Buying a computer in spain

Does anyone know the best place to buy a computer in Malaga,also what is the area like for internet access,wht is the average cost to purchase one,we would also be needing to purchase a pay as you go mobile phone.

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Sheba,

Buying a computer here is no different from buying one in the UK - the price depends on the spec, which of course depends on your requirements, but I think you'll find prices are fairly similar to UK. (Although the ex-rate doesn't help at the moment) There is a PC City (similar to PC World) near Malaga airport, and many other similar places, such as Urende, in the Larios Centre in Malaga centre.

However, remember that these places will only supply you with Spanish software packages, and also Spanish keyboards. If you want an English machine, with English software & keyboard, you will be better off looking around somewhere like Fuengirola. There are plenty of ads in the Sur in Englsh, for example. I can personally recommend Eurotech, in Las Rampas shopping centre (next to Dunnes) in the centre of Fuengirola.

Broadband internet is available from Telefonica, about €40 per month plus line rental, as well as several other providers. There is a current discussion about these on another thread http://www.eyeonspain.com/Secure/ForumPostsDesc.aspx?thread=3885&dev=FB44&name=Forum%20help

Pay as you go mobiles are available on just about every street corner! Again, Telefonica (Movistar) as well as many others such as Orange, Vodafone, etc. They start from about €30 or €40 I think. 

This message was last edited by Roberto on 4/14/2008.

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I always order mine through Dell online,that way i always make sure i get an English keyboard and the English windows package i.e XP or Vista.

The last time i ordered a laptop it was deliverd within 3 working days to Spain.

I find the prices very competitive.

Worth a try.

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It seems Eurotech, in Fuengirola, are no longer there. Anybody know what happened to them? I wanted to take my machine in there to get some more memory (RAM) installed. Anyone got any recommendations in the vicinity? And does anybody technical know if adding some more memory to my old PC (currently has 384Mb) will help speed it up at all anyway??

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Increasing RAM will certainly speed up your computer BUT make sure you have matched pairs or the Dual memory will be disabled.
That means if you want to increase it to 1 Gb (a good level with todays memory demands) you should have 2 x 500 Mb ram sticks instead of, say, 2 x 250 and 1 x500.  I take it you had 256 originally and added 128 to give you your 384?  Also assuming you now have 3 x 128 Mb sticks?  if so, just add another 128 to give you the 512 Mb.  But if you want increase it to 1 Gb, don't just remove a 128 and stick in a 512 if you see what I mean.  Best to put in either 4 x 256 or 2 x 512.  Even increasing from the 384 to 512 will show a marked speed up in your computers performance.
Also ensure you run defrag on a fairly regular basis (like, once a month) as fragmentation of your hard disk can slow the PC down.

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I´ve just replaced my laptop after 5 years of faithfull service.

I went for another Acer Aspire.  At first I had a friend remove Vista and put XP on it......BIG MISTAKE!!!

I bought the machine from Media Makt.  Not sure if you have them down in CDS.  They are very big  here in Murcia and prices excellent. I paid €569,00.  The best price in the UK for the same was 799 GBP.  3 Gb DDR  250Gb intel core 2 Duo. Excellent built in microphones, built in Chrystal eye camera, Dolby home theatre sound etc. Eventually I took the machine into a local English PC shop, they put Vista in English back on and Microsoft Office 2007 for €100.

The result, I am delighted at the sound, the speed and everything else.

Incidentally, don´t let anyone tell you Vista is no good.  Service pack 1 came out a few weeks ago and it´s a great OS.

Nothing wrong with a Spanish keyboard, hardly any different except for the @ symbol.

 

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Bobaol, I had the cover off my PC today to see if I could just buy the memory stick and install it myself. (Don't think so!) As far as I can see, I have the original 256, plus a 128. Maybe that's part of my problem? The other possible problem I can see, is that there doesn't appear to be another free slot.

I run defrag regularly (as well as disc cleanup, anti spyware, adware and virus etc.etc.)

I keep getting the message "virtual memory low" (even when I have no programs running sometimes). I have manually increased it, but it makes no difference. Can't find any useful info on this.

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start - run & type msconfig. go to startup options and uncheck all except the anti virus, this will speed up your pc considerably.

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Most of the applications in start up are unrecognisable to me - is there a danger I might disable something crucial?

I've done a bit of checking, and discovered my system can only handle another 128 RAM (max 512) is it worth upgrading by such a small amount?  Would I be better off just getting a new PC? If it's worth trying, can I buy a 256Mb memory stick myself and just whip out the 128 and replace it with the 256? Sorry to be so thick, but does the existing memory stick actually contain any info that I could lose? I think you all may be laughing at me now. Be gentle, please!

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What anit-virus are you running?

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I run an Acer Aspire laptop with Vista,as do a few others, and like you Roberto, I worry that doing this type of change will lose me something I really need.. My start routine was really slow so I tried doing the msconfig as suggested, took off all but the anti-virus and then when I rebooted some bits came up with warnings, so I re-ticked them all and then spent time unticking them a few at a time, starting with programs that seem to set themselves to autostart when I first loaded them, but that I recognised from the list and knew what they were and which I don't need them at start-up. This has worked great, I still have everything I want at startup but the one's I have taken off like Live Messenger, real-time etc have made a big difference to the time it takes for my laptop to be ready.

The fact that you can re-select them all means there's no problem in putting things back as they were.

Thanks for the tip waddyuk.

 

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If he tells me what he is using, I can tell him what to keep ticked. So much faster to boot & shut down when you do this.

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Roberto, if you have a 256 and a 128 the dual memory will probably be disabled therefore you are more than likely just using the 256 part of it.  You can remove the 128 and replace it with a 256 which will give you the max 512.  Yes, it will definitely increase the speed.  And don't worry about replacing the RAM as it doesn't contain any information, just increases the amount of memory your PC can use to run applications.  You can free up virtual memory to take the place of RAM but (your PC will use some of this anyway) but it cuts down the amount of space available for saving data etc.
Trouble is (always one, isn't there) there are so many different types of RAM on the market that you have to make sure the one you get fits the slot.  Usually very easy to replace just ensure that the memory modules are seated correctly when you do it.

Your PC will allocate virtual memory to run applications if necessary.  However, the amount that can be set manually is determined by the amount of RAM you have installed in the first place.  If you increase it above the determined amount, the PC will put it back to what it can handle.  Therefore, increasing the RAM will also increase the amount of virtual memory your PC can allocate to help you out.

Windows sets the initial minimum size of the paging file at the amount of RAM installed on your computer plus 300 megabytes (MB), and the maximum size at 3 times the amount of RAM installed on your computer. If you see warnings at these recommended levels, then increase the minimum and maximum sizes. (that last paragraph is from the Microsoft Help file)

 

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Thanks for all the help, guys.

"What anit-virus are you running?"   I have AVG. It's configured to run a full scan every evening (usually the same time I'm posting on EOS!) Whereas it used to take 30-40 minutes to perform this, nowadays I find it can take 2 hours or more, and during the scan everything else slows to a crawl.

I have unchecked many of the start up applications, having studied them to figure out which ones are unnecessary.

I searched for info on my system and it's memory (www.crucial.com seems a useful site), and established that my machine can only handle a max. 512Mb, SDRAM / PC133. I went around town today to see if I could pick up a 256 stick, and also established that my machine is a veritable dinosaur! But, happily I discovered a very friendly and helpful shop that I never knew existed before. They also have a shop in Alhaurin de la Torre. They seem to be called Señora Frankenstein, which is rather quaint I think. If anyone wants their details I'll gladly pass them on. They speak a little English too. Anyway, they happened to have some "old" SDRAM knocking around, and this afternoon I took my PC round there and the operation was a over in minutes

I have also increased the virtual memory accordingly.

Yet to see if there's a real marked improvement, but here's hoping......

Thanks again for the tips.

 

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I´m pleased you have solved the crisis Roberto.  Can you tell me how much the whole operation cost in total.

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€42 (total - parts and labour). Not covered by Social Security or Private Insurance unfortunately, but not too painfull on the wallet.

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In sterling is that £33? bit on the steep side for such a job to be honest. but as long as you are happy.

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Hey, I'm happy as Larry to have found a local shop who are friendly and efficient - rare qualities indeed in this part of the world. The first couple of places laughed me out of the shop as if I'd just asked for some spare beads for my abacus! Shame Eurotech have disappeared, but at least I no longer have to go to Fuengirola for my PC needs.

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** EDITED - Self promotion **

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Roberto...
Re AVG...
Did you recently update from AVG-7 to AVG-8?
Did your slow running appear to coincide with the update?
If so welcome to the club.
AVG-7 was a good program, ran in the background without hardly a ripple.
AVG-8 however is a totally different ball game.
We updated on our old machine and like you immediately ran into problems of slow running.
The daily system check that used to take about 30 minutes now takes nearly two hours.

On our new machine I chose to ignore all those 'You must update NOW'  messages and despite all of Grisofts statements to the contrary AVG-7 is still being updated daily and I am happy to let it stay that way until they do cut me off!

Fact of the matter is that AVG-8 is a top heavy piece of junk with so much going on that you dont need.
For a start, disable the Link Scanner facility; if you have Yahoo, msn or google for your email you don't need it as all of these programs have their own email scanner.
This has been covered before on this forum. See conversation Justin and Summer70 30/5/2007

I dont know a hell of a lot about computers but I am a great believer in the old adage 'If it ain't broke dont fix it.'

There are a lot of problems with AVG-8 and unfortunately you will just have to live with them unless you can find a copy of AVG-7.

Just my two cents worth...

You might also like to take a look at this link

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This message was last edited by foxbat on 8/5/2008.

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