Help
Welcome to BleepingComputer, a free community where people like yourself come together to discuss and learn how to use their computers. Using the site is easy and fun. As a guest, you can browse and view the various discussions in the forums, but can not create a new topic or reply to an existing one unless you are logged in. Other benefits of registering an account are subscribing to topics and forums, creating a blog, and having no ads shown anywhere on the site.
Posted 22 August 2009 - 06:05 PM
Hi.
Our four year old Sony Vaio laptop was dropped from the overhead bin on an airplane, and it's not so happy now...intermittently incredibly slow; the lagging is obvious when playing any audio. CPU is running 90% plus most of the time. I've done everything I can think of, with no improvement. I took it to our local repair shop, where they checked everything they could, with no specific problem located but a final diagnosis of "sound card, or CPU, or motherboard, or a combination, is damaged. Major fix." They suggested that it would cost more than the price of a new machine to repair this one...
Great. Even if we could live with the slowdown, the main thing my husband does (besides checking email) is to listen to music videos on YouTube, so we need a new computer!
Here's the template:
My budget for the new computer is: Minimal. We're in New Zealand, so anything is going to be at least 2x the US price.
What are the primary uses for this computer ? Web browsing, web mail, YouTube, occasional movie watching, the odd home office needs. If I get motivated I might do some HTML...
What software do you intend on using on the computer? If it still works with the new OS, Office 2000. Nothing else specific.
Do you play games? card games, nothing really graphics intense.
Do you tend to have a lot of programs running at the same time, or do you close every program when you are done using it? Not unusual to have Firefox with 5-6 tabs open, Word 2000, calculator, 2x solitare.
Do you store a lot of pictures or music on the computer? Currently storing about 2.5Gb in photos.
Specific questions: All the low end (~$900NZ) machines here seem to be Atom N230 processors. (A few have Atom N270s, but those are >$1000NZ.) 1 Gb of RAM is pretty standard, with Intel graphics. Are we likely to be happy with the video/movie/YouTube experience with those processors?
I don't have a preference for form factor, although right now with an unrepairable laptop, I'm leaning towards some kind of tower!
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
Oh, current system is
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1729 Mhz (Centrino)
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Intel Graphics
Thanks,
Suzi
Our four year old Sony Vaio laptop was dropped from the overhead bin on an airplane, and it's not so happy now...intermittently incredibly slow; the lagging is obvious when playing any audio. CPU is running 90% plus most of the time. I've done everything I can think of, with no improvement. I took it to our local repair shop, where they checked everything they could, with no specific problem located but a final diagnosis of "sound card, or CPU, or motherboard, or a combination, is damaged. Major fix." They suggested that it would cost more than the price of a new machine to repair this one...
Great. Even if we could live with the slowdown, the main thing my husband does (besides checking email) is to listen to music videos on YouTube, so we need a new computer!
Here's the template:
My budget for the new computer is: Minimal. We're in New Zealand, so anything is going to be at least 2x the US price.
What are the primary uses for this computer ? Web browsing, web mail, YouTube, occasional movie watching, the odd home office needs. If I get motivated I might do some HTML...
What software do you intend on using on the computer? If it still works with the new OS, Office 2000. Nothing else specific.
Do you play games? card games, nothing really graphics intense.
Do you tend to have a lot of programs running at the same time, or do you close every program when you are done using it? Not unusual to have Firefox with 5-6 tabs open, Word 2000, calculator, 2x solitare.
Do you store a lot of pictures or music on the computer? Currently storing about 2.5Gb in photos.
Specific questions: All the low end (~$900NZ) machines here seem to be Atom N230 processors. (A few have Atom N270s, but those are >$1000NZ.) 1 Gb of RAM is pretty standard, with Intel graphics. Are we likely to be happy with the video/movie/YouTube experience with those processors?
I don't have a preference for form factor, although right now with an unrepairable laptop, I'm leaning towards some kind of tower!
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
Oh, current system is
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1729 Mhz (Centrino)
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Intel Graphics
Thanks,
Suzi
Back to top
