Laptops are some of the greatest tools at our disposal. They are completely portable for those of us on the go, on average they consume 90 percent less energy than a desktop computer and they are gradually getting cheaper every time we turn around. What more could we ask for? How about a huge list of resources for laptop consumers, well here you go.

Laptop Buying and Selling Guides - Be informed before venturing into the marketplace.

There is a lot to consider when buying or selling a laptop. If you are looking into buying a new or used laptop, you need to consider pricing, hardware and software, manufacturers and everything else that goes along with the purchase so why not make an informed decision. Or maybe you just bought a new laptop and now you want to recoup a little money off of your old one, why not do a little reading and maximize your return on the sale. That is exactly what the resources below will help you with.

1. The Essential Buying Guide for Laptops by PC Magazine offers a ton of information on buying laptops. This guide is a great resource for buying cheap laptops, gaming laptops, business laptops, portable laptops and more. This is a must read if you are in the market for a laptop.
2. Laptop Selling Tips for eBay has some great tips that will help you determine whether a potential buyer is a scammer and gives you advice on how to manage your auctions from beginning to end to ensure a smooth selling experience.
3. The Laptop Buying Guide on Cnet helps you determine which laptop will be the best for you. Everything is broken down into specific user categories making it easy to determine which hardware and features will suit you best.
4. Geek.com wrote an article titled Laptop Buying Guide - Warranty, which as the title suggests covers the ever so important warranty of your new laptop. Specifically it helps you to determine what types of warranty to look for and what those warranties cover.
5. So You Wanna Buy a Laptop is a very informative 5 page article that covers everything from how to determine if a laptop is right for you to finding the best store to buy your laptop.
6. The Laptop Buyer’s Guide from LaptopMag.com breaks down different types of laptops into categories such as desktop replacement notebooks, ultra-portable laptops, multimedia notebooks and so on. This makes finding the right laptop very easy because you can see which laptop offers what features to function best for your needs.
7. Stop by Switched for Five Things to Consider When Buying a Laptop. You will learn more about laptop battery life, weight and more things to think about before spending your hard earned cash.
8. Yes, even eBay has a Laptops Buying Guide. It is a very detailed guide and caters towards those of you planning to purchase a laptop from the eBay marketplace.
9. Learn How to Buy a Laptop from PC World. Not only does this guide cover buying the right laptop, but it also offers some insightful advice for getting the best value and maximizing your purchase. You might also have a look at their When to Buy a Laptop article, to maximize your savings and get the best deal.
10. The article How to Sell a Used Laptop Online over at eHow.com offers some sound advice for selling on Craigslist and eBay, its worth a read.
11. Wayne University has A Comprehensive Guide for Buying Laptop Computers, that takes a little deeper look into the hardware and functions of your future purchase. Many consumers are not to sure about all of the hardware and components that make up a good laptop, so you might want to have a look at this article.
12. Best Buy also offers a Laptop Computer Buying Guide for those of you in the market. It is written to be a little more on the basic side of things but informative none the less.

Best Places Online to Buy and Sell Laptops

This is by no means a definitive list of laptop shops, but it is a nice list of some of the best places on the Internet. Remember that when your buying and selling any merchandise, you should be working with trusted sources.

1. Over at Ebay.com buy new, used and refurbished laptops from the worlds biggest online auction. Of course you can also setup an account and sell your old laptop for a nice profit.
2. Geeks.com sells both new and refurbished laptops at great prices.
3. SuperWarehouse.com sells new laptops, most brands are available and shipping is free on all orders over $299.
4. TigerDirect.com sells both new and refurbished laptops at decent prices.
5. Fry’s Electronics - Great prices on laptops from a well trusted store. They run rebate offers regularly which provides great savings.
6. Dell laptops are some of the most popular on the market and some of the cheapest, stop by their website to customize your own today.
7. Amazon.com - Amazon is one of the most popular online shopping destinations and rightfully so. You can find great prices on new, used and refurbished laptops.
8. Craigslist is a great place to find some cheap laptops and you can deal locally to cut out high shipping costs. You might also consider selling your laptop there for a quick buck.
9. USANotebook.com offers an easy system to sell your old laptop for some cash. They buy 1 laptop or a 100 laptops from both private sellers and businesses. You can also buy laptops on their site for cheap prices starting under $250.
10. PcConnection.com has some great prices on laptops, easy shopping and also sells a ton of other computer products including servers.

Laptop Security - Information and products for a safer laptop.

Did you know that one out of every ten laptops will be stolen within the first 12 months of purchase? What’s worse is that 90% of those stolen laptops will never be recovered. That is a pretty frighteningly low number of recoveries. Why not invest in some of these security options to give you a little better chance of being in the 10% of people that do get their laptop back.

1. CyberAngel - After reporting that your laptop has been stolen, CyberAngel will lock and encrypt the data on your laptop and locate its position to notify the authorities. So far they have had great luck with recovering stolen laptops, and have been featured in the news several times.
2. Ever wonder How to Stop Laptop Theft? Can it even be done? This very informative 4 page article will get you a step closer to knowing the truth.
3. Inspice Trace not only allows you to track your laptop in the event of theft, but it can also unrecoverably destroy all of the data on your laptop remotely to prevent unauthorized access.
4. Stop unwanted people from accessing personal information on your computer with a Fingerprint Reader from Microsoft.
5. CompuTrace is a highly recommended suite of laptop security tools. Their protection plans include theft recovery, theft deterrence, data protection and more.
6. The PC Phone Home software enables your laptop to send an email with its location to an email address of your choice each time it access the Internet. In the event that your laptop has been stolen, as soon as the thief access the Internet, you can notify the authorities of its location. Have a Mac? Not a problem, try out Mac Phone Home instead.
7. Laptop security locks are one of the most popular devices due to their affordable price tag. While they serve more as theft deterrent than anything, they are still another viable way to protect your assets. You can find them through most stores that sell computer products.
8. Keep Your Hands on Your Handhelds will show you how to keep your laptop and other portable devices from being lost or stolen.
9. xTool’s Laptop Tracker offers the most recovery methods out of any tracking program by using the Internet, webcam, caller id and even GPS.
10. YouGetItBack.com provides a unique service for recovering your lost goods. Simply place one of their tags on your laptop and if it is found the finder can contact their 800 number and have it returned. They claim that 75% of all the lost merchandise with their tags gets returned to its rightful owner, not bad.
11. You can always stop by Doberman Security and pick up the Laptop Defender, a wireless alarm system for your laptop. Now those would be crooks won’t be touching your laptop anymore.
12. Interested in more lost item recovery services like YouGetItBack.com above? Well then why don’t you check these guys out:
    • TrackItBack.com
    • ArmorTag.com
    • BoomerangIt.com
    • zReturn.com
    • StuffBak.com

Tips for Increasing the Performance of Your Laptops Battery

There is nothing worse, than being on the road trying to get some work done and all of the sudden your laptops battery dies. Now, instead of getting some work done, you are looking around frantically for a place to plug-in, which of course is never around. Save yourself from the headaches, try some of these tips to maintain laptop battery life and performance.

1. Don’t allow your battery to discharge completely. Allowing a battery to completely discharge can have very negative effects on the overall performance and life of the battery. Often times we find that by draining the battery can in some cases cause complete battery failure or drastically shorten the charge capacity of the battery. What this means in plain English is your battery will die and/or not hold as much of a charge therefor draining quicker than it should.

   Many manufacturers recommend that your battery is stored and maintained at around half or 40% charge to maintain optimal performance. Always read the user manual that came with your laptop, or if it is a replacement battery read the included documentation

2. Take care of your battery and keep it clean. I should probably say this twice, but I won’t. Taking care of your laptop battery is crucial to its performance. Over time the metal contacts on the battery will build up gunk that can cause the battery to work harder than it should in its daily operation. So once a month, pull out the battery and wipe it down with a cloth, clean off the contacts and you will extend its life.
3. Add more memory or RAM to your laptop. Many people would speculate that this method will not help to save battery performance due to the fact that more memory requires more power to maintain. While this reasoning is true in part, if your laptop is short on RAM, your hard drive will be constantly running to make up the difference, via your swapping file, which in turn would use a lot more power and battery life. If you are using a laptop that has say 512mb of RAM, increasing this to 1gb should be more than enough to maintain optimal performance.
4. Turn off your Wifi while not in use. There is usually a switch to turn off your Wifi, however you may need to turn it off in the Wifi configuration panel. Your Wifi uses a lot of power when it is not connected because it is constantly searching for a connection, so it is a good idea to make sure it is turned off when not in use.
5. Set your laptop to hibernate rather than stand-by mode while sitting idle. While stand-by mode is great for saving on power consumption, setting your laptop to hibernate will allow the computer to completely shut itself down and still save your laptops state where you left off. Both options are good, you should at least be doing one of them, but hibernation will be the most effective.
6. Remove your battery while running your laptop on AC. If you are working from home and your laptop is plugged in to the AC, removing your battery is a good habit to have. Keep in mind that you do not want to store your battery completely discharged, but this method will allow your laptop battery to take a break while not in use.
7. Lower your graphics use. You can save a lot of power consumption by dimming your screen, lowering the screen resolution and removing the fancy graphics. Windows especially uses a lot of graphics on the menu’s and such, which is easily turned off and cut out a lot of the battery drain. The overall look may not be as pretty, but were going for battery life here.
8. Keep your laptops air vents clean. Laptops, or computers in general operate more efficiently when running at cooler temperatures. This is also why you see high end computers with water cooling systems. Anyways, by keeping the air vents clean you allow more air flow for the fans to run and the laptop will remain considerably cooler.
9. Optimal laptop performance causes optimal battery performance. Over all, the better your laptop performs the longer your laptop battery will last. It is very disruptive to your day when your laptop battery dies and you are constantly looking for a good place to plug in. So use the tips above to maintain your laptops battery at peak performance and life on the go should be a little easier.
10. Remove USB devices when not in use. Usb devices often require a good amount of power to continue running. If you are not using them make sure to remove them from the computer and this will help to save on battery consumption.

Does Your Laptop Have These Must Have’s?

1. There is just no way to start off this list without mentioning Firefox. If you haven’t already dropped Internet Explorer for Firefox, you are way behind the times. One of the best attributes of Firefox, aside from its superior performance, is how easily it is to customize the look and feel with the numerous add-ons available.
2. If you are looking for something a little different than plain old Windows, you might consider giving Linux a try. Currently, there are over 200 Linux distributions available to match your needs. If you need more information, you should have a look at 31 Resources for Installing and Running Linux on Your Laptop.
3. Keep in touch with your friends with GoogleTalk, a great IM (Instant Messaging) client from Google. If you prefer to talk in person, you might consider installing the Skype service on your laptop.
4. Unless you popped the extra dough for a Windows Business edition, you are probably lacking a suite of office tools, to keep you working on the go. The best option in this case is to go download your copy of OpenOffice.org, a free, open source office suite.
5. If you are in need of a solid, customizable email client for your laptop on the go, head over to the Mozilla website and download Thunderbird for all of your mail sending needs.

Laptop Repair and Upgrade Guides - Get that laptop running at peak performance.

Did you know that your laptop is about 30 percent more likely to fail than your desktop computer. Why? Because they get lugged around, beat-up in your carrying cases and often used in less than desirable conditions. Just knowing that information should make you a little more pro-active in maintaining your poor old laptop from it’s constant barrage of abuse. The resources below will help you protect and repair your laptop.

1. 10 Fast Fixes for Nagging PC Problems will help you with slow start-up times, slow Wi-Fi connections, broken keyboard keys and more, check it out.
2. PcAnswers.co.uk offers tons of great tips, advice and tutorials on many of the common and not so common problems that plague our pc’s.
3. Learn how to Make Your Old Laptop Wireless from Yahoo tech. Most new laptops come with wireless capabilities, but if you are still rocking that older laptop, this article may be helpful to you.
4. PC Troubleshooting and Laptop Repair from DailyInt.com includes advice on extending the life of your laptop battery, how to upgrade an old laptop and more information on laptop repair and troubleshooting. It is worth a look.
5. LaptopRepair101.com offers tons of helpful links to laptop service manuals, repair guides and more, this site is a great resource to have in your toolbox.
6. Have you been looking for Cheap Notebook Tweaks to Maximize Your Laptop? If your laptop hasn’t been running at its peak performance, you may want to have a look that article. You might also want to read these 12 Cheap Ways to Give an Old Laptop a New Life for more great tips.
7. If after reading all of the information above, you still can’t fix that laptop you might consider asking your specific questions at some of these sites:
   • Yahoo! Answers
   • Google Answers
   • AnswerBag
   • All Experts
   • Askpedia
   • Just Answer
8. You can also visit some of the laptop and notebook forums for more help.