The laptop you choose must fit your needs. Some of you may only be doing school work on it, but for all of you gamers out there, you need to make sure you get one that is top of the line. When the weekend has finally arrived and you open up World of Warcraft or some other game, you do not want it to crash your computer.

What are some of the things you need to consider as you are searching for a college laptop? You need to think about the size and weight, memory and drive space, processor or CPU, graphics, operating system, USB ports, screen size, laptop role, aesthetics, CD/DVD drive and saving money.

Memory and storage: For the laptop, you will need the hard drive to be a minimum of 80 GB and the ram should be at least 2 GB. Just about every current version of applications, operating systems and games are larger than those previous versions and will require more disk space. Today, having a hard drive that is 40 gb simply is not enough. If you are into photography, video, music, or gaming 80 GB probably won’t be enough.

Processor or CPU: Over the past years, the processors have changed a lot. Companies today seem to be adding more processor cores. At present, the laptop you choose should be a dual core processor or above. If you have the money to spend, then you may want to look into some of those quad core laptops that are available today.

Operating System: Do you want a laptop that has Windows XP on it, but found a laptop that has Windows Vista (which is more common)? If so, then you should not assume that you can just wipe off Vista and replace it with XP. Why? Because a lot of the new computers available today may not have the necessary XP drivers developed for them. When trying to change over to Windows XP, this can be a real headache. If you are used to Windows, you may not want to buy a Linux machine.

Graphic Cards: Generally, it is not possible to upgrade or replace the video capabilities on a laptop, so usually whatever video card that is installed is what you will be stuck with for the duration. Generally speaking, the better the graphic card, the more expensive the computer. If you are into gaming, then you need a graphic card that has dedicated memory. Ask other gamers about the laptops they use, so you won’t end up with the wrong kind.

USB Ports: When it comes to USB ports, you can never have enough of them. On average, you will come across 4 USB ports on a laptop and that may sound like enough. However, once you plug in your peripherals such as the mouse, printer, keyboard and pen drive, It will not seem like so many. Of course, you could always purchase an external hub, but you may want to try buying one that has more than 4.

USB ports are handy but wireless is where it’s at today. Bluetooth is a form of wireless networking. Try to find a laptop with built-in bluetooth if you can. Make sure it support simultaneous connections to multiple devices, so you can have a wireless mouse, keyboard, headset, and printer. After all what’s the point of getting a laptop that has to be plugged into a bunch of cables.

Networking: If your laptop can’t go online, you might just as well drop out of school now. Most laptops come with ethernet connections and Wifi. Fewer and fewer come with a dial-up modem. Odds are that you will be using WiFi most of the time to connect to the campus-wide network.

DVD Player/Recorder: Nice for loading new software and watching movie, and handy for backing up projects.

Screen size: The most common screen size of a laptop is around thirteen to fifteen inches and they are generally the ones that have the lowest price tag on them, which is great if you are looking to save some money. However, if you are studying art, architecture, or engineering you should consider buying a machine with a larger screen. You could get a digital television that can double at a monitor and use the remote to switch from PC to TV and back again.

Weight: If you travel a lot or plan to lug your computer from class to class, then a small laptop is definitely a blessing as you will not have to carry a heavy one around. By the time you add in the main adapter, padded case and anything else you need to carry, it will start to get pretty heavy and a seventeen inch laptop will be even heavier. Look for a laptop that is around 5 or 6 pounds if you want to lighten your load.

The Netbook Alternative

A netbook is a small laptop that weighs just a pound or two. Until recently the smaller the computer, the more expensive. With the introduction of netbook the game changed. Consumer netbooks run around $300 to $500, business ones from $700 to $1000.

If you already own a desktop pc or a laptop, you might want to consider adding netbook. You can stick in your backpack and take everywhere and not notice the weight.

The first netbook was the EEE PC, and the screen was a miserable 7 inches. I bought one shortly after they came out, and I loved it in spite of the too small screen and cramped keyboard. Much as I liked it, I didn’t hesitate to upgrade 10 months later to an HP Mini 1000 with it’s 10 inch screen and larger keyboard.

For some college students a small laptop like the HP Mini would probably work nicely. The Mini comes with a 160 GB hard drive and 1 GB of ram that can easily be upgraded. You can get a Window or Linux operating system. If you are used to Windows, I would recommend sticking it because you won’t have to learn a lot of new commands and programs.

In the long run the best college laptop is the one that comes closest to matching your needs. Only you can decide.

I was pretty sure that the problem was with the software and not hardware. Why? Because I could make the blue screen appear by just logging into my Amazon affiliate account. Odd or what? Of course, the BsoD also appeared when I didn’t expect it way too often.

I tried several things to fix my laptop:

• System Restore – didn’t work
• Norton Anti-Virus full system scan – half way though the blue screen appeared
• Searched the internet for help
• Sent a error report to Microsoft

Microsoft sent me to a very helpful page entitled Microsoft Windows Error Reporting: Blue screen error caused by device or driver which suggested taking the following steps (in order) to fix the problem.

1. Download and install the latest updates and drivers
2. Remove any new hardware or software to isolate the cause of the blue screen
3. Scan your computer for viruses
4. Check your hard disk for errors
5. Restore your computer to an earlier state

I proceeded to work my way through the steps.

1. No problem getting windows updates
2. Didn’t have any new hardware so I started removing programs and files installed in the last month. I suspected then and still do that the problem was an out-of-date graphics program. I couldn’t prove that it was the culprit and removing it didn’t fix the problem, but I won’t be installing it again.
3. As I said above, blue screen appeared about half way through the virus scan.
4. No significant hard disk errors were found.
5. System restore couldn’t restore the system to any of the 5 or so dates I tried.

I was beginning to think I would have to buy a new laptop. I found myself running my HP Mini netbook along side or instead of my Toshiba laptop. BTW the HP Mini has a great keyboard!

I did want to lose my files or programs, so I went looking for a portable hard drive an Amazon. I find the reviews very helpful and I settled on the Seagate Free Agent Go Portable Hard Drive 250GB model. Since the Laptop drive was only 80GB, I figured 250GB would be plenty and it was. The drive weighed less than 6 ounces and came with a USB travel cable but no power supply.

I would have ordered the drive from Amazon but I needed it immediately. I was able to pick one up at a local Walmart for $69.82.

I proceeded to back up my files using the built-in software.

As a temporary solution I picked up a refurbished HP Slimline Vista Desktop. It was a machine from hell! It worked fine for about 10 days and then all of a sudden it couldn’t get Windows Updates because it wasn’t recognized as a “genuine windows machine.”

The factory refurbished desktop came with a faulty hard drive. One of the HP alerts described how I was supposed to fix it. No thanks. I returned the machine to MicroCenter with no problems.

So I’m back to my Toshiba BsoD machine and my netbook.

On June 30th I backed up my laptop again, ran the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, and proceeded to restore the laptop to an earlier state. Although I hadn’t seen any suggestion online to restore to factory settings, that’s exactly what I did.

First I had to locate the original manual and disks so I would have the necessary registration information and keys.

I went online to see what was involved in resetting the laptop and I found it was incredibly easy to do.

It took about an hour to restore the original factory settings. The process also erased the hard drive.

Once the system was restored I had to spend a bit of time downloading all the Windows updates and removing the software I didn’t want. After that was done, I installed Windows XP Pro and Office 2003. Then I started moving files from the Free Agent drive back to the laptop.

My Toshiba laptop is now slim and trim and works better than ever. I’m happy to report that I haven’t seen blue screen since June 30.

Disclaimer: I am not giving advice about what to do with your laptop, I’m just sharing my personal experience. If you are getting repeated blue screens, seek professional help before you resort to restoring the original factory settings.

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-80 and that set me on a path to finding and using a number of computers but the ones I really liked were small. Unfortunately, technology passed most of my computers by and I was forced to upgrade a number of times.

My First Computer: Sinclair ZX80
I ran across an ad for the Sinclair ZX80 in Popular Electronics magazine in 1980 and was immediately taken by the opportunity to buy my very own computer. I don’t remember exactly how much I paid for the computer but I know it was less than $200.

When the computer arrived I had to attach it to a television and cassette recorder in order to record and display programs.

I subscribed to a monthly newsletter for ZX80 owners and read it til the pages were dogeared. The newsletter revealed the secrets of the ZX80 Basic programming language. Although the computer had only 1KB of memory, I was able to learn the rudiments of programming using it.

Programming was fairly easy because the Basic command and even a few graphics were embedded in the keyboard. There was even a Poke command so a bit of assembly language could be added.

The Sinclair ZX80 was great fun but aside from learning a bit about how programs work, it wasn’t particularly useful. Still I was hooked on the form factor even if the functionally left something to be desired. The ZX80 was the perfect size for a netbook and even the built-in soft membrane keyboard worked pretty well. However, some of my later small computers were better precursors of today’s netbooks.

Credits: Sinclair ZX80 and Keyboard

A couple of weeks ago my relatively new AT&T cell phone disappeared. I looked everywhere and even retraced my steps to see if I could find it. After a couple of days I reported it missing and suspended my AT&T account. (Note: Suspending an account doesn’t cancel an account or what you owe on your contract!)

Last summer in a fit of tech-envy I switched from Virgin Mobile to AT&T. I wanted to try text messaging, web browsing, a better camera phone, and neat ringtones. So I picked out a slim flip phone and signed a two year contract. There was a $100 rebate on the cell phone, so it didn’t cost me much.

I needed to try mobile text messaging and web browsing for a project so I paid about $60 a month for these extra. Once the project was done in a couple of months, I shed the pricey services. I now have a very simple cellphone plan and my current monthly fee is only about $35 more than Virgin Mobile but still quite reasonable.

Unfortunately, one of the extras I dropped was the replacement insurance for the
cell phone. My contract was only six months old, so AT&T wasn’t going to give me any break on replacing my phone. The early termination fee would be about $150 but would leave me without a cell phone.

I like AT&T so I checked out the phones I could buy to replace my lost phone. Except for a couple of really crappy refurbished phones, the phones were pretty pricey. The cheapest cell phones were out: I switched to AT&T to improve on my Virgin Mobile experience, not replicate it. The expensive phones were out too, I’m just too cheap to spend a couple hundred on a cell phone.

It was time to do a little research. I combed Google listings for replacing lost cellphones and didn’t find a lot of really useful advice. Until I found Tony May’s article about How to replace a lost or broken cell phone cheaply.

May suggests buying a cheap prepaid phone for your carrier at Walmart or Target. I checked the prices for these phones online and they were great. Target had several prepaid cell phones ranging in price from $9.99 to $79.99. I found a very nice AT&T Samsung Prepaid Cell Phone in red for only $49.99. It has a camera, ringtones, web browsing (if you like really small print), and it small and light-weight. The cheap Nokia was very nice for $10 but I just wanted a few more bells and whistles.

May also suggests replacing the prepaid phone’s sim card with your own. Big problem here: my sim card is with my missing cell phone. So I called my local AT&T store and asked about using a prepaid phone from Target with my current account. I was told that I could bring the phone to the store and the AT&T technician would set it up for my account. I asked if they could do the same thing with a prepaid from their store and was told no. They can only switch the prepaid phones that customers bring into the store.

So I went to Target and got my new red phone and then visited the AT&T store at the mall. I thought that I would have to buy a new sim card, but the AT&T guy told me it’s part of their service.

So here’s what you do if you want to upgrade or replace a cell phone:

1. Buy a prepaid phone for your carrier at a discount store like Walmart or Target.
2. Take the phone to the carrier’s store and have them swap or update the sim card.

It’s another one of those techie tricks that is so obvious once you know about it, but so obscure when you are looking for a solution.

This post is a review of my Toshiba laptop after using it for a substantial amount of time. Most reviews are written based on a few weeks or months of use — this review is based on 30 consecutive months of use.

What I still like

For the most part I have been quite pleased with the Toshiba Laptop (Satellite A105-S2071) that I purchased in June 2006.

I added Windows XP Professional and the operating system has held up well in spite of constant use. Norton Virus Checker and TuneUp 2006-2008 have kept the laptop shipshape and virus free.

I dumped most of the software that came with the laptop in favour of Microsoft Office Professional and ColdFusion Studio. I also use Net Snippets a lot when I’m working on a project, but unfortunately that excellent program is no longer on the market.

Although I have scads of files I never came close to filling the disk drive even though it’s only 80 GB. The disk drive is reasonably fast, but I love the speed of the flash memory drive on my Asus EEE PC.

I like that the notebook runs movie dvds flawlessly and I find the sound quality acceptable. Sometimes it would be nice if the volume could be turned up a bit. While the graphic chip isn’t the most powerful one on the market, it is sufficient for my needs. Considering that I bought the laptop before YouTube and online videos became to popular, it manages both nicely.

I use Internet Explorer more that Firefox but that may change. Like most IE users I resent websites that tell me to get another “better” browser. My Asus EEE pc is linux based and so I’ve been using Firefox quite a bit but I detest its logo.

So what’s not to like

The Toshiba laptop is hot – on top and underneath. Having a notebook double as hand warmer might be a nice feature in our Minnesota winters, but it’s a pain in the tuckus the rest of the year.

Occasionally but more often than I would like, Internet Explorer will just shut down some or all of the windows I have open. I don’t know if the fault lies with Windows XP, Internet Explorer 7, quirky websites, or myself. I probably should use Foxfire for a longer time to see if it’s Microsoft’s browser that is causing the problem. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder if it’s Mac built sites that are causing the problem. Don’t you just love a good conspiracy theory?

A somewhat related problem occurs when the mouse begins to act weirdly and no longer recognizes right clicks. However, I think the fault may lie with the websites I’m visiting. Again with the conspiracy theory…

The most worrisome problem ocwhen curs I power up the pc after its been on standby for a while. Sometimes when I tap the power on button and the system begins to shut down or starts to some sort of memory / cpu check. I have to hold the power button down until the system powers down to stop the memory check. When I reboot the system is usually okay. It’s as annoying as hell but doesn’t seem to create lasting damage. However, it is a reminder to back up files.

So what’s the bottom line

I’m happier with this laptop that I was with my old HP laptop that went haywire. I kept the HP in case I ever need a laptop with a screen that is only good for a half hour at a time. I loved that machine but usually I need the computer to be usable for more than a half hour. I can’t sell the HP or give it away, because no one would want it. Lots of folks would be happy to have my Toshiba Satellite A105-S2071 because it is still pretty useful and up-to-date.

I haven’t had this notebook as long as some other computers I’ve owned, but I’m already getting upgrade fever. It’s not just the laptop that I would like to upgrade but my video camera and mini notebook. More about those items later.

Overall I got very good value for my money and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another Toshiba computer. How about you? If you own a Toshiba Satellite A105-S2071 or something like it,  are you happy with your purchase?  If so, what do you like best about the computer. If not, how long did it take for buyer’s remorse to set in — and what caused it?