Dead laptop

[Prosperi-Tees]

Ok I'm worried that my laptop is dead and I haven't backed anything up. I'm hoping its just the battery but won't know until I get a new one. Shouldn't the laptop run without the battery and just being plugged in?

I know the battery has not been holding a charge for very long lately. When I hit the power button the lights come on but the monitor is dark. Anyone think it's just the battery or something worse? Btw its a cheap Gateway nv73

[spotcolorsupply]

My laptop will run without a battery, plugged in... 

Maybe try to hook up an external monitor??

Does it make its normal booting up noise?

May be able to salvage the hard drive if the computer is shot..??

I’m no computer expert, just a guess...

Also definitely get Carbonite, 50 bucks a year is well worth it!!

[Fluid]

agree. Plug it in and it should boot up for you.  My laptop battery is toasted as well and will only hold about  10 min worth of charge. 

You should be able to replace the battery with a new one or just keep it plugged in all the time.

[Prosperi-Tees]

It makes a quieter noise than normal. Its the same with the battery in or not. Lights come on the keyboard but nothing else. IF I have to get a new laptop which one is the most reliable and work well with Corel?

[jsheridan]

If you're worried about data.. flip it over and the hard drive cover is right there. Remove the drive Then with a simple USB enclosure you can then hook that drive into any other computer and pull your data.

My laptop is a cheap gateway, well $1000 with a gaming video card and dual hard drives, but it's a work computer that is clouded with bitcasa and network backed up as well. I re-install WIN 7 about every 6-8 months or when it takes longer than a minute to start up.

[ScreenFoo]

Good hint, John.  Newegg.com has great deals on quality stuff like that, just picked up a couple enclosures from them last month.  Make sure you're grounded before you start mucking around in there, if you have to.

The other thing I'd suggest trying is plugging in an external monitor.  I've seen a few laptops that were fully functional, except for the display.

[jsheridan]

I got one from newegg, it was $2.50 on sale.. cost me 8 to have it shipped 

[Prosperi-Tees]

Would like to know more about the drive because I have another laptop which is a cheap hp computer. From what I gather you plug this drive into the bad laptop and connect it to the good one via USB? Or?

[tpitman]

I think he means buy a hard drive enclosure, take the drive out of your laptop, put it in the enclosure, then hook the enclosure up to another computer. It'll mount as a separate drive which you can open and retrieve your files.

I got a 1  terrabyte drive at Office Depot for $59 and put it in a USB enclosure to drag a lot of crap off my hard drive which was almost full. I also use it to back up by system and applications. All my work files are on Carbonite.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Ok that makes sense. So in doing that would basically have 2 hard drives, 1 internal and 1 external that you can access. Sorry if I sound dumb I'm just not up on the tech world

[Prosperi-Tees]

Ok now my laptop just fired up, now I'm confused. But under the power settings it does have an alert suggesting that I replace the battery

[Frog]

Thank the computer Gods, and heed the warning to back up today!

[Prosperi-Tees]

Is it possible that the battery does not have enough oomph to fire up the monitor. So it only fires up sporadically? And yes I will be getting carbonite!

[Frog]

Is it possible that the battery does not have enough oomph to fire up the monitor. So it only fires up sporadically? And yes I will be getting carbonite!

That, in and of itself,  should be a moot point since you said that even running directly from the charger wasn't working either.

[Prosperi-Tees]

That's true so then WTH? Should I get a new laptop? This one is two years old but used heavily.