Computer, new, second hand, reconditioned. Which is better

Discussion
1

Yesterday whist drinking a coffee at the bar in the village, i was asked a question.

my computer has problems starting up, should i buy another and which, what and where

Finally will it last till I die ? …

Ok its a old guy and all he uses it for is reading his mail, looking at newspapers and writing the sunday speach for his church where he is the priest. No big demands.

I do not sell computers but in the past have donated second hand machines to him originally with lubuntu but more recently linux mint due to the spec of the machines.

I went away to do research and look at prices before replying.

New machines for towers, his prefered option as he wants a big screen so he can see, plus a keyboard as laptops are restrictive for movement, and he wants a white keyboard due to failing eyesite.

New machines 600 euros but windows 11
Reconditioned 280 euros windows 10, not capable of upgrade to 11 so suppliers ditching outdated stock.
Second hand from 100 euros

I would convert them to linux so he is comfortable but only when the cover offered ends or he has a virus issue.

Cost is a factor, but which route would you go down and why…

I have repaired his existing tower several times but now think its on its last legs, intermittent faults, beeps at startup, will start but not continue for long, take it into the workshop clean it test it fine, return and it fails, suspect faulty connection but no idea where and beep codes change. It only cost him 25 euros 2 years back so had his moneys worth.

Will it out live him ?
No answer to that one,

3 Likes
2

I like the reconditioned option. If you go too new, there could be driver issues. Anything a few years old would have a bit better chance of having good, mature drivers.

1 Like
3

A SFF tower is probably adequate
Get one where they have replaced the old hdd with a new ssd.
Ditch Win10 and install your LMDE
Use old KB , mouse, and monitor… you can replace them anytime

2 Likes
4

That was my gut reaction too, enough to pay and my sort of price.

Only thing is if its shipped with 10 and it goes faulty withing the warranty period they will do something, if i change the system out to linux they may blame that to get out of the cover.

Simple answer may be just change the hard disk out and put a replacement linux hard disk in, think he will feel happier with that system anyway

The recoms i have looked at come with 4gb memory and hard disks not ssd but for him speed is not an issue as his internet connection is still on copper so slow, plus as we get into summer and our village fills the band width into us is limited from slow to almost stop. They are putting fibre in as i write but not everywhere due to technical difficulties passing the fibre along the routes

2 Likes
5

Yeah, but try and get 8Gb ram. A large Linux like Mint needs it

6

Sorry to disagree, my own box is only 2gb for mint no problems and have many on 4gb. But we are not doing heavy graphical demanding things. Internet, mail wordprocessing stuff.

But yes always try to get as much on board as I can.

Older boxes did not always allow the bigger memory modules, mine is 15 years old netbook and will not upgrade.

1 Like
7

Todays browsers and web content require the more RAM.
If you regularly keep open dozens of tabs, and in each a demanding webpage is open, then even the 16GB is insufficient.
If you open up just maximu 3…4 tabs, then 4GB can be more than enough - well, assuming you use a frugal DE.

2 Likes
8

Usually lmde 32bit and 2 tabs on chromium
But dreamweaver and a ftp

Had to swap when my apple died so took the disk and fitted it to this netbook and never got around to upgrading after that, its on my to do list…

I dont do much work

I cheat for daily use a tablet

9

Yes, using Mint for 5 years and no problems at all on a PC with 4 GB of ram.

Also for the last 15 years, I have only purchase used desktop and laptops. Again, maybe lucky, but no problems.

3 Likes
10

You might be better off with Peppermint for low ram machines.

3 Likes
11

Only problem is…

My copy of dreamweaver, only runs on wine at 32bits, very old version (2000) to reinstall it uses a crack which looks for a set file which is normally hidden in linux install inside a point folder… hence too much trouble to change.

Other option is change all my sites to wordpress again on my to do list.

2 Likes
12

Just for your infromation:
You can set up a 32 bit WINE on a 64 bit Linux, assuming you have wine32 intalled too.

I do it, as some of my family members still like to use MS Office 2007, for which we have a student/home licence from many years ago…

Do it as follows:

WINEARCH=win32 wineboot
If you have a .wine already, either use a different dir, ar rename it.
If you want to keep your current .wine:

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 wineboot
That creates a directory called .wine32 in your home, and sets up a 32bit WINE environment in it.
You can make run only 32 bit Windows apps there, do it like this:

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 wine run_this_32bit.exe

Of course it’s up to you how you name your wineprefix directory, it’s not mandatory to call it .wine32

5 Likes
13

Not sure if I read this correctly, but…
ONce you have installed the Windows app in you WINE environment, you can just copy the directory as a whole.
I just copied .wineof2007 directory -in this I created a 32 bit WINE env.- from my sons machine to my wife’s home. I edited the links having the username, so those link to a correct Documents etc… folders, and expected to have activate Office2007 again for my wife.
That was not necessary, the activation survived the copy of the directory :grin:
So the licence allows us to use that old office on 3 computers, but we could use it on any of our computers…

So what I want to say: chances are you just need to copy that “point folder”, and of course the approriate launcher .desktop files probably somewhere from ~/.local/share/applications

3 Likes
14

I did not know i could do that never tried

Always thought wine installed the version for the system and that was it

Also tried searching for the file the crack needed to find and lost the plot as the application was limited.

For the moment everything works so leaving it alone as only update the sites on request or a couple of times a year for price changes its not that often, gites here fix a price once a year then rare they change dont even try promotions or special prices just full so not bothered.

I was going to change dreamweaver for another app but never found one on linux that was still in use everyone has gone wordpress mad ! Except me

15

Paul,
I don’t know if the PC you’re talking about is a desktop.
If it is, and it’s old, you may have damaged power supply capacitors.
If you have a desktop power supply, try testing it with another power supply to see if you can resolve the fault.

Another fault I’ve seen is damaged capacitors in old motherboards, and sometimes you can see that they’re swollen and also cause intermittent faults.
I send you a link of several images as an example of swollen capacitors.

If you have capacitors like this on your motherboard, forget it, it’s a new motherboard if you don’t know how to replace capacitors.

I’d start by testing the power supply.

Jorge

16

Hi

Yes its a desktop, but getting it apart is not easy, plus I dont have a spare power supply, got rid of all my stock parts when we moved and downsized 5 years back due to space.

Yes know what capacitors are and do, but dont have a way of testing them, as you say size shape is a good way of telling.

I have stopped doing motherboard or pcb repairs now, due to lack of fine motor skills , had one in to repair a few months back power supply coil burned but could not unsolder and replace, had to get another pal who was a electronics technician to do it for me.

The client has a bit of money, not much as he is a priest in a local church, so I try to do as much as i can at cost but it does get to where I have to say stop.

I dont do it for the religion, just do it because I can.

I have a laptop with english keyboard and tiny screen, may donate that and just plug in a external screen and keyboard mouse. That should please him.

Its funny I have 2 priests at 2 churches different who I try to look after, think its like politics I bat for both teams, in case I end up in the wrong box at the end… but I suspect I am going the other direction… my ex wife said go to hell when we divorced… not sure this will translate!

Thanks for the followup ideas

Just as a change

Do you know about radio mics, frequency and around that subject ?
I may have a question next week after I test our systems ready for summer.

Cheers

Paul

3 Likes
17

Paul,

Yes.
When you want, we’ll talk by private message

Jorge

2 Likes
18

I admire you, Paul, for helping the lesser-abled to use computers. Reviving old Windows machines with Mint or Peppermint is the way I do it. I’m using a HP6300 SFF machine, formerly an office machine using WinXP. Fitted a new HDD and more RAM.

The most useful update, for me, was a backlighted keyboard–really helps old eyes see the keys! Dialing back the resolution can help make the monitor more readable.

4 Likes
19

Dont do it for admiration I do it for myself. I may be wrong but firmly believe that if I can help others within reason, perhaps sometime in the future someone may help me. Not the same person but another.

For the last 18 years here in france I have tried to capture older machines, upcycle them with memory and disk upgrades that others have donated then sell them on at a very low cots, started off at a bottle of wine, but then made it 5 euros as some were taking the Michael. Now I ask 25 euro for a working machine laptop, tower with screen keyboard etc and mint.

Real clients pay normal prices but you get a feel for those in dificulty so when to offer something else. No big deal.

7 Likes
20

No, you are not wrong!!! Definietly not!

Most of our folktales has the lesson, that expect good in return of good.
If that wasn’t enough, take a look at Mt 7,12:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

So, you couldn’t be more right! :slight_smile:

4 Likes