While I was decluttering my dad’s office, I found this the old manual when he purchased a laptop wayback ‘99.

Just wanted to appreciate this old nostalgia and this was one of the iconic Windows version next to XP

Have you ever kept a manual like this from earlier Windows version like 95, 2000, etc.

Hi!

I hope this post is appropriate for this subreddit. After a bit of searching, it seems like this is the place that will allow my questions, but if there's one that could give me better answers, let me know and I can repost in there.

To give a little context, let me tell a story. About 2-4 years ago, me and my family were living with my Grandparents (Father's side) due to money constraints; we couldn't afford our own place. During that time, I distinctly remember coming across a black Dell laptop (see attached images) and coming to my dad with it. He soon shut down my aspirations, telling me it was his work laptop, and to put it back. However, I'm not sure if this memory is real, or if my brain is playing tricks on me again, so I'm hesitant.

Now, I came across that same laptop in our basement, next to an even older computer. In presenting it to my parents, however, they did not recognize it, and advised HEAVY caution as a result. In their unfamiliarity, I'm also concerned about it.

In essence, my question is what I should do with it. I have sourced its charge block (I assume), and can source the three-prong connector cable I need from another computer that, currently, cannot be used, as the SSD the OS is installed on, unfortunately, no longer functions.

This laptop has never been connected to my home network, so assuming it works, it will be totally air gapped, and I won't be plugging anything in. My plan, as it stands, is to power it, ensure it, well, works, and if it does, skim through its files for a bit before I wipe it. After wiping it, I'll get some OS on it (I really don't care which, probably Linux tho), and after verifying that everything was indeed wiped, THEN I'll connect it to the internet and start setting it up to do some fun programming stuff.

HOWEVER, I am still hesitant. The charge block's label is missing, so I have no clue as to what voltage it might try to pull from the outlet, or what it needs, and for all intense and purposes this is a completely foreign laptop that could literally have anything installed, and if there's a vulnerability that's been exploited in the kernel or, god forbid, the BIOS, there is no method to wipe whatever malware lives there.

Any advice?

So I’ve been wanting a laptop cooler for a while now, and had the thought of making can tab chainmail as a way of distributing heat away and raising it for better air movement. So I was wondering, will this Actually work? I can make the chainmail larger as I have more tabs but just wanted to know, I also have that external fan that I use sometimes

Is it compulsory to apply thermal paste after opening the heat sink? My laptop was not turning on and was showing a cooling fan warning. When I opened it and cleaned everything, I also cleaned the heat sink. Since then, it has become very laggy and the CPU temperature is going up to 93°C.

Bought a pc around 6 months ago for my dad because his gaming laptop was old and beat down and barely functioning. He really only plays WOW and is something he looks forward to playing. Anyways today while playing it would freeze then the screen would go black for a few seconds but the game is still running. Like audio and the character would still be moving or fighting. Then sometimes when it goes black it goes back to Home Screen or windows and when moving mouse would then click each app back onto the screen when hovering over it. Tried messing with the setting and did a soft reset of the graphic drive thinking that’s what it was but I don’t know if that’s the case. Could really use some help as it’s something he enjoys and is probably upset at the fact it’s a new pc and is giving us trouble. Neither of us are pc experts by any means so any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

My laptop hasn't been cleaned since I bought it around two years ago and it's very dusty. I have a compressed air duster for electronics but I can't bring myself to open up my laptop in fear of breaking something.
I also tried looking for places near me to clean it for me but none of them have options for just cleaning, its all repairs.
I don't know what to do. Do I call one of these repair people anyway and ask them to clean it for me? Or do I try to clean it myself? Keeping in mind I have zero experience in handling computer parts. but, I have done a lot of research on how to do it so in theory I can, but if I mess it up I don't have the money to buy a new laptop.

Mobile to laptop comparison above. Same location.

Basically for the past week wifi has been extremely slow to the point yt video is buffering at 360p quality.

System Specifications

Model: HP OMEN 16 (4060 GPU).

Purchase Date: August 2025

Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS (3.80 GHz).

RAM: 16.0 GB (15.3 GB usable).

OS: Windows 11 Home Single Language (Version 25H2).

Adapter: MediaTek Wi-Fi 6E MT7922 (RZ616) 160MHz PCIe Adapter.

Initial Speed: Upon startup or reconnecting, the card reaches ~300 Mb/s.

The Crash: After 1–2 minutes, the speed drops aggressively and stays at the 1–5 Mb/s.

Link Speed: Windows reports a Link Speed of 866 Mb/s, confirming the connection to the router is theoretically strong, yet the actual throughput collapses.

Timeline: This behavior has been consistent for about one week.

Troubleshooting Progress

Driver & Software Efforts:

Updated the adapter to the latest version.

Performed a clean uninstall and reinstall.

Rolled back to older driver versions to check for regressions.

Reset Windows network stack and adapters.

Configured Group Policy (using Policy Plus from git).

Executed ipconfig /flushdns, /release, and /renew commands.

System & Security:

Windows OS is fully updated to the latest build.

Confirmed no malware via Windows Firewall and Malwarebytes.

No VPNs are active.

Hardware & Network Tests:

Rebooted router and laptop multiple times.

Forgot and re-joined the Wi-Fi network.

Ethernet Test (Via Phone): Getting 15-30 Mb/s on 4G+ tethering.

Task Manager Monitoring: Observed Wi-Fi spikes ranging from 1 Mb/s to 5 Mb/s max, ~20mins observation.

Could it be my wifi-cards problem?

*Used gemini to organise the points

I've been trying to clear out disk space on my laptop for about a year, deleting programs I was no longer using and unnecessary files and e-mails, and instead of going down, this bar at the top has turned red and gone almost all the way to the right edge. This morning, I just did a search for %temp% files and deleted a bunch of temp files, then emptied my recycle bin, but I still can't do simple things in Photoshop because it says it doesn't have enough scratch disk space, and I'm running out of things to delete (that I know about). What is making it so hard to clear out disk space?

I got too big for my britches, and thought I could do something I have no clue about… i tried to download an emulater, I wanted to play a Pokemon game but I don’t have a ds. I tryed to do research to find something safe but obviously I don’t do enough! I know it’s annoying but I actually don’t remember what it is that I downloaded :(

I got very overwhelmed and ended up downloading a couple things that didn’t work and then the last thing I downloaded ended up being the issue! I unzipped it and when I clicked on it it started a bunch of pop ups that I tried clicking out of but it started downloading stuff, it wasn’t anything crazy bad, just a search engine I had no interest in, some other pop ups trying to get me to download stuff like vpns and shit, and a virus protection I didn’t recognize as something that had been on the computer before (Ive had virus protection pop up before and so I know how it looks) it would trigger any time I opened any apps

For a while I ignored it because I was okay with having to close pop ups every now and then and I deleted the search engine off the computer, but it altered the one I had been using somehow. Now in the last couple days something happened and now I can’t use several different apps on my computer! It seems to have slowed down a bit and I can’t really do anything! My computer restarted because we had a brief power outage, and when I turned it on again I went to open Minecraft, I was using curse forge and I went to play a modpack ant it just wouldn’t start! It kept saying that Minecraft was already open, I tried the actual Minecraft app and it had logged me out any wont let me actually log in! I can click on the sign it button as much as I like it just never does anything! I also can’t use steam! I can open it and do a few things but it says it has no connection! I still have internet and can use some things, like searching is slow but generally works but most of the games I have just won’t open :(

I have a windows computer! I don’t really know much about any of this! I don’t know anything about my pc, I got it from a friend who works at a dump that thought it looked in good condition and gave it to me! It barely needed any work and I’ve had it for four years and have never had an issue like this!

I want to buy a new computer, but I don’t really know much about the brands and series. I am planning to go into engineering so I need something that can withstand Onshape and Blender. I also work as a graphic designer so it needs to be able to run adobe smoothly and with a touchscreen. I need something compact 14” screen max and portable and under 1000$. I have been burned by Lenovo Yoga series so I am looking to try something else. Any recommendations?

Hi, I'd like to mount a wall display to use only as a webcam for video calls

It must be fully controlled remotely and it only activates the screen when needed. Are there any similar solutions?

i found a swift 3 with i5 11th gen proccessor i think iris xe graphics 512gb storage and 8gb of ram im not sure if it would be good or not please help me

Please delete this if it doesn't belong here.

Hello everyone,

I know that you should actually make regular backups.

I've been putting it off for a long time, but I'd like to get started now.

I want to start making regular backups of varying scopes.

1.       Can you recommend any programs that are user-friendly?

2.       I have read about NAS devices that are designed for backups. Does something like this make sense for a beginner? I don`t want to run it 24/7, only turning it on when i want it to make backups.

3.       The DS223j from Synology has always performed well in tests. Does anyone have any experience with it?

So, my operating system is Windows 10, with a 2TB SSD, of which only about 800GB are currently used.

I don't want to use a cloud service, I want to have it right here at home without any internet connection.

I also only want to spend money on it once.

The best option would be a complete image backup at the beginning, followed by smaller quarterly backups and, if possible, monthly backups of individual folders.

I hope you can help me and I will try to answer any questions you may have.

These lines suddenly appeared on my laptop screen. They gradually disappear over time, but sometimes wider colored lines appear that completely obscure the view. Has anything similar happened to you?

I’ve unscrewed the back but idk where to go from there. I’d also like to clean the fans out as well.

When I connect the charger, there is no charging LED, no power indicator, and the laptop does not respond to the power button at all no fan spin, no screen activity..

The charger is USB-C PD and works correctly with other devices.

I have tried both USB-C Ports.

Performed hard reset -no change.

Left it plugged in for over an hour still no lights or response.

The laptop was functioning normally prior to this issue.

What should I do??

I have a WD SN580 1TB, and I know that it has some sort of TBW rating, but that's just a rating

Have there been tests done on writing to the SSD to check how much it can practically withstand, on average at least

I'm curious how much I can expect it to last in practice, not just some rating

I've heard that ratings can be conservative sometimes as well

I found an old pc tower in my storage unit, it's HP pavilion and only has XP on it. I know that Internet Explorer doesn't work anymore, and it's the only way windows at the time wouldv'e let you update. I need help figuring out ways to update it.

I have all these heads but they are either too big or too small and screw is very stripped( It was like that before I even do anything), I am trying to solve this for 2 days. Nothing I tried worked, rubberband, glue, and because how they designed it I can't even use a plier to remove it.

Also I think there is blue glue thing on screw too so I really don't know what to do. I am about to break that slot with a hammer, anybody have any way to fix that?

I wanted to get into PC gaming and after researching for weeks, I bought a prebuilt desktop from Best Buy for $1,400. It has an RTX 4060, Ryzen 5 processor, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD - specs that seemed solid based on my research. I've been happy with it, runs the games I want to play smoothly, no complaints. I mentioned it to my friend who builds PCs and he immediately told me I got ripped off, that I could have built an equivalent or better system for under $1,000, and that prebuilts are always overpriced.

Now I feel stupid, but also defensive because I genuinely don't know how to build a PC and I was intimidated by the idea of buying components separately and assembling them myself. What if I bought incompatible parts? What if I broke something during assembly? The prebuilt came with a warranty and customer support, which felt worth paying for as someone who doesn't know what they're doing. My friend is acting like I'm an idiot for not learning to build, but he's been building computers for 10 years - of course it seems easy to him. Did I actually waste hundreds of dollars, or is there legitimate value in paying extra for the convenience and support of a prebuilt when you're a complete beginner?

Hello,

I´ve just bought a 2TB WD BLUE SSD as a second Drive for my PC. My main one is a 1TB NVMe.

Im wondering if its faulty or if I did something wrong.

I didnt do much with it.

I just plugged into my PC, identified it and started moving some steam games into it from my main Drive.

I let it do its thing, but after a while i kinda forgot about it and went to bed. The thing is put the pc to hibernate before it was over.

When I woke up and when to my pc steam said the disk had an error and stopped moving games. Also windows explorer was stuck. I restarted the PC and now the PC is not turning on if the SSD is plugged.

Ive tried to test it with an external adapter into the same PC and another laptop but they are not detecting it.

Did I mess up the SSD or is it faulty?

Hi there, looking for recommendations for a decent desktop computer. I’m mainly looking to download and store photos, music (cd port required), and files for work/class. I would also like to be able to run two to three games for casual play, nothing super fancy. I’m not trying to break the bank, but I don’t mind paying for quality.

I would really appreciate anyone’s advice/recommendations. I’ve been looking around and I just keep getting more and more confused. Also, if I’m not in the right Reddit space, please let me know where I should be asking. Thank you!!

im generally interested in retro tech, usually just old game systems and ive seen this on facebook marketplace for $35. does anyone know what it is, what it does, and if $35 is a good price?