Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"Broken" as in not working, not to be take literally. Malfunctioning would be a better word.
Anyway, 7 years is way old for a battery. I am surprised it will still take a charge. It may work without a battery?
My best guess would be it's the display. You could connect a monitor to it and still use the laptop, it would not be a laptop any more obviously. It it possible to replace but is it worth it for a 7-year old laptop? Probably not.
It's not broken and I have never dropped it. If I am on too long like less than an hour, it starts acting up.
If it's not broken, then it's not broken. Looks pretty broken to me though.
As Peregrine mentioned, there's a possibility it's simply the cable that connects to the display. You can get them pretty cheap on Alibaba or eBay, so might be worth it for $10 or so. The repair isn't the easiest though. iFixit has good guides on how to do the tear down. If you're not comfortable with doing it yourself I wouldn't bother. To me it sounds more like the integrated graphics is just failing. Works for a while until it heats. That's not worth fixing. The CPU is soldered so the entire motherboard has to be replaced. You can try replacing the battery and ribbon cable and it might work. Personally I wouldn't bother.
I'm looking to replace my computer, but not sure if I should get another Surface now. Someone told me recently that it has cloud storage where others don't. I didn't know it had cloud storage. If it does, I've never used it. So does the Surface have cloud storage? So other computers don't? Does HP have cloud storage?
I'm looking to replace my computer, but not sure if I should get another Surface now. Someone told me recently that it has cloud storage where others don't. I didn't know it had cloud storage. If it does, I've never used it. So does the Surface have cloud storage? So other computers don't? Does HP have cloud storage?
The thing I always worry about getting used to cloud storage is that one day you might start getting charged for the usage.
I'm looking to replace my computer, but not sure if I should get another Surface now. Someone told me recently that it has cloud storage where others don't. I didn't know it had cloud storage. If it does, I've never used it. So does the Surface have cloud storage? So other computers don't? Does HP have cloud storage?
I have a one-year old Surface Pro. It backs up to Microsoft's One Drive in the Cloud. This is more or less automatic. I didn't want to back up to the Cloud, but Microsoft makes it extremely difficult not to. Long story short, the stupid thing fried and died while I was on vacation. I followed all the instructions listed online but was unable to reinstall Windows because of a Surface "feature" called Bitlocker, that encrypts the device. I was able to recover the Bitlocker identity key but it did not work, and simply overwrote everything, leaving only the PowerShell working, and all my personal files were erased.
It was still (just) within the one-year warranty. I returned it to the store where I got it, they sent it back to the authorized Microsoft repair facility. The repair facility replaced the screen with a new one, and I hooked the old keyboard up to it. Because everything was backed up to the One Drive Cloud storage, I had all my bookmarks, preferences, files etc. and was able to pick up where I left off.
I hated the original Surface Pro because it had almost no available memory ever and often seemed to be unusable. It went into Blue Screen of Death several times a day. Then it was several times an hour, until, finally it died. I thought that the Surface model really really sucked, but I have not had those problems since the repair facility replaced the original screen.
If you want to get something other than a Surface Pro, what, exactly is your main use for it? If you want to web browse, stream videos and music, and do normal word processing, spread sheets etc. the Surface is adequate. It's very lightweight and portable but it is kind of pricey for what you get. There are more cost efficient options. These come and go, so you may want to compare specs, options and prices using Amazon, Best Buy and Google to figure out what's best for you. But, if you are a more of a power user that is really into gaming, professional video editing, etc. buy something else.
If you are paranoid about security, cloud storage might not be your best option. But, if you opt to store locally, consider disaster recovery. I was paranoid about cloud storage, and backed up everything to hard drives that I stored myself with a backup and a backup for the backup. Then, my house burned down, and all my back up drives burned with it. So, there's that .... Now I use cloud storage. If you don't want to use Microsoft's cloud storage, there are other cloud storage services you can pay for. I used one of them, but later got a notification that had been hacked. As far as I am concerned, Cloud storage vs local storage and their pros and cons are six of one, and half a dozen of the other.
If you are paranoid about security, cloud storage might not be your best option. But, if you opt to store locally, consider disaster recovery. I was paranoid about cloud storage, and backed up everything to hard drives that I stored myself with a backup and a backup for the backup. Then, my house burned down, and all my back up drives burned with it. So, there's that .... Now I use cloud storage. If you don't want to use Microsoft's cloud storage, there are other cloud storage services you can pay for. I used one of them, but later got a notification that had been hacked. As far as I am concerned, Cloud storage vs local storage and their pros and cons are six of one, and half a dozen of the other.
Yes if you choose to backup locally you need to have offsite backups. I have a backup to a USB drive in my lower desk drawer and a second one at a Family members house several miles away. I keep a backup for them. I do not use 'cloud storage' except for short term transfers. Yea to some degree I am a dinosaur but I'm also a long time Linux user so I'm used to being a little out of the mainstream.
The thing I always worry about getting used to cloud storage is that one day you might start getting charged for the usage.
Been using DropBox and Box for YEARS. Even if they switched to a pay only model I have zero doubt they would say: "We are switching to pay only... you have 30 days to pay or remove your data".
These are not sketchy. Now maybe if you're using "Joe's Discount Cloud Service" maybe.
I'm looking to replace my computer, but not sure if I should get another Surface now. Someone told me recently that it has cloud storage where others don't. I didn't know it had cloud storage. If it does, I've never used it. So does the Surface have cloud storage? So other computers don't? Does HP have cloud storage?
All Surface devices used to come with one year subscription to Office365 and Office365 includes 1TB of cloud storage (OneDrive). That was a few years ago. They don't anymore and at $70/yr, or $100 for a family plan with up to six accounts each with 1TB, it may not be worth the price. The free version is 5GB, and that doesn't include Office, Excel, and PowerPoint.
That's just software though and works on pretty much anything, Windows 8 or Windows 10, OSX (Apple computers), iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android, Chromebook. Linux isn't officially supported, but it works as well.
Really, you've been in the same space for six months. I get that a lot of people don't need a computer on a daily basis but having one that works regardless of who makes it or what it is. I'd probably be looking at Chromebook.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
