Mal ,'Ariel'
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If I'm just recycling a laptop do I really need to be paranoid about erasing it?
If I do, I don't think I have the patience for doing it with software as it only works for 10 minutes at a time because the fan is broken. Between that and the wonky power connection, no one can use this thing.
Is there something I can do short of opening it and taking a hammer to the inside?
Sue, is this a recent change in behavior? Also, does it still happen when the netbook is plugged in to the router like (or instead of) the desktop?
dcp, my netbook was out of commission for a couple of months becaus eit took a while to replace the power adpater, but before that, it was fine.
And no, it still won't connect to secure sites when plugged into the router.
Confirm that the date & time on the netbook are correctly set?
DCP, you are a genius! The time was off when I first revived the netbook and I reset that, but didn't look at the date. And it was set for Jan 2, 2002. Thanks so much!!
ETA: Setting the date reminds me I have to call my sister and wish her a happy birthday.
I guessed right! Yay!
If I'm just recycling a laptop do I really need to be paranoid about erasing it?
Where is it headed? I guess you could format the hard drive a few times, most people aren't going to be mining your hard drive, but still...
I thought HP was stopping the HW, not the software, And that they were going to try and get someone else to pick up the hardware slack.
Yah, I think that's what the webOS folks hope for, but it's pretty unlikely. I can't imagine why any hardware manufacturer would license it instead of Android or Windows Phone 7.
Possibly a dumb question, but when you format the hard drive, does that wipe out all the software including Windows or whatever? (Also have a dying-fan laptop I need to get rid of....)
Where is it headed? I guess you could format the hard drive a few times, most people aren't going to be mining your hard drive, but still...
There's actually nothing private on there, no email, passwords, or financial account numbers, so I don't even know what they could get out of it.