Looking for a new Laptop for my Mother.

[wowLancer]

My moms old Laptop is going to shits. I've had to fix it so many times because either she does something or a Virus attacks it and destroys it... either way, I'd rather just buy a new one, with new security programs then have to fix this one. I want to surprise her with it, but I don't know what to get. She mostly watches Foreign soap operas and plays games on Facebook and some of those browser game websites. She also uses the Laptop to keep some of my dads business files on, and some pictures. If someone could help me choose a nice Laptop that can do all this but is on the lower price side, that would be wonderful. Also if anyone can help me choose some Virus protection and Malware and whatever else is needed that would be wonderful as well.

[tielknight]

My moms old Laptop is going to shits. I've had to fix it so many times because either she does something or a Virus attacks it and destroys it... either way, I'd rather just buy a new one, with new security programs then have to fix this one. I want to surprise her with it, but I don't know what to get. She mostly watches Foreign soap operas and plays games on Facebook and some of those browser game websites. She also uses the Laptop to keep some of my dads business files on, and some pictures. If someone could help me choose a nice Laptop that can do all this but is on the lower price side, that would be wonderful. Also if anyone can help me choose some Virus protection and Malware and whatever else is needed that would be wonderful as well.

The problem with that is, your just going end up fixing that laptop instead of the other one. Take a few hours or so and install Malwarebytes and Avast(and throw in Adblock as well for their browser) and teach her how to run them properly and have her run them weekly and let her know it will help it run better without having to get a new one and her still being kinda clueless on how to maintain it. If she can take care of it, than you don't have to worry about the same thing happening with a new laptop. And in regards to security software, it is only as good as it's user so unless they know how to use it, bad things will still happen.

Had a similar problem with a elderly friend of mine that had a pretty old desktop that they kept getting viruses&pop-up on enough so that I was over there fixing it every week. Ended up having her sit down in there with me as I cleaned it up and explained what happens when she gets these things and what she can do to keep it stopping and how much better it ran when they were cleaned off it and showed her how to maintain it and left her a notepad file on the desktop with instructions and I only hear from her every few months now when her daughter visits and decides to go to all those lovely "GET A FREE IPAD" websites.....

[wowLancer]

This laptop is slow either way. It's like a 6 year old make or whatever and even when I fix it, it still runs pretty bad. I figured getting a newer stronger laptop would be better that way I can still teach her all this and she won't have to have lag on videos as much as she does now.

[Dirgon]

Need a proper budget to work within with actual numbers.

dell.com is selling Sandy Bridge i3 laptops in the $400 range. Inspiron 15 series. Should have all the power she could possibly need. Just about the best deal you'll find.

If you want cheaper, they have celerion Inspiron 15s for $349. May be able to find an equivalent price from a different manufacturer. $500 buys a lot of laptop these days compared to a couple years ago.

On a special from Dell I picked up an i5 Haswell 15r w/ touch screen for $550 in August.

[tielknight]

This laptop is slow either way. It's like a 6 year old make or whatever and even when I fix it, it still runs pretty bad. I figured getting a newer stronger laptop would be better that way I can still teach her all this and she won't have to have lag on videos as much as she does now.

6-year old isn't too bad, but it can have problems running videos if the CPU is lacking(or if they are watching in HD with a crappy CPU ).

Almost forget to mention to include CCleaner on there as well, playing facebook games sucks up alot of space after time what-with temp files and all.

That aside, a budget would be best as features vary quite a bit with just a few hundred dollars more/less.