One of those days....................

[Dave Ward]

I wish I could turn the clock back............... My Osteoarthritis, which has been threatening for a day or so has flared up & so I'm relearning how to butter toast with my left hand ( you try it! ). I'd left a print running overnight & it had failed, leaving me with a bucket of plastic wire wool. Added to this, my PC is acting weirdly & is coming up with 'disk error', which means that it's about that time this long in the tooth box is retired! I've reloaded Windows 10 several times already, obviously trying to tell me something. Not worth repairing - I don't even think there's anything worth salveaging, given that the disk is on its' way out. So it's an Ebay search - I don't need a gaming machine, or one with fancy lights, or even a DVD player, just something with a bit more RAM & a SSD to speed boot up. Got my 24" screen, keyboard & mouse waiting! Set myself a budget of £225 max, so it'll be an hour or so of left hand searching, before committing.
Dave

[Gern]

These 'puters don't last forever Dave. Nowadays you're lucky if you get it out of the box before the next upgrade is on the shelf, so if you've had it for a few years you've done well.

As for left hand searching, I became ambidextrous with my mouse many years ago after RSI set in on my right hand. Now I swap depending on where the cats are sitting or whether my hand gets tired! :smiling:

[Gary MacKenzie]

Dave , have a look @ https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refu...no/version.asp

[stillp]

These 'puters don't last forever Dave. Nowadays you're lucky if you get it out of the box before the next upgrade is on the shelf, so if you've had it for a few years you've done well.

As for left hand searching, I became ambidextrous with my mouse many years ago after RSI set in on my right hand. Now I swap depending on where the cats are sitting or whether my hand gets tired! :smiling:

As Dennis Taylor once said "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous"!
Pete

[Dave Ward]

I reckon my Acer PC is pre 2017, which is when I updated it to run Windows 10 ( from 7 ). Apart from opening it once to clean the grilles & fans, it has been very reliable, until this year. It struggles to run some programmes & won't run others, and is glacially slow to boot up.................
I've ordered a Windows 11, 16 Gb RAM & 1Tb SSD, i5 desktop - refurbished, for £175 - arriving Wednesday, which will be several generations later my existing box. I did look at i7 processors, but gaming speed isn't necessary for what I need
Dave

[stillp]

Sounds good Dave. Plenty of RAM and SSD, but I'm not sure how much of that will be soaked up by Windows 11. I've stuck with 10. Bits of my home-built PC date back to before I retired in 2014, but the important bits are much newer, having been 'forced' to upgrade for some games I used to play. I still have a laptop running Win 7, which I need to run one of my film scanners and a video tape to DVD converter.
Pete

[Dave Ward]

Never got into computer gaming - I suppose that working on a CAD screen all day, I needed a change of focus & glasses - beer glasses!
Dave

[Jim R]

I hope your osteoarthritis improves soon. Enjoy your new computer.

[Tim Marlow]

Hope the OA improves rapidly Dave. Pity we can’t buy new body parts as easily as we can change computers really……my 2010 aged desktop is approaching that time. The boot drive is SSD, but is an early one so is a bit small and struggles. Can’t get it to load Lightroom any more either :sleeping2:

[Guest]

Sorry to read of your problems Dave like Tim hope it improves quickly.
Good luck with the new pc .

[Tworrs]

As Tim said, if we could only replace body parts like we do 'puters I would be a happy man too.
I hope your "new" 'puter is up to your requirements, and also that you get over this bout of OA quickly.

[boatman]

HI Dave very sorry to hear you not well again an yes bloomin awkward with doin things with left hand as i cant but jen an i hope things improve for you
ATB SIR
jen an chrisb

[Waspie]

I think we all wish we had time machines Dave. Hope your OA doesn't play up for too long.
As for the PC, eons ago I would have just knocked one up, decent mother board and then just slot in the bits you really need. I'm at that - can't be ar5ed mode thesedays. Only change my laptops when the OS stops being supported and only then when it develops a problem. Last Mac lasted about 11 years which I figured was a good return considering I usual hammer them.
PC's are for computing things and games machines are for gaming. The twain should never meet!!!!

[Dave Ward]

I think we all wish we had time machines Dave. Hope your OA doesn't play up for too long.
As for the PC, eons ago I would have just knocked one up, decent mother board and then just slot in the bits you really need. I'm at that - can't be ar5ed mode thesedays. Only change my laptops when the OS stops being supported and only then when it develops a problem. Last Mac lasted about 11 years which I figured was a good return considering I usual hammer them.
PC's are for computing things and games machines are for gaming. The twain should never meet!!!!

Doug,
In the late 90s, a mate & myself had a nice sideline - he was able to source PCs that were being replaced by more modern machines ( office upgrades ) we were able to pick up PCs & CRT monitors cheaply. We had to add hard drives ( always removed ), maybe add a CD player install Windows 95 ( legit! ) & free software, new keyboard & mouse, clean the cases & monitors & sell them on to co-workers at a pretty good profit. I used the profit to build my own bespoke PC. fancy case, graphics card, big hard drives ( 80Gb! ). I did build a few custom machines, but as the years went on, the profit gradually vanished & when flat screen panels appeared, the market for CRT monitors vanished. I ended up having to donate them for 3rd world charities! Prices for new PCs had dropped so much. we eventually gave up, but it was an educational period. I have looked at how much it would cost to build a new PC recently, but the figures don't add up, without adding the hassle of actually getting it to work....................
Dave

[Guest]

Dave I sympathise with you. Since the last covid booster over a year ago I have suffered with a start of sneezing accompanied with a running nose, running to the point where I can go through a roll of kitchenn tissue in one sitting. Went to the witch doctor and he gave me a nasal spray which would have been better being stuffed up the nose. Looke up online to see if there were other remedies and came ascross a site where there were other sufferers with the same complaint and brought on after their booster. Thankfully it only surfaces about once a month and lasts for 24/36 hours.
Laptop, I went to college 2003 to learn to become an IT technician as I was not allowed to drive HGV's untill cleared by DVLA. And on the side the instructor gave me some advice. Get a laptop/pc that does not have an operating system (Windows xp/10/11). You can then put your own on and it does not come with all the rubbish you never need. My current HP came 'naked' I installed a copy of Win 10, MS office 2007, Photoshop 6 and that is about it. I also added some extra RAM which just slots in and total cost was just under £300 + a bit of time - price for a new pre installed at the time was £599...... If you can get in the back to clean the fan then you can add the extra ram. Or even a bigger hard drive for that model.
Or
Strip out the old hard drive and add a new fan, hard drive and RAM and there you have a new laptop complete with original scratches etc....
Hope the OS settles down and I dont know how you right handed people cannot use your left hands, I have been using mine since birth, its not buttering the toast thats the problem its the clean wipe.... LOL.
Mike.