A laptop project

Carl's daughter, Kim, had given him a laptop that was no longer working well. He decided to dig into it while we were in Fruita. It had several symptoms -- 

• Windows was running really slow - diagnosis:  slow hard drive, 8G memory, old technology
• it would not remember basic settings when booted up (date and time, boot order) - diagnosis: battery for NVRAM was not working
• it would not work without being plugged in and it was difficult to keep the power supply plugged in - diagnosis: laptop battery shot and wire in power supply was broken

He got a new power supply, and now it stays plugged in okay.

After taking the back/bottom off, he could see components...

Zoomed in: The NVRAM battery was a 3V button cell, but not the same any that we had, however, he could replace it with a 2032 button battery. It now remembers the boot order; it still doesn't keep date and time, but he is thinking that a new laptop battery might resolve that.

A task still in progress...  I think he likes tinkering...