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

[Peter Brawley]

On 4/10/2018 17:55, Arthur Fuller wrote:
> 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.

Did you try disabling the touchpad?

PB

>
> 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),
> _______________________________________________
> dba-Tech mailing list
> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>