TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 1,980
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
It was all going so well...
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This month I've been... on the terminal tip. With Linux finally playing nice with gaming laptops, and sweet-talking our IT team to give me access to my work accounts, the move away from Windows has been a joy. I'm a computer nerd and learning how a new computer works is always a pleasure. Well... mostly.
I am surprised at just how damned grotty this thing is. I pulled the old XPS laptop out of my wardrobe because I've started wearing cardigans and have therefore become a bit of a Linux bore. I was keen to see whether I could resurrect an old system—whose end times had come regarding shifting to Windows 11—with a lightweight Linux distro.
But I was not prepared for either how grubby this old machine had got in the worryingly cold and damp darkest recesses of my built-in wardrobe, nor how lightweight the specs of this actual system really were.
It's sticky. And, I think, kinda moldy. And I'm not certain how that can happen to a laptop and it still turn on. Seriously, there really is something odd about the material Dell used around the keyboard of this ol' thing, and it hasn't dealt well with the intervening years in solitary isolation. But a little isopropyl and this thing is going to feel good as new. So, here we are with a resurrected little Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 that now feels far more zippy and sports a way better battery life than it had back in the Windows 10 days of mid-2019. Well, it does sometimes, but as I found out, time is a harsh mistress on Li-Polymer batteries.
I'm writing this piece right now on the ancient Dell machine and the system feels snappier than it has any right to with just 8 GB of LPDDR3 memory. And I've not made it an easy task, either, because I'm doing this on a 2-in-1, and Linux does not have the best history of touchscreen support.
But I will say things didn't look good when I first tried to boot up this old XPS.
Powering the device on with a power cable connected and I'm confronted by a series of solid pages of colour cycling through on rotation. Eep. Moldy laptop looks like it's got a dead LCD.
Having done a bit of research, it seems like these old XPS machines will go into this sort of display debug page if there's an issue with the monitor panel or electronics, but there were a few things to try and see if I could get past it. Which I tried. Unsuccessfully. I power cycled the lapt...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
This month I've been... on the terminal tip. With Linux finally playing nice with gaming laptops, and sweet-talking our IT team to give me access to my work accounts, the move away from Windows has been a joy. I'm a computer nerd and learning how a new computer works is always a pleasure. Well... mostly.
I am surprised at just how damned grotty this thing is. I pulled the old XPS laptop out of my wardrobe because I've started wearing cardigans and have therefore become a bit of a Linux bore. I was keen to see whether I could resurrect an old system—whose end times had come regarding shifting to Windows 11—with a lightweight Linux distro.
But I was not prepared for either how grubby this old machine had got in the worryingly cold and damp darkest recesses of my built-in wardrobe, nor how lightweight the specs of this actual system really were.
It's sticky. And, I think, kinda moldy. And I'm not certain how that can happen to a laptop and it still turn on. Seriously, there really is something odd about the material Dell used around the keyboard of this ol' thing, and it hasn't dealt well with the intervening years in solitary isolation. But a little isopropyl and this thing is going to feel good as new. So, here we are with a resurrected little Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 that now feels far more zippy and sports a way better battery life than it had back in the Windows 10 days of mid-2019. Well, it does sometimes, but as I found out, time is a harsh mistress on Li-Polymer batteries.
I'm writing this piece right now on the ancient Dell machine and the system feels snappier than it has any right to with just 8 GB of LPDDR3 memory. And I've not made it an easy task, either, because I'm doing this on a 2-in-1, and Linux does not have the best history of touchscreen support.
But I will say things didn't look good when I first tried to boot up this old XPS.
Powering the device on with a power cable connected and I'm confronted by a series of solid pages of colour cycling through on rotation. Eep. Moldy laptop looks like it's got a dead LCD.
Having done a bit of research, it seems like these old XPS machines will go into this sort of display debug page if there's an issue with the monitor panel or electronics, but there were a few things to try and see if I could get past it. Which I tried. Unsuccessfully. I power cycled the lapt...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?