laptop recommendation please

angelsmomma

My 11 year old is very interested in coding and we attend a workshop once a month. Unfortunately his laptop has just developed a blue screen.

I need to get him another to use before the 5th January. It will only be used occasionally as he has an iMac at home, it is just for use at the workshops.

I am a complete novice on technology so would really appreciate any advice you could give that won't bankrupt me. If I listen to him nothing but a macbook pro will do, please help

closed

a blue screen is more than likely a software problem, which can usually be fixed by a repair install or reinstall.

post more information about the contents of the blue screen, and make and model of machine, and operating system

does safe mode work

angelsmomma

Thanks for your reply.

It actually broke when we were at the workshop and passed around all the techies to look at.

They did all the usual stuff but it was just no go.

It is a dell without webcam. I posted a while ago about problems with starting it up so its been a problem for a while. I put it into the shop then and he couldn't work out what was wrong with it unless I gave him £45 just to look at it. I got it going again by fiddling with the jack (sounds daft but that is exactly what I did) and it worked for a couple of months.

I will just have to buy another as he needs it by the 5th January

closed

if it's only 20 months old, it seems a bit wasteful to give up on it - A £250 purchase should last much longer than that.

Usb webcams are cheap, if that is part of your reasoning to buy new.

If he wants to learn about software, here is his chance, blue screens are caused by coding errors/conflicts.

What happens when it is switched on, does safe mode work? What does the blue screen say?

To get a blue screen, the laptop must be powering up and power supply/jack working, so it's unconnected to the blue screen

A software problem can probably be cured in 10 minutes by doing a factory restore (F8 at boot, advanced, on vista/W7), after backing up any data first.

angelsmomma

There is no data to be backed up first as it was only used for surfing, mostly this site and email.

They tried all that stuff. There is nothing being said on the blue screen. Safe mode does not work. It powers up but that is all. Nothing at all works. They tried complete reboot and reinstall.

Honestly nothing is working. I am not bothered about webcam as it was his first laptop I just wanted a basic cheap one.

closed

so you are saying when you switch it on, nothing appears on screen at all apart from a blank blue screen with no writing, no bios screen, no starting windows screen, F8 does nothing, and they did a factory restore in the middle of a coding class?

angelsmomma

Just tried it again. It no longer has a blue screen, it has a white screen. When I first tried it it came on with two thick (1 inch wide) lines then went completely white.

I tried f8 when I next tried it and nothing came up at all. It stayed black

angelsmomma

yes in the middle of the coding class

closed

to do a factory restore, F8 would have to work, unless they happened to have the Dell restore disks there. They may have tried a system restore which is different, but also needs F8 to work as well as the screen

Try holding down the power button for 10 seconds, switch on, press F8 about a second after powering on

have you got an external screen to try?

angelsmomma

Yes I tried it with an external screen when I brought it home. There was nothing on it at all. Will just try what you suggest now

angelsmomma

Right it made a noise when I held f8 and is now a grey screen with one white line. Just as I finished typing that it went all white again