My laptop is on its last legs

[Cat333Pokémon]

After nearly four years of constant, brutal use, it seems like my laptop is reaching the end of its life. The touchpad is difficult to use and the buttons are heavily worn. Several of the keys have to be pressed just right on the keyboard. The webcam is broken. Two power adaptors no longer work, and the current one can only charge or run the laptop, but not both simultaneously. One USB port is damaged. The optical drive sometimes disconnects itself.

I fixed most of the problems by taking the mouse, keyboard, sound, and monitor external. All of that was fine and dandy until the internal backlight decided to quit working. I thought I'd pick up a netbook to take with me and leave the laptop at home on the monitor. Well, forces that be are making the VGA port harder and harder to use, as the colors are going crazy on my monitors--all of my monitors.

If it dies, the only thing I'll have left is the S-Video port, with runs at about 640x480 at the highest without looking like crap. It's either that or remote connection, which is too slow for everyday use.

[Luxray13579]

Whoa. Cat stop being so mean to your computers.
That's actually pretty insane at how many things have/are broken. I've had mine for almost a year and a half and the only thing wrong with it is... hm... I don't think there are any major problems with mine. Maybe give it a kick and tell it not to die.
You going to get a new laptop by any chance?

[Cat333Pokémon]

I'm going to be trying to get a desktop, as I have a netbook for school and other portable purposes. This laptop has gotten an average of about 7 hours of usage every single day since April 21, 2007, the day before Diamond and Pearl were released in North America.

[LiteTheIronMan]

It's sort of sad how even though you can usually preserve the hardware of technology for so long a time, eventually everything goes kaput and you can't revive something that you've been using for so long.

[KingOfKYA]

As I have said before that really all easy to fix.

Powerjack $20

CCFL(backlight) $10-30
or
CCFLInverter $20 < more likely


As for the track-pad alcohol usual clears that up. On the plug inside

As for you display getting messed up thats cause by the heatsync screws backing out/ past getting old.

As for the webcam you sol with that in the 3 hp laptops i have taken apart the cam is dead or accely stops the pc from booting


My laptop is a lot older that yours and its still running fine.


EDIT:
i beg to differ.

It's sort of sad how even though you can usually preserve the hardware of technology for so long a time, eventually everything goes kaput and you can't revive something that you've been using for so long

.
__________________

[Shadow]

How did your laptop become like this? Is it because of excessive usage, or is it due to some accidents (falling on the ground, etc.)?

I've always preferred desktops over laptops, by the way. They generally have better specifications, they don't turn off if they're not charged, and the keyboard is less awkward to use. Plus, there's a reduced risk of desktops falling off because they are not portable (unlike laptops).

[AnathemA]

What are your laptop specs?

[Ningamer]

Wow, Cat, you need to take better care of your laptop. I have a 6 year old laptop that still works fine for the most part, I can't imagine what you've done to yours!

[Atherrien]

Am I the only one that thinks that it's not unusual that Cat's laptop isn't working after four years?

7 hours daily for 365 days multiplied by 4 years is 10,220 hours, which is ~425 days, or 1.16 YEARS of use, which, in my opinion, is waay over the expected lifespan of a portable computer.

I'm just scared for the netbook... O.o



~Anthony

[FreezeWarp]

Whatever possible remedies still exist, I can't understand why you would want to keep in running anymore... just pull the plug.

[Buoysel]

Originally Posted by Cat333Pokémon

If it dies, the only thing I'll have left is the S-Video port, with runs at about 640x480 at the highest without looking like crap. It's either that or remote connection, which is too slow for everyday use.

Remote connection is plenty fast if you changed the connection settings (try LAN) (in new versions of Windows at least.)

[TheAppleFreak]

Damn, that's pretty bad. If you're going to get a new computer, though, get one with a VT-x enabled processor and at least 4 GB of DDR3 RAM. This way, that entire project I went on about last year with you might finally come to fruition. or just get a mac that works too

But if you're trying to squeeze it out of the last drops of it's use, I hear that the remote desktop in Win7 is faster than in Vista and XP, so you could feasibly get some use out of it from your netbook. Otherwise, I dunno. Why not turn it into a server or put it out of it's misery?

[Cat333Pokémon]

Originally Posted by LiteTheIronMan

It's sort of sad how even though you can usually preserve the hardware of technology for so long a time, eventually everything goes kaput and you can't revive something that you've been using for so long.

Really depends on the hardware and how much it gets used. My DVD players have had a lot of use and are still just barely working. One of my VCRs has been through a lot of use in the last ten years, but because I bought one of the nicer ones at the time, it still works rather well.

Originally Posted by KingOfKYA

Powerjack $20

CCFL(backlight) $10-30
or
CCFLInverter $20 < more likely

I'll have to check Newegg and the like.

Originally Posted by Shadow

How did your laptop become like this? Is it because of excessive usage, or is it due to some accidents (falling on the ground, etc.)?

I've always preferred desktops over laptops, by the way. They generally have better specifications, they don't turn off if they're not charged, and the keyboard is less awkward to use. Plus, there's a reduced risk of desktops falling off because they are not portable (unlike laptops).

Excessive usage. I like desktops a lot too, especially for upgrading. I'll need to carry it back and forth between my two houses about every month or two, but I've got the basics at both houses, anyway (monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, large power cables), so I would only need to tote the tower itself.

Originally Posted by AnathemA

What are your laptop specs?

Here you go. The only change is Windows 7 Home Premium, another external DVD±RW drive, external monitors (1280x1024 and 1024x768) and a nice sound system. Battery is irrelevant now due to the inability to take it with me, but it still gets a good hour and a half.

Originally Posted by Cat333Pokémon

My laptop isn't designed for gaming, but it's decent.
1.4 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB hard drive, DVD±RW, 1280×800 LCD screen, external floppy disk drive, 4 USB ports, IEEE 1394 port, 2-hour battery, Windows Vista Home Premium.

Complete specs:
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/tosh...=mncolBtm;rnav
It's not blue; it's black.

Originally Posted by Ningamer

Wow, Cat, you need to take better care of your laptop. I have a 6 year old laptop that still works fine for the most part, I can't imagine what you've done to yours!

It used to follow me to school every day through 10th and 11th grade (rules changed in 12th) as well as the first three semesters of college. I also didn't use a mouse with it for the longest time, meaning I used the touchpad a lot.

Originally Posted by Atherrien

Am I the only one that thinks that it's not unusual that Cat's laptop isn't working after four years?

7 hours daily for 365 days multiplied by 4 years is 10,220 hours, which is ~425 days, or 1.16 YEARS of use, which, in my opinion, is waay over the expected lifespan of a portable computer.

I'm just scared for the netbook... O.o



~Anthony

I'm scared for the netbook too. It stays in my backpack, though, except when I'm using it. It doesn't get setup at home, and nothing is broken yet. I use an external mouse with it when possible to reduce wear on the touchpad.

Originally Posted by FreezeWarp

Whatever possible remedies still exist, I can't understand why you would want to keep in running anymore... just pull the plug.

I can't do that until I get a new desktop in a couple months. Then I can retire it to the closet.

Originally Posted by Buoysel

Remote connection is plenty fast if you changed the connection settings (try LAN) (in new versions of Windows at least.)

I'll have to try that.

Originally Posted by TheAppleFreak

Damn, that's pretty bad. If you're going to get a new computer, though, get one with a VT-x enabled processor and at least 4 GB of DDR3 RAM. This way, that entire project I went on about last year with you might finally come to fruition. or just get a mac that works too

But if you're trying to squeeze it out of the last drops of it's use, I hear that the remote desktop in Win7 is faster than in Vista and XP, so you could feasibly get some use out of it from your netbook. Otherwise, I dunno. Why not turn it into a server or put it out of it's misery?

Yeah, I'm going to try for a really good CPU, motherboard, and housing, because those won't be easily upgradable.