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End Of Support For XP

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zer0netgain
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08 Apr 2014, 10:16 am

honeyaureus wrote:
Also, I forgot to mention that the hard drive works fine. The computer gets slow, but it's fine. The battery's completely dead, and the fan needs repairing (or maybe I just need a cooling pad. What is it with Toshiba laptops and heat issues?), and perhaps the RAM needs an upgrade, but it's fine.


Laptops are notorious for not cooling effectively. Most draw in air from the bottom (stupid). I always prop up the rear of mine so there's an air gap...it's basically what a "cooling pad" is doing for you.



Claradoon
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08 Apr 2014, 11:58 am

zer0netgain wrote:
honeyaureus wrote:
Also, I forgot to mention that the hard drive works fine. The computer gets slow, but it's fine. The battery's completely dead, and the fan needs repairing (or maybe I just need a cooling pad. What is it with Toshiba laptops and heat issues?), and perhaps the RAM needs an upgrade, but it's fine.


Laptops are notorious for not cooling effectively. Most draw in air from the bottom (stupid). I always prop up the rear of mine so there's an air gap...it's basically what a "cooling pad" is doing for you.


Thank you for that! Not only is my laptop cooling better, but the keyboard is at a proper slant!



honeyaureus
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08 Apr 2014, 8:44 pm

Speaking of keyboard, the computer needs a few keys replaced. Forgot to mention that. The current machine does a lot better than the predecessor. :lol:



VIDEODROME
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08 Apr 2014, 10:50 pm

I'm doing the Linux thing and quite happy trying different versions. I'm impressed with Manjaro which is based on Arch but more user friendly.

Also, I want to see if this whole thing causes used XP machines to plummet in price and I can snatch up used PCs and bargain prices.



hitokage
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10 May 2014, 6:56 am

I know this a month old, but I haven't been here recently - I thought I could share some information.

On the Toshiba laptops I've had experience with, the over-heating is from the heat-sink fins getting clogged with dust/hair/fur. On the Satellite A105 series (two family members have one - an S2236 and an S4547), you have to disassemble the whole thing to get to the heat-sink and fan to clean it out. Now on a the older Satellite A15 series you could remove a cover on the bottom, remove the fan, and then clean things - it was so much easier.

Some of the later A105s came with Vista when it came out, so if you want to move away from XP and stick with Windows you should be able migrate to Windows 7. How well this will work will depend on how much RAM is installed. You can upgrade it if you want - some of these models could only go to 2GB, but others could go to 4GB.

The keyboard is easy to replace, especially since it has to be removed to clean out the heat-sink, but you can always just plug-in a USB keyboard as well.



eric76
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12 May 2014, 9:32 am

I have a computer at the office that runs Microsoft Windows for the few tasks that require it. The version it uses is Windows 2000.