The Windows XP and Vista operating systems are often configured to automatically restart when a system failure occurs. However if the laptop restarts then it does not give you enough time to actually see the error message before the system restarts, and often the error message is extremely important to efficiently diagnosing computer issues.

The actual error message can be a great help so to prevent the system from automatically restarting you can follow these simple steps in XP.

Right click My Computer > click Properties > Advanced tab > Settings under Startup and Recovery > and remove the check mark from Automatically Restart in the System Failure section.

This may or may not be set by default in Windows XP depending on which Service Pack is installed on the particular refurbished laptops under 200 but it is good to check just in case you ever need to actually see the error message Windows is providing you before it automatically restarts. The error codes are often referred to as stop errors and when you have access to them it can be surprisingly easy to identify what the cause of the issue is simply by researching the code provided.

The system failure screen is known as the BSOD or Blue Screen of Death in the world of computer technicians and Windows operating system users alike. This is the dreaded screen you see which is all blue and has lots of cryptic looking wording in white letters on the screen. As bad as it sounds it can actually be quite easy to resolve the issue on laptops under 300 dollars as well as brand new ones when you know exactly what the error code being displayed is.

You can follow the steps in this laptop tip to see if the check mark is there meaning it will do the automatic restart, or if the check mark is not there meaning it will leave the error on the screen so you can get the necessary error code as well as information you need to help you begin to resolve the issue causing the system failure.

Tags: laptop error message, laptop performance, laptops under 200, laptops under 300, operating system, used laptops, vista laptop

The Power Management Wizard in the original Windows XP Professional operating system which was fully loaded on many new and Dell refurbished laptops is used to set various power management options which include sleep modes, power modes, and the low battery charge alarms as well. This can make it very easy for you to customize the settings on used laptops to fit your particular needs.

The setting Sleep Modes screen will allow you to define the Standby and Hibernate modes. In other words this is where you can go to enable or disable these modes on your laptop. You can also choose what the laptop will do when you close the LCD display. For example when you close the lid of your laptop computer you can have the operating system do nothing, enter Standby mode, or enter Hibernate mode. You may have special instances where these settings allow you to have your laptop remain active for longer durations at certain times.

You will also be able to select just how your used laptop will respond when you push the power button. Once again the selections are to have no action taken, enter Standby mode, or enter Hibernate mode. In addition you may be able to simply have the operating system shut done the laptop all together. One additional choice here is to have the operating system to prompt the user as to what they want to do at this time.

These are extremely handy and give the user a great opportunity to fully customize the power management of their laptop computer. This is not only good for cutting down on power consumption but it may just help extend the life of the computer since it can play a role in keeping it cool and extending the lifespan of the internal components.

Many of the used discount laptops under 200 today are high quality laptops which may have Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 installed on the hard drive. The particular steps will vary slightly between the operating systems yet this type of setting can be located through the Control Panel among other simple means of your choice.

Tags: dell refurbished laptops, discount laptops, laptops under 200, used laptops, vista laptop, windows 7 laptop, xp laptop

Receiving an error regarding the copying of a file after it is has downloaded in Internet Explorer. This would read in effect: “Error copying file or folder – There is not enough free disk space” and will typically indicate an issue with available space on the target drive and not an issue with hard drive diagnostics needing to be performed.

This is not a very common issue today but it used to occur more frequently on much older used laptops which were running a FAT32 setup. This would generally be most likely to apply to laptops running a Windows operating system previous to Windows 2000 Professional on the consumer side. This would be even more unlikely on a Domain client in given business scenarios today.

In this scenario Internet Explorer first downloads the file to a temporary subdirectory and then will copy the file to the intended location. This obviously means that twice the file size is required in available hard drive space and when the temp directory and the destination location are on the same partition then this can be an issue if there is minimal available space on the partition.

Taking a look at just how much free space is available on the drive through the properties of My Computer will give you an indication of whether this is the obvious reason for the laptop error. If this is the case you may want to begin a thorough clean up process on the drive but always consider what data is important before you delete anything. You should always make backups of your data.

On much older used or refurbished laptops there may be the possibility that they are using the FAT32 file system which will have a file size limit of 4GB and would likely cause this exact error message. A 4GB file is a huge file even by today’s standards. This almost fills an entire standard DVD disc so keep in mind that this is still a very large file.

Typically the older computer operating system would be for example Windows ME, 98 or 95 as these were not designed to use NTFS. If you’re old laptop uses Windows NT, 2000, XP or above then you are more than likely running on the NTFS file system and not FAT32 so there is not a set 4GB file size limitation. In other words Win2k, XP and Vista laptops are most likely gong to be running on NTFS and this applies to Windows 7 as well.

If this is the case you could try using Firefox to download the file as it is designed to basically adjust to foregoing any temporary directory and DL straight to the destination if hard drive space is an issue.

If you had to DL a 4GB file with an old laptop computer using the FAT32 file system then you could attempt to change the IE Temporary Internet files location to a drive formatted with NTFS. You could also grab the file using FTP in DOS making sure that there was enough room on the destination drive.

Tags: hard drive diagnostics, laptop performance, Laptop Tech, old laptops, refurbished laptops, used laptops