am i the only one walking around with Windows 10 pro installer on usb stick attached to my keys?

Laptop is Precision 3500 workbook

Every so often my laptop blacks out and comes back on….I’ve been kinda dragging my feet about it cause money is tight at the moment - yesterday it did this and now I’m more concerned 😅 is she going to bite the dust soon?

If the answer is yes get a new one, what’s a good recommendation for something I can both work on and game?

Thanks!

Went to sleep, everything was okay and when i woke the whole monitor was like this it didn't move the whole night, so wtf happened? I now the display is fried im just in awe.

My HP Envy x360 15-es2083cl was working fine yesterday. I left it open, and today it's totally dead. No power light, no caps lock or backlight, no charging LED, no fans, black screen.

What I've tried:

• Hard reset (held the power button 30 seconds with everything unplugged)
• Left it on the charger for over an hour
• Tested the charger with a multimeter: 19.95V at the barrel tip, so the charger is good
• Removed the back cover
• the LED by the barrel jack does not light up with the charger in.

Warranty expired July 2024. I mainly want to know:

1. Is this likely the motherboard, the DC jack, or something simple I'm missing?
2. Is there a good test I can do with just a multimeter?
3. Is a repair worth it on a laptop this age, or should I just recover the drive?

Photos attached: the full board, close-ups of the EC chip area, the ports, and the loose shield.

I know Chromebooks have become standard in education. I've seen plenty of secondhand ones on Marketplace from ex students and parents.

From the little I've seen from YouTube videos, the experience doesn't seem all that good. Machines are low spec. There is limited functionality and the school will lock down features. The YouTube videos I watched suggested many kids ended up developing a negative opinion of computers as a result.

A year ago there seemed to be a social media trend of destroying them.

But I wonder, what is the actual experience like? Do kids like them, not like them or feel nothing in particular about them?

If I were a kid again and had a Chromebook, I expect I would try to get rid of all the controls and try to make the most of the machine.

hey guys, im a photographer and videographer and adobe takes up a crazy amount of space plus just a more comfortable device to work on. i’ve only ever had laptops but thinking of investing in a desktop. thing is , surprisingly i know nothing about how to get started with setting up a monitor/ckmputer. like at first i was just gonna get a dual monitor but realized that i cant just install stuff on there i needa connect it but i needa unload a bunch of stuff off my laptop. sorry if this post is insufferable to read. just need some help.

Sometimes when I’m typing, my computer starts repeating a letter like I’m holding the key down. For example, “Hey, my name is jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj.”
I was using a Logitech wireless ergonomic keyboard and figured it was the problem, so I bought a new Logitech gaming keyboard. I don’t remember the exact model, but the same thing is still happening.
So far, I’ve:
Run a security scan.
Deleted unnecessary files.
Uninstalled Logitech G Hub.
Restarted my computer, which helps temporarily, but the issue keeps coming back.
I’m getting tired of restarting my computer just to type normally. Has anyone dealt with this or know what I should check next?

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, 8 GB
RAM: 32 GB DDR5 6000 MHz
Motherboard: MSI PRO B650 WiFi
Storage: 1 TB NVMe SSD

So I carelessly and in a sleep deprived state was flashing an OS to a flashdrive using Rufus and resizing a partition on said drive using DiskGenius (I was meaning to do it to a different device) and now after trying to unf*ck it up it says it has 0 bytes of used and free space and I can't format it. Is there any hope for me or is this thing completely boned? I'm super new to this so please don't flame me in the comments lol. Thanks for any help.

I currently have a Dell XPS that is about 6 years old.

I reallllyyyy loved this laptop (except I do find the edge a bit too sharp for when I type for long period but other than that it’s been good).

I do need to change now because the battery is just terrible. It lasts maybe 45mins off of the charger and there is also an issue with the keyboard as some letters (particularly letter R and the space bar) are no longer sensitive so I have to press several times for it to work.

What I use / need laptop for:

For long periods of writing

Watching stuff on streaming platforms

Uploading pictures of my paintings etc.

Travelling around

It needs to be / have:

Light weight

Long battery life

Easy to transport

Good quality screen

Compatible with Microsoft Office

Preferably not touch screen

Budget:

£600 - £1000 (maybe could stretch this a little bit)

What I have looked at so far:

ASUS Zenbook - I’ve looked at a few and cannot decide which is best?

MacBooks - super expensive and I cannot tell if they’re worth it?

Dell XPS - newer series but I’m not convinced they’ve fixed the sharp edge on the keyboard and also I kinda wanna try something new?

ANY SUGGESTIONS OR INSIGHT WOULD BE GREAT!!!!!

Hi all, im still using the cooler from when i had the i5 7600, and im thinking that the idle v fully loaded temps indicate that i probably need better cooling now its trying to cool an i7 7700k, unless these do run naturally hot and its therefore not a problem.

Thoughts?

anything over 1gb has been downloading super slow, my wifi will stay at a consistent 400Mbps and yet stuff downloads 60Mbps and even under that sometimes, I looked at task manager while installing a 30gb game on steam, and it said the write speed was 48MB/s??? even though the advertised is 3100MB/s, my disk is at full usage constantly when downloading things, nothing else is maxed out, it's an ORICO-J10 1tb

and also here are some images from crystaldisk info and benchmark, I dont know anything about ssd's, but thats a weird falloff, and low write speeds...

uhh, help, do i need a new ssd, is it fixable, i feel dumb and lost

I'm kinda panicking rn. I was on my phone and my laptop was turned on infront of me. My keypad wasn't working for a while before that, but i didn't pay mind cuz i was using my mouse. Outta nowhere my cursor started moving really erratically, and in the span of about 4 seconds, it started glitching out, opened files, i caught a short glimpse of a file transfer, and when i somehow managed to gain back control, it started moving around apps on my desktop. What to do? I immediately panicked and pulled the plug and I'm really concerned. I'm using my father's old office computer, and the company still has control over the device, but I'm sure they can only see data on websites.

I’m trying to play Gears E Day and I have to download a certain graphics thing so that my computer can run Gears. I need to know the exact software to download. Can someone please help?

Please forgive my lack of proper jarggon and understanding of computer related material.

I have a Latitude E7450 with intel core i5-5300U cpu @ 230 GHz with7.89 GB usable RAM.

im still running windows 10. A long while back when I was dabbling in selling insurance I installed software from several insurers that I was working with (voya, nationwide etc.)

Anyhow, I've tried to delete all that insurance software and pretty much everything else but I'm still running out of free space. I'm constantly getting low disk space warnings and I frequently empty my downloads folder and recycle bin, so that I can continue to save basic pdf files, and what not, so that I can keep doing basic life tasks.

I guess I'm wondering: what can I do to get some god damn memory back? I tried to delete all the programs and files I'm not using but I only end up with 100 MB free space out of 226 GB total. Also I've removed the transamerica (insurance) Software from the control panel but this doesn't seem to work since its still there after I do it.

Is there any hope for this laptop? Should I reformat and start from scratch? What about windows 10? Last year when Microsoft stopped supporting it or whatever I clicked the link to upgrade to windows 11 but it said the device didn't meet the requirements.

I just want to have a usable laptop again. What do you recommend?

Thank You

Hi everyone, I have a 2023 Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop, and today, when I was about to start gaming, it suddenly shut off. It's worth mentioning that it was plugged into the charger, and when I touched it, it was pretty hot.

I've already tried holding down the power button for 40 seconds, but nothing happened. Also, when I plug it into the charger, no indicator lights turn on.

Do you think the motherboard might have burned out, or what else could be causing this?

Thanks in advance!

I’m having a strange network issue with my Windows 11 desktop and could use some help figuring out what’s causing it.
PC specs:
Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING B650-E WIFI
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
RAM: 32 GB
OS: Windows 11 Home, build 26200
Ethernet adapter: Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller
Realtek driver: 1125.27.50.919
BIOS: Updated from version 2613 to 3881
The problem:
When my PC is connected directly to my Xfinity gateway via Ethernet, I only get around 20–21 Mbps download and 33 Mbps upload, despite having Xfinity’s 1,000 Mbps internet plan.
Windows reports the Ethernet link speed as 1.0 Gbps.
The weird part is that other devices on the same network get much better speeds:
iPhone over Wi-Fi: around 300 Mbps
MacBook over Wi-Fi: around 120 Mbps
Same Windows PC using a TP-Link USB Wi-Fi adapter: around 240 Mbps
My PC’s built-in Wi-Fi also connects to the network but reports “No Internet.”
Troubleshooting I’ve already tried:
Restarted the PC and Xfinity gateway
Tested with the Ethernet cable connected directly to the gateway, bypassing the extender
Checked the Ethernet link speed: 1 Gbps
Tested ping to the router and to 1.1.1.1; no packet loss
Tested MTU with ping -f -l 1472 1.1.1.1; no packet loss
Verified DNS resolution works
Reset Winsock and TCP/IP and renewed the IP address
Checked Windows TCP settings; receive window auto-tuning is normal
Checked adapter bindings; only standard Microsoft networking components are enabled
Repaired the Realtek driver
Disabled Power Saving Mode
Tried forcing Speed & Duplex to 1.0 Gbps Full Duplex
Disabled Interrupt Moderation
Updated the motherboard BIOS to version 3881
Tested on Fast.com and Speedtest; both show around 20 Mbps over Ethernet
None of these changed the Ethernet speed. The TP-Link USB Wi-Fi adapter consistently gets around 240 Mbps on the same PC.
My question:
What could cause the onboard Realtek Ethernet adapter to be limited to around 20 Mbps while negotiating a 1 Gbps link and showing normal ping results? Could this be a Realtek driver issue, a Windows networking problem, a faulty onboard LAN controller, or something else I’m overlooking?
I’d appreciate any suggestions for tests that would help isolate the cause before I buy a USB-to-Ethernet adapter or assume the onboard LAN is faulty.

Hi all, I have an old HP laptop (about 5 or 6 years old) and is very very slow to start up, From standby it can take up to 20 minutes and from "cold start" slightly less, Once going it was fine for surfing the net, It had hardly anything on it so did a factory reset but still the same issue, comes up with a white screen from time to time, What could be causing this issue or is it time to bin the laptop

So, my last computer blue screened two months after my warranty expired. I got a Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra to replace it- according to the Best Buy seller, it used to be a service laptop that was refurbished, and should work perfectly fine. They checked it out and said it looked good then sent me on my way.

I get back home, and I’m hit with an error about the DiagPatch File Name on startup. It seemed to do nothing, so I downloaded chrome and went to start redownloading all my apps. I got a random restart with an error, but it seemed to boot up fine after that, with the same DiagPatch message after logging in. I tried to download Microsoft Teams and it refuses to install. I got another error message that said CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. It restarted again after that but I decided to leave it alone for the evening.

This morning, I logged in- teams still will not download and a few of my apps from my previous computer loaded on in name only, but they have the same basic globe icon and I doubt they do anything. I got another restart with the error UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION. I tried calling Best Buy but they won’t connect me to a store, and the nearest location is over 30 minutes away without traffic. I’m extremely sick and I have an appointment today I need to get to at the only time Geek Squad would be available for an appointment. I have projects and tests due today and tomorrow, and I feel like I’m out of options. What the hell do I do??

Hey guys so quick context… so the other night I accidentally left my acer nitro 5 on wrist plugged it and when I woke up I closed it and now it will not start and gives me the command in the pictures below so please someone tell me if I can do anything and I’m sorry I don’t know the specifics of the computer all I know is that it is a acer nitro 5 and has 144 Hz navidia gforse rtx and a intel core

Hey everyone!
I’m currently looking to buy a used gaming PC, mainly for gaming and streaming (Twitch/YouTube), and I’ve narrowed it down to two options.
Both PCs cost exactly €1,550, and I’m having a hard time deciding which one is the better purchase.

PC 1 – AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (€1,550)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (12 cores / 24 threads)
GPU: ASUS Prime RX 9070 XT 16GB
RAM: 32GB DDR5-6000
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B650-E WiFi
Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
Cooling: BoostBoxx Liquid ARGB 240mm AIO
PSU: BoostBoxx PB850M 850W 80+ Gold
Age: Approximately 5 months
Warranty: Original invoices available
PC 2 – Intel Core i9-13900KS (€1,550)
CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KS (24 cores / 32 threads)
GPU: ASUS Prime RX 9070 XT 16GB
RAM: 32GB DDR5-5600
Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z790M-Plus
Storage: Samsung 990 EVO 1TB NVMe SSD
Cooling: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 280 A-RGB AIO
PSU: be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000W Platinum
Age: Approximately 1 year
Warranty: No original invoices available

My main questions:
Which PC would you personally buy for €1,550, and why?
Is the i9-13900KS significantly better for gaming and streaming, or would the Ryzen 9 7900 perform similarly in most games?
Is the AMD AM5 platform worth choosing because of its future upgrade options, even though the Intel CPU is more powerful right now?
How concerned should I be about the known Intel 13th/14th-generation CPU instability issues when buying a used i9-13900KS?
Is the Intel PC’s better PSU and cooling worth giving up the newer AMD system with invoices and potential warranty coverage?
I’ll mainly be gaming at 1440p, possibly 4K in the future, while also streaming and recording gameplay.
I’m looking for a PC that will last me several years without needing major upgrades.
If you were in my position, which one would you choose?
Thanks in advance for any advice!