LAPTOP HELP thick question but I'm no techy

Mizz_Pink

Donnie wrote:

Spending £25 to £50 on memory is hardly a waste. I wouldn't spend more than that though.

I don't think that it needs to be binned, as long as the components are working correctly.

In addition, I would recommend using the Opera browser when possible; http://www.opera.com/

I wasnt saying her laptop needs to be binned, but that is what we advise when customers bring in old pcs.
EG a customer came in today with an old desktop running 64mg ram, BT told her she would be able to go on Broadband with her pc, knowing it was 64ram so she signed up. She wants hubby to set it all up for her because she is unable to run the install disc!!
Are we going to be like any other it company and say to this lady, you need to spend £200 on improving your system. If we wanted to rob people tghen we would wear stripy tops and masks !!

TaBunny

Dear Mizz Pink, well you asked so I shall answer..........

For your information we didn't just find the £400 18 months ago, I knew my daughter would be going to uni so I saved hard for a year and the only way we could afford to get one was from the refurb company student laptops, whom I must add were recommended to me by many people on MSE. The actual laptop she has has run absolutely fine for the whole time except for needing a new cmos battery which only cost £10 and the network card which cost £19 so I think that's not bad going for such an 'old needs to be binned machine'. Secondly you commented on 'why doesn't my daughter get a part time job/student loan' well you have assumed that she isn't doing a job, which she is and she is also a volunteer for the st john's ambulance helping to look after people at events for free. She is on the student council, works really hard for her degree which she totally appreciates being from a poorer family having the ability to be there with government help. Most of her student loan is eaten up by her rent money and travel costs. She works all the spare hours she can to have money for food, socialising etc and no she is not a beer lout out all hours every night, she works very hard to study and I am very very proud of her and I wish to the bottom of my heart I had the money to rush out tomorrow and buy her a brand new spanking sparkly bells and whistles laptop because she certainly deserves it. She is one of the kindest, nicest most caring people I know, she has spent years caring for me and her younger sister when I was unable and now she is doing her utmost to further herself in Biology because it is her dream to be able to cure Rhuematoid Arthritis so other people don't have to suffer as I have. Why have I gone totally off subject??? because I am afraid you're manner in which you completely assumed she's sitting on her !!!! doing nothing or that I could just magic this money 18 months ago so why can't I now, was a total insult to me and I have taken it badly, whether you mean't it as an insult to us or not I do not know but that's how I've taken it. Even another mse'r mentioned is this the way you talk to people at your business so they too must of noticed your harsh tone.

Anway this will probally be removed but there you go.

I would wholeheartedly like to thank the people on here that have been so kind to take the time to try and help us with the hardware we have, we will be looking into everything at length there have been a lot of good replies and special thanks to Donnie who has gone out of their way to assist us personally, thank you guys.

Donnie

Off topic again; My mother also suffered from Arthritis. A change of diet appears to have worked wonders.

Hmmm... how can link this back on topic....

It was most pleasing to give my girlfriend's old IBM laptop a new lease of life with a simple refurbishment.
Now my niece can do her homework on Microsoft Office, fill up her iPod, transfer pics and video from her mobile telephone via Bluetooth, watch DivX movies, VCDs, surf the Internet via Broadband.... and more.
All from a machine that had a lesser spec than the one mentioned here.

albertross_2

I doubt that XP would make the PC run any faster, it needs more horsepower and ram to run.

One thing you might want to check is that it doesn't have an infection of any kind, if you look at the malware thread, there are loads of free scanners that will allow you to check the PC. Some won't run on ME, but many do. Also try https://www.windowsupdate.com, ME is no longer supported by Microsoft, but you may be able to still get the old updates (but I'm not sure).

If she has the AOL software on, and a router, you could junk the aol software and just use IE.

If she wanted to post either an autoruns or hijack this log, then we could look to see if there is any software running at startup that isn't needed, and eating up the ram (when it's all used up, the hard disk gets used instead, and that's when the PC slows down dramatically).

Mizz_Pink

TaBunny you have mail............................

Donnie

I installed Windows ME on an IBM laptop and was able to update it easily, with the latest service packs, including the the Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack.
Runs with Kaspersky Antivirus, Adaware SE Professional and Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4.
Spybot has a simple interface in Tools which allows you to easily disable items that attempt to start up when you boot the computer.

It will be interesting to find out about the current security software on the computer.

Donnie

Mizz_Pink wrote:

TaBunny you have mail............................

Making amends?

You don't need that 'n' in your signature.

cdbrown

A few little thoughts-
If you have the win me disc handy and your daughter is able to borrow someone pen drive
- she could copy across all her data to the pen drive
- format the hard drive completely
- reinstall win me
- reinstall security software
- run security software update
- run win me update
- don't install AOL
- defragment the drive
- get spybot and adaware for cleaning up the rubbish each week or so.
This should give the laptop a new lease of life. Still left with the problem of getting some version of office.

Mizz_Pink

Sort of !

Mizz_Pink

cdbrown wrote:

A few little thoughts-
If you have the win me disc handy and your daughter is able to borrow someone pen drive
- she could copy across all her data to the pen drive
- format the hard drive completely
- reinstall win me
- reinstall security software
- run security software update
- run win me update
- don't install AOL
- defragment the drive
- get spybot and adaware for cleaning up the rubbish each week or so.
This should give the laptop a new lease of life. Still left with the problem of getting some version of office.

Excellent !

This would cost £35 in our shop. (aprt from windows ME, prob install 98)