Laptops

[peggy]

I need a laptop for work but have no laptop knowledge.
My brother had given me one but the company said it was too old.
So I need an idea on what's reasonable. I have a budget of about £250.

 

[wmrcomputers]

It really depends on the intended uses. There's plenty around for that budget, but of course you also get what you pay for.

This is one my wife has had since Christmas and has been great so far...
http://ebuyer.com/725713

 

[peggy]

Well, I guess I need to be able to access some of the company's programs, use gmail. Nothing very technical. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[proactive]

Before spending any money then you really need to establish what it is about your laptop that the company deems to be too old. Besides, if you need a laptop for work purposes, I'd have expected your company to proved one for you.

 

[wmrcomputers]

if you need a laptop for work purposes, I'd have expected your company to provided one for you.

I must admit, I thought that too. Tell the tight a***s to get their cash out if it's for work.

 

[Lucy]

Lots of places are doing bring your own devices nowadays.

 

[peggy]

Must admit hubby could be heard muttering something about spending the best half of a months wage bring a bit of a cheek but had tried approaching the subject of a work phone and he laughed asking if I was expecting him to buy me a phone....(cold calling is my job) Didn't think there was much point in mentioning the lap top.. I guess working from home is to my advantage..and I'm still only temporary..

 

[proactive]

Well if you are going to buy your own then you need to know precisely what specification of laptop they require if it has to be compatible with any of their software before you part with any money.

If they don't need your laptop to be compatible with their software then I don't see how your current laptop can be too old and why you need to spend any money.

 

[wmrcomputers]

Don't get me wrong, there's "7 years old but reasonable processor & ram with Vista, could happily be upgraded to Windows 7" old, and then there's "12 years old, can barely run XP and has a 20Gb hard drive with 256Mb RAM" old.

Do you know much about your "old" laptop @peggy
If you just need something quick on the internet and up to date, then maybe it could be worth me having a look for you to see if the operating system and RAM could be upgraded etc. Possibly saving you a packet. Do ask the employer if there are any specific requirements to do with specialist programs though like @proactive has correctly pointed out.

 

[wmrcomputers]

as a side note to the above, age of a laptop doesn't always give a true outlook of it's capabilities. I know 7 year old laptops that were / still are faster than some of the crap on sale these days.

 

[peggy]

Hmm, I don't really know very much. Work had a look and said it wasn't compatible with Windows 7? It's a toshiba? He had a look and said it was too old to download/Add the more upto date software? That's about as far as I know...

 

[peggy]

@wmrcomputers, where are you based? I could bring it in and show you?

 

[Gramaisc]

You could try - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=20 - it alleges that it will assess your compatibility for Windows 7.

 

[wmrcomputers]

@wmrcomputers, where are you based? I could bring it in and show you?

Coton fields area. I'll PM you

 

[proactive]

@wmrcomputers, where are you based? I could bring it in and show you?

I think that's a good idea to get it assessed before you chuck money about

 

[Gramaisc]

Coton fields area. I'll PM you

If @peggy's arriving by air, it's quite easy to find now...

 

[Chillybean]

Just thought do you need a office package as well for work? there are free office versions but you might need to include or add that to the price if you specifically want MS Office.

 

[Amerlan]

I've used "Open Office" for many years and it is a perfectly good application which easily matches anything churned out by Microsoft. However I have recently adopted Microsoft Office 365 and its well worth the £60 odd pounds per year. Pity I cannot just buy it though.

 

[Noah]

I used to use Open Office but switched several years ago to Libre Office, pretty much fully MS Office compatible.

 

[Chillybean]

I use Kingssoft office suite on my win tablet and it's very much like the old Ms office 2003, its free and is compatible with MS office doc's and xls files.