New Laptop

[DWalt]

My favorite laptop, a Toshiba 15.6" which I have used since about 2008, has started giving me problems, mainly in shutting down while I was using it. Just like somebody turned it off. And then it wouldn't re-start unless it was allowed to sit for a half-hour or so.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I decided it was time to retire the Toshiba and get another. I went to Best Buy to see what they had, and they had over a dozen of what they called "Open Box" laptops, apparently display models or those the original buyers brought back within the 15 day return period. The clerk assured me there was nothing wrong with them, and they had been thoroughly checked out, and had the full original factory warranty. And the 15-day Best Buy return privilege. So I bought one, a 17" H-P with W10, Intel i5, a 1 TB HD, and 8 Gig ram, for $404, sales tax included. Original price was around $560+tax.

Wow, what an improvement. I didn't realize what a big difference going to a 17" screen makes, plus the picture is sharper and crisper. And it seems much faster and more responsive. And the sound quality is terrific, music sounds better on it than that on my stereo. I could barely hear anything on the old Toshiba. I imagine it's almost like getting a new younger wife, but I wouldn't know about that. Only downside was I had to spend about six hours installing all of my old software and files on the new laptop. There is just no meaningful comparison between this H-P and the old Toshiba.

Main purpose in posting this is to inform anyone looking for a new computer to check out the open box offerings at Best Buy. There were many "refurbs" on the internet that I could have bought a little cheaper, but I just didn't trust buying a refurb.

 

[billwill]

Congrats...now you are ready for another 9 year run. New stuff is fun. Enjoy

 

[JohnRippert]

Just helped a elderly neighbor lady replace her old laptop that still had Windows Vista on it with a new 17 inch. We also went to Best Buy to get hers. Introduced her to a USB wireless scrolling mouse as she was still using the old touch pad for navigation. I set up everything with shortcuts on the desktop so she does not need to learn the Windows 10 differences. We are both happy with the results.

 

[Krell1]

I had an old laptop that quit and wouldn't boot up. It turned out to be the hard drive which was diagnosed by me and a neighbor. I bought a new hard drive for $40, installed it and re-installed the Windows software. All is good now but the computer started fresh with all my "stuff" gone. Ended up giving it to the grandkids who've been using it ever since.

I bought a new Asus laptop, one of their cheaper models, and it does all I need.

I may splurge on the next one if I feel like treating myself.

 

[old bear]

I'm not a Best Buy fan, but that sounds like heck of a deal. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Roadtrash]

Yeah that old laptop sounds a lot like me. Every now and then I just shut down for no apparent reason and it takes a half hour or so nap to get me started again.

 

[JohnRippert]

Yeah that old laptop sounds a lot like me. Every now and then I just shut down for no apparent reason and it takes a half hour or so nap to get me started again.

We just got a new fence put in this week. I spent this morning watching them load up the old fence and trash left over. It wore me out so much I am about to take a nap with the dogs to recharge.

 

[Roundtuit]

For what it's worth, you would spend way more than 6 hours installing new wife options than you ever would installing software. Just saying.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[Salty RI]

Yeah that old laptop sounds a lot like me. Every now and then I just shut down for no apparent reason and it takes a half hour or so nap to get me started again.

I had one of those today, come to think of it, I had one yesterday also.

 

[jdh]

Refresh the Toshiba and keep it in standby. Unless HP has recently gotten their feces amalgamated you will need it sooner than later. I have a 2002 Toshiba that is still going strong. The longest an HP has ran for me is 6 months.

 

[TX-Dennis]

Without being able to look at it, I'm guessing the Toshiba needs a new cooling fan. When it gets too hot it will shut itself down to protect components from the excess heat. Once it has cooled it would restart and operate normally until it gets too hot again. Cooling fans are not difficult to replace in laptops, but some of them are a challenge to source.

 

[LouisianaJoe]

The biggest problem is Operating System Update Bloat(My term). You buy a perfectly good laptop and it has enough memory to run great. AS more and more Microsoft "Fixes" are applied, the Operating System requires more and more memory to function. I had a SONY 10" laptop running XP that had 768 KB Memory. It ran as fast as i needed, allowed me to look at videos full speed, and did what I needed it to do. After several years of Microsoft updates, it slowed to a crawl, and would take minutes to load web pages, and could no longer run videos. It was maxed out for memory. I finally just threw it in the trash. Over the years, I have seen the same thing with other computers.

Today, if you do not have at least 8GB memory, do not expect your computer to function.

Some of my original computers running Windows 3.11 had 64K memory and a 128MB hard drive. I designed and ran database applications on it.

 

[DWalt]

Refresh the Toshiba and keep it in standby. Unless HP has recently gotten their feces amalgamated you will need it sooner than later. I have a 2002 Toshiba that is still going strong. The longest an HP has ran for me is 6 months.

If that happens, I hope I am still under warranty. I checked out feedbacks about HP laptops, and as might be expected, there are mixed opinions about their reliability, both very good and very bad.

 

[DWalt]

Without being able to look at it, I'm guessing the Toshiba needs a new cooling fan. When it gets too hot it will shut itself down to protect components from the excess heat. Once it has cooled it would restart and operate normally until it gets too hot again. Cooling fans are not difficult to replace in laptops, but some of them are a challenge to source.

You could well be correct, For quite some time I think the fan has been making a lot of noise. I'm not tossing the Toshiba out in the trash, as it still works OK other than for the occasional stoppage. It will be a good backup. I have two other working backups, one an XP, the other a Vista. Both still work, but no software support. I may trash them now.