Fixing Up the Old Laptop

So, I recently purchased a different laptop. I had been using the old MSI Katana for a couple of years and I’ve never fully loved it. I’ve complained about it on these pages in the past, and I finally found something that looked right for me. In talking with some Linux nerds who also play EVE (we started a Discord for EVE players who want to switch to Linux), they were all saying that AMD hardware plays so nicely with Linux. So that was criterion one. Next, it had to have a discrete GPU comparable to the 4050 in the Katana. Criterion two. Like I’ve said on these pages, the touchpad has to be centered or very close to it. Criterion three. It also needed to have a specific texture—hard to tell over photos, but there are some giveaways. Criterion four. With all these criteria, I had my search cut out for me.

I searched Micro Center, Newegg, and the broader web via Brave Search. I found plenty of hits, but the next task was whittling down my options. Honestly, the choices were slim compared to the NVIDIA market, but I still had options. So I was running comparisons between different GPUs and, to a lesser extent, CPUs. I was less worried about the CPU as I’ve had Ryzen chips before and have not been disappointed. The RX 7700S stood out to me as an awesome mid-tier option and the prices were actually fairly impressive. I had snagged the MSI on sale for about 1,000 USD and that was a deal to me. This one came in under that and was slightly more powerful. Score!

I found it on Amazon, so I debated what I would do if there were issues. I think I’ve still got eight days to remain within the 30-day money-back window that Amazon offers, but after that I’m not sure what I’ll do if problems arise. Hopefully it’s like the old laptop where I just remove the cooler, clean out the heatsinks, and repaste the sucker. Because if they want me to show them the error in Windows… since that’s how THEY planned on this hardware being used… and I’m running Linux (because I BOUGHT THE THING and should be able to do WHAT I WANT WITH IT)… and if my superior kernel says there’s a hardware issue and I’ve done all that I can to mitigate it, then there is a hardware issue and I need a replacement. A bridge we’ll hopefully never have to cross :D.

The repaste and cleaning was all I did to the old laptop. It was QUITE dirty. The temps went from running at like 90°C idle to around 50°C idle… quite the difference. The old paste job wasn’t the greatest, or the paste had just seen better days. I have abused that laptop quite a bit. It operates on a lap, on a bed, and on fabric all the time in a house with five cats who also constantly sit on my lap and shed. That plus the extreme heat of Cities: Skylines, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Sekiro, and you’ve got a recipe for failure. So there must have been microscopic hot spots causing portions of the GPU or CPU to do something the kernel didn’t like and it shut it down. Because let me tell you… it shut it down. Like, my GPU wasn’t even there anymore. At least not from a usability standpoint.

Now I’m looking for what to do with this laptop. Mini server sitting on my dresser? Distro hopper for testing NVIDIA things? (Though it would be limited to newer kernels—I still haven’t figured out why older kernels can’t see the wireless card.) Its role will be determined before too long, but for now it sits idle next to me.

Here’s to a new lease on life!