Don't mind if I do....

[slaveofconvention]

I do a load of private computer support and repair - mainly nothing more exciting than virus removal, reinstalls, ram upgrades etc - basic bread n butter stuff.

I have a customer (who really isn't struggling for money) who has just bought his wife an iPad2 and has asked me to get all of her data, files etc off of her laptop for use on the desktop pc they have - the logic being that between the desktop for work and the iPad for portability - she doesn't really need the laptop too. I would usually charge about £20 ($30) for something like that - hour or so on-site plus travel there and back (I know, too cheap) - he has said to me - sort it all out for me and you can have the laptop - I don't need it....

I just got the laptop today and I'm pretty pleased, to say the least!!!

Acer Aspire 5542
AMD Turion II x2 M500 @ 2.1Ghz
4GB DDR2
ATI Radeon HD4200 graphics
15.6" HD screen
500GB HD
DVD Burner
b/g/n wireless & 10/100/1000 LAN

Woot!!:banana:

[Fuganater]

Wow nice haul!

[slaveofconvention]

Yeah but my conscience is poking at me - I think this guy is going to get the next few jobs done at no charge - he's always been utterly straight with me - least I can do is treat him the same way

[TLHarrell]

Nice customer. I would be the same way. Free service for a while.

[slaveofconvention]

Wierdness - it fails to boot when on battery but starts up (with errors) on mains power - but I figure that may be a power management software issue (hopefully)

On another note - Windows 7 Experience index of 4.2 actually puts it a bit ahead of the 3.5 my current laptop gets or the 3.3 my wifes new 12" netbook gets - this is officially (assuming I can get it 100% working) the most powerful laptop in the house :D

[PowerChucker]

Thats a sweet deal! I guess id give him a few free jobs after that, but not too many..

[SgtM]

Does he know that the new one came out today?

[xr4man]

not bad specs. get that power issue sorted and that'll be a nice machine.

[TheGreatSatan]

Good score

[slaveofconvention]

Well the news is almost all good. There's not a thing wrong with the laptop - full system restore and it's buzzing along (once I uninstalled all the Oberon Media crap games etc) - the only negative thing is the battery life - it's claiming less than 2 hours when doing next to nothing so I figure real-time use would wipe it out in around an hour.

On another note - I spoke with the former owner today and told him that it's too much laptop for payment for such a minor job so he said "Give me £20 (about $30) and shake my hand and we'll call it even" - so it's now officially 100% mine :D

[TLHarrell]

What a cool client.

[PowerChucker]

yeah, thats a good deal, and now since you gave a bit of $ to him, you dont have to feel so obligated to work for free for awhile..

[Outlaw]

Per the spec sheet of that laptop, you are about on par. Probably just an aged battery and from sitting on charger most of the time.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Power

ACPI 3.0 CPU power management standard: supports Standby and Hibernation power-saving modes
48.8 W 4400 mAh 6-cell Li-ion battery pack:

3-hour battery life14

2.5-hour rapid charge system-off, 3.5-hour charge-in-use
3-pin 90 W AC adapter
ENERGY STAR® 5.0
-------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/notebook/2009/acer/aspire/Aspire5542/Aspire5542sp2.shtml

Probably want to get the 8800mah battery for any extended use. Doesn't look to badly priced either. LINK- http://www.laptop-battery.org.uk/laptopbattery/1001827.htm