Need computer advice
 

Looks like my wife's lenovo is on the way out. Anybody recommend a good 15" laptop. Her lenovo isn't all that old, and it's very slow. I'll be watching this thread closely, thanx. Bob:ho:

We have had very good luck well both Dell and Toshiba laptops, now depending on what she does, a chromebook may be a betteroption, but I have NO experience with these machines.

OMG! Just noticed I hit 5000 posts!!

I am thinking of buying an Acer with a Ryzen processor - check them out at Staples to see if one would meet your needs

Congrats!!!!

Chromebook is a separate OS, and is available in most laptops. I think I will stay with Windows OS. Seems like CB is very limited.

I have a Dell, and am satisfied with it, although it is very heavy.

I have an old Dell that is still running. Windows XP! It weighs a ton. I keep it for sentimental reasons.

I have a new Dell that is very light. I bought it a year ago when my Toshiba crashed. I think my new Dell has a solid state hard drive, which makes it lighter. However, it's not 15". The graphics are excellent, and the colors are crystal clear.

It's an Inspiron 13 5000. I bought it in France when my Toshiba abruptly up and died. I'm not sure the model is named the same in the US.

Lenovo Yoga C930.............Love it.

Lenovo makes solid laptops. HP does too. I'm an HP user.

If you want to try the Chromebook operating system instead of Windows, I'd say Acer and Asus do the best job with them.

Dell is very popular but most people who work on computers (meaning, in computer tech and repair) wouldn't pay a dime for one. I got suckered into buying one and it was defective. Replaced it with another, and it was so clunky and hard to configure and came with so much bloatware I switched back to HP and been happy since.

Toshiba is out of personal computers - they were good.
Have an HP now that is OK, try to get one with intel chip. AMD chip is good for gaming, but not other stuff.

Did you clean out old files and the start menu? If you have not run maintenance programs ask which programs to run and that may solve your problem. Also what % of the disk drive is empty? Probably 10% should be open if not more for good performance. Delete old data files.

The first question is what does your wife use her laptop for? Does she have "special" programs that run on Windows only that she downloaded, such as Quicken, TurboTax, anything like that or does all she do is online things, surf the web, banking, Facebook, etc.

Depending on the answer she has many options, if she has "special" programs that run on Windows only, then a new PC might be needed.

If all she does is online things then a Chromebook might work, A chromebook never gets a virus, everything is backed up on the web (I.E. cloud storage) and you can do spreadsheets and write documents (I.E. read in Excel or Word docs and save them in Chromebook form.

A third option is to convert her existing PC to Linux. (I've converted over a dozen of people here in The Villages to Linux Mint 19). Linux is another operating system. It has an office set of programs that is compatible with Windows and you don't have to worry about viruses, it will never bug you to do updates (you do them when you have time, if you do them at all). I use Linux Mint because it is the most Windows ish. By that I mean that once see it work you say to yourself, "gee, that's kind of like Windows".

I'll be giving a talk on Linux at the Eisenhower Center on July 15th at 1PM. Of the dozen of people that I've converted, no one has asked to go back to Windows.

Toshiba is still making great laptops.

I only buy Mac computers and laptops but if I was going to buy a Windows® I'd shop at Best Buy.

First thing I would do is to run Malwarebytes and remove any baddies. If it is a win-10 machine you can reset it to factory default. It will offer a choice to "Keep my files" or "Remove everything," You would save your personal folder to a flash drive or external hard drive and choose "remove everything" then replace your personal folder.(your personal folder is on C:/users/name of computer)

I would get an SSD drive Super fast and no spinning disks to crash. A Hybrid if no SSD

I would recommend going one step further. Wipe the disk and reload operating system without the new computer bloat that they add-on(free programs-trial offers-etc) Then reload personal programs and data. That may fix everything. Lots of people here offer help, or take it to the Geek Squad or some other professional if you need help. I would think $100. would do it all. JMHO

Some people need a Windows PC because of a certain program that only runs on Windows, I get that and understand that. But, it seems that 90% of Villagers that have a Windows PC, don't do anything that really requires a Windows operating system. I use a Chromebook 90% of the time and converted an old PC to Linux Mint for anything else (which isn't much).
The Chromebook never gets a virus, never makes you wait to do a download or an update (updates all happen in the background as to not bother you). The battery lasts 8-10 hours, it boots up very fast and is very secure. I've been using one since they first came out.

Apples use to say, "No Virus" also.


Wait for it, wait for it.

I have an appointment with the Geek Squad this morning. I learned the 2 USB ports on the right side are dead, can they be replaced?

Chromebooks are great if 100% of your computing is done online. If your internet or power to your location is down, oh well. Though, is it true that some of the newer models have put in slots for SD or flash drives? If so, that'd solve that problem.

If it's just a dummy terminal for an internet-based operating system, I wouldn't get one. I need to know I can use the thing to read a book, write stuff, play puzzles, even if the power (and by extension, the internet) is down.

take it to Jacobs in wildwood on 301 , he is very good with computers.

Microsoft Surface laptops and surface go laptops make really good machines too.

Both Windows and Apple allow executable programs to be downloaded and installed. Chromebook does not since there is no place to load a executable program. Also, Chromebook checks the current operating system against a "key" and if it does not match, it loads a prior version while downloading the latest version - all without you knowing it.

You can load files for "offline" use such as documents, spreadsheets, Kindle books, PDFs, music and videos. The battery lasts for 8-10 hours. If the internet is down (something that happens from time to time here in The Villages) I use my phone as a "hotspot" to connect to the internet. I had to do that a few weeks ago when the power went out in Country Club Hills.