Hard drive manufacturing affected
Friday 18th November at 09:36 am by Sam Francis | View/edit comments
To hit the news this week was the expected significant impact on hard drive manufacturing due to the record flooding conditions in Thailand. Supplies around the world will be affected and prices are expected to soar. One drive manufacturer, Western Digital, is completely under water-resulting in approximately 32,400,000 fewer drives in the fourth quarter alone. Compounding this crisis is the fact that Nidec, the manufacturer of the motors used by nearly every hard drive manufacturer, is also having to completely shut down. Thus, a critical component is no longer available to other HDD manufacturers. We will keep you posted.
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We are pleased to announce that you can now keep up-to-date online with any repairs you have with us. When you log a job with us, you will receive an email and link to have a live update of your call. We hope you like this new measure and with an average turnaround of just 5 days, I am sure you will like the whole experience.
We’ve often talked about keeping your laptop safe both when you’re using it in a public place or even just carrying it in its bag. Isafe bags have come up with a great solution to help you feel more secure when traveling with your laptop on your shoulder. They have designed both a laptop bag and backpack fitted with a mobile security alarm. The alarm is easily activated, a pull on the cord sets off the audible alarm and flashing light. Not only should this attract attention to the situation but will hopefully send the would-be attackers running. By replacing the pin the alarm will be silenced and reset ready to be used again.
If you use your laptop on your lap, or leave it plugged in all the time, you may well be cruising for what some experts call Picnic (Problem in Chair Not in Computer). 
The Kindle fire has definitely been the most talked about tablet in the last couple of weeks. And its being said that it could rival the Ipad.
Following the release a few months ago of the consumer based Lenovo tablet, the IdeaPad K1, Lenovo have now released their commercial model stating they are the first manufacturer to produce a model for each market. The ThinkPad Tablet was released last month with a base price of $499 (16GB). The tablet uses a 10.1-inch screen and runs Google's Android 3.1 operating system. 
This is what happens when you leave your power adapter plugged into your laptop and then carry it around like that. Due to too much pressure, the centre pin has snapped during transport in the laptop bag, physically pushing the port off the board so no power will ever get to it again. Simple repair for us though, a bit of resoldering by our expert team and its back to normal.
Jelly could be the solution to faster, more efficient and lower cost batteries say some clever researchers at 
A giggle for the weekend. Just when you thought you'd seen in all, today, I came across a bizarre series of videos on YouTube showing a crazy Japanese man using the edge of his Macbook Air to cut an apple in half, dice mushrooms, and even slice shrimp. We know it's light, but we don't think this is what Apple had in mind for the super-slim notebook.
Sony have developed an accessory for laptops so the user can view 3-D images without glasses. The 3mm thick lenticular sheet has been designed for Sony's Vaio S series but can be used on any laptop that has a webcam and will be offered out to other manufactures. The sheet is 15.5 inch and clips onto the side of the laptop screen. Although this seems like a great idea, the price - approximately £115 - seems like a lot to pay to add 3-D to a laptop.
Found this great 
If your battery does not seem to be charging, before you go a replace it, you need to consider a few things. It might not be the battery at all, your charger may have become faulty or you might have an issue with the power port so it isn’t doing its job properly. To test the battery for sure, do the following first which will give you an indication if the battery’s life is over.
When we pick up the phone or answer an email, our customers often start with the phrase 'My laptop screen' then normally followed by 'is smashed'. The most common faults are;
An amazing deal that will last until all stock has gone - you'll be able to nab a 16GB 
These days, it is very difficult to source a laptop with a com port or properly known as a serial port as this is old technology, USB has taken over. The problem is that some people still need this connectivity to work with their existing hardware. The easiest way is to source a reconditioned laptop from the likes of ebay or a specialist laptop repairer such as ourselves, we always hold older technology as you never know when you might need it. Alternatively, you can source port replicators that will do the trick, for more information, 
We love it when we can help someone without taking a penny from them. Today, a lady came in complaining that her screen wasn't bright enough. It turned out that she had 
HP is looking to sell off its Personal Systems Group (PSG), which is responsible for is laptops and desktops for the consumer market. Confirming the news in the company’s latest earnings report. HP has said that it is looking to offload its PC division as it concentrates on its new found love of becoming a business to business rather than a consumer facing company. What this actually means is that is needs to concentrate on earning more money for its shareholders as revenue has declined 3 per cent year over year with a 5.9 per cent operating margin. HP plans instead to focus on its investments, resources and management attention to drive higher value solutions to enterprise, small and midsize business and public sector customers.
Hard disc drives (HDD) get bigger and bigger every year, but what happens when your 120GB laptop drive needs replacing? Are you aware that most of the time the replacement drive is not new and has been refurbished? This is because the manufacturers are only in the market for making drives of the current market so if you need a smaller one, it is likely to be a reconditioned one. Don’t worry though, you are not buying one that has literally come out of someone else’s machine, the suppliers do follow standard practices before the hard drive can be re-sold.
Panasonic has been an industry standard catering for the more robust user like the armed forces or field based engineers. The new Toughbook S10, however, lends itself more to the business executive with security in mind. It has all you would expect with a 12.1-inch antiglare screen but with added bonuses of;.png)
Many companies are making employees use their laptops longer with our economy being as it is. If you are starting to tell your employees to keep plugging along with their laptops for four or five years instead of just three, you may well be running into an unexpected expense: dead laptop batteries. At £40 a pop on average, it is something that needs thinking about before spending unnecessarily
Here’s a great gadget, the Ergo-Tilt laptop stand, designed to keep your back, neck, and wrists relaxed as well as allowing ventilation under the laptop to help keep it cool. 
As default Windows XP will put your laptop into sleep mode (standby) when you close the lid. For those of us who don’t use an external monitor, this makes justifiable sense if you have finished using it for the time being but need to go back to it shortly as it saves battery life and gives it the chance to cool down while not in use.
People often get confused between needing memory for a laptop and increasing their hard drive size. Very simply, memory helps your laptop function, like the brain does for the human body and the hard drive is where you store information, like the stomach. So if your laptop is running slow, more often than not, it may need more memory (RAM) or you might just need to reinstall your operating system from scratch and give it a good service. For advice on this, please 
The web is a great tool to find out how to repair a laptop but DIY methods often get people into a sticky mess. Our team endeavor to promote methods of looking after your laptop to keep it in good health and we also have a section on our website to try and resolve issues. .jpg)
A security researcher named Charlie Miller from Accuvant Labs claims to have found a new security flaw in Apple laptops by manipulating chips embedded inside the Apple laptop batteries. He believes hackers could ruin laptop batteries by infecting them with malware or potentially cause them to overheat and catch fire.
Fujitsu have designed a bendable laptop to give the user a realistic notebook experience. It’s dual screen and when you are using it as a laptop the lower screen acts as a virtual keyboard. But when you turn the laptop on its side it activates the ‘notebook’ function so the user can take advantage of the bending angles to ‘page’ through photo’s, data and music. Although this seems like a cool gadget and it would definitely be an interesting experience ‘flipping’ through the pages, I’m not sure how popular or practical it would be.
Toshiba have released a portable monitor that connects to your laptop through the USB. The screen resolution isn’t great but adding an extra 14” of screen to your laptop will make big difference. The monitor comes attached to its own faux leather carrying case, which is great for protecting the screen but also doubles up as a stand. And with it only weighing 2.8 pounds portability is no problem at all.
The gScreen Spacebook is finally available for pre order. This mammoth laptop is not the best choice for portability – as it weighs a whopping 10lbs and is 2 inches thick, but it does have its selling points. The main USP is that it boasts two 17.3 inch HD displays. It has a handy screen sliding ability which provides the user with a single or dual-screen interface. There are two models in the range – the i5 and i7 with the main difference being the processor. The i5 has a dual-core Intel processor while the i7 boasts a quad-core Intel processor. For more information and pricing click 
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With all the lovely weather we're having you may be wanting to use your laptop outdoors but find it difficult to see your screen in the sun. If this is the case why not buy a screen protector that also has glare and UV protection. Colors are sharpened and it'll feel like you're using your laptop indoors. Scratch resistant with longer lasting screen protection - it’s a win win product for your laptop.
Often, when liquid is spilt on a laptop and it ceases to power up, people automatically think that the laptop is beyond redemption. However, this is not the case, 8/10 times it simply needs a keyboard replacement for as little as £60.00 including pickup and delivery. You must be quick to act though before further damage is caused. Click 
Thats right, Panasonic have added to their fantastic Toughbook range by releasing the Android-based Toughbook tablet. Made with military-grade protective material this new tablet is practically indestructible. It has a 10.1 inch resistive screen with a high brightness level designed for use outdoors and a battery able to last a “full shift.”
Great News! This increases my chances to buy it :-)