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DanG Laptop

Started by Magicman, September 16, 2016, 08:58:42 PM

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Magicman

Died.  The leds that should be blue are now yellow.   It does not go through it's normal startup.  I did the  stuff like unplugging and removing the battery but it just goes back to not coming on.  I used it this afternoon to upload a couple of pictures and make a couple of posts.

I'll have to use this old Dell until I can figure out what to do or more accurately, who to take it to.  I have not been able up upload pictures on this one since I did the Win10 thing.   :-\
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OlJarhead

Start by getting rid of 'the win10 thing' ;)
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Magicman

Well this old HP apparently overheard me saying something about "waste management" and decided to start working again.  I was on the other laptop looking at refurbished units when the yellow led's turned blue and it booted up.  I guess that it was just going through some kind of updating or something.

OJH, this one is still a Win7, the backup is Win10.  Anyway, at least for now, I am back up and running, and I did not actually do anything.
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clearcut

The beginning of the end?

One thing to try if it does it again is to boot in Safe Mode. The procedure varies with manufacturer and operating system. Sometimes an automatic update will kill a  driver. Safe Mode loads only what is necessary.
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Magicman

I have always know that anything that "fixes" itself does not stay fixed.  Yup, it is dead again this morning.   :-\

I Googled "safe mode" and the instructions said, F8.  I never get a splash screen, advanced option screen, or any screen for that matter,  Just black.  I stuck the backup disc in the drive before as well as after I try to boot up.  I hear it click but still nothing.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Ox

Whenever I had a computer do stuff like that it was always the hard drive.  Of course this is where all the stuff you want to keep is stored.  Unless you're smart (unlike me) and save important stuff on another drive or disk or something.

Why is it a computer "disk" but a field "disc"?  Or am I wrong or backwards...?  ??? ::)
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

thecfarm

I'm a waitin for my dinosaur desktop to die. It grinds away and freezes up for ½ hour at a time. I mostly only do the FF, Anything else and it goes belly up and starts to grown. Forget Facebook.  ;D We really hand onto it just to print out recipes for the wife.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Magicman

It just started up.  There are no sounds so I have no idea what is happening or not happening on the inside.

I guess that I had better start looking for a new laptop again. 
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Ox

Another thing to note:  these computers will "dust up" and won't cool properly.  A little compressed air in and around all the cooling vents sometimes works wonders.  They'll heat up and stop working sometimes...
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

Magicman

Yes they will and it is incredible how much dust/lint will accumulate on those cooling fins.  You would think that there would be a small cover to remove rather than having to remove the entire lower panel.

I have booted and shut down once more, and am satisfied that this thing needs either repairing or replacing.  Since a shop charges $100-$200 just to open the cover, replacement is probably the best option.  I just hate the startup/initializing process.   :-\
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

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clearcut

If you're replacing, consider a Chromebook. Unless you have Windows specific software, or do video or major photo editing, you might find Chrome OS useful.

For web surfing, email, simple word processing, and spreadsheets Chromebooks just work. Updates and backups are automatic, and the Google keeps malware away. Your documents are accessible from any computer. Chromebooks go from off to ready in seconds.

Because Chrome OS is so lightweight, an inexpensive computer that would gag on Windows runs Chrome effortlessly. I would suggest 4GB of RAM and 32 GB storage though. These can be found for about $200.

I have one for the kids and it works great.

No Microsoft Office, except the web version which I don't like. Some people object to be so heavily reliant on the Google.

With the right voodoo, most Chromebooks can dual boot into Linux.

Worth considering.
Carbon sequestered upon request.

OlJarhead

I use Linux on my laptop.  It's an older one I was given with a bad hard drive, so I found a hard drive (nephew had one) and got linux on it...never fails, always works....free.

Too easy :)
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Magicman

I have an old Dell laptop at the Cabin that I was using for picture viewing and storage.  The power receptacle went bad so it has not been used in several years.  I wonder if the hard drive would fit in this HP?  Just as information, I refreshed my backup disc last week.   
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Ox

I too run only Linux.  Hard to beat, IMO.
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

Magicman

A trip to Wally was a bust.  13"-14" is large enough so there was really nothing there for me to decide on. 
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

OK, so I found a flow chart to show me exactly how to upload pictures with the Win10 thing. headscratch


 
Everything is perfectly clear and very easily understood.   smiley_dizzy 
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

OlJarhead

Quote from: Magicman on September 17, 2016, 12:29:29 PM
I have an old Dell laptop at the Cabin that I was using for picture viewing and storage.  The power receptacle went bad so it has not been used in several years.  I wonder if the hard drive would fit in this HP?  Just as information, I refreshed my backup disc last week.

probably but you'd have to change some drivers etc in order to get it work properly with a different MoBo and graphics card etc
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Magicman

I was just sorta thinking out loud.  I guess when laptops die they make good trot line weights.   ::)

I installed the "classic shell" on this laptop today and found my pictures and was able to upload and post so at least I am not dead in the water.  It also has my Excel and Word that I use quite a bit so whatever I get I do need those programs.  I see where MS will rent it to you for an annual fee, but I would much rather buy the program and be done with it.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Ianab

Unless you specifically need Word and Excel, you can download and install Libre Office. It basically works the same and can open and save MS Word and Excel files.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Works under Windows, Linux or Mac.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

clearcut

Google Docs and Sheets do a pretty nice job of translating Word and Excel documents also.

I really dislike Excel 2016. It messed up my work flow. Creating new files from templates became a multi-step, error prone process. Ugh. With 2011, New File from Template was in the top toolbar and the last template used was selected. Click / Return.
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Magicman

I did not have Word & Excel on the dead HP laptop so I loaded Libre Office.  It worked fine but I never could move an Excel file to it.  I dunno, but it is a mute point now.  I would feel much more secure if both laptops had the same program so can open or duplicate my spreadsheets.  I surely would hate to have to rebuild all of those formulas again.

I am looking at a 14" Dell and I saw last night where MS Office 2010 was available online for ~ $70 and they said that it would work with Win10.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

OlJarhead

Try Open Office.  I find it reads the MS files just fine.
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clearcut

OpenOffice is having trouble attracting developers and is considering retiring the project.

In particular, security vulnerabilities are taking a long time to be addressed.

     http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/openoffice-after-years-of-neglect-could-shut-down/

In LibreOffice you can just use File / Open to import Excel files. Or right click and select Open With / LibreOffice.

An advantage to using Google Sheets which also can open Excel files is that your spreadsheets are automatically backed up.

Lots of choices.
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Magicman

I just ordered a Dell Inspiron 14 3000, which was $229 and free shipping.  I'll deal with the spreadsheet when it gets here but I surely was not about to pay Dell another $229 for Office.  If I can get the Libre Office to work it would simplify everything, plus free.

I hate to even think about the boot/startup procedure.   :-\
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

OlJarhead

Boot/Startup for Linux?  It's easy ;)

Or did you mean something else?

I'll admit, Linux isn't for everyone (don't pounce on me Penguin users!) as software installation isn't always the easiest (and how easy in my experience depends on versions used -- ie.e Debian vs RedHat vs SuSe etc)...but install is easy, bootup is easy, it comes with most of what you need (if not all) and never seems to crash ;)
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Magicman

Quote from: Magicman on September 18, 2016, 04:04:44 PMI hate to even think about the boot/startup procedure.   :-\
They seem to come empty and spend hours loading and updating stuff.  After that I will need to transfer all of my bookmarks.  I have done it before but who remembers such stuff?  I am sure that I can Google and find an easy way.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Czech_Made

Quote from: OlJarhead on September 19, 2016, 01:10:07 PM
Boot/Startup for Linux?  It's easy ;)

Or did you mean something else?

I'll admit, Linux isn't for everyone (don't pounce on me Penguin users!) as software installation isn't always the easiest (and how easy in my experience depends on versions used -- ie.e Debian vs RedHat vs SuSe etc)...but install is easy, bootup is easy, it comes with most of what you need (if not all) and never seems to crash ;)

+1 on Linux.

Magicman

I Googled Linus and all I got was confused  smiley_dizzy :

Technically, Linux is not an operating system. The Linux kernel, originally written by Linus Torvalds, is open source software that forms the basis for all Linux distributions.The kernel is the base layer of code that communicates down to the hardware and up to software packages that need access to the hardware. A Linux distribution combines the Linux kernel with additional software, including package managers, libraries and system tools, and user-level applications. Although most Linux distros include windowing systems and managers, some lightweight distributions contain only command-line interfaces, or CLI, as their desktop environments.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Ianab

I'd say Linux is not JUST an operating system.

The common distributions come with all sorts of open source software bundled in them already, for whatever the intended use is.

So if you pick a popular Desktop version like Mint it's set up to run as a regular desktop computer, very much like Windows. It will have Firefox web browser, Libre Office, a media player and all the normal desktop utilities you might need all ready to go. It's so simply you can actually run the whole system off a USB thumb drive without even installing it, and look so much like Windows that pretty much any user can find their way around it, often easier than with the different versions of Windows.

Other versions are more aimed towards acting as web servers, Internet firewalls, database servers etc. The majority of Internet is running on Linux of various flavors.

But if you just need a computer to use NOW, you just go and buy a new laptop and if has Windows pre-installed.

I'd leave Linux for a rainy day and an old PC that you want to have a play with.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

OlJarhead

I have Ubuntu on my old laptop (cabin laptop) and it was a very easy install (one reboot if that and done).  If you might want to try it, go to Ubuntu and download the file to burn onto a CD Rom (if you know how to do that?) and then boot off the CD Room (I can tell you how to do that too)....or try SuSe and use a USB drive but I think Ubuntu is better on laptops (or used to be).

By definition an 'operating system' is just what you described ;)  It's software that lets the hardware operate for the user.  Technically a 'DOS' is any hardware that operates the disk drive.  WinDoze is much like 'x-windose' in that it is just a GUI that interfaces with the DOS to allow the user to well, use the computer.  Windoze has a kernel too ;)  It's just not as good as Linux
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Magicman

The new laptop came while I was away sawing.  Oh my, I hate getting it setup.   :-\
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

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Magicman

I seem to be going in circles.  I have not figured out a (simple) way to move my Firefox Favorites to the new laptop.   :-\
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

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clearcut

I found this recent link to three methods, maybe one will work for you.

     https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1137082

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Czech_Made

Quote from: Magicman on September 23, 2016, 09:57:48 AM
I seem to be going in circles.  I have not figured out a (simple) way to move my Firefox Favorites to the new laptop.   :-\

Show All Bookmarks, Import and Backup, Export Bookmarks to HTML - to get old ones  out

and reverse the process to get them back.

Magicman

Thanks all, I had already digested most of that, but I got sidetracked and am running a different rabbit right now.   Gotta figure out how to move/add my Reload/Refresh button to the left so that it will be beside the left & right arrows??   smiley_headscratch
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

I ain't believing that this touchpad will not scroll.  I know that I bought cheap, but I never figured that they even made them without the scroll.  Of course PgUp/PgDn work, but it's certainly not what I am accustomed to doing.   :-\
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

clearcut

Are you using 2 fingers for scrolling? 
Is scrolling turned off in trackpad settings?
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Magicman

Quote from: clearcut on September 23, 2016, 01:26:28 PM
Are you using 2 fingers for scrolling? 
I am now, but how the heck was I supposed to know that?  Thanks!!     :)

Now I gotta figure out how to move/add my Reload/Refresh button to the left so that it will be beside the left & right arrows??   That plus killing this McAffee.   ::)

I think that I have everything else in my Firefox/Addons done plus the Win10 shell. 


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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

The two fingers move the page instead of the the slider on the right which is a bit backwards from what I am used to, but it is OK.  I looked in the mouse/touchpad options but did not see any way to reverse it.  Actually I guess that it makes more sense anyway.  I am happy.   ;)
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

breederman

The things you learn here ! :) I havent been able to scroll since I bought this toshiba .
Together we got this !

thecfarm

I,us,never could get the 2 finger scroll with the wife's laptop. This was 5-6-7 years ago. We just was not forced to do it. A simple plug for one of the ports in the side and a mouse did it for us.
I have no idea what is out there now.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

clearcut

There are a number of useful "gestures" for controlling modern touchpads:

Scroll: Place two fingers on the touchpad and slide horizontally or vertically.
Zoom in or out: Place two fingers on the touchpad and pinch in or stretch out.
Right-click: Tap the touchpad with two fingers, or press in the lower-right corner.
Drag windows: Double-tap and drag the menu bar (top of app window)
See all open windows: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe them away from you.
Show Task view: If you're viewing all open windows (from the step above), swipe up again with three fingers.
Show the desktop: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe them towards yourself.
Switch between open windows: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe right or left.
Cortana/Action Center: Tap the touchpad with three fingers.

Many of these can be set in Touchpad Settings, or from the Touchpad's manufacture control panel (Synaptics is a common manufacturer)

Though I think my most common "gesture" towards Windows 10 is the 1 finger salute. :o
Carbon sequestered upon request.

Magicman

So far (and with clearcut's help) I think that I am doing quite well.  Bookmark/Favorites are done, but I have not ejected McAffee yet.  There is no real rush because I can keep it for a year.  I also have to move MalWarebytes Pro (or whatever it is) to this laptop but I will have to find my key number, etc.  Last time I had to contact them for the OK.

The only issue that is still bugging me is moving that Reload/Refresh button to the left so that it will be beside the left & right arrows.  I did it on both the dead laptop and also on the still working laptop so I know that it can be done, I just do not recall how.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

I did it!!

I put me some "Flexible Space" in that area which allowed me to move the Firefox Refresh icon into that space beside the left arrow. 

I also have my old standby photo resizer installed so I can zip through uploading pictures into my FF Gallery.

A few more tweaks and it will feel like it is mine.  This old Fart is on a roll.   8)

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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Ox

Good news!  You're a tenacious "old Fart" aren't ya?  ;)
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

Magicman

OK, I am gonna like this new little laptop.  I intentionally a wanted one that was only 14".  The surprise was how thin and light it is, and also no heat.  There is not even a cooling fan.  There is also no disc drive.

With the Win10 shell and the Traditional Firefox, everything is exactly (well almost) like I am accustomed to.  The two finger drag will/is taking some practice.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

Yea, I got rid of the touchpad tap and turned my scroll direction around.  The different options are all in there, it just takes finding them and clicking the right button. 

Speaking of buttons, I accidentally turned off my "mouse" buttons.  Think about that mess.  I could move the arrow, but I could not click on anything, even the option to turn the buttons back on.  Thankfully I had a wireless USB mouse that I plugged up and used to turn my buttons back on.   ::)

Hopefully this journey will help someone else or at least let them know that them smart people ain't the only smart people especially when you have this FF following along and offering pointers.   smiley_thumbsup
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

I downloaded Libreoffice, but Microsoft did not go down without a fight.  It slung everything that it had at me to try to prevent/discourage the download.  I will now try to open a saved Excel file from the other laptop and see what happens.

I also got the printer hitched up this evening so hopefully I will soon get this thing tuned up.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

I spent probably a couple of hours last night deleting and uninstalling Trojans and other stuff that had crept in while I was installing and downloading what I need.  Some of them did not go down without a fight either. 

Malwarebytes is a lifesaver and I should have installed it immediately after the first boot up.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

DR_Buck

We went through the laptop replacement not to long ago.   Our 8 year old Dell Inspiron went belly up.    I was able to back up all the data from the old one which was good and we didn't lose anything.   

The Dell Inspiron series are fairly reliable and rugged laptops, so we stuck with them for the replacement.   And, for the record I think Windows 10 is the best operating System to come out of Microsoft.   We have 2 laptops, 3 desktops and one of the new HP systems with the computer built into the monitor and they all work great with Windows 10.   The 3 desktops were upgraded.  One from Windows 8 which sucked.  The other 2 desktops and the 2 laptops were from Windows 7.   Upgrades went flawless and it really didn't take much time to do it except on my one machine.   It has some unique hardware and I use a non-standard directory path for saving data that Windows has a minor issue with. 

Now tablets and Android operating systems, which I'm using now are a different beast........
Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

Magicman

I am getting comfortable with Win10, but I cheated and download the shell.  Thankfully I have been using two laptops for several years and each are loaded the same and with virtually the same programs and files.  I say virtually because only one has Excel & Word.  I'll soon make a test run and see if I can move the Excel files to Libre.  I thought that I had unsuccessfully tried it in the past but as they say, I have slept since then.

I am enjoying this new one because it is so small, light, and no heat.
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It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

OK, what to do with two crapped out laptops??
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Ianab

What's died on them?

Common problems are dead hard disks, blocked up cooling fins on the heat sinks, or just corrupted installations of Windows (virus and other malware)

Depending on what's wrong you can ofter get them going again, or at least salvage the Ram and Hard disk to fix another machine.

If you can get one going I'd use it to play with Linux, just cos you can.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

DR_Buck

Quote from: Magicman on September 27, 2016, 07:01:47 PM
OK, what to do with two crapped out laptops??

I have found that because of changes in technology, they are just about worthless.   Replacement hard drives are expensive and usually harder to find since technology has advanced.   Usually older one also are in need of battery replacements which are very expensive.   You can quickly have more cost in parts than a new laptop cost.    They are also slower and much of the new software will not run on them.

Clean them up, install an old operating system and a few games and give them to the grandkids.   ;D
Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

Magicman

My two spreadsheet are now on the new laptop.  I was able to copy the Excel files to an SD and then paste the files into Libre on the new laptop.   8)

Happy, Happy, Happy.   :)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

petefrom bearswamp

Reading this thread makes my hair hurt.
I ungraded to windows 10 and went back to 7.
Old dog no new tricks.
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

Magicman

@Jeff slight problem.  Something on my "Sound" is either turned off or not enabled on this laptop.  I can listen to videos on the web fine, but the sound in links to videos here on the FF is somehow blocked or not enabled.  Actually, I do not know if the video sound here on the FF has ever worked on this new laptop. 

I watched the same video on the other laptop and the sound was OK so it is a setting somewhere.

OK, I can click on the YouTube icon in the lower right of the video and get sound.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman