I am THE leaset tech savvy person on the planet and felt that I had scaled the summit of Mt. Everest when I figured out how to hook my laptop up to my personal Hot Spot device without having to call for help, so that should tell you what a remedial techie I am...
The laptop I have is a HP Pavilion g7 with a full keyboard ( includes the 10 key pad on the right) and while I really enjoy using it, I am working with Windows 8 and when I tried to do the 8.1 upgrade it froze up my system, so I went back to version 8 and haven't upgraded since, which means that Windows 10 free upgrade passed me by, and, based on the complaints I heard about it, I don't really mind that I don't have it, however, Windows isn't sending me security updates anymore so that compromises my system, apparently.
I am going to be going on a road trip in a few weeks and I wanted to have something smaller than the laptop I have now to take with me and keep up with business matters. Nothing like lugging a 10lb briefcase along with everything else to convince me the time to upgrade is now!
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good, servicable laptop that is smallish, very user friendly for a remedial techie like me, that will take my old Word 2003 program so that I can use the documents I have saved on a thumb drive ( yeah, I managed another monumental goal by figuring out how to do that, too!). Nothing too expensive, I'm used to HP but I'm not married to the idea of sticking with them if something else is better quality and easy to use.
Thank you in advance for any help and input you can give me!
Glad to hear you had a great birthday!
Well, join the club! I'm also of the salty mop variety and I too am pretty clueless tech-wise. But I do have the advantage that now I have a bit more time on my hands being retired (but still continuing to work a bit!) so I have been able to devote some extra time to finding out how to do the things I would normally ask the man from my computer shop about. That's one reason I felt able to get a computer from the internet/Aldi (the Medion distribution approach—Aldi in my case) because I felt I could now save some money and learn a lot of the things I got from my computer man before. Maybe that is something to bear in mind when deciding whether to get your computer from your local shop or whether to go for a Dell or a Medion or whatever (though it appears that in the US you can get Medion computers from special shops—although I'm not quite sure about that one). Anyway, happy hunting!!
EDIT: also hope you sort out the Outlook thing. Sounds like a pretty annoying thing for Microsoft to suddently spring on you! I'm glad (particularly after hearing that) that I've kept with Outlook locally stored rather than the Outlook in the cloud thingy.
Well, join the club! I'm also of the salty mop variety and I too am pretty clueless tech-wise. But I do have the advantage that now I have a bit more time on my hands being retired (but still continuing to work a bit!) so I have been able to devote some extra time to finding out how to do the things I would normally ask the man from my computer shop about. That's one reason I felt able to get a computer from the internet/Aldi (the Medion distribution approach—Aldi in my case) because I felt I could now save some money and learn a lot of the things I got from my computer man before. Maybe that is something to bear in mind when deciding whether to get your computer from your local shop or whether to go for a Dell or a Medion or whatever (though it appears that in the US you can get Medion computers from special shops—although I'm not quite sure about that one). Anyway, happy hunting!!
EDIT: also hope you sort out the Outlook thing. Sounds like a pretty annoying thing for Microsoft to suddently spring on you! I'm glad (particularly after hearing that) that I've kept with Outlook locally stored rather than the Outlook in the cloud thingy.
Hi, Keith! I thought I HAD my Outlook on my local instead of in the cloud, but with this new 'upgrade' everything is super slow and apparently they decided to hide my stuff in new places without any sort of warning.
I really do despise that kind of stuff beyond articulation... Really, really....:catmad:
I really do despise that kind of stuff beyond articulation... Really, really....:catmad:
All the options that I was given don't seem included in the products at the local Staples so I am looking on eBay and I found one with these specs:
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 1480 14" FHD Touchscreen 2 in 1 Laptop / Latest 6th Generation Intel Core i5-6200U Up to 2.8Ghz (Base 2.3GHz, 3MB Cache, 1600Mhz FSB) / 14" FHD 1920x1080 IPS Touchscreen / 256GB SSD / 8GB DDR3L / Wifi-AC, 720P Webcam, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, USB 3.0, Card Reader, Ethernet, Backlit Keyboard, build in battery / Windows 10 Home 64bit
The price is fairly low, $612, including the Lenovo mfg warranty.
Does this look like a good piece to invest in?
Thanks!!!:D
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 1480 14" FHD Touchscreen 2 in 1 Laptop / Latest 6th Generation Intel Core i5-6200U Up to 2.8Ghz (Base 2.3GHz, 3MB Cache, 1600Mhz FSB) / 14" FHD 1920x1080 IPS Touchscreen / 256GB SSD / 8GB DDR3L / Wifi-AC, 720P Webcam, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, USB 3.0, Card Reader, Ethernet, Backlit Keyboard, build in battery / Windows 10 Home 64bit
The price is fairly low, $612, including the Lenovo mfg warranty.
Does this look like a good piece to invest in?
Thanks!!!:D
1 person likes this
See! I told you I was tech clueless 😞 But we both agree that Microsoft can be annoying "beyond articulation" sometimes 😠@ wrote:
Hi, Keith! I thought I HAD my Outlook on my local instead of in the cloud, but with this new 'upgrade' everything is super slow and apparently they decided to hide my stuff in new places without any sort of warning.
I really do despise that kind of stuff beyond articulation... Really, really....:catmad:
? - Oh, yeah! Being tech challenged means that if anything doesn't work or look the way it did before the infamous phrase ' upgrade ' or ' improved' then I'm entirely lost.
Shoot, the same thing with my car. I feed it gas, get it maintained and when I put the key in, I expect it to start and to be able to drive where I want to without any problems...
Is that SO much to ask? 😃
Shoot, the same thing with my car. I feed it gas, get it maintained and when I put the key in, I expect it to start and to be able to drive where I want to without any problems...
Is that SO much to ask? 😃
1 person likes this
Exactly! Why does it take me three or four almost solid weeks to familiarise myself with a new operating system plus an upgraded Office Suite (admittedly a big jump from Office 2003 to 2016 😞 but all the same...) and customise it to my "quoibles" and why can't it be, as you say, like a car where you can get in, turn the key and voilà you can drive off to wherever you want???? I do have to agree that IT technology is still extremely primitive indeed as compared with car technology 😠 It still has a very, very long way to go before it matures.
EDIT: It's rather like the early days of the car when you had to hire a full-time mechanic (and a special seat was constructed for him on the side of the car LOL!!!) . In much the same way, most ordinary people like you and me can't survive without more or less regularly consulting an IT chap like the IT person at our local computer shop. It's only because I'm now retired that I can devote a considerable part of my time to understanding these (for us non-techies) arcane subjects of how to simply make your computer work properly 😃
EDIT: It's rather like the early days of the car when you had to hire a full-time mechanic (and a special seat was constructed for him on the side of the car LOL!!!) . In much the same way, most ordinary people like you and me can't survive without more or less regularly consulting an IT chap like the IT person at our local computer shop. It's only because I'm now retired that I can devote a considerable part of my time to understanding these (for us non-techies) arcane subjects of how to simply make your computer work properly 😃
+56Very nice! ;)@ wrote:
All the options that I was given don't seem included in the products at the local Staples so I am looking on eBay and I found one with these specs:
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 1480 14" FHD Touchscreen 2 in 1 Laptop / Latest 6th Generation Intel Core i5-6200U Up to 2.8Ghz (Base 2.3GHz, 3MB Cache, 1600Mhz FSB) / 14" FHD 1920x1080 IPS Touchscreen / 256GB SSD / 8GB DDR3L / Wifi-AC, 720P Webcam, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, USB 3.0, Card Reader, Ethernet, Backlit Keyboard, build in battery / Windows 10 Home 64bit
The price is fairly low, $612, including the Lenovo mfg warranty.
Does this look like a good piece to invest in?
Thanks!!!:D
Daniel
I also found this one thru Amazon:
2016 Newest Dell Inspiron 13 7000 13.3-Inch Full HD Touchscreen 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop PC, Intel Core i7-6500U Processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Webcam, Bluetooth, HDMI, WIFI, Windows 10
This one is on sale for $715.00.Comparing the two, which would be the better buy over the long term?
Getting the separate DVD optical drive to increase its functionality, of course!
Thank you!!!!
2016 Newest Dell Inspiron 13 7000 13.3-Inch Full HD Touchscreen 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop PC, Intel Core i7-6500U Processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Webcam, Bluetooth, HDMI, WIFI, Windows 10
This one is on sale for $715.00.Comparing the two, which would be the better buy over the long term?
Getting the separate DVD optical drive to increase its functionality, of course!
Thank you!!!!
+56There both very good, but make sure your happy with the screen size before you buy!@ wrote:
I also found this one thru Amazon:
2016 Newest Dell Inspiron 13 7000 13.3-Inch Full HD Touchscreen 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop PC, Intel Core i7-6500U Processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Webcam, Bluetooth, HDMI, WIFI, Windows 10
This one is on sale for $715.00.Comparing the two, which would be the better buy over the long term?
Getting the separate DVD optical drive to increase its functionality, of course!
Thank you!!!!
Daniel
? I was wanting something a bit smaller than my HP Pavilon g7 in terms of size and weight to make it more functional to take with me on the road or to meetings. To this point I have not done that and I have only taken it out of my office twice before and not to a client meeting.
I had thought that with the better graphics and HD that the viewing size wouldn't be quite such a difficult adjustment and that the loss of the 10 key pad on my keyboard wouldn;t be a hard adjustment.
But, it always takes time to get used to everything new and I am one who HATES the learning curve on tech stuff, even if it's the adjustment to a new keyboard... I guess it has to do with awkwardly spastic fingers... :$:D
I had thought that with the better graphics and HD that the viewing size wouldn't be quite such a difficult adjustment and that the loss of the 10 key pad on my keyboard wouldn;t be a hard adjustment.
But, it always takes time to get used to everything new and I am one who HATES the learning curve on tech stuff, even if it's the adjustment to a new keyboard... I guess it has to do with awkwardly spastic fingers... :$:D
? Or anyone who can answer this... Now that I have managed to upgrade to Windows 8.1, does this change the sort of external disc driver that can play movies/music and also download programs and burn files onto?
If it says it's for PC ( which I have vs a MAC item ) then it should work for me, right?
Or does my new upgrade make a difference?
Thanks for all the help!
If it says it's for PC ( which I have vs a MAC item ) then it should work for me, right?
Or does my new upgrade make a difference?
Thanks for all the help!
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