Nice attempt at linking that to the fact that you spilled water all over your keyboard. There’s clearly some kind of intermittent short circuit happening somewhere. I had a similar issue once where certain random keys would just stop working for no reason at all. Honestly, these kinds of glitches happen more often than you'd think.
Is it even worth fixing? Depends on the laptop. Replacement keyboards aren't exactly pricey—you can find cheap ones on eBay—so if the laptop itself still runs fine, just swap the keyboard out.
The laptop actually features its own dedicated M.2 slot. You’ll need to pop off the bottom cover to get to it—which isn't exactly rocket science—but you have to consider if you want to risk voiding your warranty if a technician notices later. Alternatively, you could just take it to an authorized service center; they'll install the SSD for you for a fee of about $67, and you get to keep your warranty intact.
You’re looking at a top-tier processor for this class, a solid IPS screen, plenty of storage, fast SSD speeds, and even a backlit keyboard...
If you can live with a few trade-offs, you could save some cash with the Lenovo IdeaPad.
The CPU is a bit weaker (though still great), there’s no built-in HDD, and the keyboard isn't backlit. But hey, you get a 5-year warranty—that's the standard 2-year manufacturer coverage plus a 3-year extended warranty from MR Service.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Rad....142634.0.html That GPU isn't exactly winning any awards. As you can see, most games are hitting the red zone even on minimal settings, which means they aren't actually playable. Even if the titles you mentioned aren't heavy hitters, I’d still hunt for something with a better graphics card.
If you want to play anything at all, you really should aim for at least a 940m, but pairing that with an i3 usually bumps up the price. In this specific budget range, you're looking at the 920m , which actually outperforms that AMD chip.
Now, this one isn't a bad deal—it's got an i3 (an older generation, sure) and an 840m, which is basically identical to the 940m.
That HP is way more powerful. Sure, its one-year warranty isn't perfect, but you can just pay extra for an extended plan or pick it up at Micro Center where you get it right away—even if you pay a bit more for the convenience.
You didn't specify the exact specs. I’m guessing some old Core 2 Duo paired with 4GB of RAM?
For basic stuff—just web browsing, Office 365, and watching movies—it’ll still get the job done today. Honestly, it'll probably outperform those bottom-of-the-barrel budget laptops running Intel Core i or AMD Ryzen chips. No one can tell you exactly how much longer it’ll last, but if it meets your needs, why toss it? You shouldn't have to spend more than $100 on a charger or a battery from eBay.
If you want a new laptop with actual decent performance, expect to shell out somewhere between 2500 and $1000. (Think i3 with an SSD)
That Apple laptop would be fine if you just want some light gaming. The others? Not even close. The only downside with Apple is the build quality feels a bit cheaper than most other budget options out there.
If you’re cool with just using integrated graphics, then go with the Dell.
Upgrading to faster RAM won't do much for you since your laptop relies on a dedicated GPU for any real 3D work.
You can swap out the optical drive for an SSD, but you'll need a 12.7mm caddy—check yours first to be sure by pulling it out and measuring.
You can pick one up at Best Buy or find it way cheaper on eBay. Don't stress about finding one specifically labeled for your exact laptop model; these things are universal. There are really only two sizes: 9.5mm and 12.7mm. I'm betting you need the latter, but just measure it to be certain. Some sellers try to pull a fast one by charging a premium for "model-specific" caddies when they're actually just the same $4 part.
My advice? Put the SSD in the main hard drive slot and toss the old HDD into the caddy. Usually, the primary slot is SATA3 while the optical drive is limited to SATA2. You don't want to bottleneck your SSD, whereas the old HDD won't even notice the slower SATA2 speeds.
It officially supports up to 1600MHz, which is basically the fastest you can find through standard retail channels here in the States. Sure, there’s an 1866MHz DDR3 SO-DIMM out there, but it’s way more expensive, harder to track down, and who knows if your system will even play nice with it? Besides, you won't notice any real-world difference. The only place you might theoretically see a tiny bump is in gaming if you're running integrated graphics—and even then, the gains would be negligible since we're talking about older hardware.
It’s running on DDR3 RAM at 1600MHz (800x2, since it's DDR). You can max it out at 16GB total by popping in two 8GB sticks.
Forget about DDR4. I don't know where you're getting your info, but DDR4 won't even fit in the slot, let alone work with the controller. And if you think the extra speed of DDR4 is going to change your life—don't bother. Even if you could actually install it, you wouldn't feel a lick of difference.
If you actually want to see a performance boost, just grab an SSD.
Lately, there’s been this massive push toward lowering CPU power consumption. Take the Intel Pentium 3556; its TDP sits at a modest 15W, whereas your T9800 pulls a full 35W. Honestly, this trend mostly benefits the manufacturers. They get to shave costs on batteries and cooling systems, while what does the average user actually gain? A few extra cents saved on their annual electric bill? Hardly worth mentioning. And even that 15W is being considered "efficient" now—just look at those N-series chips with a TDP of 6-7W. Those things perform about as well as a single-core processor from over a decade ago. They can barely handle the most basic tasks without choking.