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my grandad wants a laptop for his 93rd b'day

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    #32
    giggsy664
    Registered Users Posts: 2,457 ✭✭✭giggsy664


    Mr Tim Buktoo wrote: »
    how about this puter?

    http://www.vikingdirect.ie/a/sku%2Fbusiness%2FMedion-T5250/pr=QDH&id=WTM2140/

    Yeah, Good Choice.

    Make Sure You Set It Up For Him Though.

    Bright Background, Hugely Contrasting Colours,Large Text


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    #33
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,802 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    smccarrick wrote: »
    No.
    First of all a lot of the XP backup disks check the BIOS to make sure that its a computer from the same manufacturer- secondly you are breaking the licensing terms from Microsoft- its only supposed to be installed on 1 PC at a time (irrespective of the fact that you a Vista licence on the new laptop).

    S.
    a cheap laptop will have vista home so it [edit]it's license[/edit] won't allow an XP install

    if you have a Vista BUSINESS license then you could replace it with XP , make sure you have any vista media/recovery disks first, and yes you will need either a generic XP disk or one that matches the brand of laptop


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    #34
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    a cheap laptop will have vista home so it won't allow an XP install

    Unless you format the hard-drive and start from afresh......


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    #35
    Soundman
    Registered Users Posts: 2,593 ✭✭✭Soundman


    smccarrick wrote: »
    Unless you format the hard-drive and start from afresh......

    First making sure that you can get XP drivers for the laptop's hardware.


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    #36
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    Soundman wrote: »
    First making sure that you can get XP drivers for the laptop's hardware.

    Lol....
    Been there, done that, so often......
    Spent weeks trying to get drivers for everything again......
    :)


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    #37
    Soundman
    Registered Users Posts: 2,593 ✭✭✭Soundman


    smccarrick wrote: »
    Lol....
    Been there, done that, so often......
    Spent weeks trying to get drivers for everything again......
    :)

    Ouch. Plain and simple. Ouch!


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    #38
    RichyX
    Registered Users Posts: 2,221 ✭✭✭RichyX


    smccarrick wrote: »
    Spent weeks trying to get drivers for everything again......
    :)

    Windows update?


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    #39
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    RichyX wrote: »
    Windows update?

    I know its o/t but there is some really strange hardware out there that some people might consider proprietory, and drivers are not necessarily readily available for (think the original EEEPC with its weird LAN chipset or some of the older Toshibas with their optimised graphics chipsets etc).


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    #40
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,802 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    not forgetting the problems of getting XP drivers for some brand new SONY laptops

    in theory driver update should be easily able to ID the device from PnP
    http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/pnp/pnpid.mspx
    but I'm pleasntly suprised when it pickups up all the HW in fairly common stuff like DELL latitudes because in a lot cases it don't

    I'd nearly go to the trouble of noting the names of the devices in device manager as well


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    #41
    RichyX
    Registered Users Posts: 2,221 ✭✭✭RichyX


    smccarrick wrote: »
    I know its o/t but there is some really strange hardware out there that some people might consider proprietory, and drivers are not necessarily readily available for (think the original EEEPC with its weird LAN chipset or some of the older Toshibas with their optimised graphics chipsets etc).

    In the case of Dell all of the drivers for their specific computers are available on their website.
    I would have thought all manufacturers would do something similar.


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    #42
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    RichyX wrote: »
    In the case of Dell all of the drivers for their specific computers are available on their website.
    I would have thought all manufacturers would do something similar.

    However- even with Dell- they make you run some of the older drivers, depending on the configuration of the machine, even when there are newer drivers available (think Intel G945/GM950 graphics chipset drivers). So- if you take Windows Download advice and choose the updated graphics drivers- you could potentially wreck intercompatability with Media Direct and other applications........

    Its messy.


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    #43
    eamon234
    Registered Users Posts: 1,924 ✭✭✭eamon234


    Mr Tim Buktoo wrote: »
    how about this puter?

    http://www.vikingdirect.ie/a/sku%2Fbusiness%2FMedion-T5250/pr=QDH&id=WTM2140/

    That price is ex vat which puts it well over his €400 budget

    The cheapest I can find at the moment is the Dell Vostro A860 at €367 delivered but the spec is fairly low - would be fine for basic home use, surfing the net etc.


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