Laptops / Netbooks

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doodles
Posts: 8300
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:19 pm

Laptops / Netbooks

Post by doodles »

Any techie advice would be most welcome.

DS1 has an old laptop which is proving to be very very slow. Can it be stripped down and speeded up and if so is it an expensive operation - does anybody have any experience of this.

On the other hand his very generous grandparents have offered to replace it - lucky boy and he is very appreciative - however he is quite taken with a Netbook he's seen. We don't know anything about them - are they just small laptops?

Plus they seem to use a programme called Publisher a lot at school.

I suppose what I want to know is:

1. Is it worth "servicing" the current virtually unuseable laptop?
2. Would a netbook be suitable for school work or would it run in conjunction with the serviced laptop?
3. Would Publisher run on a netbook.

As you can see I know very little and DH is so busy he can't even think at the moment and he doesn't know that much anyway, so we would really be at the mercy of the salesmen.
hermanmunster
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Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by hermanmunster »

Hi - I (in a fit of techy brilliance - don't laugh everyone, i was watching how to do it on a video channel) - managed to put more RAM memory into my laptop. It was very very easy and made the laptop whizzy again. I bought the memory online - there are sites that will tell you what to buy - cost me about £20.

Can also do some declogging ie using disk clean up etc etc
Snowdrops
Posts: 4667
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by Snowdrops »

But to answer your question about netbooks as well:

Yes, publisher can be put onto a netbook, but you would need to buy an external cd/dvd writer/player. You would need to get one with at least 2 GB of RAM or it will be so slow you'll think it's the old laptop.

I have a netbook and I love it.
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scary mum
Posts: 8840
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by scary mum »

Also, I was about to throw my PC away until I uninstalled Norton. I will install something else (soon...), but given that Norton found nothing in over 2 years and just slowed eveything down so much as to make it unusable I'm in no great hurry. Interetsed in the extra RAM idea though as my PC is very full (although i don't know the differences between all the types of memory and it might not be RAM that I need :oops: :oops: )

Mine use Publisher as well (it comes with the student bundle of Office) but I don't know how good it will be on a notebook. DD has a notebook (which she loves). I'll ask her tonight if she uses/would use Publisher on it.
scary mum
scary mum
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Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by scary mum »

Sorry, cross post with Snowdrops
scary mum
doodles
Posts: 8300
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:19 pm

Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by doodles »

A what? Snowdrops, now you have completely lost me :oops:

Can you run Publisher on a laptop without an external thingy? or is it really a programme for a big computer?
mitasol
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Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:59 am

Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by mitasol »

You need some way to get publisher onto a netbook. However, I don't think that you need an external CD. You can use a network cable or a USB.

The quickest way to give a laptop or a pc a new lease of life is to reinstall the operating system.
Snowdrops
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Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by Snowdrops »

But if you do that, make sure you back up all your files first!
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programmer
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Re: Laptops / Netbooks

Post by programmer »

A Netbook is good for a quick browsing, and a bit of video chat. It comes with Intel Atom or similar processors, which compromise on speed to consume less power. But I personally won't use publisher on a Netbook given the size of the screen, and a very small keyboard.

I will consider adding extra RAM and defrag the disc. If possible do a fresh install of OS and essential software.
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