I recently bought an old lap-top. For a number of reasons. I needed to run some old software (my main PC is regularly updated, and cannot cope with older software). I also wanted a PC that I could quietly sit in a corner – no distractions – and do some writing. So when I saw an old Toshiba, in fair nick, in the local pawn shop, I handed over a few quid, and was now the owner of an old, but worthy, laptop.
First problem was the lack of memory to run what I wanted. Easily solved, and quite cheap. It was running Windows XP, which was OK, but XP and Internet Explorer were so out of date that the average web-site wouldn’t touch them with a barge-pole.
Networking with my main system was fine as long as I used a cable, but the WiFi was way past its smell-by-date. A few quid in Argos fixed the WiFi. USB plug-in and go!
Updating the operating system to the most recent version of XP was a real nightmare. IE5 (Jurassic Code!) was unable to download updates from the net, so I had to do download of Google Chrome, to get an update of XP that enabled me to get an update of IE that enabled me to get an update of XP that enabled me to get an update of IE that … well, you can imagine the rest! I got there in the end when the lap-top was updated enough to auto-update itself. Hour after hour after hour.
Virus protection was essential – fortunately, Kaspersky gives you 30 days free trial. Once I had updated the lap-top to the point when I could load Kaspersky (XP SP3, as it so happens …)
The really bad part was the battery. It only had a capacity of about 15 minutes. I suspect a dud cell in the pack. I could run it from the mains, but the whole point of a lap-top is portability. So I needed a new battery pack.
Word of warning! Here be dragons!
Look up lap-top batteries on the internet, and you will find dozens. Lots of dot.co.uk addresses. Royal mail logos. 3 working days quoted. As British as Fu Manchu! As you find out when you send the money by PayPal, and it is cashed by some vaguely oriental gentleman. Then – far too late – you do the research. That is when you find that a lot of these sites look very, very familiar. The same Union Jack promises and the same cruddy warehouse in South London that is just out of range of StreetView. Never mind that! When you complain, PayPal is all fair-and-even-handed, and everybody gets their say. In very bad English, and totally lacking in any useful detail. The delivery date gets longer and longer, the parcel tracking site gives you pointless ‘despatched, shipped, exported (from Uxbridge!) hub-to-hub’ waffle. Look up ‘UK battery website in China’ on Google.
The batteries take forever, it seems, so, having become an expert in finding a genuine UK supplier, I eventually order another battery. OK, the price is twice that of China UK, but I did knock it down from three times the price! That is when the first batteries arrive. After 3 working days and a dozen non-working days. I try them. They work. Amazing. And a week later, the UK supplier delivers a new battery. I have 3 now.
What is the moral of the story? Is it better to order a cheap battery from a website that has the Advertising Standards Authority in fits (they ignore judgement and change to another UK-fake name and address), or buy British and get a battery at twice the price (or more)?
Or does it matter, because all the batteries came from some anonymous Chinese factory in the first place (even the original Toshiba branded battery).
You pay your money, PayPal takes their cut, and you take your choice.
And the working day is approximately 5 times the standard calendar day.
I’ll get started on the writing day, soon …