Never rains, it pours

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It seems that my 7 year old Asus laptop wants to give up the ghost! I use it mainly for browsing the Internet, Skype, Zoom equivalent, a bit of photo editing, Word and Excel. I have no idea about playing any games on it.
When I bought it, the OP was Win 8, but along came Win 10 free upgrade which I downloaded and have being using ever since. It has been getting slow over time, but that is to be expected even though I avoid downloading junk programs.
However it is now freezing occasionally and it then takes ages to reload. Yesterday it took over 30 minutes to reload. More annoying is that it is dropping the Internet connection and will not connect again. To reconnect I have to switch off the unit and then power it up again, go network settings, click Connect even though it is set to connect automatically. No issues with Samsung tablet or Smartphones.
I have everything backed up onto a flash drive and I am considering doing a full format of the hard drive however I am unsure if it will revert back to Win 8 or Win 10. Even if it reverts back to Win 8 I have no idea how to obtain the serial number if it is required when booting up again. Same applies for Win 10 if it goes back to that version. Maybe better to take it to a specialist and pay as cheaper than buying a new laptop.
This Asus is definitely the worst laptop I have owned as already I have had to have the hard drive replaced about 2 years ago as it froze up and even the technician could not get it to operate again. If I buy another laptop I think it will be a Dell.
any suggestions? Thanks.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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If its like a HP that we bought it came with Windows 8 installed but when 10 became available it was updated to 10. I had to remove all of the data before we gave it away, but when reinstalling Windows it went straight to 10 and the license was held within the laptop software.
 
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Got a new HP and it is brilliant so far. The make was recommended by my son in law who works with computers.
Sadly our experience of HP has not been good. Many years ago I bought one and then my son bought one. Both of them had similar faults with a bad connection on the motherboard somewhere. For no reason the unit would unexpectedly shut down. Both were bought from PCW and despite many attempts neither were repaired. Those were the day before CRA 2015.
 
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Sadly our experience of HP has not been good. Many years ago I bought one and then my son bought one. Both of them had similar faults with a bad connection on the motherboard somewhere. For no reason the unit would unexpectedly shut down. Both were bought from PCW and despite many attempts neither were repaired. Those were the day before CRA 2015.
You do seem to cop it on things. But I think HP have moved on. Our was five years old and used a lot and still working well when we gave it away. We are all Apple now and across our three generations too.
 
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You do seem to cop it on things. But I think HP have moved on. Our was five years old and used a lot and still working well when we gave it away. We are all Apple now and across our three generations too.
I did consider Apple at one time and bought an iPad 2 several years ago, but it was not compatible with our phones and you could not even send photos from a BlueTooth phone to the iPad.

First I had to download photos to PC and then use something like iTunes?? to transfer the photos etc to the iPad. Also could not open pdf files or use Flash.

Although it performed brilliantly eventually just to get rid of the darn thing we gave it away to our grandson. Now avoid anything to do with Apple like the plague. LOL!

Not sure if Apple are now more compatible since Jobs is no longer in control, but certainly would not buy an iPhone at the silly prices they charge as would need two iPhones. Apple are an excellent product just not very user friendly if you do not have other Apple products.
 
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I did consider Apple at one time and bought an iPad 2 several years ago, but it was not compatible with our phones and you could not even send photos from a BlueTooth phone to the iPad.

First I had to download photos to PC and then use something like iTunes?? to transfer the photos etc to the iPad. Also could not open pdf files or use Flash.

Although it performed brilliantly eventually just to get rid of the darn thing we gave it away to our grandson. Now avoid anything to do with Apple like the plague. LOL!

Not sure if Apple are now more compatible since Jobs is no longer in control, but certainly would not buy an iPhone at the silly prices they charge as would need two iPhones. Apple are an excellent product just not very user friendly if you do not have other Apple products.
It was more difficult some years back but things have moved on since then. iTunes wasn’t the easiest thing to use even for managing the music libraries if you had two or more on the same MAC.

Flash Player will no longer be supported by Adobe from end 2020 but it has done well since 1996 🤭
 
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It was more difficult some years back but things have moved on since then. iTunes wasn’t the easiest thing to use even for managing the music libraries if you had two or more on the same MAC.

Flash Player will no longer be supported by Adobe from end 2020 but it has done well since 1996 🤭
Do you know if I can use Bluetooth on a Samsung phone to send i.e. photo to Apple Mac.
Many of my documents are in Word and Excel format so unsure about transferring them to an Apple laptop. I am still using MS Outlook 2007 for my email and would prefer to be using something similar as long as it filters out junk and allows more than email address to be used.
 
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Do you know if I can use Bluetooth on a Samsung phone to send i.e. photo to Apple Mac.
Many of my documents are in Word and Excel format so unsure about transferring them to an Apple laptop. I am still using MS Outlook 2007 for my email and would prefer to be using something similar as long as it filters out junk and allows more than email address to be used.
You can now get Office for MAC and IOS devices. Our daughter has to use it as her university coursework has to be done in Word or other software in the Office package. When she sends them to me to review I convert to Pages which is Apple and don’t have any problems reading them. I insert my comments and when sending back to her I convert back to Word. There is some loss of functionality but at the level I am working on these days it’s never noticeable. I must have been on a MAC OSX for 10 years now (second one now) and even when I first moved from a PC to MAC it wasn’t difficult to migrate everything over.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201196

https://www.samsung-messages-

backup.com/resources/transfer-photos-from-samsung-to-iphone.html


There are lots of sites covering this interface issue as well as YouTube videos too.
 
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Wow just did a search for prices and they are eye watering and out of my budget. Apologies to Clive for wasting his time. :confused_old:
 
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Apple stuff isn’t cheap but I tend to get the superseded models as my kids and grandkids keep themselves up to date. Still have to pay something though, it’s normally trade in price. Although I did have to pay for my first generation IPhone SE after Microsoft gave up making and supporting Windows phones , which I thought were great pieces of kit.
 
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I bought a new HP laptop a month ago, it wasn’t the cheapest at £550 but it’s super fast, it’s got a touch screen so use it like my iPad, the big draw back with decent laptops is they have hardly any storage, I’ve been used to buying a laptop with at least a terabyte of storage whereas this came with 250 GB, They expect you to use the cloud or memory sticks to store everything on, I’ll go the memory stick route myself, other than the memory it’s an absolute cracking bit of kit, I switch it on and it’s ready to use in about 30 seconds, memory sticks are cheap enough nowadays.
 
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I bought a new HP laptop a month ago, it wasn’t the cheapest at £550 but it’s super fast, it’s got a touch screen so use it like my iPad, the big draw back with decent laptops is they have hardly any storage, I’ve been used to buying a laptop with at least a terabyte of storage whereas this came with 250 GB, They expect you to use the cloud or memory sticks to store everything on, I’ll go the memory stick route myself, other than the memory it’s an absolute cracking bit of kit, I switch it on and it’s ready to use in about 30 seconds, memory sticks are cheap enough nowadays.
On my MAC I’ve got lots of HDD memory and use two HD backups. But I’m increasingly using cloud storage as if the house burned down having the HDD and two HDs within a couple of feet of each other may not be too good. I’m in the process of digitising old photos and they will go on the cloud. Probably Amazon as it’s free with Prime. One of today’s Whitsun 1966 guy trying to chuck his child off of Albert Memorial.


View attachment B015DD51-63E0-4498-8305-5D5435E92074.jpeg


PS a fast run down the A5 Leicester to London and so smart with shirt and tie. Cannot believe it.
 
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SWMBO has just bought a new Lenovo lap top. Does very well on Which? And other tech mags but who knows long term? You hope the boffins on these techie sites know something.
My main frame gets used for committee notes etc but takes 20 minutes to get going. Apple i pad and I phone speak to each other and IMO are brilliant , use the cloud for storage, 79p a month!
 
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SWMBO has just bought a new Lenovo lap top. Does very well on Which? And other tech mags but who knows long term? You hope the boffins on these techie sites know something.
My main frame gets used for committee notes etc but takes 20 minutes to get going. Apple i pad and I phone speak to each other and IMO are brilliant , use the cloud for storage, 79p a month!
Hi Dusty i have a Lenovo Laptop mines works very well and it quick to come on
 
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I use the same cloud and also iPad and iPhone 11, both first class, I do work for a dozen different car insurance companies and have apps on my phone and iPad that enables me to test equipment fitted, if I didn’t use iPad or iPhone I would not be allowed to do work for them, for my paperwork and storage of photos I prefer a laptop so the HP is perfect, I’ve got a bit of kit that I can scan roll film negatives and it converts the negatives into a positive image and stores them all on the laptop, my father was a photographer and developed and printed his own pictures, I got all the negs when he died so I’ve 60 years worth of negatives to scan, I’ve been working through them for more than 10 years and still loads to do.

BP
 
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I use the same cloud and also iPad and iPhone 11, both first class, I do work for a dozen different car insurance companies and have apps on my phone and iPad that enables me to test equipment fitted, if I didn’t use iPad or iPhone I would not be allowed to do work for them, for my paperwork and storage of photos I prefer a laptop so the HP is perfect, I’ve got a bit of kit that I can scan roll film negatives and it converts the negatives into a positive image and stores them all on the laptop, my father was a photographer and developed and printed his own pictures, I got all the negs when he died so I’ve 60 years worth of negatives to scan, I’ve been working through them for more than 10 years and still loads to do.

BP
Oh dear thanks for that encouraging timeline...... I had better crack on with the digitising then.
 
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I’m hoping the new laptop might scan quicker whereas with the previous laptop I’d load a strip of negatives and it would be slow but got there, might be quicker now, it’s worth it because Dad only ever printed the pictures he liked so I’m constantly finding pictures never seen before, I’m 65 and there’s pictures of me and my siblings going back to at least when I was around 2, I’m one of 7 so quite a big job.

BP
 
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I bought a new HP laptop a month ago, it wasn’t the cheapest at £550 but it’s super fast, it’s got a touch screen so use it like my iPad, the big draw back with decent laptops is they have hardly any storage, I’ve been used to buying a laptop with at least a terabyte of storage whereas this came with 250 GB, They expect you to use the cloud or memory sticks to store everything on, I’ll go the memory stick route myself, other than the memory it’s an absolute cracking bit of kit, I switch it on and it’s ready to use in about 30 seconds, memory sticks are cheap enough nowadays.

Simple reason: SSD are more expensive than HDDs per Gb at the moment.
Simple solution: fit a 1TB SSD - might cost you a ton but well work it. And whilst you are at it put as much RAM in the thing as it can handle - 16Gb minimum - which will speed things up.

Simples?
 
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Apple still resolutely try to do things differently to Android and Microsoft, so there are often conflicts when trying to move files or pictures. There are work arounds but it usually involves going through a third pieces of software to convert file formats, and conversions are not always perfect.
 
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