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The family laptop died last night and whilst it’ll be going to a friend to see what they can salvage off the hard drive it’s time for a replacement, this one has been pants for ages.
With work laptops and iPads in the house it doesn’t get a lot of use. Saving a few files (most go to a wifi connected hard drive), managing ITunes and basic cropping and selection of photos from the camera (not proper editing).
On this basis I don’t want to spend a lot so the question is am I wasting my time looking for something less than £250?
I’m used to Dell business laptops for work but can’t spend that much. The Dell refurb site has some Inspirons in their scratch & dent section under £250 but I haven’t looked at computers for years now and it’s all meaningless to me now.
A Chromebook isn’t an option (I need the ITunes access to be straightforward), the smaller the screen the better and I guess it’ll have an Office 365 subscription added as that the way it seems to be done now.
Suggestions welcome, ta.
Absolutely any laptop available will do that
Much like you could ride snowdon, on a BSO Apollo, you could but would you really want to?
I don’t recommend anything below i3/ryzen3 as my experience of pentium gold\silver processor unit with eMMC, is that in 12months time they grind to a halt & you’ll regret having bought them as they aren’t upgradable.
Refurbished from dell are great but same issue, nothing in you price range with a (modern) i3. Lot of 10years old i3 with 30 day warranty available else where refurbed but I’m not recommending those either. Demand is high, due to everyone wfh, I think you’ll struggle to find a bargain
Best hope is your current laptop screen is the issue, plug it into a cheap monitor & soldier on
Thanks both. I appreciate that I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here but limited usage just doesn’t seem to justify any more.
The old one won’t start up, it presents an error screen stating it can’t find an OS. It was painful before and tbh has never worked that well (it’s a HP something or other that cost around £500 a good few years ago.
I’ll keep mooching and see what deals are around as close to the £250 mark as possible.
Does it have to be a laptop?
I only ask as you said it's a "family PC" meaning it mainly lives in a home office or study?
If so HP/Dell/Lenovo ex-corporate desktop refurbs available on eBay come out quite good VFM (IMO). If you already have a monitor & keyboard just buy the PC, if not you can get them bundled with a monitor and keyboard. They tend to come with a fresh HDD and install of W10.
SFF or mini towers form factors have more scope for upgradability and a mirrored/backup drive than laptops. If/when it shits itself in a few years a replacement will be pretty cheap...
All assuming you have a bit of space...
Thanks, the office (spare room) is occupied with all of my work gear at the moment. The family laptop live in its bag in a magazine rack and perches on the knee, dining table, sofa when needed so a desktop machine is a non-starter.
At my last company IT restrictions were fairly light and running what I want from home wasn’t an issue, not so where I work now otherwise we’d probably be able to manage without a home biased computer.
Dell refurb shop or It zoo
I got one from laptops and pc’s direct. It’s excellent. Got a few on there for your budget.
Desktop and get everyone to RDP into it from their own tablets?
The old one won’t start up, it presents an error screen stating it can’t find an OS. It was painful before and tbh has never worked that well (it’s a HP something or other that cost around £500 a good few years ago.
Ahhh @st now that sounds more promising, in all honesty refreshing a well spec'd older laptop, is preferable to buy a crap new one. Consult with your techie friend, but an SSD and a reinstall could see you sorted for a while longer with only a £30 for a 240Gd SSD and what ever you pay your IT friend for their time (usually a whole bunch of **** all). The SSD, maybe some extra ram, and a re-install will re-invigorate a decent old laptop, but your tech friend should be able to confirm if it's worthwhile (or throw up the model number for an opinion)
Gotcha, thanks z1ppy. Not sure of the model but from recollection it’s an i3 processor.
Years ago (when I had a different family friend I could call on) I dabbled with putting together desktop computers from parts but it’s all a hazy memory now but I may still whip the case off and see what’s what.
The friend I’d go to now is in the process of recovering from a bout of the Covid so I’ll need to leave it a little while before asking anything of him!
depending on how unwell he was, he might be desperate for something to do, anything that's not just browsing the internet.. you can re-install an O/S while in bed.
I know of ppl who returned early to work, just cause they were bored with Covid recovery (obvious over the Covid). Might be worth asking, without being pushy, but that an awkward line to balance.
an SSD and a reinstall could see you sorted for a while longer with only a £30 for a 240Gd SSD
Exactly what I was going to say.
You could do it yourself, it's (usually) not difficult. HPs tend to be pricks to open in the first place but once you're in it's straight-forward.
If the ssd/reinstall doesn’t work I would suggest a used/refurb Lenovo x series or t series (whatever fits budget). I got a t450 with 8gb and 250ssd last year for about £275, it’s like new and does everything I need.
Thanks all, I’m going to see if I can get into it shortly.
Unfortunately I can’t find any of the bumps that came with it so I don’t have a Windows disc (it came with 8 installed but said friend upgraded it to 10 last time it went doolally).
I don't know what bumps are (bumph?) but you can just download the ISO to a USB from MS's website, you don't need anything else.
Bloody iPad auto correct “Bumpf”
Well the case is off after finding some well hidden screws. It’s a 1TB hard drive but I wasn’t using anywhere near the capacity and 480GB drives seem cheap.
I’m looking around for Windows 10 and it seems to be a case of buying it (£79.99 direct from Microsoft) and I’m not really wanting to look for dodgy product keys.
A lot of (most/all) modern laptops, much like mobile phones, are designed to make it difficult to replace ram, disk drives and BIOS batteries, etc.
It's not a mistake, they just want you to buy a new one.
That's why its better to have a proper computer desk with a meduim size tower case. Because you actually have a chance of upgrading what you have, rather than just buying a whole new system.
People seem to be obsessed with laptops as opposed to proper PC's, and it confuses me constantly as they mostly never leave the house. (the laptop, that is!)
And have you ever ttied to do anything productive on a laptop balanced on your lap? it doesnt really work.
and a good smart phone would be beter in such circumstances.
Rant over.
I had to replace a bios batt in a dell laptop recently, and I literaly have to dismanmtle the entire thing, screen off, screen out, chassis in bits...
In terms of labour cost, it should have been thrown into the bin.
an economic wright-off as they say in the insurance industry.
Mattyfez, no worries about the rant, that’s my forte!
After a YouTube video showed me the hidden screws the keyboard lifted off the case quite easily and disconnecting the ribbon cables I’ve got access the everything the hard drive lifted out easily.
The worry is not paying through the nose for Windows 10 (after also buying a new hard drive), mostly in case there is something else wrong and I end up throwing good money after bad.
In terms of perching the laptop on a knee that’s rare and only when the dining table isn’t free. With iPads etc in the house it is used rarely but there are still a few things it comes (came) in useful for.
And I’ve just found the page where (on a suitable computer rather than and ipad) I can download the ISO to create a disc image so I’ll try that on my work laptop tomorrow. If that works then I guess I can get on and order the SSD.
Blimey, if this works I’ll be gobsmacked!
I just bought a Fujitsu U904 here for £240 from their ebay page.
They regularly get new laptops in - https://www.edinburghremakery.org.uk/buy/refurbished-computers/#1528800506360-5d2d25be-9c8d
Thanks lightman, that looks like a good backup.
In the first instance I’m warmed up to the idea of trying to sort the current laptop, on reflection it’d be great to avoid adding it to the scrap heap (although it could end up being a waste of time and a bit of money I suppose).
@st don’t buy a license yet, there a more than good chance your laptop is licensed with Microsoft for window 8, so you qualify for the free upgrade to windows 10. Just run the w10 installer, select ‘I do not have a license key’ when prompted for a key, allow it to install & see if it activates (when connected to the internet obviously). At worst it will still work in a non activated state with some options disabled, so you can buy a key later @ your leisure (which again I doubt you’ll need to)
Grand, thanks.
Listen to z1ppy. I've done exactly this for a friend today, Dell laptop, i3 processor, few years old. Slow to use and failing hard drive, had failed to boot, random crashes etc.
I tried cloning the drive this morning, it failed due to corruption on the drive being cloned. Gave up, put the new 480 Gb SSD in the laptop, clean install of Windows and it's now running fast and stable. Took less than an hour (I already had the files needed on a drive having previously done this to all our own laptops, including a cheap HP that was less than 4 months old, almost unuseable out of the box, 120Gb SSD and fresh install turned it into a nice useable little laptop). Most difficult thing I find is working out how to get it to boot from USB, seems to vary between every manufacturer.
I’m looking around for Windows 10 and it seems to be a case of buying it
Please read what I wrote. You don't need any keys, bumps, bumph or bumpf.
Google "windows 10 media creation tool."
so you qualify for the free upgrade to windows 10
The OP has already been upgraded courtesy of their friend.
Bumpendumpen indeed Cougar.
When I drew a blank on following your guidance on creating the ISO file (having been incorrectly looking at the Microsoft shop) I got a lead from a mate on the media creation route and all being well can get a USB stick loaded up tomorrow.
I’m apprehensive on the basis that this isn’t a job to be fixed with a hammer but if step 1 goes well tomorrow I’ll hopefully have the new SSD in a few days and will give it a go.
Not much can go wrong to be honest, the laptop is already bust, you shouldn't damage the new SSD. Its surprisingly easy for such a major repair.
I was about to suggest a Pi 400, but then I saw that you need to run iTunes, and as far as I know, you can't easily run it on Linux.
If however you need a cheap computer, then it's amazing!
I bought the Pi 400 for the daughter's home learning and I'm blown away. £90 for a fully functioning desktop computer (quad core, 1.8ghz, 4gb RAM) it runs everything we've thrown at it so far with aplomb.
The fact it's built into the keyboard like a 21st century ZX Spectrum is just the icing on the cake!
Otherwise, ex-business refurbs from somewhere like https://www.tier1online.com/
I bought a 12" HP Elitebook a couple of years ago for about £120. Upgraded the RAM and fitted an SSD, so ended up £200 all in. Great little computer, runs Photoshop and music software with no issues.
Well that was (as suggested) surprisingly straightforward. I had the 240gb SSD drive arrive in the week and that went straight in. The ISO file creation went just fine and loaded up on the new drive and the laptop is now working again.
Faster boot up and operation than before too so all in all I’m well chuffed.
Just to take the old hard drive somewhere to see if there’s any way to recover the information that was on it as I had a few folders of recent family photos that I hadn’t backed up.
Thanks everyone for the advice and guidance. It’s saved me some cash and given me the satisfaction of salvaging what was about to become a lump of scrap.
You could get yourself one of these and try to get the data off yourself...
For a one-off job I wouldn't even bother with an enclosure. You can just get a USB cable.
Professional data recovery is very, very expensive, you're looking at hundreds if not thousands. The bloke at PC World or your mate who knows a bit about computers is highly unlikely to much more than stick it on one of those cables and point Recuva at it. I'd forget "taking it somewhere" unless it's your life's work on there.