General PC Help Thread 2

[Meep]

So the latest Windows update screwed up and wouldn't allow me to sign in. I was worried it had corrupted my user profile however after rollback to the previous version it worked fine. Anyone else have this issue?

[Venom]

I have a premium Windows laptop which I want to sell. I'm looking to use eBay, accepting only PayPal as payment and Special Delivery. Do you have any advice to not somehow get scammed?

[Errkal]

I have a premium Windows laptop which I want to sell. I'm looking to use eBay, accepting only PayPal as payment and Special Delivery. Do you have any advice to not somehow get scammed?

I sold one and it was fine, as long as you make sure you use PayPal and have tracking for delivery (buy it through eBay) then you are covered for the buyer being hacked and gooseberry fool, then if there are any marks etc. make sure they are all photographed etc. and on the listing that way if they say anything you have evidenced it on your listing so they can't say they didn't know.

[Venom]

I sold one and it was fine, as long as you make sure you use PayPal and have tracking for delivery (buy it through eBay) then you are covered for the buyer being hacked and gooseberry fool, then if there are any marks etc. make sure they are all photographed etc. and on the listing that way if they say anything you have evidenced it on your listing so they can't say they didn't know.

Cheers for the advice. Why is it important to get tracking through eBay rather than the Post Office?

[Errkal]

I sold one and it was fine, as long as you make sure you use PayPal and have tracking for delivery (buy it through eBay) then you are covered for the buyer being hacked and gooseberry fool, then if there are any marks etc. make sure they are all photographed etc. and on the listing that way if they say anything you have evidenced it on your listing so they can't say they didn't know.

Cheers for the advice. Why is it important to get tracking through eBay rather than the Post Office?

It's slightly cheaper through eBay and it automatically add tracking etc to the purchase.

eBay also only cover buyer bullsbit on tracked stuff and they are banana splits so I figure buy it via them and reduce the number of bullshit reasons they can use to not cover you.

[Dowbocop]

I was sitting around at my dad's last weekend and found a CD with the word "emulators" on it (I would assume it may also contain the natural partner of the emulator wink wink nudge nudge). I would estimate the CD was ripped in approximately 2002, so I would have had Windows 98. God knows where they were procured from, but we all know what the internet was like back then!

This may seem like a stupid question, but if there was any malware on files made about fifteen years before Windows 10 was a thing, then it would either be too ancient to be a problem or Windows Defender would handle it, right?

[Ironhide]

I was sitting around at my dad's last weekend and found a CD with the word "emulators" on it (I would assume it may also contain the natural partner of the emulator wink wink nudge nudge). I would estimate the CD was ripped in approximately 2002, so I would have had Windows 98. God knows where they were procured from, but we all know what the internet was like back then!

This may seem like a stupid question, but if there was any malware on files made about fifteen years before Windows 10 was a thing, then it would either be too ancient to be a problem or Windows Defender would handle it, right?

Windows defender would almost certainly detect viruses from 15 years ago.

Just do a scan of the disc before launcing anything, in all likelihood it'll be fine anyway.

[Dowbocop]

I was sitting around at my dad's last weekend and found a CD with the word "emulators" on it (I would assume it may also contain the natural partner of the emulator wink wink nudge nudge). I would estimate the CD was ripped in approximately 2002, so I would have had Windows 98. God knows where they were procured from, but we all know what the internet was like back then!

This may seem like a stupid question, but if there was any malware on files made about fifteen years before Windows 10 was a thing, then it would either be too ancient to be a problem or Windows Defender would handle it, right?

Windows defender would almost certainly detect viruses from 15 years ago.

Just do a scan of the disc before launcing anything, in all likelihood it'll be fine anyway.

Cheers!

[Death's Head]

I was sitting around at my dad's last weekend and found a CD with the word "emulators" on it (I would assume it may also contain the natural partner of the emulator wink wink nudge nudge). I would estimate the CD was ripped in approximately 2002, so I would have had Windows 98. God knows where they were procured from, but we all know what the internet was like back then!

This may seem like a stupid question, but if there was any malware on files made about fifteen years before Windows 10 was a thing, then it would either be too ancient to be a problem or Windows Defender would handle it, right?

The malware would just be the boot batch file with a line

ECHO "Owned Bitch"

[Rubix]

Looking to get a new laptop for general office work, internet browsing and the occasional youtube video.

I noticed that everyone points towards SSD now however as they are low in space does everyone use external HDD for music/video/picture storage?

[Sandy]

Run your operating system on an SSD and store you data on a HDD. Presume that most laptops offer a hybrid solution these days with this exact setup.

[Jenuall]

SSD prices keep coming down which has helped the situation somewhat, as has the continued adoption of cloud storage. Depending on your needs (in terms of total storage space required, frequency and speed of access etc.) then you may be fine with just an SSD to store the OS and anything you want to keep locally, then stuff the rest of it in the cloud.

[<]:^D]

Looking to get a new laptop for general office work, internet browsing and the occasional youtube video.

I noticed that everyone points towards SSD now however as they are low in space does everyone use external HDD for music/video/picture storage?

do you have a pc?
ive got a home pc and i picked up a microsoft surface go recently and its perfect for me.
probably too small for a primary device though.

[Rubix]

No just a laptop which is 8 years old and slow as strawberry float

[Tomous]

Also looking for a new laptop. Mainly for browsing, photo processing and storage, and streaming TV shows. Budget of £400ish

Been looking at this:

https://bit.ly/2N6I1EB

Any good? Any advice appreciated. TIA

[Sandy]

Looks fine for what you're expecting to do with it. It's got an IPS screen which is the best option for your photo processing. Stay away from TN panels if photo editing / process is one of your main requirements.

8 series i3 and 8GB of RAM will be fine as well for your requriements.

[Tomous]

Looks fine for what you're expecting to do with it. It's got an IPS screen which is the best option for your photo processing. Stay away from TN panels if photo editing / process is one of your main requirements.

8 series i3 and 8GB of RAM will be fine as well for your requriements.

Thanks Sandy. What is the difference between an IPS and TN panel screen out of curiosity?

[Sandy]

Thanks Sandy. What is the difference between an IPS and TN panel screen out of curiosity?

IPS is a newer tech that was developed as TN panels have a history of poor colour reproduction. TN panels also tend to have poor contrast and viewing angles. IPS eliminates all of this with good contrast ratios, better colour reproduction and you can view it from different angles without distorting what you're seeing too much. Most people tend to be sitting right in front of their laptops though, so the final point is a bit moot in real world application.

[Meep]

TN panels tend to have much higher refresh rates, although that will only concern you if you are into competitive gaming. Most things are perfectly playable at 60hz. There are IPS panels like mine that have high refresh rates and so you get the best of both worlds but they are very expensive (got mine second hand) and not common.

It kind of annoys me that we do not have high refresh rate IPS panels as standard now. The technology has been around long enough for it have been adopted and be in mass production everywhere and to have come down in price. I suppose there just isn't large consumer demand for it outside of a small hardcore of gamers and video editors.

[Hexx]

My PC has just randomly started to turn off/restart. Doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason - just will restart to black screen then boot up.

No warning/patterns.

Any ideas for tech noobie?