These questions are often asked at our workshop. The hard disk is like a cd rom, you know the type you put your music on. One day you play your cd the next it starts to jump one day it may not play at all. The hard disk is very very dense and can hold thousands more songs than your cd. Imagine it like a big cupboard to store files on. Now take a look at your laptop. What are the only parts that are moving inside. Your cd rom spins around doesnt it.

Your hard disk however spins at 5400 revolutins per minute and sometimes runs for 10 hours a day. Its doing loads of work it gets hot and the arm inside that reads your data moves soo fast that if you opened it up and looked at the arm moving you would be shocked as it moves very very fast. Opening the disk exposes the hard disk to dust and ruins the data so best not to open it.

The electronics work long hours and after a couple of years they just tire out. The main reason a hard drive dies is becuase of suffering a knock. Imagine hitting your cd rom player against the wall as its spinning. The shock causes the data arm inside to lock up and the hardware starts to tick. This is known as a ticking hard drive. How on earth can you get the data back. You have a problem you might want to take the disks out of your hard disk put them in another hard disk and get the data. The problem is that opening the hard disk exposes the disk platter to dust and 1 tiny particle of dust could wipe out thousands of files.  If you want to make your new hard disk last a long time , handle the laptop with care. Dont drop it knock it or work it to death.

For more advice on laptop data recovery click here

       This laptop is also very light. Its made of carbon fibre and this makes it light and strong. It is pure quality. When you click to search for wireless networks its wireless signal is soo strong you imagine you could connect to your friends wireless connection 2 streets away. We cannot fault this laptop at all. Some will fault it especially if you like a large screen, the x200 screen is only 13.3 inches.

We had to repair one of these in our workshop as it had serious liquid damage. When we opened this laptop we saw it was put together very well. It had plenty of protection in fact the protection against damage was incredible. In 15 years of laptop repairs this laptop was one of the best protected laptops against drops and spills we have ever seen. This laptop is 10 out of 10 The max. 

The way to repair this is to have the graphics card re-fluxed. This means using a machine or hot air gun to push flux under the graphics card chipset and make it sit properly. This needs to be done by qualified Engineers who know how to cool your board to stop warping and overheating as some novices have been known to blow the chipset. This reflow work however is not an exact science and even skilled engineers can some times overheat the chipset. This laptop is not for games. I know you will probably read that it is, but when you have seen so many of these graphics cards overheating like i have i would not reccommend a laptop for games.The overheating problem often occurs becuase of using this laptop for high end games or for using programs like autocad that push the graphics card hard.  Never use this laptop on the bed as covers often block the fan causing overheating. Some engineers will force the fan to stay on permanently in order to make it work like a desktop computer and have the fan spin constantly. This is often a good idea as it cools the laptop down well and on the dell website you can even download some software that controls the fan. This problem can be fixed you just need to take it to a well respected company for an efficient repair.

This laptop has a fault where it gets blocked with dust and then starts to make a loud whirring noise.

It is quickly becoming a bigger and bigger headache for customers, as trying to purchase a fan from sony is virtually impossible. Laptop repair companies can repair this problem but it is soooo difficult. The motherboard has to be taken out of the laptop. (very difficult) Then the fan has to be replaced (hard to get hold of) Keeping the fan clean with compressed air being blown into the grills at the back of the laptop would have prevented the problem. The whirring noise gets worse then as soon as it sounds like a helicopter taking off, the customer takes it for repair. This is an expensive laptop parts are not cheap. Expect a repair price of around £150.00 - £200.00 !

You can purchase a can of compressed air from Maplins or take it for a repair at a REPUTABLE laptop repair company .

1.                                    Panasonic Toughbook
2.                                    IBM
3.                                    Packard Bell
4.                                    Dell
5.                                    Sony
6.                                    Acer
7.                                    Toshiba
8.                                    Fujitsu Siemens
9.                                    Packard Bell
10.                                    Advent
11.                                    Medion

These laptops are based on  a seacrh of how consumers have rated thier product after purchasing. Also considered is the amount of rewards the companies have won regarding thier laptops. We have also contacted companies for laptop repairs and asked those wich laptops they repair the LEAST.

On a dell press f2 to enter bios setup

On an ibm lenovo press f1 even before you turn it on to enter the bios

On a panasonic press f2 to enter the bios

On a Toshiba press esc or f1 to enter the bios

On all other press f2

A hard disk in your laptop is like a cassete tape that you had songs on in the old days. For those who need a bit more help and understanding i will put in layman terms. A hard disk is like a big cupboard. Where do you keep all your paper files at home? In a desk or drawer , or even a cupboard. some cupboards are big and some cupboards are small.one cupboard maybe 2 foot another maybe 8 foot in size.  its the same with a hard disk drive. A hard disk drive can be 200 gigabytes or 800 gigabytes. Actually a hard disk is similar to a cd rom only a hard disk is very dense and can hold more data. 

Data are like bits of information computarized information.  This can be letters ,images and so on. All these images and documents are stored by the laptop on the hard disk. Inside the hard disk is what looks like 2 cd roms. They are half the size of a cd like the ones you play on your music player and hifi.  Data on the hard disk can be lost just like in the real world you can lose your paper files , therefore its good to make copies. A laptop computer stores files in bytes.  You might store files in A4 or A3 documents. 1 megabyte is 1024 kilobytes.  1000 megabytes equals 1 gigabyte .  Usually a hard disk on a laptop will be between 80 gigabytes and 500 gigabytes.  Hard disks just like cupboards can be broken.  A hard disk will usually last 4 years.  Some hard disks can last up to 10 years.  What makes a hard drive last longer its if you dont knock the laptop around.

Laptop Memory advice.

Memory inside the laptop are like extra hands that move information around the computer.  The memory stores each bit of data in a capacitor within an integrated circuit. Only one transistor and a capacitor are needed per bit of information. Memory are like small drawers that move out of a cupboard and send files where needed. Lets imagine you click on a picture to view it. The picture may be 30 megabytes. So the mouse clicks the image, the software tells the processor that the image on the hard disk needs to be opened, so  the chipset then says to the processor tell the graphics card to send data to the screen the data now needs to be expanded because you clicked on it. So the data needs to travel between processor memory graphics card and the bus or the (roads) on the motherboard.

The processor may be pushing the information very quickly to produce the image but on this laptop because there is only 1 gig of random access memory or ram, the image is taking its time to be produced on the screen. so you wait for it to be opened. zzzzzzz  However on your friends laptop he has 4 gigs of ram. Extra hands !!!  Now things are going to really move fast. If you ever think of what memory does just think of it as an extra pair of hands. Instead of emptying the cupboard in 4 minutes you empty it in 1 minute. Increasing memory is the best way to speed up a laptop.  Its also the cheapest. Some have mistakenly thought that increasing the size of the hard disk or processor will be the best way to speed up a laptop, ….no way. The best way to speed up a laptop and the cheapest way is to upgrade your ram ( Random access memory).

laptop advice on the Processor

The processor is the brains of the computer. It talks with programs like microsoft word and other programs then It has to interpret instructions that are sent to it by the memory. The processor does 4 things. It collects information, then it decodes the instructions, it executes the instructions then it writes back the information to the memory telling it what it has done. 

 It works by using billions of switches. As the processor does an enormous amount of work. It needs to be cooled down. If a processor  had the same power as your brain it would need a fridge the size planet earth on top of it to cool it down becuase of the amount of instructions sent. The processor in laptops really needs a more cooler system nearly everyones laptop gets hot. The fan only will come on when the processor is piping hot. On a desktop computer the cooling is much better.

Graphics card advice

The graphics card puts an image on your laptop screen. The processor says to the graphics card “quick need an image on screen” or something like this… the graphics card then works out the size of the image wether its in 3d how many pixels used, if it needs shading and lighting affects and so on. It paints an image the same as you would. First it draws a matchstick frame then fills in the colours. Th graphics card on a laptop gets piping hot. In fact the reason laptops break the most is becuase of graphics cards.  Look at the chip with the number 2 on it. This is the graphics card.

The main reason for motherboards dying is becuase unlike memory and hard disks that can be replaced, graphic cards usually are moulded to the board when it was made and therefore cannot be removed. Also companies that make graphics cards are under pressure from large laptop companies. For example the big branded laptop company says we want to make a thin laptop will your graphics card and cooler fan allow us to build this thin laptop, or will the fan and graphics chip be thin enough to fit inside our new super thin laptop.

The graphics card company now is scared to say no or the company will take on a different graphics card. So graphics cards really need a better cooling system they get way too hot. Buying an air can and blowing out dust that clogs up the vents is really the answer to fix this big problem.

Ebay? not at all. The best person or people to ask are those who annually repair over 1500 of them. We asked James Davis the Managing Director of Laptop Repair UK.  “The best laptop in our opinion is the Panasonic CF - 74″.

This laptop is in the middle range semi rugged Panasonic Laptops. First you have the lightweight range. Like the toughbook T7or W7. These are fantstic laptops being very lightweight but featuring all the bells and whistles you would expect on the worlds best laptop company. At the rugged tough military end you have the Panasonic Toughbook CF 30. This laptop has won more awards than any other laptop when it comes to pure “throw it around toughness”. It was Laptop magazines ultimate choice for summer 2008. Just type “Panasonic toughbook tests” into youtube and you will see buckets of water poured over these laptops cars and lorries being driven over them. They always work fine afterwards.

best laptop to buy

However we have chosen the Panasonic semi rugged CF -74 . Just look at this laptop. The strong handle means it will last years. This laptop is lighter than the CF -30. This mid range toughbook is a belter. Its lightning fast with duel core processor. Magnesium alloy case with handle. Shock proof hard drive. Spill resistant touchpad and keyboard.  Laptopshop and Amazon are doing some great deals at the moment on this laptop but be warned you really do get what you pay for . This laptop is not cheap but if you can afford the best then this is what your man will need. A massive  4 gigs of ram make it wickedly quick and touchscreen is just perfect, we absolutly love this laptop not other laptop can compare in looks and durability. Its a real mans laptop. Not for boys. As the speed is incredible this laptop is at the top in our editors award.