[Grammar] can we use 'helpless' to describe a dead thing, such a computer or a web site

[kwfine]

Dear teachers,

I bought a second-hand laptop from a friend, Jan.
I had used it for a weeks before it failed to load the Windows.

So I wrote to Jan and told her that
'Jan, the laptop you sold to me is helpless'.

Please help, teachers.

Thank you.

Kitty

 

[Gillnetter]

Dear teachers,

I bought a second-hand laptop from a friend, Jan.
I had used it for a weeks before it failed to load [STRIKE]the [/STRIKE] (Either "Windows" or "the Windows program") Windows.

So​, I wrote to Jan and told her that
'Jan, the laptop you sold to me is helpless'. I would use "worthless"

Please help me, teachers.

Thank you.

Kitty

Gil

 

[emsr2d2]

I ​would use "useless".

I had used it for "a week", not "a weeks".

 

[kwfine]

Is it wrong to use 'helpless' in the above example?

 

[Gillnetter]

Yes.

 

[Raymott]

Note that laptops are not dead. Nor are websites. To be dead, an entity must have at one time been alive. Perhaps you mean 'non-living', or 'inanimate'.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Note that laptops are not dead.

If laptops are dead, may they be "not working because there is no power"── quoted from http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/dead_1 Definition #2

Not a teacher.

 

[Raymott]

If laptops are dead, may they be "not working because there is no power"── quoted from http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/dead_1 Definition #2

Yes, but my point wasn't related to calling broken things 'dead', which is an acceptable metaphor. I was pointing out that we don't call non-living things 'dead' simply by virtue of their being inanimate - which I think the OP seems to be implying by her subject line.