Win 7 Laptop died - what now?

[glend (Glen)]

My venerable Acer laptop has died - looks like the graphics board is gone - dreaded white screen , not able to see anything. All my images are on the hard drive, not backed up. I will need to replace it, and probably put the hard drive into a USB enclosure. Any recommendations on a new laptop - at a reasonable price? I hate to think qbout Win 8 but I guess there s no choice now. Can all the usual astro apps run under Win 8 : like Metaguide, Photoshop Elements, DSS, etc etv.?

[pluto (Hugh)]

I've found Win 8.1 runs everything I've tried, plus it's fast and stable.

Astro software I've run on win8.1 includes:
CCDSoft v5, PHD and PHD2, Nebulosity, CCD Inspector, Atik Artemis Capture, EQMOD and ASCOM, BYE, Startools, DSS, and PS and LR.
On the hardware side:
Atik 314L+, SBIG STT8300M, QHY5L-II, SW EQ6

[Renato1 (Renato)]

When you say the screen has gone - same thing happened to mine years ago. Are you sure the computer is gone? Have you tried plugging a monitor into the back of it and then pressing the F key that switches between the laptop's monitor to an external monitor?

If that works, you can do what I did, namely I got a computer place to remove the screen, and just kept using the computer as a desktop, and added a wireless dongle or wireless PC card - since the wifi receiver is in the screen. It has worked fine ever since.

If your computer really has had a major failure in its innards, they do sell inexpensive kits on Ebay to let you get everything off your IDE or SATA hard drive. Though you need to make sure they are extensive enough.

So far I've had that Acer laptop fail on me, and an Acer netbook with very little use fail on me, not long after the warranty period expired. At the same time, I'm typing this on an 11 year old Toshiba laptop running Windows XP. Best avoid Acer, in my opinion.
Regards,
Renato

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

Hi Glen
Have a look @ Affordable Laptops website there an aussie company and you build your laptop the way you want big graphics card or small win8 or win 7 ssd or normal hardrive. And you get just as good warranty as you do from the big brand names but a far better system and built the way you want.

I have had all the big brands and yep they died, The metabox they sell are just great.

Just my 2c worth.

cheers

Graeme.

[glend (Glen)]

Thanks for those ideas, its seven years old so maybe that's a reasonable run with it. I took it apart and the screen cable and board connection are fine, no visible wear or breaks. Found the Nvidia graphics card, which I suspect is the problem or most likely. The card is available online for $100 plus shipping but I need to balance that against the cost of a new laptop. I can get a basic one for $400-500 and hopefully get five years out.of it. I've removed the old SATA hard-drive with the idea that i'd put it into a USB enclosure so I can run it off any.Laptop I get to replace the old one. Anyone know of any good laptop deals going at the moment? My budget is $500 and at the spec level available now it should out perform the old one.

[Terry B]

Really basic but new with Win7 pro
http://www.dell.com/au/business/p/in...3542-laptop/fs

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

You could plug it into an external monitor to allow you to D/L your images and clear off the old HDD.

[glend (Glen)]

Barry I tried connecting it to my big screen TV via the RGB monitor port with a monitor cable, all I git when I switched it was the same white screen on the tv, there is no way the tell the old laptop to do anything when I can't see anything.

So I have gone ahead and bought a new one from JB Hifi within my budget and with better performance than the old one,. Its another Acer but it has everything I need and more. . Its Win 8.1 but hard to find anything else. At least now I can get it setup for imaging before the Bretti trip in two weeks.

Thanks to all for your help.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Originally Posted by glend

Barry I tried connecting it to my big screen TV via the RGB monitor port with a monitor cable, all I git when I switched it was the same white screen on the tv, there is no way the tell the old laptop to do anything when I can't see anything.

So I have gone ahead and bought a new one from JB Hifi within my budget and with better performance than the old one,. Its another Acer but it has everything I need and more. . Its Win 8.1 but hard to find anything else. At least now I can get it setup for imaging before the Bretti trip in two weeks.

Thanks to all for your help.

If the computer is still working, you have to hit the F key along the top row with the small monitor symbol on it to switch output from the screen to the external. Your manual tells you exactly which F key it is.
Regards,
Renato

[glend (Glen)]

I know how to switch the screen, it appeared white after it was switched to the TV so the switch worked but the graphics card doesnt

[rmuhlack (Richard)]

To recover your files you could remove the HDD and turn it into an external hard drive with one of these:
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/217835/H...ric/XC4681.asp

[glend (Glen)]

Yes I have already bought a SATA Hard Drive Enclosure and as soon as I get it delivered I will be bringing my imaging and astro files onto the new laptop.

BTW anyone considering buying a Win 8 device be aware that you will need to do some substantial customisation to get it to run quickly. Frankly it's a dog of an operating system, and takes forever to start initially, but once you have it functioning go straight into Advanced Features and remove all the animation and fairy flow sort of stuff that is eating up CPU time. Also get a registry cleaner and backup app, mine found over 900 registry errors and the system ran faster after these steps. There is more work to be done but at least it's running as fast as my seven year old Win 7 system was when it died.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Another good reason to stick with Windows 7. Still quite a few laptops out there with windows 7. I got a Tosh recently and added a SSD to it and it dead set flies.