Lower emissions laptop

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I don't think "dirty electricity" is the culprit with laptop computers.... more likely you are reacting to the display, or the hard drive, or the power brick, or the wi-fi/Blutooth.  

I've had good luck with the Lenovo Thinkpad X2-- series... the X200 was the most tolerable of that series, but may be too old to run Windows 10 (might be fine with Linux, though).  My wife currently has an X250, which I think might be the last one with ethernet ports and VGA output for an external monitor (and runs Windows 10 fine).

Also, I've had better luck with SSD drives in laptops/PCs, so might be worth swapping one of those in.

Marc

Another possible culprit could be the gases released by the hard drive as it works, if it's not a solid state hard drive (although that might be off-topic here).

I don't have any laptop suggestions, unfortunately. I've only purchased one (it was a Compaq HP that I got at Walmart in 2009, and I don't recommend it). Other than that, I've only ever had very old laptops that my siblings gave me.

But, a sibling did give me an even older ThinkPad than Marc's (mine was a T60). I could see a newer one than mine being a good choice (but I'm probably not the best judge of that). Just make sure it's not too old. The T60 has a fluorescent backlight (so probably don't get one that old, even if wasn't bad for a fluorescent display). The X200 has an LED backlight, though, of course.

What do you know about your sensitivity, so far?

While you still have your old laptop, have you tried changing the refresh rate to see if it affects you any differently?

Oh, and I'm not sure about others, but if I mix LED and fluorescent lights, I have a worse reaction than to either independently. If your backlight is LED but your bulbs to light your house are CFLs, that might be something to evaluate. For me, personally, halogen and LED mix fairly well, but I avoid most other combinations. I'm not sure how other people react to that combination. It could be quite different than my experience.

If the display bothers you a lot (I'm not sure if it does), I might recommend a smaller screen size, too. I used to be more interested in the laptops with larger screens, but mostly just for the full keyboard that came with many of them. However, I would reconsider that and probably get a laptop with a smaller screen if I were to get a new one now. The 10-key pad isn't everything.

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On April 28, bonty [via ES] <[hidden email]> wrote:
> I was told by an engineer that if you have symptoms coming from the
> screen the main problem is the switching mode power supply causing
> EMFs'/EMI to radiate through the screen

Symptoms from the screen could be coming from the DC->AC inverter if using a fluorescent backlight, or pulse width modulated (PWM) dimming if using an LED backlight.  My LED monitor is PWM-free, which I do find to make a difference.

Marc

On April 28, bonty [via ES] <[hidden email]> wrote:
> I just tried to change my refresh on the laptop and I can't as when I
> click on the change refresh rate it only comes up at 60 hertz, it has
> no other option to click on.

Yes, I think a lot of displays only have 60hz as a choice.  You'd probably have to specifically look for that capability when purchasing a monitor to get anything else.
 
> I also have a strange problem with my internet browser, I react a lot
> worse with Chrome and firefox but internet explorer isn't as bad for
> some reason.

I know that Chrome creates a lot of different processes so it can take up a lot of memory (RAM).  So it would be bad if your computer has insufficient RAM to deal with that, and it has to offload RAM to the hard drive.  So probably make sure you have at least 16GB of RAM (if running 64-bit Windows)

> I don't know which modem to use that is good for EHS disease

Your modem choices are usually limited by what your internet provider supports.  That's why I like my Comcast cable internet -- lots of modems to choose from.  :-)

Marc

Hi Bonty, you obviously did your homework :)

Marc's suggestion of adding more RAM to avoid over-using the hard drive is a very good one.  You could also switch to an SSD, or even install Ubuntu onto a 64 GB memory stick and keep your existing Windows installation as a backup.  (In the latter case you'll need to turn off "snapshots" when you install Ubuntu. Otherwise it will fill up your USB stick with backups.)

By the way, it's actually not that hard to set up a linear power supply for a fiber media converter. Casper posted some pics and an explanation here:

http://es-forum.com/where-to-go-any-ideas-td4034304i20.html

Those media converters were great when I used them, but they weren't very durable for me.  You might have better results.

LCD monitors usually have a second switching power supply inside that powers the backlight, and it's not easy to replace.  How comfortable are you working on these things?

Karl

The Thinkpad X140E worked great for me (tanks Marc!)  I have to place my Macbook Air 40 feet away from me and use binoculars.  At that distance, it has the same EMF effect as the X140E does at 5 feet.  Doing the math, and considering that EMF lessens with the square of the distance, that means I'm 64x more sensitive to the Macbook.

What I don't know is, how much of my sensitivity to my Macbook is because of its design, and how much is due to my having used it so long that I've become especially sensitive to it.

Got my x140E on ebay for about $100, I saw X2-- series computers there for around $200 depending on its condition.

Thats great, although I couldn't have recommended the X140E as I've never heard of that model before!

Looks like a newer model (relatively) as it's got the newer keyboard that I don't like. Unfortunately the
keyboard I like is only available on older models.

Marc

On January 15, davidrsnell [via ES] <[hidden email]> wrote:
> The Thinkpad X140E worked great for me (tanks Marc!)  I have to place
> my Macbook Air 40 feet away from me and use binoculars.  At that
> distance, it has the same EMF effect as the X140E does at 5 feet.