MaxG Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Posted by PatMc on 11/03/2016 21:31:26: With one of these I could upgrade Win7 to 10 then dump Vista on the other PC & replace it with Linux for me to play around with. I upgraded my wife's old laptop which was on Vista when she got a new one. It now runs Linux Mint very effectively. I also have a very old Toshiba XP laptop which must be about 10 years old. I got it second hand. That is also running Linux Ubuntu very effectively as well. Linux seems to be a saviour for old PCs provided you are willing to take the risk with it and put in just a bit of time to learn new jargon etc. and how the OS works. I am not a computer geek just an average curious user. Maxg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Pat, yes it would be better to buy a genuine disc for 15 pounds! As Windows seems to be linked to motherboard in some way it does not seem possible to just extract the hard disc and put it in your existing computer as a second disc. - Unless someone knows better? The reason i have not bought anothe refurbished one to replace my wifes m/c is because I just don't want to scrap her perfectly working and immaculate item! It's just wrong! I can certainly say I have not regretted buying the refurbished computer from Encore. At the time they had mostly Dell now its HP and others. I took the trouble to go through all the advertised stock and selected the best buy. Then I phoned them and asked all sorts of awkward questions and got back proper answers - no salesmen stuff. I was satisfed and placed an order and it came next day and I was more than satisfied - just plugged it in and it worked and continues to do so. What I would suggest is checking on the actual one you select - they are mostly compact style with perhaps not too much room for extra hard disks or second optical drives. Mostly horizontal style to go under a monitor not tower style. I reckon extra memory is more worthwhile than a faster processor and so I paid about 10 pounds to get 4gb. They dont have wireless card as standard so I used a plug in unit from Maplin. Some compact m/cs might use half height cards so your old wireless one might not fit in to the case. Stock seems to vary from day to day and it seems today they offer a m/c for 53 pounds with Win 7. But Currys sell a brand new laptop with Win 10 for 150 pounds at the moment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GONZO Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Vista eh! Laptop and desktop both on Vista until Sunday. Went to bed Saturday night with 29 updates on the laptop expecting to get up Sunday and they would be fully installed after switch on. No chance. The machine was totally 'bricked'. But, after 4 hours of trying I managed to get into safe mode only to find most apps disabled. The most important being the restore centre. I could do nothing with it at all. Its now in the bin and a new one arrives in the next day or so. Just under a grand, with a new MS Office copy. Expensive weekend. Fortunately I have a 1Tb back up storage unit which I move between machines. As the desktop has been exhibiting some problems with updates in the past few weeks I now keep it running 24/7, just in case, untill I get the new laptop up and running. Supose I'll be looking at new desktops next. Don't you just love being on the technology treadmill? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 That seems very unfortunate Gonzo........I wonder if anyone here can suggest what should be done if it happens to anyone else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John F Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 There are ways to check the computer, the fact that it will go into safe mode means it is probably recoverable. Chkdsk or memtest would have probably indicated what the issue was. Did you destroy the hard drive gonzo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GONZO Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Destroyed the hard drive? I should say so! Heres how, should give some a laugh. Besides my insulin dependant diabetes I have other health issues that prevent me getting more than a couple of hours sleep each night, sometimes much less and an inability to catch up during the day. Leading up to this Sunday morning I had a bad period of nights and part way through the 4hr stint in the kitchen our 6 Yorkies kicked off which started the 24 week old Doberman off. The wife then chipped in with repeated questions of when I would like lunch. The perfect storm had arrived and you all know what happend next. I dont remember any action leading up to the final moment just the feeling of my fist hitting the screen and seeing it totally destroyed. What followed will not be described but at the end there were many pieces of plastic and a hard disc that sounded like a can of gravel when shaken. This was my wifes 7 year old(physically emaculate)Toshiba that I had spent many days, a couple of years back, reclaiming from the dead when she moved to a new machine. So, I have patience with things but something just snapped. I feel bad on many levels not least about my behavour. I guess I'm not the first and I wont be the last to crack over computers. Thinking about it now I feel sure that I would have eventually got the better of it if other factors had not been in play. Still whats done is done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I daren't ask what you do if you crash a model! Everybody should bear in mind there are many people in Britain who cannot afford to buy lifes luxuries, so please try to offer any useable items to your local Freecycle website. Of course it's necessary to wipe a hard drive before a computer can be given away but I think there are specialist charities that will do that for donated computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GONZO Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Crash a model - been a while but get no more than moderately upset, like most, as I work on the principle of never flying more than I can easily afford to loose. So, no planes etc that cost more than £700 - £800 as a max. Your comment brought to mind a member of the Colchester club that I knew back in the 70's 80's. He was a single guy late 30's early 40's who worked as a high speed train driver on the East coast main line. Money was no object, which was just as well. An example and there were many: he turned up one day at the flying site with his latest, T240 with a multi cylinder OS for power. Engine was not running right but he flew and had a forced landing causing minimal damage. He then proceeded to jump up and down, with both feet, on the plane picked up the bits, chucked them in his car and drove off. As I say there were many such incidents, like the time I watched him kick yet another new plane round the site for some minor problem. He went on to fly fixed wing micro lights from the same farm strip that I flew from. He died when he rushed his take off by not warming up the engine which then cut, due to engine iceing, on the climb out. Too low to recover and the plane just fell out of the sky. But, I think we are straying too far from the thread topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Just 'Upgraded' to 10. Mostly seems ok so far but I can't get 'Edge' to do anything useful, For example I use Audacity and the manual download link on the program takes me directly to Edge and nothing happens. I could do without this and would like to do away with this hassle. Any suggestions please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Berriman Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 I reluctantly had to go Google Chrome as i found that the Edge gobbled up my Gbite allowance every time i used it with all the information that was on the Edge page. Others were suggesting Fire Fox but i could not download that one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 I think I had 'Edge' running for about 3 mins when I first went to Win 10 - that was all it took to determine it was the worst browser since IE - and that's saying something.... Install Mozilla Firefox and set it as your default browser in 'System', 'Default Apps'. Does all you'll need it to do and has some useful Add-Ons too..... Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis Watkins Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Mozilla Firefox runs on Windows 10 perfectly, either Tower or Laptop, while you decide on the next move Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 An article in the Guardian Online today suggests that Microsoft might be allowing people still to ugrade to Win 10 despite the end of the free upgrade on July29. But only if you have Win 7 or 8 For anyone still using Vista but with a good spec that would allow 7 or 10 I see that there are still a few copies of Win7 for sale at about 20 pounds on Amazon. Seems worth upgrading at least to Win 7 at that price even if the free upgrade to 10 has lapsed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy48 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Can I add a few comments: 1. DON'T buy a cheap copy of Windows from Amazon. I bought Win 7 a few years ago, and the premium version was slightly cheaper than the home edition. All went well for 3 months then I got a message from Microsoft telling me my copy of Windows was a fake, and it would be blocked. Got my money back of Amazon (though seller was not blocked), but when I bought Win7 home edition it would not install over the premium version, and I had to reformat my hard disk and install everything again, including all the software and my own files. The fake packaging was very good indeed, and only a close comparison with the real thing showed any differences. 2. DVD writers cost just a tenner these days. New processors start at about £20. In fact a new mother board is only about £25-£30. Much the easiest way to upgrade an old system. 3. Check out a company called Novatech. I've used them for over 20 years and they are very good. You can buy a "bare bones" new PC starting at £170. This has no software, keyboard or screen, but is otherwise complete. Bit late now, but put your old copy of Windows Vista/7 on it then use the free update to get Windows 10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis Watkins Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 The safest Windows software is to pay online to Microsoft and download. It is the most expensive way, but it is genuine, is guaranteed, is always upgraded free, and it works Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Andy the problem is not the hardware so no point in buying a new motherboard etc. The problem is the outrageous prices for a software upgrade compared to buying a new computer complete with latest Windows. People are being 'forced' to throw out perfectly good machines with good spec just because it's so dear to buy a Windows upgrade - almost as cheap to buy a new machine. It's an environmental disaster! For anyone who needs Windows 10 - you can still buy a secondhand base unit wih Windows 10 installed for 55 pounds delivered! Fair spec but you could get slightly better such as 4 MB for another 15 pounds etc.. Encore Stone group Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy48 Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Its like buying a new car. Sell it after the 5 years warranty is up, and you'll have 5 years trouble free motoring (well if you buy a decent make and model!!!). Buy an older car and it may run well for years, but it may cost a fortune in repairs and breakdowns. Its the same with computers. I've had computers at home now for 40 years, and I've lost count of the number I've had and the number of operating systems or versions of Word. I change computers in the same way I change cars. I don't throw them away, I simply rebuild them with a new motherboard (usually), processor and a few other bits. This last time I treated myself to a new case. The £16 was a big expense. Noticing your 4Mb of memory, my first computer came with 2Kb of memory, and an extra 2Kb cost £24 extra. That was a lot of money in those days. ... and no it was not a Sinclair Spectrum. Its not just the operating system that is expensive, but the latest versions of the software. If you want software to run reliably you need an up-to-date machine. I would suggest for Windows to run well you do need at least 8Gb of memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Thanks for the replies in connection to my post regarding 'Edge' gentlemen. Funnily enough, I had a genuine message from M/Soft yesterday advertising the 'Anniversary Upgrade for W.10'. I downloaded and installed this, it took some time to complete, and everything - including 'Edge' is working fine (so far). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo565 Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 My upgrade went well,only thing untoward was it changed the date format to the American style. MM/DD/YYYY. Google soon had us back up and running with UK format,so far quite pleased with 10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Well Andy my computer is running Win 10 beautifully on 4 Mb so 8Mb is not really necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy48 Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Wait until you have a number of apps running at once, then it will slow down. However, its all relative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 Upgraded from W7 to W10 and I can't get any Windows downloads. I've tried everything that I can think of without success. I've also changed the settings in 'Update' Properties from 'Automatic' to 'Manual' and back again, restarting after every alteration. Third party apps. download perfectly well (Except iTunes update - got an error message each time I retried). Don't use it anyway. I spoke to a senior M/S tec. and he spent quite a while trying but couldn't make any sense of the problem so he downloaded a completely clean version of W10 on Monday. However in spite of the new program the problem persists. I use a third party A/V and after disabling for 10 minutes I still could not download updates. I should mention that after the original upgrade to W.10 M/S advised downloading the Anniversary package, which I did and that's when the problem started. I could get updates before then. Has anybody a similar problem? Has anybody go a fix please? Edited By Barrie Dav 2 on 17/08/2016 14:57:31 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flight1 Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 have you activated you instalation as it won't do any windows up dates etc unill this is done, type in activation in the search box bottom left of screen and check Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 Hello F1, Thanks for your reply. Yes, I've activated the acct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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