Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with laptop and resolved

Is mac really better than pc? Help me buy a decent student computer.

Miss Mitz — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:27:51 -0800

I've been a happy Pc-er for the last couple years. That is, until a few months ago when my AVG failed me and my pavilion got all virused up... Twice. Ultimately I had to d-ban the poor thing. Since I was only 'mostly sure' I still had the original operating system disks, I have since been using my mom's mac. While I've been slowly getting used to the system (on a casual basis, no work yet, just internet) I still miss the windows format. My old tower is past it's prime, even with a new system. I'm about to become a student in English and am highly discouraged by previous Windows failings. Should I release the ghost and go with the more 'secure' mac? Or stick with my roots? I would like some advice on my next computer purchase. I'm looking for a laptop that can handle a students workload for the next... lets face it, many years, with minimal extras. The only thing it needs, is to be fast. I break things that go slow. I'm not looking to game (much) or download + store music (at all), I just need to research crap at high speed. All suggestions are greatly appreciated. Cheers!

But will it game?

askmehow — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:17:23 -0800

Will my developer laptop be able to handle the current crop of RPG games? Specs after the jump I'm interested in getting back into computer gaming. I'm thinking about Fallout 3 and Dragon Age Origins. I've got a beefy laptop, with a poor gfx card, and I'm wondering if it will be able handle the games I'm interested in:

Windows 7 64
8gb RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 370M (256MB)

If that's not going to be able to handle these games, any recommendations on immersive RPGs that aren't twitchy that I can play on this?

thanks,
jt

Do I 'need' a gaming laptop to play MMOs?

Kurichina — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:37:12 -0800

Do I 'need' a gaming laptop to play MMOs? Computer hardware knowledgable people: what sort of system do you use for determining your 'needs' for a computer? My HP lappy conked out last week (very likely a motherboard failure, I'm told) and I'm in the market for a new one. It wasn't an ideal time financially for this to happen, so I don't want to spend anymore money than I have to. However, I also want this next laptop to last 4-5 years if possible, or, at the very least, 3.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I started playing a fair amount of WoW earlier this year and it's not unreasonable to think I may branch out into a few other MMOs. On my old, mid-range HP, WoW had many errors (not able to process the zone files and crashing) and was generally frustrating. Other than the games, my needs are fairly basic: a small amount of graphic design, word processing/spreadsheets, listen to music and watch DVDs/blu-rays. Is it worthwhile to splash out on a newer, more powerful processor *(quad core or I7, for e.g.) and some extra memory or will this be money wasted due to not using this power? Is there an objective (i.e. not trying to sell me something) site out there that will determine my hardware needs?

I've seen this but that question didn't discuss the needs of MMOs, and I'm not interested in the PC vs Mac side of things. (For reasons of cost and wanting to keep using the same software I already own, some of it purchased at "educational" prices for which I no longer qualify, I'm sticking with a PC.)

Stupid mousey thing no work!

IAmBroom — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:02:46 -0800

Trackpad suddenly stopped working - any solutions? Details:
Dual-boot: WinXP, v5.1, SP3. Ubuntu 8.10.
Acer Aspire 4730Z, out of warranty.
Trackpad stopped working in both operating systems. When this happened before, I plugged in a USB mouse, and when I removed it, the trackpad worked again. Now it's dead, as are the two left-/right-click buttons.

The curious part is that all of the trackpad - buttons and pad itself - stopped working. That doesn't grok. Can't be a driver issue, since it's across two OS's. Yeah, I'm probably screwed, but if anyone has a clue...

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?

I just accidentally broke my friend's ridiculously fragile brand new laptop. Please help me fix it.

iamkimiam — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:14:58 -0800

My good friend just purchased a $3k Apple laptop, which she received today. I spent four hours this afternoon installing software and setting it up for her. Once we were all done, and ready to go out and celebrate good times, new laptops, and Friday nights, we high fived, and I shut the laptop gently...with the tiny, clear, flexible, plastic charger cap unknowingly inside. Now the screen is completely cracked, fractalled, damaged, and very sadly colorful. What can I do? I am planning on going to the Apple store first thing tomorrow morning. What should I say? How can I make this right?

Additional info: I have been a loooong time Apple customer and purchaser. I am also currently extremely poor, but I will do whatever it takes to make sure my friend is good to go and happy. Please help me!

WHYOHWHY aren't the charger caps, A) fluorescent-colored, and B) attached to the cord!?!?

Pick the Perfect Mac Laptop

misha — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:52:16 -0800

Which Mac laptop should I buy? Needs and specs inside. So I need a new laptop, and serendipity is on my side, as the Apple store has just updated! Well and good. Which model should I get, though, that's the question.

I am replacing this:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

What I use it for: blogging, word processing, some photoshop creation (illustrations for the blog, mostly), saving pics from the digital camera, social media, lots and lots of email, light gaming of the Flo's Diner and Tower Defense variety.

What I liked: speed, powerhouse of a laptop.
What I didn't like: heavy, bulky, heats up fast.

I'm thinking that I could go down to the 13", but are the new 15" versions significantly lighter than my version?

Is the Macbook Air a bad buy (meaning not cost-effective) because of the one-piece construction? In other words, does pretty much any repair mean the whole thing has to be taken apart, thus costing more in the end?

Is it significantly slower or less powerful than the Macbook Pro that I would notice it with my modest needs?

I DO want Apple Care, right?

Thanks in advance, hive mind!

Someday we'll find it, the USB connection...

Doctor Suarez — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:21:59 -0800

Help me build a laptop puppet My friends/coworkers and I are about to start a video project and our idea involves a talking laptop puppet. Not an animated screen, mind you, but a mouth-flapping laptop.

Here's what I have figured so far:

-Buy a plastic dummy laptop like they use in furniture stores/model homes. (actually, buy two)
-modify/replace the hinges so that it moves really quickly. This would either involve new hardware or simple tape-hinges.
-mount on a cheap, thin coffee table (or substitute)
-drill through both laptop base and table
-mount push-rod through hole and connect to upper "jaw" of laptop
-hide puppeteer under table.
-install two blue LEDs to top front of laptop for eyes. (I was lucky enough to work with Muppeteers in the past, and I learned that puppets need eyelines)

Is there anything I'm forgetting? What is the best color laptop body for filming? I was thinking the silver model.

Currently, I can buy the dummy laptop at this site, but if I could buy one locally that would be a big help as time is short. (I live in LA. Does anyone know a local shop where such a thing could be purchased?)

Did dude steal a Dell?

ChurchHatesTucker — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:16:05 -0800

Is this computer hot? A friend of mine found a good deal (person to person) for a Dell Windows Vista laptop. He's wondering if the deal is good because the computer is hot. Is there any easy way to get a fair idea? (He's a newbie, I'm a Mac.)

MacBook Unibody Floppy-Hinge Hacks?

lonefrontranger — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:50:26 -0800

The hinge on my partner's new unibody MacBook Pro is just-loose-enough to make using it in bed annoying. Solutions, cases or a hack welcomed. O hive mind, please help us comfortably enjoy our weekend morning lazy-surfing, emailing bliss with a new unibody MBP!

So, after searching Google and finding this as the first hit, and this as the second, I'm not feeling very optimistic.

The new unibody MBP that mr. lfr. just bought is amazing. Really amazing. Photo processing has taken on new life, the screen is gorgeous, it doesn't get scaryhot when running video for extended periods of time, and last but not least, he's now able to run his heavy duty protein modelling software for work seamlessly on it now.

The only glitch is that he can't comfortably lie down in bed (or on the couch) with the laptop above his head because the new unibody has a seemingly "looser" hinge design than both his and my first-gen intel MBP did/do. The challenge with this is that we both tend to do a fair bit of lying around being creative (or lazy, your pick) either on the sofa or in bed, with the laptops above our heads, and the fact that he can't do that with his new one is actually fairly annoying. In fact, I am typing this question from a supine position right now on my older MBP. Also, I had planned to replace my own MBP with a new unibody soon, and this (seemingly quite minor) issue has suddenly become very important to me. Yes, I'm that lazy.

Has anyone here found a solution to this "floppy screen" issue on their new unibody? Since he already mentioned that he would like to find a case, is there potentially a (light, slim) case out on the market there that adds a little more tension/stability to the open clamshell design, to allow the screen to stay up/open when gravity takes over?

um, also please note: "get out of bed" is not really a helpful answer. He's already discovered that piling pillows to sit up and look at/down at the screen (rather than up at it) is much less comfortable and seems to put more strain on his neck.

Best time to buy a MacBook Air?

mosk — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:19:42 -0800

Best time to buy a MacBook Air between now and mid November? Are there any speed bumps or price reductions on the horizon? Dad is turning 70 in mid November. Dad wants a base model MacBook Air. We (his kids) want to get him what he wants, since we love him and since he's turning 70 and all.

I'm not in touch with the Apple product cycle these days, and I don't remember if, historically, there will be another speed bump for laptops before the holiday buying season, so if anyone has an insight into either of those things, I would appreciate hearing it. I was hoping something would be announced yesterday, but no such luck.

So...any Apple tea leaf readers out there? Any opinions on whether the MacBook Air lineup will get a bump or price cut in the next couple of months? Also, any personal experiences with the MacBook Air? I know it doesn't come with a built-in optical drive or Ethernet port, but those shouldn't be an issue for him. Dad was at the Apple store and fell in love with the MBA's form factor, which is perfect for his "needs." Now, his needs are squarely in netbook territory, so I know this is more computer than he will likely ever use, but this is a milestone birthday for him and we'll be splitting the cost multiple ways, so the difference between a $1200 MBP (his second choice) and the $1500 MBA isn't a big deal, at least in this instance.

Other data points: He's a dyed-in-the-wool Mac user with a fairly limited set of technical skills, so it's no use suggesting a Hackintosh or a Windows or Linus-based netbook. He wants a Mac laptop, and he specifically wants a new (NOT used, NOT refurbed) MacBook Air. We're happy to get him what he wants, but if the product line is getting nudged, I'd like to take that into account before we order something.

Uh oh! Why did my Mac stop working?

soviet sleepover — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:05:15 -0800

My four year old Mac PowerBook suddenly (after behaving perfectly for this long!) won't run any programs--won't even open up system preferences or terminal. Help! What should I do？ It starts up normally, though date and time are the 1969 defaults that show up when the battery's run all the way down. When I try to open a program, it hangs/beachballs, and attempting to force quit the program does nothing.

It's a PowerBook running 10.4. It hasn't been behaving out of the ordinary at all before this (I've noticed it's running a little hot, and it's slower than I'd like, though completely reasonable for a four year old laptop! Otherwise it's been behaving perfectly the whole time I've owned it).

Any suggestions on what happened? How to bring it back to life? Or at worst, how to save the past few weeks of un-backed up files? (And in case my levelheaded tone doesn't convey this: Help! Yikes! I'm too broke to afford a computer in the next 6 months, and I'll be in a really difficult situation without one! #!$#@&!)

MBP driven to tears?

uaudio — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:59:51 -0800

I bought a MacBook Pro in June 2007. Since then, its needed a new hard disk drive, right cooling fan, and DVD read/write drive. Is this normal wear and tear? I've had different Mac desktops before for work, but this is my first personal Mac laptop. This is a family PC and it roams around our house. My wife and my son (just educational games, 4yo) also use it and it stays on 24/7. The battery needs replacing as well; we usually just have it plugged in.

Does this usage pattern just destine me to go through components quickly or is this just chance?

Help me track down stolen laptop please!

grammalvsu — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:09:39 -0800

Quick! I right at this fleeting moment have remote access to a stolen laptop of mine that had logmein installed. what files can i copy over from it that might hold any type of identifying information? i can see that the thief uses firefox, so are there firefox logfiles that would track what websites he's visited, even his online email account or something along those lines? any other useful files anyone can think of that can help me track this guy down? By the way, Logmein provides me with the IP address so i have that. i might also try to install computrace, though it would be tricky installing a program without him seeing -- i'd have to make sure the computer has been inactive for a while, and hope he's not looking at the screen either.

thanks for any help!

Is it safe to glue keys to a laptop keyboard?

puckupdate — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:59:33 -0800

The left CTRL key popped off of my ThinkPad T43, the casualty of a RAM upgrade. The blue nipple seems to have come unglued from both the keyboard and the key. Is it safe to glue onto the keyboard? Googling reveals warnings of not using superglue and using superglue. Would a silicon adhesive be safer? Better?

Do I need a 'specialist' laptop?

Megami — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:49:24 -0800

Hardware Filter: Currently a Mac household, with both an iMAc and a macbook (which mainly runs the entertainment unit and comes on the odd holiday). There is a slight chance I will be getting a FIFO job to a pretty extreme part of the world. There should be a reasonable internet connection, but there will be lots of travelling there, and lots of dust once there. Will a Mac laptop hack it, or would I have to consider one of those poncy looking 'hardcore Indiana Jones' shock-proof laptops? I won't be bouncing around in a landrover or anything, just lots of travel, and as I mentioned, the dust.

Took apart my laptop, now I can't turn it on.

AngryTypingGuy — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:39:15 -0800

I recently disassembled my father's laptop to clean the heat sink. After reassembly, I'm now having trouble turning it on. My father's laptop is a Dell Latitude D620, that's about 3 years old. It's a small laptop so the heat sink is layered underneath everything else, meaning I had to pull apart everything before I could do some cleaning. I followed the instructions on this website: http://ahwee.com/how-to-disassemble-laptop-dell-latitude-d620
As far as my hardware experience goes, I've installed RAM before and cleaned out the heat sink to my laptop. This was my most complicated task.

After I reassembled the laptop, I was able to turn it on just fine. A while later I closed the laptop thinking it would go into standby mode, but when I returned and opened the top it wasn't able to resume. I tried pressing the power button a few times but then I just decided to turn it off. I pulled the plug and removed the battery, and then put both back in. Still no success. I can see the green light on the adapter but that's about it. I know the battery is fully charged because my father always uses the adapter.

I'm wondering if I screwed up somewhere in the assembly/disassembly process, but it's strange I was able to turn it on just fine on the first attempt.

Thanks for your help.

Help me find my ideal micro mouse.

agentmunroe — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:30:16 -0800

I like small mice and I cannot lie... Help me find the ideal mini mouse for my laptop. (WARNING: Mouse geekery contained within!) (Egads, I wrote a ton on this! The important part is the list if you don't want to read my insane mouse ramblings...)

I've been going through a variety of laptop mice over the years, but have recently settled upon this cheap tchotchke from a 2006 conference as my surprising favorite. I've had very mild hand problems over the years and generally prefer the way smaller mice feel in my hand. Attributes specific to this model that I enjoy - it's light and maneuverable, and while the optical sensor is a bit picky, the wheel and mouse buttons are rather stiff, which I love.

Or loved, since I plugged it in this morning and while the sensor lights up, the cursor refuses to move (verified on two computers). Since I liked it so much, I'd like to replace it with something similar. - I wouldn't mind "upgrading" if that's a possibility, or picking up the same one if I can find someplace where I'm not buying 25 of them.

Key attributes, in order of importance:
- something the size of the Tomax mouse
- awesome surface-fu (great optical tracking abilities)
- as close as possible, the attributes I mentioned (small, light, stiff buttons/wheel)
- wireless is a plus, but not required - I realize the battery will weigh the mouse down. Bluetooth would be awesome, but I don't care about it that much.
- cost is not an issue, as I don't mind spending money on something I'll use nearly every day (over $100 would give me pause, but I'd likely still buy if it matches the other criteria)

As an example of something I'm not a huge fan of, I also have a Logitech V470 - it's a bluetooth laptop travel mouse that works well with my MacBook Pro. The main thing is it just feels too large and heavy compared to the mouse, but the buttons are more easier to click as well, which I don't like as much. The wheel is fine, though.

So, now that I've written a small treatise - any suggestions on mice I might like, or leads on where to buy the TOMAX one without getting a caseload? Any assistance appreciated!

New Laptop = what to add?

raisingsand — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:16:46 -0800

What must-have programs do you use on your laptop for work? And travel? I took the advice of the green and bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad, it will be delivered this week. I'll use it mostly for work, having just taken a new job that involves about 80% travel. Uses include email, note-taking during meetings, project management tools, and entertainment during the long nights in hotel rooms and waiting in airports. I have MS Office already installed. I'll be adding these immediately:

Firefox and Thunderbird
AVG and ZoneAlarm and Winpatrol
Spybot, Ccleaner, Malwarebytes, and SuperAntiSpyware

What are your must-have programs? Would prefer free, but will pay for something that I can't live without. I've read previous posts, but want an updated list that focuses primarily on business apps.

Give me your awesome laptop finding powers!

tumples — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:18:12 -0800

The hivemind is usually great at this - please help me find or recommend me the perfect laptop replacement for my much loved but dying Acer. I have been using my great Acer Aspire 5920 for about two years now. I use my laptop a lot, and finally the wear and tear means that the laptop is generally breaking and slowing down, and the time has come for it to be reluctantly replaced.

I have been looking through the usual laptop sites these past few days but am overwhelmed by the sheer number of them out there, many of them seemingly the same. Also, it has been a while since I have kept track of the latest tech releases, so what is the hot lingo that I should be looking out for?

I don't want the replacement to be a downgrade in any area from my Acer, which currently has:

* Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz (many new laptops seem to contain inferior T models, which is surprising given that it has been two years since I bought this)
* 2 GB RAM
* 120 GB HDD (definitely need more here, perhaps 160gb-220gb would be sensible)
* nVidea geForce 8600m (A dedicated graphics card that matches this would be great, I don't need huge gaming power but I want some)

I really need some decent battery life as this battery konked out months ago, and would prefer it not to be the heaviest laptop but would take battery life everytime over the two choices. I would also prefer a 15" screen as that seems to be the right size for me, but this isn't a main priority.

What laptops are you using currently, or what laptops do you know of that would fit this finnicky criteria? Alternatively, do you know of any good sites I can use to review/buy from, for the UK if possible. Ebuyer and Laptopsdirect drive me insane with their listings and there are no good reviews or recommendations. Would definitely love a better designed site to peruse.

Thanks for all your help guys and gals, really appreciate it!

Local Profile Not Found...Wha???

too bad you're not me — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:56:42 -0800

I recently logged onto my computer (Windows XP), and it said "profile not found". Help, please! Today I started my laptop, and at the welcome screen it said that my local profile was not found, so I was logged onto a temporary profile. All my personalized settings were gone (i.e. desktop picture, menu settings, default internet browser, etc).

I tried to google the problem, but haven't been able to find anything super helpful, and the only AskMe question seemed to be about a work computer that was connected to a server. Mine is a home laptop not connected to a server.

I'm fairly certain all my files on the hard drive are still there, but is this indicative of a problem with the hard drive?

Has anyone had this happen? Why did it happen? Basically any info would be great! Computer savvy people...come to my rescue! :)

Portable computers not so portable...

SNWidget — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:15:08 -0800

LaptopSetUpFilter: Between my wife and I, we have two laptops that spend unequal amounts of time in different rooms. We can't seem to figure out a system where laptops and cords and everything else get strung around between two rooms. Advice/personal experiences requested. I have a laptop with a shot battery that requires a cord most of the time - I'm getting a new battery as soon as I have a little cash, but otherwise, it's tethered to the wall.

My wife has a laptop with a shot battery and a screen that won't stay up. We're waiting for a little more cash to get her a new laptop.

Our main problem is what to do with them? We like to sit on the couch with them, but that involves getting them away from our desk - climbing underneath the desk, moving the wires, and pulling everything out to the living room. And then we bring them back when we want to do work. This electronic cha-cha-cha is really getting annoying, and I'm thinking, there has to be a better way to do this. Is there?

I'm looking for advice as to how the Hivemind manages their laptops, as well as advice as to our situation. Even if we both get laptops that will stay up and have full batteries, how do we deal with moving them in and out of various rooms of the house without dragging cords all over the place?

I feel like there's got to be an easier way to do this... how do people keep a laptop mobile within a house without all the headaches I seem to be experiencing? Does one just leave it in the living space, and only bring it into the office to work (or vice versa)?

Powerbook: No Logo

DiscourseMarker — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:41:28 -0800

Powerbook G4 won't boot up. I hear the chime, get a gray screen, but NO apple logo or spinning wheel. This is a circa- late 2003 1.25GHz PB running OS 10.5. something. Yesterday, my husband was trying to open some Word 2008 docs he had saved on this laptop. Word would not open, it just kept bouncing in the dock, and we could not get it to force quit, so he did a forced shut down of the computer. Ever since then I cannot get the computer to boot past the gray screen.

I have tried resetting the PRAM, but it still sticks at the gray screen, same with resetting the PMU and trying a safe boot. It never progresses to the Apple Logo, just stays on the gray screen. When I pressed my ear to the keyboard I heard a few clicks from the HD after trying to start up, but now there's no sound.

Any suggestions?

What's causing erratic wifi behaviour?

thoughtless — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:51:24 -0800

What would make my laptop sporadically lose visibility of all wireless networks? I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 2515 laptop, running Vista Home Premium, which is behaving erratically wifi-wise. Very frequently it will stop detecting that there are any wireless networks around, and disconnect me if I'm connected at the time. It may then detect them again a minute or two later but then will usually lose them again shortly afterwards, and then the cycle continues. When connected it works perfectly, and it has no other problems. Even when not detecting the networks it will believe that everything is fine - it just can't find any networks.

This behaviour isn't predictable; sometimes it can stay in one state for an hour or so before changing. There doesn't seem to be any way to make it change - moving etc. doesn't really seem to do anything. Upgrading the drivers has had no effect, and I also tried booting from an Ubuntu live cd, which showed exactly the same symptoms.

What could be causing this inordinately frustrating weirdness? The only explanations I can think of are that either there's some loose connection internally (maybe to an antenna? do they have them?) or that the wireless component itself (an Intel 3945abg) is borked. As it's out of warranty both of these sound pretty expensive to fix; might I be best off just buying a wireless card to plug in to the expresscard slot? I'd like to be confident that it will work before spending that money.

How can I cool my laptop?

Chionophilia — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:55:09 -0800

How can I get a 12v fan to run off of a USB port? Alternately, how can I make my laptop not overheat and die? Hello, Metafilter,

I've got a laptop that's really prone to overheating; if you do anything intense for longer than ~20m, it heats up to about 100C and shuts down. I picked up a USB-based cooler that's basically a piece of aluminum with two weak fans screwed into the back; it helps a bit, but not very much.

What I wanted to do was to find a way to replace the cooler's fans with more powerful ones; I have an old and quite dead PC lying about that I've scavenged the CPU fan from, and thought that might do the trick. Tragically, though, the USB port doesn't have enough power to start the fan.

Do any of you know how or what I could do to get this fan to work? Alternately, are there other (cheap/free) ways to cool a laptop?