Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
In general, “older laptops” were mostly 32-bit systems, which mathematically max out at 4GB of RAM. If the laptop has less RAM than that, I’d consider starting there, to bring the laptop to its full memory complement. Because it’s an “older system,” you probably can buy RAM for cheap. If the laptop is already maxed…
Reader Jenni Wieter asks; “What is your favorite laptop that you have ever had or used and why?” Hmmm. Two top contenders come to mind: Model 100: This was my first portable computer: a TRS-100. Back in the day when PC’s were usually bulky, desktop units with several separate components, this lightweight, all-in-one portable design…
Closing the lid on a furiously-churning PC is kind of asking for trouble. Depending on how your laptop/notebook is set up, closing the lid might put the system into sleep/suspend mode; or hybrid sleep mode; or hibernation; or could invoke full power-off. If closing the lid kills power to the PC, you could end up…
Reader Emily Long sent in this urgent note — from her smartphone, I presume! “A couple of hours ago I spilled water on my laptop, I’ve turned it off, dried the keyboard and it is currently sitting keyboard down while I wait for any possible water to drain out. Will it be fine when it…
Sure, within reason. Merely being outdoors or in motion won’t hurt a desktop PC. But impact, moisture, or temperature might. If the PC is properly and fully shut down before moving; and is protected/padded from sharp jolts, bumps, bangs, and such; and is kept dry and at human-comfortable temperatures; it should be safe to transport…
How about four identical 14-year old, 250GB ATA/EIDE hard drives? They’re still in use and still run fine. I use them for archival/backup storage of various photos, software, and virtual machines. Those drives actually have more miles on them than shown because they were inexpensive remanufactured models. They’d already been in service; had failed or…
You’re right. There’s absolutely no sense in that. Storing backups on the same physical hardware as the original is a terrible idea because, as you say, any major PC problem that takes out the original is also likely to take out the backup. You’d be left with nothing. True backup copies should be stored on…