Finally, back to my posts! Well, I thought the end of the online world was near. You see, I have been having some trouble with my laptop. It's a 17" HP pavillion with a few years on it. I was expecting a scene from Will Smith's movie, i Robot. I'd be working away on it and all of a sudden, with NO warning what so ever, it would turn off. And I mean off, not logging out or shutting down or flickering, but OFF! Talk about frusterating, I was ready to "whip cord" this thing across the room. I ran all the tests and sweeps and clean-ups and restores, but it would still happen. Of course, I came to think it was the beggining of the end. Thank goodness for a good friend of mine who told me the laptop might be overheating. He told me about cooling pads. Have you ever heard of them? I hadn't, for all I new a cooling pad was just another backache remedy, but oooh no! It's what undoubtedly saved the the life of my laptop and probably saved me a bundle of money as well.
O.K. Cooling pads, for the rest of you technologically impaired (same as me), are a simple device with a fan in them that sets on your desk, table, or lap and you set your laptop on top of it. It elavates your laptop and provides more air flow underneath, allowing for more cooling. The fan is powered by your laptop, through a supplied usb cable. The one I purchased was about $30 and has a slight angle to it, wich for me seems to better.
I think you can probably get a cooling pad or cooling staion, as there also known, at any computer supply store. I got mine, at Best Buy, and it is a Rocket Fish brand. I found different types and various features. I think they were all powered by usb. Most were level, and one had additional usb ports on it, I think that one was called a cooling hub. And as with anything else the prices varied. They ranged from low $20s to mid $40s.
I hope this information is helpful to you. It's amazing that some problem's can be solved so easily. Good luck to you and happy blogging!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Technical Shmecnical
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3 comments:
I am glad to hear that your were able to remedy the problems so quickly and inexpensively. We had the same problem with the same laptop and were able to fix it in the same manner. I too am not very technologically advanced and always feel so dumb when I have to go in and ask for help.
Were you often using the laptop on a bed or other soft surface? Doing that can block the fan most laptops have on the bottom.
If it wasn't an overheating issue I'd check the contacts on the battery.
My laptop is getting to the end of its lifecycle as well...it's pretty old and no matter what I do it runs pretty slow and hot. Maybe a complete reformat will help the speed...but I think it's a fact of life. Great blog!
Visit mine anytime.
-Justin
http://www.lifenearphilly.com
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