Yet another computer question

[Hawkmoon]

I have a friend who seems to have taken up a second career as a notebook computer destroyer. He has gone through three (3) Toshiba Satellite notebooks, each lasting him less than a year. He finally gave up on Windows and went over to a Macbook Pro because his daughter uses a Macbook and he thought he could rely on her for tech support. From what I'm hearing, he has bolluxed up the Macbook to such an extent that his daughter has thrown up her hands in frustration.

He gave me the three Toshibas, all of which I was able to get running by doing a factory reset to the out-of-the-box configuration. The oldest also needed a battery, which I was able to find on Amazon. The two older ones are gone, one donated to the assistant pastor of my church and the other sold on Craigs List.

The newest was a Windows 8.1 machine that I upgraded to Windows 10 while the free upgrade window was still open. It's a decent machine, but in the six or eight months he had it he must have been using it as a dinner tray, because the screen is just nasty. It's my understanding that I should not attack it with Windex or any glass cleaner that has ammonia in it. I've tried plain water, and it didn't get much of the gunk off.

What's the recommended protocol for deep cleaning a notebook computer screen?

[lee n. field]

Windex.  Go ahead.

[Brad Johnson]

I use Sprayway but any spray glass cleaner that's not ammonia-based will do (ammonia can damage some types of surface treatments). Spritz your cleaner of choice on a rag and wipe gently. Never spray directly on the computer.

For really heavy gunk a a clean cotton cloth (i.e. old undershirt) dampened with rubbing alcohol is the trick. Don't use pressure, let the alcohol do the work. Turn often to keep embedded grit from scratching the surface.

Brad

[WLJ]

Whatever you spray on the screen be careful that nothing runs under the bezel on the bottom of the screen. There's usually sensitive electronics, digitizer board, inverter, etc..  under the bezel in that area.

BTW: Used to do Toshiba warranty repair and they told us to use windex, just don't let it sit and it will be fine.

[Hawkmoon]

Thanks, Folks.

[bedlamite]

The smartass in me would give it back to him and tell him to use the self serve car wash to clean it. That will get the viruses off too. Then tell him it's beyond my skillset and take it to the geek squad.

[WLJ]

The smartass in me would give it back to him and tell him to use the self serve car wash to clean it. That will get the viruses off too. Then tell him it's beyond my skillset and take it to the geek squad.

Dishwasher

[lee n. field]

take it to the geek squad.

 

[bedlamite]

Dishwasher

That works too.

[Hawkmoon]

I had a number of recommendations for a 50/50 mix of distilled water and white vinegar. I have both on hand, so I tried it. Seems to have worked pretty well. The screen is a lot cleaner. Nothing is going to wash away the scratches, but the streaks and smudges are mostly gone.

To clarify, he didn't ask me to fix his computer. He gave up, and gave all three of these notebooks to me. The Windows 10 unit is newer and has slightly better specs than my Toshiba ( which is externally identical, but runs Windows 7), so I'm going to hang onto to this one and after Windows 7 passes the end of technical support this Windows 10 unit will become my road warrior computer. (Now that I can see the screen.)

[HeroHog]

I tossed 2 laptops in the trash in the last 2 weeks. One was older and crapped the motherboard AND charging system, the other had a run-in with gravity and the floor. It was my newest and best one too! Damn. My old "spare laptop had the battery suddenly crap out plus it weighed a ton so I took an old HP Envy AMD unit and promoted it to my machine. It was a gift from my FIL after he was forced to give it up (don't ask) and is S.L.O.W. and only has 6gb RAM but, what choice do I have?

[Hawkmoon]

My old "spare laptop had the battery suddenly crap out plus it weighed a ton so I took an old HP Envy AMD unit and promoted it to my machine. It was a gift from my FIL after he was forced to give it up (don't ask) and is S.L.O.W. and only has 6gb RAM but, what choice do I have?

"Only" 6 GB of RAM? Mine run on 4 gigs.

[Calumus]

I took an old HP Envy AMD unit and promoted it to my machine. It was a gift from my FIL after he was forced to give it up (don't ask) and is S.L.O.W. and only has 6gb RAM but, what choice do I have?

What CPU are you running, and is it on Windows 10? I don't let any clients run Windows 10 on a laptop without switching it over to an ssd. There's just too much going on in the background for a 5400rpm drive to keep up with. The Envy series are usually very easy to swap hard drives in.

[HeroHog]

It is a 2.1GHz AMD FX-7500 Radeon, 10 Compute Cores, 4C+6G and has a 750gb HD and is SO SLOW compared to my Intel 2.5GHz with 8g RAM and a 2tb HD!

Yes, it's Win10 as all my machines have been since 10 came out. This one came with 10 on it.

[Brad Johnson]

Mom's ancient Toshiba Satellite laptop ran Win 10 acceptably well and it only had two gigs of RAM. It was no barn burner but handled her modest needs acceptably well. Video seemed to be the only thing it struggled with and I chalk that up to the on board video chipset. It was woefully inadequate when the machine was new. It didn't improve over the intervening decade.

Brad