You don't have much of a selection in this price range. Honestly, your best bet is just heading down to Best Buy and checking them out in person. Besides the standard manufacturer warranty, Best Buy offers an extended protection plan for up to 5 years, which makes it the most sensible move. I've listed a few models below that you should probably steer clear of; just make sure whatever you pick has at least a quad-core processor. That's the bare minimum.
Look, it needs to be an Intel processor, quad-core, with at least 4 GB of RAM. Having dedicated graphics would be nice, but at $2,000, you're not going to find that. As for everything else—like I said, go see them for yourself. Feel the build quality, pick them up, open and close the lid, and check if the plastic feels cheap or creaky. Ask them to power one on so you can actually see the screen and stuff.
And don't let anyone talk you into something with a weaker processor, especially anything with AMD... 😬
George Castillo9 said:A buddy of mine tried to swap out his router, but he didn't realize it wasn't that simple. He reached out to AT&T for some help, but they wouldn't lift a finger. They just flat-out refuse to do it.
Michael Adams said:Go ahead and swap out the router. Once you get it hooked up, if it doesn't pull all the settings correctly, just give the helpdesk a call. Tell them you're installing your own hardware and ask them to perform a lock/unlock on the line.
So you actually called support and they told you that? Good for you. 👍
I’m not sure how the settings are configured, so there’s no guarantee this will actually work. You might just need to tweak some parameters, or you might have to go through a full reprogramming. Maybe try asking over in the networking subforum.
Honestly, I don't know if that's even a smart move... Are you aware that technical support at AT&T (and pretty much any other provider) can remotely access your gear to change every single setting, or even push a BIOS upgrade? They'll see the changes the second you plug it in and know immediately that you've messed with the router.🤷
Who knows if they'll react to it, but one thing's for sure—they'll definitely know.
And honestly, this has nothing to do with your signal strength. Unless you moved your gear around or put up some new walls, signal strength—or purity, if you want to get technical—only matters based on how much other equipment is fighting for the same bandwidth nearby. It’s highly likely a few more neighbors in your area finally set up their home Wi-Fi, and now your frequency is just slammed with "noise." Your best bet is to crank up your own signal so it drowns out the neighbors, or if your router supports 5 GHz, just jump over to that. The 2.4 GHz band is basically a crowded subway station at rush hour:
Beethoven, you're back at it again with the ink talk 😬
On topic:
Look, I’m not saying the ink isn't part of the issue, but this feels like a driver problem to me. You're trying to force old drivers meant for the last OS—Vista—onto Windows 7. Assuming you've actually moved up to 7 by now, the real question is how much you've messed with the settings. Just head over to the HP site and let their automated tool hunt down the right drivers and dependencies for you. It's easier.
If the auto-tool fails, I see there's a specific patch for upgrading from Vista to 7 listed as a separate download, so just grab that.
Honestly, the smartest move would be to wipe everything related to the printer—software included—and then just pull the printer itself. Unplug it, reboot the machine, and once it's back up, plug the printer in, turn it on, and run that HP software again. Hopefully, that clears out all the junk...
There are a ton of potential issues here that might be linked, or they might not be, so I'm not sure which ones need direct fixing and which ones will just sort themselves out once you fix the root cause.
First off, there's the OS. It can cause all sorts of headaches with a Hard Drive. When you install a Hard Drive, you really should have switched the drive mode to SATA in the UEFI (some people swear by it, others say it doesn't matter). If you want to know why, just Google "Hard Drive, SATA, TRIM."
But before even touching that, you should have updated your UEFI to the latest version because probably the UEFI isn't recognizing that 3TB drive. It’s a known issue—these types of problems happen constantly with 3TB drives. If the UEFI actually recognizes it properly, then you just have to hope the OS picks it up and formats it as an NTFS drive—assuming you've installed all the necessary updates.
Antivirus software can also mess with a Hard Drive. For instance, there are plenty of reports that McAfee causes similar issues with constant Hard Drive activity and high CPU usage. I won't guess about other software, but once you deal with the UEFI, try disabling your antivirus for a bit to see if things improve.
Also, the power plan can be a culprit. For some reason, it might have defaulted to a power-saving mode that's screwing you over. Check that and set it to "High Performance."
And grab Device Manager (like CPU-Z), a little utility that shows you (among other things) what speed your CPU is currently running at. Open it up, and if the CPU is working right, you'll see the multiplier changing and the frequency ramping up whenever you actually put a load on the computer. Sometimes the CPU (whether due to UEFI settings, power plans, or whatever) just gets "stuck" at a low frequency and acts like an idiot, making it look like it's hitting 100% usage when it's actually just crawling.
I'm also assuming you installed all the drivers and system utilities from the motherboard manufacturer's website, because that's non-negotiable for everything to run correctly.
It wouldn't hurt to open Activity Monitor and check the Threads too—you should be able to easily spot which Thread is eating up all your CPU cycles, which will tell you exactly what's causing the trouble...
That's it for now. Try some of this and let me know how it goes...
Edit:
Issues 3 and 4 will probably resolve themselves; they're likely just a side effect of the UEFI failing to recognize the drive.
No need to apologize, and honestly, it doesn't matter if you're a newbie here. 😬 We've all been rookies at some point. 😬
Just try setting up a dual boot. It won't cause any issues, and the processor doesn't even matter... All processors are built to support various operating systems.
Nonsense. Did it ever cross your mind that manufacturers can just request to block specific searches and YouTube videos? They do it ruthlessly, whether it's on behalf of a massive giant like HP or even smaller players. You really think someone designed a CISS (I don't know, maybe just one single unit specifically to mess with someone here in the States?) just for those cartridges and that printer, and then managed to sell it on eBay without getting hammered by negative feedback?
Sometimes you write a decent post, and sometimes... well,
I couldn't find any installation instructions for the HP Envy anywhere—nothing. It wasn't until I stumbled onto a random forum where I found some guy who had actually done it; he even drew up a diagram showing exactly how to cut out space so the ribbon cable could move properly... After all that, it works like a charm.
Look, I’m not saying the OP needs to be some pioneer researcher, but if you guys selling CISS kits tell him it’s possible and show him how (or even do it for him)—why wouldn't he? It would save him a massive amount of money.
For sure. The biggest selling points are that you get a 3-year warranty that actually covers the battery (!)—something nobody else in the industry touches—and the battery life is massive by today's standards. ASUS's new P series hits about 12 to 15 hours, if not more, which is killer for a 15.6" laptop...
James Thomas80 said:Google Chrome, with 20 GB of headroom.
That’s not memory, that's just free disk space. You're probably getting screwed because those 20GB are likely heavily fragmented. On top of that, you've got temp and scratch files eating up room, so you end up running out of space mid-download, and the files only download as far as the disk allows. And every time you try again, you have even less room left...
Empty your Recycle Bin, delete everything you don't need, run a chkdsk, and defrag the drive...
Well, if they're actually broken, they should still be under warranty...
First, make sure you actually plugged the mic in right (the red jack). Then, check your sound properties under Recording Devices. Right-click and select "show Disabled Devices." Your mic should pop up there, and it ought to say it's active and ready to go...
Bradley Richardson41 said:Just realized a few minutes ago that my mic is picking up whatever I'm listening to.
If your laptop isn't overheating, there's zero reason to bother cleaning it out, let alone messing around with repasting. Windows isn't some wild animal; the guy clearly wrote Educational...
Unfortunately, Dell didn't really bother updating support for Windows 10 on this specific series, which is why users are running into all sorts of headaches.
Sometimes you can fix things by just installing the 8.1 drivers after you've moved to 10. Honestly, you need to figure out what’s actually causing the trouble first. It could be anything—the CPU, one of those system utilities (Intel Rapid start Technology Utility, Intel Turbo boost Technology monitor software...), the integrated or discrete graphics, or even the hard drive...
Grab your drivers directly from their official site, and don't forget that once you install system-level stuff, you absolutely have to restart the laptop for everything to actually kick in.
Instead of using standard cartridges, you swap them out for special ones without any chips. All the ink gets fed through a flat cable from large tanks sitting right next to the printer. The whole trick is figuring out how to route that flat cable and secure it so it doesn't get in the way of the print head when it moves left to right, making sure it can still reach its full range of motion.
The specs are identical, so you should definitely check sites like Best Buy or Amazon to hunt down the best deal. As for the warranty, Dell gives you 3 years, while Toshiba offers 2—unless you register on the Toshibin NMWT site within 14 days of buying it, then you snag an extra year plus NMWT coverage for that first year. So, if we're talking warranty, Toshiba actually has a slight edge here...
Either way, both laptops are solid. You won't make a mistake with either one...
Looks like you or your wife got lucky. 😬Printers are such a joke. Manufacturers these days are basically performing magic tricks just to force you into buying their overpriced original ink. It’s a total scam and a complete rip-off, but then again, that's how they fund their R&D and sell those dirt-cheap printers in the first place. It's a rigged game.
hollowmarlin27 actually had the right idea there. Everything he said is spot on.
I picked up an HP OfficeJet Pro and managed to find a dirt-cheap CISS kit for it. The only headache was that the manufacturer intentionally built these useless plastic dividers right where the cartridges and print heads sit, making it impossible to install the CISS without hacking away at the casing. It wasn't a huge deal, though—I just trimmed the plastic, and now you can't even tell from the outside. It cleared enough space to get the setup working perfectly. Honestly, I couldn't be happier. With those massive ink tanks, I don't have to deal with annoying chip errors or anything like that. I just order more ink on eBay once every six months and call it a day. My printing costs have dropped to about a fifth of what they used to be. 👍
I've got no clue what's going on with the HP OfficeJet Pro. I can't even find a decent tutorial on YouTube specifically for this model. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=HP+OfficeJet+Pro+ciss
But you can find a really cheap CISS right here: I’ve been looking into this refill system for the IP1200, and honestly, I'm skeptical. It claims you can just pump ink directly into the cartridges, which sounds like a total headache waiting to happen if you don't get the pressure exactly right. You're basically playing a high-stakes game of "don't leak ink on your carpet" every time you try to save a few bucks. If you're thinking about trying this, just be prepared for a mess.
He doesn't explicitly mention the HP OfficeJet Pro, but he does say the inks used are replacements for the PG-540 and CL-541 sets, which happen to be exactly what I use. Look, just give him a call and find out. They ought to know if this installation is going to be a headache or not. Honestly, I might even be able to do it for you. If you don't have to hack up the casing like I did, the whole setup takes maybe fifteen minutes. After that, you're just topping off the ink from the outside whenever it runs low.
You can grab a pack of five 3.4oz cartridges—two of them being black—for about $20, or you can go bigger with the 1-liter jugs. 😬 For about a hundred bucks, you could probably get enough ink to outlast the printer itself. 😬
Check out this eBay search link.
It’s not even about whether it pays off anymore; it's pure madness. Honestly, you just have to put in the work.
Look, you're right about one thing—even if you've set everything to grayscale, you're still burning through ink. Those cheap printers constantly run tiny nozzle cleaning cycles just to keep things from clogging up. Even if you aren't printing a single page, the machine is still sipping ink behind the scenes just to stay functional. It's a pain, but that's how it works.
Yeah, something’s definitely off. You really ought to take it to a repair shop so they can take a look. To actually figure anything out, you’re going to need to be more specific—what kind of laptop is it, what are the specs, what version of macOS are you running, and what kind of background software (antivirus, etc.) do you have installed? We also need you to run some diagnostics if we’re ever going to pin down the actual issue.
But honestly, based on how you’re treating this thing (it’s been lagging like crazy for six months and you won't even... 🤷), I'm guessing you're just an end-user who isn't interested in tinkering, which is why I suggested a pro. It's stupid to just let a laptop "run until it dies." If you do that, besides the potential repair bill (assuming it's even fixable), you'll most likely lose every single file you have on there. Permanently.
The first thing you should have done, like, yesterday, is back up everything important to an external hard drive or some cloud storage.
Looking into my crystal ball here, my best guess is that your hard drive is failing and is about to give up the ghost entirely. That said, it could also be something relatively "simple" like needing a fresh install of macOS or a disk defrag...
If you've got the cash, the smartest move is just to buy a new one. At five or six years old, that machine is reaching its expiration date anyway. You could always take the old one to a local shop just to get a formal diagnosis...
Look, anything is possible, but I’d bet my life you'll run into a different headache before you ever blame the GPU or the hardware. It might even be a dud processor, but honestly? It's most likely an AutoCAD issue. Your best bet is to scour the Autodesk forums; there are tons of potential fixes floating around there once you start digging.
You'll find all sorts of weirdness on those boards. For example, if you leave AutoCAD running indefinitely without ever closing it, it eventually eats up more and more memory until the whole thing just crashes. 😬
One fix that actually makes sense for what you're dealing with could be this:
"Closing your LAYER palette (not just hiding it) probably would have resolved your issue with the unreconciled layers: try it next time it happens.
And unless you crave the info because you work with a team of users that constantly change your XREFs, you can turn off that "unreconciled" feature."