Decent laptop 289.99 for first 250 cust [CLOSED]

MyUserNamesTaken

Hmm....my laptop seems to randomly reboot itself for no apparent reason. In fact, it doesn't do it when the battery's taken off. It makes a hissing (like shorting) sound when it does. Also strange is the Splinter Cell Pandora (Ubisoft) entry in windows firewall, allowing it access to the net. I don't own Spinter Cell and it doesn't come with the machine (it's not installed on it, so why is there an entry under 'exceptions' in windows firewall?) Anyone think I got a second hand laptop? Can someone else check to see if they have a similar entry in their firewall set up? Thanks.

On the plus side: NIS is now uninstalled - and what a difference that makes!

GibsonSt19

Sounds second hand to me matey. I'd get that taken back!

MyUserNamesTaken

GibsonSt19 wrote:

Sounds second hand to me matey. I'd get that taken back!

Just called PC World CS and they've told me to take it back. It's definitely second hand. Worse, it's got a bad fault, which is probably why it was taken back the first time around. Not going to Ipswich this time, though - Norwich will swap it over for me. Still think I'm going to ask for my petrol money back, though, as Norwich is a 50 mile round trip for me! They really take the biscuit selling on second hand stock as new.

GibsonSt19

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

Just called PC World CS and they've told me to take it back. It's definitely second hand. Worse, it's got a bad fault, which is probably why it was taken back the first time around. Not going to Ipswich this time, though - Norwich will swap it over for me. Still think I'm going to ask for my petrol money back, though, as Norwich is a 50 mile round trip for me! They really take the biscuit selling on second hand stock as new.

It's naughty but it's not the first time it's happened

MyUserNamesTaken

I'm fairly certain it's actually illegal to sell second hand good as new. Maybe a call to trading standards is required, as I am far from happy.

All that time and effort spent taking all the crap off, uninstalling NIS, upgrading the Ram and installing the likes of firefox, avg, etc...and all for nothing.

GibsonSt19

OK, so I wanna format this little beastie, to get rid of everything PB, and although I like Norton stuff on my desktop, I don't really want it on the laptop.

Do I need to take a backup of the 'restore' bit on the hard drive, or is this pretty much useless?

I have Windows XP Home that I can use, and have all my other softwares here, like Opera, AVG etc.

How would people recommend I go about this?

I've done it a million times with my desktops, but laptops are new to me and I don't want to do anything stoopid!

sunnyp

Picked up the 1/2 price RAM upgrade today for the laptop - what a great overall deal!

MyUserNamesTaken

Just spoke to PC World customer services again and lodged a complaint. They are now sending me £50 of DSG vouchers as compensation for messing me about and selling me a second hand machine. I can go swap my machine for a new one on monday at Norwich. Result!

GibsonSt19

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

Just spoke to PC World customer services again and lodged a complaint. They are now sending me £50 of DSG vouchers as compensation for messing me about and selling me a second hand machine. I can go swap my machine for a new one on monday at Norwich. Result!

Good for you mate. Now you can get yourself the extra RAM and maybe a wireless card.

djrobmac

GibsonSt19 wrote:

OK, so I wanna format this little beastie, to get rid of everything PB, and although I like Norton stuff on my desktop, I don't really want it on the laptop.

Do I need to take a backup of the 'restore' bit on the hard drive, or is this pretty much useless?

I have Windows XP Home that I can use, and have all my other softwares here, like Opera, AVG etc.

How would people recommend I go about this?

I've done it a million times with my desktops, but laptops are new to me and I don't want to do anything stoopid!

I have just done it.

As per desktop.

Change bios to boot from CD first (bash F2 when the laptop first comes on)
whack in the Windows XP disc
save changes and exit the bios

Delete both partitions and install it on one fresh partition.

After the setup completes the first step and reboots dont forget to bash F2 again to change the boot sequence to boot from Hard Drive first.

Rest is easy.

Bingo! NO PACKARD BELL branding at all, not even the Horrible splash screen that pops up just before xp finishes loading up.

Download all the drivers you need from https://www.packardbell.co.uk

A clean laptop is a happy laptop.