Can you help out a technophobe?

[ChandlerIsTheBestFriend]

I’m almost completely computer illiterate. I never use them. I have no need to. I can type, but that’s it. Everything I do on the internet is done on my phone. I am looking for work from home jobs during lockdown and have realised I need to seriously up my computer game or I’m in a hiding to nothing.

So I’ve got a 3 year old Linx10 netbook with the latest version of Windows 10. The computer itself seems fine, I went through an online guide to get rid of anything I’m not using and clean it all up. The problem is when I open Edge to go online it is SLOW AS HELL. You can’t do anything on it as it takes an absolute age to load any pages. So I tried internet explorer- same problem. I tried to download chrome and later the latest version of Edge and then Firefox. All of them say your download will begin automatically etc. But nothing happens. I click the “download again” but nothing. None are in my downloads. Been trying since last night. My WiFi works fine for all 3 phones in the house, we can watch Netflix on a couple of different devices at the same time whilst also browsing, playing minecraft etc None of that is happening right now and still the laptop browser is like a snail. What do I need to do? Or is this just a really shit laptop? I can’t afford a new one so if this one’s scrap I’m unemployable until schools go back in (hopefully) September (I’m in NI)

Which online guide did you use to clean it up? It is possible you have accidentally removed something vital by mistake. Do you have your Windows 10 install disk? You may need to start afresh.

Other possibilities, is it plugged directly in to your router or is it on WiFi? There may be an issue there. Can you run a speed test with speedtest.net and see if all is well with the Internet connection?

Well, it's not got much oomph, but it should still be useable.

First, check your router and make sure it's got both the 2.4 & 5ghz channels open. The Linx will only connect to the former. Then check your WiFi adapter is on. If not, can you see it in Device Manager? If not, can you connect to the router with a USB cable?

I see the WiFi is working for your other devices. Soz, have comprehension issues at times!! Try plugging it directly in the router and see if anything changes.

This is the guide I used. But I didn’t use it until this afternoon and the problem has been since I started trying to use it a few weeks ago. I did the windows upgrade and clean up a few weeks ago and then today looked for the guide. Tbh there wasn’t much on the guide that I could do that I hadn’t already done. I didn’t disable Cortana and it wasn’t an option on my laptop to change the power setting from balanced.

Do you have your Windows 10 install disk?

There is no disk drive, I just did the update via the prompt on the laptop.

Try plugging it directly in the router and see if anything changes.

Thanks will try this.

First, check your router and make sure it's got both the 2.4 & 5ghz channels open. The Linx will only connect to the former. Then check your WiFi adapter is on. If not, can you see it in Device Manager? If not, can you connect to the router with a USB cable?

Thank you, will try these.

I can’t seem to find out whether I’m on 2.4 or 5ghz or both. I’ve had a google and followed the advice but my broadband name only has the number 54 in it which clarifies nothing for me. I went into my router admin page and have trawled it nothing stands out to me as saying which it is. I’ve checked on the actual router too but nothing. It doesn’t say dualband or give any numbers. The WiFi adaptor, or what I assume to be the WiFi adaptor after again googling and following instructions, says its working properly and I did a “ping” following instructions too which said 29ms

on speedtest : ping =31ms, download = 11.89Mbps, upload = 0.93Mbps

Off now to look for something that will physically connect laptop to router. Might be a while.

Is it possible you're in windows 10 S mode? It won't let you install any non-store programs. Try this: support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4456067/windows-10-switch-out-of-s-mode

However I don't think a new browser is going to solve your speed issues- I see the linx 10 is from 2015 and was "budget" at the time. There's some on ebay for less than £100!

Ive just checked using that link bardion and it says “Edition Windows 10 Home” so I don’t think that’s S mode?

Do you think I’m just stuck with this issue?

Could you perhaps need a new network card? I couldn’t get onto the internet for a couple of days - or if I did it kept dropping out every 10 minutes. It turned out the network card was buggered and needed replacing.

How would I go about getting one of those lurking?

@ChandlerIsTheBestFriend

I took my computer into the local PC repair shop (pre-lockdown obviously). I imagine you can buy the cards easily online and just YouTube how to replace them, but it's the kind of thing I would not be confident about doing myself. The repair guy also installed a better antenna thing (can't even remember if that's what it's called!) while he was there as mine was a bit rubbish. It has worked absolutely perfectly ever since.

I'm not sure if PC repair shops are open yet - I imagine not, although you could argue they're essential. Presumably, they will be soon, though.

Thank lurking