Need a new laptop, any suggestions?

[cannibal_ox77]

My Acer Inspire 6930 has a corrupt registry, and is stuck in an infinite loop with Windows startup repair failing to work, and no restore points or system images being recognised. I was hoping to get it fixed, but without an install/boot/repair disc can't see how I can do this myself (damned if I'm gonna spend £100+ fixing this old piece of junk)

Can anyone recommend a 15" laptop for under £400?

I need as big a HDD as possible, at least 750gb. On top of that, just want the best spec for the price. Build quality would be a bonus but not a deal breaker.

Are Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Toshiba reliable? My old Acer has been ok but not sure if I'd want another one. Had a problem with sound through inboard speakers which couldn't be sorted, and even though I usually used headphones, it left a bad taste!

Cheers

 

[Overdose]

If the problem is HDD related, why not just pop in a new one?

 

[bob.g]

I've got a Dell Inspiron, and have to say that the one aspect of Dell PCs is their superb aftercare and support. When I need to replace this it's already persuaded me to buy the same again.

 

[scene]

Experience of Dell:

I've just got a new Dell Inspiron for the kids and it arrived DOA - I suspect it had a rough time at couriers as they played a three box shuffle for over a week trying to deliver all of the parcels in one drop. (No names but I suppose you take the downs with the...). Anyway phone DELL support at 6.45pm on Friday night - got through quickly, they called me back when I dropped the phone and cut the call off - Laptop dead - return and replace, or engineer out to replace motherboard. They apologised that it wouldn't be on Monday (Next business day cover included for 1yr as standard) and said engineer would be there on Tuesday. Shift supervisor called me back to apologise that engineer wouldn't be there to Tuesday, wanted to assure me I was valued client, etc.

Engineer rang on Tuesday am to give exact ETA (hour he'd arrive) - arrived when he said and sorted laptop out - insisted on checking wired an wifi worked, etc. Efficient, tidy repair done.

My clients use Dell laptops and they run for years.

Experience of Toshiba:

Laptops just run and run. Very reliable. I've been using same one for seven+ years and am thinking of replacing it only because the HDD is making odd noises and it is getting long in the tooth.

Can recommend both.

 

[AnotherJoe]

Have you tried :

Boot off the install disk and select repair and then command prompt

Then type sfc /scannow from the command line

Windows will then check all your system files and replace any that are corrupted (you will need to rerun windows update if successful).

 

[professorhat]

Have you tried :

Boot off the install disk [...]

Probably not...

I was hoping to get it fixed, but without an install/boot/repair disc can't see how I can do this myself

 

[AnotherJoe]

Boot to safe mode and then sfc /scannow.

or

create a bootbable cd/floppy with sfc on it, and do the same.

 

[cannibal_ox77]

Thanks for your comments, just wrote a load of stuff on my iphone as both my laptop and ipad are knackered (need the laptop to sort the ipad), but it all disappeared when i clicked save...anyway, i can't face typing it all again, I'm thinking of getting a Mac instead of wasting any more time on my laptop

 

[professorhat]

Whichever you go for, recommend getting some decent backup software e.g. Acronis for Windows or Super Duper for Mac which will let you image your machine regularly to a USB disk and boot from it if you have an issue, then restore this. Simplest and easiest way to get back up and running if you get an issue (rather than having to mess around with reinstalling everything from scratch).