Topic

Hi
Just got a TF and considering a pscan are their any books / tutorials that I can gen up on? I used to be a bit PC savvy but a bit rusty now and not getting younger.
Back in the early 80's I did the first two years C&Guilds on motor vehicles but then it was car electrics not electronics so need to go back to basics.
Reading this forum most of it goes right over my head and I worry that I will be better off with just an OBD2 scanner, I don't mind putting work in to learn but would prefer some sort of structure or am I asking too much.
Last Q I currently use a Chromebook and presume this is not compatible, if so and a new PC is needed whats the best OS i.e. most compatible with pscan.
Thanks in trepidation

An OBD scanner can't do anywhere near what a Pscan can do for our cars.
I run Pscan on  a crappy small laptop from a charity shop, I threw a new solidstate hard drive in it and loaded it with Windows 10.
A small laptop is good as you don't have much room in our cars, and the fact that it cost be bugger all is a bonus as I don't care much if it gets damaged, just salvage the SS hard drive for reuse, bin the rest and get another lappy!
I use a SS drive as they'll take a bit of rough n tumble without shitting themselves.
I prefer a lappy with a keyboard over a tablet with just a touch screen because experience tells me that, touch screens don't always recognise wet, cold dirty or greasy fingers.

Chrome OS is not compatible.

If you can manage it my advice would be to get a used laptop, put a cheap SSD drive in it and then install xubuntu.

For really cheap laptops I have had good experience with Dell D630s, but get the ones with Intel video and not Nvidia.  The Nvidia chips overheat.
The harddrive just slides in the side on these on a tray, so it really is easy to put an SSD in them.

I have also had a lot of luck with T series Lenovos.  I personally use a T420S, and my wife has a T440S.  On the T420S the drive also just slides in on the side.  Old Lenovos will all run xubuntu really well.

I have tried to make the installation of pscan as easy as I can, and if you get stuck then there is tech support here.  If you get a cheap laptop then download and install the pscan software first before making a purchase decision.  If you can get the software onto the laptop then basically you're done.

Pscan is the way to go for these cars and it is being developed and gets better all the time . Phillip is the guy who is on hand to give you help should you come unstuck when using Pscan. If all else fails , the knowledgeable guys on this forum will always be here for advise .
John 

OK I'm convinced the silver surfer that is me is looking for a cheap laptop what sort of chip speed and RAM will be needed? already been given a 480GB SSD presume that suffice.

My D630 running Linux is a dualcore 2.2GHz with 2G RAM.
For Linux it's great but for Windows 10 it would be marginal.

My Lenovo T420s has an i5-2520M 2.5 GHz. It has 8GB but would be fine with 4GB.
It runs both Windows 10 and Linux very nicely.

The pscan program hardly uses any resources at all, but you need enough oomph to run Linux or Windows.

The advantage of Linux is that there are less hassles with antivirus and stuff, basically pscan just works, and also it will work on some junk old laptop (like the D630) that are near worthless.

As you have a new SSD anyway and you have to install a new OS to go on it, I think you should give xubuntu a try.

I have used ITZoo a few times for cheap second hand laptops, prices have increased over the past year due to increased demand but you can still get a good spec quite cheap from them with a legal version of Windows installed...there is also discount codes available occasionally so if lucky you can get even cheaper

https://itzoo.co.uk/collections/cheap-laptops-tablets?sort_by=price-ascending

Forgot to add, stock moves quickly with them and prices can be cheaper than what is available currently