My mother's old Laptop

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 26 Nov 2011, 13:51

Hey guys - i don't if this is the right thread to put here but anyway I've got a problem - I need to kind of tweak my mom's old laptop - by old I mean OLD... Any points on what I should do? Should I just focus on buying a new one? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Post by **Stuart** » 26 Nov 2011, 14:01

*feels overwhelmed by the sheer weight of information offered and consequently goes to lie down*

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 26 Nov 2011, 14:08

The specs are as follows: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHz, 512MB of RAM, nVidia GeForce 448 Go, Windows XP Service Pack 3. Is that all you need?

garp · Post by **garp** » 26 Nov 2011, 16:32

Rajiv wrote:The specs are as follows: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHz, 512MB of RAM, nVidia GeForce 448 Go, Windows XP Service Pack 3. Is that all you need?

thats really not bad for a simple office/internet type PC... should even handle most media just fine. I'd upgrade the RAM to at least 1gig and, if the machine has not been reformatted for a while, you should do that with a reinstall of the latest drivers and that.

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 26 Nov 2011, 17:13

OK thanks!

StarBound · Post by **StarBound** » 26 Nov 2011, 17:17

You could get some decent laptops for R5k.

Post by **Stuart** » 26 Nov 2011, 18:47

Ja, some RAM would help there if you can still find it somewhere. What does she want to do with it?

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 26 Nov 2011, 20:21

My mom kind of wants to get into some gaming. Seriously.

Post by **KALSTER** » 26 Nov 2011, 21:01

Popcap and flash games no doubt.

Post by **Stuart** » 27 Nov 2011, 06:31

Rajiv wrote:My mom kind of wants to get into some gaming. Seriously.

Lol, that machine is not going to do much in the way of gaming. But I guess give it a try first and see.

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 27 Nov 2011, 12:22

Ok - we went to a computer shop today and found this:

Acer Aspire AS5745PG Touchscreen
Intel Core i5-480M 2.66Ghz CPU
15.6" Touch Screen WXGA HD CineCrystal LED Backlit Display
4GB DDR3 RAM
750GB Hard Drive
1GB nVidia Geforce GT420M
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Post by **KALSTER** » 27 Nov 2011, 12:48

For how much? I take it it is one of those all-in-one pc's? The CPU will be fine, even though it is the older tech i5. Won't be able to do much with that GPU though..

Post by **Stuart** » 27 Nov 2011, 14:14

More that he would with the P4 at least.

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 28 Nov 2011, 09:29

It costs R6499. And yeah - it is one of those "all-in-one" PCs.

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 28 Nov 2011, 10:11

Just for fun - I tried running a game and nothing happened.

Post by **KALSTER** » 28 Nov 2011, 11:13

The games wouldn't start up?

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 28 Nov 2011, 17:47

Yes the game would not start up.

garp · Post by **garp** » 28 Nov 2011, 18:39

Rajiv wrote:Yes the game would not start up.

A lot of Mobile graphics cards (ie, the nVidia "GO" series) use drivers never intended for gaming, and are often incompatible/simple just 'don't play nice' with some games.

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 29 Nov 2011, 10:57

Why is it that whenever I try to play a specific music concert it kind of struggles to play it and all I see is grey? Is it because it because of the graphics drivers?

Post by **Stuart** » 29 Nov 2011, 15:59

Codecs?

Which media player you using?

Rajiv · Post by **Rajiv** » 29 Nov 2011, 18:43

Normal Windows Media Player - its probably old - I better do some updating tonight.

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