Computer Woes!

johnfás wrote:

Yup, I looked down and went fuuuuck there goes the summer holiday...

I had the same experience late last year. My laptop died completely having been giving difficulty for months (and just out of warantee! ) I spent a month going having to do strange things like read books and watch TV, when I suddenly remembered I still had an old (very old) eMac I had not used for years - it was dying and beyond salvage - up in the loft. It works!!! (Just about. But it is dying. Every day I wonder - will it take up again today or will it have died in my sleep?) I had some rather large medical bills last year and am waiting for my MC1 tax back. As soon as I get that I am off to buy one as cheaply as possible.

Not sure what all the hassle is with Vista - I've been using it since this time last year and have had no problems other than the initial teething ones. Speed doesn't seem to be a hassle either. That said, I don't demand much of this machine beyond word and audio processing and using the net.

It accepts everything i've tried to use with it except an Olympus voicerecorder which I got about six months previous to buying the laptop. It just doesn't like it at all. Otherwise, all is dandy.

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

johnfás wrote:

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

When I check 'my computer' it tells me I've 122GB free out of 177GB on the hard disk drive.... does that help?

(Is that the right answer?)

johnfás wrote:

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

I haven't used Vista but everyone I know who has curses it to high heavens. At work when vista was put on some computers over one weekend the guys who found it on their screen demanded ICT remove it immediately, saving they had it on their own computers at home and it drove them mad.

Being naturally a mac person I haven't a bulls notion about these things, other than having to use a PC at work ( ). But vista seems to have a very bad reputation. I am one of those guys who turns on a computer and types or trawls the internet or plays games. Knowing how the computer does those things is beyond me. And as for gigabytes, don't ask me what the hell they are!!!!

Papal Knight wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

I haven't used Vista but everyone I know who has curses it to high heavens. At work when vista was put on some computers over one weekend the guys who found it on their screen demanded ICT remove it immediately, saving they had it on their own computers at home and it drove them mad.

Being naturally a mac person I haven't a bulls notion about these things, other than having to use a PC at work ( ). But vista seems to have a very bad reputation. I am one of those guys who turns on a computer and types or trawls the internet or plays games. Knowing how the computer does those things is beyond me. And as for gigabytes, don't ask me what the hell they are!!!!

I can't tell you how good it is to know I'm not alone...

We should form a support group here, for those of us who don't speak computerish.

Kate P wrote:

Papal Knight wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

I haven't used Vista but everyone I know who has curses it to high heavens. At work when vista was put on some computers over one weekend the guys who found it on their screen demanded ICT remove it immediately, saving they had it on their own computers at home and it drove them mad.

Being naturally a mac person I haven't a bulls notion about these things, other than having to use a PC at work ( ). But vista seems to have a very bad reputation. I am one of those guys who turns on a computer and types or trawls the internet or plays games. Knowing how the computer does those things is beyond me. And as for gigabytes, don't ask me what the hell they are!!!!

I can't tell you how good it is to know I'm not alone...

We should form a support group here, for those of us who don't speak computerish.

I am like those people who when they go to buy a car will say "I'll take a blue one!"

Kate P wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

When I check 'my computer' it tells me I've 122GB free out of 177GB on the hard disk drive.... does that help?

(Is that the right answer?)

That would be HD memory, not RAM.

Kate P wrote:

Not sure what all the hassle is with Vista - I've been using it since this time last year and have had no problems other than the initial teething ones. Speed doesn't seem to be a hassle either. That said, I don't demand much of this machine beyond word and audio processing and using the net.

It accepts everything i've tried to use with it except an Olympus voicerecorder which I got about six months previous to buying the laptop. It just doesn't like it at all. Otherwise, all is dandy.

I only used Vista briefly after buying my new laptop but before I installed Linux and it drove me mad. To be honest though that's more to do with hating Windows as opposed to Linux. The way Windows is built and its files are structures makes it very insecure by itself, so in order to protect your machine they have to pile on the anti-virus and firewall software, which takes ages to load and update and just does my head in. That's my main gripe with Windows, and Vista is the worst for it. Also, AFAIK Linux uses considerably less energy than Windows.

If it's compatibility you want then Windows is unfortunately the only way.

evercloserunion wrote:

Kate P wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

When I check 'my computer' it tells me I've 122GB free out of 177GB on the hard disk drive.... does that help?

(Is that the right answer?)

That would be HD memory, not RAM.

Indeed. Thanks.

Where would one find the RAM so I can provide the right answer?

I think your best bet is to always clone your main system's hard drive at the very least. There's so much free cloning software and hard drives are so cheap now, that there's really no excuse....

In the case of a laptop being your main machine just clone it to an external usb hard disk of equal or greater size. When your laptop's hd fails, just swap it out.
If the OS is just corrupted then you can restore it using the livecd/liveusb of your cloning software.

I've found cloning software a lifesaver on two occasions when my desktop's hard drive decided to give up the ghost and always at the most inopportune times.

also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_cloning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_disk_cloning_software

Here's some free cloning software links. I'd probably recommend the free version of xxclone for non-technical users or newbies.
Clonezilla is based on Partimage, ntfsclone, partclone, and dd to clone partition, and is extremely quick.

http://www.xxclone.com/
http://www.xxclone.com/iwhatis.htm

http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/

evercloserunion wrote:

toxic avenger wrote:

I bought an Acer notebook (really is very good, screen resolution is fantastic, quite quick response-time too) only two weeks ago, it came with XP, not Vista, it cost under E400. If you look for them, you'll find one (I got one in Harvey Norman, which I'd have preferred not to do, but it was an emergency)...

The bigger Tesco stores do Acers at brilliant prices.

The Acer is pretty good, but I think currently the Samsung NC10 is the best netbook type laptop out there.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/samsung-nc10.aspx

It comes with Xp and a 10 inch screen, and lasts for over 7 hours on a charge and can also run Linux.


Finally, Vista is actually slower than XP, and still has all kind of driver issues! Try to avoid like the plague, particularly on laptops and lower powered machines.

The Samsung looks great, I always though Acer was the best choice for restricted budgets though as you get the most bang for your buck.

And all laptops can run Linux. That battery is impressive though.

The NC10 seems to be where it is at right now, a few people have suggested it. My girlfriend was in PC World yesterday and had a look at a few and said it was nice... hate to say I don't trust her but I don't. I really have to play with something with my own fingers and look at a screen with my own eyes before I could say I could use it - particularly when it is small. What would writing an essay on a 10 inch widescreen be when I have been working on a 15 inch screen all this time? Bearing in mind writing essays requires hours of staring at screen... also looking at pdf docs etc.

Kate P wrote:

evercloserunion wrote:

Kate P wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Thanks for that Kate because everyone has been giving out about vista and I don't have a clue! Equally I do very little with my laptop - mainly just word processing and stuff. Do you know how much ram you have?

When I check 'my computer' it tells me I've 122GB free out of 177GB on the hard disk drive.... does that help?

(Is that the right answer?)

That would be HD memory, not RAM.

Indeed. Thanks.

Where would one find the RAM so I can provide the right answer?

Not sure, as I'm not on Windows. It should probably say on some sticker on your laptop if you haven't removed them all. Usually one finds out before one purchases the machine, as it's quite important.

Thanks, but the sticker is gone unfortunately.

ecu, I couldn't tell you the licence number of my car.

I'm sure I knew the RAM when I bought the laptop, for comparison purposes as you suggest, but that information has long been deleted from my personal memory.

Kate P wrote:

Thanks, but the sticker is gone unfortunately.

ecu, I couldn't tell you the licence number of my car.

I'm sure I knew the RAM when I bought the laptop, for comparison purposes as you suggest, but that information has long been deleted from my personal memory.

Try Control Panels -> System. That should say.

Thank you.

2046MB is the right answer.

evercloserunion wrote:

The Samsung looks great, I always though Acer was the best choice for restricted budgets though as you get the most bang for your buck.

And all laptops can run Linux. That battery is impressive though.

All laptops can run linux but with differing driver issues. The Acer is superb out of the box, but the NC10 needs a slight nudge to work with ubuntu with wifi,

see
http://nc10linux.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/install-wireless-driver/

johnfás wrote:

The NC10 seems to be where it is at right now, a few people have suggested it. My girlfriend was in PC World yesterday and had a look at a few and said it was nice... hate to say I don't trust her but I don't. I really have to play with something with my own fingers and look at a screen with my own eyes before I could say I could use it - particularly when it is small. What would writing an essay on a 10 inch widescreen be when I have been working on a 15 inch screen all this time? Bearing in mind writing essays requires hours of staring at screen... also looking at pdf docs etc.

My main system at home is a desktop pc, but I spent a fair amount of time (probably most surfing) on either an ancient powerbook or a 15 inch laptop. I recently got rid of the laptop and replaced it with an NC10 upgraded to 2gbs of ram and all I can say is good riddance to the 'full' laptop!
I have the NC10 partitioned and dual-booting XP and Ubuntu and both are fine (ubuntu needed some massaging but it's grand now and seems more efficient than XP).
With 2 gbs of ram the NC10's atom processor is more than capable when running openoffice and firefox and foxit pdf reader and maybe one or two other similar apps. Plus it'll last far longer away from the mains, so it has to be more 'green' than a full size laptop?

One thing to point out, the slightly smaller touchpad takes a while to get used to on these netbooks and needs some configuring of the synaptic software in control panel (which is par for the course on most machines it has to be said) so a wireless (bluetooth) mouse as a backup is probably a good idea.

Kate P wrote:

Thanks, but the sticker is gone unfortunately.

ecu, I couldn't tell you the licence number of my car.

I'm sure I knew the RAM when I bought the laptop, for comparison purposes as you suggest, but that information has long been deleted from my personal memory.

To find detailed specs on your ram, enter the bios at boot by pressing delete or one of the function keys (F2 maybe). Or else in XP or vista install cpu-z and click on the memory tab and you'll get similar info.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Muji off Grafton Street have a really cute tiny USB mouse with a pull-out cable. Very much pocket-sized, for those of us who hate touchpads.

How much does it cost to buy 2gb of RAM? Or do you buy 1gb and add it in? Anywhere I have looked only sells it with 1gb...

These are what I'm looking at so far:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-vostro-a860?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1525?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1853259514.1231026084@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdiadegdjdjdefcflgceggdhhmdfoj.0&page=Product&fm=1&sm=0&tm=6&sku=256582&category_oid=

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1853259514.1231026084@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdiadegdjdjdefcflgceggdhhmdfoj.0&page=Product&fm=1&sm=0&tm=0&sku=808912&category_oid=

johnfás wrote:

The NC10 seems to be where it is at right now, a few people have suggested it. My girlfriend was in PC World yesterday and had a look at a few and said it was nice... hate to say I don't trust her but I don't. I really have to play with something with my own fingers and look at a screen with my own eyes before I could say I could use it - particularly when it is small. What would writing an essay on a 10 inch widescreen be when I have been working on a 15 inch screen all this time? Bearing in mind writing essays requires hours of staring at screen... also looking at pdf docs etc.

It's tough, I wouldn't work solidly on this, I have a desktop for that but with most UMPCs the Samsumg included you've so many USB ports etc you can connect your own full size screen and keyboard giving you a desktop as well as a really portable and cheap laptop.

You can pick up a usb keyboard and mouse for next to nothing and a screen for around €100.

johnfás wrote:

How much does it cost to buy 2gb of RAM? Or do you buy 1gb and add it in? Anywhere I have looked only sells it with 1gb...

Depends on how confident you are and what ram you want. Dell only supply 2GB ram for top end laptops (€1500) so if you want that much ram with a dell you can add it yourself.
Maplin stores and website stock whitebox or generic ram (cost maybe €100 or less) and this does give a good punch. Komplette.ie also supply that much ram as well. With dell laptops it is usually an easy install to add ram but be very sure about it before doing it.

Dont by from curries or dixons for that matter; usually their stock is a generation behind. If you are in cork would advise going to budget office solutions on anglsea street.

My computer woes are not very technical. The puppy has bitten clean through two laptop cables in three days.

A Badly-behaved-cat and a cable-eating puppy! ...