Talk to me about 2nd hand garage laptops...........

[skotl]

I agree that you'd be better getting a desktop rather than a laptop. That way any individual bit (especially the keyboard and mouse) can be replaced for less than a tenner without having to replace / rebuild everything.

You can get very small form factor desktops, too, so it can just sit up on a shelf.

 

[lchris21]

Thanks for the input, the mach3 is not a major game changer for the purchase decision. Its going to run a small Boxford VMC...eventually. Trouble is the Boxford will be living in a shed away from the main garage and be covered in cobwebs for most of its life. Was thinking of just using the garage laptop to play with the shed based VMC now and again. Think the cold and damp will kill the desktop in there in no time....... Mostly 98% of the time, the laptop will be used in garage. The mach3 can stay on the desktop which I can keep in the house and drag it out when needed.....
Just looking for a decent speed laptop which I can fold up, not wait 20mins for it to boot up, use in the garage and surf the web at a decent rate of knots, and sit in the car with it next time one of them throws a wobbly..........recommended RAM (+2GB seems common?), processor, memory etc which they all seem to be advertised by???

 

[ukracer]

I've had no problems with Toshiba at all been great machines but had dead acer's

My Toshiba after 20 mins booting.

 

[the snooper]

My Toshiba after 20 mins booting. View attachment 76913

20 mins booting must have software problems taking that long

 

[ukracer]

20 mins booting must have software problems taking that long

Yeah I know....it's been getting worse gradually but over Xmas I noticed the sticker with the windows 7 ultimate code on it had been half inched.

So I am doing everything I know to save the os in a working condition if possible. Once I have the code again I can start a recovery option. Sadly even the HP File backup crashes half way through

 

[the snooper]

Yeah I know....it's been getting worse gradually but over Xmas I noticed the sticker with the windows 7 ultimate code on it had been half inched.

So I am doing everything I know to save the os in a working condition if possible. Once I have the code again I can start a recovery option. Sadly even the HP File backup crashes half way through

Look under Toshiba in the start menu and it allows you to make a set of recovery discs they shouldn't need any codes

 

[Flathead_Dave]

I've had a couple of laptops from here,last one a near mint Toshiba Satalite for £90,free post and 6 month warranty.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?ssPageName=STRK:MEFSXS:MESOI&_ssn=newandusedlaptops4u&_sop=2

 

[ukracer]

Look under Toshiba in the start menu and it allows you to make a set of recovery discs they shouldn't need any codes

You can only do it once and they used it when it went into repair while under warranty.

 

[hotrodder]

Find another £75 and buy an elitebook. Loads on eBay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_EliteBook

That's what i did a couple of weeks ago. Don't even need to find another £75, i nearly bought one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laptop-HP...373432?hash=item2351736938:g:Q6MAAOSwv0tVX6G- but ended up spending the extra and getting the model that replaced it... £150 for a virtually spotless late (2011 according to the serial #) 8440p with an i5 560m processor, 4GB ram, 250GB HDD, genuine HP power supply and battery. Wasn't expecting much from the latter but it's still good for 4+ hours use

Personally i wouldn't worry about processors that much, as far i can work out when it comes to laptops for the most part they're getting more efficient these days (chasing battery life?) rather than getting properly faster? Can usually double the memory easily if need be and SSDs are getting cheaper all the time which'd probably be a better upgrade (way faster and more energy efficient) and give you a back up of everything at the same time
All i did when i was looking around was to look up reviews from when they were new for example http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-HP-EliteBook-6930p-Notebook.18233.0.html and watch out for people selling stuff with US keyboards

 

[pedrobedro]

Yeah I know....it's been getting worse gradually but over Xmas I noticed the sticker with the windows 7 ultimate code on it had been half inched.

So I am doing everything I know to save the os in a working condition if possible. Once I have the code again I can start a recovery option. Sadly even the HP File backup crashes half way through

The windows serial number ? Right click on "This computer" in file manager then open properties and the number is there.

 

[ukracer]

The windows serial number ? Right click on "This computer" in file manager then open properties and the number is there.

That's fine if it actually boots. ......mine does not.

 

[pedrobedro]

Will it boot to safe mode if you leave it long enough ? I thought it was just taking a long time to boot.

 

[ukracer]

Will it boot to safe mode if you leave it long enough ? I thought it was just taking a long time to boot.

No it does not appear to. I will try it again tommorow. It is possible it's booting and video is ******** ax the fan cools the cpu and video but they use grease instead of heat compound and it drys out.

 

[choco]

If you could get your hands on a tough book that would be ideal. The problem you will have over time if used for the Internet is it will slow down no matter what spec/os with all the ***** that will be downloaded. If you have a stand alone desktop or laptop for what ever programs you using . And get a cheap android tab etc to use for the Net.

 

[Chris Stevens]

Thanks for the input, the mach3 is not a major game changer for the purchase decision. Its going to run a small Boxford VMC...eventually. Trouble is the Boxford will be living in a shed away from the main garage and be covered in cobwebs for most of its life. Was thinking of just using the garage laptop to play with the shed based VMC now and again. Think the cold and damp will kill the desktop in there in no time....... Mostly 98% of the time, the laptop will be used in garage. The mach3 can stay on the desktop which I can keep in the house and drag it out when needed.....
Just looking for a decent speed laptop which I can fold up, not wait 20mins for it to boot up, use in the garage and surf the web at a decent rate of knots, and sit in the car with it next time one of them throws a wobbly..........recommended RAM (+2GB seems common?), processor, memory etc which they all seem to be advertised by???

Dell Precision lap top is what you want. Better quality and much more reliable than the home user stuff, as they are intended for business use. I am typing this on one, which cost £20 from Ebay, graphics chip needed resoldering, but works fine now.

 

[julianf]

Personally, I wouldn't run a CNC machine off the same computer I was using for other, unrelated, tasks.

Its bad enough loosing jobs to errors, so I want to minimise the chances of muck ups.

I would prep the files on another computer, and carry to the machine computer on a USB stick.

 

[julianf]

Dell Precision lap top is what you want. Better quality and much more reliable than the home user stuff, as they are intended for business use. I am typing this on one, which cost £20 from Ebay, graphics chip needed resoldering, but works fine now.

Reliable, but you got it cheap, as it was broken?

; )

 

[Chris Stevens]

Reliable, but you got it cheap, as it was broken?

; )

Seen them for £50 fully working. I bought for £20 as I had a very good idea of what the problem was. Remove MS crap from most old lap tops, and they will work far far better, and certainly good enough for shed machine.

 

[ukracer]

Will it boot to safe mode if you leave it long enough ? I thought it was just taking a long time to boot.

Double checked and it reaches a point where is says the wacom tBket drivers are not supported so I can see that on the screen but after that it just shows the cursor. Won't even boot into safe mode.

Tried adding another display via hdmi but it does the same. I can switch the display using the projector key but even leaving it overnight it fails to boot to desktop. ..

 

[skotl]

If you can get the hard drive into a working PC you can probably read the product key from it, using a free tool called "ProduKey".

See here for more info and instructions.