You can also get a whole house surge protector in your electrical panel. Unless you can install it yourself, it might be a bit pricy to get an electrician out just for that. We had one put in during a panel upgrade for a little over $200.

Yup, poorly paraphrasing a well know quote: When you’re used to privilege, equality feels like oppression

Compaq built by HP was utter trash. At least the handful Compaq laptops I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with.