laptop

A new form of laptop memory aims to remove one of the biggest trade-offs in portable devices. It promises speed and power efficiency while still being easily replaceable. Most existing laptop memory falls into two categories, each with a weakness. ... One type, which is easily replaceable, takes up a comparatively large amount of space and uses a lot of power. That's double bad news in a portable computer. The other type is smaller and more energy efficient but must be soldered onto the motherboard, which is effectively the "spine" of a computer's operations. That's great at first but it removes ... (view more)

Dell has unveiled some creative ideas for new computers and gadgets to meet changing use demands. However, it's only calling them "Concepts." At the moment and there's no guarantee any of them will become available to buy. Perhaps the most credible ... is Concept Luna, a laptop that's easier to repair and thus more sustainable. The goal is to make it easier to replace specific components rather than having to buy a new device altogether. Historically that's been difficult with laptops as the components need to be packed much tighter together than in a desktop case, making it more fiddly to make ... (view more)

Microsoft is rethinking its plans for a completely new version of Windows 10. It's no longer going to target "Windows 10X" at dual-screen devices for the simple reason that not many people are interested about such devices right now. Windows 10X was ... originally designed to be a separate system to the widely used Windows 10. The idea was to get ahead of the game with fold-out laptops that have a touchscreen on both halves of the fold, rather than a screen and physical keyboard. Such devices are designed to give users a large screen space and a more practical way to have multiple windows open in ... (view more)

Windows 10 users will soon get slightly clearer notifications when an update is ready. They will also get a reminder of the risks of updating a laptop running on battery power. The notifications will appear in the Windows 10 Action Center, located ... at the bottom right of the screen. Scheduling Updates Easier As well as telling users an update is ready, it will give the chance to click on one of three options. Two options are already familiar: to update immediately ("Restart Now") and to delay the update until later that night ("Restart Tonight"). The latter option simply reschedules for an ... (view more)

A laptop riddled with six of the most devastating computer viruses of recent years looks set to sell for more than a million dollars. It's part of a bizarre auction that positions the computer as "a work of art." The laptop, dubbed "The Persistence ... of Chaos" is an ordinary Samsung netbook running Windows XP. What makes it unusual is that it is currently running six pieces of malware that are installed on the machine have caused an estimated $95 billion of damage worldwide. It's a collaboration between cyber security company Deep Instinct and artists Guo O Dong, who says his work " ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Paul P. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks so much for your informative website. I have read a few of your articles on OpenVPN, and set up a free VPN connection to my home PC. Now I can connect to my personal, free VPN using my Android ... smartphone when I'm away from home without having to pay for a VPN service! It works so great I decided to connect my laptop to the VPN - however I am not able to resolve machine names on my network. For example, when try to access \\home-pc using Remote Desktop, it won't work. The only way I can make it work is if I enter in the IP address of the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Emmy-Lou' writes: " Dear Dennis, I am having trouble accessing eBay. The error message I get is: 'This site can't be reached. The connection was reset.' Other times, it is 'This site can't be reached. eBay unexpectedly closed the ... connection'. On the page with the error message, it says to: 'Try: Checking the connection, checking the proxy and the firewall, and Running Windows Network Diagnostics'. The official error message is ERR_CONNECTION_RESET (but sometimes it is ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED ). Can you help? " My response: Troubleshooting this error message can be rather ... (view more)

Infopackets Ready Sally G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just bought a new Windows 10 laptop and the touchpad scroll does not appear to be working. On my old Vista laptop, I had a scroll bar on the touchpad (on the far right), but the new Windows 10 ... laptop doesn't have this feature. Normally when I open a PDF file I need to zoom in and out. I would do this on the old laptop by pressing CTRL on my keyboard and using the scroll bar on the touchpad. On this laptop, I am at a complete loss. Can you tell me how I can fix my touchpad scroll? " My response: Each laptop manufacturer has their own way of ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Susan M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently bought a new laptop that came with Windows 10 pre-installed. Last week, I received a Windows 10 update and now my battery keeps draining - even with the power plugged in! This doesn't ... make any sense to me; also my laptop is brand new! The balloon over the battery icon is reading '93% available (plugged in, not charging)'. I looked on the Internet to see if I could figure out what was causing this, and there are a lot of people having the same issue. Do you know why my laptop won't charge and how I can fix the 'plugged in, not ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Marion L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I haven't used my laptop for a few weeks. I went to turn it on today, but it won't turn on at all. I have it plugged in to the wall power outlet, but it still doesn't work. What do I do now? " My ... response: This is a fairly common issue with laptops; oftentimes the laptop won't turn on even if it's plugged into the wall if it's been sitting for a while - in your case, a few weeks. Sometimes, however, something else has gone wrong, and parts of the laptop may be corrupt or not working, or the laptop may have died. I'll explain what you need to ... (view more)