How long will my order take to arrive?

All orders are usually set up and ready for collection by the courier within 48 hours of receiving payment. Please note that this may vary, especially during particularly busy times of the year (e.g. Christmas shopping season) or on a Monday following an exceptionally busy weekend. Courier collections are made every working day. Orders delivered by DPD are shipped by next working day delivery to mainland UK locations. An email - with tracking information - will be sent to you from DPD as soon as the parcel has been collected for shipping. Orders shipped by Royal Mail are despatched by the delivery service stated in the eBay listing and description.

What software is installed on the computer?

The office application suite installed on this computer is OpenOffice, which is fully compatible with both OpenDocument and Microsoft Office documents (i.e. it can both read and save as both OpenDocument and Microsoft Office files). We are unable to provide Microsoft Office with our computers as the computer does not come with the license for this software and it would be illegal for us to provide this software without the license.

Does the computer come with any installation or restore discs?

We are unable to supply any discs with the computer. All of our refurbished computers are ex-corporate machines; if you could imagine yourself as a company with several hundred computers, Microsoft are not going to provide you with several hundred recovery discs - they'll provide you with the licenses required and just one CD to install them all. This is why we don't have the discs ourselves. However, as the computer has a genuine, legitimate Microsoft Windows software COA license that includes the product key, any OEM copy of a Windows CD can be used to reinstall the operating system if you ever need to.

Who needs to pay for the postal delivery surcharge?

DPD, the courier, charges an additional delivery surcharge for shipping to non-mainland UK locations. DPD considers the following areas - and their respective post codes - as non-mainland UK locations:

Scottish Highlands and Islands: FK17–19, HS1-99, IV1–99, KA27-28, KW1-17, PA22-88, PH17-26, PH3044, PH49-50, ZE1-99

Isle of Wight: PO30-41

Isle of Man: IM, EV

Isles of Scilly: TR21-25

If you would like us to despatch to any of these locations, please select "Other Courier" as your shipping service to avoid any delay in the despatching of your order.

Note: AB postcode locations do not require a surcharge, but include areas that are considered "non-mainland UK" and the delivery can take up to 2 working days.

I no longer want my order, how do I return it?

Before you decide you wish to return an item for a return, please be aware that if the item is simply not working when you receive it something may simply have come loose in transit. Please get in contact with us and we'll be more than happy to help you correct this.
If you have had your order for less than a week and decide that you don't need it, you are well within your rights to return it as part of our 7 day guarantee. In order to request to return an item for a refund, please do the following:

Go to your "My eBay" page. I'll need to sign in if you're not already.

Click "Won".

Next to the computer, select "Return this item" from the pull-down menu.

Select "I want to return an item" and click "Continue".

The "Return an item" form appears.

Review the next page and click "Request return".

We'll then be able to provide you with RMA and return details. Once the item has been received, we'll have it checked out by our technicians and your payment will be refunded.

Please note that return shipping and return shipping costs are the responsibility of the buyer.

What should I do if my computer is faulty?

Firstly, if the computer has only just arrived and it won't boot up, something may simply have come loose in transit. Please visit our Basic Computer Repair eBay shop page by clicking HERE.

If the problem persists, please get in contact with us to inform us of the problem, either through eBay messages or directly using the details on your invoice, and we will try to help you as best as we can to resolve the problem. Please do not email us directly. If we decide that your computer does need returning for repair, you will be provided with an RMA number and return details. We will initially attempt to repair the fault; failing that, we will replace the item.

If the item is found to be faulty by our technicians, your return P&P will be refunded up to a maximum of £7.04. If the item you're returning is to be shipped in a large parcel and you do not have a contract with a courier, please visit www.parcel2go.com where you can arrange for the collection and delivery of a parcel for £5.99 + VAT. If the item is found to be not faulty by our technicians, no refund will be given and we'll get in contact with you to find out what you would like us to do with the returned item.

Why does my hard drive appear in Windows as smaller than advertised?

Hard drive manufacturers define a megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes. This is a decimal (base 10) measurement and is the industry standard. However, Windows, FDISK and certain system BIOSs define capacities in binary (base 2) measurement, i.e. a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes.

The binary capacity can be worked out by dividing the total number of bytes by the number of bytes in a gigabyte (1,073,741,824 using base 2).

The capacity of the hard drive in bytes can be found by right-clicking the drive under "My Computer" then selecting "Properties". Divide this figure by 1,000,000,000 for its decimal capacity and by 1,073,741,824 for its binary capacity.

For example: A 40GB hard drive has a decimal capacity of 40GB (40,000,000,000 divided by 1,000,000,000) A 40GB hard drive has a binary capacity of 37.25GB (40,000,000,000 divided by 1,073,741,824)

How can I remove the Windows "Welcome" logon screen and set Windows to log in automatically?

Since Service Pack 3, Windows XP is set by default to show the "Welcome" logon screen when you turn the computer on. Disabling this screen will simply replace it with the old style Windows log in box.

If you want to set Windows to log in automatically, here is a step-by-step guide on getting rid of the Windows "Welcome" logon screen:

1. First, you'll need to create a password for your account. Click "Start" then "Control Panel"
2. In the "Control Panel" window, click "User Accounts" and then "User Accounts" again
3. In the "User Accounts" window that appears, click on the account you want to log into automatically
4. Click "Add a password"
5. Create your password. Anything will do since you'll never need to type it again
6. Save and done.
   
   

Now that the password has been created, we'll now need to set Windows to log into your account automatically:

1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
2. In the blue "Download" column on the right of the page, look for "Tweak UI" and click the link that says "TweakUI.exe" to download
3. Save "TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe" to somewhere you'll remember and can find (such as your desktop or your "My Documents" folder)
4. Once the download has completed, go to where you saved "TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe" and run the file to install the program
5. Once the program is installed, click "Start", "Programs", "Powertoys for Windows XP" and finally "Tweak UI"
6. In the "Tweak UI" window that appears, in the left-hand column, click the "+" sign next to "Logon" and select "Autologon"
7. Tick the box for "Log on automatically at system startup" and type in the account user name in the textbox
8. Click the "Set password" button, enter the password you've just created in box textboxes and click "OK"
9. At the bottom of the window, click "Apply" and then "OK"

From now on, your computer should log on automatically into that account. If for some reason you don't want to log onto that account automatically (e.g. if you've got another account that you rarely use), hold down the "Shift" key on your keyboard as Windows is loading at the "Welcome" logon screen will appear.

When I try to go online, I get an error message and Internet Explorer crashes - how can I fix this?

If you're trying to go online and you receive the message "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close", you've come across a very common and known issue with Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft have fixed this problem in Internet Explorer 8, available from the Microsoft website. To download and install Internet Explorer 8, please do the following:

1. Click "Start" -> "All Programs" (or "Programs") -> "Accessories" -> "System Tools" and select "Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)"
2. Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx
3. Click the "Get it now, FREE" button and follow the onscreen instructions
4. Once Internet Explorer 8 is fully installed, you'll be able to browse online as normal.

You can use this same process to download and install a different internet browser of your choice, such as Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/) or Opera (http://www.opera.com/), if you prefer not to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Why is VAT charged on Royal Mail deliveries?

For a full answer, please see the following webpage:HM Revenue & Customs - Postage and delivery charges

As a summary, when posting something by Royal Mail, businesses must charge the same tax on postage as the item that's being sent. For example, books are 0% VAT so there would be 0% VAT for the postage. For most things, including computers, the VAT is 20% so postage needs to be charged with 20% VAT.

For those who don't know about VAT and businesses: VAT is passed onto HMRC at the end of each financial quarter. Although VAT is charged on postage - even those sent by Royal Mail who currently don't charge VAT themselves - all that money goes to the government, not the business.

Which computers are 32-bit and which are 64-bit?

Computers that have an Intel Pentium 4 processor installed are 32-bit*. A computer with any other type of processor is 64-bit.
HP W6000 and HP XW6000 workstations are 32-bit. All other workstations and servers are 64-bit.

*There is one version of the Intel Pentium 4 that is 64-bit compatible, but we don't sell any computers with this version.

My computer wont start, do i have to send it back?

If you have just received the computer and are experiencing a problem with it, it will most likely be a case of something having come loose in transit. If your computer is failing to boot up, there are a few steps you can take, please check our Basic Computer Repair page