Urgent Advice Please!!!

joejoem

hey I am going to meet a guy to buy a laptop off him tonight. Can anyone give me advice on what to check the computer for when I meet him. I got it through buy and sell (the only one advertised that wasnt being sold by an aggressive nigerian (not a racict slur just an observation) ) but he seems grand enough (was bartering over a time because he had to pick his kids up from soccer) anyway, what should I check for on the laptop?

Thanks!!! Leaving in 20 mins!!!

Endurance Man

Switch it on, check that the hardware in the laptop is what he says it is. No dead pixels on the screen. No large dents scratches that would indicate that it had been dropped.
If i think of anything else ill shout

Creamy Goodness

check for noticeable scuff marks on the casing, this will give a rough indication as to it's use.

also and probably most importantly check all COA's and stickers to make sure they are legit and make sure no seals have been tampered with. (these can be usually found on the under side of the laptop).

make sure you boot it up. i know it may sound silly but make sure it's in fully working order before handing over the cash, check for dead pixels (these's should of been noted on the advertisment) if there are dead pixels try and knock a couple of euro off the price.

good luck!

Jesper

Buy and Sell???
I hope your not paying over e500 for it.
Could be a good deal I don't know. What info do you have on it.quickly.
Dunnes Stores have a pretty good laptop with bag for e750 if your in a rush. Its a pretty good system as well and seeing that your buying of the Broken and stolen you don't seem to worried about spec.
Also if you can wait until end of January Dell will have pretty good sale on.
If you have time there is guys on this sit that know loads and would help you find the ideal one to suit you.

joejoem

Thanks! How do I check the hardware is what it is? I know what its supposed to be memory and hard drive space and its to be a pentium 4 and 2.8 ghz.......Hopw do I check that?

joejoem

Its 1020v, Pentium 4, 2.8Ghz , 256 RAM . CD writer + DVD drive, 15.1" TFT, 40Gig 56k, Windows XP Pro OS, USB Getting it for good price by comparison to what I have seen second hand about the place

Tom Dunne

Right-click My Computer->Manage -> Device Manager.

You should see everything there, including the processor.

Actually, you won't see the memory. Right-click My Computer-> Properties will give you the memory.

Roddy23

go to run, type in winmsd - this will bring up the system information.
also in run type in dxdiag - this will bring up Direct X info, i.e graphics and driver information.

joejoem

I bought a Compaq Evo N1020v Pentium 4, 40 gig, 256 Ram, 15" screen which is this pretty much

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=14&id=638

for €475. What do you think? Seems to work fine

Tom Dunne

Not too bad a price, but I would have some reservations.

Firstly, if it is a bog-standard Pentium 4, you won't get much battery life out of it. I have a 3.2 P4 and I used to get 15 mins. Now I don't even get that.

Secondly, how is the battery? If it is relatively new, you should be ok, but these things can generally only charged/recharged 500 times.

Thirdly, 256 is the absolute minimum these days. If you are only surfing the web and writing the odd letter, then you shold be ok.

I haven't seen much on Compaq laptops, what's the build quality like?

joejoem

tom dunne wrote:

Not too bad a price, but I would have some reservations.

Firstly, if it is a bog-standard Pentium 4, you won't get much battery life out of it. I have a 3.2 P4 and I used to get 15 mins. Now I don't even get that.

Secondly, how is the battery? If it is relatively new, you should be ok, but these things can generally only charged/recharged 500 times.

Thirdly, 256 is the absolute minimum these days. If you are only surfing the web and writing the odd letter, then you shold be ok.

I haven't seen much on Compaq laptops, what's the build quality like?

It seems to be ok. It has crashed once or twice on me so far though, I installed Creative orginiser for my Zen which I think caused the first. Then I put in a dvd, stopped it, took it out and put it back in later. It tried to restart the dvd from the same position but crashed. Seems to be ok now, I think that could have been the ram. Other than that I noticed that there is a crack on the bottom left corner where it must have been dropped, thats really it. Is installing more ram a difficult thing to do? Is it an expensive thing to do?

Tom Dunne

joejoem wrote:

Is installing more ram a difficult thing to do? Is it an expensive thing to do?

No, it's relatively easy. There is a panel underneath held in by screws. You unscrew those and pop in the new memory module. You have to be careful about static (touch a radiator before you start to earth yourself) and you have to make sure the RAM you purchase will work in the machine you have.

joejoem

Thanks! Last one! Where is the best place to buy Ram?

ciarsd

joejoem wrote:

Thanks! Last one! Where is the best place to buy Ram?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=236924

WizZard

www.shop4memory.com

lazygit

was someone here robbed a while back while buying a laptop? the guy said he was puttining it in a laptop bag but handed the buyer an empty bag...
at blanchardstown?