Can I save my laptop?

[redpoint5]

All companies have product lines of varying quality.

I dislike Dell's consumer line (Inspiron) because the screens wobble immediately and the cheap plastic breaks away (at least it used to). Their entry business line (Vostro) held up very well.

I have no experience with Asus, but I assume they have varying levels of quality too.

[nemo]

Have no complaints about the quality of the ASUS. Just not built to be easily upgraded.

[redpoint5]

As I recall, Asus was known for making compact laptops, and that ends up meaning they are less serviceable. I always wanted a 14" or 13.3" class Asus as my daily carry due to what they could pack into a small size.

[Xist]

I just wanted to check my e-mail on my laptop before writing progress reports with Mom's, but even that was a struggle. I could have put my saved passwords on a flash drive, but since I can create an account with the company that makes my browser and save my passwords I decided to do that.

Of course, that took far too long!

I also created an account on Mom's laptop, but she does not have an administrator account. I kept looking up how to create a new account and Windows didn't show the options the web did.

I finally created a new local account, but I need to upgrade it.

It keeps telling me to put in Mom's PIN.

I want to put in my own PIN!

Microsoft and Yahoo hassled me about my accounts. I look forward to dealing with this with the rest of my accounts and then when I buy my own laptop.

The only place selling the Asus VivoBook cheaper was eBay, but I would rather deal with Amazon. However, I did find out that the AMD version, which costs $20 more, comes with a 256 GB SSD, of course has a graphics card, and is an ounce or two lighter.

Userbenchmark.com says the Intel CPU is 13% faster, but the AMD graphics are 83% faster.

Also, the AMD version comes with Windows Home instead of Windows Stupid. I wasted far too much time switching Mom's laptop from Stupid to Home, but she could not remember her Hotmail password, and I ended up creating a new e-mail account.

I know my Hotmail password! I totally know my Hotmail password! It is [censored]!

All right. I am ordering the AMD one and starting my progress reports!

[freebeard]

Life was so much easier in the 1950s.

[Xist]

How were computer warranties back then?

I believe that I have bought extended warranties on every laptop. I think that I have one on my desktop. If so, SquareTrade supposedly owes me something, since I did not file any claims, but desktops should be more reliable, and they are certainly easier to fix [and upgrade].

I have sent in two laptops under the extended warranty [and will send in a third as soon as I can]. The last time my touch screen had cracked and they replaced it. The other time that I remember a hinge broke, which I probably could have replaced cheaply and easily, although I was in Afghanistan.

However, I didn't send it in until the hard drive died, so they fixed both problems.

If I spent $100 for an extended warranty for 5 different laptops then all that I have really received is peace of mind. However, if the video card is indeed bad, they need to replace the motherboard. I should be able to buy a used laptop for that much and as I mentioned, I found sold ones for as low as $350, but the cheapest one on eBay right now is going for $400 shipped with about 40 hours left.

Everyone else is asking $700+!

Costco has an upgraded version of Mom's laptop for $499.99. They provide their own warranty for the second year and since it costs less than $500 I can get an extended warranty through SquareTrade for $70.

My credit card is also supposed to provide a second year of warranty. I do not know how that compares with Costco's, but SquareTrade would want 14% of the cost of the laptop to cover the third year accidental damage.

However, when I went to buy the Asus laptop, SquareTrade wanted $100 to cover a $480 laptop.

You know, I remember buying an extended warranty on my old laptop.

It is an Asus.

Ha. I posted on Facebook that I was in Oregon October 11th of 2017. If I bought a 3-year extended warranty it probably has a few days left. I carried the paperwork in my laptop bag for a while. I am unsure that I can track it down fast enough.

When the Internet worked on my old laptop it did the job, but I wasn't able to connect even with ethernet.

I will try again.

Paying much for an extended warranty does not make sense to me on an entry-level consumer laptop. In three years either I will want a more expensive laptop or a newer and better budget one. The $480 Asus on Amazon seems like a good deal, but an interesting complicating factor is that if I sign up for a Citibank card through Costco they upgrade the warranty from 2 years to 4. The Costco Acer has a 512 GB SSD, costs $20 more, and would have a 4-year warranty if I get a Citibank card, and it would double the 2% cash back that I receive, another $10.

I apologize if this isn't as coherent as I would like. I really wanted to work on progress reports! Unfortunately, I need to see a client right now!

[Fat Charlie]

I'm on an HP that I've had for years, since the company my wife was at threw it out. It says "EliteBook" on the back.

Of course, my idea of gaming is Civ 2.

[redpoint5]

Elitebook is a business class laptop, so it should hold up well. My company refreshes laptops every 4 years, cell phones every 2.

[Xist]

I brought out my old laptop hoping to connect it to the ethernet while I waited for my client to connect, but my new one didn't connect to the house wifi, so I put aside the old one and waited for my client to connect. However, we had a terrible connection. I couldn't understand what they were saying, I wasn't sure they could comprehend me, and the video kept freezing, so I connected with my old laptop, and all of a sudden we had a great connection!

Unfortunately my files were on my other laptop, which has slow wifi when it is next to the router.

My external hard drives and flash drives were in the house. I went to attach the first one to a gmail notification, but it was taking too long to download, so I found it and downloaded it again.

I should have remembered that I needed another file. I cannot just refer to them on my other laptop, I share my screen, but that file was smaller, and I was able to transfer it that way.

This has a Celeron N3350 with 4 GB of RAM soldered to the motherboard, but I replaced the 500 GB hard drive with an SSD the same size.

So, the oldest laptop in the house has the biggest hard drive?

It also has the lowest resolution, only showing 768p, while the others are full HD. I replaced it because it couldn't run Office [back when I had a license]. It was annoyingly slow with WPS Office.

It looks like this will work as long as I have ethernet. I set up wifi in my office when my sister brought her kids two weeks ago, but I couldn't connect with my laptop [I set it up with Mom's]. I tried to plug in Mom's laptop to double-check the password, but apparently the cable broke since I last used it.

My phone cannot connect to the house wifi.

My old laptop connects to the house wifi, it just says there isn't a connection. When I tell it to troubleshoot it says that I haven't chosen a wifi network even though I am connected to one.

I have tried reinstalling the drivers and stuff before. I have only been able to connect to the wifi a couple of times. If I need to replace the wifi adapter NewEgg has it for $19.

I do not remember if there were any other problems. Mom's laptop is better in most ways and the only time that she uses it is for my brother's speech therapy, but the silly spoiled girl took the entire week off for her birthday.

I work on my birthday!

To-do:

1. Apply for the CitiBank Visa [if there aren't annual fees, etc.]
2. Order the Costco laptop [if everything goes well with CitiBank]
3. Troubleshoot my old laptop again and find a good cable.
4. Transfer my work files to both of the other laptops.
5. Send back the most recent one and use Mom's until the Costco one arrives and use my old one when my brother has speech therapy.
6. I guess that I need to use my Lenovo for a week to ensure they fixed it. If everything checks out, try to sell it on eBay for more than the replacement costs!

[Xist]

My old laptop ran fine with the ethernet, but I needed to pull up something on my newer laptop, so I set up the wifi, and the old laptop connected!

Unfortunately, it did not stay connected for terribly long. Then I spent hours following suggestions to solve "Wi-Fi doesn't have a valid configuration." I went through several pages, making obscure changes, rebooting, telling it to connect, putting in the password, telling it to not make my laptop discoverable, only for it to tell me that I cannot connect. Then I ran the troubleshooter and it said "You have not chosen to connect to any of the available networks."

Liar!

I must have gone through that at least twenty times. It seemed like I tried everything they suggested and I felt that it was time to pack it up, turn off the lights, close up the shed, and get ready for bed, needing to wake up early to make Boom Cards for eight different goals.

Seriously, who uses the same medium for every single activity? I could leave my speech bag at home and find apps for everything, but I am a better therapist than that!

Then I am supposed to see two clients in-person.

My sister is up here with her kids, so there will probably be some interaction, and I really need to write my progress reports!

So, my shed wifi was all set up and the light is green, but after all of my troubleshooting I found a Belkin cable in an unopened package, but my laptop still didn't connect, and I tried all four ports!

That was when I realized that my newer laptop is connected to the house wifi, which is about 60 feet away. I couldn't connect to the router inches from it. I plugged the ethernet cable into the old laptop and set up a hotspot.

I guess I don't need this router!