Anyone selling a laptop?

[DavidRutherford]

Oh, and it's got to have USB ports on the front - the Mac doesn't and it's really annoying!

USB extension cable + gaffa tape = front mounted USB port.

[stuart_hedges]

I should clarify - I've got two USB hubs on it, totalling six ports round the front. Unfortunately, they're utter crap and simply refuse to work with half of my hardware No use at all with the external HD, phone connects around 50% of the time, camera OK.

However, I have scored a dead spares machine from work which features one of those multiple connectors that fits into a 3.5 inch floppy drive bay. I have also scored something stupidly cheap on ebay so I feel the creation of a Frankenstein machine coming on! This means my Mac will be up for sale soon if anyone's interested... Or I may just keep it for spare, as I wouldn't get much for it.

[cavmad]

Marty Big M M, have you got one now? Might know of one quite cheap.

[M]

waiting on a stock list from jaba. But thinking of signing up for one of those lap top deal things from orange or 3 as i could do with one for friday to take away.

[Tim Leech]

I just got one of those from T Mobile, it came with free HP laptop with 18 months subsription, and a free "dongle" which you can plug in to any computer. Unfortunatly its quite a quite bit slower than my previous broadband (BT) so I may end up going back to where I started from once the house move is in!

I cant get used to that mouse pad on the laptop yet and its driving me mad.

[Way2go]

I cant get used to that mouse pad on the laptop yet and its driving me mad.

Plug a conventional or wireless mouse into the laptop!

[Tim Leech]

Yep will get one next time im in town, to be honest I still prefer my old PC as its more user friendly as it has XP and this blinking laptop has Vista.

[M]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Bloody ebay.

Found one on the bay - nice spec, a bit more than I wanted to pay, but just down the road - So I emailed the bloke -

If I buy one of your laptops is tehr any chance I can collect and pay in cash please as I could do with one before Friday Morning.

Hi,
Absolutely no probs.You can collect cash on collection.There will be a fiver charge for petrol costs to come and meet you.
Any probs ring me.(number on Me next to my iD)

Bit puzzled why you are charging petrol for me to come to you as according to ebay I'm less than 5 miles from your location. Or do you deliver if its within so many miles of your place?

Hi,
Thank you for your question.
I think your better buying off sellers near your as I am 30 miles from you.I would rather that you buy off sellers that are near you for your convenience.I cannot meet anyone until saturday anyway as am extremely busy doing work.
My workplace is in Bpool.30 miles from Manchester.
There are many sellers near you who will be within 5 miles radius of your self.
I appreciate your interest.
best regards
sal

I mean really, I have emailed him again giving my post code (FY3) and asked how exactly that translates as Manchester - I mean I was there this morning at the MOSI but thats about it.

It looks like I am destined to be interwebless during my sojourn to Scarboro'. Still, might go and have a little UE of the football ground whilst I am there.

[ken newbold]

I suspect that you're better off without that one.

If the seller doesn't want you going round his house to collect it, it's probably for a very good reason.
a, You'd know where to take it back when it doesn't work properly, or
b, it's nicked.

Keep lookin.

[Jaba]

What I can offer at the moment is about 5 good working laptops, most of which I have used myself. I am not a dealer, just a collector of laptops as well as BXs..... I currently use a T23 here and when I am in Europe. Wife uses a 390x.

All of them have 256mb of Ram. Hard disk will be 20 or 30 gb. CD or/and DVD, usb1, 2 x pcmcia slots, power supply brick, batteries duff or very weak, good condition - I mean that most sincerely, uk keyboards + no worn keys. I can load an unlicensed copy of XP if you want - the Compaqs have a legal copy already loaded.

IBM 390e 333mhz Pentium11 14.1 screen £40
IBM 390x 450mhz Pentium11 14.1 screen £50
IBM T20 800mhz Pentium111 14.1 screen £75
Compaq N160 900mhz or 1gb (not sure)Pentium111 13 in screen £80
IBM T23 1gb Pentium111 14.1 screen £110

Let me know if you are interested Marty. I can supply a WiFi card for £10 and next day delivery is 10 or 11 GBP.

[cavmad]

I suspect that you're better off without that one.

If the seller doesn't want you going round his house to collect it, it's probably for a very good reason.
a, You'd know where to take it back when it doesn't work properly, or
b, it's nicked.

Keep lookin.

Definately something very dodgy there Ken, and probably the latter.

[Tim Leech]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... %3DSelling

Marty I am selling this as to be honest I could use the money for important things like road tax and bits for me new "pad". I am useless with computers but as the ad says its as new. Would of course let you have it a bit cheaper than the buy it now.

[PiLsY.]

Caught a nasty virus so not been able to post for a few days. Ended up reformatting my work pc AND my russian bride never even turned up either. What a bloody rip!

DJ - what you suggested would work for pretty much any desktop motherboard, but laptops have been using EEPROM technology for a while. Depending on what level of security is set in the bios they can even permanently lock out the hard disk if you enter the password wrong. The latest toshiba and IBM laptops kill the disk if you try and put them in another pc/laptop, let alone attempting to crack the password. Crime prevention is getting pretty good these days as there was a while when laptops were very nickable, and all but untraceable.

Another thing to watch out for is that certain models and makes of newer laptops upload your mac address to the manufacturers website whenever you log on to the internet and log them against your isp details (ip address/login and therefore your home address too). If this laptop is then reported stolen they simply look up the details and the police come knocking at your door.


Marty, ive had a look through whats coming up to be replaced. I can source you either of the following :

P4 1.2ghz mobile / 256mb ram / 30gb hdd / 15" screen

P4 1.73ghz mobile / 512mb ram / 60gb hdd / 15.1" widescreen.

First one would be £80, second one closer to the £150 mark (not processed through disposal dept. yet so not got a figure). If either of these are of interest let me know. Due to various stupid corporate rules we have to keep them available for use until term starts in september before they can be bought by staff, but they (15 or so) are sat on a shelf in our workshop now.


Ive also found that ebay + computers = bad. You VERY rarely get a decent working machine for a bargain price as theyre always on the bay of dread for a reason. Anything worth having laptop wise is sold word of mouth these days. Having said that there is always the exception that prooves the rule.

I would also avoid vista on laptops. OK you can wipe it and put XP on, but as it is sold with Vista installed the manufacturer will very often only provide vista drivers, leaving you hunting for hours on the internet to find a comparable driver or simply doing without the likes of sound and wireless.


Stu - get in touch mate - I have roughly 120 P4 2.4ghz base units (512mb to 1gb, 40gb hdd to 250gb hdd) and 60 odd P4 2.8ghz HT base units of a similar spec that I can pick up and deliver now if you need it urgently. All have front mounted audio and 2 front USB ports, cdrw / dvdrom combo drive, onboard network. The 2.4ghz models are a bit outdated tbh, the 2.8ghz ones have better motherboards, memory etc but it all depends on what you want to use them for. PM me to discuss mate - dont want to hijack marty's thread any more than I already have .

[Tim Leech]

My laptop has been sold. thanks.

[M]

Im now sorted too (oer will be shortly) Thanks.