What budget laptop?

[karl2000]

XP could run all day doing everything someone like me needs on about 250 eggs (memory) , win10 needs 250,000 eggs or it cant start up . If its old and it works turn updates off . Has nobody noticed every "upgrade" from windows sees the release of new laptops with typically much larger memory capacity so they can run all the shit nobody wants .

You're quite right mate, in that each update takes more resources - and newer OS's need much more memory - and so they can indeed make an older computer unusable.

BUT if you put such an unpatched system near the internet, you will definitely get hacked.

The older it is, the sooner you will get hacked. Don't expect to see any signs of it, because it will probably be invisible.

If its your only system (you don't have home network/wifi/ipad/phone), and you only visit a few websites where you dont put personal information in, then you might not care, and thats fine. But you can't use it for anything trusted like online banking etc, its just too risky.

 

[Shayne]

"Paperwork" means just that to me important stuff calls for a biro , she does the banking on her ipad because she doesn't mind being permanently logged into maybe 40 sites tracked traced profiled and battered with buy me messages .

I login to email for the bad news when i have to , other than that i login here and that's it .

 

[MisterCruiser]

How much memory (RAM) is on your computer, and how much is being used when this happens? If its a chrome/browser process thats taking up the CPU, that might well be due to a website you are visiting. Each browser tab can have its own process, and if you visit a few and theyre all doing stuff in the background, that can kill your computer. Next time it happens, kill off tabs one by one and see if you can identify the website thats killing it.

4 Gig Ram on my system, not sure how much is being used when the slowness happens and the Cpu is hogged at 100%, I'll have to take note of that the next time it happens. Cheers for the tips.

 

[chapel gate]

Chromebooks stop receiving updates a few years after they are released ( usually 3yrs) So be careful which one you get. It's going to brick itself much like a phone ( it won't... but with no updates and a locked firmware.... Would you really use it?)

Lenovo ThinkPad's are good ; the T460p is a fair workhorse and is a 14" screen, if you want a smaller and more portable, then look at the x270. Either of these can be had for £300 or less with an i7 CPU/16gb ram and 256gb SSD . Avoid the touch screen options. All corporate ones would have sold with 3+ years of warranty, some will even have had 5. So shop around, you should be able to get a reasonable device that still has warranty for a year or so. Avoid all ThinkPad's from 2018+.

HP EliteBook are another good option, that were built exactly into the ThinkPad market. Avoid all EliteBook from 2017+

Or you could just buy the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15" with the AMD ryzen 4800u CPU and 16gb of ram, brand new for £500 - it runs faster, cooler and longer than the £2500 macbooks and almost all the latest intel 10th gen i7 based laptops. Lenovo is out of stock all over Europe at the moment though, so it might be a few weeks before they start taking orders.

Most phones these days are pretty capable. Maybe just get a keyboard + mouse and a hdmi out for your phone?

I was all for the lenova kb.. Don't mind waiting a week or so but if that turns into months..

Keep looking at these used think pads, but again, most look as though they've been used as a Harrow..

Going slightly under now, and getting that chasing my own tail feeling.

What laptop for 500 quid?

 

[goodoldboy]

"4 Gig Ram on my system, not sure how much is being used when the slowness happens and the Cpu is hogged at 100% "

Hopefully the OP will be enjoying the new laptop that he's bought but to sidetrack with windows if you have slowing down issues try looking in Windows administrative tools for performance monitor.This will tell you what's using your CPU & then you can search online if there's anything you don't recognise.
the CPU ,fan at full power unfortunately sounds like might have a virus or malware.Again in windows tools look for event viewer , select from the middle column the event & you can search online the event ID this might give you some idea of what's going on.

 

[goodoldboy]

Going slightly under now, and getting that chasing my own tail feeling.
What laptop for 500 quid?

I know the feeling.Check out your local shop & see what's on offer because as far as the major brand are concerned they're all much the same.The advantage of this is you can turn up in person if you're not happy & cause a (polite)scene & probably get a result.

 

[GeekOKent]

How about something like this Lenovo Thinkpad x270 i7 6th Gen 8GB RAM 128GB SSD Lenovo Warranty - WIN 10 | eBay - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

 

[Shayne]

I'm not sure what the exploitation fees would be but its just crossed my mind that if you cut out the middle men a UK £2000 say HP laptop might be bought new on alibaba for 300

 

[chapel gate]

Right, I'm nearly there.

So, a thinkpad as linked to by kb at 3 yrs old is still considered a better machine than a new 2020 at £500?

 

[chapel gate]

I know the feeling.Check out your local shop & see what's on offer because as far as the major brand are concerned they're all much the same.The advantage of this is you can turn up in person if you're not happy & cause a (polite)scene & probably get a result.

Local computer shop would be argos. Don't really want to go to the big smoke. Carnage at the moment.

 

[chapel gate]

Thoughts?

Cant be orange. Screen a little small?Asus Ryzen 5-3500U 8GB 512GB SSD 14 Inch FHD Windows 10 Laptop - Laptops Direct - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

 

[chapel gate]

Lenovo THINKPAD X250 Notebook Intel Core i7-5600U 240 SSD 8GB RAM 1 yr warranty | eBay - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

Grade "A". still have reservations about used.

 

[Mick W]

Not so long ago we spoke of Megabytes in storage and memory now its Gigabytes and in some cases Terabytes of storage. Whatever you do @chapel gate make sure it is upgradable. Technology moves fast these days and PCs are quickly out of date. Some of us will remember 3-1/2" and 5-1/4" flopply 720 byte drives

 

[GeekOKent]

Lenovo THINKPAD X250 Notebook Intel Core i7-5600U 240 SSD 8GB RAM 1 yr warranty | eBay - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

Grade "A". still have reservations about used.

The x250 won't get the milage an x270 will... Apart from being older it's got a much fewer opportunities to upgrade down the road. Parts for the x270 are also much more readily available etc

Buy a good baseline and then down the road, as needed, get 'upgrades' in. This will goto 32gb of ram, 2 TB of very fast nvme disk, keyboard is easy to replace if needed, lots of aftermarket options for different screens, just don't get a touch screen, the motherboard is easy to replace and a few aftermarket options too. You can get a 78wh 2nd battery, added with the 23wh that is built in - you are looking at maybe 18hrs of backup doing regular things.

 

[GeekOKent]

Thoughts?

Cant be orange. Screen a little small?Asus Ryzen 5-3500U 8GB 512GB SSD 14 Inch FHD Windows 10 Laptop - Laptops Direct - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

Avoid the 3000 series CPUs from AMD. It's the 4000 series you want. I just wish they would get in with it and start bringing them in.

 

[GeekOKent]

Right, I'm nearly there.

So, a thinkpad as linked to by kb at 3 yrs old is still considered a better machine than a new 2020 at £500?

Yes. To me anyway. I would get that x270 and expect a 4 to 5 year service cycle from it. You can still call Lenovo and get a 2 year extension on the warranty too.

Most £500 mark commodity laptops you are going to get at Curry's are just lumps of plastic with the cheapest possible bits. See if anyone of the vendors will give you a 5 year warranty on one of those, with a 24hr full replacement guarantee.

For me the only exception, right now, is the IdeaPad 5 with the AMD 4700 or 4800 CPU, at £495.

 

[chapel gate]

thanks for all the input fellas!

cheers @GeekOKent . pulled the trigger on that x270 this morning.

 

[MisterCruiser]

"4 Gig Ram on my system, not sure how much is being used when the slowness happens and the Cpu is hogged at 100% "

Hopefully the OP will be enjoying the new laptop that he's bought but to sidetrack with windows if you have slowing down issues try looking in Windows administrative tools for performance monitor.This will tell you what's using your CPU & then you can search online if there's anything you don't recognise.
the CPU ,fan at full power unfortunately sounds like might have a virus or malware.Again in windows tools look for event viewer , select from the middle column the event & you can search online the event ID this might give you some idea of what's going on.

Cheers for the troubleshooting tips, I can manage task manager for ending tasks ok but I'm not too familiar with them monitoring tools and event viewer features. It takes me a while to find these sections as they take a bit of finding when not used to using them. I hope the OP doesn't mind me hijacking the thread but he got sorted with a new machine so I'm hoping he doesn't

Iv'e a few screenshots form when the CPU went to 100% and the slowness occured last, do these reveal anything?
The last screenshot is the Event viewer which I only took pic of now, it wasn't taken during the Cpu 100% slowdown. There's 1020 events, is that bad? I'm using Windows 7.

 

[karl2000]

All good info - what you might want to do, is on your second picture, click on the CPU column so it sorts that instead of memory. You should then see the things thats killing the CPU at the top! If its a chrome tab, you can kill the process at the top, then see which tab/website it was that was causing it!

 

[karl2000]

PS: number of events is nothing to worry about, its normal and will grow over time.