Advice on new laptop I have bought please.

davemorton

Afternoon.
I have just bought a Compaq CQ 58-301sa Laptop and have 9 days to return it if I dont like it, so after some advice please.

Firstly it seems to freeze for a second or two now and again, is this due to it being a rubbish spec, or something else.

Also, it has windows 8 installed (aarrggg!!!) It just seems to jump from one window to another, and has a mind of its own, but it could be me not being used to the Compaq touchpad, as apparently if you use it too near the sides it acts as a side swipe.

So, how easy is it to delete all the carp that comes with it, all the silly apps I dont want, and then install a Windows 7 shell?

Would it be viable to upgrade it easily to stop it freezing every now and again. It is only really used for surfing and youtube.
Spec is as follows.

BrandHewlett Packard
Screen Size15.6 inches
Processor BrandAMD
Processor Speed1.4 GHz
Processor Count2
RAM Size4 GB
Computer Memory TypeDDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Size320 GB
Graphics Card DescriptionAMD Radeon HD 7310 Discrete-Class
Graphics RAM TypeDDR3 SDRAM
Graphics Card Ram Size1 GB
Wattage65 watts
Operating SystemWindows 8

Many thanks for any help/advice.

busiscoming2

The W8 takes a little getting used to. I found it very infuriating to start with but like most things you get used to it. I've had it for eight months now and if I had to choose between 7 or 8, I'd most likely choose 8.

Bear with it. It has more to offer once you're used to it.

davemorton

busiscoming2 wrote: »

The W8 takes a little getting used to. I found it very infuriating to start with but like most things you get used to it. I've had it for eight months now and if I had to choose between 7 or 8, I'd most likely choose 8.

Bear with it. It has more to offer once you're used to it.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it is very infuriating. I think the fact the trackpad seems to have its own mind does not help.

Ximian

You can have the Classic Shell with Windows 8 if you install this (free): http://www.classicshell.net/ makes Windows 8 behave like Windows 7.

It could be an application that is causing the delay, the laptop hardware appears to be decent spec. When the system has a temporary freeze is the hard drive light illuminated? Does the mouse freeze?
I had a similar issue on a desktop PC which turned out to be a faulty hard drive, every time something needed to be read or written to disk there would be a short delay ~1-2 seconds.
To check the hard drive for any issues you can use chkdsk with a command prompt that runs as Adminsitrator, for example to check and fix any errors on the C drive:

CHKDSK C: /F

If possible, try uninstalling the unnecessary applications and see if that makes any difference. You could also try troubleshooting with the task manager (alt+ctrl+del) to see what system resources are being used (CPU util, memory usage and more).
You could also try de-fragmenting the hard drive with the built-in defrag tool or a 3rd party tool such as defraggler: http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

HTH

davemorton

Ximian wrote: »

You can have the Classic Shell with Windows 8 if you install this (free): http://www.classicshell.net/ makes Windows 8 behave like Windows 7.

It could be an application that is causing the delay, the laptop hardware appears to be decent spec. When the system has a temporary freeze is the hard drive light illuminated? Does the mouse freeze? It is the mouse pointer that is freezing, I will have to have a look at the light.
I had a similar issue on a desktop PC which turned out to be a faulty hard drive, every time something needed to be read or written to disk there would be a short delay ~1-2 seconds.
To check the hard drive for any issues you can use chkdsk with a command prompt that runs as Adminsitrator, for example to check and fix any errors on the C drive:

CHKDSK C: /F

If possible, try uninstalling the unnecessary applications and see if that makes any difference. You could also try troubleshooting with the task manager (alt+ctrl+del) to see what system resources are being used (CPU util, memory usage and more).
You could also try de-fragmenting the hard drive with the built-in defrag tool or a 3rd party tool such as defraggler: http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

HTH

Many thanks, I will have a look at the light. I was just worried it was a very slow processor I had bought. Price was good though, so even if I spend a little on it to make it faster, it will still be a good purchase.
Will a defrag do much, it is a brand new computer with less than 30 mins use?
Only concern I have about deleting things is if I delete something I shouldnt.

donnac2558

I have the Compaq CQ58-360(?), I hate the touch pad and just use a cordless mouse.

bluesnake

if you finding that it already freezes and is sluggish, with time it is most likely only going to get worse, so send it back and buy something better

Ximian

davemorton wrote: »

Many thanks, I will have a look at the light. I was just worried it was a very slow processor I had bought. Price was good though, so even if I spend a little on it to make it faster, it will still be a good purchase.
Will a defrag do much, it is a brand new computer with less than 30 mins use?
Only concern I have about deleting things is if I delete something I shouldnt.

You're right a disk defrag might not help that much on a new computer, the disk data shouldn’t be that fragmented.

Are you using the touchpad when the mouse freezes?
Do you have a separate USB mouse that you could use instead of the touchpad to see if the mouse still freezes?
Can you recall what you were doing when the mouse pointer froze?
There might be some resource that is utilising large amounts of memory or CPU, you might be able to confirm this by using the task manager to track memory and CPU usage, you might see a spike in the usage graph when the mouse pointer freezes.

I_have_spoken

Try and remove the crapware (http://pcdecrapifier.com/download) and stuff like Norton/MacAfee type programmes and instead use Windows firewall and Microsoft Security Essentials.

Also, try upgrading to Windows 8.1, which is slightly less annoying.

That said, unless you picked it up for a song I'd get rid. The Amazon reviews are not encouraging.

davemorton

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Try and remove the crapware (http://pcdecrapifier.com/download) and stuff like Norton/MacAfee type programmes and instead use Windows firewall and Microsoft Security Essentials.

Also, try upgrading to Windows 8.1, which is slightly less annoying.

That said, unless you picked it up for a song I'd get rid. The Amazon reviews are not encouraging.

To be fair, I only paid £250, but I think you may be right, I think I would prefer a refurb than having the stress this is causing me :rotfl:

NiftyDigits

AMD E1-1200 APU CPU Benchmark of 709

Intel Celeron 1000M CPU Benchmark of 1756

The selling point of the AMD is low power consumption.

If you don't need the long battery life, consider returning it.

Better this Satellite C50-A-146 for £229.99 Some state Satellite C50-A-19T
The first has Windows 8, the second 8.1.

or even this Medion Akoya/E6234/MD98409 for £204.99