DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Pro. If the machine has an SSD, it will be fine. That and max out the RAM.
Breathing some life into a laptop
- Thread starter aferris2
- Start date
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Pro. If the machine has an SSD, it will be fine. That and max out the RAM.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Why pay the extra for home use? Most people do not need the extra RAM capability and probably won't need the improved security either. I'm getting by perfectly well with Win 10 Home.
I only have 8GB of RAM but unfortunately it is not upgradeable - the RAM is soldered onto the laptop's motherboard. If I ever need more firepower (e.g. for future musical applications) then I will splash out on a decent desktop machine.
DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Way more than any version of Windows needs, so you're fine. You can run a moderately powerful gaming machine on 8GB. What Pro has is beefed up security, so if your desktop, or more rarely, your laptop has a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), you can use Bitlocker or similar to encrypt whatever you might need to encrypt. Essential for business, so if you work from home using your own equipment, it's in your interest to have that level of protection. If your employer's kit doesn't have that on board, what the hell are they thinking of?
Build it, it's just slightly more complex that Lego...
DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
In fact, buy something like a second-user HP 8300 Elite small form-factor, push it to 16GB of RAM, 128GB SSD to boot it, whatever size HDD you need for storage. It's a purpose-built business machine, so it's reliable. If you can, buy one bare. Install a Core i7-2600 along with the above suggestions and you could have a vastly more powerful machine than you probably need for about 300 notes...
DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Example, with the Core i7 (a 3770, even better) ready to go. Just add SSD and more RAM. Core i7s are hyper-threaded quad-cores, which means the operating system sees 8 cores.
Cheap as Chips
About the only limitation on these is the need for low-profile graphics cards, but a Geforce GT1030 LP is a pretty good card if you don't need high-end gaming capability. And this limitation goes away if you get the MT (mini-tower) version, but if you want a serious GPU, then the power unit might need upgrading. The standard SFF PSU will handle the GT1030 just fine.
Cheap as Chips
About the only limitation on these is the need for low-profile graphics cards, but a Geforce GT1030 LP is a pretty good card if you don't need high-end gaming capability. And this limitation goes away if you get the MT (mini-tower) version, but if you want a serious GPU, then the power unit might need upgrading. The standard SFF PSU will handle the GT1030 just fine.
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You could try powering up into the BIOS setup. Assuming it doesn't keep restarting, this should report the amount of RAM that can be seen. If that doesn't match what you actually have, then this would point to the RAM being the problem. If it's restarting, I would suspect the PSU.
If everything checks out ok, exit the BIOS setup and this should try to start windows itself. If this fails then it's either a faulty or badly corrupted disk. Rescue disks may help if it's just corrupted, but the simplest solution would be just to get a new SSD.
Good luck.
Unless you know what the additional Pro features do, I would just stick with the Home version. Don't know what the licensing terms are now with Win10, but having a disk for Win7 meant that I didn't have to buy a new copy with every new PC.
Whichever version you decide on, disable all of the data "reporting"
LeetleGreyCells
Un rouleur infatigable
- Location
- Whitehaven Mansions
It powers on for about 1 second then cuts off and repeats, so I can’t get to the BIOS unfortunately.
mistyoptic
Vintage
- Location
- A parallel reality
Mine behaved exactly like that when I had a RAM problem. Mine was of my own making as I’d installed extra which wasn’t compatible. I realise that’s not the case here but maybe yours has failed in some way?
I would try removing everything that can be removed and see what happens. I assume there is something other than the display that tells you what is going on. If that solves the power problem then replace one thing at a time until the fault is triggered. I had a modem card (long, long time ago) that went faulty and stopped the whole thing from working.
When I replaced the RAM in my laptop, on the first attempt didn't notice that the chips weren't inserted correctly. I think the whole thing powered up but did nothing. Fitting them correctly solved the problem.
If all of this fails, then it seems to be pointing to a PSU problem. Not sure how easy it is to find a replacement though, or the cost. I would probably be starting to think about replacing the whole thing. You would probably be able to use your current disk in the new machine so wouldn't need to reinstall everything, at least to start with. Once it's working you can think about migrating everything to the new disk, or just use both if there's room inside the case.
DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Usually, with RAM problems, and particularly on desktops, there's a beep code. If there are no beeps, I'm still going for PSU. It keeps trying because the mobo is continually monitoring the voltages and killing the boot sequence when it doesn't like it.
LeetleGreyCells
Un rouleur infatigable
- Location
- Whitehaven Mansions
That's my first thought. A new stick arriving tomorrow for testing.
I've removed everything and replaced one thing at a time and no joy.
No beeps. I've found my multimeter out and hopefully will get chance to check the PSU later today. May order a new PSU anyway.
LeetleGreyCells
Un rouleur infatigable
- Location
- Whitehaven Mansions
The new RAM stick arrived today. And did nothing. It's not the RAM.
Got the multimeter out and checked voltages coming out of the PSU: everything perfect, all within correct ranges, exactly as it should be.
My only conclusion now is the motherboard has gone. Power is running through it (fans are spinning, an LED on the PCIe USB card lights up), but somewhere there is a fault preventing it working. I can't think of anything else. And there isn't a single speck of dust inside the computer now either, all fully cleaned just in case dust was causing a short. All add-on components (graphics card, etc.) have been removed, cleaned and put back. Cables have been removed and re-attached.
I did reset the CMOS (again!) because... well, you never know.
It has to be the motherboard.
Unless anyone else here has any ideas? They would be very gratefully received as I am causing a bald patch with all the head scratching.
Got the multimeter out and checked voltages coming out of the PSU: everything perfect, all within correct ranges, exactly as it should be.
My only conclusion now is the motherboard has gone. Power is running through it (fans are spinning, an LED on the PCIe USB card lights up), but somewhere there is a fault preventing it working. I can't think of anything else. And there isn't a single speck of dust inside the computer now either, all fully cleaned just in case dust was causing a short. All add-on components (graphics card, etc.) have been removed, cleaned and put back. Cables have been removed and re-attached.
I did reset the CMOS (again!) because... well, you never know.
It has to be the motherboard.
Unless anyone else here has any ideas? They would be very gratefully received as I am causing a bald patch with all the head scratching.
DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Did you actually remove the motherboard and check underneath?
Additionally, thorough check of ALL connections to the board, particularly power. And the readings, are they in spec as you try to start?
LeetleGreyCells
Un rouleur infatigable
- Location
- Whitehaven Mansions
Removing the motherboard is one thing I didn’t do, but will make my next job.
I checked the main power connector from the PSU to the motherboard: all within spec when powering on the machine.
