[gunn1]

I have a Acer Aspire 5532 Laptop which I want to use in my truck for doing Daily job reports. The fact that I am left handed and don't want to sit sideways while doing my laptop work has given me an idea. If I fabricated a mounting system which would allow me to mount and dismount the laptop easily in the same location as the sun visor.(directly above and in front of my head) Once this was accomplished I would use my remote keyboard to control the mouse and keyboard functions through a USB. Being the laptop is now upside down the screen oreintaion/landscape would be flipped and enabled so I could enter the data/work with it. When finished I would flip the screen up(like a visor) when wanting to work I would flip down screen(again like a visor)start up and work. My Question-is it harmful to for the laptop to remain upsidedown or inverted? I would think not, being everything is solid state other than the cooling fan and recordable disc drive. Any ideas?
Gunn

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I haven't tried it, but it should be fine. Just make sure that there is enough space for cooling underneath the laptop - so if you are mounting it upside down on the roof, there'll need to be airflow to stop the thing from overheating. Just make sure to include that in your design process.

If you do it, take a picture when it's done - I'd like to see it!

[Troy]

I haven't tried it, but it should be fine. Just make sure that there is enough space for cooling underneath the laptop - so if you are mounting it upside down on the roof, there'll need to be airflow to stop the thing from overheating. Just make sure to include that in your design process.

If you do it, take a picture when it's done - I'd like to see it!

[gunn1]

Thank you,
I have Asked some of the Guys @ the "Geek Squad" and others at Electronics stores, none of them have said it would cause a problem, Except the cooling thing as you Mentioned. I will Take a photo when finished, it may be a few weeks though. If anyone else has a comment +'s or -"s please advise.
Thank you, Gunn

[dsenette]

the only time you really run into issues with computer orientation (as far as physical orientation) is when you're not only holding the machine at an odd angle but introducing vibrations. if the computer is either flat on it's top or bottom then the platters in the hard drive or the CD/DVD in the optical drive are rotating on a horizontal plane. when you vibrate the device (or shake it) the platter or disk vibrates or shakes relatively vertically and doesn't introduce too much wobble into the spin because of centripetal force (like a gyroscope), however if the device is tilted at an odd angle side to side or front to back, you can introduce a wobble into the spin of the platter or disk which can cause parts of the drive itself to come in contact with the platter or disk in question.

since you're talking about this thing being in a car (hopefully not in too much use while the thing is moving) make sure to construct your mount in such a way as to hold the laptop as level as possible while it's on the ceiling

[wannabe1]

To add to dsenette's advice...which is something you really need to consider...you can get around the platter damage issue by installing a solid state hard drive in the lappy.

[dsenette]

indeed...also helps with the cooling issues as you won't have a standard hard drive churning out all that heat

[gunn1]

Thank you for all the great input. I do have the Heat issue taken care of with the fittment I have designed and it is perfectly level with the plane of the truck. I had thought "Hard drive" meant "Solid State"-no moving parts, so is a hard drive simular to a recordable disc drive? It must be more robust than a recordable drive? Last year I did have a smaller Motion Tablet Actually mounted ON my visor, It worked seamlessly with no issues, that is what gave me the idea to attempt this, in a larger scale/Monitor.
The Laptop will not be used unless the truck is stopped/parked, so vibration shouldn't be an issue with the drive unless it can be damaged by just being in the truck while it is being driven.
The more I think about it the more positives I come up with:
*up out of the way of Coffee(spills)
*no way dust or dirt can settle into keyboard-Its upside down!
*no more broken Aircards/USB plugins
*When flipped up it is not noticable from outside of truck (Theft)
*Can "hold" blueprint in lap without having to "shuffle" the laptop to another spot.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks again for all of your feedback and helpful advise.
Gunn

[dsenette]

I had thought "Hard drive" meant "Solid State"-no moving parts, so is a hard drive simular to a recordable disc drive?

hard drive refers to the fact that it's non volatile storage (i.e. when you turn the power off the data stays put)

basic HD operation involves one or more aluminum disks (or platter) that have been coated in a magnetic substance. there's a motor that spins that platter(s) up at high speed, then there's an arm with one or more read/write heads that travels back and forth across a portion of the radius of the platter(s). that head either reads or writes data as ones and zeros to the magnetic substance on the platter. the connection between the platter(s) and the spindle on the motor is pretty robust so there's not a whole lot of wiggle room (like in a CD drive) but there's still a chance for the read/write head to come in contact with the platter, which is bad

[gunn1]

I have not looked yet but were would I buy a Solid State hard drive for my Acer 5532, and how difficult would it be to make the change? Being it is solid state it is probably quite expensive. Then theres the issue of reloading all of the programs and settings, Back into the new drive.
Thanks again,
Gunn

[wannabe1]

Solid State Drives (SSD) are still a bit spendy, but they are very fast and reliable. NewEgg.com has several listed and a few are pretty good deals. It boils down to how big a drive you want in your computer.

Making the change would be relatively easy, but will require a little preparation. If you haven't already, you'll need to create the recovery disk set for your Acer either on CDs or DVDs...this will allow you to put the operating system, applications, and recovery partition on the new drive.

Then you can make a back up image of your system as it is now and save that to an external HDD. Windows 7 has a utility for doing this...you can access it via the Start Menu/Maintenance folder.

Remove the old HDD and replace it with the SSD. Do the system recovery using the recovery disk set. Restore your current image from the external drive. Easy as 1, 2, 3...and you'll be right back where you are now. You can always use the old drive as a backup or a data drive by putting it in a USB caddy.

[Troy]

You can image everything across onto the new drive, it should boot right up on the new one with no fuss if the image works correctly. HDClone works great and has a free edition.

[wannabe1]

Or........you could clone the drive.

[gunn1]

I know I have said this many times on this post but, Thank you all. I went out to Newegg and WOW the SSD's are really impressive sounding in there reveiws and specifications.
Quick, No heat, Quite, who could ask for more-could be a little less expensive.
From what all of you have told me, It appears that even a non-geek like me could install one.
I always wanted to be a geek, maybe when I grow up.
The informal education provided here is great!
Gunn

[Troy]

I am a geek, but I haven't grown up yet. I don't think I'll ever grow up!

[gunn1]

Touche'