Author Topic: these new cheap core 2 due laptops - any good? (Read 37539 times)

Ralf Maximus · « **Reply #25 on:** October 25, 2007, 10:24 AM »

The freezer trick is one I use on my Dell batteries, with about a 75% success rate. The original big battery that came with my 2003 Latitude still delivers about 3 hours.

Glad it's working for others! I wish I could remember who taught me this so I could pass on the credit...

Mandork · « **Reply #26 on:** October 25, 2007, 10:38 AM »

Huh. Does it work for other kinds of batteries, too? Like old ordinary rechargeables (and my aging pocket PC)? I might have to experiment.

Armando · « **Reply #27 on:** October 31, 2007, 06:13 PM »

The freezer trick is one I use on my Dell batteries, with about a 75% success rate. The original big battery that came with my 2003 Latitude still delivers about 3 hours.

Glad it's working for others! I wish I could remember who taught me this so I could pass on the credit...
-Ralf Maximus (October 25, 2007, 10:24 AM)

BTW ralph, do you completely discharge your battery before putting it in the freezer, or do you instead charge it ?

Thanks in advance...

Armando · « **Reply #28 on:** November 03, 2007, 12:13 AM »

The freezer trick is one I use on my Dell batteries, with about a 75% success rate. The original big battery that came with my 2003 Latitude still delivers about 3 hours.

Glad it's working for others! I wish I could remember who taught me this so I could pass on the credit...
-Ralf Maximus (October 25, 2007, 10:24 AM)

BTW ralph, do you completely discharge your battery before putting it in the freezer, or do you instead charge it ?

Thanks in advance...
-Armando (October 31, 2007, 06:13 PM)

bumpy bumpy bump.

Darwin? Ralph?

Darwin · « **Reply #29 on:** November 03, 2007, 07:31 AM »

Sorry, Armando. It's been CRAZY around my house for the last couple of days. I just threw my battery in the freezer. I'd probably discharged it to 50% before storing it... but didn't check it.

Armando · « **Reply #30 on:** November 03, 2007, 11:34 AM »

Thanks... So I'll just throw it there...

(and good luck with everything else, of course)

Curt · « **Reply #31 on:** November 03, 2007, 02:19 PM »

To freeze is good; I have read at TechRepublic. If your harddrive breaks down, you can put it in the freezer for two hours, and rapidly put it back in the machine, and this way recover your data. Usually at least 90 % success.

Armando · « **Reply #32 on:** November 03, 2007, 03:12 PM »

Does it work with brains?

Darwin · « **Reply #33 on:** November 03, 2007, 03:21 PM »

No, I tried that... to the point of inducing brain ache. No luck, I still can't remember the simplest things (like the point of this follow-up post

).

Oh yeah, don't forget to seal the battery (or harddrive for that matter) in a ziploc or something before you toss it in the freezer!

Armando · « **Reply #34 on:** November 03, 2007, 03:31 PM »

No, I tried that... to the point of inducing brain ache. No luck, I still can't remember the simplest things (like the point of this follow-up post ).

Oh yeah, don't forget to seal the battery (or harddrive for that matter) in a ziploc or something before you toss it in the freezer!
-Darwin (November 03, 2007, 03:21 PM)

Thanks Darwin, I will. But I've decided to use my battery a bit more before I try this experiment... Who knows.

Darwin · « **Reply #35 on:** November 03, 2007, 04:38 PM »

Can't hurt, Armando! I wouldn't worry too much about this, though. I've read some instructions on prepping batteries for use and they seem to imply that simply "re-prepping" them as per the original instructions will help revive Li-Ion batteries. I've also seen it written in response to charges (no pun intended) that you can kill these batteries because they have a finite number of charge/discharge cycles before they're worn out, that with normal to moderately heavy usage a Li-Ion battery will still probably outlive the hardware that it's powering. So, don't be afraid to try two or three different solutions!

EDIT: fixed a typo... and unfixed it (I need to learn to read more carefully!).

Curt · « **Reply #36 on:** November 03, 2007, 05:32 PM »

Does it work with brains?
-Armando (November 03, 2007, 03:12 PM)

I am not kidding: Yes, it does work with brains, as well!!

For some years I was working in a deep freeze warehouse. At the time I had a serious drinking problem, so hangovers were a common day problem. But whenever I got into the freezer, the hangovers would leave! You never suffer from headaches when it is really cold.

Darwin · « **Reply #37 on:** November 03, 2007, 05:36 PM »

Thanks for the tip, Curt! I hope not to have to use it anytime soon (really, I am NOT fond of hangovers, even if there is a cure!), but it'll be nice to have to fall back on when it is needed

Curt · « **Reply #38 on:** November 03, 2007, 06:29 PM »

I hope nudone and forum will forgive all this 'very much off topic' talk...

The easiest way to prevent hangovers, is (besides the obvious!!) to take 3 tablets before you go to bed. I learned this when I stopped working in the freezer...

Today I have adopted 'the obvious' methode.

Darwin · « **Reply #39 on:** November 03, 2007, 06:39 PM »

Good for you, Curt! I've followed a similar trajectory (minus the freezer, though I did spend part of my early 20's working in a grocery store with long stints in both the freezer and in the dairy cooler). My solution was always to take two tablets (acetopminephan/paracetemol - same thing), eat some bread, and drink a lot of water before bed. I *tried* to avoid caffeine the next day to avoid its diuretic effect and repeated the water and tablets as necessary. I've subsequently found the obvious method you refer to to be both more reliable and more economical. My use of the method is to practice moderation, though complete avoidance is the only method that carries certainty.

I've no desire to return to those days... Though I wouldn't say I ever had a drinking problem, but I did find the occasional hangover problematic

Now, I too must ask for nudone and the forum's clemency for being way off-topic

Armando · « **Reply #40 on:** November 03, 2007, 10:31 PM »

Is Nudone the official off-topic watcher ?

Darwin · « **Reply #41 on:** November 03, 2007, 11:36 PM »

Is Nudone the official off-topic watcher ?
-Armando (November 03, 2007, 10:31 PM)

No - he's the OP

Jammo the OrganizedFellow · « **Reply #42 on:** November 04, 2007, 11:12 PM »

I bought a gateway 15" model with AMD turion 64 + VISTA (crrrap!!!)

I recently called Gateway and asked about UPgrading to XP Pro, and how much would they charge me, guess what Kevin (my rep) told me?
he says, " ... well sir, technically, since XP was released before Vista, it is considered a downgrade ... ".
i promptly corrected him, cutting him off, reaffirming the fact that XP is indeed AN UPGRADE.
seems he didnt understand me. Anyhoo, he states that Gateway can not recommend the installation of XP on this particular laptop, cause the hardware was/is specifically designed to work with Vista?!
i call BS?!

well, i paid $750 -$50 instant rebate plus another mail-in rebate of $150, so, $500 for my first laptop? not bad, this was an Office Depot deal. although for my next one will DEFINITELY be a dell. hopefully they still offer a choice of Ubuntu or XP nex year!

f0dder · « **Reply #43 on:** November 05, 2007, 07:41 AM »

Jammo: it's bullshit indeed, but you might have a hard time hunting for drivers. Certainly took me a while to find everything necessary for some Lenovos.

Jammo the OrganizedFellow · « **Reply #44 on:** November 05, 2007, 12:21 PM »

I figure the best thing i can do right now, is to create a new partition, image the current drive, and back things up.
then if XP really wont fly on here, at least i know i tried, right?!
id just need to backup these drivers, hope they work with XP.

Darwin · « **Reply #45 on:** November 05, 2007, 07:07 PM »

jammo - out of curiosity, did Gateway ever quote you a price on XP, or did they say it wasn't supported and leave it at that? I lust after a new notebook but not Vista...

terribleterryc · « **Reply #46 on:** November 05, 2007, 10:13 PM »

Look fine, and smooth enough once started, but feels too heavy - but I feel the same running Vista on my AMD64x2 4400+/2gig/GF7600. I chose the standard battery pack for the lenovos (higher cell-count ones are available), last around an hour and a half doing real work.
-f0dder (October 20, 2007, 05:55 AM)

I am running Vista Business on AMD64X2 4600 and one GS 7300 and 2GB memory - identical to fOdder's machine. This machine has a 10,000 Raptor Hard Drive and is the SMOOTHEST, most comfortable OS I have ever used for browsing. Everything serious gets done on my XP Pro.
As was mentioned earlier, the SPEED of Hard drives is something that never occurred to me. For a battery powered laptop it would seem extremely important as long as there were not significant power requirements.

terribleterryc · « **Reply #47 on:** November 05, 2007, 10:37 PM »

well, i paid $750 -$50 instant rebate plus another mail-in rebate of $150, so, $500 for my first laptop? not bad, this was an Office Depot deal. although for my next one will DEFINITELY be a dell. hopefully they still offer a choice of Ubuntu or XP nex year!
-jammo (November 04, 2007, 11:12 PM)

I get sales junk from Dell several times a week. Was very surprised today to see a Dell 14" vista notebook for $599.00.
http://configure.us....oc=bqdwj4a&s=bsd

Jammo the OrganizedFellow · « **Reply #48 on:** November 06, 2007, 01:56 AM »

jammo - out of curiosity, did Gateway ever quote you a price on XP, or did they say it wasn't supported and leave it at that? I lust after a new notebook but not Vista...
-Darwin (November 05, 2007, 07:07 PM)

The rep just told me it was not supported, not recommended. He left it like that.
Imma try and call again this week. I figure if it's a few hundred dollars, it's well worth it - Vista is starting to bother me.

Ralf Maximus · « **Reply #49 on:** November 06, 2007, 05:53 AM »

BTW ralph, do you completely discharge your battery before putting it in the freezer, or do you instead charge it ?

Thanks in advance...

bumpy bumpy bump.

Darwin? Ralph?
-Armando (November 03, 2007, 12:13 AM)

Sorry, been out of town. Shouldn't matter -- charged or uncharged. Just enclose it in a ziplock to prevent condensation, throw it in there overnight, and let it warm up a bit the next day before charging.

The warm-up, as I understand it, isn't strictly necessary but kinder to electronics that you want to keep for awhile. Kind of like starting your car on a sub-zero day. In the case of a sticky harddrive as described above, I'm guessing you probably WANT the induced hyphothermic shock to wake things up.