Everything about computers

[Krys TOFF]

I used "pour" verb.

Oh yes. Like Def Leppard song "Pour some sugar on me".

[CTG]

Bad news: computer is dead. Motherboard/chipset and keyboard is absolutely unusable - changing for a new one would cost too much considering the age (3.5 years old and it was already a low category notebook in 2005) and the basic state of the computer. On the other hand I have no money for a new notebook at the moment...

Good news: the guy in the service said HDD is working properly. If he's right, all my data will come back (except the installed programs as I can't boot from this HDD for some stupid reasons...)

[Krys TOFF]

Bad luck serie. 1st Chulk, and now you...

[CTG]

Possible solutions for the close future:

1, Borrowing some money from my parents and buy a new notebook (possibly 15.4" screen, 2 GHz Core2Duo, 2 GB RAM, Windows Vista - worse new notebooks would suffer with Vista but you can't get them with XP...) - I would always worry about killing such a computer with another stupid mistake.

Cost: 600-800 Euro

2, Buying a new, but weaker table PC (Dual Core, XP) - I have no place for it in the hostel... (LOL)

Cost: 400-500 Euro

3, Change of motherboard via Acer's main Central European service (czech...) for a mediorce amount of money - I would get back my old, slow computer. I'm not sure if it's worth of cash...

Cost: 200-250 Euro

[zaqrack]

4, cheaper new notebook or used high-performance notebook with guarantee remaining.

Cost: 500-600 EUR.

[CTG]

4, cheaper new notebook or used high-performance notebook with guarantee remaining.

Used: absolutely no - "virgins" fit me better.

New, but cheaper: I can't get new notebooks with XP, but a computer with 1GB RAM and Intel Celeron M CPU won't be able to run Vista without problems (especially in a year or so - with all the updates, additional programs, whatever).

Option 3: No answer from Acer service so far.

[CTG]

3, Change of motherboard via Acer's main Central European service (czech...) for a mediorce amount of money - I would get back my old, slow computer. I'm not sure if it's worth of cash...

Cost: 200-250 Euro

Official news: Acer service sent a negative answer - they can't change this type of motherboard.

Hunt for Red October... erm... new computer just begun...

[CTG]

Question for Windows Vista users: what are your experiences with this OS? What are the REAL system requirements for fluent and fast usage - not the min. 1024 MB RAM and 1 GHz CPU blabla said by Windows sites but the real one with using the computer for various applications (Word/Excel/Powerpoint, basic level movie making, webeditor, music/movies/some 5-10 years old games, etc.).

[Krys TOFF]

Question for Windows Vista users: what are your experiences with this OS? What are the REAL system requirements for fluent and fast usage - not the min. 1024 MB RAM and 1 GHz CPU blabla said by Windows sites but the real one with using the computer for various applications (Word/Excel/Powerpoint, basic level movie making, webeditor, music/movies/some 5-10 years old games, etc.).

It depends. With notebook it's often Vista basic, and not the standard one, so less ressources are required as there's not the "aero" interface. It means that in basic version Vista requires only a few more ressources than XP.

If you have the regular Vista edition, with "aero", then 2Gb RAM is required to work properly.
Using OO Writer and OO Calc (same as Word and Excel) and browsing the web and watching a video all at the same time is no problem with 2Gb RAM under Vista.

About old games/programs : DOSBox is required for all DOS ones, XP games now almost all work fine (just have to select the XP compatibility) but there's still lots of Win9x games that don't work, even with compatibility set to Win9x.
On my computer I run 2 DOSBox sessions (one at size x1 with TB to watch track map, one with size x3 with Stunts to play) and browse the web (to see the scoreboards and know how good/bad my race is) at the same time without issue.
Some big DOS games are difficult to run with DOSBox though, as DOSBox requires lots of ressources too. Example : Geoff Crammond's F1 GP2 can't be played fluently with all graphics at the max. It's not a graphic card issue, it's really due to high ressources needed for DOSBox for that kind of game with lots of 3D/textures to be calculated.

Music/movies : install VLC for online TV and Media Player Classic (and codecs pack) to watch divx and Stunts videos recorded with DOSBox. Windows Media Player is bullsh*t that can't play numerous video formats, even with the proper codec (DOSBox videos don't work for example, only the sound is displayed).

Video editing : don't know much, all I do is suppress ads in some videos I recorded through online TV. Works fine for me with Vista standard, a good Athlon dual core and 2Gb RAM even with files of 1.5Gb, but I don't do anything else at the same time in order to let the program work fast.

Web editors : I use only Notepad++ now that I know (and still keep learning by myself) html and php programming, so I don't know. But it should not be a problem.

[CTG]

Thanks for the info!

What I was thinking on:

Games: NFS 5 (2000), FIFA 2000, EA F1 2002, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Age of Empires...
Work: Office 2007 + Adobe Reader + some XP/2000 compatible scientific softwares
Movies: I never used WMP, only Media Player Classic
Movie editing: SMALLER tasks, like cutting videos for FTT (kidding) or music Stunts videos for YouTube
Webeditors: I still use the good old Namo Webeditor 5 (USC 2004 was already done in that software ) because I like it for the great additional stuff (many schemes for buttons, bars, etc.; animated GIF editor)
Web browsing: IE7... 

I'm planning to buy a notebook like this (not this certain type but with these parameters):

CPU: Core2Duo T5750 (2000/FSB667)
RAM: 2048 MB
HDD: 160 GB
Screen: 15,4" WXGA VibrantView
Optical: DVDRW +/- DL
Modem: yes
LAN: yes
USB: 4
Firewire: yes
Wireless LAN: Wireless LAN A/B/G
Bluetooth: yes
Videocard: 128 MB Intel GMA X3100 shared
OS: Win Vista Home Basic HUN
Keyboard: hungarian
Other ports: VGA
TV: S-Video
Card reader: 5 in 1
Battery: 6 cells
Webcam: yes
Fingerprint reader: yes
Express Card: yes
Guarantee: 1 year
Cost: 149,900 HUF (~600 Euro)

OS can be changed for a better and free non-Basic Vista version (university contract with Microsoft) and maybe I'll look for a computer with better video card. 4096 MB RAM and 3 years guarantee is just a dream...

[zaqrack]

don't buy a notebook with shared video card if you intend to play on it.
Rather look for one with less HDD, slower CPU (but Core2Duo in any case) or less RAM. CPU is not important, HDD and RAM are cheap and easy to upgrade later.

usanotebook.hu is cheap.

[CTG]

usanotebook.hu is cheap.

Yep, it's on my list to check. I'm going to spend this weekend with checking all the offers of notebook/ laptop/ notebooksarok/ notebookspecialista/ usanotebook/ notebookzone/ notebookstore/ notebookcentrum/ notebookworld/ notebookgyor/ macropolis/ pcexpert/ kirakat/ senorg/ aqua .hu sites...

ElectroWorld, Media Markt, Saturn, Tesco, Auchan, etc. are ignored.

The most important requirement: cheaper than 150,000 HUF...

[Krys TOFF]

Movies: I never used WMP, only Media Player Classic

Clever choice.

Web browsing: IE7... 

I always knew you were stupid. Yes, clever guys can be stupid.

Videocard: 128 MB Intel GMA X3100 shared

Hopeless to ever think of playing properly any recent game with this.

[CTG]

Web browsing: IE7... 

I always knew you were stupid. Yes, clever guys can be stupid.

Somehow it worked better for me than Firefox2.

Videocard: 128 MB Intel GMA X3100 shared

Hopeless to ever think of playing properly any recent game with this.

Fortunately I'm not really interested in new games.

[CTG]

It seems I'm going to buy a new computer only in December - to have more money for it.