[mdlug] Netbook suggestions (and uhappy laptop)

[Jeff Hanson]

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 12:14 PM, Ingles,
Raymond<Raymond.Ingles at compuware.com> wrote:
> I think my wife may have killed our laptop. It was showing signs of
> overheating last time it worked (she had it on a pillow on her lap,
> blocking the inlet vent). Now it won't boot if there's a hard drive
> connected - I've tried two different drives. I think it'll boot off a
> CD/DVD, but it's of limited utility then. Any suggestions for
> troubleshooting?

Possibly power supply damage.  The on-board regulators may be failing.
 Mobile processors have thermal protection that will reduce clock
speed if it overheats.  They won't slow it down to 0 so if the
fan/heatsink is really plugged then it will eventually overheat
anyways and fail.  I normally install a sensor monitor (lmsensor and
GUI applets) to monitor it.

My sister gave me a laptop that failed when her kids left it running
on a bed.  It had been randomly failing which is why she let them have
it.  It had a large heatsink that was plugged with lint.  It was
designed to be easy to remove and clean but they never did it.  The
heat sink was in the corner and it got so hot the molded foot at that
location had started to melt.  My brother-in-law got it from his
employer when he was working overseas.  It was a high-end Sager P4
with a TV tuner module (about $5K).  I wanted to beat them with a
club.

The possibility of damage from being on a bed or other soft surface
depends entirely on where the fan intake and exhaust ports are.  They
aren't always obvious.  I have a Panasonic Toughbook CF-51 where the
intake is at the center on the bottom and a Toshiba where it is at the
side.

>  In other news, come xmas I think I'll get her a netbook. Less likely to
> overheat and will do all the things she cares to do. Linux is no
> problem, I just need something that'll capably netsurf and connect to
> our Windows machine via RDP. Anyone have any suggestions or tips on that
> front?
>

A friend bought an Eee PC 1000 and while the hardware is good the
Xandros mess was useless.  I replaced it with Ubuntu Netbook Remix but
there has been problems with it running out of memory and freezing.
Anything with Intel video is a mess currently, especially the Poulsbo:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poulsbo_(chipset)