Is it stolen?

[LazyLion]

So I have a new "client" who contacts me with two laptops. In great condition, but neither of them have chargers.
She wants me to find a charger for the one, and then she will give me the other laptop.
So of course warning bells go off.
I tell her to go buy a charger at the computer shop. She says no she doesn't have the money.
A family friend gave her the two laptops, and she just wants one to work on.
So I already have a spare charger in my garage from an old scrapped laptop.
But I know what you are already saying... these laptops are most likely stolen.
So I googled the serial number of the one she gave me, but nothing comes up.
Short of going to the police, how else can I check this serial number?
All that the Acer warranty search tells me is that "Information for this system is not available" ... which probably means it's an older model and out of warranty.

 

[LazyLion]

Sorry, it's probably also pertinent to say, this lady goes to my church and I've worked on other stuff of hers.

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

this is south africa
take the laptop
dont ask questions

 

[RyanPCMR]

If the great condition is almost new, then you should start to be worried bcs how would you just manage to lose the most important part of a laptop, eg it's charger? On the other hand, she could've just gotten them at an auction without those. Either way you can probably just try to help her out at some monetary cost and then do it as soon as you can finish the job. It's really not worth it to investigate further trust me.

 

[TheMightyQuin]

A family friend gave her the two laptops, and she just wants one to work on.

On the other hand, she could've just gotten them at an auction without those.

 

[LazyLion]

I just checked the specs. Celeron processors, 2Gb RAM. 320Gb HDD and Windows 7 starter edition.
Now it makes sense why someone gave them away!

 

[SauRoNZA]

Check what’s on it.

Should quickly tell you if it’s stolen or not.

Possibly even contact the previous owner.

 

[dunkyd]

Sorry, it's probably also pertinent to say, this lady goes to my church and I've worked on other stuff of hers.

Usually only dodgy investment schemes found in churches...

 

[|tera|]

I wouldn't take it. Its an Acer

 

[RyanPCMR]

The reason for that reply of mine was bcs he was suspicious of believing her original story so I presented an alternative truth. Did you even grasp the context of his post?

 

[MidnightZA]

I've worked on other stuff of hers.

Nice one

 

[RedViking]

Probably not stolen. Just old and chucked out. I've go an Acer in my cupboard with no charger. It is useless. A charger will cost more than the laptop.

 

[|tera|]

Probably not stolen. Just old and chucked out.

Still wouldn't want an Acer.
I've never used one Acer or Lenovo that doesn't underperform. Dell for me all the way.

 

[RedViking]

Still wouldn't want an Acer.
I've never used one Acer or Lenovo that doesn't underperform. Dell for me all the way.

Dell is great with their onsite warranty.

 

[|tera|]

Dell is great with their onsite warranty.

I agree. All workstations are Dell where I work. They release performance updates to hardware very regularly. There is always performance increases after an update. I've used next day warranty as well and they never fail to pitch up and resolve the matter. Friendly staff. Knowledgeable support agents. Can't complain at all.

 

[RedViking]

I agree. All workstations are Dell where I work. They release performance updates to hardware very regularly. There is always performance increases after an update. I've used next day warranty as well and they never fail to pitch up and resolve the matter. Friendly staff. Knowledgeable support agents. Can't complain at all.

Bought a 20K notebook not to long ago (thread here somewhere). Anyways at has been giving a strange issue where the mouse freezes for a couple of seconds randomly. Dell Remote reinstalled windows and the drivers and the problem still persist. On Thursdays Dell was contacted, the technician came on Friday and replaced the Motherboard and Battery. So will now see how it goes, remote support just need to reinstall the drivers and windows again to make sure everything is good.

 

[|tera|]

Bought a 20K notebook not to long ago (thread here somewhere). Anyways at has been giving a strange issue where the mouse freezes for a couple of seconds randomly. Dell Remote reinstalled windows and the drivers and the problem still persist. On Thursdays Dell was contacted, the technician came on Friday and replaced the Motherboard and Battery. So will now see how it goes, remote support just need to reinstall the drivers and windows again to make sure everything is good.

I recall a similar issue on my Dell laptop.
I made sure that USB debugging was turned off in the BIOS and installed a later chipset driver and the Intel RST (rapid storage technology) software. This resolved it.
This was on earlier builds of Windows 10 though, the first releases. The current builds even after a format reinstall didn't give me any issues.

 

[RedViking]

I recall a similar issue on my Dell laptop.
I made sure that USB debugging was turned off in the BIOS and installed a later chipset driver and the Intel RST (rapid storage technology) software. This resolved it.
This was on earlier builds of Windows 10 though, the first releases. The current builds even after a format reinstall didn't give me any issues.

Will check it out. Thanks.

 

[LazyLion]

Charger (second hand)
Another 2Gb RAM chip (total of 4Gb now)
120 GB SSD
Windows 10 Pro x64

All of the above will cost me less than R2000

Is it worth it to run Windows 10 on 4Gb RAM and 1.6 GHz Celeron Processor?

 

[|tera|]

Charger (second hand)
Another 2Gb RAM chip (total of 4Gb now)
120 GB SSD
Windows 10 Pro x64

All of the above will cost me less than R2000

Is it worth it to run Windows 10 on 4Gb RAM and 1.6 GHz Celeron Processor?

You will feel a performance hit.
If you have an SSD that will help a lot though. Just make sure to apply correct SSD configuration with something like SSD Fresh.