[Closed] PC World, Are they the Halfords or the Screwfix of the PC world ?

Are PC World like Halfords, lots of useless tat sold by numpties with the occasional gem (Boardman) ?

Pretty much exactly that, yes. However, branded kit is branded kit, HP is good stuff.

I like PCW as a place to go and manhandle goods before purchase. Also, somewhat surprisingly, their Business wing have always been very good to deal with (or were back in PCWBD days anyway).

Halfords have redeeming qualities compared to PC World. Not at all like Screwfix, as their prices aren't all that competitive.

They sometimes have a good deal on, if they do take the computer take no extra warranty or crappy AV software in with the sale. Pay and they get out of there.

Are you a technical numpty who's going to cock up his own computer then expect lots of help and hand-holding afterwards? Probably not the best choice if so.

If you're buying a branded PC from there, you're happy with the spec and can support yourself (or call up the manufacturer for it), no reason not to shop there, as long as you avoid the extended warranties.

I like PCW as a place to go and manhandle goods before purchase.

if they do take the computer take no extra warranty or crappy AV

Good point, well made.

The correct answer to "would you like McAfee AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, a three year warranty, a 3G dongle and a copy of FIFA 09 with that sir?" is "would you like a good, hard kick in the manparts?"

Are you [s]a technical numpty who's going to cock up his own computer then expect lots of help and hand-holding afterwards?[/s] elfin?

I wouldn't touch em with your thing, let alone my own, but yes great for that touchy feeley moment.
Heard of too many ppl who've paid too much for some very basic repairs, and the kit they sell (as with all large retails who 'stock' kit) it 'tends' to be behind the time spec wise and expensive with it.

Go look find the spec you want/need ,then save your money & buy from Dell*. 😉

*Other online retailers are available

I bought a reconditioned laptop of the web from them and it blue screened a couple of times. I took it back into the shop and they refunded me no questions asked.

Seemed pretty good service to me.

I like PCW as a place to go and manhandle goods before purchase from somewhere else

You know, I originally wrote that, then remembered that the last netbook we bought came from there so wouldn't strictly be true.

My Daughters laptop was from PCW, bought during one of there Bank Holiday sales so had a silly discount deal. It was a very recent model and was the cheapest by far, they do keep a mixture of new stuff and old you just have to check the prices but you do that with anything surely?

Wow, 10 replies in 8 minutes.
You can't beat a mountain bike forum for IT advice. 😛

Yeah, I'd heard before that PC World and the like make their money from the ad ons.
I'll stick with AVG free and take a chance without the extended warranty.
I was thinking if I bought it, I might upgrade to 4GB of ram, which would probably immediately invalidate the warranty anyway.

Thinking of getting a new computer as this one is getting slower and slower.

That's a bit like saying "I'm thinking of getting a new car, this one's getting low on oil." Computers don't generally get slower due to physical problems, have you considered a wipe and reinstall?

how does this one from PC World look ?

It's a good brand but not a particularly stellar spec. If you want it for day to day office and spodding duties it should be fine. Personally, I'd be looking for 4Gb and a Core processor these days.

Cougar +1 - missed the obvious fact you don't need a new PC in my haste to be rude about PCW.

I'll stick with AVG free

Personally I'd say more like Halfords, but what large outfit don't pile them high and sell them cheap??? That said I did buy a Compaq lap top from them 7 years ago and it's still working, give or take 300 re-formats, hours and hours of dithering and multiple viruses.

The Mac I bought two years ago has been faultless, never had to hit ctrl+alt+delete once and works about three times as fast, wouldn't entertain a windows PC ever again....

Get MSE instead - that's actually better than anything you can pay money for.

Have your +1 back, sir.

AVG used to be the best, but it's got progressively more annoying since version 7.5.

Actually,

this one is getting slower and slower.

I'll stick with AVG free

These two statements may not be wholly unrelated.

That said I did buy a Compaq lap top from them 7 years ago .....The Mac I bought two years ago has been faultless......works about three times as fast

Hmmm! I wonder why?

I was thinking if I bought it, I might upgrade to 4GB of ram, which would probably immediately invalidate the warranty anyway.

PCs are supposed to be user upgradable. I'm not aware of any manufacturer that does this, and I used to work at Time Computers.

Hmmm! I wonder why?

Is it cuz it is white?

I see your problem, the "W" and "S" keys are very close together aren't they.

Hmmm, so there might be a connection between running slow and AVG free then ?
My old PC ran fine with AVG free, I did wonder if it was just a coincidence that this one got significantly slower round about the same time I installed AVG. The hard drive got full to about 99% arout then as well, which I thought was the cause of it slowing down. I deleted a load of stuff and got it down to about 85%, but it never really speeded up again.

I bought this computer second hand with no Windows disc.
If I had a disc I would probably try a reinstall to see if that cured it.
I just thought buying something a bit more modern would be an easier way to do it.

If your PC is getting slow, it's possibly due to the raft of Microsoft upgrades they've been issuing.

Getting a bit more memory in your existing PC may get it fast again.

All you need to know about PC World is contain within the Gary Glitter saga. He took his PC in for repair and they looked through his hard drive. You may well say 'good job too', but I wonder how many other hard drives they've looked through? Your bank accounts, personal photos, names and addresses? TBH I was shocked they stayed in business after that, but the general public aren't the most discerning bunch sometimes.

In my personal opinion they are pretty darn rubbish, CCL or similar type shops are much better.

Tend to give better service and have a better know how too! Ontop of that if you are wanting slight upgrades to an off the shelf spec PC they will probably fit you the parts for a small fee.

He took his PC in for repair and they looked through his hard drive.

I'd wager that PCW are far from unusual in this practice either.

I bought this computer second hand with no Windows disc.

Ah. It's a shame you're not NorthWestTrailquestsGraham or I'd have offered to do it for you. Is there an OEM licence sticker on it or anything?

PCWorld are the Screw[b]You[/b] of the PC world.

There's a little Intel sticker and a Windows sticker on the front and that's it. No licence numbers anywhere.

A couple of other things I've noticed that started at the same time as the hard drive got full and I installed AVG.
Quite often, when I open a new tab or window, the bottom inch or so of the window is black. If I minimize then maximise it then fills the whole screen as it should.
Almost every time I shut down, I get the "Windows needs to install something or other, click here to shut down without installing".
I've also noticed that AVG spends a lot of time updating and, when it does, everything else slows down.

Sounds like it needs a wipe and reinstall.

If you're near Nottingham and are a computer numpty I may be able to help with that.

What flavour of Windows? It sounds a lot like a clean install would help.

It's a shame you're not NorthWestTrailquestsGraham

All you need to know about PC World is contain within the Gary Glitter saga. He took his PC in for repair and they looked through his hard drive.

You can get revealers that will show your windows key, you then can download XP and use the key. If you're feeling brave.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/SoftKey-Revealer.shtml

It's a bit more complicated than that, because activating XP post-install is a minefield these days. Safest way is to copy the activation file (wpa.dbl) from system32 before you wipe it.

I did a similar rebuild relatively recently and found out the hard way that MS have nobbled activation over the Internet. When I rang them, they refused to help even though I had a valid OEM licence because I'd used my own media rather than the disc that came with the PC ..oO

I've always found the issue to be to locate a copy of Xp that accepts your key.

Any students in the family, who can allow you to buy (original) [url= http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Office_2010-software.aspx?gclid=CNLN7ILHxKkCFYpA4Qod5goaEQ ]cheap software?[/url]

Mmmmmhhh will investigate Cougar's suggestion.

It's a bit more complicated than that, because activating XP post-install is a minefield these days. Safest way is to copy the activation file (wpa.dbl) from system32 before you wipe it.

Been awhile but it's the method I used in the past, might have been before activation was introduced though.

ohhh will investigate Cougar suggestion.

If it's XP Pro rather than Home, you might want to google "XP SLP" for another vaguely legitimate approach too.

Been awhile but it's the method I used in the past, might have been before activation was introduced though.

XP has required activation from day 1, it's not something that was introduced later (IIRC anyway). OEMs can pre-activate their installations so that the end user doesn't have to (and corporate versions don't require activation), which might be what you're thinking of.

Whilst most PCW are like Halfords, the one in Brentford had a really knowledgeable bloke ever (as long as it was linux).
Generally - avoid unless the deal is great (my HP Laserjet was 50-ish quid BNIB).

XP has required activation from day 1, it's not something that was introduced later (IIRC anyway).

Hmmm maybe my memory is fuzzy and it's been a lot longer than XP days. The linking to hardware bit is newish though.

"All you need to know about PC World is contain within the Gary Glitter saga. He took his PC in for repair and they looked through his hard drive."

Amen to that.

just get a dell?

As for the Gary Glitter thing, I've alway maintained the shop had to no right to investigate the contents of his HDD & should have been sued under data protection legislation for actually disclosing it (unless there a legal president why they should).
Though I would totally agree, he got what he deserved

Repairing a PC does not mean you have access to private data IMO - obviously you can do, but that no reason to do it.

After find my m8's piccy's of his missues* (getting undressed - I don't know if it went further, as I stopped looking) I decided never to look at ppl private moments again, as they are just that, private.

* I was bored, I wasn't looking for anything.

Graham

Don't go near PC world, they're rubbish! Charge way too much for everything, and the service is diabolical.

HP machines are a bit overpriced and underspecced in general too, and often only HP parts will fit too, so if upgrading RAM or other components, you need to buy expensive HP stuff.

You'd do better with one of these...

[url] http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251310 [/url]

And a copy of windows for about £60... Will save you about £70 and have similar performance (better actually, it has more RAM!)

If you see muddypuddle again any time soon, thank her for the chain at 5am. I couldn't find her later on to give her some money for it, I have emailed her though... Will pop some cash her way.

hould have been sued under data protection legislation for actually disclosing it (unless there a legal president why they should).

Yup there is. Comes under a crime being committed, I suppose they could have kept quiet about it though as that's way better than grassing on someone.

it's not about keeping quiet, it's about not doing it (invading some-one privacy) in the 1st place...

If you had some intersting picture of your partner, and had no IT knowledge (to remove or hide them), want some geek going through them?
professionalism, a total lack of it.

I've alway maintained the shop had to no right to investigate the contents

I don't disagree, but the counter-argument to that is "well, we were attempting repairs and saw it by accident." It could've been his desktop wallpaper for all we know.

often only HP parts will fit too,

[Citation needed]

You'd do better with one of these...

I think we'll have to agree to differ there.

BTW : To get back on subject: Graham, give me the PC for a day or so and I'll have a go @ clearing it out & tidying it up (after backing it up)

I see your problem, the "W" and "S" keys are very close together aren't they.

Z1ppy, thanks for the offer.
I've spent most of the day trying to view the MM results, look at the Dell website, uninstall AVG and follow this thread.
All the time the AVG logo down the bottom right hand corner has had an arrow superimposed on it and says "AVG is updating" when I hover the cursor over it and everything has almost ground to a halt.

I only paid £60 for this PC off ebay, so I'm wondering if I ought to get another similar cheapy to use while I'm messing about with this one.

If you had some intersting picture of your partner, and had no IT knowledge (to remove or hide them), want some geek going through them?
professionalism, a total lack of it.

After find my m8's piccy's of his missues* (getting undressed - I don't know if it went further, as I stopped looking) I decided never to look at ppl private moments again, as they are just that, private.

Double standards then.

I have no idea how they found them but once they did then they have the right to report them.

Double standards then.

Doing a m8 a favour and doing it as a job, double standards reallllly?

I wouldn't disagree about reporting it (even if it was done informally), just I always found the whole "how did they find them" bit disturbing.

I only have working knowledge of one PC Returns department so I have no idea how typical it is, but my experience is that the safety of your data was wholly dependent on the personal integrity of whichever engineer you got.

This was in the days before webcams (and indeed, the web) really became mainstream so there (fortunately) wasn't a lot of compromising personal data to be had, but there was sufficient commercial filth for one engineer to maintain a healthy supplementary income selling porn CDs he'd built up from the contents of customers' hard drives.

This may have been atypical and times might have changed, but I'd suggest that it's naiive to assume that your private data stays private in such places.

And with external drives being so readily available, there's little point in taking the risk 🙂

Doing a m8 a favour and doing it as a job, double standards reallllly?

You still looked at files you had no right to. Paid or not.

🙄 of course it is..

If you had some intersting picture of your partner, and had no IT knowledge (to remove or hide them), want some geek going through them?
professionalism, a total lack of it

I imagine that sort of behaviour isn't exclusive to PC World though. Not that I'm defending them, they're a a waste of space, but then they're part of DSG, so you wouldn't expect any more.

You used to be able to go into PC World, wander over to the brown box corner and get a new hard drive or motherboard, cheap as chips, on a Sunday when the thing always seems to break. Not any more. So I don't use them any more. Take that PC World.

Re the special warranty thing - I took it as the sales guy gave me a 10% discount on a £700 machine if I did so. I cancelled the warranty before the first installment was due. Kerching!

However, branded kit is branded kit, HP is good stuff.

Not always. At the entry level price point, many of the big manufacturers may sell white label products (or private label), branded as their own. For example the [i]Cheapo China Computer Co[/i] builds cheap laptops for the [i]ACME Big Brand Computer Corporation[/i]. From memory and before everybody had flat screen TV's, Wharfdale (I think) used to make the entry level TV's for Philips. All the components were Wharfdale but the name on the front was Philips.

This enables the big brands to compete at the lower end of the market. However they do risk damaging their own brand name, if the white label product quality is poor.

The buying power of the big retailers also means that the big brands may not be what they appear. For example the big retailer asks for say 100,000 products at a certain price point. The manufacturer can only get to the price point by building the products with cheaper components but it does give them a mass route to market. (About 10 years ago, I bought a Canon AV video camera from Dixons. The camera was only available in Dixons and its' model number was slightly different to the model number at other retailers. The Dixons model was considerably cheaper than the model at other retailers.)

I've uninstalled lavasoft AdAware and everything is more or less back to normal.
It looks like that was the problem all along.
I still want to get a newer faster PC anyway for home use so I can leave this one at MuddyPuddle's house for us both to use instead of her ancient slow laptop.

That ebuyer one that mboy recommended looks good to me. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251310

Z1ppy's link to cheap software looks good too, if I can find a student who shares my relaxed attitude towards Microsoft licencing, but I can't find basic Widows XP or 7, they all seem to be upgrades for existing OSs. Am I missing something ?
http://www.software4students.co.uk/Windows_7-software.aspx

XP's gone... I've bought Win 7 upgrade from them, and have installed it onto a clean machine.

and it's student in a very relaxed way... I think even primary school even qualifies.. not that I think they check, as my 'student' had actually finished her course when I bought it. 😳

So, just to clarify this, because I need to have things explained slowly to me...

If I buy

which comes with "No operating system", plus http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Windows_7_Professional_32_bit_Upgrade_Edition-details.aspx it will all work together ?

It says I need a current valid Windows OS to upgrade, but them it also says I can do a custom install to completely replace an existing OS.

One more question, do I need 32 or 64 bit ?

It's not the software that's 'upgrade', it's the license.

So if you have no OS on a computer, you can't use the upgrade, cos there's nothing to upgrade from.

Upgrading from Vista I think probably just changes some bits of the system. You can still upgrade from Windows 95 I think but it really just wipes your system.

You probably don't need W7 professional btw. Re 64 bit - depends if you have a 64 bit machine. They are the same price so get the one that matches your machine.

So if you have no OS on a computer, you can't use the upgrade, cos there's nothing to upgrade from.

You probably don't need W7 professional

Re 64 bit - depends if you have a 64 bit machine.

If I buy

which comes with "No operating system"

Whoops, that's what happens when I post on two threads and I accidentally copy from one and paste on the other. 😳

[i]"Re 64 bit - depends if you have a 64 bit machine."[/i]
That's what I mean about needing to have things explained to me. Where on
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251310

So, does http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251310 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/259863 look like the best deal for me ?
They only do the 64 bit version, so I take it that's standard for newer PCs and I assume it's better to pay an extra 40p to get SP1 included ?

Comes down to whether you really need it or not

I can't think of a reason to install 32 bit on a 64bit machine. It's not cheaper, is it?

SP1 is free as will all the SPs be, but they are a big download, so whatever you want 🙂

A quick google of the processor name comes up with this:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42802

Yes, it is 64 bit. PC look good value but I'm not up with the latest bargains - you won't be able to use all that 4GB though if you only install 32 bit...

IIRC Windows 7 discs have both 32 and 64 on them and you chose which to install. Can't find my disc to check. 😳

I can't think of a reason to install 32 bit on a 64bit machine.

I thought W7 disks came with both 32 and 64, but that may only be full retail versions. I'm fairly sure the licence covers both, so you'd just need the media.

As I said above, 64 can actually make performance worse due to the different way it addresses memory

Is this an actually measured fact in real usage, or just a geeky theory? Seem to remember evidence of this was thin on the ground last time we discussed it.

When I bought Vista only the Ultimate version had both disks with it.

I'm sure I've seen numbers, but I'm not searching for it. IIRC Cougar was more up on this than me.

It can also be faster depending on what you're doing, in theory.

Yes you can - ie you can do a clean install - but only so long as you have the install disk for what you're upgrading from

That used to be the case, as above I can confirm a copy of Win 7 upgrade will install onto a clean pc, without requesting any sort of "old version" to confirm the upgrade.
My 32bit "upgrade" disc only came with the 32bit version though, maybe you'd get 32bit with the 64 bit version though... I dunno

Have yet to see that Windows 64bit offers any [u]"real world advantages"[/u], other than memory access (que long technical explaination from Cougar [again] 😉 - which for most of us, is superfluous) .

My 32bit "upgrade" disc only came with the 32bit version though, maybe you'd get 32bit with the 64 bit version though... I dunno

Home basic only comes with 32bit.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-choose-between-32-bit-64-bit-windows-7-operating-systems/

As did my Pro "upgrade" version too, that article is only of any use if you buying the retail version, who's got the money to waste on that? 😉

(que long technical explaination from Cougar [again] - which for most of us, is superfluous) .

Quite. Last time we went into this, the can was opened, worms everywhere.

There is a widely held view that 64 bits are better than 32 bits, presumably because it's a bigger number or something. There's also this,

you won't be able to use all that 4GB though if you only install 32 bit...

... which crops up whenever and wherever this issue is discussed, and whilst it's technically true it's a misleading simplification.

Moving to 64-bit brings some advantages and, currently, some disadvantages. The problem is that we're currently in a position where 4Gb is a very common memory configuration, and it's at this point where it all gets a bit complicated. I don't doubt that there will be a day when everything is 64-bit, but that day isn't today and probably won't be tomorrow either.

My advice would be to go 32 bit unless one of the following is true,

a) you have [i]more [/i]than 4Gb of RAM, or
b) you have a specific reason to go x64.

In the case of b), there's a good chance that if you don't know what those reasons are, then you don't need it. If you ignore this and go x64 anyway, the world won't end.

--

Re: discs, I have a retail copy of W7 Home Premium and that came with both x32 and x64 discs. I was under the impression that this was the case across the board but it looks like the S4S site offer them individually, I'm not quite sure what's going on with that; presumably the Educational stream does something different. Regardless, the licence is good for either variant.

With regards to upgrade versions, Windows 7 expects a fully activated copy of a previous OS, it's not like the old days where you could just whack in CDs (or like one of the old Office versions that recognised its own installation CD as a qualifying upgrade product 😀 ). Using an upgrade disc on a bare machine will install but fail to activate. There's ways around this (a registry change followed by a command-line, er, command to rearm activation) but, well, it's a hack.

I still think that you're better off with a branded machine. For me, I'd be happy spending a couple of days building and tweaking a machine, but I'm a geek; most people would rather get on with the task of playing with their new shinies I'm sure.

What "Shotsaware" said about rebranding is well documented in the white goods industry, I'm not aware of the same thing happening in the PC arena but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. Either way though, you're still getting reliable support rather than a friday night special from someone you've never heard of.

</2p>

My advice would be to go 32 bit unless one of the following is true,

a) you have more than 4Gb of RAM, or
b) you have a specific reason to go x64

Is 32 bit cheaper then?

 

With regards to upgrade versions, Windows 7 expects a fully activated copy of a previous OS, it's not like the old days where you could just whack in CDs (or like one of the old Office versions that recognised its own installation CD as a qualifying upgrade product ). Using an upgrade disc on a bare machine will install but fail to activate.

OK, tbh I haven't activated my version, I've been putting it off with the "slmgr -rearm" command (as I'm undecided as to whether to buy another box) but it does want me to activate it and show every sign that it would, that and Ive used up my last "slmgr" option so I need to re-install or activate it within the next 5 days.