I am getting a laptop next week and want to know if i can connect it to my home internet. I have aol wireless broadband, will it cost me any extra to add a Laptop? Is it easy to connect, the new laptop will have WIFI.

It wont cost anything extra, but you have to know the code to let it install , if it is set up as a secure network. If it isnt secure, it will just install itself, when you choose the network that is in your home. The code , if it hasnt been changed will be the 13 digit number on the bottom of your wireless transmitter.
Your isp may have a limit as to how many computers you can use simultaniously, tho.

So Laptops don’t need voltage converters, but lots of mp3 players do. If I have my Laptop charged into a 240 volt European outlet, is it safe to charge my mp3 player, via USB cable, off the laptop? Thank you!

Yes. It’s definitely safe. I do it all the time. It’s also more convenient than dragging around yet another charger while you’re travelling.

My Compaq laptop has a configuration of Pentium dual core , 2GB ram, 160 gb. Im using a reliance wireless broadband connection and the speed is very very very slow! . When checking out the wireless device on other Laptops the speed is considerably fast. Im not expertised in this field so might not use technical terms. Do I have to upgrade the speed of my laptop? To what extent, so that my net speed is fast?

Net speed has nothing to do with the speed of your Laptop.

It’s probably a virus on your laptop if it’s considerably slowing down your internet speed.

Run a decent anti-virus.

If that doesn’t work, contact your ISP

My boyfriend wants photoshop for his Ibook G4, so we tried downloading CS5, and CS4, and neither work. They won’t install for some reason, and we figured his operating system is too old. He has 10.5.9 or something, Leopard. What version of photoshop will work on this? Or is it not that the software is new but that there’s something wrong with his computer?

Yes, it’s most likely the operating system is too old AND you don’t have enough RAM to properly run Photoshop. I’d suggest looking into whether Photoshop Elements will run. Certainly Photoshop CS2 will run fine. (And I would also suggest that you purchase a legal copy, not download through torrents or whatever for two reasons: illegal [software piracy] and probably junk.)

About 18 months ago I purchased a dell Laptop, which I now hate with a passion. It overheats and shuts down after about thirty minutes of use. I would like to purchase a new laptop for gaming purposes while avoiding the same problem. I am not interested in a Mac or building my own computer. I am going to use this laptop primarily to play World of Warcraft. My budget is anything less than $1000. What provider/brand would you recommend?

a widows vista or windows 7 with a inhanced gaming card or buy a normak vista and or windows 7 and buy a seperate inhavced gaming card (gaming card=graphics card) whitch the people at the store will put in your new compure for you, this will add up to about 700-800 dollars

I do this constantly: When I am watching videos or doing something that can drain my Laptop’s battery really fast, i take out the batery and leave the laptop connected. Is this good or bad?

it’s the best! assuming you’re not working on anything (that needs to be constantly saved), it’s the best for the battery.

I’m planning on purchasing a Macbook, but before I can do that, I have to back up my files from my Ibook G4. Is there a simple step to back up all my files at once without missing anything?

No, there is not one step. Can you parallel park in one step? You also need to decide if you should make a backup of any of the installed applications. Here are all the steps:

Buy an external hard drive that is either (1) at least as large as the iBook hard drive (if you want to back up not only your created documents and downloads, but also applications you installed), or (2) as large as the Ibook’s Users folder (if you only need to backup files you created). Connect it to the iBook. Open a Finder window and change the view to column. If your need is for (1), select all the folders in the first column and drag them to the external hard drive icon. Take a long break. If your need is for (2), drag only the Users folder to the external hard drive icon. Take a long break, but not as long as the one for (1).

Whenever I seem to get on my Laptop, about ten minutes later, my laptop begins to overheat, and it freezes. I’ve had my laptop for about three years and I’ve never had this problem before. I also rarely use my laptop on soft surfaces such as the bed and the floor; it’s primarily on my desk. What are some possible causes of this occurrence? Is it just possibly dust in the fan?

Answerer #1 & #2 are both correct in that it is probably fan related – you might just need a good cleaning. In addition the newer high power processors generate a lot of heat. Even new my HP 17" pavilion put out an astonishing amount of heat although I don’t remember having any particular performance issues because of that. I finally bought an in-expensive stand (wire mesh, adjustable tilt) and the heat issue simply dissipated (sorry .
The raising of the computer, the ability to tilt (I use it on it’s lowest tilt), and the use of a gel pad for the heel of my hands has contributed greatly to my comfort in using my laptop.

I have an Ibook that does not have the reinstall disk. Is there a away to reset it without the disk. Would an eMac or an Macbook reinstall disk work on it?

You could use the other Mac disk to start up the iBook and access the accounts section to change the password. Most likely though, it won’ install. You need a MacOS X disk if it is running MacOS X. Most eMacs are running MacOS 9.

I have a toshiba Laptop that i got 4 days ago but im returning it because it got blue screen of death which im pretty sure isnt a good sign. Im going to exchange it for a different one at best buy. Which Laptops do you guys think are reliable and can handle gamin and normal use. My price range is about $500-$600. Please leave answers!

Well there’s nothing that is going to be even decent for gaming at that price so I wouldn’t have high hopes for that. If you play like non graphic intensive games like MMORPGs you should be fine.

If you don’t want a Toshiba maybe something like this
Acer Extensa EX5630-4928
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115537

How do I make my laptop hand-touch mouse not work and only my mouse that I plugged work ?
My Laptop mouse (that works with fingers) is weird. It automatically clicks and doesn’t go where
I want to and sometimes it even bothers my usb mouse to work bad. How do I turn off the laptop mouse ?

Control panel, pointing devise/mouse, touch pad tab, adjust or disable, click apply and save.

Hi eveyone, as you can tell by my question, i am not to literate when it comes to computers. I ‘ve got an old Ibook G3 bought in 2003 in france and was wondering if i could run Garage band to create music demos on it ? Would it be powerful enough ? Thanks for the info !
Cheers.

No its not. Garage Band required a G5 processor on its first release. The latest version requires an Intel Processor.

Every night, my router keeps transferring data slower and slower until it finally disconnects from my laptop. It never happens during the day and I’m positive that it is not the dsl or the Laptop, but the router.

Do you use any online backup services? A client of mine used Dells backup services which transferred files at night, which caused the wireless network to drop due to the high-bandwidth usage. Also, try power cycling the router (unplug it, wait 20 seconds or so, plug it back in)

So I’m planning on purchasing a new laptop, and it’s intended for mostly school work and graphic design and basically just for general use that any high school student would have. It’s going to serve as a desktop computer for me because I prefer Laptops over desktops. I want it to last for years to come and I just want to know which laptop sounds best for me. I also plan on upgrading the processor and memory. Any suggestions?

I am not an expert but i have been on just about every laptop there is so hopefully i can help

Apple laptops are good for the arts like photography, media, making films. I make some short films and i love using apples for this. On the other hand if you are used to Microsoft the apple software is very hard to get used to but when or if you do you’ll love it.

Dell Laptops are probably the best for you they can do graphic design they are very easy to use. I have a dell and it can last through about anything i dropped it sat on it and it’s still holding up fine. Dells are just good all around

Gateways are crap don’t get one they break way to easy. there just all around bad computers.

I have a budget of 60000 pesos to buy my own laptop. What is the best laptop with this worth? I want laptop with good specs of course. Thanks!

That’s a big budget for a Laptop. You can get Alienware M17. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

http://www.alienware.com/customize/M17-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-M17&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT&cs=1&source=SA&from=SA:PC-LT-M17

http://www.alienware.com/products/notebook-computers.aspx

I have had my laptop for a couple of weeks and due to being uncareful my sister scratched my laptop screen! And it’s not a minor scratch it is a deep scratch that you can feel. So i was just wondering if anyone out there knew how to fix a severly scratched laptop screen, either by home remedies or buying products or sending it to the shop, anything will help! Please respond!
P.S- My Laptop is a dv6000 hp pavilion with an HD screen.

You will more than likely have to replace the LCD if the scratch is so bad you can’t ignore/work around it. To my knowledge… there are no laptop screen repair kits that really work. They are offered, but I’ve never heard anything good about them.

Here are some tips… can’t promise they will work though:

Vaseline Method
Clean the surface of the screen.
Take some Vaseline and fill the scratch with it.
Gently wipe off the excess Vaseline, being careful not to press too deeply so as to leave some inside the scratch.
Voila. Hypothetically, this works because the optical density more closely matches the LCD face than air. However, it can make the scratch more noticeable.

Pencil Eraser Method
Find a pencil with a clean, soft eraser. It must have no pencil graphite on it as you won’t want to smudge that on your monitor.
Lightly rub the eraser over the scratch or nick on the screen.
Keep rubbing until the scratch completely disappears [1].

Scratch Repair Kit
Type this into a search engine: +LCD +Scratch +Repair
The plus sign makes the search results include those words.
Maybe Scratch Pro will work for you.
Either way, test any repair ideas on something unimportant (if possible).

I have hooked up my laptop to the home stereo via an external sound card (RealTek). It works great for playing music but I was wondering how I may select for the laptop computer speakers to still be used for certain computer functions like log-in sounds, playing video clips, etc.

I’ve heard the Laptop speakers work on little test functions in the control panel but can’t get any other use out of them.

Thanks.
The laptop is running Windows Vista.

The answer you seek is usually only within a specific program.
For example: In Skype, you can open the audio properties from the options window and manually select which output device you’d like to send the sound through.
However, for any programs that don’t allow you to manually select your audio output device, you’ll have to use your control panel, under "sounds and audio devices", and change the default output device. (that’s in the audio tab)

You may consider setting the default to your internal motherboard-based sound controller, and adjusting your media player manually within the options menu, to only use your external sound card to deliver audio. If your media player doesn’t have that option, try downloading one that does. Since I’ve never tried this I wouldn’t be able to make a recommendation, but try maybe VLC media player, winamp, real player, or any other.
I don’t know if windows media player 10/11 will allow this. Just fiddle around with the options till you find one that works for you!

Need more help? Try www.timstechtips.com

I have a laptop that I intend to have running 24/7 (with minimal breaks). How often should a laptop be shut down for a break (possibly from heat) without causing damage? How long should a Laptop be left on for?

This is hard to say, sorry. I have had customers who go close to a year and not shutdown and others shutdown every couple days. It all depends on how you use the computer, the type of programs installed (well made versus junk) and environmental conditions.

Most of the time a restart is necessary to updates and conflicts between programs. An example is Internet Explorer and Google toolbar. Two different pieces of software made by two different companies and so sometimes they do not behave correctly.

If you are worried about power consumption or wear on you computer this used to be more of a factor. I recently read that you would need to leave your computer off for more than 1 hour to save energy. Even then the wear and tear on the hard drive spindles and the power supply makes this not worth the trouble. The power surges that occur during start up and shutdown put a greater strain on the computer than leaving it on.

I normally do not turn off my computer unless I will be not using it for more than two days. People may gripe about the wasted energy but consider the cost and energy that is required if I need to replace the hard drive prematurely.