What do I need - Netbook, tablet or smartphone?

tinateaspoon

Some guidance please on what I need? Bought a reconditioned netbook last year to take on holiday - used for 2 weeks only and now an error comes up about checking cable connection & no bootable device (presume its "dead" and a waste of money!).

So what do I replace it with? Only need it for 2 or 3 weeks a year for a few emails and search the net whilst away, so I really don't want to be spending too much. My laptop is too big to take and I use a PAYG "dumb" phone, as not into masses of texting etc.

Someone suggested a tablet - is this an idea, and if so what should I look for?

NiftyDigits

Brand name and model number of Netbook?

Should try to fix it in the first instance.

S0litaire

Sounds like the drive in the netbook is dead or corrupted. It's a relativity easy fix which ever it is.

Might even work out cheaper than a new e-Book or tablet ^_~

punksluck

Sounds to me like a small tablet would be perfect for your needs. Light weight, good battery life and very portable.

Tesco are doing one now called 'Hudl' for £119. I've heard it's performance is actually very good, for the price.

tinateaspoon

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Brand name and model number of Netbook?

Should try to fix it in the first instance.

Its an Acer Aspire one 533

tinateaspoon

S0litaire wrote: »

Sounds like the drive in the netbook is dead or corrupted. It's a relativity easy fix which ever it is.

Might even work out cheaper than a new e-Book or tablet ^_~

Managed to get it up and running yesterday for a while, but after a bit of web searching started making an awful "scratchy" sort of noise and went back to the "check cable connection, etc"

If its a new hard drive, is this something a non-techy person like myself could fit?

tinateaspoon

punksluck wrote: »

Sounds to me like a small tablet would be perfect for your needs. Light weight, good battery life and very portable.

Tesco are doing one now called 'Hudl' for £119. I've heard it's performance is actually very good, for the price.

Yes, I wondered about this - will look into it if the netbook is economically unrepairable

macman

tinateaspoon wrote: »

Managed to get it up and running yesterday for a while, but after a bit of web searching started making an awful "scratchy" sort of noise and went back to the "check cable connection, etc"

If its a new hard drive, is this something a non-techy person like myself could fit?

Yes, simply remove old drive, replace with new one and reinstall the OS and required applications. You'll need to copy the OS to a flash drive, as your netbook has no optical drive (or use a USB optical drive if you have one). Hard drive access is usually through a hatch on the base of the netbook-it just slides out; check the manual. If you can use a screwdriver, you can change a hard drive.

tinateaspoon

macman wrote: »

Yes, simply remove old drive, replace with new one and reinstall the OS and required applications. You'll need to copy the OS to a flash drive, as your netbook has no optical drive (or use a USB optical drive if you have one). Hard drive access is usually through a hatch on the base of the netbook-it just slides out; check the manual. If you can use a screwdriver, you can change a hard drive.

Thanks, well that all sounds relatively easy, so I'll check out buying a hard drive then!

S0litaire

the laptop is a bit awkward to take apart but nothing very technical.

Do you have a external DVD/CD-Rom? (If YES then reinstalling will be easy once you have replaced the drive!)

Download the service manual. It gives step by step instructions from Chapter 3 onwards on how to open the laptop to get to the hard drive.

http://elektrotanya.com/acer_aspire_one_533_sm.pdf/download.html

You will need to buy a 2.5" hard drive to replace the broken one. Something like this :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scorpio-Black-160GB-7200RPM-Internal/dp/B001CIREXA/

It's £27 (you can get a "generic" drive for a bit cheaper but I'd go with a named brand for support and warranty) Check E-bay as well if you like for a drive, you might get one cheaper.

NiftyDigits

In addition to what S0litaire has written, there are video guides available.

I suggest that you upgrade the RAM to 2GB at the same time.

RAM module here for £9.99

Direct link to the manual here

After the upgrade the machine will be faster than ever before.

Especially as when you reinstall Windows, it will be without all of the added unnecessary programs that the brand names like to install.