Worth Saving Laptop?

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Ecko_1

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My laptop needs help.

It is an i3 purchased in 2009, so could be first gen. Lenovo 15.6inch with 500Gb HDD. Couple of issues.

Keyboard doesn't work, I spilled a cup of coffee.
Speakers are really soft
Screen has sum damage (black impressions) lent it to MIL for a few months to use as media player.

I took off all my data, and attempted to reinstall the factory settings, hoping to fix the keyboard and speakers, and resolve a bug it had when shutting down. Turns out that while it was at MIL, someone wiped the data from the recovery partition, so it won't reinstall windows. And it only told me this after it formatted the exisiting install. So now it looks like i would need to repurchase an OS for it.

Worth the effort or should i abandon it?

I need to get a working computer for home soon, Was hoping this would be the solution but seems like I may have to buy.
 
What Model Lenovo and what OS was on it last?

Also the shutdown is most likely due to a blocked fan or dry heat-paste not dissipating heat away from the CPU effectively...
 
Try Linux Mint. If it still gives issue, see if you can clean the fan (use carburettor cleaner or electrical cleaner and let it dry out properly before use, taking care not to get wet fluids on the other electronics) and replace heat-sink paste on the CPU. Nice little DIY project. If it fails, then why worry.

if all else fails, dispose of.
 
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Windows 7 what edition?

Anyway, just made a bootable USB and boot from there, Win 7 will probably install fine and activate fine if you try to activate it.
 
The_Librarian said:
Try Linux Mint. If it still gives issue, see if you can clean the fan (use carburettor cleaner or electrical cleaner and let it dry out properly before use, taking care not to get wet fluids on the other electronics) and replace heat-sink paste on the CPU. Nice little DIY project. If it fails, then why worry.

if all else fails, dispose of.
Click to expand...

Mint is a good idea, but don't use carburettor cleaner on pc components. The contents are not regulated, but almost certainly will attack some plastics, and also leave a residue that is electrically conductive. For a fan just use a can of air.
 
Installing fresh copy of Windows (probably 7) on your laptop (circa 2009) is simple. Download ISO, burn it to DVD (or make bootable USB stick with Rufus), it will activate automatically as long as version of Windows is matching a licence embedded in the BIOS (check Microsoft stickers on your laptop before downloading ISO).

To repair keyboard you need to dismantle laptop, remove keyboard, clean in the water and leave for few days for drying. Any repair shop should help you.
 
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Ecko_1 said:
My laptop needs help.

It is an i3 purchased in 2009, so could be first gen. Lenovo 15.6inch with 500Gb HDD. Couple of issues.

Keyboard doesn't work, I spilled a cup of coffee.
Speakers are really soft
Screen has sum damage (black impressions) lent it to MIL for a few months to use as media player.

I took off all my data, and attempted to reinstall the factory settings, hoping to fix the keyboard and speakers, and resolve a bug it had when shutting down. Turns out that while it was at MIL, someone wiped the data from the recovery partition, so it won't reinstall windows. And it only told me this after it formatted the exisiting install. So now it looks like i would need to repurchase an OS for it.

Worth the effort or should i abandon it?

I need to get a working computer for home soon, Was hoping this would be the solution but seems like I may have to buy.
Click to expand...

If you want to keep using the machine -with the least amount of hassles (and assuming you have some extra peripherals lying around):

1. Connect external keyboard
2. Connect external monitor
3. Connect external speakers
4. Load a light Linux distro (something with XFCE [xubuntu] or LXDE [lubuntu] [Peppermint] - lubuntu seems to be the least resource intensive)
5. Profit

:)
 
If you don't have or can afford something better, then that piece of junk is your treasure.... But it will be worth it and less headaches getting something reliable.
 
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