Spaghetti
Barfly
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Posts: 823
Goo Goo Muck
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« Reply #45 on: March 05, 2009, 10:01:54 AM » |
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Lenny,
It's great to have your contributions on this part of the forum. I'm glad boss established this forum because there are a good number of people who have a lot of interesting contributions to make, such as your own.
Some teachers might be in a bind because they are using a school's computer and are unable to have access to the administration mode. Until I reinstalled Windows on my school's computer I was one of those people.
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"Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be an individual."
Haruki Murakami
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Calach Pfeffer
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Posts: 2834
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« Reply #46 on: March 21, 2009, 09:23:58 PM » |
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Well folks, yep, my SL400's got an audible fan.
The hum from the fluorescent lights in my living room is louder than the working of the laptop, and compared to my old desktop, this SL400 is a whisper, but... in a quiet, dark, wee small AM hours room, the fan is audible. Basically, the fan's on when it shouldn't be. Mainboard temp readings are a mere 34 degrees, but the fan's on anyway. And fan control programs don't exist for the SL series.
I downgraded the BIOS to 1.16 since people have said that worked for them, and it seems a little quieter. I'll have to leave it overnight to cool down to ambient temp and then turn it on tomorrow and see how it works out, but I suspect it'll still be there.
There is some internet scuttlebutt saying the SL series is about to be discontinued too.
Do anything other than sit there and listen for the fan, and the noise recedes into the background easily, and I guess I'm being sensitive just now, but there it is. The oppressive hum of the old desktop was in a way easier to ignore.
So if I may for one moment mimic the workings of the Firefox Profanity Filter and at the same time issue a terse comment summing up my current feeling, I'll just say this:
****
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Raoul F. Duke
Lovable Rogue
Despot in Absentia
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"Be specific if you order the mushrooms!"
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« Reply #47 on: October 31, 2009, 06:51:15 AM » |
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I'm sort of UNrecommending some laptops here... I work in an inbound phone room doing Tech Support for all kinds of electronics, mostly laptop computers. If you've bought an extended warranty for any kind of electronics item in ANY of the major retail chains in (at least) the USA or Canada, odds are pretty good that we do your Tech Support. I talk to dozens of people every day, most of whom are having laptop computer problems. I've come to one very clear conclusion, and it's a conclusion that's universally shared by the hundreds of agents I work with: You couldn't GIVE me a Hewlett-Packard or Compaq laptop. You couldn't even PAY ME to take one.I know, I know...HP and Compaq (now the same company) used to be the Gold Standard for computer equipment. I don't know what they're doing now, but they seem to be turning out pure-dee  . I see the same bonehead problems over and over and over...and there just doesn't seem to be much that a repair shop can do for them. I've talked to WAAAY too many people whose HP/Compaq laptops weren't right when they bought them, still aren't right despite having them in the shop 90% of the time, and will probably NEVER be right...even after multiple motherboard replacements.  So save yourself some grief and strike Hewlett-Packard and Compaq off your laptop shopping list...at least for the time being. Laptop brand that seems to have the lowest proportion of major problems: ACER.  |
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"Vicodin and dumplings...it's a great combination!" (Anthony Bourdain, in Harbin)
"Here in China we aren't just teaching...
we're building the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling buttheads of tomorrow!" (Raoul F. Duke)
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dragonsaver
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« Reply #48 on: October 31, 2009, 07:01:52 AM » |
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I have an ACER and it works quite well. However, it didn't like China.  It locked itself down and I had to take it back to Canada in my suitcase as it wouldn't open - no matter how much the tech guys ( probably Raoul's work mates) tried to help. Soon as it smelt Canadian air, the technician had it working in an instant. Go figure. Probably a Chinese virus glitch.  |
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Be kind to dragons for thou are crunchy when roasted and taste good with brie.
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old34
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« Reply #49 on: October 31, 2009, 07:52:17 AM » |
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I work in an inbound phone room doing Tech Support for all kinds of electronics, mostly laptop computers. If you've bought an extended warranty for any kind of electronics item in ANY of the major retail chains in (at least) the USA or Canada, odds are pretty good that we do your Tech Support.
So does that mean free tech support now here in the Saloon?  |
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Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. - B. O'Driscoll
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Raoul F. Duke
Lovable Rogue
Despot in Absentia
Gender:
Posts: 9577
"Be specific if you order the mushrooms!"
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« Reply #50 on: October 31, 2009, 07:56:28 AM » |
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Absolutely! Just PM Nolefan! And wondering...has Canadian air gotten so bad it has to be smelted? |
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"Vicodin and dumplings...it's a great combination!" (Anthony Bourdain, in Harbin)
"Here in China we aren't just teaching...
we're building the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling buttheads of tomorrow!" (Raoul F. Duke)
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dragonsaver
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« Reply #51 on: October 31, 2009, 08:21:58 AM » |
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Only in Hamilton next to the US Steel "smelter" |
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Be kind to dragons for thou are crunchy when roasted and taste good with brie.
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dragonsaver
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« Reply #52 on: November 23, 2009, 02:28:10 PM » |
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Today's news 1 in 3 laptops die in first three years Wed Nov 18, 2009 1:31PM EST > The most reliable companies? A shocker: Toshiba and Asus, both with below a 16 percent failure rate due to hardware malfunction. > The least reliable brands? Acer, Gateway, and HP. HP's hardware malfunction rate, the worst in SquareTrade's analysis, is a whopping 25.6 percent. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/154921 |
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Be kind to dragons for thou are crunchy when roasted and taste good with brie.
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Calach Pfeffer
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« Reply #53 on: January 12, 2012, 01:10:17 PM » |
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Well holy crap, it's getting on for three years I've had this SL400, time for something new. I'd really like to get a Thinkpad T420s, but the fan noise issue thread at the Lenovo forum is 800+ posts long. So now I don't know. A tricked out Thinkpad E420s is an option I've been considering (listlessly). (Note the "E" for Edge). I'd like an SSD, a separate GPU, 4GB+ RAM, an optical drive (R/W, but doesn't have to be Blu-ray), probably 14" screen but it doesn't really matter since the vast majority of the time I'll be using a bigger external monitor, and the thing should be portable though it'll usually never be moved... Is everyone still using Acers? |
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stuffed shirt
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« Reply #55 on: January 14, 2012, 07:10:28 AM » |
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As a computer person and an Electrical Engineer... And you use Windoze? Anyway, Asus hardware is reliable; motherboards and laptops. |
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fox
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« Reply #56 on: January 14, 2012, 01:38:34 PM » |
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im tempted by the asus android slate as an upgrade from my 3yo eeepc. Last year i put in an SSD to the eeepc (to replace the 160gb HD) grease lightening is the expression i think. REALLY fast!! i bought SSDs for my main desktop pc too. A bit pricey but well worth it. Office documents open in a few seconds and i timed a restart in less than 10 secs. I didnt appreciate how important harddrive speeds are. I always suspected the bottlenecks were on the mobo and memory.
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regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.
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stuffed shirt
Member
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« Reply #57 on: January 14, 2012, 03:47:58 PM » |
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im tempted by the asus android slate as an upgrade from my 3yo eeepc. Last year i put in an SSD to the eeepc (to replace the 160gb HD) grease lightening is the expression i think. REALLY fast!! i bought SSDs for my main desktop pc too. A bit pricey but well worth it. Office documents open in a few seconds and i timed a restart in less than 10 secs. I didnt appreciate how important harddrive speeds are. I always suspected the bottlenecks were on the mobo and memory. The very first eeepcs all came with 2 or 4GB SSDs, and were/are very fast with the purpose built linux. Windows7 wouldn't last long if I got hold of one of those slates.  |
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BrandeX
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« Reply #58 on: January 16, 2012, 04:38:38 AM » |
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The Asus Transformer Prime is looking tempting.
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Calach Pfeffer
Barfly
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« Reply #59 on: January 18, 2012, 07:00:21 AM » |
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Tablets? Pffft. I'm not a big gamer, but I have my Halo and IGI2 and maybe one day I'll work up to CoD, so gotta be able to play the FPSz.
Hmmm, Dell... the Inspiron's look decent, but they don't come off the shelf with SSDs, as far as I can tell. A Latitude, maybe...
I'm a sucker for brands, it seems. Weird. In desktops I'm all for the noname box with the picked components, but with laptops, not so much.
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