Entrepreneur On a Budget: Adding New Life to My Old HP Laptop

I’m going on a business trip soon, which means lots of hours on the road. My little family and I always travel together, so of course I have to have some sort of portable DVD player for Chris when he’s not watching Scooby Doo on my Android or daddy’s Samsung (lol). Anyhoo, while I was going over my trip itinerary I thought to myself, it would be soooooooo wonderful to have my laptop working while I’m on the go. My laptop (aka) my other baby, is a trooper. I worked my battery down to the last drop SO if she’s not plugged in, bless her little heart she ain’t turning on (lol).

I know, I know, I should be ashamed. We techies aren’t always as up-to-date on the latest gadgets as we should be. Not only that, I hate to part with this one. Its an “hp pavilion entertainment pc”, its got all the right bells and whistles. A wide screen (perfect for all my web design projects), webcam, wireless, SD card slots, and all my graphic software. It takes a while to break in your laptop, I hate to even think about doing it again. SO I finally did the thing I’ve been avoiding for ages, I got a new battery for my baby. The average 6-cell battery lasts about 90 minutes, BUT I decided to visit the official HP Parts Store online and get a 12-cell battery that lasts a wopping 4 hours! I dropped a little cash and with express mail, to my surprise I had my new battery the next day.

And that my friends is how this busy business lady on a budget added new life to her old HP laptop. The next thing on my todolist is getting an HP Mini, so I can have something a little more light weight and portable for business trips. Now that I know Netflix (my entertainment necessity) is viewable on iPad, I am seriously considering getting one BUT the drawback for me is that an iPad wouldn’t compare to my HP as far as being able to do graphics and web design and have all my digital design software where ever I go.

As I mentioned in another post about BlackWeb2.0 Giveaway: Win an HP Mini 210 HD: Of all the computer brands that I’ve had ( IBM, Apple, Sony, Fujitsu, Dell, AND Hewlett Packard) … my HP gave me the best bang for my buck with all the features that I wanted. While I do have the option of getting both an IPAD and a Mini, I’m not a fan of overspending just to be up on the trends. My main focus is getting something that works best for my business, so I’ll keep you posted on what I decide to get.

For now, I just wanted to share an easy way you can stick to your budget and work with the laptop you have, if getting something new is not an option. If battery life isn’t an issue, but space is then consider getting an external hard drive. I have two WD Passport External hard drives. One serves as a backup. I don’t touch it. I just put stuff on it in case my other stuff goes kaput! Then I have my day-to-day external drive where I put my main files, so I keep the space on my HP Laptop light and breezy. In the past I’ve been known to stuff my computers full of files, so this time I decided the external drive was the best way to go. BUT I’m going off on a totally different topic now, I clearly need to talk tech more often.

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