Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: hotel21 on 26 December 2010, 19:11:26

Title: laptop question
Post by: hotel21 on 26 December 2010, 19:11:26
I use a desktop machine when at home but have a laptop for when I'm out and about and at the Pikey Palace as and when.

Happy with the desktop, does all I ask of it really, but the lappy takes ages to load and it does not like to multitask.

Its an Asus X58C series, 160 gb hard drive, 1024 mb memory with Celeron processor and Vista basic.  I use it with an external voda dongle to connect to the internet when I cant poach a wifi connection.

Question is, given the current crop of 'sales' in the offing, do I ditch it and buy something quite shiney and new or is it worth simply upgrading the memory or what.

Over to the experts on here as, frankly, I am quite clueless on such hardware matters.......   :-[
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: freecall666 on 26 December 2010, 19:17:22
when did you last defrag hard drive? on laptop. best dongle to get is 3, £15month and 15gb month. good signal every were. all so download win fix from window update fix most problems on startup.
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: tunnie on 26 December 2010, 19:18:17
Quote
I use a desktop machine when at home but have a laptop for when I'm out and about and at the Pikey Palace as and when.

Happy with the desktop, does all I ask of it really, but the lappy takes ages to load and it does not like to multitask.

Its an Asus X58C series, 160 gb hard drive, 1024 mb memory with Celeron processor and Vista basic.  I use it with an external voda dongle to connect to the internet when I cant poach a wifi connection.

Question is, given the current crop of 'sales' in the offing, do I ditch it and buy something quite shiney and new or is it worth simply upgrading the memory or what.

Over to the experts on here as, frankly, I am quite clueless on such hardware matters.......   :-[

Before shelling out too much cash, I'd put a copy of Windows 7 on there first. 7 is much better running on slightly underpowered hardware than Vista.

Maybe bring it down for an upgrade next time your down south?
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: hotel21 on 26 December 2010, 19:22:15
Quote
when did you last defrag hard drive? on laptop. best dongle to get is 3, £15month and 15gb month. good signal every were. all so download win fix from window update fix most problems on startup.

Where I regularly use the dongle, Voda is, simply, the only signal worth its salt.  Tried O2, Orange, 3 et al, and only voda does the biz...   ;)
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: hotel21 on 26 December 2010, 19:24:26
Hear what you say Tunnie, but got a couple of squids free at the moment.  Unsure of whether to upgrade the hardware on the current setup or simply start again with a new one.  The one in use didn't cost much and I have had my monies worth, I reckon....
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: cem_devecioglu on 26 December 2010, 19:25:46
Quote
Quote
I use a desktop machine when at home but have a laptop for when I'm out and about and at the Pikey Palace as and when.

Happy with the desktop, does all I ask of it really, but the lappy takes ages to load and it does not like to multitask.

Its an Asus X58C series, 160 gb hard drive, 1024 mb memory with Celeron processor and Vista basic.  I use it with an external voda dongle to connect to the internet when I cant poach a wifi connection.

Question is, given the current crop of 'sales' in the offing, do I ditch it and buy something quite shiney and new or is it worth simply upgrading the memory or what.

Over to the experts on here as, frankly, I am quite clueless on such hardware matters.......   :-[

Before shelling out too much cash, I'd put a copy of Windows 7 on there first. 7 is much better running on slightly underpowered hardware than Vista.

Maybe bring it down for an upgrade next time your down south?

agreed.. whatever hardware you buy , will slow down on the long term..

win7 or if not avail try xp..
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: freecall666 on 26 December 2010, 19:25:53
Quote
Quote
when did you last defrag hard drive? on laptop. best dongle to get is 3, £15month and 15gb month. good signal every were. all so download win fix from window update fix most problems on startup.

Where I regularly use the dongle, Voda is, simply, the only signal worth its salt.  Tried O2, Orange, 3 et al, and only voda does the biz...   ;)
had vodafone last year and found it was making faults with laptop, got 3 and no problems, and faster on the net 5 bars ever were, fodafone had to put out the window (dongle) to get good signal, 3 dont need to can go any were. ;)
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: CaptainZok on 26 December 2010, 19:27:41
Based around the budget Intel Celeron processor, the Asus X58C ships with the 1.2GHz Celeron D 220. With only 1024MB of memory and installed with Windows Vista, this is a slow-loading machine, especially if you have more than one window running, but a memory upgrade will easily solve this problem.
Lifted from here.
http://whatlaptop.techradar.com/node/1358

So it seems that a ram upgrade would help your problems B.
Laptops direct spec sheet suggests it will take up to 4Gb of memory which usually means buying 2x 2Gb sticks and dumping what's already in there.
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: hotel21 on 26 December 2010, 19:29:04
Quote
Quote
Quote
when did you last defrag hard drive? on laptop. best dongle to get is 3, £15month and 15gb month. good signal every were. all so download win fix from window update fix most problems on startup.

Where I regularly use the dongle, Voda is, simply, the only signal worth its salt.  Tried O2, Orange, 3 et al, and only voda does the biz...   ;)
had vodafone last year and found it was making faults with laptop, got 3 and no problems, and faster on the net 5 bars ever were, fodafone had to put out the window (dongle) to get good signal, 3 dont need to can go any were. ;)

When I power it up and use my home network (20 meg B/band etc) its still as slow as a slow thing so don't think the voda thing is too great an issue.  Will do an uninstall/reinstall of the voda software though....
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: cem_devecioglu on 26 December 2010, 19:29:35
memory upgrade good idea, but wont bring an efficient operating systems performance..(and a newly installed file system efficiency)
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: hotel21 on 26 December 2010, 19:30:41
Quote
Based around the budget Intel Celeron processor, the Asus X58C ships with the 1.2GHz Celeron D 220. With only 1024MB of memory and installed with Windows Vista, this is a slow-loading machine, especially if you have more than one window running, but a memory upgrade will easily solve this problem.
Lifted from here.
http://whatlaptop.techradar.com/node/1358

So it seems that a ram upgrade would help your problems B.
Laptops direct spec sheet suggests it will take up to 4Gb of memory which usually means buying 2x 2Gb sticks and dumping what's already in there.

Thats it in a nutshell Cap'n.  Any recommendations for chips?
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: CaptainZok on 26 December 2010, 19:33:56
Quote
Quote
Based around the budget Intel Celeron processor, the Asus X58C ships with the 1.2GHz Celeron D 220. With only 1024MB of memory and installed with Windows Vista, this is a slow-loading machine, especially if you have more than one window running, but a memory upgrade will easily solve this problem.
Lifted from here.
http://whatlaptop.techradar.com/node/1358

So it seems that a ram upgrade would help your problems B.
Laptops direct spec sheet suggests it will take up to 4Gb of memory which usually means buying 2x 2Gb sticks and dumping what's already in there.

Thats it in a nutshell Cap'n.  Any recommendations for chips?
Crucial (http://www.crucial.com/uk/?click=true)
is where I got my last lot from, plus the online scanner will tell you what to fit.
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: Dodger on 26 December 2010, 21:46:51
Had similar problems with an IBM Thinkpad, and ended up increasing memory from 1 to 2 gig, and also reformatting HD and reloading OS (XP pro). just doing both these speeded up the machine by 75% or more.

ps: Vodaphone is total & complete shatt!! (wouldn't touch it with a bargepole!!) neighbour was with them, & took phone & dongle back under their 'no signal' warranty, as 75% of the time ther was...no signal!! :o
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: freecall666 on 26 December 2010, 23:34:47
vodafone softwear mucks up the reg files after a time sms dose the most damage, when the reg files get mucked about get slow start up and slow internet explorer, win fix is free and from micro soft on there down loads, just get the right one would say yours is 32bit not 64bit. but if it runs faster after its fixed reg, plus when you remove vodafone softwear its not all removed, so even if you uninstal it you will just be putting every thing back as it was before. softwear fault have to go into windows and find all the files and remove them in systerm32 and also fix reg files. then get a clean setup.
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: eddie on 27 December 2010, 01:53:16
If your not adverse to alternate O.S's try Linux (Mint is good).

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1581

eddie
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: hotel21 on 27 December 2010, 12:00:58
New day, new set of challenges.....

It would appear that H21-jnr wishes to lay claim to my lappy for use by him whilst out and about at work.  Basic notetaking, some spreadsheet input and sometime office use as and when required.  Will do the ram upgrade for it and that should sort him out.

That leaves me....

Whats the general 'pecking order' of the various processors as in i3-350M, i3-330M, P6100, etc etc?  Was quite straightforward in the days of the 386/486 !!   ;D
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: Kevin Wood on 27 December 2010, 13:10:36
This might be some help in understanding Intel's obfuscated product naming.. ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core

Kevin
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: cem_devecioglu on 27 December 2010, 17:44:25
how they say :

"a chain is as strong as iits weakest ....."

I would start with that
http://www.solidstatesata.co.uk/
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: TheBoy on 27 December 2010, 18:07:36
H21 - as Intel move over to the new i3/5/7 designations, there are a few bargains to be had on Core2 chips. I'd avoid the Pentium Dual Core chips, as they are getting a bit long in the tooth, but Core2 Duo is still a very usable chip (I am typing on a Core2 Duo now). 2Gb RAM, Centrino type chipset (965 or Series4), and for you, integrated graphics, such as Intel X4500.

Feel free to pm me anything you like the look of, I'll happily cast my eye over it.

If it comes with Vista, worth bugetting for a copy of Win7 - Win7 runs much better on a laptop than Vista.
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: Kneepad on 28 December 2010, 01:24:53

If you decide to go down the memory upgrade path then there is no point in buying 4GB and discarding the 1GB that you already have.

You will be running a 32bit operating system which will only make use of 3GB at the most.

So keep the memory that you have, assuming it's a single 1GB chip and not 2 x 512MB, and buy a single 2GB chip. This will cost about £20 and give you the 3Gig that you need.

Avoid Crucial memory chips, I've had to return more faulty ones than I care to remember.

This is what you need:
200 Pin SO DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz
2Gb £18.99 + vat

Recommend: http://mrmemory.co.uk
Title: Re: laptop question
Post by: cem_devecioglu on 28 December 2010, 09:06:21
unless you are using autocad, games-simulation software or large chunks of database cache you will probably never see a full memory load even with 2 gbs..  in either case your most slow hardware and the limiting factor will be the disks mostly running at 5400 rpm or max 7200 which is as slow as a turtle compared to cpu's..