Don’t Let Sleeping Laptops Die
This week on Battle Born Tech℠ we recruit Pete, Brian, and Mike to the battle. A laptop that slept itself to death on a trip, a thrift-store pile of wireless keyboards that may not talk to each other, and a Windows 11 upgrade that turned a happy laptop into a slow one. Plus an urgent Chrome update, and the man who wrote Windows Task Manager is back with a new one.
Pete’s Dell laptop was sleeping in standby on a trip until the battery ran out. When he charged it, it came back saying it couldn’t boot: “inaccessible boot device.” When a Dell loses all power, its built-in startup settings (the BIOS) can reset to factory defaults, and that can change how the computer talks to its own drive, so Windows can’t find itself. We cover how to set it back, why sleep is hard on a laptop you only use now and then, and how to keep it from happening again.
Brian wants to clear the cords off his desk with a thrift-store wireless keyboard and mouse. Can he grab any keyboard and any dongle? Probably not. We sort out what works with what: Bluetooth, Logitech’s orange-star Unifying receivers, and the newer green Logi Bolt receivers, and why a cheap wired mouse still belongs in your drawer.
Mike’s Dell Inspiron 5570 ran Windows 10 just fine. Windows 11 went on after a fight over disk space, and now everything is slow. We work through the usual suspects: memory (RAM), the kind of drive inside, a third-party antivirus, programs hiding in the system tray, and BitLocker encryption.
In the news: Google patched Chrome’s eighth actively exploited zero-day of 2026. Update tonight: click the three dots in the upper right, then Help, then About Google Chrome, and click Relaunch. Edge, Brave, Opera, and other Chromium browsers get their own updates. And Dave Plummer, who wrote the original Windows Task Manager, has a new one called TMOG for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its own banner asks Mike’s question: “Why is my computer slow?” The free version shows what is running right now; Pro, a one-time purchase under $50, can record a slowdown so you can replay it later. Download it only from tmog.org.
BATTLE SCARS
Corrections
From this episode: The Chrome menu is the three dots in the upper right, not the upper left. The fixed version is Chrome 157.0.8103.50 or later. In Edge, click the three dots, then Help and feedback, then About Microsoft Edge.
On Pete’s Dell, the setting is AHCI (not “ACHI”). Dell says Windows has to use the same storage mode it was installed with, and Dell’s default is RAID On. So the fix is to set it back to whatever it was before the reset. If AHCI won’t boot, switch back to RAID On. Switching back and forth does not erase anything.
Fast Startup is a partial hibernate, not sleep, and it doesn’t drain the battery while the laptop is off. Turning it off is still good advice, for a different reason: with Fast Startup on, Shut down isn’t a full shutdown, so Windows never gets a truly fresh start. (Restart always does a full start.) Pete’s battery drain came from standby (sleep). Also, a fresh CMOS coin battery usually holds BIOS settings for years, not weeks.
On Brian’s receivers: Logi Bolt receivers plug into USB-A. (There is a USB-C version.) Logitech has retired its old Unifying Software in favor of Logi Options+ which is used to set up its products. Bluetooth shares the 2.4 GHz band with microwave ovens too. Bolt and Bluetooth handle interference better, but they aren’t immune.
The screens at risk of burn-in today are OLED screens, not LED. And Amazon’s satellite Wi-Fi isn’t on planes yet: JetBlue expects it starting in 2027 and Delta in 2028.
For Mike: if your laptop still has a spinning hard drive, swapping in an SSD is the biggest speed upgrade you can make. Task Manager, Performance, Disk shows “SSD” or “HDD.” And before turning BitLocker on or off, save your recovery key.
AI assisted to make us sound more human.
Battle Born Tech℠,
where the Wi-Fi is strong,
the fonts are good-looking, and the passwords are above average.
BATTLE PLANS
with help from Claude.ai
Inaccessible Boot Device
A Windows blue-screen error that means “I can’t reach the drive I start from.”
BIOS / UEFI
The computer’s built-in startup settings, which run before Windows. BIOS is the old name; newer computers use UEFI. On a Dell, tap F2 at power-on to open it.
AHCI vs. RAID On
Two ways the computer can talk to its storage drive. AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) is the standard way. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) combines several drives into one; “RAID On” is Dell’s menu choice that turns on that mode, even with a single drive.
CMOS Battery
A coin-sized battery on the motherboard that keeps the clock and BIOS settings when the main battery is dead.
Sleep vs. Fast Startup
Sleep keeps your work in memory and slowly drains the battery. Fast Startup saves part of Windows to disk at shutdown so the next start is quicker. Fast Startup does not drain the battery while the laptop is off, but it means Shut down is not a full shutdown/fresh start.
Zero-Day
A security hole attackers are already using before most people have the fix.
Chromium
The open-source computer code shared by Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, and others web browsers. A Chromium flaw usually affects all of them.
Dongle
A small USB plug-in radio receiver that lets a wireless keyboard or mouse talk to the computer. Bluetooth devices may not need one at all.
Unifying vs. Bolt
Logitech’s two dongle families. Unifying has an orange star and uses Logitech’s own 2.4 GHz radio; Bolt has a green lightning bolt and is built on Bluetooth. Each works only with its own keyboards and mice.
Ergonomic Keyboard
A keyboard shaped to hold your hands and wrists in a more natural position, often split down the middle, curved, or tilted.
2.4 GHz
The radio band shared by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, most wireless dongles, and microwave ovens.
HDD vs. SSD
A spinning hard disk drive (slow) versus a solid-state drive with no moving parts (much faster). A laptop SSD comes in two shapes: a 2.5-inch box like SATA SSD or a M.2 stick.
M.2 NVMe
A gum-stick-sized SSD that plugs straight into the motherboard. NVMe models are several times faster than the boxy 2.5-inch SATA kind.
RAM
Random Access Memory: the computer’s short-term workspace. Too little makes the computer slow when several things are open.
BitLocker
Windows drive encryption. It protects a stolen laptop, but lose the recovery key and you can lose your own files if the computer won’t boot.
TMOG
“Task Manager OG,” a new system monitor from Dave Plummer, who wrote the original Windows Task Manager.
Vibe Coding
Building software by describing what you want in plain words to an AI assistant, then testing and refining what it writes, instead of typing every line yourself. Claude Code, from Anthropic, is one such tool; Dave Plummer used it to build TMOG.
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BATTLE FIELDS
Click for more info
- Chrome Zero-Day Fix (Google)
- Dell Boot Device Error
- Logi Bolt vs Unifying
- TMOG Task Manager
- TMOG Vibe Coded
- Amazon Wi-Fi on Delta
- ARPANET History (DARPA)
- When the Internet Banned Business
- bbtl.ink/stats for more links
BATTLE CRIES
I have not yet begun to quip
“Sleep is an enemy of battery life.”
“Sleep is going to sneak up on you and suck out your battery.”
“It doesn’t take that long to turn it back on.”
“Bluetooth talks to everybody.”
“Keep around a cheap wired mouse and wired keyboard just in case things go crazy.”
“So now we’re getting two internets and zero quiet.”
“Maybe we could just have a Zoom section in the back, like the old smoking section.”
“I also remember quiet cars on trains.”
“The faint ghost image of a covered wagon saying you have died of dysentery.”
“He vibe coded the epitome of Microsoft programming.”
“Sometimes it’s even on page two of your search results.”
Breakmaster Cylinder composed and performs our theme music.
Carson City Linux User Group – Meeting third Saturdays at ComputerCorps in Carson City – carsoncitylinux.org
One on One Tech Help at the Carson City Library Wednesdays 3-4 pm Techbusters
The airline sketch Christy mentioned, from Saturday Night Live:
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