There's lots of potential problems with pre-loved laptops

The HDD is usually the first thing to s**t itself after the battery. Replacing it isn't a big deal, but you will lose information. The battery will almost certainly have a lifespan of practically zero - A year or so of being constantly plugged in and never "cycled" full/empty (like 90% of laptops) and they become more or less useless.

As for the technology, if you're only going to do simple things (Office, Internet, Porn) it should be fine. More RAM would probably be a good idea - the trick is to match the existing type and/or, more importantly, the BUS. This is assuming you have a spare slot for it!

As a general rule, I wouldn't touch Pack-Bell with a 50ft bargepole, but that's just a personal nerd-thing. I don't like the components they use and I particularly object to their proprietary/branding bulls**t they build in which makes any updating of the drivers virtually impossible. Dell used to be buggers for this as well, but recently they seem to have seen the light somewhat.

Posted By: Iwan Husarmi on February 28th 2007 at 22:40:52

Message Thread

Techie advice needed... Arganth?... (General Chat) - Yellalee, Feb 28, 22:19:52
- I'm not an expert on PCs (General Chat) - BerlinCanary, Mar 1, 00:13:26
  - Technical question relating to FM (General Chat) - Winged Eel Creosote, Mar 1, 00:22:30
    - On FM07, in order. No he's shite. He doesn't look bad at all. (n/m) (General Chat) - Arganth, Mar 1, 00:47:20
    - Oh, Bellier(?) - don't know - I'll have a look next time (n/m) (General Chat) - BerlinCanary, Mar 1, 00:39:08
    - Well, assuming you really want to know ... (General Chat) - BerlinCanary, Mar 1, 00:37:49
      - Big mistake (General Chat) - Winged Eel Creosote, Mar 1, 00:39:09
        
        Indeed (General Chat) - BerlinCanary, Mar 1, 00:45:05
        
        Asking for trouble (General Chat) - Winged Eel Creosote, Mar 1, 00:46:41
- There's lots of potential problems with pre-loved laptops (General Chat) - Iwan Husarmi, Feb 28, 22:40:52
  - Yep, I normally avoid them like the Plague as well, but for 150 notes? (General Chat) - Yellalee, Feb 28, 22:44:55
  - cycling batteries is no longer necessary (General Chat) - Dave in France, Feb 28, 22:43:33
    - Leo knows... (General Chat) - blindasabat, Feb 28, 22:48:58
      - That's Brian Blessed from about 25 years ago ! (n/m) (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 22:51:19
        
        nope, this is Brian Blessed from about 24 years ago... (General Chat) - blindasabat, Feb 28, 22:58:49
    - Lithium-ion batteries are much better (General Chat) - Iwan Husarmi, Feb 28, 22:48:01
    - Dave, presume you use an AZERTY keyboard ? (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 22:47:47
      - I alternate between a UK keyboard at home and Danish at work (General Chat) - BerlinCanary, Feb 28, 23:56:49
      - i've got an azerty (General Chat) - Dave in France, Feb 28, 22:50:25
        
        It's a shame Dell don't give you an opportunity to choose not to take McAfee. (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 23:06:00
        
        ? they do dun't they? (General Chat) - blindasabat, Feb 28, 23:09:28
        
        Yeah, it comes as standard, rather than as an option. (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 23:12:10
        
        Same here - but the complete OS gets wiped in my case. (n/m) (General Chat) - bjt, Feb 28, 23:20:31
        
        it's a bit of a pain to remove apparently (General Chat) - Dave in France, Feb 28, 23:16:22
        
        But then I presume I pay the UK price rather than the Dell.fr price ? (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 23:20:20
        
        no, you phone the dell france number (General Chat) - Dave in France, Feb 28, 23:26:34
        
        Ah cool. Kind of helps make the decision. Now for the difficult bit... (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 23:27:34
        
        i started out by suggesting laptops that were around the £1,500 mark (General Chat) - blindasabat, Feb 28, 23:31:20
        
        Unfortunately she's fairly clued up. (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 23:32:56
        
        actually i think they're based in Ireland (it's where they assemble them anyway) (General Chat) - blindasabat, Feb 28, 23:25:05
        
        didn't seem too difficult to me, just really annoying the amount of shit trialware (General Chat) - blindasabat, Feb 28, 23:19:45
- Um... funnily enough, have you tried www.bristol.com? (General Chat) - tim berry, Feb 28, 22:38:29
- that processor and ram more than exceed the spec needed (General Chat) - Pixelman, Feb 28, 22:28:31
  - Does it matter that the processor is not the fastest?... (General Chat) - Yellalee, Feb 28, 22:31:52
    - to upgrade ram (General Chat) - Dave in France, Feb 28, 22:36:03
- depends on the machine (General Chat) - Dave in France, Feb 28, 22:24:06
  - Yeah that's a fair call. (General Chat) - Arganth, Feb 28, 22:30:48

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