looked over several before I chose this one. Really no programs. I watch movies on it at times.

But, when I did need a Windoze laptop at work, I always used Dells.

They seem to last for me for many years.

I have been very fond of the Latitude series, and have also had Inspirons.

I spec'd a lot of them for the A/V company that I worked for for the Installers and technicians.

They are pretty tough in the field.

I have a pair of Latitudes that are 15 years old, that still run fine under XP that is.

I will say that they are not built quite as well as back then, but still have never killed one.

I cannot say that about my MacBooks. I have had three die on me, and Apple won't do anything about them.

I have not had good luck with HP laptops, though I do own an HP Tower computer, and have spec'd and installed dozens of HP workstations.

Had many trouble with Laptops being used for presentations and A/V stuff. Dell laptops were always very stable.

I have bought several as Dell refurbs or closeouts at the Dell outlet store, and they have all been great, and good as new in all cases.

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/22/campaigns/outlet

You can save a few bucks that way.

Good Luck!

Win2000. (No laughing!)

I'm not fond of all these machines and devices, but use them under duress.😛

We have a hardly scarcely used HP desktop that I love! Go figure. The blue screen says 'crash imminent'. I don't feature leaving it with some unknown tech. There's a former employee of husband's possibility, but haven't done that yet.

Is it preposterous for us to take a crack at it ourselves?
I want a new O.S. installed if that's the answer. Husband is not on board, but I want to save it and get it in use. The tower is a pretty pale blue and ivory. What a reason! My desktop is speaking to me, "Save me, please!"

Thx,
sprink

when trying to install a newer OS is finding drivers for the hardware inside it. You will likely have no end of trouble trying to run them down.

My first stop if i was you would be to look up the laptop on the manufacturers site and see if they supply drivers for whatever operating system you want to put on it. If they do great you are good to go if not I would not advise trying to install a new OS.

I wrote previously it is an HP desktop, but it's a Compaq--tower, monitor, wireless mouse, four in one printer/scanner/copier/fax.
It's really almost brand new and cost $2400 IIRC. That's why I will do what's feasible to get it going.
Thanx for input!

I will say that if it is running Win2000, the CPU is probably too slow, HD probably too small, and memory too low to run a more modern OS.

Newer version of Windows like 7 and beyond are really bloated compared to Win 2000 and XP.

You could probably get Win XP to run pretty well, but you will not be able to update it easily.

Unfortunately time marches onward in computer land.

AS a freelance computer tech, I used to charge 50-60 per hour.

At that rate, you could get a large part of a new computer paid for in the time it would take to update, and possibly modernize the hardware configuration.

Just an example.

I'm typing this right now on a nearly ten year old Inspiron 1720 that I picked up six-plus years ago used for $100 from an acquaintance who preferred her MacBook, and I souped it up for another few hundred dollars to run like a champ. I just recently cloned and replaced the hard drive with one big enough to load Win7 on, but haven't done it quite yet, so I'm still running Vista for right now.

we have two Acer laptops that have served us well. Haven't checked current $$ tho.

I was skeptical when husband first looked into getting his, then I read numerous reviews and overwhelmingly positive! I became a believer.

We were never Apple people either. Husband has his reasons and those influenced me.

Yes, we're also not enthralled by HP devices. How many we got rid of. And a Toshiba was the worst!

Don't go by me tho. Manufacturers could have upped their game. Just sayin'.

Dell or Lenovo.

That said Asus and Toshiba do make some decent machines.

I would stay far far away from HP if I were you their failure rate is far too high.


You can see three year failure rates here.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/laptop-malfunction-rates/

From your description of needs I would look for something with these specs.

Intel I3 processor at least preferably an I5 if you can find one in your price range. At least 8 gigs of memory. You could probably get away with 4 but 8 is much better if you do any multitasking at all. Drive space is not really that important unless you save a lot of pics and video. Most laptops these days come with a 1TB HDD which is more than enough for most people. If you can find one with an SSD drive instead of a standard drive I would consider it as SSDs make a noticeable improvement in performance.


The best thing you can do for yourself if possible is go in and put your hands on anything you are considering purchasing. Things like the keyboard and mouse pad are very important and can be the difference in you loving your computer or hating it. Trying them out before you buy them can make all the difference in your happiness down the road.

A lot of times, you can get good deals from BensBargains.com

Look for refurbished machines from Dell's business section through Ben's, some really good deals there every once in awhile. And I'm not surprised that the HP didn't last long, Carly Fiorina permanently screwed that company up, their stuff went from ultra-reliable to cheap junk during her tenure there.