laptop Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Will using a laptop with the lid closed damage it?

Posted on August 30, 2025

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Question from Jane: I bought a monitor and connected it to my laptop and then changed the settings so I could close the lid while the laptop is running. It’s been working fine now for about four months.

The thing is one of my friends saw this setup and he told me running the laptop with the lid closed will eventually kill it due to excessive heat build-up.

Is that true? As always, thanks so much for your advice. [Read more…]

How to easily add an optical DVD drive to virtually any computer

Posted on August 21, 2025

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If you’ve been checking out the latest laptops and desktop computers you’ve probably noticed that most of them no longer come with an optical (DVD/CD) drive.

There are three primary reasons why computer manufacturers have started skipping the optical drives when designing new computers: [Read more…]

Q&A: Will the RAM in my old laptop work in a new one?

Posted on July 28, 2025

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Question from Mike: I know it’s time to buy a new laptop and I’m looking to save as much money as possible.

The machine I’m replacing is a Dell Inspiron 14 5000 that I bought back in January 2015.

Since the old Dell has 16GB of RAM in it I was wondering if it’s possible to buy a new laptop with just 4GB of RAM and then swap the RAM from the Dell into the new laptop?

[Read more…]

How to charge any laptop (or most any other gadget) with your car

Posted on July 9, 2025

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These days it’s hard to imagine taking a long drive without having a car charger on board to keep the battery in your cell phone topped off.

But what about your laptop?

While some modern laptops can be charged with a standard USB-type car charger and a compatible cable, there are plenty of others that can only be charged using the AC power brick that came with the laptop. [Read more…]

Try this first if your laptop won’t turn on

Posted on May 5, 2025

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If you ever press the power button on your laptop and it fails to power up, there’s a good chance that you won’t need to replace it or pay for an expensive repair.

A “dead” laptop can be caused by several different issues, but one common cause is a simple transient power issue or some other transient glitch.

If you ever find yourself facing a laptop that won’t turn on when you press the power button, try this before trying anything else: [Read more…]