Can Acer All in one Pc just work has a tv ?

Jt1975

My 80 year Uncle has a old Acer All in One windows 8 pc. He wants it to work has a tv only so can plug a free view box into it via the HDMI in the back. He hasn’t used the PC for a while . He doesn’t want the windows side of it to turn on cause it takes a long time and he got a text from google about suspicious behaviour when he did last time. He wants to put it in his bedroom so my Auntie who is sadly in her final days of cancer can watch tv.

TheRightOne

No.
It can be refurbished and used for YouTube movies and music etc.
But someone will need to open it up and swap the very slow current storage for a much faster solid state drive. Not particularly difficult. Solid state drives cost from £20. The device will work much faster with no more warnings from Google.
In addition, if it has HDMI in, you may be able to use it with an external box.
Alternatively, pick up an old TV via FreeCycle.

neilmcl

TheRightOne said:

No.
It can be refurbished and used for YouTube movies and music etc.
But someone will need to open it up and swap the very slow current storage for a much faster solid state drive. Not particularly difficult. Solid state drives cost from £20. The device will work much faster with no more warnings from Google.
In addition, if it has HDMI in, you may be able to use it with an external box.
Alternatively, pick up an old TV via FreeCycle.

That's exactly what the OP said they wanted to do, so why say "No" in your opening remark!

It was clear from the post he absolutely didn't require the usual advice of sticking SSDs in etc as he's not interested in using it as a PC.

Jt1975

My Uncle has got in touch and it’s a window 7 pc, all he wants is the pc to start up on the tv screen only. So he wants it to default on tv on start up bypassing windows . Can I change it in the settings? Thanks 

neilmcl

Jt1975 said:

My Uncle has got in touch and it’s a window 7 pc, all he wants is the pc to start up on the tv screen only. So he wants it to default on tv on start up bypassing windows . Can I change it in the settings? Thanks 

It's possible to set the screen up to accept an HDMI input but whether it'll work with an external TV box and whether it will also provide audio from the PC is another matter. Best to try and have a play around with it.

https://uk.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/32001/~/aspire-5600u-and-7600u-hdmi-in-source#:~:text=The%20Aspire%205600U%20and%207600U,display%20for%20another%20input%20source.&text=Select%20HDMI%2Din%20and%20press,this%20as%20your%20input%20source.

Jt1975

I’m going over soon. He was a science engineer so he won’t accept anything until he’s tried  and tested everything.

thorganby

neilmcl said:

Jt1975 said:

My Uncle has got in touch and it’s a window 7 pc, all he wants is the pc to start up on the tv screen only. So he wants it to default on tv on start up bypassing windows . Can I change it in the settings? Thanks 

It's possible to set the screen up to accept an HDMI input but whether it'll work with an external TV box and whether it will also provide audio from the PC is another matter. Best to try and have a play around with it.

https://uk.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/32001/~/aspire-5600u-and-7600u-hdmi-in-source#:~:text=The%20Aspire%205600U%20and%207600U,display%20for%20another%20input%20source.&text=Select%20HDMI%2Din%20and%20press,this%20as%20your%20input%20source.

That website is dated 2017 and I doubt that an old Acer All-in-one with WIN 7 does have HDMI in.
This gives details of an All-in-one with Win 8 that states HDMI out.
https://www.eteknix.com/acer-rolls-aspire-zc-605-windows-8-one-pc/

neilmcl

thorganby said:

neilmcl said:

Jt1975 said:

My Uncle has got in touch and it’s a window 7 pc, all he wants is the pc to start up on the tv screen only. So he wants it to default on tv on start up bypassing windows . Can I change it in the settings? Thanks 

It's possible to set the screen up to accept an HDMI input but whether it'll work with an external TV box and whether it will also provide audio from the PC is another matter. Best to try and have a play around with it.

https://uk.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/32001/~/aspire-5600u-and-7600u-hdmi-in-source#:~:text=The%20Aspire%205600U%20and%207600U,display%20for%20another%20input%20source.&text=Select%20HDMI%2Din%20and%20press,this%20as%20your%20input%20source.

That website is dated 2017 and I doubt that an old Acer All-in-one with WIN 7 does have HDMI in.
This gives details of an All-in-one with Win 8 that states HDMI out.
https://www.eteknix.com/acer-rolls-aspire-zc-605-windows-8-one-pc/

Well we're not going to know one or the other until the OP has gone and had a look and identified exactly what model it is.

Jt1975

I got it up and running. It’s has a i3 processor and my Uncle paid a lot of money about 10 years ago for it, but I didn’t get model no. It has both HDMI in and out sockets. 

 I plugged the talktalk free view box into the HDMI IN socket, at the side of the PC is a switch to turn it from PC mode to HDMI mode. The computer can be turned off but the monitor will function on its own, so they can run separately.

 The PC ages to start up and the touchscreen worked Ok but every program took ages to come up on screen.

tonyh66

Jt1975 said:

I got it up and running. It’s has a i3 processor and my Uncle paid a lot of money about 10 years ago for it, but I didn’t get model no. It has both HDMI in and out sockets. 

 I plugged the talktalk free view box into the HDMI IN socket, at the side of the PC is a switch to turn it from PC mode to HDMI mode. The computer can be turned off but the monitor will function on its own, so they can run separately.

 The PC ages to start up and the touchscreen worked Ok but every program took ages to come up on screen.

probably a load of bloatware needs removing, an SSD should also speed it up.

grumpycrab

neilmcl said:

It was clear from the post he absolutely didn't require the usual advice of sticking SSDs in etc as he's not interested in using it as a PC.

tonyh66 said:

probably a load of bloatware needs removing, an SSD should also speed it up.

That's your fault Neil :-) Thought we escaped mention of an SSD.