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Well, the Hard Drive on my 7 year old Dell Laptop is making Death Knell noises, the screen resolution keeps changing, and I can't get on my Bank because of Security Certificate problems, so I think that the old Gel is about to give up the ghost.
I'll likely just go get one of those $250 "Netbook" to tide me over. I found that I can run an auxiliary Screen and Keyboard. I am in the process of saving my pictures and other documents to my 300 Gig stand alone HD, so I really am not too concerned.
There is a cash flow problem so I may be delayed, but compared to being shot at or in the presence of something that could explode on me, this is small beans.
So, If it happens in less than an organized manner ...
Gwendolyn
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A Dell you say?
Umm, could you be more model specific? I have a few spare drives laying around for dell Latitudes and Inspirons. also, what Operating System and do you have the original dell disks? I would start backing up stuff now to a USB stick. PM me for more details /hug
Diana
HD Meltdown
The Computer is a Dell, Inspiron 1150. I want to get a desk top as soon as I can because I want to have a good Video Card. What I have won't even run Flight Simulator. :(
Just listening, it could be a cooling fan. I'm copying things I don't want to lose to that 300GB stand alone hard drive. I've been able to get it to act like a thumb drive and it just runs on a USB port. It's a Western Digital HD and came with all sorts of intrusive, interfering software on it.
I do not know how to back up my whole computer to it and once I did, with the old OS, I doubt that I would put it on a new computer. I run Windows SP with all the service packs, and use Mozilla as a browser. I used to like IE a lot but one day it just sort of started hanging, and then when I downloaded all the improvements, well, it just quit entirely.
I've got free internet through Comcast in my new apartment, but as soon as I can afford it, I am switching back to DSL with Qwest on the phone line. I never had any problem with DSL and what Comcast provides is like totally screwed man!
Many blessings
Gwendolyn
Laptops and cooling
If it is the fan, be very careful. Laptops generate an immense amount of heat and it dissipates poorly compared to a desktop. And heat kills processors very quickly.
Those are expensive compared to a hard drive.
Watch the sale papers closely. If you have a Frye's nearby watch it carefully. They often have some awesome prices on desktops and laptops. They may not be the very best, but they are more than adequate unless you are into heavy duty gaming or photo editing, or video editing. They even have an online store and shipping can hurt, but they may have specials on that also. As much as I dislike Wal-Mart, they often have good prices on selected models, and package deals cheaply. You can almost get a pretty nice desktop for that 250.00 you mentioned. A whole package can be picked up if you watch for less than 400.00 and that includes a decent flat screen monitor.
I got my laptop at Wall-Mart. It's a decent compaq unit for 300.00. Came with everything I wanted in a laptop.
What's wrong with Comcast?
I haven't had any problems with them, I just did a speed test at http://www.speedtest.net/ and got 11.5 mbps download and 2.5 mbps upload.
My local Quest advertises their dsl at only 1.5 mbps download, and they can't sell me service, 'cause I'm out in the boons.
Comcast customer service has been outstanding where I live, Quest doesn't answer the phone on weekends!
Mr. Ram