What to do with old laptop

waterman3

Hiya

I've got an E System laptop I bought about 2 years ago for £350. It's starting to get a bit slow now (I've got 2 meg broadband).

I'm starting to look for a new laptop but it seems a shame just to throw the old one out as it still works. I guess i could try and flog it on ebay or something - see if anyone would take it!

Anyway, if i do decide to sell it, I'd want to have all the things I've saved in Word, Excel, photographs etc wiped off. Also, with regards to the internet, everything would need to be deleted like favourites, history etc and on some websites, when you log in, it automatically puts in your username and password - i'd need to stop that happening before i sold it too.

I've never sold a laptop before and just wondered what most people do.

Cheers

Cat695

do you not have the restore disc or have a restore option when you first start up the laptop (normally F11) as that would save you trying to delete everything

Reluctant_spender

You could install Linux on it, thereby wiping windows off it completely.

Linux is also free

Cat695

Reluctant_spender wrote: »

You could install Linux on it, thereby wiping windows off it completely.

Linux is also free

Thats a good idea.......people might actually like a laptop with linux...curiosity and all that......especially if you put in the Ad that linux is probably the least likely OS to get a virus etc

GunJack

hang on OP....don't be too premature in wanting to bin your "old" lappy....before doing that, list it's spec, security tools, and installed software on here..we'll soon find out if it's ready for the great recycle bin in the sky yet or not...

Also, it sounds like you need to do some pretty comprehensive clearouts of old carp, cleanup your HDD and defrag several times...add some more RAM (cheap as chips now)...and you may well find your lappy is better than it was before .....and waaaayy cheaper than a new one...AND that will save you having to wipe your stuff off the hdd...

GunJack

...btw..is anyone else having trouble having smileys and/or user stars not being displayed ??

GunJack

loaner - the only one I can see is martin' face...red crosses for the rest..and your post count and stars are gone !!

waterman3

If there is a way I can get my existing laptop running at a reasonable speed, that would definitely be the best money saving option.

Unfortunately, i'm a real technophobe, Gunjack so alot of the solutions you offered went over my head. Maybe you could say them in layman's terms.

My laptop's spec is...


E System 3083
Intel Celeron 380 1.6GHz
512 MB DDR-Ram
40GB HDD
56K Modem V.90
Integrated SiS661GX Graphics with up 64MB shared memory

I just copied that lot straight from the sticker on my laptop!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

vyseyboy

If you had an external Hard Drive, or DVD's etc with all your backed up files and what have you, a complete XP re-install would make it run like new.

Do it come with a windows XP home/pro CD? Is there a certifate of authenticity sticker on the bottom of the lappy?

Your lappy is not even remotely old. I have a stripped down version of XP on a 12 year old toshiba laptop with a 266MHz processor. It's fine for browsing and typing up.

Donnie

Download, install and run CCleaner. Remove the tick to install the Yahoo Toolbar during installation.

Download, install and run Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.