New laptop

Information for when buying new....

I was back at Curry's today because I was having trouble registering the new laptop with HP. This is necessary to trigger the warranty. The young assistant there certainly knew his stuff and there's no way I could have sorted it out myself. If you're buying HP (and it's worth checking with other makes) be sure you check the start and end dates of the warranty when you register. Mine was only showing six months, as HP had taken the date from the time my laptop was delivered to Curry's, not my purchase date.

 

Once they start talking about warranties I usually ask if the product is iffy.
But I get your meaning @Sheal .
Sounds like another scam that the tech companies are running.

Bit like buying a washing machine and the warranty has already run out.

 

@Balc

Wonder if when you first started it up it was still too cold from delivery ?

Not sure why you wanted to put your old HDD straight into the new one before you even tested it properly ? Would wait until you have the new one fully running before doing that.

Not into MS accounts, but suspect your original MS account is tied to your old PCs system, so using it on your New one caused it to fail ??

Would search the web / Microsofts site for a possible answer.
Sometimes you need to contact microsoft uk to reset things, but be very careful as there are lots of bogus microsoft listings out there.

Is your new pc actualy new of a second hand one ?
- if s/h -
the first thing we would do is check if its has a genuine W11 by checking its Activation state as below.



As for no space in a desktop Tower pc ? usually loads of free bays ? can you post a picture ?

 

How are you finding it otherwise, all running well ?

Have you got to grips with W11, as we were saying to @pete earlier tonight, its not really that much different once you get it organised,

 

@Sheal forgot to say last night, not worries about your HP warranty as that is not your problem.

Your Contract is with Currys from the day you purchased the Goods, so they deal with any hardware problems and if they cannot sort it, then They send it off to HP for repair if needed, Not you. ( though they may try and persuade you to do so which is wrong)

Our regular computer magazine often details cases where Currys still do not follow the well known Consumer Rights Act , as below.

Hopefully your laptop will be a good one and you will not have to go down that route

Consumer Rights Act 2015 - Which?

 

I'm getting there Ricky and yes, it is running well. I hadn't realised just how slow my old laptop had become. I wish computer companies would leave the keyboard set up alone though. No real problem but HP have moved the on/off button, which is now the sixth key from the right - top row. Top left was so much easier to locate. They've also altered the touchpad - which I prefer to use. The one finger scroll has now gone to two and I'm finding that a little awkward.

There's no way I could have set the laptop up myself. Computer language is completely alien to me so my son took over and spent five hours with me via Teamviewer. When it comes to technology I just wish everything would remain the same from one computer to another. Windows 11 isn't a lot different to 10, it's just a matter of getting used to it. I have found that once again the print and icons have shrunk in size, and at my age with particular eye sight issues it's not easy to see some of them. It's not possible to alter the size of them either. It annoys me that technology is aimed at the young and healthy, while others that have disabilities or eye sight issues have to get on with it somehow.

On the whole I'm happy with the computer and the icing on the cake for me is....I have a space bar that does as it's told. The space bar on my old machine never worked properly from new and I'd look up and find a sentence with no spaces between the words.

Thank you Ricky. I'm aware that Curry's will deal with things while under warranty, but I also wanted to register with HP for the future, when the warranty runs out. There is nobody here in Inverness that I would trust to do repairs and Mr S has used HP in the past, we can't fault their service department.

 

Hi @Sheal,

Glad you have got things mostly set up as you want, we find W11 is just as easy as W10 , and a little cleaner looking.
Think we will have to convince @pete to get one !

Must confess we have still to get used to the touch pad, prefering a cordless Mouse instead as we only use the PC on a desk, unlike many folk using them on the sofa etc.

Re your problem wih small icons, there are lots of ways to change the size of icons and text etc in Windows, plus they have their Accessibility section for folk with greater sight problems.

Some User program may also have ways to change the size of their menu icons but have not tried changing any of ours yet.

If you mention or screenshot an image of the icons and print you mean we might be able to let you know how to change their size, nothing too complex, its just finding out how to do it.

eg the standard sized icons on our Libre Office wordprocessor



Here we have change them to a large size

 

It's a matter of preference, whether it be mouse or pad. I haven't used a mouse since switching from desktop to laptop and that's a long while ago. This is my third laptop.

I am struggling to focus on the example you put on your previous post.

I have tried just about everything @ricky101 including Accessibility, but my eye problems are complicated and I need a combination of low brightness, colour changes, larger print (which I have for typing here) and background colour. Unfortunately, it's just not possible to get the right combination. Another forum that I'm a member of has altered the background colour for me and others with similar issues. That helps, but apparently can't be done here on GC. It wouldn't help outside the forums anyway.

 

I'm still On W8, so not sure how big the change will be.

Am I understanding that you cant use a mouse, I'd go entirely round the bend trying to use the silly little pad that they put on lap tops, I just find it a complete wind up.

I also hate touch screens as they just end up a dirty greasy mess and lots of big hand movements.
I can move a mouse an inch and go from top to bottom on the screen.

 

I use a standard mouse with my laptop as I too always work at my desk.

 

I use a mouse on the arm of the chair.

 

@Balc

Some good info here on MS accounts.
Seems you can use your original MS account on the replacement desktop even if it has already got a different account on it.
Redirecting

 

Expect its a suggestion you have already had, and probably why you opted for the HPs larger 17" screen, but have you considered plugging in a standard desktop monitor either 24" or 27" to the HPs HDMI socket, which we would think would not only gives you a larger and clearer viewing but also have better quality and better adjustments ?

 

That is what I do and it gives me two screens. The 27" monitor is my main screen and I have the auxiliary screen of the laptop below. When I do photo-editing the image is on the big screen and the controls are on the laptop. I use it for many other tasks when I want two separate windows open.
The mouse pointer seamlessly moves between the two.

 

I use a mouse and a proper keyboard connected to USB ports on my good old PC. The tower sits under the desk and the PC was bought around 2002 with XP installed, since then it's had a new power supply, three mother boards, three graphics cards and a number of processors and memory chips, now has two optical read write/ drives, one 500GB hard drive and an SSD drive for the OS (now Windows 11); most of these changes being due advances in technology meaning the new processor won't fit the old board and the new mother board needing different memory or different graphics card or new OS incompatible with old processor.
It kicks out enough heat to keep the feet warm, Still got a slot for small floppy discs.
SSD drive is about 6 years old and the whole lot is backed up monthly to an external hard drive.