laptop

hoxtonbabe

Hi,


I recently purchased a used laptop, the seller described the cosmetic faults which I did not have a problem with, I paid for item through PP (as I wanted to be protected) and then went to collect from his home, anyhoo go it back and it powers up ok, but the wireless connection doesnt seem to work, my hubby is pretty good at these things and we already have 3 other laptops in our house age ranging from 5years old to 1 year and all have easily been connected to the wireless, we managed to download a user manual and hubby did the things it suggested and it still does not connect.

The other problem is the DVD, it apparently needs a codex which you need to download but without internet connection hubby says this is a pain. We bought the laptop to take on our hols in a few days time so the kids could have something to watch and a few games to play so as long as we had that side of things running we are not bothered about the rest.

The seller does not mention any of the potential problems with the wireless or DVD drive, I have emailed him asking if he managed to connect to internet while he had it and had no reply, yet he replied to an email I sent about postage which I sent after the email about him connecting to the wireless, he also says he knows for a fact that the hardware is working even though he has admitted to not testing with a DVD but becasue he burned a disc then it must be working according to him, which i know is not the case as one of our laptops can still burn discs but when a dvd is inserted it jumps.

Hubby is going to try one more thing tonight, should that fail then should I open a dispute? I have never opened a dispute against anyone even if at times they desevre it, but this time there is alot more money at stake.

Thanks in advance.

HB

mrcol1000

If the laptop is not as described then open a dispute. Any faults should have been highlighted even minor ones. The DVD and wireless not working are pretty major stuff. If the seller disputes the faults then I would take it to a computer repair shop and ask for a list and cost of the repairs. They may be willing to pay for the repairs rather than refund all your money and get a broken laptop back. Personally though I would get a full refund. You may have to post it back by courier or trackable mail so you can prove you returned it back to them though. Just bear that in mind when deciding what to do. But no don't feel bad about opening disputes! Thats what paypal is there for.

hoxtonbabe

in fairness it will problably cost more to do the repairs than to give me the refund, lol

It is a pretty old laptop but I never wanted it for anything other than watching dvds and games for the kids, which I think is a reasonaable request for an old laptop, also his feddback said 100% but when I started to trawl through (after i purchased the laptop) there were quite a few negatives that were from 2007, I thought that would have brought down the feedback rating? Going by his old feedback and what I an experiencing now I can tell he is going to be an id*ot about the whole thing.

How long should I wait before I go ahead, I collected laptop on Saturday, I am due to fly out on Friday, even though I know nothing will get sorted out in time for me to buy a substitute not sure if I should start it before I go away or wait till I come back.

masterbrown

Have you checked that the Windows zero configuration is enabled? Sometimes people disable it if they don't want to use wireless internet for security reasons, and the codec thing is not really an issue, I've bought brand new PCs straight from a shop and still needed to download codecs. But yeah check the WZC and go from there.

steven_garner

If the DVD drive needs codex then its not a hardware problem, its a software problem.
Easy way to fix that -

Go to Google and type "Ace Mega Codex pack" its a free download and will install all codex required to playback different movie formats.

What is the problem with the wireless? does it detect the network but wont connect or does it connect but wont load the internet?
Sounds very silly but check that the laptop doesn’t have a WI-FI on/off switch/button.
It may look like the wireless is turned on in Windows but if the switch/button is off it wont detect any networks (i have done this myself several times, a bit embraced because im a laptop engineer )

steven_garner

hoxtonbabe wrote: »

How long should I wait before I go ahead, I collected laptop on Saturday, I am due to fly out on Friday, even though I know nothing will get sorted out in time for me to buy a substitute not sure if I should start it before I go away or wait till I come back.

you have 45 days after payment to open a dispute.

Out of interest what laptop is it?

hoxtonbabe

Aww thanks guys, you've all been really helpful :-)

Now forgive my ignorance as its my hubby that knows these things better than I do so I will reply as best I can.

The codex thing hubby knows its a software issue, so I said to him cant he just install whatever he needs to a usb and go from there but he mentioned something about it being a pain,and would be easier if the internet was connected but he may well have been having a Victor meldrew moment as it was quite late at night and he has said he will tackle it properly later today.

We cant see anything on the laptop that turns the wifi on or off, but it mentions in the manual that OH downloaded to do shift+F8 to activate it which he has done but still no joy, from what I have gathered from his rantings yesterday it detects the network but wont connect, then at one point it was detecting everyone else but not us?!?!

I dont think it helps that the so*ding thing has Ubuntu as its OS as other half is more familiar with Windows.

Hope this makes sense.

Oh its a Toshiba Portege M100 Notebook Laptop (very old, lol)

steven_garner

Ahh good old M100's

They have a hardware WI-FI switch on the front on the laptop (to the left i believe) when its on it should light up with an amber LED on the front middle of the palm rest.
They use an Intel 2200BG wireless card, you can download the drivers directly from Intel and save messing around on Toshibas rubbish site.
Never been a huge Linux fan, i have used Ubuntu and know its very iffy with wireless drivers and hardware.
I may be wrong but doesn’t sound like the laptops faulty, worst case you will need a new wireless card (about £3 from eBay and very simple to fit)

hoxtonbabe

steven_garner wrote: »

Ahh good old M100's

They have a hardware WI-FI switch on the front on the laptop (to the left i believe) when its on it should light up with an amber LED on the front middle of the palm rest.
They use an Intel 2200BG wireless card, you can download the drivers directly from Intel and save messing around on Toshibas rubbish site.
Never been a huge Linux fan, i have used Ubuntu and know its very iffy with wireless drivers and hardware.
I may be wrong but doesn’t sound like the laptops faulty, worst case you will need a new wireless card (about £3 from eBay and very simple to fit)

Thanks, will show this thread to hubby and hopefully he can sort it. Cant we get rid of this linux nonsense and install windows? The amber light comes on, but thats as good as were getting

steven_garner

Has the laptop got a COA stick on the bottom? Rectangel sticker about the size of a lighter, should say Windows XP business/Home and have a product key?
If you have the product Key you can install any OEM Windows (as long as its the same version, Home/business/ home media) and use that product key.
I it will support Vista Basic but may run a bit sluggish.

hoxtonbabe

coa is there with product key is there for XP Pro, also just realised that battery holds no charge whatsoever, again was not told this. googled the intel wireless card and its apparently discontinued :-(

My issue is although we wanted a cheap used laptop we didnt want to be faffing around with it too much either as we knew time was limited to get it sorted, I just wish sellers would state"DVD not tested, Wireless not tested, battery does not hold charge" that way I know exactly what I am letting myself in for should I decide to continue with the purchase. The seller installed this Ubuntu c*ap but then didnt test it to see if everything was ok?!?!

Oh the Joys