We know you truly love your laptop. After all you've invested a bomb in it, but guys don't forget that it's only a gadget and won't be with you all your life. Here's a list of things that will help you know when is it time for you to say good bye to your precious laptop and invest in a new one:

* If you're fed up of replacing your laptop keys just because the letters on the keys keep fading every time and you're unable to distinguish between 'K' and 'J' or 'R' and 'T'
* If on pressing the spacebar once, it keeps running until you don't hit it ten times and force it to stop
* If the keys get stuck while typing and you need to physically pull out alphabets from the keyboard
* When your laptop's screen brightness starts fading and suddenly retains its glow making you feel that your laptop is haunted
* Every time you sit down to do some important work and your useless laptop shuts down right in time
* If your laptop is a Pentium 1 that's totally outdated and your niece is using the latest version
* If your software engineer makes it a point to visit your place once in ten days and you know that it isn't because of your good looks
* If it doesn't work long hours even after you totally charge it and you have to borrow your colleague's laptop 
* If your cell phone has the capacity to hold more songs than your laptop
* If it's rendered services for say, a decade
* The screen is garbled with vertical multi-colour lines
* If you have to switch on your laptop before going for lunch so that it starts by the time you finish your meal and get back to your seat
* If you have to listen to songs on your iPod or cellphone just because your useless laptop refuses to play songs
* If it keeps irritating you with those silly virus messages or alerts everytime you switch on your laptop
* If your laptop makes funny noises every time you turn on the volume
* If you press on a button and something else gets pressed. For instance, everytime you press 'START' while playing a game and the 'MAIN MENU' opens up
* If a program is never finished until the programmer dies
* If your laptop weighs as much as a dead body !

Laptop checklist
Features to consider before investing in a laptop:
* Brand
* Size and weight
* Battery
* Resolution
* Extended warranty period
* Hard drive capacity
* At least 2 GB RAM 
* Connectivity
* A laptop with Centrino Duo certification, in which the processor, chipset, and wireless network card all work together to help maximise battery life
* Input devices
* Software
* Price

vipasha.pillai@mid-day.com