Need Help- computer related

[aimk13]

My laptop died on me for the first time last night. But it came back alive after I held it close to a fan. It wasn't even that hot. It happened in the midst of me uploading pix on flickr. Then I also noticed my computer was running slow. It can't be the Internet connection. The wifi works just fine for my iPod. So my question is, how do you

Comments

[lonelystreet]

external harddrive to back up all your pictures etc and delete them on your computer. i'm going through the same thing right now and it helped me considerably. my laptop is almost 5 years old too!

[aimk13]

So the purpose of an external hard drive is to back up your files? So does that mean you can always store these files from the external hard drive and transfer them to a new computer in the future? I thought about resizing my pictures...but I don't think that's a very good option. I am definitely leaning toward getting an external hard drive. What do you use right now?

[lonelystreet]

yes!! i'm not sure what brand mine is, sorry. but anything will do. i think i have 360 gb of storage, though,so i shouldn't be running out of storage for a while.

[myilow]

I'm having a similar problem with my laptop too. It's also 5 years old (wow, time flies!). At first it would just keep overheating - the processor was always running at 100% when I checked, even if no programs were open.

I thought the fan might be clogged so I aired it out - one of those spray cans would have been nice but I was cheap so I just blew air into it really hard, and it stopped the overheating and the usage dropped dramatically.

But, it still runs slow, and I think part of it is that it's old, and part is that I keep too many internet tabs open, and I keep suspecting junk programs or viruses, but I have yet to find any.

And now, the AC power output connector is loose so the adapter won't stay in, so it just randomly runs out of battery and turns off without warning..

So, I dunno what your problem is exactly, but I suspect it's mostly old age... :) My friend at Microsoft also says Win 7 will help my computer run a lot faster than it does now on XP, even though it's older..

[aimk13]

That's good to know, too! I ended up getting it reformatted. It still runs slow sometimes, but if I restart my computer and make sure I close all Internet windows, it runs normal again! Thanks for your advice. :)