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Post by The Doctor on Aug 29, 2019 19:54:46 GMT
The current one is getting on a few years now and is getting slow, internal wifi is busted and sometimes I get a frightening black screen of death. I fear soon it will not switch on at all!
It needs replaced within the next two weeks before next OU course.
But I need help from my chums! I do not understand computers at all! I know how to work my current one and essentially want something that does exactly the same stuff and also has a disc drive as I like to rip sound from my CD's to hear on the go and have plenty of DVD's I like to watch on it.
I am currently on a Toshiba Satellite L50-C-276 with 15.6 inch screen (I have not a clue what the specs are but it has done the job). I have went blind searching the Argos catalogue looking for something that does the same stuff. My budget is £500 max. Can anyone help see something on there that matches what I want? I say Argos because I want to be able to order one and go get it rather than chance the post.
I also will need help to know what wire to buy so I can copy over my documents to whatever the new one is. Not a clue how to do that.
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Aug 30, 2019 6:53:41 GMT
There is a PC World within easy walking distance or two tram stops from your flat as well.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 30, 2019 9:30:15 GMT
Oh no. Ralph avoids computer shops like the plague. They see him coming and he gets very confused.
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 30, 2019 21:03:37 GMT
Ordered one. That will be mainly used for Uni and Netflix/Amazon Prime as splashed out more for one with HD and decent sound. The current laptop will be used as the backup until the screen finally dies.
Of course, the old laptop will now probably run fine with no problems.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 30, 2019 21:48:17 GMT
... and of course we can replace the screen for pennys. Easy job on a Toshiba.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 30, 2019 22:12:14 GMT
The screen has already been replaced a while ago! It's getting slow now too.
I need to have the security of a working device for study hence the new purchase. The Toshiba will be retired from active duty but still used at home while it has some life in it. I got 3.5 years heavy use out of it so happy enough with it. Every previous laptop died after 1.5 years.
Now how do I transfer data between devices?
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Aug 31, 2019 14:12:25 GMT
Jenny at the Mossley computer shop can help you with that. It's like a corner shop for computers.
I presume you don't have a copy in the Cloud somewhere to just download/mirror?
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 31, 2019 15:05:30 GMT
You can do it with direct connections but to be honest the easiest way these days is to plug a large capacity memory stick or portable harddrive into one and use it to copy to the other.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 31, 2019 17:12:45 GMT
Yes, Pinwig, that is what I want to do. Is there a type of cable I need to buy to do that?
Clouds can go jump in the sea.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 31, 2019 17:47:32 GMT
Can it be done PC to PC over Ethernet? Burns knows what one of those is and has one.
I'd manually copy the files onto data stick.
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 31, 2019 20:30:48 GMT
I believe you can over Ethernet if you plug both laptops into a router, however what you do then I've no idea. Share folders so they can be copied from one to the other? I've never done it. I used to just take the harddrive out and plug it into the other machine, but last time I tried that I discovered windows had implemented copy protection so you can't read files from a user's folder you're not logged in as.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 31, 2019 21:20:37 GMT
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH I FUCKING HATE COMPUTERS!!!
On the old laptop I use Chrome and when I boot it up Chrome opens automatically and reopens all the tabs I had open. New one does not do this. When I click on Chrome it just opens up one tab and all my old ones are gone! How do I fix this?
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 31, 2019 21:35:41 GMT
Click the three dots at the top right
Click settings
On the left hand column click startup
Click continue where you lift off.
Took me about 30 seconds to find that
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 31, 2019 21:39:33 GMT
Googled and found:
‘Continue where you left off’
Launch Google Chrome browser. Now, click on the menu button on the top right corner, and from the drop-down, select Settings.
Scroll all the way down and click on the section named as On startup.
Select the radio button labeled as ‘Continue where you left off’
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 31, 2019 21:41:51 GMT
I didn't even resort to google!
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 31, 2019 21:43:31 GMT
Well done, braintrust.
Hmmm, this new one is a bit crap compared to the old one. The sound is shite and it doesn't run any quicker. Streaming video is a bit jarring. The lettering on the keys don't exactly stand out either but the device is mainly for OU so it will do. I can see myself stickering the keys to make them easier to read. Feels a bit cheap (it wasn't).
I was unable to find one with an optical drive so another reason to keep Toshiba in reserve.
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Sept 1, 2019 11:13:32 GMT
You can buy a seperate optical drive that plugs in to a USB port. I don't expect laptops to come with them these days unless it is a giant sized one.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Sept 1, 2019 11:14:16 GMT
A portable hard drive for transferring data will also plug in via USB. Otherwise just use a few USB memory sticks.
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 1, 2019 11:24:44 GMT
Yes I think USB sticks is the way to go. I had a few but lost them so will look to acquire a couple.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Sept 1, 2019 18:02:07 GMT
The speed data transfers onto and off USB sticks varies massively. As you have a new laptop I would assume it has usb3 ports (you can tell if they're 3 because the middle bit inside the usb socket is blue, not black) so get usb 3 memory sticks. Your old laptop may not, but they're all compatible with each other and will work fine.
If you're transferring a lot of data and you're using a slow usb stick it will drive you insane. Portable hard drives can actually be cheaper and have more storage than large capacity memory sticks. It might be worth getting a portable USB harddrive to use to transfer files enmass, then keep it to use as a backup drive to make regular backups of your data for safety.
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Post by Pinwig on Sept 1, 2019 18:08:15 GMT
It's be useful to know what the size of the drive in your old laptop is. Does your old computer have a my computer button on the desktop? If you open that and see the folder showing the drives in the laptop and how full they are, what size does it say the drive is, and how much of it is in use?
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 1, 2019 19:10:28 GMT
The old laptop does not have a USB3 thing so no point getting that. Hmmm. Maybe a portable hard drive thing would be better? What are they called? Do they have a special name? I can't tell the difference between them and other hard drives.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 1, 2019 19:11:55 GMT
It has a USB socket though? So any USB device will work fine, just not as fast
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 1, 2019 19:18:30 GMT
But there are two different sizes of US socket on the new one and one size on the old one!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 1, 2019 19:22:02 GMT
Are you sure both are USB and you're not confusing the HDMI socket?
Take a picture of the sockets on both machines for us
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Post by Pinwig on Sept 1, 2019 19:22:32 GMT
Doesn't matter. Just use the size that is on both. Which is the standard size. You won't get a portable harddrive using the smaller plug size.
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 1, 2019 19:22:39 GMT
I'm more leaning towards Pinwig's hard drive thing idea.
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 1, 2019 19:23:33 GMT
Doesn't matter. Just use the size that is on both. Which is the standard size. You won't get a portable harddrive using the smaller plug size. OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Does a hard drive go in the USB hole thing? -Ralph |
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Post by Pinwig on Sept 1, 2019 19:24:02 GMT
We just need to know the size of the hard disc in the old laptop to know which portable harddrive to recommend you get.
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Post by Pinwig on Sept 1, 2019 19:24:40 GMT
Does a hard drive go in the USB hole thing? Yes. Provided you buy a portable usb harddrive. |
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