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New Laptop Advice please.

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Old 27th Oct 2007, 17:55
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New Laptop Advice please.

I have just purchased an HP Pavilion dv9620us. It has the TL58 chip and runs on Vista. I have 14 days to return said item, so I'll be doing an in-depth study of this kit in that time.

I might need several tips, but for now, has anyone any experience of this chip or indeed the computer itself.?

I know little about the Turion.

I accept the the NVidio card has shared memory, but at $899 for wireless and 17" screen I can't expect too much. Needles to say here in the US there is little in-store support after the first few days, but the insurance covers damage as well, so for the first time in my life I might buy that.

Any info would be appreciated, especcially anyone with experience of this exact model.

Cheers. Rob.
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Old 27th Oct 2007, 18:46
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Regarding the Turion (AMD's 64-bit mobile dual-core answer to Intel's centrino core duo), you might want to have a read of this review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/...ved/index.html

As you say, you get what you pay for.

I have used AMD CPUs in 2 of my 3 home PCs over the last 6 years and found them pretty good. Certainly cheaper for the same performance as intel, although I have a nagging feeling that they are not quite 100% compatible with the Wintel world!

SD
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Old 27th Oct 2007, 21:07
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Thanks for that.

I'm not getting very far with Vista, I't going to take a while.


I have spent ages with SBC in Mexico City getting the link to my hub going. (we couldn't find the 10 digit code on the modem so we had to hard-wire it and tell it use another one.)

Vista is proving very tiersome in these early stages. I hope it's worth it.

I told the salesman that I would require to use my keybs...I got a box of Logie flat type some time ago. There is no way that I will accept anything else and I now find that the plug the guy said will take the k/b is for something else.

Can I adapt a keyb plug to USB with a didi converter plug?

Rob
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Old 27th Oct 2007, 23:13
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Computer salesmen are worse than used car salesmen!

Can I adapt a keyb plug to USB with a didi converter plug?
Yes, no problem - something like this is what you need:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=156482

SD
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Old 28th Oct 2007, 00:28
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Computer salesmen are worse than used car salesmen!
Well, down here in 'The Valley', the mostly Hispanic folk are perfectly capable of thinking...it's just that they don't want to bother. The lad that showed me the kit found out answers if I really pushed for them. It was like pulling teeth.

Anyway, it's all academic, the price must be reflective of 'what you get'. It really is a mixture of fair and awful. My old Sony, that cost me nowt, had a plug for an extra keyb. and I could even see the writing on the screen.

This one's native res is 1400 odd and any attempt to change it is fuzzy vision of course. But the worst thing is the refresh rate. It's 60 or 60...at any res. Right there in the help wording beside the selector, it tells you to use no less than 75.

I personally can not use anything below 70, but one of my kids uses 60 all the time (on a 21"Sony for web design.) He just is not fazed by it. But then I could read the writing on the DC3 prop while it was spinning.

Anyway, it'll be going back tomorrow. I'll put the hour it took me to make it talk to the hub down to experience. Thanks again.
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Old 28th Oct 2007, 02:41
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I bought a new laptop loaded with Vista about 4 months ago. I've had many occasions where it's locked up, and I've found it's due in the main, to software loaded onto the system outside of Vista.
Having said that, the mail system is excellent. Windows 'Live Mail' allows you to have all your email accounts on 1 page and automatically downloads them for you. Much faster all round.
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Old 28th Oct 2007, 09:47
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it tells you to use no less than 75.
This would really only be applicable to a CRT, not to a TFT / LCD display.

If you plug in an external CRT monitor and install the correct drivers (if Vista doesn't), then you would have the ability to adjust the refresh rate to a more ergonomic 85 or more.

You may find it beneficial to change the screen DPI setting from Normal (96 DPI) to Large (120 DPI). I believe that option is applicable to LCD screens as well as CRT.

Also, the screen clarity may be adjustable with "Clear Type" or font smoothing - turning these on or off to achieve the desired result.

For all these things you need to dig around the advanced settings in screen display and desktop settings.

SD
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Old 28th Oct 2007, 12:35
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Might be an idea to insist on something with XP on it for any replacement.

If it comes to sale or no sale, they do magically appear.
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Old 29th Oct 2007, 06:34
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Well, It's gone back. Not a fingerprint on it until they un-boxed it to check I hadn't nicked anything. Now it looks used



Vista can go and program itself. What a tedious load of....but perhaps it's me getting old.

Refresh rates. It does say 85 for CRTs, and 75 for on board screen, but non of the kit in the shop had any options other than 60, except one that had 50 or 60 frames! It's true that the flat screens are not as flickery as the CRTs, but I still cant use them. I'll check my old Sony, I'm sure that wasn't so low.

I'm right back to square one. I'll search this forum for popular makes/quality when another burst of enthusiasm takes hold.
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Old 29th Oct 2007, 11:30
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Mr Rivets,

Dell's Small Business department has a number of desktop and laptop models running XP if you wish. I understood that HP was also continuing to supply XP, but I don't know how you buy one.

All of my PCs use AMD processors and I don't know of any problems attributable to them.
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Old 29th Oct 2007, 20:49
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LR,
I bought an Apple and a Sony notebooks off this http://www.ubid.com/Computers_Office_Laptops/c1001.html site for my specific needs many years ago,still using them.
It may take awhile to come across one that may meet your need and some are refurbished by the manufacturer and some are new.

Take a look at this one http://www.ubid.com/Compaq_Presario_...a11166863.html with WXP Pro.
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Old 29th Oct 2007, 21:00
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Thanks for that, I'll be trying to get something as good as the Sony.


This is the story of Sony's Europe service. As I said in 2004, just a comment for fun.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...ny#post1638437


Edit: I've just taken on board how old my Sony is. Seems ungrateful to bin it really.
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