[dba-Tech] 911 -- Laptop issues, cannibalization, and one Tower issue

[Zimmer, Michael]

Arthur,

I've had keyboards and pointing devices go cattywampus on me before.  It is almost always a driver issue.  Try going to support.dell.com and letting Dell's SupportAssist help you in finding up to date drivers.

Kindest personal regards,

Mike


Michael S. Zimmer
Information Systems Site Support Engineer


-----Original Message-----
From: dba-Tech <dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 5:55 PM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: [dba-Tech] 911 -- Laptop issues, cannibalization, and one Tower issue


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I recently bought a used Dell 7130 laptop with 8 GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard disk and Win 10 and Office pre-installed and licensed.

Since it was used, the guarantee was for 30 days, and unfortunately medical issues intervened, and I never got around to seriously using it during the
30 days. I did start it up and everything worked, but I didn't run it long enough to see the real problem.

After a few minutes' use, something weird happens. The mouse no longer behaves, and perhaps also the keyboard. The mouse cursor jumps wildly across the screen, with no relationship to the way I move my finger on the built-in mousepad. The keyboard occasionally goes on vacation and does not reply to input.

Have you ever seen this kind of behaviour? Do you have any idea what may be wrong, and what sort of financial damage a fix might entail?

On the same day I bought this one, I also bought another laptop, also used; an HP ProBook with a 250GB SSD in place of a hard disk. Love the speed!

These purchases were prompted by the death of my previous laptop, a Dell Inspiron. I contacted Dell and reported the error codes (at bootup, 7 beeps, pause, 7 beeps, pause, etc.). The Dell technician told me that the motherboard and perhaps also CPU were fried; this occurred during a neighbourhood-wide power outage, from which my surge protectors apparently failed to protect me. I'm assuming that the organs from said dead beast could be harvested. Those organs include a 1TB hard disk and 8GB of RAM.

1. Both new-to-me laptops contain 4GB of RAM. Is it possible to harvest the 8GB of RAM from the dead laptop and replace the RAM in the newish laptop with these chips?
2. Previously I asked whether I might harvest the dead laptop's hard disk and, perhaps using an external case and some sort of connector, employ it for use on one of the newish laptops. I need a reminder as to the steps involved in accomplishing this.
3. My ancient HP tower, which has proven the most trustworthy of all (call her the Maytag of computers!) has two problems. The first is noise. I think this is due to a noisy fan. Is it simple to purchase a quiet fan and replace the existing one? Second, its DVD burner/player appears not to work, although Computer/Manage reports that the device is working properly.
That system won't boot from a CD or DVD, and beyond that point, it is unaware that I've inserted a disk in either format. That's easy; replacement CD/DVDs are cheap. But I'm wondering why Windows thinks the device reports OK and then is unable to use it.

All this said, assuming I can rescue the newish Dell laptop from its errant ways with the mousepad and keyboard, I must say that I love the new setup:
two laptops, a Nexus tablet and My Ever Faithful Wife (the ancient but trustworthy HP tower). Given such a setup, who needs Virtual Machines? I have an expansive desk and everything fits comfortably.

(I have still not quite got my head around how to set up my printers to use wi-fi rather than cables, but since I so seldom print anything, that's a problem to be solved another month.)

Another problem awaiting a solution is combining WIn 10 boxes with Win 7 boxes, in such a way as to create shared stuff. But that can wait, as well.
Meanwhile I can use what us old-timers used to call SneakerNet, except that since everything sits on a single desk, no sneakers are involved, just USB thumb drives. But of course the ultimate goal is that all the boxes can see all the documents and other significant data. In practice, the only devices I ever take with me are either the tablet or perhaps one of the laptops, though the latter is rare.

Finally, I know that I could research all of these questions and ultimately discover some solutions, but my mind has been elsewhere; specifically, my current focus is on a return to my roots as a Philosophy student, and most of my waking hours of late have been devoted to the arguments between Searle and Dennett about the nature of consciousness, leaving little time to invest in hardware issues. This is neither to say nor expect that any of you techxperts care about Searle vs. Dennett; I just wish to explain why I'm sidetracked.

The most puzzling problem presented is the first -- the wonky behaviour of the mouse and keyboard on the Dell 7130. Its screen is small but it can double as a tablet, and reviving it would be cool.

Suggestions to any or all these problems are invited, with gratitude in advance.

-- Arthur the Incompetent, son of Uther the Drunkard, Lord over all this living-room/office, and cuckcolded by Lancelot. Alack and alas! When all else fails, my trusty HP Millenium tower never fails (although she's a tad noisy), _______________________________________________
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