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Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #15 –
Quote from: PaulP – on
Hi everyone. I've been a Mac guy my whole adult life, so I know nothing about PC's. My wife is finishing up at her work, and has asked the company if she can keep (i.e purchase) her work laptop. The company has said they will sell it to her for $400. Specs as follows :

HP EliteBook 840 G6
14 inch / 15 inch display (not sure which)
8GB RAM
Core i5 1.6Ghz processor
Win 10 Pro
500GB HD

My wife will need to buy her own copy of Microsoft Office, which of course will add to the cost. Her use is basically Office, basic internet, checking emails etc. No gaming, 3D or any other intensive tasks.

Just wondering if folks think the $400 is a fair price ?

Thanks in advance.

Hi.

Absolutely.  We buy these for about 1700 a pop without licensing at work.

If its a hp business elitebook it will likely have a 3 year care pack warranty which you can see by typing in the serial number on the hp support website.

They are good all rounders and you won't beat the value on it.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #16 –
Thanks to all who have responded thus far. There's lots there for us to chew over. For some reason, her work wants an answer tomorrow, but we'll try to ask for an extension.

Thanks.
 

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #17 –
No worries Paul.  Theyre good machines and we only started buying them within the last 12 months (if not 6). 

It wont come with an operating system but thats the easiest thing to fix.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #18 –
Yes, I'd buy it at that price if I was in the same circumstance, it's a good GP specification. Also, as it is your Wife's she knows the pedigree, the ownership chain adds value to the buyer.

The speaker problem sounds more like an audio driver issue, the HP support line could sort that out for you if the product is still covered. But even so the HP support site will perform driver updates for the less technical user. FYI, often the corporate devices are locked down and micro-managed by a fleet of IT staff, they don't change stuff they don't have to and as such hardware doesn't always get widely available fixes that are already out in the marketplace. From the IT perspective, when there is a chance you might cook hundreds or thousands of devices with a software patch, you don't do it unless it's absolutely necessary.

Make sure your wife budgets for some supplementary security software, that license will go when the device is removed from the network, a good home solution is Malwarebytes. Yearly about $45. The Win 10 built in security software is OK, running the second layer is really just a fall-back but in my opinion it is worth it.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #19 –
Quote from: PaulP – on
When I first read it earlier today, I just assumed it meant no Office, but that Win 10 would remain. Now I'm not so sure. We'll have to check that tomorrow.
Generally on these bulk build devices Win 10 Home/Pro is bound to the hardware/device not the corporation, but it can vary based on how the licences are allocated. It may be the device includes a Win 10 Home license not the Pro license most organisations require for network functionality.

I know there is a way to check that but I'm not familiar with it, old school laptops often are in the same situation as the school gets a special rate for student licensing of Win 10 Pro, and when the kids leave the school software is wiped and the license downgraded. @Thryleon‍ might know the answer on how to check.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #20 –
I cant say we have done this widely before, but I would imagine that HP might even oblige and send out the original discs that came with the device.

Edit - I think I can actually source a set of discs, just have to get a request for a new install and I can happily give them out, as we just throw them out usually.

The discs should allow to roll back to factory.

We deploy an SOE so we dont use them, and that should allow the license that came with the product to be used and installed with a HP OEM version of windows.

Let me know if  you want a set of discs, and you can PM me to arrange a delivery.  Will cost nothing.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #21 –
LP, that'll also come back to previous OSs installed (if any) which determines whether their IT department is given management of upgrades to a more recent version of Windows. 

Seen that often in major companies from 95 / 98 to XP (note NEVER Vista) to W7 without regard to the original hardware supplier.

The setup for a fresh / clean start will be governed by the OS selected and the preferences Paul's wife may have if she's familiar with them.  But then, I'm a strong advocate of a physical licenced DVD.  And a bloody good recovery program (e.g. Acronis)
 

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #23 –
Always happy to help a fellow blue bagger.  No skin off my nose in this case aside from a trip to a post office/other.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #24 –
If you have a spare set for Win 7 Pro, I'd happily pay you :) 

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #25 –
I presume if the device was factory Win 7 it'll have the MS sticker and serial number on it, otherwise it will be Win 8 or 10 and subject to the ESD, the factory install discs if not included should be obtainable through HP as @Thryleon‍ suggests.

The company @PaulP‍'s wife works for might retain the factory install discs if they image with a company default SOE, we do not standardise on an OS as we aren't big enough to worry about it.

Also the SOE can be the source of those audio problems, the reason being later versions of hardware might change chipset but the SOE might not include the newer correct drivers.

If it's Win 8 Pro you can still to this day use the free upgrade path to Win 10.

Win 10 was not initially widely adopted, personally I think it's the best OS that MS has ever produced.

I've found with the HP devices that the Win 8/10 factory media install is online only, as the key / license is buried in firmware and has to be reconciled to a central database. You can retrieve keys with a little effort but you have no way to manually make use of it as the license is not entered but the result of a hash from hardware and MS database.

For those of you interested there is a nice podcast called the Windows Insider Podcast that covers many of these subjects, but it's not light listening.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #26 –
Quote from: capcom – on
If you have a spare set for Win 7 Pro, I'd happily pay you :) 
Sadly no.  The devices we have been coming are all windows 10.

I think the main issue is these days the devices themselves dont have cd/dvd drives anyway, so Im not sure what CD's they are providing in the packs, but I tend to throw one out each time I unbox one although it has been a while.

We have windows 10 licenses with this particular model and are only just starting to go through the testing phase of the 840 G7.  The G seems to stand for generation, and we are probably a bit behind the rest of the market given the size of our organisation.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #27 –
Well, thank you for trying mate !!  Appreciate it :)

EDIT ... I could not survive without a CD / DVD drive and don't know how people can

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #28 –
Hi all. Thanks again to all those who have offered disks, advice, knowledge, help etc. Much appreciated. Updated information from the company as follows :

1.  they will not transfer ownership / warranty to my wife, which is a shame, as according to my serial number check, there is still about 2 years left to run.

2. Office will definitely be wiped, so we will need to choose between :
a. free Office alternatives (unlikely as my better half prefers to stick with Office)
b. Office subscription (more likely than a., but still not really our cup of tea)
c. purchase "old school" perpetual Office licence (most likely)

3. They will provide a copy of Windows 10 (not sure if it will be the Pro version), but we will need to purchase an activation key. If we buy Office Business and Win 10 Pro, it pushes the total cost beyond $1k. If we go for Office Home / Student and Win 10 Home, the total is a bit under $800. Decisions..........

Although I note copies of Office 2019 Business on eBay for $90-$100.

Thanks everyone.

Re: PC Laptop price

Reply #29 –
Only Office 2007 and 2010 are the only "older" edition that can run under Win 10 Paul ... and 2007 is a lot less resource hungry.  2007 hums along on my HP

Sealed ones (PRO) on ebay (2007) are pretty cheap.  So many MS editions, it's crazy but I assume she'll want one with Outlook