My old computers are vintage 2002. Desktop C drive is about full & as much as I love XP (because I know it), I think the support has been lacking recently.So I gave $200 (cash & carry) for a Dell 1545 laptop, Windows 7 Professonal OS. Complete with charger, software discs & manual so I don't think it was hot! It powers up ok... I have not had a chance to explore it yet.I do not find laptops convienent... I'm hoping I can plugin this larger screen, keyboard, mouse... Anybody know if I can close the cover after turning it on? Maybe tomorrow I can check out what it has for hardware.Russ

Next to the clock is a battery icon that shows how much battery is left or something. If you right click that battery you can click on power options. A window will pop up and on the left there is a column of options, one of which should say "choose what closing the lid does" or something like that. Click that then you will see options for it in the main part of the window, change it to "do nothing". Then you can hook up an external monitor/keyboard/mouse and close the laptop. If that "choose what closing the lid does" thing isn't there, then on the main part of the window it shows power options (high performance, power saver, balanced), well underneath the one that has the dot by it should be something that says "change power options for this setting" or something like that. I'm going by memory here as I am back on XP.

Typically in back there is sockets for keyboard, mouse and monitor.

Russ, I have several Win 7 laptops, and I can walk you through the process if you can't figure it out. Another suggestion I have is that if you get a monitor, you can setup your laptop screen as the primary screen and then use the monitor as a second (and hopefully bigger) monitor. I have this setup at my office and like it a lot. Win 7 is a little tricky in setting that up for an intuitive XP user (i struggled with the transition) but I am very happy with 7 now. If you set it up this way with dual monitors, you wouldn't need to worry about making it run with the lid closed. Let me know if you need help.

I finially managed to figure out how to get it on-line. It is way faster than my old XP. I'm just knocking around right now... I need to pickup a mouse. The memory is 3 GB. I think I did good.

Some of the old dells are rugged. I have had a couple for work, and the seem to last forever. The only downside is a limited number of USB ports on some of the old models. However, if you aren't like me and running a verizon aircard, portable hard drive, mouse, power for a phone, and a toaster from your usb ports, you should be fine.

On my old Dell Dimension 4600... It was originally on dial up. I have upgraded the ram to 2GB.I have had my old original All-In-One scanner printer... in the rear USB port. I don't print often enough these days to keep the cartridges from drying up... so I use a thumb drive to move any rare print jobs to Sheila's new printer. I have an external Wireless adaptor plugged into a front USB with an open one for that thumb drive or my external (back up) hard drive. Both the CD & DVD drives have been broke for some time (years). This is a problem if I want to add software. Media like music can be moved on an external drive. It's been on life support for some times. I plan on continueing to use this Desk Top while I learn the new laptop.

It has the Windows 7 OS so should be an upgrade from my antique & beloved XP machines. Have spent all week exploring & cleaning the files up.

Something went wrong & I decided (had to) to do a system restore. The system restore restored the previous owner's passwords & locked me out. I called the previous owner but could not make the password work. Spent 5 hours on it... threw in the towel. (The previous owner is a decent guy... had gone to work... could not call me back until his shift was over.)

Called my computer girl... went over & spent the afternoon with her. Did a "Clean Install" (which I'd tried to do in the morning). It installs the Windows 7 from disc & overwrites the old. The computer then has to get all the updates. Spent all afternoon... it was still updating. I guess she felt bad for me, cooked me supper (and did not let her 2 big Pit Bulls eat me. (Actually they are friendly enough once they get to know you, but the real danger is they nearly knock me down / trip me. Even the one who tangled with another dog & she had to pay the other dog's vet bills. I would not want to be the one to lay a hand on her!)

Sometimes, you have to know when to get real help. She was a software engineer.

She thinks I got a nice computer for half what a new one would have cost... If had to pay full price, the new one would have been cheaper.

Not what I planned to do today.

<<< Sigh >>>

More...

The strange thing, she (the computer girl) was doing the same things I'd already tried (I think... it was hard to watch her flying fingers, but I saw screens going by that I remembered). But she was having no luck either.

Then, in frustration, she took the Red CD install disc out of the drive & wiped it off. (I'd taken it out, looked at it, put it back.) And d***! After she did it, it worked!

She was telling me what she'd done... telling me that a speck of dirt could keep a drive from reading... I'm thinking, the install CD was in a sealed envolupe until I opened it, how could it be dirty? When she noticed a ball of lint... a dust bunny... the size of a small pea. Less than a pencil eraser. On her dark top where she'd wiped the CD. It must have come from the CD drive.

Background I often have to clean my desktop computer of accumulated dust. I vacume it, disconnect power before opening the case, toothbrushing, Q-tiping, vacuming inside. Eventually it will clog up again... I can tell because the fans run too much... the unit is overheating! Our house seems to make a lot of dust. (It could be me scuffing the rugs as I drag my weak leg.)

The rest of the story: I noticed the new laptop had some lint in the bottom louvers. (After unplugging & removing the battery), I also opened the bottom access hatch with a jeweler's screwdriver & toothbrushed & vacumed some lint. But I didn't open the CD drive. I bet if I'd blown air through it, I would have blown that lint out. Who'd have thunk!!

I continue to learn every day!!

The laptop is Happily Updating itself, every update since Windows 7 was released. Just the first batch was 83 updates.

I am NOT happy using a laptop as my primary. So I picked up a use Dell Optiplex 380 CPU, still in warentee. Windows 7 Professional. So I've begun backing up all my pictures & files on my old desktop to my backup drive.

And I get brave... Really the old desktop had gotten to be a PITA... frequent lockups & "Hung Apps". After everything we did to the new laptop... I got the bright idea to uninstall Internet Explorer 8... and all 25 of the piecemeal updates. So one by one I uninstalled the updates & IE8 (taking me back to IE7). I know some had done this (according to Google). Immediately the automatic updates wanted to re-install IE8. I OKd it and the 5 cumulative updates (instead of 25). So far I have yet to have a Hung App. WHAT??

Did I spend all this money (I could have spent on my truck) when I didn't need to?

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

--- Update to the previous post...

I took the old desk top apart, thought I was just going to connect the New (used) tower... wrong! Old computer use PS/2 connections, new ones are USB.

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! (again)