Laptop Recommendations?
Im in need for a new laptop I have hp now but is constanly freezing on me. Does anyone recommend a laptop thag is low in price and also has Windows Movie Maker on it? Thanks!!
SOCCERMOM12 Most laptops are fairly similar in price and options on the low end. I tend to recommend against Toshiba on their record with screens and battery connector issues. Dell is average, a bit pricier, and all about the service not the hardware. If you don't keep the service contract with Dell, the computer might as well be dead. HP are average all around, Lenovo very good but not a low end model.
If any computer doesn't have Movie Maker, just download it for free.
GC agree with GC about the toshibas, steer clear of them
also those HP laptop still suffer from overheating, HP has tried to fix that the last couple of product runs but it's still an issue. cases are too tight, vents are too small and fans are too small, puny and weak.
i like the dells, but stay away from anything labeled vostro, stick with the latitudes, they are a bit more expensive but are built much better.
i still like the lenovo line for pure dependability and durability, yes they are built like a Russian half track, not pretty to look at, and they are heavy, but it you want long life that's a really good choice.
acers are an ok inexpensive choice, but the cases are really flimsy, i do like them otherwise though.
please list out details on your "constantly freezing" issue, you are also free to pm me if you like,
BrotherDog 
maja2 Get a mid level Asus. I got my last one 4 or 5 years ago, use it like crazy every day, and it's been rock-solid. I've been through 3 HP's which seem to crash and freeze after 2 years.
Consigliere
Hickory Dog 
Amy macbook pro - had the dell desktop and dell laptop - would never switch back to a pc
4catmom It might also be worth checking how much memory your current laptop has, and whether you can add more. Insufficient memory can bring any laptop to its knees - and you along with it!
Sites like Crucial.com have scanners that can make it easy for you to know how much memory you have, and what (if anything) you can do in terms of memory upgrades.
Shutterbug "whether you can add more"
The problem is most manufacturers will probably have all slots filled already.
i.e. if you have 2GB of memory total, I bet there's really two 1GB chips installed (because at the time they were cheaper overall than one 2GB chip).
So, to upgrade to 4GB you have to buy two 2GB chips, not just the difference.
Mark Mc. I had an HP which constantly overheated. I just received a Dell Inspiron as a gift and I love it.
hhz If by 'low in price' you mean $300, then no, there is no recommended laptop for you. If you purchase one of those Walmart specials then, quite frankly, you deserve a slow laptop.
scottso The question is.. Is it slow due to issues with the hardware or software?
If you haven't done so yet (or within the last few years) try doing a backup and format your hard drive and do a clean install of all your windows and software. Make sure you have copies of all your drivers first though.
As an ex-computer tech I found most speed issues to be software related, not hardware. If you are worried about overheating there are cooling pad that you can order that are relatively cheap but do lower the temp of the Laptop during use.
If you are looking to do movie editing and such I recommend a laptop with an Intel chipset; i5 or an i7, but at least an i3. I'd also recommend a min of 16MB Ram, windows tends to take quite a bit memory when running larger applications such as editing software.
If it's movie editing, I'd be more interested in the graphics card to off load the CPU. Today there are $350 dollar quad core 4gb RAM machines so I can't agree with the sentiment about low end models either.
Mark - Every lap top and every vendor are different. Sometimes there is RAM on the motherboard itself. Other times they're getting rid of older memory and it wasn't so expensive any more. You may be right about the number of chips, but the best advice is to ask the question and find out. You really never know any other way.
I just ordered an asus zenbook. Got a price match thru best buy, so I was satisfied with price and free shipping.
I did not purchase the geek squad protection plan - but not sure if I should sign up. What are your thoughts out there? I use a laptop all day, everyday at work - but I am NOT tech savvy and do not troubleshoot (that's for our IT guys!).
I'm just wondering if I should purchase a protection plan - or if the manufacture warranty (one year parts/labor) and extended 1 year protection from my credit card is enough???
Just worried if I have difficulty - who do I call? and one call could end up costing almost as much as geek squad protection?
Appreciate your expertise!
Sirya Black and Brother dog- I have a HP Pavillion now and its about 3 or 4 years old. I have had the computer checked out before from freezing but It was fixed for a short time before it started freezing again. I find when I go on YouTube or go into windows movie maker to edit videos is when it freezes and the whole computer crashes and I cant get it to unfreeze. I also have many pictures and videos on my computer from which I have downloaded from my Samsung 1500 camera, would you recommend wiping out my computer and deleting everything on it? Im not worried about loosing any documents, pictures or videos. I just dont know what to do
Repair guy here...
It's a common misnomer that if your computer is acting up, it must be the manufacturer (like HP) when in fact it's (usually) your operating system. For a simple fix, think about when your computer started giving you problems and go to System Restore and have your laptop reboot to an earlier date. The problem will likely be resolved.
If your laptop is many years old and you installed a new operating system (win10 for example) and your computer is freezing or is slow, it likely doesn't meet the system requirements of the new OS.
Other than an old (5+yrs) laptop, my advice is to do a system restore...
Good luck
Edit: Movie Maker comes installed with Windows, so whatever brand of laptop you get, it will have it on there :)
skippy Apm, I recently just did a system update lastnight and it seems fine for now but ill see how it acts when I go and edit a video and see if it freezes. So if it continues to freeze you recommended to do a system restore? Is there an option where I can just wipe out the whole computer back to factory settings like as I just have bought it? Would that fix issues also?
From what is described, it sure doesn't sound like any hardware issue, and any need to buy a new one. Definitely in the configuration. That system update could either cure it, or it actually could be the cause of it. A lot of times you just don't know.
But APM is right, chances are something changed somewhere. Restoring to an older configuration is definitely not a bad thing to try. Hopefully you have points along the way to choose from when you try to do a restore to a known point. If you've got a point where you're sure the system was not crashing, you may even want to go back further than just the most recent restore. Just always have your pictures, documents, etc. on another device just in case.
Actually it sounds an awful lot like a bad hard drive to me. I've had my share, and a common theme was freezing/hanging.
Did you try Geek Squad or similar? Not sure what they would charge to replace the hard drive, but the computer itself should have plenty of life left in it.
justintime https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-Inspiron-15-i5559-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.333089700
Laptop with touchscreen and 3D camera.........
MK I used a computer tech guy that works on my dads business computers and he supposinally "fixed" the issue but it still does the same thing and he fixed over a year ago and right when he fixed it started freezing again when i opened windows movie maker.
well in defense of your dad's 'tech guy', these issues can be hard to chase down to a single root cause, which is why we need to follow up with our clients in the next couple of days to confirm that there is no recurrence of the original problem. (that's how you keep clients, you stand behind your work)
having said that and reviewing your comments here, you can try two things:
first, restore your compute to an earlier point in time, choose the restore date that is the furthest one back from today.
if that doesn't work, try and restore your computer to its factory fresh condition.
Caveats with this are:
1. as GC recommends make double sure you have all your documents, photos, movies and other data backed up to another device, (external disk drive or large capacity memory stick)
2. make sure you have the serial/license numbers for all software you have bought and installed after you received your machine. Ms Office? Adobe creator? Virus protection packages? anything else?
only then should you try and do a factory fresh install
good luck to you in your efforts, let us know how you are progressing and please feel free to post back questions and/or pm me if you would like
I know the frustration of dealing with putes that are acting up - once spent every night for two weeks talking to India about my desktop that was blitzed........
Which brings me to one of the beauties of Macs..........the Genius Bar.............as well as great phone and live chat support............Yes they are more expensive............but it's well worth it as far as I'm concerned - and if Office is your thing - you can get Office for Mac........
Yes, there is an option to restore your computer to day 1 (factory). Google your version of Windows and how to restore to factory settings. (Back up any files you want to keep!)
*Try System Restore first! Easier, faster and doesn't require you to "start over"
One thing we don't know is if Movie Maker ever worked without "freezing." I do know that even on my relatively new desktop, movie maker will "freeze" for awhile when loading big files. This is normal, Movie Maker is a resource hog.
Choose 1:
A) It worked fine before and just started acting up
Or
B) Movie Maker was always slow and unresponsive.
Option A: do a system restore or factory install
Option B: Shopping time! (New laptop or install more RAM; if possible)
Hope this helps!!
I'm surprised the conversation went this far and no one mentioned running scans.
My 3 personal favorites are- RogueKiller, SuperAntiSpyware, and MalwareBytes.
Download all 3 and run them 1 at a time, full scans. (they all have free versions.)
You will be amazed at the bad crap they find if you've never used them before. They each can find stuff that the others miss.
If anyone has a recommendation for any other similar programs, lets hear about them.
Hope that helps!
Josh PC Builder here, and in all honesty, a lot of the cheap-o laptops on the market are not going to last a long time. I'm not telling you to go out and buy the most expensive notebook out there, but even when using AntiVirus on a slow to begin with computer, you aren't going to improve the speeds much. Walmart bought laptops will age very quickly, as their hardware is not very up to date most of the time (for example some of the cheap HP notebooks use Intel Atom processors, which are very cheap processors.
In my own case, I built my own computer, with a GTX 980 TI (very expensive) Graphics card. I use AVG Free Antivirus, and I have never seen a decrease in speed because my hardware is still very capable and is very up to date.
About 3 months after building my PC I decided to get a cheap $300 Dell laptop for traveling, but even out of the box the thing struggled to do day-to-day tasks, such as web browsing and even Netflix streaming.
My bottom line here is that I would recommend spending about $850+ on a laptop, as the more expensive ones use better hardware which will most likely last you a lot longer. No need to buy 4 or so cheap laptops within 10 years when you might only need to buy 2 decent ones if that.
PC kid So i restored my computer to factory settings and now it takes forever to load web pages... what do i do now?
I went Lenovo starting with the IBM ThinkPad purchase. Started with buying only the IBM design but now have used pure Lenovo as well. So far so good.
I always buy extended maintenance and have yet to get caught holding the bag; always have gotten a re-build somewhere along the way. The last one was two months before expiration. Tend to keep them about 7 years or more so getting a refurb at year 4 or so helps. Usually by that time, the mem/processing/OS are all "wearing out" so time to get a new box.
Now I got one of those flippy, pull apart, tablet, laptop, tent thingees. Could care less but wanted the bigger processor, mem, etc. that came with it. Plus I like the HUGE screen; otherwise I would just buy a bigger phone....
In today's environment, there is literally no data on my machine; even the desktop is backed up. I used a hierarchical folder system, none of that just let the ap decide where to store stuff, and therefore to rip my entire data system, I just need to back up a single folder. I keep two copies on separate drives and no data on my laptop drive.
And yes, I scan all the time. Need a good freeware PC maintenance kit now. AVG is too sales-ey to use anymore.
strangerdanger My machines usually turn turn to crap every 3 to 4 years. A fresh install of Windows usually solves this issue. I backup my documents to a share somewhere. If you dont have a Solid State Hard drive then this is the time to buy one. Usually less then $100 and it makes old machines feel like new. Then re install Windows and the drivers from the manufacture. Then re install all your programs and move your files back. Its not too hard and beats buying a new machine.
if you're running windows 10 you can do a "refresh" https://www.onmsft.com/news/windows-10-reset-refresh-windows-10-installation-better-performance
I'm contractually obligated (I think it's in my marriage certificate) to endorse Lenovo products. They do seem to last. I have a T430S at work that is pretty old and humming right along.
MeisterNJ soccermom12 - let the updates completely finish, they will take a while, probably need several restarts and more downloads to finish properly, when they are done, then restart and then retest.
slow is subjective, slow compared to what? the speed before, or the speed you think you need and don't have? your machine will indeed be slow while the update process is running.
good luck and let us know,
The Internet speed in the time it takes to load the web browsers is slower than it was before. It says that the updates are complete but you're still saying it will continue to get better after restartS?
You should go to Geek Squad & have someone professional take a look & advise. I personally recommend the Mac Book Pro.
Luca What size is the hard drive, and how much space is left on the hard drive?
The computer may freeze/pause and appear slower as the hard drive gets closer to filling up.
You should right click on drive, then properties, and run "disc cleanup".
Craftbeerlover Are you running an anti-virus program? Depending on the software they can cause slowness, especially when running scans and updating.
D-ManPV I work in IT and from experience you may need to reformat the HD and reinstall the operating system and apply the MS SW patches - then install Anti Virus SW - then you are safe to start surfing the web... (Note: I rebuild my LT and DT at least once a year and typically I get nearly 6 years out of medium priced DELL) ($500-600)
AS for a new LT - I like DELL - I have a 17inch screen with 8GB of ram and 1 TB HD that was $588 got it about 7 weeks ago...
LibertyThinker FYI, even Consumer Reports advises against the MacBook Pro.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/23/technology/consumer-reports-macbook-pro/
JerseyWolf geeze- glad mine is new enough to be with me a long time - but new enough to have those issues............
Our Kaspersky just expired and we need to renew. Is this still a good antivirus program? Anyone have any more current recommendations? Thanks!
hktownie 
LJRubi you must be right, LJRubi - https://www.pcmag.com/review/364459/avast-free-antivirus
Kaspersky is one of the best antivirus programs available. I continue to use it on my PC.
BC No no your right catwoman...use avast...as a matter of fact, everyone should use it b/c pc mag says it's great. As a security engineer, that is my recommendation as well. It's fantastic. And it's free! Win win win!
Kaspersky? Thats Russian right? Google "Kaspersky" turns up several negative stories. That's slightly concerning. Assuming since this is htown that most have Comcast for internet which includes Norton antivirus for no charge.
Yes, I saw those Kaspersky stories too, that's why I'm asking about alternatives. But I didn't know Comcast offers antivirus for free. Do we have to install anything on the device to use the free Norton?
I think we may have had to uninstall Norton somehow in order to install the Kaspersky, but that was a year ago. Thank you all for your help.
Yeah, the “stories” you’ve heard about Kaspersky because they are a “Russian” company are just that, stories absent proven allegations. But hey, everything Russian is taboo anymore, especially by the uninformed.
You really need to let us know your budget as there are laptops from $300-3000.
Any information on feature would be helpful (monitor size, resolution, storage).
I expect movies require more storage than the average user would need.
New PC laptops will come with some variant of Windows 10.
You might want to (or may need to) update your software if it is "old".
For example, Movie Maker is no longer supported by Microsoft.
Finally, do you have or want support should something go wrong?
djdowd2 Here are current laptop 'deals' to use as a reference on price points.
The 'Overpowered' one from Walmart at 799 is appealing based on specs, price and importantly, 2 year warranty.
But do read the reviews and understand the return policy if you are not satisfied.
If you can afford it buy an apple otherwise look at HP and Lenovo. Forget about Dell and the others.
Jono I recently bought an MSI and am very happy with it. There was a crazy good deal end of Thanksgiving week.
The SSD drives make a huge difference in any laptop.
I run a bunch of stuff: Avast or Windows Defender for free; malewarebytes premium on top, ccleaner freeware on the side, and once in a blue moon: MS had a free-ware special anti virus program that I downloaded. I believe it was the Safety Scanner. Note: this program is NOT updated as frequently as Defender and while it finds things Defender doesn't, it may not find the next-new-thing for a bit until it gets updated. But if you think you caught a bug, good to run as a last resort.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/intelligence/safety-scanner-download
This site also provides a number of MS resources for further help.
Commenting is no longer available.