New tech

[innocent_lex]

Got the new laptop yesterday. Why is it I always forget how much time it takes to get a new computer set up to my satisfaction? Still, it's faster, prettier, has more space and more memory than the old (dodgy) one. I've even managed to get some programs working that I thought would have had no chance.

Comments

[rynogeny.livejournal.com]

So what did you get? What are the specs? Inquiring minds need to know...

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.johnlewis.com/230472313/Product.aspx

Very good specs, although it's a bit of a cheat. It has 4Mb of RAM but 1Mb is used 'by the operating system'. No, I don't know what that means either. Still, even 3Mb is 3x as much as the old one had. 250Gb hard drive (fast filling up), 2.5GHz dual core processor. The sound's pretty good for a laptop, and the screen's good. It's my 'desktop replacement' so not really for carrying around, though I will be doing that more than I could with the Sony (whose battery failed).

[sg1jb]

Surely you meant to say 4Gb of RAM? The 1Gb 'used by the operating system' probably means that Vista (the bloated hog that it is) requires that amount just to be aware of its own existence, never mind to start doing anything other than launching.

Son is lookjing for a new laptop, and is upset that he can't find one with XP. The concern is that most of our software is ancient (earlier than win2K vintage), and he can't afford to start replacing any of it.

How do you find Vista? Any comments / opinions you can pass our way will be very helpful.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

4GB of RAM, yes indeedy. *sigh* You don't want to know about my day today. Brain's farting.

So far Vista hasn't done much other than warn me about anything and everything without giving me an option to make it shut the hell up and trust that I know what I'm doing. It's definitely resource hungry, though, and doesn't appear to be able to manage memory very well. I was doing a lot of copying over from the old computer yesterday and at one point I had to reboot because the system said it was out of memory. Uh huh. It's pretty, though, so at least that's something.

So far the oldest sofware I've installed on it is Quicken 2000, which worked (mostly) after I copied over a few dlls that it was demanding. Otherwise I'm fairly up to date with my software. I may have some issues with other stuff I've yet to install, but I won't know until I try.

I managed to get my tiny travel laptop with XP and there was no way I was getting Vista on that. There are still machines out there with XP, and you might be successful if you go via Dell or someone similar and plan your own. Not too sure. I decided to just give in to the inevitable and put up with finding replacements for software that doesn't work. But to make Vista work properly you really do need an excellent processor and lots of memory.

[lachli.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Have just given up with my printer, I've uninstalled and reinstalled it that many times and it's just so flaky as to be useless. Going to give in and buy a new one that's vista compatible.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

Have you tried downloading a new driver from the manufacturer's website?

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Happy new computer! I know it takes time, but once all the initial stuff is done, it'll be so much fun. :-)

[mfluder42.livejournal.com]

I always dread new machines. I love getting them, I hate the set up - trying to get all that software back on, copying files across, reboot reboot reboot as everything loads.

And then Windows does an update. *g*

Have fun! :-)


mon