What a modern laptop should do

[PhilTheFragger]

Us geeks cannot be held responsible for the actions of "normal" peeps

A standard teenager with scant regard for security protocols will soon have problems, but old pharts who keep to the rules will be fine n dandy

 

[Lord Tyrion]

My laptop takes about 2-3 minutes to be in a state to be used after turning on. I'm going to bookmark this for the next time it needs replacing. Sounds great to me.

 

[fundy]

how old a laptop would be rejuvenated by switching the HDD out for a SSD Phil? Will it improve pretty much all or only going back so far? or only certain processors?

My Dell is starting to suffer quite badly (its a 1720 inspiron, 2Gb ram, Dual Core T7250 processor running Vista). Any gain for switching hardware or better off just replacing it as planned?

 

[PhilTheFragger]

how old a laptop would be rejuvenated by switching the HDD out for a SSD Phil? Will it improve pretty much all or only going back so far? or only certain processors?

My Dell is starting to suffer quite badly (its a 1720 inspiron, 2Gb ram, Dual Core T7250 processor running Vista). Any gain for switching hardware or better off just replacing it as planned?

Good question and it will vary for each machine

Your main problem is the CPU and also Vista will be using up most of your RAM, these will not change if you put in a SSD and these are your pressure points.
so I would say that you will see some benefit, but that it wont be anywhere near as much as you would get with a much newer machine where the pressure point is the SATA hard drive itself.

If it was me, I wouldnt bother,
Do you qualify for the upgrade to W 10? that might be a better option

 

[davidy233]

Impressive Phil - my three year old Macbook air with SSD drive is never switched off - Open the lid and it wakes up - couple of seconds to connect to wifi - welcome to my world - not sure I'd buy a laptop without an SSD drive now

 

[fundy]

Good question and it will vary for each machine

Your main problem is the CPU and also Vista will be using up most of your RAM, these will not change if you put in a SSD and these are your pressure points.
so I would say that you will see some benefit, but that it wont be anywhere near as much as you would get with a much newer machine where the pressure point is the SATA hard drive itself.

If it was me, I wouldnt bother,
Do you qualify for the upgrade to W 10? that might be a better option

No, my main pc has had a W10 upgrade but doesnt seem to be one on offer for the laptop sadly.

Current plan is to try and get a MS Surface 3 to replace, Im assuming that has a SSD because of the size of the drives on offer. Was hoping prices may drop a little. Any thoughts on them?

 

[fundy]

OK secondary question Phil, main machine is an i7 860 processor, 8gb ram, W10. It powers 3 24" displays off 2 graphics cards (which I think are starting to suffer). It has 2 500GB HDDs which actually dont store anything (any storage is on the laptop and an external drive), just run in parallel I believe.

Am I right in assuming a SSD and 2 new graphics cards would make a decent improvement?

 

[PhilTheFragger]

No, my main pc has had a W10 upgrade but doesnt seem to be one on offer for the laptop sadly.

Current plan is to try and get a MS Surface 3 to replace, Im assuming that has a SSD because of the size of the drives on offer. Was hoping prices may drop a little. Any thoughts on them?

You will certainly find a SSD in the Surface 3 PRO version, but NOT in the normal Surface 3. the Pro also uses Intel I3/5/7 Cpu's while the normal used a souped up Atom CPU
But there is a big price difference between the 2

 

[PhilTheFragger]

OK secondary question Phil, main machine is an i7 860 processor, 8gb ram, W10. It powers 3 24" displays off 2 graphics cards (which I think are starting to suffer). It has 2 500GB HDDs which actually dont store anything (any storage is on the laptop and an external drive), just run in parallel I believe.

Am I right in assuming a SSD and 2 new graphics cards would make a decent improvement?

You will certainly see some improvement there Steve, although your CPU is a first generation (we are now on 5th generation) it still has plenty of oomph.
My only concern is that the system itself must be at least 6 years old and I would baulk at spending possibly £300 on upgrading it (SSD plus 2 x Graphics PLUS possibly a new power supply if the new graphics cards need a dedicated power source.)

 

[fundy]

Cheers Phil thanks, its still running well enough for trading so will leave as is for now. As for the laptop, seems I need to find a few more pennies lol

 

[Midnight]

Think my computer is ducked. It takes about 5 mins on a good day to actually get past the start up screen. Once it has eventually done that it takes another 10 -20 to actually get the Internet working. By then i have forgotten what i needed to look at.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Think my computer is ducked. It takes about 5 mins on a good day to actually get past the start up screen. Once it has eventually done that it takes another 10 -20 to actually get the Internet working. By then i have forgotten what i needed to look at.

I would agree with your diagnosis , how old is it? if its 5 years + then dont waste your time, just back up your data and buy a new one.
happy to help with recommendations

 

[Midnight]

I would agree with your diagnosis , how old is it? if its 5 years + then dont waste your time, just back up your data and buy a new one.
happy to help with recommendations

Mate, i will take you up on that offer when the boss tells me that we have enough money put aside to get a new one.

 

[JustOne]

Phil, my son has upgraded his desktop to Win10 and that 'windows button' on the keyboard now does NOTHING, it used to bring up all the apps etc as it 'switched modes'... is that supposed to not work anymore?

thanks in adv....

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Phil, my son has upgraded his desktop to Win10 and that 'windows button' on the keyboard now does NOTHING, it used to bring up all the apps etc as it 'switched modes'... is that supposed to not work anymore?

thanks in adv....

James

Go here http://www.fosshub.com/Classic-Shell.html/ClassicShellSetup_4_2_4.exe

Download classic shell and all will be well again

it gives you back the old fashioned start button as in xp, vista, 7 etc without any of the app tiles that 10 has in tow

 

[6inchcup]

what i dont understand is why you got one of the extras from DOWNTON ABBEY to do the narration !!

 

[PhilTheFragger]

what i dont understand is why you got one of the extras from DOWNTON ABBEY to do the narration !!

You can go off some people

Was there insufficient gravitas?

 

[Val]

Impressive Phil - my three year old Macbook air with SSD drive is never switched off - Open the lid and it wakes up - couple of seconds to connect to wifi - welcome to my world - not sure I'd buy a laptop without an SSD drive now

Likewise all be it mines is a year old, if I'm honest i don't think i'll switch from mac now

 

[bobmac]

I didn't know you could simply turn on the computer and it would automatically log on to your home page as well.
Is that difficult to set up please?
Thanks

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Err it doesn't Bob
The video shows it booting to the desktop and I quickly select Firefox from the icon in the taskbar, which opens the web page.

However it can be setup to do this