. So if I check out folder 'A' - only changes to folder 'A' are recorded. 'B-Z' aren't deleted because they don't exist on Small Computer

SUB-GOAL:

To create a COMPLETE copy of the file structure - every file, and every folder - but only have the files I want be filled with data. So I have folders 'A-Z' on my computer, but only folder 'A' holds any actual data.

I hope that was clear - I'm not even sure if this is possible, same way I'm not sure fast then light travel is possible.

I'm on a windows system, but I'm willing to consider any Linux solutions.

How to run script when you connect to network?

mrgreyisyelling — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:56:25 -0800

How to run a program/script automatically when laptop connects to Home wireless network? I'm not sure if its necessary - but is it possible to setup something that when it connects to a specific network, it runs a script?

An example would be: I come home with my laptop, and when my laptop connects to Home Network its starts my sync program to copy files to my backup drive on the network.

Did my new RAM kill my video adapter?

YoungAmerican — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:31:06 -0800

BSODFilter: I tried to install a RAM upgrade in my girlfriend's Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, and got nothing on screen after powerup. So I replaced the old DIMM, and got the BSOD -- the file that was missing was a driver for the Intel video adapter. Long story short, it's still not working. I wiped the HD, reinstalled windows, reinstalled the drivers, and after some installing and re-installing, finally have the computer starting up in XP. But it's giving me the BSOD seemingly randomly every hour or two. This is with everything as it was BEFORE the troubles started.

I spent a number of hours on the line with tech support, they seem completely baffled. In typical tech support fashion, all they want to do is install and reinstall drivers. I've googled my rear off, but to no avail.

Could I somehow have zapped my video adapter when I installed the DIMM? Could they conflict somehow? Would replacing the video adapter fix the problem? Could I replace it myself, as someone who's never done anything more than replace drives and RAM?

If I start up with the new RAM only, I can get it going in safe mode, but with weird purple lines up and down the screen.

I was about to buy a new computer to replace this one, but part of the plan involved getting a few hundred bucks for the oldie-but-goodie, which won't work if it's an oldie-but-baddie. Help me mefites, you're my only hope.

Am I killing my laptop by holding it sideways?

Rock Steady — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:21:09 -0800

Am I killing my laptop by holding it sideways (like a book)? I have found I greatly prefer reading long pieces of text on my laptop by rotating the screen 90 degrees and holding the laptop sideways like a book -- with the keyboard and touchpad as the left-hand "page" and the screen on the right. Does this pose any problems for the long-term health of my lappy? I'm particularly thinking about the hard drive -- is it designed to only be operated in a horizontal position? Any other problems I'm not thinking of?

It is an Acer Aspire 5100 running Vista, if that matters.

How do I get ruid of Bloodhound.exploit.106?

zaelic — Mon, 21 May 2007 06:25:23 -0800

My laptop has been infected something called Bloodhound.Exploit.106 which is darn hard to get rid of... Help! Please! My Toshiba laptop seems to have a virus and is acting very slow and buggy – the dual processors are blowing lots of hot air, the CPU is high, and all programs are very sluggish on a usually zippy machine.

Norton keeps finding something called Bloodhound.Exploit.106 and telling me it has been fixed, and soon enough it says I’m infected and then claims to have fixed it. About once an hour. Googling doesn’t turn much up, except that it is some kind of “heuristic virus…” and no, I have no idea what that means.

I’ve been trying to lasso the little feller using on-line scans, such as Trend Anti-Virus or Kaspersky, but it seems to have dumped lots of temp files into my machine, slowing down the scans to day long procedures: I cleaned 39,0000 files from my Windows Temp folder this morning in safe mode… they are named things like {FFB344A8-9E8A-4435-B899C-9F1B5A667A12} and are listed as 388KB each, however when I click on one of these files properties it says 0 bytes in size. Curious, no? And they can only be routed in safe mode. I’ve had Kaspersky running for two hours – it is only reading 12% scanned. Something strange is afoot, I think.

Can anybody help me clean this out of my machine?

Baseline specs for downloading pr0n

Reggie Knoble — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:18:10 -0800

Advice would be greatly appreciated on purchasing a laptop. The laptop im using is dying, i want to replace it but im not that up on technical specs and the like. I use it mainly for surfing the the interweb, other uses are managing my MP3 player and watching/downloading videos.

Extreme lack of patience means i would like it to do these things pretty quickly ,ideally, simultaneously.

My question then, what would be the minimum specs in regard to RAM, Processor etc.. i would be looking at.

I have been going cross eyed looking at specs but without a baseline for what is quick and what is slow it means very little to me.

Laptop on the cheap. What are the minimum specs?

Leonard of Vince — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:30:29 -0800

Shopping for a cheap used laptop: What are the minimum specs I should be looking for with respect to CPU, RAM, HD? I'm planning to use WinXP (maybe I'll settle for 2K), Open Office, and FireFox (including some AJAX-heavy web sites such as gmail, Google Docs, del.icio.us), with a wifi card. And not much else. I want to avoid "I'm always waiting for this stupid slow computer!" but not spend much more than the minimum needed to avoid that.

Need help with my new lappie

boyinmiami — Wed, 31 May 2006 10:37:47 -0800

New laptop three part question; Just got a new Lenovo Thinkpad, a. I want to make sure I have all the correct settings to make it run properly. b. Wanted to see what accessories I should look at to make it easier/efficient to use? I have an ipod, a pda, and use microsoft office for work. c. Any other comments or suggestions I should be aware of? Thanks for the help guys!

Lap-top laptop cooling system?

mkultra — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:01:54 -0800

What's a good laptop cooling system for, you know, your lap? All the cooling systems for laptops (sorry... "notebook computers") I see are designed for desktops, and seem impractical (at best) for lap use. Are there any designed to securely hold the laptop and whisk out hot air while on your lap?

Morning routine for an internet-addicted college student?

Ash3000 — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 09:02:40 -0800

What is the best morning routine, especially for someone who is (a) in college and (b) wants to fight something starting to look like internet addiction? I have this problem with my morning routine - every path seems to lead back to the computer. Go outside for a walk before anything else? Then I come back in feeling even sweatier and more gross than I would otherwise, but I don't want to walk to the shower b/c our dorm shower is similarly grody...so I procrastinate on the computer. Wake up, take a shower? Well, then it's back to my room afterwards when I get dressed, and so long as I'm waiting for class to begin...back to the computer. Maybe I should stay in and clean my increasingly disgusting room? Sure, but after a while I realize I need to find the right music/podcast for that, and it's back to the computer for a bit that turns out long because I really, really need more memory for it...or something. (My laptop is beginning to look retirement-worthy.)

The worst part is that my computer use usually ends up being just going back and forth between blogs, e-mail, facebook, etc., without ever really reading things in depth - there's a calming to the back and forth. What should my morning routine be? I hate the idea that I'm wasting time better spent on the computer, but I don't realize how much has been lost until after the fact, and am beginning to get seriously creeped out.

What laptop computer has the longest battery life?

idontlikewords — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 14:11:17 -0800

What specific laptop computer, Mac or PC, has the longest battery life? I am in the research stage of upgrading from an old Mac laptop, which has about 2 minutes of battery life (and yes, I am aware that I could just get a new battery from batterytech.com, but I think it's time to get a machine with a clock speed faster than 500mHz!). I'm thinking that I will get a PC, as I'm totally comfortable with either platform, and price is unfortunately an issue. It's difficult enough to compare models thanks to the 3000 varieties for Intel & AMD chipsets, but really anything that is faster than my current rig will be fine. I'm not interested in playing Quake 4 on this thing, I'm just sick of waiting 30 seconds to load apps.

So tell me, laptop users, what is the best I can hope for with these modern power-guzzlers? 2 hours? 4 hours? Are AMD's better than P4's or vice-versa? Is there some awesome power management software that I should be aware of? What brand makes the best batteries? Anything else I should consider?

Tracking down a laptop crash...

costas — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 09:22:49 -0800

My laptop is crashing frequently and I am trying to track down the problem. I suspect it's the hard drive, but I want to know more so I can work around the issue. Any logging/debugging utilities or tips? The laptop is a 5yr old Gateway that I am using for P2P only with an up-to-date copy of Win2K Pro and minimal software installed (incl. firewalls and anti-spyware utilities). I've scanned it for rootkits and spyware and everything checks out. I've also changed P2P software, firewalls and everything else that runs on it, again to no avail.

Now before you cry "install Linux", let me first say that I honestly don't think Windows is the problem here: it never BSODs or reboots spontaneously: it will just freeze up once every 24-36 hrs or so with no alerts/events in the Event Viewer. Most of the times it freezes up, the fan seems to have been left on at full-speed (which is not common for this laptop) and I am suspecting that the motherboard is overheating and/or the HDD freezes up due to all the read/writes from P2P.

How can I figure out what's going on? is there some sort of low-level hardware logging/debugging utility I can install to find out what was happening just before each crash? any other tips?

Laptop/Desktop

dpx.mfx — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 10:55:05 -0800

What's the advantage of having a desktop? My old standby, a Gateway laptop that I love, is quickly moving beyond its prime. Our next computer will probably be a Mac. I'm thinking, in particular, an IMac. I want to put it in the office and leave it on all the time, mainly becuase we want to use our TiVo's for music and pictures. Part of me thinks a laptop would be just as good, and allow me to move it around (duh). We don't really need to be able to take it with us, though, and I assume desktops are sturdier.

Pros & cons, specifically related to the IMac and/or the desktop/laptop question would be appreciated.