How can I tell if my laptop has a lo-jack/GPS built in it?

**MasterNetra** · January 10th, 2011

I was wondering if my Dell Latitude D530 has a built in lo-jack or GPS type of thing. Would it be in lscpi if so what would I be looking for?

**undecim** · January 10th, 2011

It would have been touted as a feature when you bought it.

**Spr0k3t** · January 10th, 2011

Open the bottom bays... you should see a wireless card and a port for another mini pcie. If there is no card in the other port, there's no gps.

**Megaptera** · January 10th, 2011

Originally Posted by MasterNetra

I was wondering if my Dell Latitude D530 has a built in lo-jack or GPS type of thing. Would it be in lscpi if so what would I be looking for?

You could always ask at the store where you bought it.

**LowSky** · January 10th, 2011

big brother is watching you

**paydaydaddy** · January 10th, 2011

I put lojack for laptops on a dell inspiron for my mother last year after she replaced a stolen laptop. Lojack for laptops does not actually use gps but rather is a small program that loads in the bios and is very hard to detect or to remove. The computer will phone home to the Absolute Software people (a paid service) when connected to the internet. Once you report your computer lost or stolen they can exercise options to track the computer and/or protect certain files. They will not disable the computer since the best chance of retrieving the laptop is if it is in use. I had a little trouble figuring out if the computer was lojack capable and I can assure you that Dell will be of little help in making that determination. Dell's goal is to sell you a laptop with lojack pre-installed at an inflated price. I talked to the Absolute Software people and was told that if it is less than a couple of years old that it is almost certainly capable of running the lojack software so I purchased it and installed it. I don't remember for sure but I believe that I got 3 yrs. monitoring for about $100 US. Dell wanted around $300. Here is the link to Absolute Software.
http://www.absolute.com/en/login.aspx
Do your research and decide for yourself if it is worth the cost. I kind of doubt that the odds are very high of finding a stolen laptop with lojack, but it probably helps some and it does give my elderly mother some piece of mind. Good luck.