Just hop onto the websites for the big ISPs—think AT&T or Verizon—and look for their service availability checker. You just plug in your address, and they'll give you the lowdown right away. Plus, it’s actually pretty helpful to see what your neighbors are running and if they're actually happy with the speeds they're getting. If you're in an area where they haven't laid down fiber or old-school copper lines yet, they'll usually offer you a mobile hotspot setup as a "home internet" workaround.
...like, just look at it this way... if you're eyeing that first motherboard from the seller, see if you can skip the beefier processor and cooler if you're trying to save some serious cash.
The laptop is designed to take 19.5V, and then the motherboard uses step-down regulators to shave that down into whatever the specific hardware needs—like 3.3V, 12V, or 5V. If your power adapter hits its current limit, the voltage can actually drop below that 19.5V mark, so you’re always better off using an adapter with the correct wattage or even something with a bit more overhead. It’s standard practice for the charging circuitry built into the motherboard to regulate the current going into the battery, especially if some of the battery cells are acting up or basically shorted out. Look, if you're using a low-wattage adapter and your batteries are already topped off, the motherboard will just pull the extra amperage it needs from the battery itself. It'll drain the battery even while plugged in, and then try to top it back up once you stop working. But if the batteries are shot? You won't get much runtime at all, regardless of whether you have that weaker adapter plugged in or not.
Look, if you try to use a power adapter with a lower max amperage than what the laptop actually needs to function or charge properly, you're asking for trouble. The adapter's basically going to try its hardest to push out more current than it was ever built to handle, which usually ends in overheating and just straight-up frying the brick. If you've got an adapter rated at 19.5V and 10A, you're golden. It’ll work perfectly fine because having extra headroom doesn't hurt—it just means the laptop will only pull the 2.31A it actually needs.
Look, all these adapters have the same voltage (V), which is what matters. But you specifically need one that can push at least 2.31A. From what I can see, these two options both top out at over 3A, so they're plenty. It’s totally fine because the amperage (A) isn't something you force on the device—it's all about what the laptop actually pulls. Your machine won't grab more than 2.31A, so having those extra amps in these two is just like having some breathing room or overhead if things get heavy.
Also, just a heads-up: these power bricks aren't technically "chargers" in the literal sense. The actual battery regulation happens inside the laptop itself, not the brick.
I used to pick those up at the local "Video Hut" shop and those "Chip shortage" spots over in San Francisco... but honestly, I haven't stepped foot in there for ages, so I'm not really sure anymore. Maybe you could take it to a repair guy and have him swap them out right then and there—just solder them in. You should check around tomorrow. That Video Hut place was tucked away in the middle of a street right across from Fidelity Investments (down by the South side).
You can find them on power adapters for routers, digital TV receivers, and stuff like that. Just head down to a local electronics shop or a Best Buy and ask... I actually just looked at one right now that’s identical (it’s just not an L-shape) on my GE digital receiver.
If the drive is still good: Pop it out and throw it into a new desktop build—it’s an easy way to grab some extra storage space without spending a dime. Now, if you're rocking a laptop, just grab a cheap 2.5" external enclosure—maybe use some of the cash you saved from selling those old parts—and turn that old drive into a portable USB drive.
Look, what I suggested isn't going to mess with your hard drive partitions at all. Your partitions stay the exact same size and all your data stays right where it belongs. It’s just that the settings tell Windows how much space to RESERVE specifically for system junk. Because of that, the OS blocks you from using that chunk of space for your own stuff, which is why it looks like you've got less free room. Once you shrink that reserved space, you'll see that extra capacity again.
Look, this isn't some kind of "messing around." They basically leave it up to the user to decide how much space to set aside, and I just took advantage of the option to reserve nothing at all—so when I hit "delete," those files are gone for good. After reading what you wrote, I’ve gotta wonder... have you ever even used the Empty Recycle Bin before? 🤔
Yeah, I went ahead and capped my C: drive (the system partition) at 1GB, and for all the other drives, I just turned off the shadow copies entirely. Now I have to be super careful about what I delete, because once something hits the trash, there’s really no way to get it back. If you want to test how this works, try setting a 100GB limit on all your partitions first. That should give you a clear idea of how much actual free space you'll have left on them.
The only real downside is you might lose access to files on older gear, like some smart TVs or old media players, that don't play nice with NTFS. Otherwise, if you're on Windows, you can actually jump into the Command Prompt as an admin and convert it without wiping anything by using this command: convert H: / fs:ntfs (just swap out the drive letter—so instead of H:, use whatever yours is).
@fadedorca66/">@@fadedorca66 ...Look, I'm an electrician by trade. Based on what you're describing, I don't think the starter motor itself is the culprit. It sounds more like a bad connection or a dying battery—it might just be totally drained. You can tell because the voltage drops the second it tries to pull enough juice to actually crank the engine.
In my case, the issue is definitely the starter brushes. The dash lights stay bright even when I turn the key to start. Usually, the solenoid gets power from the ignition switch, and the other side should get its kick through those brushes. But right now? Nothing happens. The lights just sit there glowing like I haven't even touched the key (I double-checked everything with a multimeter at the ignition switch).
Back in the day, swapping out brushes was a breeze since they just sat in a holder. Nowadays, they spot-weld them in place 😢 ...so soldering is basically my only move here. Honestly, it’s not the cleanest fix, but it's all I've got to work with.
Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. It’s totally normal for them to flicker like that when you just turn the key to the accessory position.
I go looking for a budget GPU online and it’s just a sea of beat-up sneakers and random junk.😁 Now that I'm basically a pensioner, my plan is to first$267 get some extra cash for an all-in-one toolset, and then next year🙂 start putting money aside for a decent card.
Alright, I'll go ahead and hunt down a GT1030 then. 👍
ps: So, based on how those lights are flickering, you’re looking at either a loose connection on the terminals or—even worse—a bad cell connection inside the battery itself. 😢 To fix the terminals, just pop them off the battery, grab some sandpaper, and give the posts and the clamps a good scrub until they're clean. Then pop everything back on and good luck cranking it. It’s also possible the battery is just totally drained because that bad connection prevented it from charging in the first place. Once you get out for a drive for maybe an hour or so, you'll know if the battery is actually holding up or not.
...if it’s just a bad connection at the battery or if the battery itself is dying, all the dashboard lights should flicker when you turn the key to crank it. ...when you're push-starting it, you need to be in second gear and don't just dump the clutch—you gotta ease it out like you're pulling away from a stoplight in an automatic.
Anyway, I was browsing here because I'm looking for a used graphics card. Just something simple to run movies on my TV via HDMI, even just in FHD, since the onboard graphics on my PC are pretty trash. I see some cheap cards on eBay that were clearly used for mining, some even missing connectors... I'm not sure if they're worth the gamble, or if they've been "overworked," as people in the audio community might say.
wanderingbison9 said:Hit the shops today. Drove, stopped, drove, stopped, drove, stopped... then nothing. Just dead. Won't even turn over. Could be the starter or maybe just a blown fuse, but I don't think it's the battery since there's zero cranking attempt. Now I'm stuck in some parking lot, and there's no way I can get this sorted before Tuesday. .
I've run into the exact same thing—the brushes in the starter are shot. Over the years, instead of staying perfectly round, the commutator gets slightly oval from all the wear, and then the brushes just lose contact because they're hitting that narrow spot. You can sometimes get it to work by push-starting it, and after you've been bouncing around on some bumpy roads, the vibrations might nudge those brushes back into place long enough to crank again. But once the rotor settles back into that "dead zone," you're stuck again 😢 For me, out of like 20 tries, it only actually died twice where I had to go back to push-starting. Once the holidays are over, I'll have to swap out the starter... Luckily mine's a gas engine, so push-starting isn't such a nightmare. 😁 ps: Man, if I could just whack the starter with a heavy tool (not the car itself, obviously), it would probably fix it temporarily. But in this Chevrolet Cruze, the starter is buried so deep under everything else I can't even see it... so for now, I'm just finding spots near little hills so it's easier to push.
Some of these old DDR2 motherboards don't even support AHCI, let alone an SSD. Even when they actually recognize one, they treat it like a clunky old HDD, running painfully slow—you'll even see them trying to run defrag on it like it's a spinning disk. 🤦 A few years back, I ordered a Gigabyte GA-series from eBay. I specifically looked for version 2 because it has 6 SATA ports and a newer southbridge that actually plays nice with SSDs, but the guy sent me version 1 instead. 😢 Now it’s just sitting here gathering dust.
Nah, the wires from the energy button aren't just shorting out the black and green pins on the 24-pin connector. If that were actually happening, the PC would shut down the second you let go of the button.
I don't know if Zachary Bishop15 actually tried to revert everything back to how it was before and then attempted to boot up his PC again. You know how it goes when the grid starts flickering during a thunderstorm—it can totally trip the power supply. Usually, you just need to unplug the thing from the wall to let it reset. Once those capacitors drain out, it should kick back into gear and run just fine, exactly like it has every other year.