Author |
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 5:09 am
For the most part, any apps that run on Windows Vista 32-bit will run on Windows 7 32-bit. If you're running a 64-bit OS, things could be a bit more wonky. By now though, most companies have come out with drivers that are compatible, so you should be OK, although I probably wouldn't buy something that didn't specifically say Win7. (The reason being if they've not upgraded their product and/or their marketing material to state they support the latest OS, then you're buying an older piece of hardware. Go buy something newer that specifically states Win7.)
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Ktbb
Member
08-10-2003
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 11:47 am
I have a few questions for all you smarties . We have a laptop that keeps shutting off. I'm not sure if it's overheating or what?? We also have a laptop that is difficult to turn on. I've sat trying to turn it on for over an hour once. Unfortunately they are both out of their warranties. And thirdly what is the easiest way to zip files. Do I need to buy a special program? How mach space can you save.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 12:20 pm
A laptop shutting off is a common symptom of overheating. I'm not sure what you mean by one that is hard to turn on. Maybe a problem with the switch? I think most of the modern operating systems handle zip/compressed files pretty much automatically but I haven't thought about it for a while. The space you save by compressing a file depends on the file itself and how repetitive the structure of the file is. Also some files are already compressed (e.g. jpegs). You won't save any space zipping a jpeg. You might save 90% on a text file but those files don't generally take up a whole lot of space anyway.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 12:41 pm
No computer problem here, well actually there is but it's being taken care of, but your post Ktbb sounds similar to our problem. Friday morning the mouse was stuck on the desktop computer, wouldn't move at all. Thought maybe it was the batteries in the mouse (its cordless) but that wasn't the problem, so I ctrl+alt+del and shut the computer down thinking it'd probably frozen. I wandered away and came back a while later to restart it. Pushed the power button on the tower...and the damn thing sounded just like a car you're trying to start but it won't turn over, lol. I stopped messing with it at that point. Darren came home and fiddled with it some, grumbling the whole time because he'd just gotten a bonus at work that he had already mentally spent and now he's looking at a busted computer and at least having to pay to take it to the computer store and at worse having to replace it. After a while of messing with it, he says there is no light in the back of the tower and he thinks its the power box? (power something or other to me) and that he should be able to replace it easily and fairly cheap. Then yesterday he runs the problem by a buddy of ours who fixes computers and after listening, buddy came to the same conclusion, it's the power something or other, Darren should be able to fix it for under $100 easily by himself, and if that's not the problem, buddy will come look at it. But, he's fairly confident that because there is no light in the back of the tower (and I'm clueless as to what light they are talking about) it's the power thingie. Don't know if laptops are the same as desktops with that sort of thing, but maybe it's your power thingie. LOL, sorry, helpful aren't I? All I know is I had a big ole freakout over the 1,000 or so pics from the last few weeks of softball, family get togethers, and kid events that I hadn't yet backed up yet and now both Darren and buddy are telling me that I'll get my pics back as soon as he fixes this problem.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 1:42 pm
Even if your hard drive fails, odds are that you can take it in to data recovery places and they'll be able to recover the data. I had a hard disk fail (on my laptop) years ago and they recovered everything. It wasn't cheap but it was worth it.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 4:03 pm
The shutting off may or may not be overheating. The laptop may not be charging.
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Ktbb
Member
08-10-2003
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 9:55 pm
The laptop is charging just fine but continues to shut off randomly. Who knows? We took the battery out and it hasnt done it for awhile but we will see. The other computer you hit the on button and you can hear it start to turn on then quits after 10 seconds or so. Again no rhyme or reason to it. Then it will finally turn on. Its very strange. Thanks for all your help.
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Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 10:14 pm
When I had a computer behaving that way, it was that the hard drive was on its last legs.
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Ktbb
Member
08-10-2003
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 10:21 pm
Which one Tishala? The hard drive was just replaced on the computer that won't turn on. It hasn't been the same since then. I won't ever buy a Gateway laptop again.
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Ktbb
Member
08-10-2003
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 10:23 pm
Is there a quick and easy fix to solve the overheating problem?
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Monday, May 10, 2010 - 10:30 pm
Costa, we may end up doing that. Darren replaced the power thingie today and got his green light lit up (still no clue what the heck he's talking about) but other than that, we've got squat, computer still won't turn on. According to Darren, that was one of the problems since he had no light before replacing it, but it didn't fix everything. We put a call in to our buddy and we're waiting to see what he has to say about what to do next.
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Sia
Member
03-10-2002
| Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 3:55 am
Kttb, where do you use the laptop? I sometimes sit in my bed and use my laptop, but I know that if I shut off the air supply by resting the device on my soft covers the computer will overheat. To prevent this from happening--and to have a smooth surface for the mouse I added--I rest the laptop on a small square scrap of paneling (smooth, back-side-up) in my lap. This works in the recliner, too, when I'm feeling incredibly lazy. Sorry if I'm mentioning something that you probably already do. It's worth mentioning again, maybe, because my DD didn't think about her portable DVD player overheating until I mentioned it and told her to place it on a hardcover book before laying it on her bed.
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Ktbb
Member
08-10-2003
| Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 6:02 am
Thanks Sia but its always on a tv table.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 6:17 am
They have devices with fans called laptop coolers. The laptop sits on top of them and the fans either blow air at or away from the laptop. The one trick with those is you should figure out whether the laptop fan is blowing air out of the bottom of the laptop or sucking it in as you don't want the cooler and the laptop fan working against each other. The downside to these is they add more bulk, they usually take up a USB port for power and the fan may be noisy. Some of the better ones do lower laptop temperature (assuming that is the problem with your laptop) but some are very cheaply made and of rather suspect quality and benefit.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 7:10 am
If the system giving you problems is one that just had some work done on it, it's possible that either the disk drive itself is bad or that some wires got loosened during the install. If you took that system in to have the work done on it, bring it back and explain to them what's going on. While it's possible that it's something else causing the problem, it's a bit suspect that this is new behavior since the drive was replaced.
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Ktbb
Member
08-10-2003
| Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 9:01 pm
Thanks again everyone. The laptop that was shutting off randomly has stopped since we took the battery out. It might be possessed.
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Sia
Member
03-10-2002
| Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 4:06 am
Yikes, Ktbb! Seriously, I wish I had some technical knowledge and could be helpful to you.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 5:18 am
Probably a problem with the battery then. Too old, not charging properly and/or overheating.
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Ktbb
Member
08-10-2003
| Saturday, May 15, 2010 - 7:28 pm
Thanks again everyone.
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Sia
Member
03-10-2002
| Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 5:41 pm
There's been a weird change to my laptop, and I don't like it. I have an HP running WinXP. I have Google on a search bar near the top of the page, and it's been there for a while. The issue is that all of a sudden, when I hover over any random word on the screen I get the Google symbol (looks like a multicolored paw print) and a little blurb giving me the word translated into Spanish. What in the world did I do to make this happen, and how do I turn it off? Thanks.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 7:52 pm
What browser and what version of the browser are you using?
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 9:37 pm
Hahahahaha, that sounds kind of cool, Sia!
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Sia
Member
03-10-2002
| Monday, May 24, 2010 - 3:13 am
I have internet explorer 8. LOL, I had to google "what version of Internet Explorer am I using?" in order to figure out how to answer your question, Costa. Juju, it's interesting, but sort of distracting and if you hover over something the box the translation appears in obscures exactly what you were trying to read.
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Hukdonreality
Member
09-29-2003
| Monday, May 24, 2010 - 3:46 am
Sia, it's called "Google Translate," and I found this for you: To disable the automatic translation bar of the google toolbar, click on the "wrench" icon in the google toolbar to go to the toolbar options, then go to the "tools" tab and un-check "Translate".
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Monday, May 24, 2010 - 5:02 pm
Wow. And I guess that's why I try to avoid installing any of those toolbars whenever possible. If one sneaks on, I go to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and immediately uninstall it. I don't trust those things, and they seem to be more trouble than they are worth.
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