General PC Help Thread - OP updated with useful links - READ

Off the top of my head, you could look at the ASUS T100 Chi. It's underpowered but should be enough for your Mum to watch YouTube and write emails. I considered its big brother, the T300 Chi, for myself and reviews of that were positive.

Cheers, the T100 does look pretty good for the use, might have to pop down to Curry's with her to see if there's one to try out, check out the performance, then probably order it somewhere online for cheaper (though I can get 8% off at Curry's via work). The T300 looks nice too, but at that price I'd probably go for the Surface 3 + Keyboard cover combo.

Lagamorph wrote:Cheers, the T100 does look pretty good for the use, might have to pop down to Curry's with her to see if there's one to try out, check out the performance, then probably order it somewhere online for cheaper (though I can get 8% off at Curry's via work). The T300 looks nice too, but at that price I'd probably go for the Surface 3 + Keyboard cover combo.

Worth noting it looks like there is a newer model T100 than the Chi, looks like the T100HA is cheaper and newer, not sure if there's all that much difference in specs.

Looks like the one Currys stock is the HA rather than the Chi anyway.

ive got a £500 Lenovo G500 and ive been very impressed

Halp.

Something went wrong with my PC yesterday. I was using it all nice and fine and then the screen went white. So I held down the switch to turn it off and then on again to restart it. Now the computer doesn't beep at all on start up and nothing appears on the screen, it’s like the screen is turned on but not plugged into the PC. I did some looking online and the most common solution to this problem was to remove some/all of the RAM to see if one of the sticks is faulty. So firstly I removed all RAM and the computer started beeping repeatedly which apparently means that the mobo is fine. Then I input one stick of RAM and then switched them over, back to no beeps.

Fans are all spinning so it appears to be starting as normal just no beep and no visual display.

So you've tried every stick in each port? Have you also unplugged all unessential devices, like GPU?

That's not a growth wrote:So you've tried every stick in each port? Have you also unplugged all unessential devices, like GPU?

I would not say I have tried every possible combination but I have tested all of the RAM ports.

I did not try unplugging the GPU. After testing out the RAM I came here for the advice which I can later put into practice and report back.

Sounds like your display card, or perhaps it is just your screen? Do you have another screen you can try or something else you can plug into your screen to confirm all is good?

Once you've ruled that out, remove your graphics card and see if the PC works with the built in graphics.

*edit* Actually just read this again. You said "no beeps", do you normally have a beep when it is working?

Yes. One beep and one beep only.

I just removed the graphics card and it's booting up.

Edit: Now it's saying it ran into a problem and need to restart.

De dusted the graphics card and put it back in. Now I get one beep but no display.

When I boot with everything plugged in I get no display and no beep

When I plug the monitor into my mobo it tries to boot and I get a display

So has my gpu broken and I need to buy a new one?

When you say it 'tries' to boot with the screen plugged into the mobo, do you mean it is actually booting 100% fine or that there is still an issue?

It is booting fine and I can now use the machine but the resolution is huge obv!

Off topic but would this affect the 'cast to device' feature you can select when right clicking on a media file? My PC says it can't find my tv on the network... But my TV is definitely on the network. Doubt its related but might as well ask.

have you got another gpu you can try?

No.

hmm. id say get a new gpu to see if is the gpu or the mobo connector.

My sister is after a new laptop for general usage, nothing that's particularly resource intensive, and screen size of no smaller than 15'. She was looking at spending around £400-£500 and she came across this:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5076077.htm#pdpFullProductInformation do the specs look resaonable enough or anyone know of a better choice around at the moment? thanks for any advice!

Intel Core i5 i5-5200u dual core processor .... personally id say no

Kezzer wrote:Intel Core i5 i5-5200u dual core processor .... personally id say no

That's a bit of a vague answer to his question, because if its a direct answer you are saying you don't know of a better choice...however the way you've worded it sounds to me like you are saying that you'd personally say no to that processor.

Anyway.

Depending on how much storage is actually required, then yes there are better choices (or to be more accurate cheaper choices) around at the moment.

Just a quick look and I found the following HP 350 G2 Laptop for £319.98 with £30 cashback available after purchase...

http://www.ebuyer.com/727817-hp-350-g2- ... 9h90ea-abu

...its obviously got half as much HDD space and RAM, but for general use I would have thought it would be fine (in fact you could probably upgrade the RAM and HDD and still pay less than that Toshiba).

Generally speaking buying a Laptop from Argos is hardly ever going to be the best choice.

EDIT - For more like the money you might have spent on the Toshiba, there's this HP ProBook 450 Laptop also from Ebuyer...

http://www.ebuyer.com/725913-hp-probook ... 4p52et-abu

Its £486.99, but there's £50 when bought from Ebuyer this month, making it eventually also less than the Toshiba. Again its only got 4GB of RAM (not really a problem) and only 128GB HDD, but its an SSD which should make it noticeably faster, it also has the latest generation Intel CPU which again should be better.

General PC Help Thread - OP updated with useful links - READ

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