Now my computer kinda broke, so I'm getting a new one...

[GrayFox]

I turned on my laptop today and not much happened. The keyboard lights came on and the power light was lit, along with the lights on my external hard drive, mouse, and other devices that draw power through USB... but nothing else happened. Nothing appeared on the screen and... well, it just didn't do anything anything. I tried letting it sit for a few minutes, but it still did nothing. I tried over and over and over again. No progress. I even tried unplugging all extra devices... my wireless card and everything USB... but no luck at all. Later, I took the battery out and put it back in... which successfully causes the laptop to do nothing at all. No lights, no power... it doesn't do anything now.

Very annoyingly... I've been in the process of  backing up my files over the past few days, but I wasn't finished! If I'm lucky though, I can get a 2.5"  external enclosure to recover my data... they're not too expensive.

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas as to what broke? I'm on Linux on my PS3 right now.

 

[GrayFox]

Re: Now my computer kinda broke...

Damn it...I found an amazing laptop deal, but it was sold out when I went to place the order! 

Found a good Toshiba at Best Buy's website, but apparently it's a defective model. Or a few people are just unlucky. I don't know if I want to try my luck, since it doesn't seem like I have much luck at all.

 

[Zayne.H]

Re: Now my computer kinda broke...

<div class='quotetop'></div><div class='quotemain'>Damn it...I found an amazing laptop deal, but it was sold out when I went to place the order! 

Found a good Toshiba at Best Buy's website, but apparently it's a defective model. Or a few people are just unlucky. I don't know if I want to try my luck, since it doesn't seem like I have much luck at all.</div>

Uck, Toshiba. You know how I would recommend a Mac, but then again you are a gamer, and Macs aren't really for games..yet.

Acer does a good job, but I don't know if they allow to have XP instead of the beast named Vista. Also doesn't Dell offer Ubuntu now? Too bad it's Dell, and not Acer. Or get a Gateway.

 

[GrayFox]

Re: Now my computer kinda broke...

<div class='quotetop'></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'></div><div class='quotemain'>
Damn it...I found an amazing laptop deal, but it was sold out when I went to place the order! 

Found a good Toshiba at Best Buy's website, but apparently it's a defective model. Or a few people are just unlucky. I don't know if I want to try my luck, since it doesn't seem like I have much luck at all.</div>

Uck, Toshiba. You know how I would recommend a Mac, but then again you are a gamer, and Macs aren't really for games..yet.

Acer does a good job, but I don't know if they allow to have XP instead of the beast named Vista. Also doesn't Dell offer Ubuntu now? Too bad it's Dell, and not Acer. Or get a Gateway.
</div>

I actually considered a Mac Mini and Macbook. Macbooks are too expensive though. I could get one used, but the specs would be pretty low, so I don't really want to do that. Mac Minis look pretty nice, but it would take up more room. I don't think a monitor is included in the price either... and it doesn't have a DVD burner unless I were to get the expensive one. I think I want a laptop anyway. I just want to make sure I get one better than the one that died.

Gaming is only a minor issue to me. I don't do much PC gaming. I already have a Wii, PS3, PSP, and DS.  The PC games I do play aren't very demanding. I'm a little nervous about Starcraft 2 though... I want to be able to play that, hopefully.

I plan to dual boot Linux and Windows, so it doesn't matter if it has XP or Vista... as long as it isn't Vista Basic. And I've seen a few nice Gateways, but the thing that died was a damned Gateway.... so I'm not sure I really want another one of those things.

I found a nice Acer Aspire at walmart.com. There's no rebate though, so it would be a bit more expensive. Also, It doesn't say what graphics card it has and I want to avoid the VIA Chrome 9. It's crap, isn't it?I also want to avoid the Intel GMA 950, but I'll deal with it if the laptop is damn good in just about every other way. After all... the sold out HP I really wanted had a GMA 950, but everything else was pretty amazing.  The GMA 950 is a little better than the VIA Chrome 9, but only slightly... I think. I'm basing this off reviews from http://www.notebookcheck.net/

I found a nice Everex at Newegg, but it has the damned VIA Chrome 9 and Vista Basic! I tried building a Dell on Dell.com. It was pretty nice, but more than I really wanted to pay. I also saw another good Toshiba at CircuitCity.com, but it was a little more expensive... and it's sold out anyway.

 

[GrayFox]

Re: Now my computer kinda broke...

I've kinda narrowed it down...

Intel Pentium Dual-Core (32 bit, I think. I'm not completely sure.)
* 0.065 ?m (65 nm) process technology
o 533 MHz frontside bus
o 1 MB Shared L2 cache
o SSE3 SIMD instructions
o Variants:
+ Pentium dual-core T2080 1.73 GHz (this one, I think)
+ Pentium dual-core T2060 1.60 GHz

Model : Athlon 64 X2 TK-53; "Tyler" 65 nm (64 bit processor, right?)
Frequency: 1700 MHz
FSB: 533MHz FSB
L2-Cache: 2 x 256 KiB (not as much as the Pentium, is it? I'm not sure how KiB compares to MB, but MB sounds like more.)
HT: 800 MHz
Multiplier1: 8.5x
Voltage: 1.075/1.10/1.125 V
TDP: 31 W
Socket: Socket S1
Release date: August 20, 2007 (woah, new processor!)
Order Part Number: AMDTK53HAX4DC

... That's what I could find. What looks better? The laptop is an Acer Aspire either way and has 1GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive space, and I think a stupid Intel GMA 950 (can't have everything perfect for $550) It will have Vista Home Premium, but I am going to try to dual boot with Linux (should have fun with that). The Athlon Acer -might- not have the GMA 950, but I can't figure it out for sure.

Also, if I order the laptop online with free to-store shipping, then I don't have to pay tax when I pick it up at the store since the payment is done online, right?

Made a gamefaqs topic... which has extra information.
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessag...;topic=38708226

 

[Zayne.H]

Re: Now my computer kinda broke...

<div class='quotetop'></div><div class='quotemain'>I've kinda narrowed it down...

Intel Pentium Dual-Core (32 bit, I think. I'm not completely sure.)
* 0.065 ?m (65 nm) process technology
o 533 MHz frontside bus
o 1 MB Shared L2 cache
o SSE3 SIMD instructions
o Variants:
+ Pentium dual-core T2080 1.73 GHz (this one, I think)
+ Pentium dual-core T2060 1.60 GHz

Model : Athlon 64 X2 TK-53; "Tyler" 65 nm (64 bit processor, right?)
Frequency: 1700 MHz
FSB: 533MHz FSB
L2-Cache: 2 x 256 KiB (not as much as the Pentium, is it? I'm not sure how KiB compares to MB, but MB sounds like more.)
HT: 800 MHz
Multiplier1: 8.5x
Voltage: 1.075/1.10/1.125 V
TDP: 31 W
Socket: Socket S1
Release date: August 20, 2007 (woah, new processor!)
Order Part Number: AMDTK53HAX4DC

... That's what I could find. What looks better? The laptop is an Acer Aspire either way and has 1GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive space, and I think a stupid Intel GMA 950 (can't have everything perfect for $550) It will have Vista Home Premium, but I am going to try to dual boot with Linux (should have fun with that). The Athlon Acer -might- not have the GMA 950, but I can't figure it out for sure.

Also, if I order the laptop online with free to-store shipping, then I don't have to pay tax when I pick it up at the store since the payment is done online, right?

Made a gamefaqs topic... which has extra information.
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessag...;topic=38708226</div>

Just uninstall Vista and find an XP disc. Sure you might not use Vista that much, but when I had it on my Mac Pro it tried to delete OS X and the Linux distros I had installed.

Stay away from Vista.

 

[GrayFox]

Yes. I have XP in case I decide to get rid of Vista. I want to try it out first, though... just out of curiosity.

 

[Zayne.H]

<div class='quotetop'></div><div class='quotemain'>Yes. I have XP in case I decide to get rid of Vista. I want to try it out first, though... just out of curiosity.</div>

Curiosity killed the cat.

 

[GrayFox]

I got the Acer Aspire  with the Pentium Dual-Core. Vista isn't so bad (so far), but I don't really recommend buying it unless it comes with a new computer like it did for me.... and as long as it's not Home Basic. There's not much to warrant spending the money.