Laptop users

[John in Santa Cruz]

IMHO, 17" laptops are very unwieldy to carry. If I plan to regularlly use one at a desk, I'll setup a monitor and 'real' keyboard there using a USB3/Thunderbolt dock like...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LL622ZR

[Red]

The dell xps 15 is a good laptop and the specs are perfect. In Canada it is too expensive at $1499. Other quality brands with similar specs are $899. The problem in all cases is poor availability.
I am sorry if I offended all HP owners. I had a bad experience with one of their laptops and so will avoid future purchases, but that is a my personal view. HP continues to be a major player in the market place.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I won't touch HP *consumer* stuff, but their HPE business stuff is OK. I often buy 2-3 year old business models that are available as 'refurbs' when they come off lease (many businesses lease their PCs). Unless you really need the fastest processing, get a Core I5 rather than a I7, that will save a chunk.

[richardr]

Originally Posted by Vermilye

For those with power hungry laptops, this 12V adapter will provide as much as 120 watts. They provide a number of output cables including one for the MacBookAir, and including one that works great with my MacBookPro's USB C connector which draws 95 watts under full load & charging.

Thanks Jon for this information. I've been charging our Macs through a 200 watt inverter and the Apple power supply. Fully charging my wife's Mac Pro 15 can take almost 10% of my trailer battery capacity. This 12 volt adapter should be a lot more efficient.

[Centex]

Just sharing for the heck of it ....

My heretofore trusty 6 years old Dell E6530 refurb laptop mentioned in post 10 above started running really hot a few days ago

SpeedFan utility reported the fan was running but not keeping the Intel Core i7 3520M CPU and NVidea NVS 5200M GPU cool

So, removed the fan/heatsink assembly to take a look, and then disassembled that to look further and find a very fine-finned copper heat exchanger totally clogged (after 6 years).

Cleaned that all out including crud on fan blades (91% isopropyl and vacuum), reassembled, and saw some improvement but still getting hot spikes with CPU usage over ~25%.

Hmmm, when I R&R'd the heatsink assembly I broke the long dried-out thermal paste bond on the two processors, and I didn't replace that.

So, off the Best Buy for an $8 syringe of thermal paste, R&R the heatsink again, this time cleaning the chip and heatsink surfaces and applying fresh thermal paste.

Oh, the Joy, now running cooler than in many years, much to my relief

Glad that the heatsink assembly R&R is an easy 10-minute operation, just remove the bottom panel (5 screws) and it's fully exposed; 8 captive spring-loaded screws to remove the heatsink assembly.

I'm trying to keep this puppy running 'til Windows 10 End of Life in 2025 (it won't support Win 11) ..... got lucky this time, fingers crossed for the remaining ~3 years. I'm already happy with the return on investment but going for the gold.

Yep, we're Having Fun, still!

[rbryan4]

Your story reminded me of an old HP Pavilion laptop - the big and heavy 17 inch one - someone gave to me because it wasn't running. They said it had belonged to a chain smoker who used it in a tiny office - a closet really - and that it was ruined by the smoke. It reeked of smoke smell when I got it. Once I opened it up, it was clear that everything inside was gummed up with tar stains, etc.

Well, long story short, after taking it all apart, painstakingly cleaning everything with cotton swabs, baking soda, isopropyl alcohol, etc, and putting it all back together, it booted. I put a fresh copy of Windows 7 on it and it ran perfectly. Donated it to a friend who knew of a student who could use it. As far as I know, they still have it today. It was a fun rebuild, although quite tedious with all those small parts.

[HABBERDABBER]

I too have revived electronic devices (my drone comes to mind, and a Roomba robot vacuum) with touchy repair work. It's a good feeling to hear that electronic chirp again from the device when first turned on after surgery.
BRAVO, maestro!
Another job well done.

[John in Santa Cruz]

heh, I just dusted off my trusty old Latitude E6420, which is one size smaller and one generation older than that E6530, and after months of just sitting on a shelf, plugged it in, and it booted right up, and the battery took a full charge. Last year, I replaced this with a new Dell XPS 13 9305, which so far has been awesome. tiny, ultra-light, thin, great 13" screen, nice backlit keyboard, and fast CPU (core I7-1165g7 with 4 cores, 8 threads, up to 4.7Ghz).

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by Centex

Just sharing for the heck of it ....

My heretofore trusty 6 years old Dell E6530 refurb laptop mentioned in post 10 above started running really hot a few days ago

SpeedFan utility reported the fan was running but not keeping the Intel Core i7 3520M CPU and NVidea NVS 5200M GPU cool

So, removed the fan/heatsink assembly to take a look, and then disassembled that to look further and find a very fine-finned copper heat exchanger totally clogged (after 6 years).

Cleaned that all out including crud on fan blades (91% isopropyl and vacuum), reassembled, and saw some improvement but still getting hot spikes with CPU usage over ~25%.

Hmmm, when I R&R'd the heatsink assembly I broke the long dried-out thermal paste bond on the two processors, and I didn't replace that.

So, off the Best Buy for an $8 syringe of thermal paste, R&R the heatsink again, this time cleaning the chip and heatsink surfaces and applying fresh thermal paste.

Oh, the Joy, now running cooler than in many years, much to my relief

Glad that the heatsink assembly R&R is an easy 10-minute operation, just remove the bottom panel (5 screws) and it's fully exposed; 8 captive spring-loaded screws to remove the heatsink assembly.

I'm trying to keep this puppy running 'til Windows 10 End of Life in 2025 (it won't support Win 11) ..... got lucky this time, fingers crossed for the remaining ~3 years. I'm already happy with the return on investment but going for the gold.

Yep, we're Having Fun, still!

Back in the day HP laptops were notorious for overheating as the heat sink was misdesigned, I remember installing a shiny copper penny to help with heat and got a couple of years out the machine for him. The optiplex machines are better for service, as well as the precision laptops. (Worked in IT for 20 plus years and supported many of these. Most aging machines die from heat and drying out capacitors. If you see a bulg its time, the symptoms will be unexpected reboots as the voltage becomes unstable with bad cap. By the way I always buy Dell refurbs for windows.