Dodgy laptop deal? Help required!
Discussion
Hi all
My other half has just bought 2 refurbished Samsung R60P laptops from a local computer shop, £325 each.
She was told that they have 1gb memory so she paid an extra £25 each to upgrade to 2gb and they would also have 160gb hard drives.
Checking on the boxes they came in, which has both laptop serial numbers on so they are the right boxes for the laptops, it says they already come with 2gb memory.
Looking into the properties on the drives it comes up with this info- display memory 1.75GB, disc drives c & d 69.6gb & 69gb each( Why there are 2 drives on each we haven't found out yet)but this only equates to 140gb, not the 160 as expected.
Do you think this is correct or are we missing something? But it looks to me as if she has paid out extra and got nothing.
Can any of you guys help out here?
Much appreciated,
My other half has just bought 2 refurbished Samsung R60P laptops from a local computer shop, £325 each.
She was told that they have 1gb memory so she paid an extra £25 each to upgrade to 2gb and they would also have 160gb hard drives.
Checking on the boxes they came in, which has both laptop serial numbers on so they are the right boxes for the laptops, it says they already come with 2gb memory.
Looking into the properties on the drives it comes up with this info- display memory 1.75GB, disc drives c & d 69.6gb & 69gb each( Why there are 2 drives on each we haven't found out yet)but this only equates to 140gb, not the 160 as expected.
Do you think this is correct or are we missing something? But it looks to me as if she has paid out extra and got nothing.
Can any of you guys help out here?
Much appreciated,
Disk - Disk makers and MSFT use different definitions of a gigabyte. The manufacturer will likely use 1,000,000,000 bytes as a gigabyte, but MS uses 1,073,741,824 bytes as a gigabyte. So Windows sees a 160 GB drive as a 149 GB. Take off the space needed for operating system and whatnot, 140Gb of space is not unreasonable.
Logically splitting a disk into multiple drives is fair enough too - for example, C: for operating system, installed software and so on, D: for data.
RAM - dunno, sorry
Logically splitting a disk into multiple drives is fair enough too - for example, C: for operating system, installed software and so on, D: for data.
RAM - dunno, sorry
ETA ^^^ or that, 
The hard drive issue is common, In the PC I'm currently using, I've got two drives, one is 160GB and the other is 320GB. The 160 shows up as 149.05GB and the 320 as 298.09GB this is due to formatting overheads and possible bad sectors (plus the GB rounding issue).
During the Format process, if it finds bad sectors, it sets them aside and basically tells the PC they don't exist anymore. Therefore as the HDD ages, at every subsequent format, the capacity will shrink.
I think you may have a point with the memory unless it was downgraded to 1GB post the initial purchase but I couldn't see a reason why they would do that.
If the box says 2GB and you have an invoice saying "upgraded to 2GB" then take it up with them.
John.
The hard drive issue is common, In the PC I'm currently using, I've got two drives, one is 160GB and the other is 320GB. The 160 shows up as 149.05GB and the 320 as 298.09GB this is due to formatting overheads and possible bad sectors (plus the GB rounding issue).
During the Format process, if it finds bad sectors, it sets them aside and basically tells the PC they don't exist anymore. Therefore as the HDD ages, at every subsequent format, the capacity will shrink.
I think you may have a point with the memory unless it was downgraded to 1GB post the initial purchase but I couldn't see a reason why they would do that.
If the box says 2GB and you have an invoice saying "upgraded to 2GB" then take it up with them.
John.
Edited by jhfozzy on Friday 19th March 20:08
Both figures are correct. You'll never see the full capacity of the hard disk, and Windows will never tell you it. RAM is also correct as it will report *available* RAM - you likley have integrated video, so it'll show you the RAM available after taking that off the top. Relax, you haven't been done.
Ian_T said:
Relax, you haven't been done.
As far as I can see, she has been done for the RAM.1) She was told that each came with 1GB of RAM.
2) She was told she could pay £25 each to "upgrade" to 2GB.
3) The original PC boxes says they came with 2GB in the first place.
So she paid for an upgrade that was already there in the first place.
Or am I missing something?
Edited by jhfozzy on Friday 19th March 21:28
IME its standard practice with 2nd hand PCs to reduce installed memory to a minimum level then either sell it as an add on for the machine or flog it on ebay to make a few more quid.
She hasnt been done, she was quoted a price fo a 1GB second hand machine. If she hadnt paid the extra she would have got 1GB and the rest would I am sure have been re-sold. It may have originally come with 2GB but they were selling it with 1Gb, nothing wrong with that.
Take a look at all the 2nd hand desktop PCs on ebay , most have either 256 or 512 meg , you can guarantee they didnt come like that.
She hasnt been done, she was quoted a price fo a 1GB second hand machine. If she hadnt paid the extra she would have got 1GB and the rest would I am sure have been re-sold. It may have originally come with 2GB but they were selling it with 1Gb, nothing wrong with that.
Take a look at all the 2nd hand desktop PCs on ebay , most have either 256 or 512 meg , you can guarantee they didnt come like that.
bigdods said:
IME its standard practice with 2nd hand PCs to reduce installed memory to a minimum level then either sell it as an add on for the machine or flog it on ebay to make a few more quid.
She hasnt been done, she was quoted a price fo a 1GB second hand machine. If she hadnt paid the extra she would have got 1GB and the rest would I am sure have been re-sold. It may have originally come with 2GB but they were selling it with 1Gb, nothing wrong with that.
Take a look at all the 2nd hand desktop PCs on ebay , most have either 256 or 512 meg , you can guarantee they didnt come like that.
+1She hasnt been done, she was quoted a price fo a 1GB second hand machine. If she hadnt paid the extra she would have got 1GB and the rest would I am sure have been re-sold. It may have originally come with 2GB but they were selling it with 1Gb, nothing wrong with that.
Take a look at all the 2nd hand desktop PCs on ebay , most have either 256 or 512 meg , you can guarantee they didnt come like that.
lestag said:
bigdods said:
IME its standard practice with 2nd hand PCs to reduce installed memory to a minimum level then either sell it as an add on for the machine or flog it on ebay to make a few more quid.
She hasnt been done, she was quoted a price fo a 1GB second hand machine. If she hadnt paid the extra she would have got 1GB and the rest would I am sure have been re-sold. It may have originally come with 2GB but they were selling it with 1Gb, nothing wrong with that.
Take a look at all the 2nd hand desktop PCs on ebay , most have either 256 or 512 meg , you can guarantee they didnt come like that.
+1 but I do thinkyou still have a case to ask for your money back considering the boxes and serial number matching.... it will make you feel better to vent to them She hasnt been done, she was quoted a price fo a 1GB second hand machine. If she hadnt paid the extra she would have got 1GB and the rest would I am sure have been re-sold. It may have originally come with 2GB but they were selling it with 1Gb, nothing wrong with that.
Take a look at all the 2nd hand desktop PCs on ebay , most have either 256 or 512 meg , you can guarantee they didnt come like that.
As an aside, a local ISP sells broadband for $24.99 a month which is 256k/128k. People buy it and then complain (to me) that " my computer is going slow, this broadband thing is not fast like everyone says it is"
The solution is to spend $5/month more and get Full Speed/128k
So the ISP hooks you with a cheap price and lands you by you upgrading to more expensive plan
A bt like what has happened here - cheap laptop and then upgrade you to something that will actually useful
Blown2CV said:
DrTre said:
Scooby_snax said:
Blown2CV said:
sounds like an utter rip off to me, can get a new thinkpad for that, with better spec
where from?Man-At-Arms said:
more expensive then?BTW, am actually properly interested as I'm eyeing up the new Edge, not being arsey although it does always intrigue me when people say they can find something "for the same price" and yet...
Edited by DrTre on Monday 22 March 11:08
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