My Crummy Laptop Is Dying

[Ninurta]

I have a crummy, broken down, five year old, HP I5 Intel Core laptop. It has been dying for a while. My sister hates it because all the letters on the keyboard have worn off, so if you need to see the letters to type, you are screwed. After years of having to input data into a computer, the letters on the keyboard are not needed, for me. So I don't even notice they are gone.

The battery is dead and won't hold a charge, but I refuse to buy a new one because every time I do, the computer dies and I have to buy a new computer, then I am stuck with an expensive battery that I can't use. The top won't close. It is slow as dishwater running down a clogged drain, and occasionally makes a disgusting clicking noise.

I am also at the same time, dealing with an old Samsung Halo that will suddenly start flashing rainbow colors on the screen and becomes totally unresponsive. So far hard booting it will bring it back for a week or two, before it does it again.

I hate spending money on electronics and have not bought a cell phone in well over ten years. I take my family's old phones when they get upgrades. Now that they are requesting returns on upgrades, I may be looking at having to do a new phone, which I will not pay more than fifty dollars for. I loved my flip phone but my job requires that I have a device that will accept and send pdf files so that is a basic demand for what ever phone I buy.

So it is just a matter of time before I will have to bite the bullet and buy a new computer and a new phone.

Suggestions on the ones with the most bang for the buck are welcomed.

It sounds like your current machinery may be having overheating issues. The "disgusting clicking noise" is probably a fan scrubbing, and the color enhancement issue may be down to an overheating graphics module. Opening them and cleaning out dust may help, or it may not. Depends on how far gone they are.

I gave 230 bucks for this Dell laptop on e-bay 3 or 4 years ago, and it's still ticking, although it has now developed an intermittent fan-scrub too. It was a refurbished former business laptop, which is why I got it at that price.

I can't help much with the cell phones. I scrub mine as soon as I get them until there aren't any functions left that are not telephone-speech-related. I have a new one, still in the shipping box that Grace got for me 6 or 8 months ago, and I have yet to even open it. I dread having to scrub out all the "smart" BS from it, so there it sits.

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