tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261877972024-03-07T21:07:47.866-05:00Mo-Heat's Desktop & Notebook FAQAll the info you need to know about PC desktops and notebooks.Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-1145333902220755562011-05-24T19:55:00.000-04:002011-06-11T00:03:57.856-04:00The Table of Contents **UPDATED 05/24/11**<span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Please Note: Not all of the information on this site is thought up by me. I have compiled it from knowledge I know, bits and pieces from many different sites on the internet, articles I have read in magazines and newspapers, and other information I have heard about from other people and have found out to be accurate. I have also added my own opinions which are considered useful by many people.</span><br /><br />Here is the Table of Contents of my FAQ. Hope this helps everyone!<br />Also, don't forget to leave comments at the bottom of my posts!<a href="http://www.4shared.com/dir/665650/691cff3f/sharing.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></a><br /><br /><br />**UPDATED: 5/24/11**<br /><br />54. ViciousXUSMC's Ultimate Encoding Guide<br /><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/1-company-overviews.html">1. Company Overviews</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/2-everything-you-need-to-know-about.html">2. Everything You Need To Know About Processors</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/3-intel-pentium-m-processor-speeds.html">3. Intel Pentium-M processor speeds</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/4-dual-core-64-bit-and-hyperthreading.html">4. Dual-Core, 64-bit, and Hyperthreading</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/5-64-bit-and-dual-core-mobile.html">5. 64-Bit and Dual Core Mobile Processors Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/6-windows-xp-editions-and-costs.html">6. Microsoft Windows XP Editions and Costs</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/06/7-microft-windows-vista-editions.html">7. Microsoft Windows Vista Editions and Costs</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/06/8-windows-vista-capable-and-premium.html">8. Windows Vista Capable and Premium Ready PCs</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/06/9-graphics-card-comparison-chart.html">9. Graphics Card Comparison Chart</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/10-all-about-gpus-aka-graphics.html">10. All about GPUs (A.K.A. Graphics Processing Unit)</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/11-simplified-wireless-networking.html">11. The Simplified Wireless Networking Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/12-in-depth-wireless-internet-and.html">12. In Depth Wireless Internet and Network Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/05/13-wireless-router-guide.html">13. Wireless Router Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/14-desktop-pc-notebook-pc-or-tablet-pc.html">14. Desktop PC, Notebook PC, or Tablet PC?</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/15-what-to-upgrade-on-my-computer.html">15. What To Upgrade On My Computer</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/16-notebook-memory-ram-guide.html">16. Notebook Memory (RAM) Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/17-notebook-screen-guide.html">17. Notebook Screen Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/06/18-do-it-yourself-making-external-hard.html">18. Do-It-Yourself: Making An External Hard Drive Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/07/19-lcd-resolutions-and-ratios.html">19. LCD Resolutions and Ratios (Part 1)</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/08/20-boot-camp-or-parallels-guide-to.html">20. Boot Camp or Parallels Guide to Running Windows on an Apple MacIntel</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/12/21-windows-xp-installation-guide.html">21. Windows XP Installation Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2007/02/windows-vista-best-case-for-windows-xp.html">22. Windows Vista: The Best Case for Windows XP Ever</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2007/06/23-lcd-resolutions-and-ratios-part-2.html">23. LCD Resolutions and Ratios (Part 2)</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2007/07/24-notebook-and-pc-partitioning-guide.html">24. Notebook and PC Partitioning Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2007/08/25-how-to-clean-your-pc.html">25. How To Clean Your PC</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2007/11/26-disable-hybrid-sleep-mode-in-windows.html">26. Disable Hybrid Sleep Mode in Windows Vista (a.k.a. Fix Sleep Mode in Windows Vista)</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/10/21-best-anti-viruses-and-spyware.html">27. Best Anti-Viruses and Spyware Protection</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/01/29-wheres-all-my-disk-space-going-vista.html">28. Where's All My Disk Space Going? (Vista)</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/02/29-do-it-yourself-solid-state-disk-ssd.html">29. Do-It-Yourself: Solid State Disk (SSD) Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/05/30-virus-information-guide.html">30. Virus Information Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/06/31-few-xp-registry-settings-that-help.html">31. A few XP Registry Settings that help improve battery life. (for notebook)</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/07/32-how-it-works-your-guide-to-notebook.html">32. How It Works: Your Guide to Notebook Technology</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/07/33-notebook-travel-guide.html">33. Notebook Travel Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/09/34-guide-to-new-laptop-inspectionand.html">34. Guide to New Laptop Inspection...and Beyond!</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/09/35-computer-optimization-guide.html">35. Computer Optimization Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/09/36-guide-to-polishing-you-scratched.html">36. Guide to Polishing Your Scratched Glossy Notebook</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/10/37-how-to-stream-video-from-your-laptop.html">37. How To Stream Video From Your Laptop To Your TV</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/12/38-how-it-works-graphics-hardware.html">38. How it Works: Graphics Hardware</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/12/39-how-it-works-hard-disks.html">39. How It Works: Hard Disks</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/12/40-diy-notebook-screen-replacement.html">40. DIY Notebook Screen Replacement</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/12/41-how-it-works-screens.html">41. How It Works: Screens</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/12/42-how-it-works-batteries.html">42. How It Works: Batteries</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-it-works-optical-drives.html">43. How It Works: Optical Drives</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2009/02/44-guide-how-to-delete-hidden-recovery.html">44. Guide: How to Delete Hidden Recovery Partition on Vista</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2009/02/45-clean-install-guide-works-for-32-bit.html">45. Clean Install Guide (works for 32-bit or 64-bi</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2009/02/46-netbook-buyers-guide.html">46. Netbook Buyers Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2009/04/47-notebookreviewcom-guide-to-buying.html">47. NotebookReview.com Guide To Buying A Notebook Online</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2009/09/48-gamers-graphics-tuning-guide.html">48. Gamers Graphics Tuning Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2009/11/49-windows-vista-backup-restore-center.html">49. Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center Review</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2010/05/50-windows-pc-optimization-guide.html">50. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 1</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2010/09/51-windows-pc-optimization-guide-part-2.html">51. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 2</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2010/12/52-windows-pc-optimization-guide-part-3.html">52. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 3</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2010/01/53-internet-safety-guide-how-to-protect.html">53. Internet Safety Guide: How to Protect Yourself Online</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2011/05/53-viciousxusmcs-ultimate-encoding.html">54. ViciousXUSMC's Ultimate Encoding Guide</a><br /><a href="http://luckmc11.blogspot.com/2006/04/some-faqs.html">Some FAQ's</a>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-39631423101954524772011-05-24T14:54:00.001-04:002011-06-04T23:45:47.880-04:0054. ViciousXUSMC's Ultimate Encoding Guide<span style="font-style: italic; font-family:arial;" >By: ViciousXUSMC from Notebookreview.com</span><strong style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><br /></strong>Here is my newest guide project. This time its not how to hack bios files or edit .inf's but something a bit more common in need. Knowing how to convert a file type to another type or encode a video/audio file.<br /><br />This subject is as vast as the blue sea, with so many codecs, file types, and free programs out there, I am going to try to weed through them and give you a streamline and user friendly way to do it with (free) programs I trust and try to teach you some stuff along the way.<br /><br />At time of publishing this guide will only be small, but as I get request for new material and find time on my hands I will add new segments to it as I go to make it an ultimate comprehensive guide to do it all.<br /><br />_____________________________________________________<br /><b>Resources</b><br /><br /><b>Media Players</b><br /><br /><a href="http://winamp.com/" target="_blank">Winamp</a> - My personal favorite audio player, very well supported and anything it cant play it definitly has a plugin for. A alternative is Foobar2000 but I never took the time to get to know foobar and the easy to find plugins for winamp and easy to use setup won me over.<br /><br /><a href="http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">Media Player Classic</a> - My personal favorite video player, just works right. Fast to open, good interface, and all the options I need. I never actually install this program on its own, it comes included with my codec pack CCCP<br /><br /><a href="http://vlcdownload.net/" target="_blank">VLC Player</a> - I use this as my backup to MPC above, if there is a very rare file type that MPC wont support because it was not done properly (like some odd subtitles format) I found VLC is the one player that can probably make it work.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cccp-project.net/" target="_blank">CCCP</a> (combined community codec package) - A codec pack that will install all the things you need to play different video formats and support the different kinds of subtitles. It includes Media Player Classic in its install. An alternative often used for CCCP is K-Lite but I prefer CCCP. Some will argue that codec packs are bad but I have never had a problem and this one made life easy for me.<br /><br /><b>Encoders/Decoders/GUI/Frontends</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nero.com/eng/downloads-nerodigital-nero-aac-codec.php" target="_blank">Nero AAC</a> - Hands down the best AAC encoder out there, and Nero is nice enough to give it to you for free! the EULA says it can only be used for personal use so thats why no program I know of other than Nero comes with this pre-installed. Its an .exe that runs via command line but there are many frontends out there with a gui that will automate it for you.<br /><br /><a href="http://flac.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">FLAC</a> (Free Lossless Audio Codec) - A well known open source codec to compress music but still retian all of the original quality. So file size is smaller than a standard non compressed .WAV but still the same quality. Just like Nero AAC, its just a .exe that runs via command line but FLAC now comes with its own GUI frontend to make using it simple for beginners.<br /><br /><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui/" target="_blank">MeGUI</a> - Another open source program. Overall the best GUI for encoding I can think of. Lots and lots of support behind this program, easy to use but still gives most of the advanced options that command line users are capable of using. It self updates and self downloads all the files needed to work so its super streamline. Does muxing, demuxing, audio encoding, video encoding, and supports every major codec. Also has many preconfigured profiles for you to choose from for encoding, just pick "Iphone" for instance to get perfect settings to encode video/audio for you Iphone.<br /><br /><a href="http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">AviSynth</a> - A very special tool used in many/most of the modern open source video encoders. Its a post production scripted tool. You basically create a file that tells this program what to "send' to your encoder. Hard to explain butt a needed tool. The friendlier GUI's will automate most of this stuff for you. A good example of what it does is what I use it for often my FRAPS clips, they record in like 2 minute long chunks. I write a AviSyth file that says "add all of these smaller files together as one, and resize it to this size" so when I open the AviSynth file the video player or encoder see's all the files as one and in the new size rather than me having to put them together in an editor and render them. Its your middle man for video encoding and sometimes audio stuff too.<br /><br /><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/staxmedia/" target="_blank">StaxRip</a> - Another open source encoder/transcoder similar to MeGui, doesn't seem to update to the latest codecs quite as fast (mostly x264) and doesn't has as many advanced options but still has a few noticeabe features that make it a good alternative to MeGUI and you should try it out to see if you like it better<br /><br /><a href="http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">Avidemux</a> - The third encoding gui of my trio, this one was uniqe in it has a built in editor of sorts so its the only one that can automate cutting clips and stuff for you without the need for a video editor. All 3 of the trio support H264 via x264 and AAC and thats the most important thing.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/nero_aac_ui.htm" target="_blank">NeroAAC UI</a> - I just found this today 12/16/09 while looking for a way to carry over the ID tags from a FLAC to a AAC file, this program can do it (for English character only) also does the encoding/decoding and can work directly from flack --> aac. Really nice little UI program.<br /><br /><b>Rippers</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/" target="_blank">EAC</a> (Exact Audio Copy) - Pretty tried and true this is probably the best CD audio ripper out there. It can nativity rip to FLAC or WAV, MP3, and it uses the free online database to automate inserting all your ID tags.<br /><br /><a href="http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">CDex</a> - The main alternative to EAC, some like it better some dont, has most of the same options.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm" target="_blank">DVDFab</a> - This is the best DVD ripper out there, its fast, accurate, seems to get around all protections and lets you do just certian chapters, or audio tracks to save space & time. This is the only program so far that is not free or open source but I have not found any replacement for it. Everything I needed to do with it the free version can do I think.<br /><br /><b>Tag Editors</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.mp3tag.de/en/" target="_blank">Mp3Tag </a>- A good tag editor with database lookup functions<br /><br /><a href="http://www.xdlab.ru/en/" target="_blank">TagScanner</a> - A good alternative to Mp3Tag<br /><br />___________________________________________<br /><br />My encoding goals<br /><br />I will teach you how to encode to any format you wish, however its my personal recommendation and goal when encoding to always shoot for H264 (x264) as the video codec and AAC for the audio codec. Simply put these are the best two lossy codecs out there and they are widely supported.<br /><br />Your im sure very familiar with MP3 and probably XVID/DIVX.<br /><br />AAC is pretty much the new improved version of MP3 its about 1.5-2x better. Meaning simply you can get the same quality file in 1/2 the size or 2x the quality out of a file the same size as a MP3. AAC is the standard for Itunes and Sony PS3, almost any modern device supports it and of course any computer can play it.<br /><br />AAC is usually in a .MP4 or .M4A file, rarely you may see one in its raw .AAC format. .M4A is what Itunes uses to read the ID tag data and the container I always use so I do not get it confused with my .MP4 video files.<br /><br />H264 is almost exactly the same kind of upgrade to XVID/DIVX, its anywhere from 1.5-3x better, offering a lot of new features and coming out with new ones almost daily. It has much much higher quality in low bitrate settings than the older codecs can produce. Most modern devices support it and any computer supports it. Devices may not support all the most advanced features of it so you have to make sure not to include them. GUI's like MeGUI have profiles preset for you with your device so you do not accidentally use a feature your device does not support. It takes a bit more CPU power to play a H264 file than it would DIVX or XVID but its very worth it in both quality and file size. These files are usually in a .MP4 file or .MKV file.<br /><br />I personally use .MKV now but used to use .MP4, my Sony phone for example will only play the .MP4 files so sometimes you do not have a choice.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:+2;">FLAC --> AAC (or MP3 if you really want)</span></b><br /><br />Ok! first part of the guide. I have had forum members ask me how to convert there FLAC files into MP3.<br /><br />Easy, here is how but keep in mind I will show you how to use AAC <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Big Grin" class="inlineimg" border="0" /> if you use MP3 instead thats up to you.<br /><br />1.) Download the FLAC frontend linked on the first post install it and open it. (1.1.4b currently is the newest version)<br />2.) Add the file(s) you want into the front end with the add files button or drag & drop works<br />3.) Make sure to set your output directory to a folder you want<br />4.) Hit the Decode Button<br /><br />This will produce a .WAV file for your songs.<br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/GHG7vYuSGx3We9VU1OtkDA?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/SyiBJQUOeqI/AAAAAAAACUY/3XYvWj-Io2E/s800/flac1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Flac is a lossless compression of WAV files basically, so the first thing we had to do was change it back into a .WAV file<br /><br />From here your ready to encode it back into a .MP3 with the MP3 encoder of your choice or follow my steps to make a AAC file.<br />It would be easy and fast to just download the Nero AAC files linked above in the first post and give you a command line code to run it, but we will use frontends for this to make it easy for you.<br /><br />The frontend I will use to encode this .WAV file to AAC is MeGUI so you need to download BOTH MeGUI & the NeroAAC files linked in the first post.<br /><br />Install MeGUI and it will ask you to update do all the updates it asks you for and when it asks you to import the presets import everything even if you think you wont use it.<br /><br />Now here is a part somebody will miss without guidance, remember I told you Nero AAC has that EULA that says basically a program can not include it, so MeGUI supports it but does not include it and its the only codec that it wont automatically download for you. So after you have MeGUI installed, updated, and setup you need to manually add Nero AAC to its list of programs.<br /><br />So Unzip the neroaac download and put it somewhere you like, I coped the folder into the MeGUI programs folder.<br /><br />In MeGUI go to Options --> Settings --> Program Paths --> Audio and set and save the path to your NeroAACEnc.exe<br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Zt73Lm6ZHJ7aBx4wb7hQ3g?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/SyiCPz9b2mI/AAAAAAAACUc/DwvsymXhM50/s800/neroaac1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Now we are all setup and ready to roll with encoding.<br /><br />1.) Just add your file in the audio input secton<br />2.) Select one of the Nero AAC presets I used the Ipod high preset witch is LC 196kb/s Stereo, equal to or better than a 320kb/s MP3<br />3.) Select your file container MP4 or M4A, I recommend M4A, Ipods need this and its easier to tell them apart from MP4 video files (M4A is MP4 Audio)<br />4.) Click on the Enqueue button<br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bOYJZX4quPRwtYcZwDkfDg?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/SyiE0Yk6xDI/AAAAAAAACUk/2wknlQpb2o4/s800/megui1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />5.) Once you have queued up all the files you want to encode go over to the que tab near the top of MeGUI and hit Start<br />6.) The files will encode and produce nice AAC encoded M4A files for you in the same directory as the input file (unless you changed the output directory in the queue step)<br /><br />Just for the sake of comparison I did another encode 320kb/s Lame MP3 the standard Mp3 codec used and here is what my folder looked like after this tutorial:<br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n9m8ntGxzVoUh5WEouQZ6A?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/SyiF67eGr2I/AAAAAAAACUo/j_TxpuXOZOs/s800/encoded.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Original lossless Compress FLAC File - 27.5MB<br />Uncompressed lossless WAV File - 39.8MB<br />320 kb/s high quality lossy mp3 - 9MB<br />192kb/s high quality lossy AAC - 5.4MB<br /><br />I got the same quality as the MP3 in 1/2 the size just like I said it would <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Big Grin" class="inlineimg" border="0" /><br /><br />I know the music guys main concern right now is converting these and retaining the tags. I have a few methods in the works and that will be the next posting in the guide. However for now you can use one of the two tagging programs linked in the first post, or I had great success with Winamp!<br /><br />I just played these song and right clicked on file info and told it to find the tags and cover art and it found both within seconds.<br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iVoFh7NFu685U34sDU85VQ?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/SyiJSBJosFI/AAAAAAAACUw/98Bq3x7dIC4/s800/winamptag1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Zi0h8LXI8gpKyi_vK5Vk_Q?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/SyiJSIwdkeI/AAAAAAAACU0/oZIKNlD3DeU/s800/winamptag2.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Not sure what database winamp uses, but it seems to work really well.<br /><br />If you feel MeGUI is super overkill for this conversion (and it is) you can try this tool: <a href="http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=110970" target="_blank">http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=110970</a><br /><br />Its a very simple gui that just automates the basics of NeroAACEnc.exe use the LC setting for Ipod (low complexity) and set the bitrate to what you want.<br /><br />I taught how to use MeGUI since it has the profiles built in and I like to have it around for video encoding anyways.<br /><br />neroaacenc.exe can only encode .wav files nativity but programs like MeGUI will transcode simple formats like mp3 for you so you dont have to do the conversion. .FLAC is one of the formats it doesn't seem to do for you so I had to teach you how.<br /><br /><b><u>Update 12/16/09 on Flac --> AAC</u></b><br /><br />Dont want to catch a fish and would rather have somebody catch it for you??? I have just the thing! I found a nice little GUI that combinds the above process for you that is made specially to decode a flac file into a wav, and then encode the wav to a AAC and even carry over the ID tag information all in one step. Use Nero AAC UI - <a href="http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/nero_aac_ui.htm" target="_blank">http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/nero_aac_ui.htm</a><br /><br />It will produce the exact same results except while it can/will carry over ID tag information the tag info was not as complete for me as it was when I used Winamp to look it up from the database. Next using the same kind of process as this UI I am going to teach you how to rip directly from CD --> AAC and carry over tag info all in one program - EAC (Exact Audio Copy)<br /><br />______________________________________<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:+2;">Extracting (Ripping) CD's directly to AAC With Tags</span></b><br />(or FLAC & Mp3)<br /><br />Ok, if you have CD's and you want to extract your music onto your computer for listening/backup or so you can play it on another device AAC is a good way to go.<br /><br />Setup:<br />You will need to download 2 of the tools from the first post to do this if you do not already have them: EAC (Exact Audio Copy), and Nero AAC<br /><br />1.) Install EAC and get the program up and running, make sure you uncheck the ebay icon link when you install it its bloatware included since this is freeware.<br />2.) Configure EAC the way you like, fast ripping or accurate ripping it will walk you thorough this, also make sure to put in your email address so you can use the free tag database function.<br /><br />If you want to rip and encode to FLAC or MP3 the program can do it for you as it comes, it includes those features. Follow the rest of the steps to manually setup the program to use Nero AAC.<br /><br /><br />3.) Time to setup our files we need, go into your <b>C:</b> and make a folder named <b>NeroRip</b> and put inside the 3 Nero files that you downloaded.<br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iWf5imttcExTTzXiPhlt9A?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/Sym0TQeeAyI/AAAAAAAACVU/vMH3buuwNto/s800/cdrip1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />4.) Ok the fun part, open EAC and go into the <b>Compression Options</b> set it up just like this:<br /><br />In order from top to bottom<br />> check box for "use external program"<br />> parameter passing scheme is "user defined encoder"<br />> use file extension - type .M4A<br />> program including path is <b>C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe</b> (Important my image says E: because I am dual boot and my win7 boot uses the E: for you your probably on C<img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" border="0" /><br />> additional command line options - <b>/c C:\NeroRip\neroaacenc.exe -q 0.5 -lc -if %s -of %d && C:\NeroRip\neroaactag.exe %d -:artist="%a" -:album="%g" -:track="%n" -:title="%t" -:genre="%m" -:year="%y"</b><br />> uncheck add ID3 Tag<br />> delete wav is your preference<br /><br /><table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aM8nh7AYZ76AkCF4s6u_Gw?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nNcVLzdKf-c/Sym26-67JMI/AAAAAAAACVc/TkV7VwD9y2c/s800/cdrip2.png" alt="" border="0" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/masakakoi/EncodingGuide?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank">Encoding Guide</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Now your ready to roll but before you go rip any songs you may want to change the encoding settings to your preference. You are basically running neroaacenc.exe from the command line now so you have to manually change the setting in the additional command line string if you have a different preference.<br /><br />The part to change is -q 0.5 what that tells the encoder to do is make a VBR (variable bit rate) of .5 quality (very high quality) this is probably good for 99% of you as is, but if you want a different quality file or do not want to use VBR change the setting.<br /><br />Quick and Dirty Settings Guide<br />VBR (variable bit rate)is the best it uses the tag -q and has a range from 0.00 to 1.00, the .5 setting I used is very high quality, most people use about .35 for high quality. (-q .5)<br />CBR (constant bit rate) is the worst to use and not recommended it uses the tag -cbr and uses the value of the bit rate you want like 192000 would give you 192kb/s file. (-cbr 192000)<br />ABR (average bit rate) is in the middle in quality and uses the tag -br and uses the value of the bit rate you want like 128000 would give you a 128kb/s file. (-br 128000)<br /><br />Setup is complete time to use it!<br /><br />1.) Put your CD in your drive<br />2.) Go to Database --> Get CD Information From --> Remote FreeDB, this will tag all your songs for you and name them<br />3.) Press Control + A to Select All Track (or pick just the tracks you want)<br />4.) Right Click and Select Copy Selected Tracks --> Compressed<br />5.) The save dialog will come up and let you choose a location, the save name will say "ignore file name" thats what you want it will name the file for you based on the tag information.<br />6.) Wait it can take a while if you used the accurate rip method, but when its done you will have a AAC encoded .M4A file with all of the tag information inside, once the setup part is complete this makes ripping many CD's very fast and easy and saves you all the work of first ripping and then encoding or adding tags after the AAC encoding.Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-36918157037733177312011-01-30T15:53:00.000-05:002011-02-07T03:26:56.327-05:0053. Internet Safety Guide: How to Protect Yourself Online<span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><i>By: Charles P. Jefferies from Notebookreview.com<br /><br /></i></span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><p>Internet threats continue to pose a problem for anyone that surfs the Internet -- and yes, that includes you reading the headline and thinking you know it all. In this article we will show you how to protect yourself using some "best practices" for safely surfing the Internet, all without spending a dime.</p><p><b>Background on Internet Threats</b></p> <p>Anyone can throw around terms such as "spyware" and "viruses", but what exactly are they? It helps to know before trying to figure out how best to avoid such problems. Here are the basics:</p> <ul><li><a href="http://searchmidmarketsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid198_gci762187,00.html">Malware</a>: Short for "malicious software". Resides and runs on a user's computer without their consent or knowledge. Malware can be used as an all-inclusive term for viruses, spyware, keyloggers, worms, and Trojan horses, and other Internet threats.</li><li><a href="http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci214518,00.html" target="_blank">Spyware</a>: A type of malware that collects information about users, including personal information and habits (sites they visited). It can also trigger popups and install additional malware.</li><li><a href="http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci213306,00.html">Virus</a>: A type of malware that can replicate itself and infect other computers through a network or media (such as a flash drive). Viruses can do multiple harmful things to a user's computer, such as taking it over and using it for malicious purposes.</li></ul> <p><b>Three Steps to Internet Safety</b></p> <p>This guide will take you through three relatively simple steps to protect yourself on the Internet:</p> <ol><li>Install Mozilla Firefox</li><li>Install the McAfee Site Advisor tool</li><li>Change your online habits</li></ol> <p><b>Step One: Install Mozilla Firefox</b></p> <p>Yes, "Install Mozilla Firefox" may be clich; however, there is sound reasoning why this is a good piece of software. Let's cut the marketing nonsense -- here are the tangible things I like about Firefox:</p> <ul><li>Pop-up blocker: Pop-ups are perhaps the most annoying form of advertising, and Firefox takes care of them for you. It will let you know a pop-up was blocked in case you were expecting one.</li><li>Unsafe site warnings: If you go to a website that is fraudulent, untrusted, or has known security problems, Firefox will actually prevent the site from loading.</li><li>Integration with anti-virus software: Firefox works with your resident anti-virus program to scan downloaded files for security threats.</li><li>Automatic updates: Firefox automatically updates itself, so your defenses stay current.</li><li>Private browsing: Firefox normally remembers what websites you visited, however in private browsing mode (which is easy to toggle on and off), it will not remember anything you did. This feature is handy when logging into banking sites that you want to leave no trace of on your computer (or someone else's). Private Browsing can be activated from the tools menu and clicking "Start Private Browsing"; do the same to turn it off:</li></ul> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=50397"><img style="float: right; margin: 5px 10px;" alt="Internet Safety Guide firefox private browsing" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/50398.jpg" height="86" width="200" /></a>Without further delay, follow this link to Mozilla's official website and <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/" target="_blank">download Firefox</a> for your computer.</p> <p>Firefox is a small 8MB download. Click Download and then <b>save</b> the file to your computer to a location you know (such as My Documents). Double-click the downloaded file and install Firefox with the default settings. Done? Great! Those familiar with Internet Explorer should be able to adapt to Firefox without much trouble -- it gets natural after a day.</p> <p><b>Step Two: Install the McAfee Site Advisor Tool</b></p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=50399"><img style="float: right; margin: 5px 10px;" alt="Internet Safety Guide select mcafee site advisor search" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/50400.jpg" height="201" width="200" /></a>Certain websites are created with malicious intent; for example, some might try to infect your computer with malware and others might be fake phishing sites designed to steal your personal information. McAfee, a computer security company, has a <a href="http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/windows.html">Site Advisor tool</a> that displays ratings next to links in search engines (such as Google and Yahoo), indicating whether or not the listed sites are safe (see here for thorough information on <a href="http://www.siteadvisor.com/howitworks/index.html">how it works</a>). Site Advisor works with both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Simply download and then install McAfee Site Advisor using the default settings (leave everything as-is, though I recommend unchecking the option to install the unnecessary Yahoo toolbar).</p> <p>Once installed, restart Firefox and test Site Advisor out. Make sure your default search provider is set to McAfee first -- in the top right next to the search box, click the down arrow and select McAfee Secure Search:</p> <p>Now search for something and check out the results page -- each link has a little icon next to it that indicates whether the site is safe or not.</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=50401"><img style="margin: 5px 10px; float: left;" alt="Internet Safety Guide mcafee site advisor secure search results" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/50402.jpg" height="116" width="200" /></a></p> <p>Green means good, yellow is caution, and red means unsafe/untrusted. A question mark indicates the site has not been scanned yet. As a rule of thumb, only click on the green links.</p> <p>Below is an example of what search results look like after installing the Site Advisor tool:</p> <p>And yes, NotebookReview.com is totally safe -- but you knew that.</p> <p>The Site Advisor tool is great to have when you are searching for things you do not usually search for (and thus might be unfamiliar with sites that come up). It never hurts to double-check. As always, use your judgment when clicking on links. If something is too good to be true, it is.</p> <p><b>Step Three: Change Your Online Habits</b></p> <p>The single greatest danger you face on the Internet is yourself. More specifically, there is no software that can compensate for your poor Internet safety habits.</p> <p>Let's start with how much critical information you willingly give away. This is the Internet -- information posted online can be seen by almost anyone, and secure websites can be hacked. Even restricted pages such as your Facebook profile are not entirely safe -- someone with access (such as your "friends") could copy and paste the information to a Web page that isn't truly private. The bottom line here is that you need to be extra careful with yourself on the Internet. Below are a few of the habits I see <i>daily</i> that present huge security risks to the users:</p> <p>? <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Connecting to unsecured wireless networks</span>: You know that coffee shop down the street that offers free Wi-Fi? That free Wi-Fi access could cost you a lot if it is unsecured (Windows will indicate whether a network is secured/unsecured when you try to connect). An unsecured connection is an open network that allows anyone to connect -- information passed from your laptop to the wireless router and vice versa can be intercepted by people with the right tools since it is not encrypted. Additionally, network attacks can be made from other computers connected to the network.<br /><b>Internet Safety Habit: <i>Avoid unsecured Wi-Fi</i></b></p> <p>? <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Accessing secure websites in public</span>: Even on a secured network, remember that people can see what you type on your laptop screen. All it takes is one person to walk by with a camera phone and snap a picture of your online banking page. The same is true at your office, where all it takes is one nosy coworker poking over a cubicle wall or an unscrupulous network administrator spying on your workstation to snag your passwords.<br /><b>Internet Safety Habit: <i>Access secure websites only at home</i> </b></p> <p>? <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Saving personal information on shopping websites</span>: Most shopping sites offer to save your credit card and address information for easier checkout in the future. While this is convenient for the few sites you shop at regularly, please do not opt to save info on every site you shop. Though the information is supposedly secured, successful hacking attempts have occurred in the past and personal data has been stolen. Also, there are too many stories of personal information getting "lost".<br /><b>Internet Safety Habit: <i>Don't save credit card numbers on shopping sites</i></b></p> <p>? <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Posting personal information on social networking sites</span>: I find it amusing that people post the details of their personal lives on social networking sites such as Facebook, give a platoon of their "friends" access, and then complain about privacy issues. Am I the only one that can see the issue here?<br /><b>Internet Safety Habit: <i>Only post information online you want <span style="text-decoration: underline;">everyone</span> to see</i></b></p> <p>? <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Keep your computer personal</span>: Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox make it easy to store password and form information (such as names and addresses used in order forms). Anyone that opens the web browser on your computer can check your browsing history, visit your "secure" sites (like your Web-based email) and automatically log in as you because you opted to have the browser save your password. Avoid storing passwords, or better yet, password-protect your computer and lock it when not in use (press the Windows key and L to lock your computer). Make a second account on your computer for other people to use so your information is kept separate, and make sure that account is password-protected and not an administrator.<br /><b>Internet Safety Habit: <i>Never save passwords on any computer that you share</i></b></p> <p>? <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Do not install software you do not explicitly want</span>: Many software vendors try to sneak additional pieces of software on your system during the install process. For example, toolbars for your Internet browser, updater tools, and other unnecessary (and annoying) items. If you wanted those pieces of software, you would have installed them on your own.<br /><b>Internet Safety Habit: <i>Install as little software as possible</i></b></p><p><b>Conclusion</b></p> <p>Your online safety is 10% dependent on someone else and 90% dependent on you. The majority of risk factors can be controlled through the simple steps outlined in this article. Number one -- control the online environment with a safe web browser. Mozilla Firefox has numerous advantages -- it prevents you from going to malicious sites, scans files you download, blocks pop-ups, and helps safeguard personal data. Number two -- links in search engines can be dangerous. McAfee's Site Advisor tool helps identify which links are safe and vice versa -- know something about a website before you click. Lastly, consciously think about your online actions and what you do with your personal information. Avoid unsecured wireless connections, lock your computer with a password when not in use, stop saving your credit card information on every site you visit, and last but not least, do not post information on Facebook you would not be comfortable sharing with the rest of the world.</p> <p>These simple tips can help safeguard you from the majority of online threats. Your judgment plays a larger role than any piece of software can. Use the tools and tips mentioned in this article to stay safe.</p> <p>Happy surfing.</p></span></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-11332730769586632792010-12-12T14:52:00.000-05:002011-02-07T03:24:48.117-05:0052. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 3<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><i>By: Charles P. Jefferies from Notebookreview.com<br /><br /></i></span></span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><p>In part three of our computer optimization guide we wrap-up with some final performance tips. This part focuses on <a href="http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.aspx" target="_blank">Diskeeper 2010 Professional</a>, a tool to optimize your hard drive.</p><p><b>What is fragmentation?</b></p> <p>Imagine that a hard drive is like a filing cabinet. Your computer places files and folders into this filing cabinet and accesses them when needed. The computer's problem is that it does not insert files and folders into the cabinet in any particular order. Making matters worse, a single file may be fragmented into many small pieces when saved to the hard drive, like taking pages from one document and putting them into different drawers. This drags down performance because when the computer wants to access a file it has to go to several different locations on the hard drive, and accessing data on a hard drive is not instantaneous.</p> <p>Defragmentation has the opposite effect of fragmentation -- it takes those fragments and consolidates them, putting the hard drive back in order. This generally means the hard drive only needs to go to one location to access a file, which is very beneficial for performance. The hard drive is the absolute slowest component in any computer, about 1000x slower than the next fastest component (memory/RAM). Therefore, any increase in performance will be noticeable.</p> <p>In this article, we will be looking at a product called Diskeeper 2010, which is designed to handle and prevent fragmentation.</p> <p><b>Diskeeper 2010 Overview</b></p> <p>Diskeeper 2010 Professional is a $59.95 storage device performance optimizer. The price seems steep given there are many free defragment products on the market (Windows has one), but Diskeeper is more than a simple defragmenter. Diskeeper includes several notable technologies that are designed to keep a computer running in top shape.</p> <p><i>IntelliWrite</i> -- this technology helps prevent fragmentation from occurring; it is claimed to prevent fragmentation up to 85% by intelligently writing files to the hard drive.</p> <p><i>InvisiTasking</i> -- this technology allows for real-time defragmenting, meaning it is no longer necessary to leave your computer alone while defragmenting it.</p> <p><i>I-FAAST</i> -- this technology monitors your activity and moves the most commonly-accessed files to the fastest locations on the hard drive.</p> <p><i>Boot time defragmentation</i> -- Diskeeper can defragment the Windows boot files and other system files during startup; these files cannot be moved around while Windows is running.</p> <p>Diskeeper has some other notable features including the ability to defragment a hard disk with less than 1% free space (most defragment products need a certain % free space to move files around) and 64-bit operating system support.</p> <p><b>Diskeeper 2010 Overview</b></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=49267" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: left;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/49268.jpg" alt="Diskeeper interface" height="142" width="200" /></a>Diskeeper has a straightforward interface; the main page shows storage volumes present on the system and shows which Diskeeper technologies are enabled on it.</p> <p>It is simple to enable and disable technologies; the icons at the top launch setup windows for each. For our test system, we enabled IntelliWrite, automatic defragmentation, I-FAAST, and performed a boot time defragmentation.</p> <p>At the bottom of the interface is the Dashboard -- this presents real-time statistics for your hard drive. It shows, for example, how many fragments were prevented, a read/write time performance improvement, volume health with recommendations, and resource usage by Diskeeper. This information is generally unnecessary to keep tabs on, but enthusiasts and those wishing to learn a bit how their hard drive operates will enjoy it.</p> <p><b>In Use</b></p> <p><i>Automatic Defragmenting</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=49269" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: left;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/49270.jpg" alt="Diskeeper status" height="142" width="200" /></a>Diskeeper's automatic defragment feature worked seamlessly -- while the hard disk activity light was frequently active on our test computer, we noticed no choppiness or stuttering as a result. Diskeeper actually allows users to watch how it is using resources (as shown above); it only defragments the volume when sufficient resources are available <b><i>and</i></b> it will not affect your computing experience -- this was definitely the case for us. A traditional defragmenter basically requires users to leave the computer alone for several hours while it works due to performance slow-downs associated with disk activity.</p> <p>After just a few hours of having automatic defragmentation enabled, our hard drive went from the readout on the left to the readout on the right (the red is bad):</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=49271" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: left;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/49272.jpg" alt="Diskeeper before defrag" height="142" width="200" /></a><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=49273" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/49274.jpg" alt="Diskeeper after defrag" height="142" width="200" /></a></p> <p>Diskeeper eliminated nearly all fragmentation without us knowing -- very nice.</p> <p><i>Fragmentation Prevention & Handling</i></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=49275" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: right;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/49276.jpg" alt="Diskeeper IntelliWrite" height="68" width="200" /></a>Diskeeper reported that IntelliWrite prevented 87% of the fragmentation that would normally have occurred on our test machine -- very impressive. Combined with automatic defragmentation, it kept our hard drive in top performance shape with no interaction on our part.</p> <p>Additionally, Diskeeper reported that IntelliWrite improved read and write access time for fragments by 50% but we have no way to verify this.</p> <p><i>Boot Time Improvements</i></p> <p>Boot time defragmentation, which is designed to reduce startup time by optimizing boot files, worked well. On our test system, an <a href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=748124634">HP ProBook 5310m</a> notebook with <a href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=741842156">Windows 7 Professional 32-bit</a> and a <a href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=721280080">320GB 7200RPM Seagate hard drive (ST9320423AS)</a>, we measured boot times from the point the Windows logo appeared to the log-on screen.</p> <p><i>Before boot time defragment</i>: 13.5s</p> <p><i>After boot time defragment:</i> 12.4s</p> <p>This is about a 10% improvement; our test system is blazing fast as it is, so any increase here was impressive and would only be magnified on slower systems.</p><p><b>Diskeeper Conclusion</b></p> <p>Diskeeper is an impressive product in its own right. If it were simply an after-the-fact defragmenter we would likely not be impressed, however its active features -- preventing fragmentation by intelligently writing data to the hard drive and on-the-fly defragmentation -- were impressive and saved us from doing it manually. Diskeeper even goes so far as to optimize frequently-used files for faster access. We experienced no issues with Diskeeper running in the background. While it is not possible to numerically gauge the performance improvement from defragmenting the hard drive, we observed a noticeable performance improvement after having Diskeeper installed for a few days; commonly used programs opened faster and boot time improved. Additionally, we noticed shut-down and log-on times were also reduced. We feel Diskeeper's $59.95 price tag to be somewhat steep, but for those wanting to squeeze the best performance possible out of their hard drives, Diskeeper 2010 is the product to buy.</p> <p><b>Pros</b></p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> Seamless defragmentation</li><li> Prevents fragmentation</li><li> Provides real-time disk statistics</li><li> Easy to use</li></ul> <p><b>Cons</b></p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> Steep price tag</li></ul> <p><b>Computer Optimization Guide Conclusion</b></p> <p>In our three-part guide we showed you how to not only improve your computer's performance, but also how to improve your productivity by changing the way you actually use your computer. In part one we went over <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5461&review=Windows+PC+Optimization+Guide">basic performance improvement tips</a> (reducing startup items to improve log-on time and free up resources, getting rid of unused programs, cleansing the system of junk files, and organizing your files); in part two we showed you <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5462&review=Windows+PC+Optimization+Guide+Part+Two">handy keyboard shortcuts to improve your productivity</a> (a faster approach to navigating through Windows and text editing) and how to back up your files; lastly in part three we demonstrated how Diskeeper 2010 can help keep your system in top shape. We hope this series has taught you something and improved your computing experience -- remember to pass the tips along!</p></span></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-81433423983402535412010-11-19T13:46:00.000-05:002011-06-04T23:47:37.885-04:0050. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 1<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><i>By: Charles P. Jefferies from Notebookreview.com</i><br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><p>This three-part series is designed to help everyday computer users improve their productivity by optimizing their computer's performance, making use of handy shortcuts in the Windows operating system, and creating and maintaining a backup schedule. Let's get started with part one, improving performance.</p> <p>The first part of this guide will cover optimizing computer performance. The directions are aimed at Windows Vista and 7 users; XP users can also follow along though not all steps will be the same.</p> <p><i>Disclaimer: You follow the advice in this guide at your own risk. NotebookReview.com is not responsible for any damages or otherwise. </i></p><p><b>Remove Unnecessary Startup Programs</b></p> <p><i>Performance benefit:</i> High</p> <p><i>Difficulty Level: </i>Medium</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=48947" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: right;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48948.jpg" alt="Windows PC Optimization Guide msconfig" height="133" width="200" /></a>A program is typically only run when needed -- for example, only running Microsoft Word while typing a document. Unfortunately, many software vendors think that their software needs to run all the time in the background for whatever reason, checking for updates, pre-loading, and so on. My response to these vendors is: <i>No</i>. There are specific programs that need to run all the time -- antivirus, mainly -- but no reason that applications such as Apple's QuickTime need to sit around and take up resources. We are going to prevent these programs from starting up with Windows (and therefore slowing down your logon time). The programs will still function fine; they will simply not run when not needed.</p> <p>Press and hold down the Windows Key and then press R; this will open up the Run prompt. In the box, type <i>msconfig</i> and click OK. This will bring up a System Configuration window:</p> <p>Click on the Startup tab:</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=48949" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: left;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48950.jpg" alt="Windows PC Optimization Guide msconfig startup" height="133" width="200" /></a>The startup tab shows all programs that can start with Windows; if an item's box is checked, that means it is run during startup.</p> <p>If your computer is like mine, there are a lot of programs installed on it and chances are a lot of startup items to complement them. Our goal is to reduce the number of startup items to a minimum.</p> <p>The hard part is determining which items can be disabled. Some items have a descriptive name such as "GoogleToolbarNotifier", but others may not even have a pronounceable name. I am not able to provide a full list of what can be unchecked, but in general the following can be without consequences:</p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> GoogleToolbarNotifier (associated with the Google Internet browser toolbar)</li><li> Jusched (Java update scheduler)</li><li> Acrotray (associated with Adobe products)</li><li> WinZip Quick Pick (associated with the WinZip compression application)</li><li> Qttask (Apple QuickTime)</li><li> iTunesHelper (Apple iTunes)</li></ul> <p>The items listed above are nothing but a complete waste of your computer's resources (RAM) and add extra time onto startup -- disable them by simply unchecking the boxes and clicking Apply. Exit msconfig when done and restart your computer to finish. You can disable as many items as you want at one time.</p> <p>To find if you can disable more items, do an Internet search for the name and see what comes up. Be sure to cross-reference the results to verify what you are reading is accurate. By reducing the number of startup items, your computer's boot-up and log-on times and RAM usage will be greatly reduced.</p> <p><b>Uninstall Unused Programs</b></p> <p><i>Performance benefit: </i>Medium</p> <p><i>Difficulty:</i> Easy</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=48951" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: right;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48952.jpg" alt="Windows PC Optimization Guide uninstall programs" height="142" width="200" /></a>As noted I install a lot of programs on my computer, yet I rarely use most of them. These unused programs take up hard drive space and may be eating up additional resources if they are running in the background. They also clutter the programs list. It is time to do a little housecleaning.</p> <p>The first step in this process is figuring out which programs you need and do not need. Click Start and then All Programs; make a list of them.</p> <p>Now let us get rid of the programs you do not use. Click Start and then Control Panel, then "Uninstall a Program" under Programs. It may take several minutes for this window to load completely.</p> <p>Get started -- remove the programs on your do not use list. Double-click the item in the list and follow the accompanying wizard to uninstall it. Be careful -- do not uninstall programs blindly. If you do not recognize an item then do an Internet search for that item and cross-reference the results. Only uninstall items you are sure are extraneous.</p> <p><b>Clean Out and Organize Your Documents</b></p> <p><i>Performance Benefit:</i> Little</p> <p><i>Productivity Benefit: </i>High</p> <p><i>Difficulty: </i>Easy</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=48953" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: left;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48954.jpg" alt="Windows PC Optimization Guide My Documents" height="144" width="200" /></a>This is another chore I always put off -- cleaning out and organizing the "My Documents" folder. I download a great deal of programs and files from the Internet, and every time I save something I blindly dump it in My Documents. After a few months, My Documents gets uncomfortably crowded and finding items becomes nearly impossible without using search. Last week I finally got fed up and organized <i>everything.</i></p> <p>While organizing files has little performance benefit, the productivity benefit is high. Organized folders make it far easier to locate files, which save time.</p> <p>Everyone will have a different style of organizing their personal documents; I order by category (for example, my Pictures folder is organized by the location where I took the pictures) and then by date -- this makes it simple to drill down into different categories. Regardless of your organizational style, remember the idea is to keep the number of clicks required to get to commonly-accessed content to a minimum.</p> <p><b>Clean Out Your System with CCleaner</b></p> <p><i>Performance Benefit: </i>Medium</p> <p><i>Difficulty:</i> Easy</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=48955" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: right;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48956.jpg" alt="Windows PC Optimization Guide CCleaner" height="145" width="200" /></a>This final step in this guide is probably the simplest of all. CCleaner is a freeware application -- it can be <a target="_blank" title="download CCleaner" href="http://www.ccleaner.com/download">downloaded here</a>. Install the program once downloaded and launch it (click Start, Programs, CCleaner, CCleaner).</p> <p>This program will scan your computer's hard drive for unnecessary files and other items strewn about by careless programs (temporary files and so on). The program defaults are safe; if you want to save your Internet Explorer browser history, be sure to uncheck that box. For Firefox users, click the Application tab and uncheck the same box under Firefox.</p> <p>To clean the hard drive, click "Run Cleaner" and let the program go; it may take some time to run.</p><p> </p> <p><b>Conclusion</b></p> <p>This wraps up part one of three of the NotebookReview.com Computer Optimization Guide. Following the steps in this guide should yield a healthy increase in performance. Stop back for <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5462&review=Windows+PC+Optimization+Guide+Part+Two">part two</a>, which will show you handy Windows shortcuts and detail how to create and maintain a backup schedule.</p></span></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-38263880344711362032010-09-24T18:33:00.000-04:002011-02-07T03:22:55.541-05:0051. Windows PC Optimization Guide Part 2<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><i>By: Charles P. Jefferies from Notebookreview.com<br /><br /></i></span></span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><p>NotebookReview's Computer Optimization Guide is designed to help you and your computer work faster together to be more productive. In <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5461&review=Windows+PC+Optimization+Guide">part one</a> we focused on improving your computer's performance, and now we will focus on improving the way you use a computer.</p> <p>This guide is aimed at Windows XP/Vista/7 users with a basic understanding of computer operation and usage.</p><p><b>Learn Windows Shortcuts</b></p> <p>A computer typically has two input devices -- a keyboard and a mouse. While it is straightforward to click on things on-screen, there is a faster way to navigate through programs and give commands -- the keyboard. Just about every Windows user knows <i>Ctrl + Alt + Delete</i>, but do you know any more? You will.</p> <p><i>Windows XP/Vista/7 Generic Keyboard Shortcuts</i></p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> <i>Alt + F4</i>: Closes the current window/program</li><li> <i>Alt + Tab</i>: Holding down Alt and pressing Tab once switches to the previous window you were using; press tab again to switch to the next window</li><li> <i>Windows Key + F1</i>: Launches Windows help from any program; pressing F1 will launch help for the current program</li><li> <i>Windows Key + M</i>: Minimize all windows; press <i>Windows Key + Shift + M</i> to undo minimize</li><li> <i>Windows Key + D</i>: Show desktop</li><li> <i>Windows Key + E</i>: Open Windows explorer</li><li> Highlight any icon/file in Windows Explorer: Press F2 to rename</li></ul> <p><i>Windows 7 Specific Shortcuts</i></p> <p>There are some shortcuts specific to Windows 7 that really come in handy:</p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> <i>Windows Key + Up Arrow</i>: Maximizes current window</li><li> <i>Windows Key + Down Arrow</i>: Minimizes current window</li><li> <i>Windows Key + Left/Right Arrow</i>: Docks current window on left or right side of screen</li><li> <i>Windows Key + Home</i>: Makes all windows transparent except the current window</li><li> <i>Windows Key + Space</i>: Hold to make all windows transparent</li></ul> <p><i>Edit Text Faster with Keyboard Shortcuts</i></p> <p>Anyone who types on a regular basis is going to find the following shortcuts extremely useful. They are generic and should work in almost any text input area -- Microsoft Word and so on.</p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> <i>Ctrl + A</i>: Selects everything</li><li> <i>Ctrl + C</i>: Copies selected area</li><li> <i>Ctrl + V</i>: Pastes copied text</li><li> <i>Ctrl + X</i>: Cuts selected text</li><li> <i>Ctrl + Z</i>: Undo</li><li> <i>Ctrl + Y</i>: Redo</li><li> <i>Shift + Arrow Key</i>: Highlights text in that direction from wherever the cursor is (try it!)</li><li> <i>Ctrl + Arrow Keys</i>: Left/right arrow keys go to end/beginning of words, up/down go to beginning of previous/next paragraph</li><li> <i>Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Keys</i>: Left/right arrow keys highlight previous/next word, up/down highlight previous/next paragraph</li></ul> <p><b>Create and Keep a File Backup Schedule</b></p> <p>Corrupted and failed hard drives are the biggest productivity killers of all time -- nothing is worse than losing all your data. For this guide I am going to demonstrate how to do file backups with a free tool from Microsoft called SyncToy -- <a title="download Sync Toy" href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en" target="_blank">it can be downloaded here</a>. You will also need a storage device such as an external hard drive or flash drive.</p> <p>1. Install SyncToy and launch it.</p> <p>2. Let's assume we want to back up My Documents; on your external storage device, create a folder called My Documents Backup.</p> <p>3. Now we will use SyncToy to sync the folders in your My Documents folder to the My Documents Backup folder on the external drive.</p> <p>4. <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=48957" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: right;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48958.jpg" alt="Windows PC Optimization Guide -- Part Two new Sync Toy pair" height="175" width="200" /></a>Click <i>Create New Folder Pair</i> at the bottom of SyncToy; it will bring up the window shown to the right </p> <p>5. The way this works is that the left folder will be synced with the right folder; assuming we want to back up My Documents, click Browse on the Left, select My Documents, and click OK. On the right, select the My Documents Backup folder you created on your storage device and click OK.</p> <p>6. Click Next; there are three options here. Synchronize is what most will want to do -- it will sync the folder on the left (My Documents) with the folder on the right (My Documents Backup).</p> <p>7. Click Next; give the action a name and click Finish.</p> <p>8. Repeat steps 1 -- 7 for however many folders you want to backup.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=48959" target="_blank"><img style="border: 0pt none; margin: 5px 10px; float: left;" src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/48960.jpg" alt="Windows PC Optimization Guide -- Part Two all Sync Toy pairs" height="165" width="200" /></a>Now that you have created all folder pairs it is time to run them, therefore syncing all of the folders on your computer to the external storage device. Assuming you want to run them all at once, click the <i>All Folder Pairs</i> item at the bottom:</p> <p>Click <i>Run All</i> and the syncing will commence. The first sync will take the longest since all of the files need to be copied, but sequential runs will go faster since only new/updated files will be synced.</p> <p>Ideally, back up your files once per week -- it will take mere minutes and for that you will have the invaluable security of having your data backed up. Just connect your external hard drive, open SyncToy and click <i>Run All</i> - that's it.</p> <p> </p><p><b>Conclusion</b></p> <p>In part one of this guide we showed you how to improve your computer's performance, and today we showed you valuable shortcuts and a data backup plan to keep you as productive as possible. Stop back for part three, where we go over additional performance and productivity tips.</p></span></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-11868232800817281942009-11-29T19:03:00.000-05:002009-11-29T19:04:25.148-05:0049. Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center Review<span style="font-style: italic;">By: Greg (Greg Ross)</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">From: NotebookReview.com</span><br /><br /><span style="line-height: 20px;font-size:12px;" class="width490" ><span id="intelliTxt"><p>While many previous versions of Windows include have some type of archival utility, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/backup.aspx">Vista Backup & Restore Center</a> is billed as the first Windows system restore tool that could replace aftermarket data retention software. Does this free utility have what it takes? Or is the Backup & Restore Center yet more bloatware from Redmond? We make the call inside.</p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--> <p> <style><!-- --></style> </p> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} --> <!--[endif]--> <p><b>INSTALLATION & SETUP</b></p> <p>Windows Vista's Backup & Restore Center is included with the operating system, so there is no explicit installation involved with this utility. However, the Backup & Restore Center comes in two flavors. Windows Vista Home Premium's version has the ability to backup only user files and folders, while Vista Business and Ultimate's version can also backup entire partitions and hard drives. (Don't you love Microsoft for gently pushing you towards purchasing Ultimate?)</p> <p>During this review, we will be covering all of the features accessible from within Microsoft Vista Ultimate.</p> <p><b>PROGRAM INTERFACE</b></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45982" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45983.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center first open screen" border="0" height="187" width="250" /></a></p> <p>Users can access the Backup & Restore Center by clicking on the Start Menu and opening up the Control Panel. From there, clicking on the Backup & Restore Center icon causes the opening window, shown above, to pop up.</p> <p>The interface itself is simple, compact, and quite informative. Backup and restoration operations can be easily executed by clicking on the appropriate buttons from within this screen. All of the options are self-explanatory. Unlike some tools reviewed in this series, the Backup & Restore Center only contains barebones information about backups. It does not include any kind of task log that indicates the status of previous backups, but simply what time the last backup was completed.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45984" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45985.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center Status and Configuration Window" border="0" height="199" width="250" /></a></p> <p>The Start Menu also has a well hidden link to the Backup Status and Configuration window, which also summarizes the status of backups on the computer. The tabbed interface breaks this up a little more for the user, which is somewhat unnecessary considering how few options available in the Backup & Restore Center. The first tab of this window, shown above, is dedicated solely to file and folder backups for users.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45986" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45987.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center recovery options tab" border="0" height="199" width="250" /></a></p> <p>The status window also gives the user access to recovery options. Files and folders can be restored from archives created on this computer or created on another computer, but there really is no reason to present these recovery operations as two entirely different choices, is there? If this interface was not so broken up perhaps, Microsoft would not have to look for ways to fill out the window space with extra buttons.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45988" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45989.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center backups status tab" border="0" height="199" width="250" /></a></p> <p>Finally, the last tab reveals information about full computer backups, and provides quick access to the backup wizard.</p> <p>Honestly, we see no need for the Backup Status and Configuration link in the Start Menu. Why not just provide a link to the full Backup & Restore Center? The interface practically doubles up on everything between these two windows, and it unnecessarily muddies the quality and user friendliness of the interface.</p> <p><b>FILE AND FOLDER BACKUP AND RECOVERY</b></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45990" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45991.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center file backup wizard" border="0" height="207" width="250" /></a></p> <p>In order to begin the backup process that protects user data, open up the Backup & Restore Center and hit the Back Up Files button. A new wizard pops up that immediately inquires where the backup should be stored. Network locations or physical hard drives are the only allowable destinations, Vista does not allow users to backup files to a rewriteable CD/DVD or a USB memory key.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45992" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45993.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center backup partition selection" border="0" height="207" width="250" /></a></p> <p>Once the backup destination is selected, Vista asks which partitions should be included in the backup. By default, the main system partition is selected -- and there is no choice to de-select it. While partition-level backups are certainly useful, it would be nice if there was a way to specifically choose files and folders to be backed up.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45994" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45995.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center file type selection" border="0" height="207" width="250" /></a></p> <p>While choosing specific locations or files is not possible, Vista's Backup & Restore Center does allow users to choose what types of files are preserved in an archive. This does provide some versatility but Vista is not very clear as to what specific files are preserved. For instance, the window above provides no insight into whether selecting Music files will backup just WMV files, or other popular formats like MP3 or even Apple's M4A iTunes music files.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45996" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45997.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center scheduler" border="0" height="207" width="250" /></a></p> <p>After selecting file types for backup, the actual backup operation has to be scheduled. Daily, weekly, and monthly schedules are available though Vista limits backup operations to once per week or once per month when the respective options are chosen. No other explicit actions -- like a system error or an application install -- can prompt a backup job outside this schedule.</p> <p>When a backup job is complete, the destination hard drive will have a new folder named after the computer. Within that folder will be a series of additional folders that containing all of the preserved files, compressed and archived in their native formats. It might be a bit tedious, but by browsing through all the folders we can get a solid idea as to which files were backed up (or not).</p> <p>When the backup runs on schedule, testing hinted that Vista only stores files that have changed since the last backup. This incremental backup routine definitely saves on hard drive space, though it does require that users never delete the data in these archives!</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=45998" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/45999.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center recovery wizard" border="0" height="196" width="250" /></a></p> <p>If any files need to be restored from the archives, selecting the Restore Files button starts up the recovery wizard, shown above. The most recent archive, one of the previous archives created, or an archive from a completely different machine (click on the 'Advanced restore' link to get this option) can be selected as the data source.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=46000" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/46001.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center recovery summary" border="0" height="196" width="250" /></a></p> <p>The Backup & Restore Center wizard then displays a summary window that provides a list of all the files that are to be recovered. If only a select few files need to be restored but their location is unknown, the wizard is capable of searching through the archive. Specific files and folders can also be chosen from within the interface. The wizard then asks if the files should be restored to their original location or to another destination.</p> <p>While testing indicated that backing up files (subject to previously discussed limitations) and restoring them worked, we noticed a few quirks during the process. For one, restoring a folder does not actually restore folders to the condition they were in during the last backup. It merely copies the archive files to the destination. Any files that were created in the folder after the backup that were not overwritten will still be there, so Vista does not really recover entire folders, it just dumps old versions of data into them along with any more recent additions, for better or worse. That said, restoring individual files is easy and it works.</p> <p><b>SYSTEM BACKUPS AND RECOVERY</b></p> <p>Backing up an entire system starts with clicking the Back Up Computer button from within the Backup & Recovery Center. From there, the process basically runs the same way as file and folder backups. Select a destination drive, then select the partitions to backup, and then confirm the settings. However, once the settings are confirmed, the utility archives the entire hard drive as a type of virtual disc drive much like those used in virtual machines (VMware, Microsoft Virtual PC, etc).</p> <p>The actual backup does not take more than a few minutes with the barebones Vista installation put in our test-bed system for purposes of this review. Other computers in the office did take up to 30-45 minutes to backup the system partition, but those computers needed to archive 40 to 80 gigabytes of files.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=46002" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/46003.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center restore computer wizard" border="0" height="137" width="250" /></a></p> <p>Restoring a complete system involves starting up the Restore Computer wizard and reading the heart-stopping warning shown above. Microsoft needs to be a little clearer about what data or partitions are going to be destroyed. At least the wizard tells you what you need to do next; hopefully you have a Windows Vista installation disc nearby, because the process won't work without one. There is no tool included with the OS to make any kind of recovery disc, which is a disappointment considering Microsoft knows a majority of computer owners probably do not have this disc. If you do not have a Windows Vista install disc, try to get a media replacement from Microsoft, beg your laptop manufacturer to mail you discs, or borrow a disc from a friend.</p> <p>To start the system restore, insert the Vista install disc into the computer, reboot, and when prompted hit any key to boot to the CD. If you have not reinstalled Vista on any computer before, welcome to the Vista installation wizard. Be careful while you are in here, and pay attention to the options presented, to avoid doing something dangerous (like reformatting the hard drive that has your backup files on it).</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=46004" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/46005.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center repair your computer" border="0" height="193" width="250" /></a></p> <p>Choose the language preferred, and then hit the option to Repair Your Computer. You will then be asked to confirm which Vista installation needs to be fixed. More likely than not, there will be only one choice to select.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=46006" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/46007.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center recovery options" border="0" height="193" width="250" /></a></p> <p>A few diagnostic utilities are available from this page of the wizard, only one of which we care about right now. Select the option to restore the PC from a backup, and the wizard will automatically search for the appropriate backup file.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=46008" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/46009.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center recovery file selection" border="0" height="193" width="250" /></a></p> <p>If the wizard selects the wrong one, or cannot find it, there will be an opportunity to manually choose a file. In our case, the restoration wizard instantly recognized the correct file.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=46010" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/46011.jpg" alt="Windows Vista Backup & Restore Center recovery summary" border="0" height="193" width="250" /></a></p> <p>A summary of the recovery operation as configured will be presented, and one final option will appear. Microsoft really needs to make this part of the wizard more explanatory, because we honestly had no clue which partitions on our test bed system would be obliterated during the restoration operation.</p> <p>After a few minutes, the recovery operation was complete and the computer was ready to reboot. Vista booted up and started running without any issues, so we immediately checked on all the other partitions on the computer to make sure the recovery had only wiped out the target main system partition.</p> <p>We selected the option to reformat the disc during recovery, and that reformat only affected the partition being restored. If that option was not chosen, would the recovery wizard merely have copied files over like it did with the file and folder wizard?</p> <p>So we ran another recovery operation, and did not choose to reformat. Then Vista's boot CD asked to confirm that we understood the recovery would erase the partition.</p> <p>Once again, we are left clueless with Microsoft's interface. But at least the recovery worked, which is more than one or two applications in our roundup can say.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b></p> <p>Microsoft Vista's Backup & Recovery Center has most of the basic features needed in a backup utility, but the utility is a mixed bag at best. It can schedule file backups, but not operating system backups. Verifying user data backups is quick but not entirely easy, while verifying partition backups is not possible without maybe some third-party applications. The Backup & Restore Center can be configured to selectively choose types of files to backup, but the program does not inform the user exactly what file extensions are (or are not) included with those choices. The user interface was sometimes friendly, but often confusing when we were running recovery operations. During these operations, some of Microsoft's prompts about reformatting scared us enough to take extra precautions to protect important files on our test bed system. Considering this utility is supposed to be reassuring, not alarming, these warnings did more harm than good.</p> <p>In the end, Vista's Backup & Recovery Center does work, but you have to fork out the cash for Vista Business or Ultimate to access half of the features of this utility. For those looking for a short-term stop-gap solution, on too tight of a budget to afford third party backup and recovery software, or only need a backup utility for one-time partition backups, then this utility will get you through. But if you are looking for more flexibility and a program that is open about what it is actually doing, look elsewhere.</p> <p><b>PROS</b></p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> Simple wizards</li><li> Free with Vista Ultimate</li><li> No driver conflicts</li></ul> <p><b>CONS</b></p> <ul class="unIndentedList"><li> Requires Vista install disk</li><li> Many wizards confusing</li><li> File "recovery" = copy & paste</li></ul></span></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-16285995975907651752009-09-16T16:19:00.003-04:002009-09-16T16:21:51.375-04:0048. Gamers Graphics Tuning Guide<span style="font-style: italic;">By: Pulp</span> (Dustin Sklavos)<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From: NotebookReview.com</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;" class="width490"><span id="intelliTxt"><p>Even if you've got the latest and greatest CPU, graphics card, widescreen monitor and cutting edge video game, odds are you're not enjoying the ultimate gaming experience. Why? Because you're gaming on the default graphics settings. No matter how old or new your gaming rig, you can probably squeeze even more performance from the system by following the tips in this Gamers' Graphics Tuning Guide.</p> <p>This information applies to both desktop and notebook users alike. We'll cover how to make your in-game visuals look their best, and how to do some basic performance optimization for your games by slightly (or significantly) tweaking your graphics settings.</p><p><b>BASIC KNOWLEDGE</b></p> <p>There are two things you're need to know about your system: <i>What is the monitor's native resolution?</i> and <i>What make and model is my graphics card?</i></p> <p>In lay terms, your monitor's native resolution is the number of pixels (measures as width by height) the screen is designed to produce. The specification is available online for either your monitor or your notebook. The model number proper will be on the bottom of the notebook or the back of the monitor. If the specification given by the manufacturer uses a letter abbreviation like WXGA, you can check our <a href="http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=1304">How it Works: Screens guide</a> to translate these codes into actual resolution numbers.</p> <p>Your monitor will deliver its best picture at its native resolution. You <i>can</i> run a lower resolution, but for more information on that (and other tasty tidbits) it would be helpful to go back and check the aforementioned Screens guide.</p> <p>The model of your video card or "display adapter" is listed on your system's specification sheet. If your desktop was custom-built you probably know this already. To learn more about the fundamentals of graphics hardware, you'll want to check out the first page of our <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5149">Mobile Graphics Guide for 2009</a>, which is largely applicable to desktop hardware as well. Optimizing your graphics output based on your graphics card is much, much trickier than just changing your software resolution to match your hardware resolution. We'll take it step by step in the sections below.</p> <p><b>A BRIEF ANATOMY OF A GPU</b></p> <p>Basically, with any graphics hardware -- also known as a graphics processing unit (GPU) or video card -- there are three characteristics that most greatly define performance: Memory size, memory bandwidth, and architecture.</p> <p>Memory size accounts for how much data can actually fit in the video card's memory, space reserved largely for textures and filtering operations. I want to be clear here: <i>More graphics card memory does not always equal better graphics</i>. Some cards simply aren't fast enough to properly handle more than the currently preferred 512MB of on-card memory. Higher-end cards (<a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=5/form_keyword=radeon+hd/st=query_link">Radeon HD</a> 4800 series, <a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_attrib.php?form_keyword=GeForce+GTX&topcat_id=&page_id=5&st=filter-query">GeForce GTX</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_attrib.php?form_keyword=GeForce+GTS&topcat_id=&page_id=5&st=filter-query">GTS</a> series) are powerful enough to make use of a full 1GB of on-card memory, but even they see virtually no improvement going past one gig.</p> <p>With memory size comes memory bandwidth, defined by the type of memory used and the memory bus width. More details are available in our <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5149">graphics guide</a>, but it basically boils down to this: Higher memory bandwidth improves performance. A GPU equipped with DDR2 RAM or (heaven help you) memory shared from system RAM will be severely crippled in this respect. Lack of memory bandwidth is the single biggest graphics performance bottleneck I continue to see on any system.</p> <p>Finally, there's the least tangible graphics factor: Architecture. ATI/AMD and Nvidia's designs differ from generation to generation and between one another, and these differences can have a direct impact on graphics performance. Certain games run better on Radeons, others thrive on GeForces, based on how developers structure their code. <i><a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=90487807">Dead Space</a></i>, for example, runs nearly 100 percent faster on some GeForce GPUs. For what it's worth, Radeons still run that particular game beautifully, unless you feel like you can perceive the difference between 60 frames-per-second and 120.</p> <p>While Nvidia's cards have scaled pretty linearly from generation to generation since they released their 8000 series so long ago, ATI/AMD has a massive break between the 2000/3000 generation and the 4000 generation. Parts from the 4000 generation are far more efficient than their predecessors. I personally own a <a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_attrib.php?form_keyword=Radeon+HD+4870&topcat_id=&page_id=5&st=filter-query&sv=search_top">Radeon HD 4870</a>, and previously owned not just one but a pair of Radeon HD 3850s and the 4870 completely outclasses them in every way. The desktop <a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_attrib.php?form_keyword=Radeon+HD+4670&topcat_id=&page_id=5&st=filter-query&sv=search_top">Radeon HD 4670</a>, even with half the memory bus of the 3850, still performs on par with it.</p> <p>So how do these three characteristics ultimately shake down when you're configuring your game? Let's find out.</p> <p><b>IN-GAME SETTINGS</b></p> <p>One of the joys of PC games is that they can look better than their console versions, provided you know how to tune your gaming rig. Most games offer some variants on these settings, some more and some less, but the analogs will be present more often than not. While we may namecheck a few hard limits and settings levels, the best way to tune your game rig is to tweak each of these setting individually and then observe their effects on actual game performance. In most every case, turning these settings down will improve game performance at the cost of visual appeal, so only you can know where your sweet spot for speed-versus-pretty is located.</p> <p><b>Resolution</b></p> <p>In-game resolution settings can have the strongest impact on your graphics performance. Typically, the biggest limiter of this can be memory size, but if your GPU is equipped with DDR2 memory, shared memory, or a small memory bus (think 64-bit), you will hit a hard limit on available resolution very quickly. The memory bandwidth simply won't be enough to handle the amount of information streaming between the memory and the GPU, and I've seen otherwise decent hardware take a swan dive in performance when game resolution was raised too high. If your graphics hardware is relatively low-end (as in no on-card memory) you may be confined to running at 1024x768 or under.</p> <p><b>Texture Detail</b></p> <p>Texture detail is affected most heavily by memory size. If you don't have a lot of memory to go around, consider reducing texture detail to spruce up game performance. The game world around you -- such as details on the ground, walls, rocks, and other large solid objects -- will appear a bit blurrier as a result, but your game will run faster and with more fluidity.</p> <p><b>Shadows</b></p> <p>Shadows and shadow detail have had a significant influence on the performance of recent games. Typically, diminishing or disabling shadows will directly speed up game play. That said, shadow performance often scales with GPU processing power. A GPU with a high amount of shader power (related to architecture) isn't going to break as much of a sweat with a lot of shadows, but mid and low-end cards may start bawling with Shadows set too high.</p> <p><b>Shaders</b></p> <p>The term "shaders" is a bit all-encompassing, but generally shaders make things "prettier" overall. Shader performance is tied almost entirely to GPU processing power and architecture. On a higher-end GPU, this setting is pretty safe to turn up since there's likely power to spare, but when you're on the mid-end or lower, you may need to turn this a ways down.</p> <p><b>Lighting</b></p> <p>This setting will affect the general quality of lighting within the game, sometimes altering the color of light as well as how crisp it is. Lighting is often highly shader-dependent and as such will fall in line with the shaders setting itself, though architecture can have a lot to do with this. Older GPUs are going to struggle a lot more with effects like HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting and bloom, while newer GPUs tend to be better optimized for these effects.</p> <p><b>Anti-Aliasing</b></p> <p>Anti-aliasing is a process where the GPU smoothes out jagged edges in the image, such as the barrel of the gun, character models, and so on. It's not supremely essential and many games don't even let you enable it, but it can improve image quality considerably depending on if the game is edge-heavy <a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=12964530/search=F.E.A.R./st=product/sv=title">(<i>F.E.A.R.</i></a>, I'm looking at you).</p> <p>Unfortunately, next to resolution, anti-aliasing is the ultimate resource hog. Anti-aliasing demands good memory bandwidth, and at higher resolutions requires a great deal of memory as well. We've noticed that a resolution of about 1920x1200 is where modern GPUs can tend to run out of video memory, especially if they only have 512MB on-card memory or lower. These cards may run perfectly fine before anti-aliasing is enabled, but the performance impact if it's enabled can be devastating.</p> <p>Anti-aliasing is also one of those points where architecture makes its appearance, particularly in ATI's Radeons. Simply put, the 4000 series performs substantially better when anti-aliasing is enabled than do previous generations. ATI has never confirmed that anti-aliasing was "broken" in the hardware of the 2000 and 3000 series, but generally speaking they produced much more precipitous performance drops even in the flagship 3000-gen GPUs when anti-aliasing was enabled. The 4000 series fixes the problem and brings anti-aliasing performance more or less in line with the GeForces on the market.</p> <p><b>Texture Filtering</b></p> <p>Texture filtering is my bread and butter, and I'll generally preserve this setting at the expense of almost all others.</p> <p>Games will use different texture qualities depending on the distance from the "camera" in order to improve performance, in a technique called <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap">mip-mapping</a>. The textures closest to you will look best, while those farther away will have their detail sometimes dramatically reduced. With filtering disabled, you'll often see the mip-mapping in effect, where there'll be a hard line in front of you that moves with you. The same texture will be clearer near you, and suddenly drop in quality past that line.</p> <p>There are three basic texture-filter settings: Bilinear, trilinear, and anisotropic. Anisotropic filtering generally has settings from x2, x4, x8, and x16. These settings "move" the texture drop-off line in some cases, but also blur the border, allowing for smooth transitions between each level of detail on the texture so you don't see that hard line. Indeed, anisotropic filtering in particular will radically improve the detail of the texture on the ground in the distance, which keeps the look of the game consistent.</p> <p>Mercifully, modern GPUs have optimized the texture filtering process extremely well, and it's typically safe to enable regardless of hardware class. You can always turn it down to see if there's an improvement in performance, and I've found in some cases that a setting of x8 anisotropic filtering will provide an adequate trade-off between performance and picture quality.</p> <p><b>V-Sync</b></p> <p>Last but not least, there's V-Sync, the setting that many gamers leave turned off but I, personally, cannot do without. V-Sync is short for Vertical Synchronization, and it synchronizes the frames rendered by the video card with the frame rate of your monitor (59 or 60 frames per second for the overwhelming majority of LCD screens). Left disabled, the game can perform much faster, but something called "tearing" can also occur, where a new frame starts getting drawn before the old one is finished, and a distinct line appears in the image where this occurs. A lot of modern games are pretty good about minimizing tearing, but nonetheless it exists.</p> <p>V-Sync gets rid of tearing entirely, but introduces a couple of wrinkles of its own. It locks the frame rate to 60, and divides it in half if the graphics hardware can't keep up, plunging from 60 to 30, or even 15 or worse, which is essentially unplayable. This can be averted by enabling an option called Triple Buffering, but nonetheless, V-Sync incurs a considerable performance penalty not limited to any single hardware factor.</p> <p>Another downside of V-Sync is that it can introduce sometimes noticeable latency, or "input lag," between the commands you issue and the game itself. This can cause a game to feel somewhat sluggish.</p> <p>So with these horrendous downsides, why enable it at all? For me, it's because tearing is very distracting, and my games perform plenty fast enough with it enabled anyhow. Remember, this isn't about how fast you can get the game to run, but about what's comfortable for you and what trade-offs you're willing to make.</p> <p><b>CPU</b></p> <p>One last note: Your CPU impacts graphics performance, too. If your processor is on the slower end, it will limit how much work is fed to your graphics hardware. Some games run fine with a slower processor (<i><a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=712337032/search=Crysis/st=product/sv=title">Crysis</a></i>, for example), while others can be surprisingly punishing. Those of you with older CPUs will notice that <i><a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=721826008/search=Left%204%20Dead/st=product/sv=title">Left 4 Dead</a></i> slows to a crawl when large numbers of zombies are on-screen, and <i><a target="_blank" href="http://technologyguides.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=90488554/search=Far%20Cry%202/st=query/sv=search_top">Far Cry 2</a></i> seems to be heavily processor-reliant in general. If changing the software settings one way or the other doesn't have an appreciable effect on performance, odds are your processor is holding things up.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b></p> <p>Hopefully this guide has given you some idea of what all those settings in your games do. I know how daunting they can seem, but an understanding of how to set them can make your gaming experience much more enjoyable overall. Games, for me at least, do hinge somewhat on the graphics. A game with excellent graphics can feel very immersive while a game with blocky models and blurry textures can remind you that you're just playing a game.</p> <p>I'm a big fan of first-person shooters, in particular, and I've found they can be very sensitive to video performance. For me, a high frame rate when playing these definitely improves my performance and makes it much easier to make more precise shots. It doesn't necessarily make up for my being a miserable shot to begin with, but it helps. For you, it could be all the difference in the world.</p></span></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-82332274943028288162009-04-24T19:45:00.010-04:002009-04-24T19:51:09.936-04:0047. NotebookReview.com Guide To Buying A Notebook Online<span style="font-style: italic;">By: Dustin Sklavos</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From: NotebookReview.com</span><br /><br /><p>If you're a technology enthusiast like I am, custom ordering a laptop online is like some kind of bizarre but highly enjoyable game. It's a balancing act, but it's also like getting to go to the toy store and pick out what you want to take home.</p> <p>However, if you're reading this you're not like me. In fact, if you're reading anything on NotebookReview.com it probably means you're looking for help while trying to purchase a new laptop. Don't worry ... you're not alone. When most people go to order a laptop online, the smorgasboard of options turns into a nightmare. Is a faster processor worth the extra $25? What about the one that's $50 more? Do I need the GeForce graphics card or is the Intel thingy acceptable?</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=42652" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/42653.jpg" border="0" width="250" height="199" /></a></p> <p>The problem gets compounded by well-meaning but clueless shoppers. It's okay if you're one of those people. Companies spend large amounts of money on advertising every year so that when you go to buy a laptop you say things like, "It must have Intel!" "I'm gonna have a lot of programs so I need a big hard drive!" And so on. My job here is to keep you from making expensive mistakes and arm you with the information you require to make an informed decision in how you custom build your new notebook. In fact, some of this advice will even help you if you decide to purchase a pre-configured notebook online or at a local retail store.</p> <p>I'll go through each of the major components and try to give you the best advice I can.</p><p><b>PROCESSOR</b><br />The reality is that most programs these days outside of games aren't going to tax the processor that much. That's why, for the vast majority of users, even just the brand of processor - AMD or Intel - isn't going to matter. Still, there are a couple of major recommendations to make here.</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/42645.jpg" border="0" width="400" height="258" /></p> <p>First, if extreme battery life is going to be important to you, take AMD's processors out of the equation. At the the time of this writing, AMD's mobile processors have lackluster battery life compared to their Intel equivalents. If your laptop is going to spend the vast majority of its life plugged in, then AMD becomes a solid choice for people on a budget who don't need a lot out of their computer.</p> <p>Second, with the importance of battery life and thus buying an Intel processor, you're actually going to want to pursue Intel's mid-range. These processors are characterized by a "P" prefix on the model number instead of a "T." Power consumption on these is moderately lower and can help extend battery life.</p> <p>Third, just buy a dual core processor. Don't buy a Celeron, don't buy a Sempron. Intel and AMD both have inexpensive dual core processors on the market.</p> <p>Now you need to decide how much power you require. If you're going to be doing serious multimedia work, like video editing, motion graphics, and so on, consider spending more on the processor. You'll want a Core 2 Duo or even Quad, depending on the price. At this juncture you also need to decide how much you're willing to spend on the processor and adjust accordingly. Typically there's a massive difference in price between the most expensive processor and the next one on the list, and I'll save you some grief: it's not worth it.</p> <p>When looking at the more minor differences - say a $50 difference between one processor and another that's at least 200MHz faster - it's going to be up to you. Remember, there's nothing necessarily wrong with choosing a middle-of-the-road processor.</p> <p>I am, however, going to make an odd recommendation at the end here: if you plan on gaming on your laptop on a seriously low budget, rule out Intel processors. While the processor itself is faster, the less expensive graphics options for Intel processors (the integrated graphics) are vastly inferior to offerings for AMD processors.</p> <p><b>MEMORY (RAM)</b><br />This is an easy one. The average PC user will seldom need more than 2GB of memory; media buffs and gamers may want to look at 4GB, though even regular users won't exactly be hurting if they make this bump. Do not bother with 3GB. And some manufacturers will offer 8GB at an obscenely high price - don't bother.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=42648" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/42649.jpg" border="0" width="250" height="203" /></a></p> <p>The price of upgrading memory direct from the manufacturer can often be absurdly high. <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=162&script=showthread&forumid=13" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Apple makes the MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks">Apple</a> in particular tends to charge unreasonably high prices in this category. It's at this point that you as a consumer should know the following:</p> <ol><li>Memory is often much cheaper to order online separately.<br />and </li><li>It's also extraordinarily easy to install and/or upgrade memory. </li></ol> <p>The overwhelming majority of modern laptops make it easy to upgrade memory yourself without voiding the warranty, and doing so is a five minute job at most. Odds are the user manual will even tell you how.</p> <p>So unless the manufacturer has some kind of special deal on a free memory upgrade, avoid upgrading through the manufacturer and just buy the memory through an online retailer like NewEgg.com or <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=257&script=showthread&forumid=13" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Amazon.com">Amazon.com</a>.</p> <p><b>OPERATING SYSTEM</b><br />This is another easy one. First of all, until the arrival of Windows 7, you're stuck with Windows Vista. While I've railed against it in the past, honestly, a modern installation of Windows Vista is pretty nice and certainly the most stable operating system I've ever used ... even more than Windows XP.</p> <p>Do not buy Windows Vista Home Basic, Business, or Ultimate. Home Basic is too stripped down; Business and Ultimate are going to offer features you're not likely to need, and Business may even remove features you might have used. This pretty much leaves you with Home Premium.</p> <p>If you're running 4GB of memory, choose the 64-bit version of Windows Vista and not the 32-bit. 64-bit Windows Vista is designed to handle large amounts of memory.</p> <p><b>STORAGE</b><br />This is a matter of preference and it must be dealt with on three fronts: capacity, speed, and SSD vs. hard disk.</p> <p>First, in terms of capacity, if you're just storing programs, documents, and pictures, you probably won't need more than 160GB of space. If you're going to be storing/editing video, max out the capacity.</p> <p>Second, in terms of speed you're looking at either 5400rpm or 7200rpm. While I personally think 5400rpm drives are too slow, most users aren't going to need the snappier performance of a 7200rpm one, and the premium you pay for a 7200rpm drive may not be worth it. If you're doing multimedia work, though, just get the 7200rpm. The drive is the biggest performance bottleneck you're going to run up against, so you might as well make it as fast as possible.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=42646" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/42647.jpg" border="0" width="250" height="187" /></a></p> <p>Finally, Solid State Drives (SSDs), are starting to become increasingly popular for laptop users. These are still prohibitively expensive, but they're the fastest storage you can buy and can survive impacts and vibration that would destroy a standard hard disk drive. The big problems with SSDs are the high price and mediocre capacity at the time of this writing. If you simply must have the fastest computer you can get, you can upgrade to a SSD, but that's going to be an expensive mistake for the vast majority of users.</p> <p><b>OPTICAL DRIVE</b><br />Here's another easy one. First, the drive should be able to write DVDs, period. DVDs are still one of the best ways to back up your stuff, so that ability is fairly essential.</p> <p>Second, are you planning on watching Blu-ray movies? You are? Then get the Blu-ray drive. If you're not, don't bother.</p> <p>And finally, LabelFlash and LightScribe are cute accessories that let you use the drive to actually write an image to the top of the disc if you use special discs. They're usually only about a $10 premium, so I tend to fork it over, but if money's tight don't bother. I can't remember the last time I've used LightScribe, and I've never had a LabelFlash drive, so there you go.</p> <p><b>SCREEN/DISPLAY</b><br />This is one of the trickier ones. Honestly, choosing a display should be easy, but it's not.</p> <p>First, if it's possible to get an LED-backlit screen, consider doing so. The expense is usually about $100 extra, but the picture will be much brighter and LED-backlighting notably reduces the power consumption of the screen, which is typically the most power-hungry component in the laptop.</p> <p>Second, resolution. This basically defines the number of pixels wide by tall the screen has; the higher the resolution, the smaller the text will be, but the more you can fit on your desktop. Now my eyesight is pretty bad, so I typically go for the lowest resolution screen available for the laptop I buy, but if you've got pretty great eyesight you may be happier with a higher resolution one. So let's look at the "pros" and "cons" here.</p> <p><b>Reasons to go for lower resolution:</b> If you have poor eyesight, if you're not going to be doing anything too complicated with the laptop, or if you're going to be gaming on it. This last one is going to generate some complaints and comments, I know it, but games look better at the native resolution of the laptop screen, and mobile graphics often don't have the horsepower to drive games at higher resolutions. This results in having to play the games at a lower resolution than native, which gives you a less attractive, scaled-up image.</p> <p><b>Reasons to go for high resolution:</b> if you have excellent eyesight, if you're going to be doing media work or any other work that may require a wealth of desktop space.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=42650" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/42651.jpg" border="0" width="250" height="187" /></a></p> <p><b>GRAPHICS</b><br />First of all, if you're going to do any gaming on your laptop, rule out Intel graphics as an option. Performance of Intel's graphics is dismal. You should be looking at either a Nvidia GeForce or an ATI Radeon. And remember, what you order, you're stuck with. You can't just try and save bread on buying Intel graphics now and upgrade later; you can't upgrade. Let me repeat this, because this is probably the most irritating thing to continuously pop up on the forums here: <b>You cannot upgrade your laptop graphics</b>. The only laptops that can be upgraded are the laptops purchased by people who don't need to read this article. <b>You cannot upgrade your laptop graphics</b>.</p> <p>So, if you're gaming, or think you might game in the future, choose an ATI Radeon or Nvidia GeForce graphics card. If the manufacturer doesn't offer either of these as an option for your laptop, find a different laptop to order.</p> <p>Now what if the manufacturer has multiple options, multiple Radeons and/or GeForces? Spend as much as you're comfortable with. This is usually a good place to stretch that budget if you're a gamer. You usually can't go wrong with more graphics power.</p> <p>You remember back in the processor section when I mentioned gamers on a budget should go AMD? The integrated graphics typically available with AMD processors tend to have enough horsepower to run most modern games at low settings, so if you're on a seriously tight budget, this is something to consider. The Radeon HD 3100/3200/3300 - and the GeForces - are good choices for the frugal gamer.</p> <p><b>NETWORKING</b><br />There are three things to look at here: wireless networking, Bluetooth, and actual wireless internet access (3G, etc.)</p> <p>For wireless networking, you'll want to spend up for an Intel adaptor on Intel-based laptops. From there, you might as well go for wireless-n as it typically isn't a major expense. On AMD laptops, just spend up for wireless-n for the sake of futureproofing.</p> <p>As far as Bluetooth is concerned, I typically add the upgrade since it's only about $10 and it means you can purchase a Bluetooth mouse that doesn't require a receiver and just syncs with the laptop itself. And finally, Bluetooth can be used to communicate with your Bluetooth-enabled phone. Typically your phone's manufacturer will offer software that lets you manage the files on your Bluetooth phone, so that's something to consider.</p> <p>And finally, wireless internet access via Verizon or 3G. That's going to be your call, since these upgrades also require subscriptions.</p> <p>Keep in mind that all of these can be upgraded later with a USB dongle, so if your budget is tight you can always go for the cheapest one and just buy a USB adapter later and use that.</p> <p><b>WARRANTY</b><br />This is the tricky part. I don't spring for extended warranties as a general rule, but you may want to consider one. This is entirely a matter of personal preference and how much you want to spend for peace of mind. Most manufacturers maintain a one year limited parts and labor warranty standard, and you pay to upgrade it to add more years or better tech support.</p> <p>So you have to decide if you want what amounts to an insurance policy on your laptop. No one will fault you if you decide to live without, but if you think you may need it or just want the peace of mind, there's no shame in springing for it either.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b><br />So here we are, at the end of it. Of course, this isn't <i>all</i> there is to ordering a laptop online; manufacturers will try to convince you to buy all kinds of extras, like printers, carrying bags, mice, monitors, and so on, but that's all stuff you can get elsewhere and likely get for less money.</p> <p>I hope I've managed to simplify the buying process for you. It's one of those unfortunate situations where in the process of trying to make things more consumer-friendly, it can get needlessly complicated and even daunting. Most consumers don't know the difference between a Pentium Dual-Core and a Core 2 Duo and most don't need to; it's one of those bizarre things that's been the status quo but is of utterly no use to most computer users. All of the major manufacturers are guilty of putting a wide range of parts on the market that honestly are so incrementally different that it's often not even worth the trouble trying to figure them out.</p> <p>There's one last piece of advice I have for you: If you need a laptop now then buy a laptop now. Don't wait. The next big change in technology is <i>always</i> going to be around the corner. If you wait for the next thing you're going to wait forever. There's always going to be something that will come out and make you wish you waited, and that's just the nature of modern technology. If you need it, just buy it.</p>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-45821497876751255422009-02-26T00:13:00.000-05:002009-02-26T00:14:07.135-05:0046. Netbook Buyers GuideBy: Kevin<br />From: NotebookReview.com<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;" class="width490"> <span id="intelliTxt"><p>The netbook form factor offers consumers a low-cost ultraportable notebook in a market segment where notebooks used to cost $1,500 and up. With most netbooks costing less than $400, they are cheap enough to buy one in addition to your full-size notebook. With the vast majority offering Intel Atom processors, these portable computers can handle most daily tasks with ease. In this buying guide we compare the different models we have reviewed to help you find the best netbook to fit your needs.</p> <p><b>Buying the Perfect Netbook</b></p> <p>Currently the netbook standard is one of the easiest computers for consumers to purchase, with most models on the market offering the same Intel Atom processor and Intel integrated graphics. The only thing that really separates netbook models is the type of storage medium they use, the screen size, and the size of the battery.</p> <p>If you plan on storing movies and music on the netbook, a higher capacity hard drive model would be a better choice, instead of the much smaller SSD. In some cases it can be the difference of 8GB of storage compared to 120GB. The next area is screen size, with models coming in either the 8.9” size or 10”, but sharing the same resolution. If you enjoy having a larger screen to work with, the 10” models can be easier to read, and you usually have the benefit of a larger keyboard. A new Dell Mini 12 goes even further with a 12” screen and full WXGA resolution, but that is an exception to the netbook market. The last hardware difference comes down to the capacity of the battery of the netbook, with 3-cell, 4–cell, and 6-cell battery sizes offered.</p> <p><b>Couch or Classroom Friendly?</b></p> <p>Battery size can play a key role in how you intend to use the netbook, with some models spanning a couple of hours, and others working for up to 6 hours. The difference comes with the size of the battery that comes with the netbook. Some models like the <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=1194" target="_blank">MSI Wind</a> or Acer <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=1207" target="_blank">Aspire One</a> come with 3-cell and 6-cell battery configurations, which can mean the different of 2-3 hours or 5-6 hours of battery life. If you just intend to use the netbook on your couch or around the house where external power is not an issue, battery size probably isn’t a big deal. If you intend to use the netbook in the classroom or while traveling, it is highly suggested that you find the biggest battery possible.</p> <p><b>SSD or Hard Drive?</b></p> <p>Besides the huge storage capacity difference between the SSD and hard drive models, there are a few added perks of each. Most of the hard drive models on the market use a standard 2.5” SATA consumer drive that can be easily upgraded or replaced down the road. The SSD models might be limited by capacity or lack an easy upgrade, but they offer shock protection and better battery life. If you find yourself being rough with portable electronics, it might be wise choosing a model with a flash memory SSD. If you are looking to get increased battery life some SSD models have an edge over HD models as well.</p> <p><b>The Market Competition</b></p> <p>Below is a listing of the various netbooks you'll likely find in stores and online direct from the manufacturers. This isn't a complete listing of every single netbook offered worldwide, but it does provide a comprehensive overview of some of the more popular models.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38502" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38503.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="129" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4686"><b>ASUS N10 </b></a></p> <p>The ASUS N10 is a “corporate” netbook which offers highend features that you don’t find in consumer netbooks models. Offering HDMI out with dedicated NVIDIA 9300M graphics, a fingerprint reader, and an ExpressCard/34 slot the N10 includes what business professionals might want in a portable device. With prices as low as $649 for models including the dedicated graphics, it is priced well under business class ultraportable notebooks such as the Sony TZ or TT. If you don’t need those special features listed above, consumer netbooks like the ASUS <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=1047" target="_blank">Eee PC</a> 1000HA can be had for about $300 less.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38500" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38501.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="122" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4655"><b>ASUS Eee PC 1000</b></a></p> <p>The 10” Eee PC 1000 comes in both SSD and HD flavors; giving consumers the choice of large storage capacity or something more rugged for a netbook that might be tossed around. The keyboard is 91% full-size for cramp-free typing and most configurations offer a large 6-cell battery. Priced slightly above other competing models you do pay a premium for one of these, which most say is worth it considered the larger stock battery. Prices start as low as $399 for a Intel Celeron equipped model, or $349 for the base Intel Atom 1000HA. The 1000HE offers the newer N280 Intel Atom processor, greatly improved battery, and newer keyboard layout for only $374.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38496" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38497.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="136" /></a></p> <p><b>ASUS <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4405">Eee PC 900</a> and <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4530">Eee PC 901</a></b></p> <p>The smaller 9” <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=1047" target="_blank">Eee PC</a> 900 and 901 give consumers a smaller netbook option that also happens to get slightly better battery life than its bigger 10” brother. While the 900 series does include both SSD and HD versions, the SSD model is much more popular. With both Linux and Windows XP Home models up for grabs you can find one model that best suits your needs depending on its purpose. The only compromise you make with this model depending on version is the capacity of the flash storage; where the XP model includes a 12GB drive and the Linux model has 20GB one. The SSD equipped 901 models all cost $379, whereas the older 900 series sells for as little as $285 on sale.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38506" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38507.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="85" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4575"><b>Acer Aspire One</b></a></p> <p>Rocking the number two spot on our “Most Popular Notebooks” list at the time of this guide, the Acer Aspire One is clearly one of the more sought after models on the market right now. With one of the lowest starting prices of $299 budget SSD model or $329 for the top tier HD model it can fit in anyone’s budget in a time where everyone is pinching pennies. Offered in a wide range of color options, the 9” Acer <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=1207" target="_blank">Aspire One</a> is a NBR reader favorite.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38498" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38499.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="90" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4578"><b>Dell Mini 9</b></a></p> <p>The 9” Dell Mini recently hit the market at a very low starting price of $249. With an almost fullsize keyboard section that removes function keys to free up space, the keyboard is very comfortable to type on. This netbook is sold with only SSD modules, using either Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux, in sizes spanning from 4 to 16GB. Currently Dell only offers a 4-cell battery for the Mini 9, which limits you to around 3-4 hours of battery life, less than others on the market.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38510" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38511.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="90" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4665"><b>Dell Mini 12</b></a></p> <p>The new Dell Mini 12 is the first netbook to offer a higher resolution 1280x800 WXGA screen and a full-size keyboard. With a super thin design that could compete with the Apple <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=798" target="_blank">MacBook</a> air, this Dell netbook is pushing closer to the ultraportable notebook market segment. With 3 and 6-cell battery options, optional cellular broadband and the newer low voltage Intel Atom processors, this is one of the ultimate low-cost road warrior machines. Prices start at $399 and move upwards of $600 depending on configuration.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38541" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38542.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="94" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4723"><b>HP Mini 1000</b></a></p> <p>The HP <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/price/product.asp?productFamilyID=1259" target="_blank">Mini 1000</a> is the newest Intel Atom based netbook to the HP lineup, replacing the slower VIA equipped 2133 Mini-Note offered last year. This model is fully customizable, including the screen size and storage medium. The Mini 1000 uses the same keyboard from the Mini-Note, which we found to be the best keyboard on any netbook we have tested to date. Prices start at $299 for the 9” model or $399 for the 10” version, and move up depending on configuration.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38508" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38509.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="81" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4620"><b>Lenovo IdeaPad S10</b></a></p> <p>The 10” IdeaPad offered in black, red, and white offers one feature not usually found on netbooks. The S10 has an ExpressCard slot on the side for an external WWAN card, to stay connected on the road. It is not surprising to see business related features on this netbook, considering it comes from the company that builds the ThinkPad. Prices start at $349 and currently only a 3-cell battery option is offered.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38504" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38505.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="130" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4498"><b>MSI Wind U100</b></a></p> <p>This sleek netbook offers a handful of color and design options and easy to type on keyboard. While historically high in price, especially on the 6-cell version, prices have started to come down. Recently MSI announced a price cut, bringing the base configuration down to $319. Going rate for a model that includes a 6-cell battery is $399, and hard to find outside of online retailers. The Wind was one of our coolest running netbooks, so if you are sensitive to heat, look no further.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/picture.asp?f=41106" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/41107.jpg" border="0" width="118" height="88" /></a></p> <p><b><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4795">Sony VAIO P</a></b></p> <p>This "Lifestyle PC" (the netbook Sony doesn't want you to call a netbook) is a super high-end model aimed at professionals who want more from your average netbook. The Sony VAIO P has a high resolution 1600 x 768 glossy display, integrated 3G broadband with GPS, Windows Vista, and optional SSD. The size and weight is well under the average for netbooks, just .78” thick and 1.3lbs with the 4-cell battery. Don’t expect to find any amazing deals, as this “not-a-netbook” starts at $899 and goes as high as $1,499 for the 128GB SSD version.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38494" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38495.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="96" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4055"><b>ASUS Eee PC 701</b></a></p> <p>The ASUS Eee PC 701 was the first to the netbook game, but now outdated against the competition. With only a 7” display, Intel Celeron processor, and small flash storage it seems more like a toy these days than a netbook. While you can find larger screens, faster processors, and more storage space on newer models, the 701 might attract some with its super low price. Nearing the $200 mark at some stores as they clear out old inventory it is still a competent portable notebook that can easily run Windows XP. If you don’t need all the features of one of the newer netbooks, this model might be for you.<br /><br /><b>Other Netbooks</b></p> <p>With the low cost to enter the netbook manufacturing market you will find many additional netbook models that were not listed in this guide. Some share the same OEM, making some netbooks identical “clones” of another model. Many of these offer the same great build quality and features that netbooks in our guide have, just under a different brand name. Some of the netbooks that are not in our guide include the Samsung NC10, Sylvania g, Everex Cloudbook, and Medion Akoya Mini.</p></span> </span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-30129674488143541922009-02-26T00:12:00.000-05:002009-02-26T00:13:17.207-05:0045. Clean Install Guide (works for 32-bit or 64-bit)<blockquote style="font-style: italic;"></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">From: stallen</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From: NotebookReview.com</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span><b><span style="font-size:130%;">Clean Install Vista with "Auto-Activation" NO NEED TO CALL MICROSOFT FOR ACTIVATION and with out spending any money.</span></b><br /><br />This is how you can do a clean install while avoiding <b>all</b> thirdparty software and "bloatware". I even consider the Thinkvantage utilities to be thirdparty. Really any application/utility that isn't part of the OS (Windows XP or Vista) is considered "thirdparty". Considering there have been quite a few problems with the new <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=127&script=showthread&forumid=2" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="The ThinkPad T61 is an Intel Santa Rosa based notebook available in 14-inch or 15.4-inch screen form factors.">T61</a>'s it is reasonable to at least suspect that there could be an issue with one or more of the Thinkvantage utilities on this new T61 (Santa Rosa) platform. Many people have been complaining about system freezes/lock-ups and BSODs (Blue Screen of Death). These problems are often resolved with a clean install.<br /><br />This guide will show you how to do a clean install on your current hard drive or a newly installed hard drive using either the 32-bit Vista or 64-bit "Anytime Upgrade" DVD or other Vista installation disk. Unfortunately, the Anytime Upgrade Disk is no longer available from Microsoft. Please read the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=29271" target="_blank" title="Click here to read the NotebookReview.com What Should I Buy FAQ">FAQ</a> for more information about what disks you can use.<br /><br /><b>NOTE:</b> You can choose to have 32-bit Vista or 64-bit Vista regardless of what version you currently have installed!!!!<br /><br />At first glance this guide might appear complicated. It is not! It is just very detailed. It consists of four basic steps.<br /><br /><b>STEP 1:</b> Back-up your data.<br /><b>STEP 2:</b> Download the drivers.<br /><b>STEP 3:</b> Install and activate Vista.<br /><b>STEP 4:</b> Install the drivers.<br /><br />I could just leave it at that. Doesn't that look simple? If that is all you need then look no further. For most people, this would leave a lot of unanswered questions. Read on and the guide will expand on those four steps. As you follow along I think you will find that this guide will greatly reduce any unexpected surprises during the install process.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:130%;">DO NOT PROCEED UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS GUIDE FOR MORE INFORMATION</span></b><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:180%;"><u>STEP 1:</u></span></b><br /><br /><span style="color:Red;"><b>!!!BACK-UP ALL OF YOUR DATA!!!</b></span><br /><br /><b>Make Recovery Disks</b>: Open the start menu and in the search box, type "Recovery Media" (without the quotes). Then click Recovery Media from the window. *Be warned, you can only make ONE copy of the recovery media. If you mess up, you'll have to reinstall from the partition again in order to be able to make another recovery disk.* Make sure you have 3 recordable dvd disks available (or 1 CD and 2 DVDs. The first disk can be a CD). It takes 2 to 3 blank disks total. Then just follow the instructions and you'll be all set.<br /><br /><b>Back-up this file...</b> c:\swtools\drivers <b>...and place it on a USB drive or a separate disk.</b><br /><br /><b>Back-up</b> the Lenovo Wallpapers (optional). Found here: c:\windows\web\wallpaper<br /><br /><b>NOTE:</b> <i>You will not use any of the back-up disks or files from step 1 to do this clean install. They are only used if you ever want to restore any optional files or revert back to the original factory state.</i><br /><br /><span style="color:Red;"><b>!!!DO NOT PROCEED UNTIL ALL OF YOUR DATA IS BACKED-UP!!!</b></span><br /><br /><b>REMOVE THE "HIDDEN PARTITION" (OPTIONAL):</b> Please read the frequently asked questions at the bottom of the guide to learn how to remove the hidden partition. It is best to remove the hidden partition now to avoid a lot of hassle trying to remove it after the clean install.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:180%;"><u>STEP 2:</u></span></b><br /><br /><b>NOTE: This step involves DOWNLOADING drivers. When you get to step 4 you will come back to this step to INSTALL the drivers in the order listed below.</b><br /><br />Download all drivers (listed below) to a USB drive. MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE CORRECT VISTA 32-BIT OR 64-BIT DRIVERS FOR YOUR MODEL.<br /><br />Download all other drivers listed below direct from: <a href="http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/product.do?doctypeind=9&template=/productselection/landingpages/downloadsDriversLandingPage.vm&sitestyle=lenovo" target="_blank"> Lenovo Downloads & Drivers</a> or <a href="http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=TPAD-MATRIX&sitestyle=lenovo" target="_blank">Driver Matrix Page</a><br />(NOTE: Most of these Drivers are available in EITHER 32-bit or 64-bit. Make sure to download the correct driver.)<br /><br />• Intel Chipset Driver/INF Update Utility <span style="color:Red;"><b>INSTALL FIRST!!!</b></span><br />• Turbo Memory Driver (NOTE: Only install this driver on systems <u>with</u> Turbo Memory. This driver will also install the Matrix Storage Manger Driver.)<br />• Matrix Storage Manager Driver (NOTE: Only install this driver on systems <u>without</u> Turbo Memory. Do not download/install this driver if you have installed the Turbo Memory driver.)<br />• ACPI Power <i>"Management Driver"</i> NOTE: The ACPI Power <i>"Management Driver"</i> and the Power "Manager" are two different things. The "Driver" is all that is necessary. The Power "Manager" is a ThinkVantage utility and is not necessary. (NOTE: If ThinkVantage Power Manager is installed it can only be removed properly in "safe mode". As for the ACPI Power <i>"Management Driver"</i>, uninstallation should never be attempted.)<br />• Video Driver- Make sure to select the correct driver for integrated graphics (Intel 965/ Intel GMA X3100) or nVidia graphics (nVidia 140M or 570M) depending on what your laptop has for graphics.<br />• Audio Driver<br />• UltrNav DRIVER<br />• UltraNav UTILITY<br />• Wifi Driver<br />• Hotkey Driver<br />• System Interface<br />• Integrated Card Reader (for models with integrated card reader)<br />• Intel PRO/1000 LAN adapter<br />• Modem Adapter<br />• Download all registry patches found at the bottom of the <a href="http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=TPAD-MATRIX&sitestyle=lenovo" target="_blank">Driver Matrix Page</a> that apply to Vista.<br /><br /><b>Download these if your system has these options:</b><br />(NOTE: These three drivers are the same for every version of Vista including 32-bit or 64-bit.)<br /><br />• <a href="http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-68278" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> Wireless USB Software<br />• <a href="http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-67250" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> Bluetooth Driver <b>Bluetooth Driver Install Tips:</b> Before installing the Driver, press Fn and F5 at the same time. You should see an on-screen display that allows you to turn "on" Bluetooth. Now install the driver. If Fn + F5 does not work to turn on bluetooth then install ThinkVantage Access Connections. After Access Connections has been installed you should be able to turn "on" Bluetooth and install the Bluetooth driver. After the bluetooth driver is installed, you can uninstall ThinkVantage Access Connections from the control panel.<br />• <a href="http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=TVAN-EAPFPR" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> Finger Print Reader (This is the SOFTWARE/UTILITY and old driver.)<br />• <a href="http://www.upek.com/support/downloads/drivers/windows.asp" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> Finger Print Reader (This is the latest DRIVER direct from UPEK. It is compatible with Vista SP1. It must be installed over the old Lenovo driver before Windows Update will allow SP1 to be installed.)<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:180%;"><u>STEP 3:</u></span></b><br /><br />1. Download Orev's Activation Backup and Restore (ABR) program. CLICK HERE: <a href="http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore" target="_blank">Orev's ABR Utility</a><br />(Read the Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom to learn about Orev's ABR Utility.)<br />2. Double Click the ABR file. <b>THEN</b> copy the ABR folder to your <b>USB flash drive or external drive</b>. <span style="color:Red;"><b>DO NOT COPY THE ABR FOLDER TO A CD OR DVD. IT WILL NOT WORK!!!</b></span><br />3. Double Click "activation_backup.exe". If all goes OK you will see two new files in the ABR folder.<br />• backup-cert.xrm-ms (This is the backed-up activation certification file)<br />• backup-key.txt: (This is the backed-up product key. Double click the .txt file to open. Make sure you have a key code of five sets of random numbers and letters. Write down the key code just in case it is needed for future use. Close the file. DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THIS FILE.)<br /><span style="color:Red;"><b>!!!DO NOT PROCEED UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED TO MAKE SURE THESE TWO FILES ARE IN THE ABR FOLDER ON A USB DRIVE!!!</b></span><br />4. Insert the Vista Anytime Upgrade DVD and shut down/turn off the computer.<br /><br /><b><span style="color:Red;">(NOTE: If you are upgrading to a new hard drive, install the new hard drive now.)</span></b><br /><br />5. Turn on the computer. Follow the prompt and "press any key" to boot to the install disk.<br /><b>TIP: </b>Just keep tapping the space bar about once a second after you push the power button until it boots to the DVD drive. If this doesn't work you need to power back down -> power up -> press F1 to enter the BIOS -> change the boot setting so the DVD drive is first -> then press F12 to save and exit.<br /><img src="http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9143/1windowsloadingfilesqy4.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />6. Choose your language, Time/Currency, and country. Click Next.<br /><img src="http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/981/2languagetimelocationke7.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />7. Click on Install Now<br /><img src="http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/1391/3installnowwa9.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />8. The next screen is for your Vista key. DO NOT enter anything in this box. Be sure to UNCHECK the activate box. Click Next. The installation program won't believe you, so it will ask you again if you want to enter your key. Choose NO.<br /><img src="http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/5283/4keyscreencj6.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />9. You will be asked which version of Vista you have purchased. Highlight the version that came with your computer. Check the box that says "I have selected the edition of Windows that I purchased". Click Next. If you do not pick the version you paid for, it won't work!<br /><img src="http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/936/5versionhk7.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />10. Accept Microsoft's license terms. Click Next.<br />11. Choose Custom (Advanced) Installation.<br /><img src="http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/4945/6customadvancedmi4.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />12. Your internal/primary hard drive is called "Disk 0" this is where you want to install Vista. Highlight Disk 0 and click "Drive options (advanced)"<br /><img src="http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/614/7drivecu9.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />• You will <i>most likely</i> see Disk 0 Partition 1 and Disk 0 Partition 2. The larger partition is where Vista is installed. The smaller partition is the "hidden partition".<br />• To remove the hidden partition select the smaller partition and click "delete". This step can be skipped if you wish to keep the hidden partition. (I chose to remove it because it takes up space)<br />• Select the larger partition and click "Delete".<br />• Select "New" and select the largest size possible.<br />• Select "Format" then Click "Next".<br /><br />(<b>NOTE:</b> This is the most confusion part of the clean install process. Basically, if you do not want the hidden partition, you will delete ALL partitions and create one "New" partition of the largest size possible. Then "format" the new partition. If you want to keep the hidden partition, you will not delete the smaller partition.)<br /><img src="http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/5487/advancedxw2.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />13. The installation program will now begin copying files<br /><img src="http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/4130/8installingwindowsby5.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />14. The installation program will reboot the computer. You can remove the DVD from the drive now.<br /><img src="http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/6561/9restartdv0.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />15. Choose a username and password.<br /><img src="http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/800/10usernamepasswordsm4.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />16. Choose a computer name and desktop background.<br /><img src="http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6475/11computernamedesktopbz2.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />17. Choose an automatic updates option.<br /><img src="http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/9296/12autoupdatesim5.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />18. Choose a time zone, set date and time.<br /><img src="http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/6661/13datetimegi8.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />19. The gears of Vista will whirl for a few moments and Vista will start! Go to Control Panel>System and Maintenance>System. You will see that Vista is NOT activated. Close this window.<br /><img src="http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3063/14notactivatedmh5.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />20. Insert your USB flash drive and navigate to activation_restore.exe. Double click the file to start.<br />21. A cmd window will open and you will see it doing it's thing. It should say "Successful". Close the cmd window.<br />22. Go to Control Panel>System and Maintenance>System again. Notice the difference?<br /><img src="http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/8601/15vistaactivatedfg2.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:180%;"><u>STEP 4:</u></span></b><br /><br />Install ALL drivers IN THE EXACT ORDER LISTED ABOVE. REBOOT after every driver installation even if it is not required. THE CHIPSET DRIVER MUST BE INSTALLED FIRST.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color:Red;">DRIVER INSTALLATION TIP: Many of the drivers (especially the drivers from Lenovo) do not actually install when you double click on them. Often times they are only extracted to the hard drive. It is then necessary to locate the extracted file on the hard drive and install it from there. Please read the "read me" file associated with each driver for installation instructions on each of the drivers.</span></span><br /><br /><b><span style="color:Red;">~DO NOT INSTALL ANY THINKVANTAGE UTILITIES UNTIL YOU READ THE F.A.Q. REGARDING THINKVANTAGE BELOW~</span></b><br /><br />Congratulations!!! Your clean install is finished!!! But let's run the Windows Experience Index before we quit.<br /><br />Open Control Panel>System and Maintenance>System again. Click on Windows Experience Index half way down the window.<br /><br />This will open the Windows Experience Index window. Click "Update My Score". Vista uses this score to determine if it will be able to handle the Aero interface.<br /><img src="http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/2380/16updateweins0.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br /><b>BUG FIX!!!</b> There have been reports of instability issues from having "Hybrid Hard Disk Power Savings Mode" enabled under the power management options. To disable Hybrid Hard Disk go into power management by clicking on the icon on the right side of the task bar. Click "More Power Options" then click "Change Plan Settings" under your selected power plan. Double click "Hard Disk", then Double Click "Windows Hybrid Hard Disk Power Savings Mode". Set both options to "DISABLED". Now click "APPLY" then click "OK".<br /><br />There you have it! A fresh, clean Vista installation with NO extra crap. Guaranteed to make for a faster and more enjoyable computing experience!<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:100%;">If at any time you make a mistake you can use the recovery disk(s) or your manufacturers recovery method to restore your computer.</span></b><br /><br />Good Luck and Enjoy!<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:130%;">FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:</span></b><br />• <b>What disks can I use to do a clean install?</b> You can use a retail, oem, or anytime upgrade disk. If using a retail or OEM disk, it does not matter if it is basic, premium, business, or ultimate. The disks have EVERY version of Vista. The only difference is 32-bit disks and 64-bit disks.<br /><br />• <b>What is the "Anytime Upgrade" DVD?</b> Most people think this DVD is just to do an "upgrade" as the name implies. This DVD is actually a Vista installation DVD. It contains EVERY version of Vista on the single DVD. There are two "anytime upgrade" DVDs. One for ALL 32-bit Vista versions and one for ALL 64-bit Vista versions.<br /><br />• <b>Can I use a retail or OEM Vista DVD instead of the "Anytime Upgrade" DVD?</b> Yes, barrow a retail disk or OEM disk from a friend and follow the guide. The clean install process and the end result will be the same. Basically the Anytime Upgrade DVD, any retail or OEM DVD are all the same installation disks. The only thing different about them is the label stamped on the disk. All of these Vista installation disks contain EVERY version (i.e. Basic, Premium, Business, Ultimate) of Vista. <i>It is the product key that determines the version.</i><br /><br />• <b>Can I download a 32-bit or 64-bit disk?</b> Yes, you can download Vista 32-bit and/or 64-bit and create install disks from this website: <a href="http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/08/windows-vista-free-direct-download-link/" target="_blank">MyDigitalLife</a><br />Make sure you download the correct 32 or 64-bit files depending on what you want. After you download the files, you might want to look at this guide: <a href="http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2007/04/17/how-to-burn-downloaded-windows-vista-to-dvd/" target="_blank">How to Burn Downloaded Windows Vista to DVD</a> I think it is a little easier to understand. Also, this guide uses a free utility called "imgburn" which is my DVD image burning utility of choice. I also use imgburn to burn .iso images for BIOS updates.<br /><br />• <b>Can I have 32-bit or 64-bit?</b> Yes, it does not matter if your factory installation is 32-bit or 64-bit. If your laptop currently has 32-bit Vista, just use the 64-bit "anytime upgrade", retail, or OEM disk to do the clean install to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit. Or vice versa, if you want to go from 64-bit to 32-bit.<br /><br />• <b>Can I really upgrade from Vista 32-bit to Vista 64-bit by following this guide?</b> YES!!! You can upgrade from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Vista by doing a clean install with the 64-bit "anytime upgrade" disk (or any other 64-bit retail or OEM Vista installation disk) and using the ABR utility to activate.<br /><br />• <b>What is Orev's Activation Back-up and Restore (ABR) utility?</b> Orev's ABR works with OEM/factory Vista installations. It is a very small utility (2.2mb) that will back-up the Vista OEM/factory product key to a text file and will also back up the OEM/factory certification file hidden on your laptop. It creates these two files <u>before</u> the clean install and then restores them <u>after</u> the clean install. The ABR utility must be used with a <b>USB drive</b> or other <b>external drive</b>. The ABR utility was created by Orev. Click here: <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228/" target="_blank">Orev's Clean Install Guide</a><br /><br />• <b>Will the ABR utility work for me?</b>The ABR utility can ONLY be used to backup from a factory install (Basically the untouched machine from the factory). You must backup the keycode while the factory install is still installed on the system before proceeding with the clean install. The ABR utility will not work if you have already done a clean install by using the keycode on the sticker! NOTE: Those who originally had Windows XP on their laptop then upgraded to Windows Vista with the "Express Upgrade" will not be able to clean install using the ABR utility. Do not attempt this guide using the "Express Upgrade" disk. This guide is for those that currently have a factory install of Vista and wish to clean install using the "Anytime Upgrade", retail, or OEM disks.<br /><br />• <b>What is the difference between the key on the bottom sticker vs. the key found by the ABR utility?</b> When a you buy a new computer, either a laptop or desktop, you will notice a sticker applied (usually on the back or bottom) that has the license key for the version of Windows you paid for but that key has never been activated. There is another key code hidden in your laptop that was installed by the manufacturer. This keycode is pre-activated. This saves companies like Lenovo the hassle of activating every laptop they build and/or it saves the consumers and Microsoft the hassle of having to activate hundreds and thousands of computers everyday.<br /><br />• <b>Why not use the key on the bottom of the laptop?</b> That key is not "pre-activated" and you will have to call Microsoft to activate it. And, you will have to call them again if you decide to do a reinstall... and again if you reinstall... and every time hope that you have an explanation that they will agree to, even though you already have a paid license for it.<br /><br />• <b>Can I use the key on the bottom of my laptop?</b> Yes, if you have no problem calling Microsoft to get your system activated, you can use the key that's on your laptop. However, Microsoft will ask you why you need to activate. If you have to re-install again, they will ask you "Why?" again. Eventually they might say "No" and not activate your product. It's just a hassle to call and explain yourself.<br /><br />• <b>What do I do if ABR utility does not activate Vista?</b> The ABR utility works very well for almost everyone that uses it. I have a hard time believing that it will fail to work if you follow the directions exactly as provided in the guide. However, it's possible that the utility might not work (anything is possible, right?). Don't panic. You will get activated! There are other options for for getting activated. This has been discussed in detail here: <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2489919#post2489919" target="_blank">Other Activation Options</a>.<br /><br />• <b>Should I install driver "abc" or patch "xyz"?</b> The list of drivers above will get you going, but you might require additional drivers. If you have a certain hardware on your laptop you will most likely require a driver for that hardware. So if it applies to your laptop and operating system, then yes, you should probably install the driver or patch in question. Do not confuse drivers with utilities. Drivers are necessary for you hardware and operating system to communicate with each other. Most Thinkvantage utilities are not necessary and in most cases will only slow down the performance of your laptop.<br /><br />• <b>What is ThinkVantage?</b> ThinkVantage is not one utility. It is multiple thirdparty utilities from Lenovo. Each of these utilities can be downloaded and installed separately from Lenovo. If you are tempted to install some of the Thinkvantage utilities, TRY TO RESIST!!! If you still insist, I recommend that you hold off on installing those for at least a few weeks to become acquainted with the performance and stability of your laptop. THEN install one Thinkvantage utility every couple of weeks. That way if one of the utilities causes an instability or performance issue you will be able to isolate the problem utility and uninstall it. Avoid installing ThinkVantage utilities that you do not need to avoid slowing down the performance of your system. <b><u>NONE</u></b> of the ThinkVantage utilities are necessary except for ThinkVantage Fingerprint Software for those with a fingerprint reader. For a list of ThinkVantage utilities and a description of each of them <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2407893#post2407893" target="_blank"> Click Here</a>.<br /><br />• <b>Can I use ThinkVantage System Update to install the drivers for me?</b> You can do that, but I don't recommend it. First of all, the purpose of this guide to to have a clean install without any ThinkVantage Utilities. System Update is a ThinkVantage Utility. There have been numerous reports that system update does not always install all the drivers and sometimes it will install older drivers than what are available on the Downloads and Drivers page. Using System Update makes it more of a hassle to figure out what drivers are missing and what drivers are old. Also, it is just not a good idea to rely on a utility to properly install drivers. Occasionally Lenovo will release bug fixes for System Update. In short, ThinkVantage System Update is subject to error. Do you and your laptop a favor and install them properly yourself. Here is just <u>one of many threads</u> where people complain that System Update is not working properly. <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=183834" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> It's just too unreliable! I should also mention that BIOS updates should not be performed unless you have a known issue that the update will fix. Things can go horribly wrong if a BIOS flash is not properly performed. If you must update your BIOS, it is always safest to use the bootable CD method of flashing the BIOS.<br /><br />• <b>Can I use Windows Update to install the drivers for me?</b> You can, but I don't recommend it. Don't let Windows update install any <i>drivers</i>. Occasionally Windows Update will tell you there is a new driver for your Thinkpad's hardware. Do not let it install any drivers. Go to the Lenovo downloads and drivers page to check if a new driver is really available. If so, download it and install it yourself. Do not confuse <i>"drivers"</i> with Windows <i>"updates"</i>. You should allow Windows updates to install all critical and important Windows "updates".<br /><br />• <b>Will I loose any functionality of my laptop after the clean install?</b> The only functionality you will loose is one of the blue ThinkVantage button functions. Pre-OS (on boot-up) this button allows you to do a factory restore from a hidden partition on your hard drive. After a clean install, the ThinkVantage button will no longer function properly pre-OS/boot-up, and you will no longer be able to access ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery through the hidden recovery partition. There is no resolution that I know of at the moment. If you deleted the hidden partition so you could make use of the extra hard drive space, this function is of no importance to you anyway. However, you can get the blue ThinkVantage button working properly within Vista with the installation of the ThinkVantage Productivity Center Utility. Within Vista the blue ThinkVantage button works as a shortcut button which brings up a menu of the other ThinkVantage utilities on your laptop.<br /><br />The only other thing you will loose after the clean install are a bunch of applications that come bundled with your laptop. For the most part, these applications are "light" versions (meaning limited function versions) of the applications you would actually pay for. Most of these applications should be in the swtools folder and can be installed from there. However, some applications may not be found in the swtools folder. It is up to you to look through the swtools folder to see what applications can and can not be installed.<br /><br />• <b>If I can't use the blue ThinkVantage button, how can I restore my clean install?</b> If you have Vista Business or Ultimate, there is a back-up and recovery program built in to Vista called "Complete PC Backup and Restore". It can be located in the control panel -> "System and Maintenance" -> "Backup your computer". It is very simple to use. You can use this utility to backup your entire PC to a separate HDD or make a set of recovery DVDs that will restore your entire system. <i>Backing up</i> is very simple, but you might need a little help the first time you <i>Restore</i>. Click here for a <a href="http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial144.html" target="_blank"> Complete PC <i>Restore </i>Guide</a>. (NOTE: When attempting to restore using recovery disks made with Complete PC you must insert the last disk that was made during the backup process, first. Then when prompted-> insert the first disk you made-> then the second disk and so on.) For other versions of Vista you should consider a thirdparty back-up and recovery program such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. Another option, for everyone, is to back-up files and redo the clean install.<br /><br />• <b>Can I redo the clean install?</b> Yes, as many times as you like. Some people like to do a clean install from time to time just to keep their system clean. After you back-up your activation using the ABR utility you can keep that on your USB drive and use it over and over. If you accidentally loose the ABR back-up information, no problem, just download the ABR utility again and start over.<br /><br />•<b> What is the "hidden partition"?</b> Lenovo put a "hidden partition" on your hard drive. This partition takes up about 7GB of space. This hidden partition is a back-up partition that will allow the user to restore the system to the original factory install. Most people doing a "clean install" are not interested in restoring back to the original factory bloated install. So many people, myself included, choose to delete the hidden partition in order to use that 7GB of hard drive space for other things. If you make recovery disks, as outlined in the guide, you can still restore to the original factory install including the hidden partition if you ever choose to do so using those recovery disks.<br /><br />•<b> How do I remove the "hidden partition" on my hard drive?</b> It is best to remove the hidden partition before starting the clean install. Just follow Hypertrophy's <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2367169#post2367169/" target="_blank">Diskpart Guide</a> prior to installation. Then during the install follow the steps outlined in the guide under Step 3.12 <br /><br />•<b> Have you completed the clean install and are still having trouble with freezes and BSODs?</b><br />These problems are often related to the RAM. Make sure to test your RAM using memtest86+ it is the first thing you should do if you ever experience system instability issues or after installing new RAM. Click here to learn how: <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=142746/" target="_blank">Test Your RAM with Memtest86+</a><br /><br />•<b> Are you still not satisfied with the performance of your laptop?</b> Install more RAM and/or install a better hard drive. I don't think anyone should be running Vista with less than 2GB of RAM. The price of RAM right now is reasonable so I'd recommend maxing out your RAM to 3GB if you have a 32-bit system or 4GB if you have a 64-bit system. Go to <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=121363&highlight=RAM+Deals" target="_blank">RAM Deals</a> to check out the prices of RAM. Pick any 200-pin 667mHz RAM. They will all fit and work just as good as the more expensive RAM from the factory. Also, consider upgrading to a 7200RPM hard drive. RAM and HDD upgrades WILL provide a noticeable improvement. It is probably much easier to install these components than you think. Have a look at these <a href="http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-63959&velxr-layout=printLenovo" target="_blank">Hardware Install Videos</a>.<br /><br />•<b> Can I use this guide to upgrade my current version of Vista?</b> This guide is about doing a clean install only. The ABR utility will not activate any other version of Vista other than the version you currently own. It is not about getting something for free. PERIOD! After the clean install is finished you can follow Microsoft's method of paying for an upgrade version if you choose to do so.<br /><br />•<b> What is the best way to take care of my battery?</b> crisyana made a guide that will answer all of your battery related questions. Click Here:<a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846&highlight=battery+maintenance+guide" target="_blank"> Battery Maintenance Guide</a><br /><br />•<b> Where did stallen go?</b> I'm still around, but I'm so busy with school that I will probably only be checking in about once a week. I'm convinced that this guide is very comprehensive. If you have a question. Read it again. The answer is probably already here. If not, the NBR community will chip and in help you out if you'd like to post a question in the thread.<br /><br /><span style="color:Red;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b>UPDATE 3-23-08: It is not necessary to read all 125+ pages of this guide to get the information you need. The guide and the F.A.Q. are updated on a regular basis. If you do not find an answer to your question within the guide or the F.A.Q. section at the bottom of this guide then feel free to post your question in the thread. PLEASE, first read the guide and the F.A.Q. at the bottom carefully.</b></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color:Red;"><b>CREDITS:</b></span><br /><span style="color:DarkRed;"><br />• Thanks to Dave from Dave's Computer Tips for all the Vista install screen shots and walk-thru. Check out his website! <a href="http://www.davescomputertips.com/" target="_blank">Dave's Computer Tips</a> He has some very good tips and advice. Subscribe to his Newsletters! Thanks for allowing me incorporate your hard work into this guide.</span><br /><span style="color:DarkRed;">• Thanks to Orev for creating the ABR utility. That utility is what makes this so easy! His guide is excellent. <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228/" target="_blank">Orev's Clean Install Guide</a></span><br /><span style="color:DarkRed;">• Thanks to many other forum members like Wh1t3w0lf <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=119587" target="_blank">Clean Install Guide</a>, and jstigall <a href="http://jstigall.googlepages.com/t61clean.html" target="_blank">Clean Install Guide</a>. I learned a lot from you guys!</span><br /><span style="color:DarkRed;">• Thanks to hypertophy. We used his laptop to test this guide. He put up with a lot of trial and error so YOU wouldn't have to.<img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Big Grin" class="inlineimg" border="0" /> </span><br /><br /><span style="color:Red;">As you can see I can't take credit for most of this guide. It is a collaboration of many peoples work. I just pieced it together. Hopefully this guide will help some people get the enjoyment out of their laptop they were expecting when they first pulled it out of the box.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:Red;"><b>DISCLAIMER:</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>Use this guide at your own risk. I cannot guarantee that it will work for everyone. I cannot guarantee that everyone will be happy with the results. I do not work for Lenovo. I do not work for notebookreview.com. Furthermore, this guide is intended to assist those with a clean install of the version of Vista that you purchased and already own. It will not work if you attempt to use it to upgrade to a version that you do not own. It is not intended for the purposes of piracy. I take no responsibility for the actions of others who attempt to use this for the purposes of piracy. You are responsible for your own actions.</b></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-12137074717708376092009-02-26T00:11:00.000-05:002009-02-26T00:12:14.467-05:0044. Guide: How to Delete Hidden Recovery Partition on Vista<span style="font-style: italic;">By: hypertrophy</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From: NotebookReview.com</span><br /><br /><b>This only applies to Windows Vista.</b><br /><br /><b>*Make sure you have backed up your OEM keycode before deleting the hidden partition.*</b><br /><br />The Lenovo Hidden Recovery Partition is a protected partition so you will not be able to delete it through Disk Management as you would with any other normal partition. You will need to use Diskpart. You can still use these steps to delete the hidden recovery partition if you have already done a clean install, but you'll need a 3rd party software to combine it with the primary partition. It is best if you delete the Hidden Recovery Partition first, then go through with a clean install using one of the many guides available on this board.<br /><br /><b>Step 1.</b><br />Burn Recovery Media. Type "Recovery Media" (without quotation marks) into search in the Start Menu. Open the application, and follow the instructions.<br /><br /><b>Step 2.</b><br />Open the Diskpart application by either typing in "Diskpart" (without the quotation marks) into the search, or type "Diskpart.exe" into Run by pressing the Windows key + R.<br /><br /><b>Step 3.</b><br />Now with Diskpart open, you must enter the following command lines:<br /><br /><b>I.</b> Type "list disk" without the quotation marks and press enter.<br /><br /><b>II.</b> Type in "select disk 0" and press enter.<br /><br /><b>III.</b> Then type in "list partition" and press enter.<br /><br /><b>IV.</b> Then type in "select partition x" x=the recovery partition you wish to delete (i believe it's 1, i dont recall) replace x with the recovery partition number and press enter.<br /><br /><b>V.</b> Then finally type in "delete partition override" and press enter.<br /><br />That should do the trick. Best of luck! <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" border="0" />Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-38209904927122827222008-12-08T15:15:00.002-05:002008-12-08T15:16:25.778-05:0042. How It Works: Batteries<span id="intelliTxt"><span><span><i>By: Dustin Sklavos<br />From: NotebookReview<br /><br /></i></span></span></span><span id="intelliTxt"><p>"How it Works" has been going strong for eight chapters now, and here in the ninth chapter we get to a subject that frankly, I've been dreading: batteries. This is a situation where explaining how the battery itself works is largely irrelevant; instead, it's more important to know how to choose a battery, how to save battery life, and how the battery itself decays.</p> <p>There are problems here. While I can be credibly marked down for missing one or two points of minutiae in the last article, when talking about batteries there's a mountain of hearsay. Even more than the urban legends that surround them, there are other factors that ultimately make them difficult to talk about. Lenovo, for example, regularly squeezes obscene amounts of battery life out of their laptops, while an Asus equipped with the same hardware will get borderline half as much battery life. I can't give you the precise reason why.</p> <p>So here we go, getting into Part IX of "How it Works" and talking about one of the most important and misunderstood parts of your laptop: the battery.</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38818.jpg" width="300" border="0" height="196" /></p> <p><b>How It Works: Batteries</b></p> <p>Before I get into the nitty gritty of this, I need to make something clear: I'm neither chemist nor engineer, so the nitty gritty details and minutiae of batteries are things I won't go into. This is largely because understanding them isn't really relevant to understanding how to care for and use your laptop battery.</p> <p>First and probably most important is that Metallica lied to you: battery is not, in fact, here to stay. Lithium Ion batteries (commonly referred to as LiIon) have been powering laptops for quite some time now, and if anything in this world is ephemeral, surely these are. These batteries begin losing capacity - not charge, but full capacity - from the moment they come off the manufacturing line. That means that your battery life is going to be at its best the day you buy your laptop and from then on, it will become progressively worse. Period.</p> <p>That said, laptop batteries have to be pretty impressive given the fact that they power an entire computer. And mercifully, compared to other parts like processors or graphics cards, battery statistics are incredibly easy to understand. There are really just two statistics to them: number of cells and life rated in milliampere-hours (mAh). There is, however, no way to totally gauge how much battery life a computer can pull from these. An ASUS <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=1047" target="_blank">Eee PC</a> 1000H netbook, for example, can pull a staggering six hours out of a six cell battery. By the same token, I had an old ASUS laptop that, at the time I bought it, would be lucky to hit 2:30 from the same-sized battery. So as I mentioned before, there are variables here, and I'll discuss them.</p> <p><b>Cells and Power Hours</b></p> <p>Laptop batteries are comprised of groups of cells. Traditionally, low capacity batteries contain three to four cells; the average laptop battery is a six cell. When you get into 17" laptops, batteries tend to contain eight or nine cells. Finally, I've seen high capacity batteries go up to twelve.</p> <p>What's important to understand is that the number of cells the battery contains directly affects the size of the battery itself. In smaller laptops (12.1" and under), for example, going beyond three or four cells often results in a battery that hangs out the back of the notebook. Likewise, the 12-cell high capacity battery HP offers for their 14.1" and 15.4" laptop lines (they're kind enough to at least standardize the battery) lifts up the machine, tilting it up on a flat surface and having the pleasant side effect of producing a more comfortable typing angle (depending on who you ask).</p> <p> </p><table border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38810" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38811.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="160" /></a><br />3-cell standard battery on HP 2133 Mini-Note</td> <td><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38812" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38813.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="197" /></a><br />6-cell extended life battery on HP 2133 Mini-Note</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The battery itself will also be rated for either watt hours or more commonly, milliampere-hours, or mAh, and again, more is better. Where this gets a little bit tricky is that some batteries are able to produce a smidge more milliampere-hours out of the same number of cells using higher capacity cells. I've seen six cell batteries offer just 4400 mAh, or go up to 4800 mAh or better.</p> <p><b>Battery Life</b></p> <p>Here I'm going to explain about the easiest things you can do to improve battery life in your laptop, and it amazes me how many users aren't familiar with some of these. This isn't even going to get into the nitty gritty of the control panels, really, they're just basic tips.</p> <p>First and foremost, the most power hungry component of your laptop by a long mile is the screen. While LED-backlit screens (see Part VIII) do draw substantially less power than CCFL-backlit screens, they still draw a decent amount of power. Fortunately, laptop manufacturers are aware of this and gave you a way to dim the backlight, thus improving battery life greatly. Backlight brightness is generally controlled by a combination of the Fn key on the keyboard and a pair of the function keys, which dim or brighten the screen depending on which you press. By dimming the screen while running on the battery to where you can comfortably read it, you can potentially add at least a half hour to your useful battery life if not more.</p> <p>The second thing you can do is disable your wireless connection. Laptops always include some way of toggling the wireless card on and off, usually with a dedicated switch but occasionally with the tried and true Fn and function key combination. While this is something you may be loathe to disable and is becoming less and less relevant as newer wireless cards draw less and less power, it's still worth knowing. If your laptop is Bluetooth-enabled, disable that when you're not using Bluetooth to avoid wasting power.</p> <p>Third is what you use your laptop for. Frankly, gaming on the battery is a good way to kill it in a hurry. Modern 3D games tend to be very hardware intensive. Pushing your CPU and video hardware at full bore or near full bore is going to draw more power, but this only gets magnified by the heat they generate as a result, which pushes the fan in your laptop that much harder as well. If you're just playing Solitaire or Minesweeper you don't have a lot to worry about, but if you're trying to play World of Warcraft or Doom 3 during class, your battery is likely to go in a hurry.</p> <p>In this vein, doing heavy Photoshop or video work isn't going to thrill your laptop's battery a whole lot either. While it's not the kind of killer that gaming can be, it still pushes the processor pretty hard, causing it to draw more power as a result. And finally, playing DVDs or Blu-rays on the battery is also a good way to kill it, though at least laptops tend to be semi-optimized for this. These tasks draw more power by virtue of having to spin up the optical drive, and in the case of Blu-ray can pretty aggressively tax both the CPU and video hardware.</p> <p>Given all this information, you can probably assume installing software on the battery from a disc isn't going to do you any favors either.</p> <p>So what the hell can you do? Well, remember, you CAN do any of these tasks, you just need to understand they're going to hit the battery a little harder and make peace with that.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38814" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38815.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="169" /></a></p> <p><b>Shopping for Battery Life</b></p> <p>While I do plan on putting together a full bore "buying a laptop online" guide at a later date, for now I can give you some key pointers on how to shop for a laptop that can maximize the useful life out of its battery.</p> <p>As far as screens go, LED-backlit screens make a big difference in power draw and can improve your battery life while also producing a much more pleasing picture. It also bears keeping in mind that if you buy a larger laptop, it's going to have a larger screen, and that larger screen is going to need more power.</p> <p>Dedicated graphics hardware (remember <a target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4563">Part V</a>) is always going to take a bigger bite out of your battery life. If you must have the absolute best battery life you can, you're better off with integrated graphics.</p> <p>As of the time of this writing and likely for the foreseeable future, Intel processors generally produce superior battery life than AMD's do. It's a hard fact of life, especially for those of us AMD stalwarts. Intel's P series mobile processors seem to be the cream of the crop right now, sitting in a mainstream segment and reporting a TDP of 10W less than T series processors. Oftentimes, thin and light and ultraportable laptops will contain low voltage or ultra low voltage processors, and these are going to do the best on battery life but come at a premium cost.</p> <p>If you're slumming it and hitting low cost laptops, you're likely just not going to get the battery life you want. These tend to use cheaper and fewer cells in the batteries to get the cost that low and pass the savings on to you, so to speak.</p> <p>And finally, look at the review of the laptop you're eyeballing. Notebook Review has reviews for an alarming number of laptops on the market, and better, there's probably at least one person on the forums who owns the laptop you're looking at and can answer questions about it for you.</p> <p><b>Your Battery Is Not Here To Stay</b></p> <p>And now we come to the hard fact of laptop batteries: they lose capacity over time. First of all, anyone who tells you not to constantly recharge it, or to power cycle it, or whatever, is cracked out. Power cycling it may calibrate software in the battery that tells the computer how much life the battery has left, but that's it. LiIon batteries begin losing capacity the instant they come off the conveyor belt, period.</p> <p>The one thing these batteries are sensitive to is temperature. If you're planning not to use a battery for a while, keeping it in the freezer will substantially reduce the steady loss of capacity. The site Battery University has a little more math (okay, a lot more) for you to dig on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm">here</a>, but basically you'll want to reduce the battery to about a 40% charge and then freeze it, and that will help reduce the loss of capacity.</p> <p>Unfortunately, you probably want to use your battery. That means that the increased temperatures that come with running your laptop are going to take their toll on the battery's capacity.</p> <p>Given regular, average use coupled with the math on Battery University's site, it's safe to assume your maximum battery life will be reduced by roughly a third by the end of the first year.</p> <p>One important thing to keep in mind is that contrary to what anyone says, laptop LiIon batteries do not have a "memory" the way other rechargeables might. This is not how these batteries lose capacity.</p> <p>And finally, do not buy a battery and plan to use it later. As I said, batteries lose their charge the instant they come off the line, so avoid buying the battery until you intend to use it.</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38816.jpg" width="300" border="0" height="196" /></p> <p><b>Conclusion</b></p> <p>Yet another article where I can't really give you any recommendations. That's because ... hey ... these are batteries. Part of the problem is that there's no real good metric for measuring how much battery life you can expect from a laptop because of the design decisions each manufacturer makes. I can say that I've generally seen solid battery life out of HP's hardware, and I've heard good things about Dell's. Lenovo is practically a class leader here. Likewise, though I love ASUS, their laptops tend to have mediocre to poor battery life. As the stalwarts on the forums will tell you, an ASUS laptop just wouldn't be an ASUS without some kind of horrible fatal flaw, and nine times out of ten, that battery life is it.</p> <p>As for the steady decay of battery life, well, it comes with the territory. The nice thing about bigger, high capacity batteries is that even though age sets in, their useful life is longer as a result of just holding more. I have a nearly two year old 12-cell HP battery powering my HP Pavilion dv2500t that still gets me about four useful hours on the charge.</p> <p>Oh, and those of you that are wondering where the section on battery recalls is, there's a simple answer: there isn't one. Recalls occur for all kinds of stuff, though admittedly laptop batteries seem to be a little more prone. But that's a business and manufacturing detail.</p> <p>And that concludes Part IX of "How it Works." At this point, if you can't practically build your own laptop there may be no hope for you, but fear not ... we'll get it all covered.</p></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-86327587355250265372008-12-08T15:15:00.001-05:002008-12-08T15:15:51.768-05:0041. How It Works: Screens<span id="intelliTxt"><span><span><i>By: Dustin Sklavos<br />From: NotebookReview<br /><br /></i></span></span></span><span id="intelliTxt"><p>As the "How it Works" series gets on in the years, it may be helpful to look back at one of its predecessors; in this case, the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2549">Notebook Screen Guide I wrote in 2005</a>. While yes, laptops continue to have screens and many traits have managed to stay the same, there have been advances and changes in the market that definitely precipitate a new guide. Since "How it Works" is in full swing right now, it seems fairly obvious that screens should get their due here. After all, we're examining every facet of your notebook to understand how it all comes together, right?</p> <p>It's easy to underestimate the importance of the screen. Performance characteristics of computers in general often take precedence in peoples' minds; no one goes up to their friends and says "I just got this sweet 15.4 inch screen laptop" when they could say "I just got this sweet Centrino 2 laptop." But the screen is important, especially with your laptop. The screen is the most important part of you interact with your computer, and a bad screen can ruin the experience while a great screen can make it that much more enjoyable. I found on my own desktop that moving to a 21" widescreen made using it more pleasant, and when I made the jump from a 24" LG to a 27" Dell screen, everything became that much better. Being able to use that 24" as a secondary monitor also dramatically improved video editing and even just basic efficiency. Frankly, my computer is a place I really don't mind spending a whole lot of time.</p> <p>Likewise, a bad screen can ruin your day and make you want to use your laptop less. While the screen on my HP dv2500t isn't going to win any prizes, it's still a good enough screen that it doesn't factor in to whether or not I want to use the laptop itself, and the backlighting even on the lowest setting is still quite manageable. Likewise, I used to have an Asus A8Jm that was a remarkably powerful laptop with such an abysmal screen that it made using the computer a chore. What good is a gaming quality GPU when a game with subtle shadowing like Doom 3 is rendered virtually impossible to see by dismal viewing angles?</p> <p>So, today I'm going to talk to you about your laptop screen.</p> <p><b>How It Works: Screens</b></p> <p>Laptop screens may be one of the simplest things to get into while dodging the irritating technical stuff. The vast majority of information is readily available on these, so this guide is going to wind up largely being a "screen decoder ring."</p> <p>First of all, in order to understand the screen, you're basically looking at these qualities: resolution, aspect ratio, screen size, backlighting, and finish. Before I get into these qualities, a little briefing may be in order as to how the screen itself is designed.</p> <p><b>Building A Laptop Screen</b></p> <p>Basically, the modern laptop screen is a fixed series of "little windows" called pixels. The pixels themselves each have three subpixels - red, blue, and green. These subpixels are basically tinted shutters. To get a picture on the screen, these subpixels shutter the light from the backlight and together produce the different colors displayed on the screen itself.</p> <p>While desktop panels are typically one of three types - TN, *VA (PVA and MVA), and IPS - laptop panels are almost universally TN panels. It's important to note that desktop screens are not all created equal, and that TN panels are by far the cheapest (read: least expensive and lowest quality) of the three. They sport mediocre viewing angles and in the case of larger panels, this results in a profoundly non-uniform perception of the coloring of the image.</p> <p>In laptops, this is pretty much the way of the world, but because laptop screens are smaller they're at least better suited to this panel type. Unfortunately, TN panels also produce generally poor color accuracy. TN panels have 6-bit color per subpixel, totalling an effective eighteen bits of color or a maximum of around 200,000 colors. They then use dithering to simulate the remaining 24-bit color gamut which has been standard for as long as I can remember. This ultimately makes TN panels - and by extension, laptops - less than ideal for doing color sensitive work like video editing and photo manipulation. Try not to take this too seriously, though: the dithering is generally pretty good and you largely wouldn't notice this if I never mentioned it to you. (On desktop screens, this is another matter entirely.)</p> <p>Another aspect briefly worth mentioning is "response time." Since the image on the screen is created by the subpixels moving to filter light through, motion in the image itself can ghost or blur a little bit. This is where TN panels excel; ghosting is minimal on these compared to the other panel types. Thus, motion appears quite fluid on typical notebook screens, and the response time isn't really an issue.</p> <p><b>Resolution and Aspect Ratio</b></p> <p>These are going into a section together because they're inextricably tied to one another. Resolution is expressed in X times Y; X is the number of pixels wide the screen is and Y is the number of pixels tall.</p> <p>Aspect ratio is a profoundly important thing for the modern consumer to know and be aware of. I can't tell you how many times hairs have stood up on the back of my neck in restaurants because someone is running the HDTV at standard aspect, causing the image to appear stretched and squished. This is something easily controlled but no one has been educated about it, so let me spell it out for you.</p> <p>Aspect ratio is expressed in a similar way to resolution - X:Y, where X is the number of units wide and Y is the number of units tall. Alternatively, it may be expressed as X:1, where X is a decimal value. A screen that is 1.33:1 is 1.33 times as wide as it is tall. You follow?</p> <p>So here are the aspect ratios in rotation right now:</p> <p>4:3 (1.33:1) - This is the aspect ratio of standard definition. Your old TV is going to produce a picture three units tall and four units wide. While screens are seldom produced in this aspect anymore, a common resolution in standard is 1024x768.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38619" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38620.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="197" /></a></p> <p>16:9 (1.77:1) - This is the aspect ratio of HDTVs. It's substantially wider than it is tall, and while this aspect ratio was more or less nonexistent in the laptop market a year ago, it's becoming increasingly popular with the manufacturers as 16:9 panels are cheaper to produce than the next type, which is currently the most common. 16:9 laptop screens are commonly either 1366x768 or 1920x1080; 1680x945 is an awkward half step that has materialized as well in 18.4" screens.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38617" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38618.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="187" /></a></p> <p>16:10 (1.66:1) - This is the most common computer aspect ratio. While it may be a matter of preference, I personally find this aspect to be the most productive for computing. As humans we read left to right, down a page, so an aspect slightly taller than 16:9 - which is more ideal for movie watching - is typically more practical.</p> <p>5:4 (1.25:1) - This is a bizarre aspect that used to be quite common but is becoming increasingly rarefied. This aspect only appears with the resolution 1280x1024, a resolution which was common on desktops but rare in notebooks and is now all but extinct.</p> <p>The only aspect ratios you need to worry about in modern laptops are 16:9 and, more importantly, 16:10. Naturally, in an effort to make things even more confusing, manufacturers seldom refer to these by their resolution, but instead with odd abbreviations. Here's your decoder ring.</p> <p>16:10 screens come in the following resolutions:<br />WXGA - 1280x800<br />WXGA+ - 1440x900<br />WSXGA+ - 1680x1050<br />WUXGA - 1920x1200</p> <p>16:9 screens thankfully eschew these conventions, instead simply stating their resolutions. This is, however, where high definition entertainment and resolution cross paths:<br />1280x720 (720p)<br />1366x768 (erroneously referred to as 720p)<br />1600x900 (odd half step)<br />1680x945 (odd half step)<br />1920x1080 (1080p)</p> <p>Okay, before I go on I just want to point something out: high definition resolutions are often referred to with an i or p at the end; these stand for interlaced and progressive respectively. What you need to know is this: progressive is better than interlaced, and all computer screens are progressive.</p> <p>Going back to the resolutions themselves, there are a couple of key points to make here. First, the higher the resolution, the more information can be displayed on the screen because there are more pixels. Second, when in gaming, resolution is the single biggest factor in determining the game's performance. A weaker GPU (remember <a target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4563">part 5</a>?) is going to have a tougher time pushing higher resolutions, and resolutions above 1440x900 will tax even solid mid-range graphics hardware. Integrated graphics will be lucky to run anything at better than 800x600. Third, the resolution of the screen is NOT the resolution you have to run it at. You can set a lower resolution in Windows or in games, but the trade off is that edges will be slightly blurred. Remember that the number of pixels in the screen hasn't changed, but the number of pixels you've asked it to render has. Rendering 1024x640 pixels on a 1280x800 pixel screen means there's going to be some softening of the edges involved.</p> <p>I haven't mentioned every single resolution that appears in laptops here, but you should now be able to understand what the resolution is, and using simple math you should be able to calculate the aspect ratio of any given laptop screen.</p> <p>Now, moving on.</p> <p><b>Screen Size</b></p> <p>Okay, so how big is the freakin' screen? Screen size is measured in a diagonal line from opposite corners of the screen. It's important to note the relationship between resolution and screen size here, because it directly affects the usability of the screen itself.</p> <p>Let's say we have a 15.4" screen and a 17" screen, and both have a resolution of 1440x900. The 15.4" screen will be harder to read because the pixels comprising the image are physically smaller. At 14.1" this issue is only exacerbated, so it's really going to depend on how good your eyesight is and what's comfortable for you.</p> <p>Because the screen is the largest single part of the laptop, the screen size typically defines the size of the entire machine. A 15.4"/15.6" is going to be a standard middle of the road mainstream unit, running at least six pounds and generally closer to seven. 14.1" and smaller are more and more portable, while larger than 15.6" are desktop replacement class and much less portable as a result.</p> <p>Now, the screen size itself can be a useful tool for determining the aspect ratio of a screen and, to a lesser extent, the resolution. Next to each screen size I'll list the lowest (and often most common) resolution and in parenthesis the other resolutions screens of that size come in.<br /></p> <p><b>16:10 screens:</b><br />12.1" - 1280x800<br />13.3" - 1280x800 (1440x900)<br />14.1" - 1280x800 (1440x900)<br />15.4" - 1280x800 (1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200)<br />17.0" - 1440x900 (1680x1050, 1920x1200)<br /></p> <p><b>16:9 screens:</b><br />11.1" - 1366x768<br />13.1" - 1366x768 (1600x900)<br />15.6" - 1366x768<br />16.0" - 1366x768 (1920x1080)<br />16.4" - 1600x900 (1920x1080)<br />18.4" - 1680x945 (1920x1080)</p> <p>This is still missing some resolutions on the extreme sides - the netbooks and the units charitably called notebooks - but should be a pretty good, clear indicator. I've neglected to include standard aspect screens as they're all but dead in the mobile market and will almost never be seen in the wild.</p> <p><b>Backlighting and Viewing Angles</b></p> <p>Remember how I mentioned earlier that the screen on your laptop required backlighting? There are two types of backlights on the market: CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) and LED (light emitting diode).</p> <p>CCFL is the old tried and true standard, and what most laptops have. It draws more power than LED backlighting does and generally produces a more washed out picture than its counterpart. Additionally, CCFL tends to result in a phenomenon called backlight bleed, where the lamp results in uneven lighting of the image. Since the CCFL is generally in the bottom of the notebook panel, on a pure black screen you may notice the top of the screen is much darker than the bottom. In a particularly bad notebook where the bottom of the screen bezel isn't properly affixed to the screen itself, you may even be able to see the backlight itself. CCFL screens also tend to have poorer viewing angles than their LED counterparts, partially due to this poor quality lighting.</p> <p>So why is CCFL more common? It's presently cheaper than LED backlighting. When custom ordering a laptop, LED backlighting may cost an extra $100.</p> <p>LED backlighting provides a much more even lighting of the image, somewhat better viewing angles, and a much brighter and more vibrant picture overall. It also draws notably less power than CCFL backlighting. The industry is transitioning to this at present, as it can also be potentially cheaper to produce than CCFL lighting.</p> <p>I do want to point out that while CCFL is being presented to you as godawful, it IS the old standby, and a well made CCFL screen can still be very pleasant to look at.</p> <p>I'm including viewing angles in this section because the lighting method used does affect the viewing angles of the screen. You may note when looking at a laptop from above, below, or the sides that the picture washes out a bit (or a lot). This is the nature of the beast with TN panels, which are most readily identified by their dismal below viewing angles that cause the colors to invert. If a screen has bad viewing angles, it may be impossible to produce an even image from looking at it dead on. Some laptops do have excellent viewing angles, though, but they're typically the more expensive ones.</p> <p><b>Surface Finish</b></p> <p>The last section here is the finish of the screen itself, of which there are two kinds: glossy and matte.</p> <p>The glossy finish is vastly more common than matte, which is fortunate or unfortunate depending on how you look at it. A glossy finish on the screen will make it appear brighter and the colors more vibrant, but the trade off is that the finish itself is very reflective. Some manufacturers are even using multiple coats in some instances, which would produce a fantastic image if you couldn't style your hair in it.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38615" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38616.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="187" /></a></p> <p>The matte finish is the old standby, and a lot of desktop panels still use this. While color may seem a little bit dull compared to the glossy finish, mattes are far less reflective and a lot of more seasoned computer users tend to prefer these in the long run (myself included). These are unfortunately becoming rarefied, but business class notebooks still use these much more often than consumer grade hardware.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38621" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38622.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="166" /></a></p> <p>This is all a matter of taste, honestly. Glossy or matte isn't a dealbreaker for me on my laptop the way it is on my desktop. The overwhelming majority of screens in retail are going to be glossy, while manufacturers like Lenovo tend to prefer mattes.</p> <p><b>Conclusion</b></p> <p>This is another one of those articles where I can't give you much of a helpful rundown at the end nor offer recommendations, and this holds true from the last time I talked about screens.</p> <p>The fact is that screens tend to be very subjective. My girlfriend, for example, has a 1920x1200 resolution screen on her 15.4" Dell. That's way, way too high resolution for me. Text is tiny. But she also has better than 20/20 eyesight while I'm blind as a bat. Likewise, a lot of gamers recommend getting the lowest resolution screen you can for your laptop so the graphics hardware isn't stressed too hard and thus produces a much sharper, cleaner image. And don't get me started on glossy vs. matte. Some people intending to use their laptop as a portable media device may be happy with the influx of 16:9 screens in the marketplace, while stalwarts like me vastly prefer our 16:10 screens. In applications like Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, for example, that extra 32 pixels at the bottom of the screen means enough space for one more timeline, while Photoshop users are oftentimes going to want the tallest screen they can get.</p> <p>So it's going to be a matter of taste for you, but the nice thing is that you can go out into retail and generally see what the screen looks like and get a proper feel for it yourself. If you're thinking of custom buying a laptop from a manufacturer, retail is a great place to see what you'll be getting yourself into. Just don't sell yourself short on the screen. It's how you interact with the computer itself, and if it's a lousy screen, you're not going to want to use the laptop if you can avoid it.</p></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-79340851339867103162008-12-08T15:13:00.004-05:002008-12-08T15:17:19.636-05:0043. How It Works: Optical Drives<span id="intelliTxt"><span><i>By: Dustin Sklavos<br />From: NotebookReview<br /><br /></i></span></span><span id="intelliTxt"><p>The "How it Works" series has gone on for six exciting, adrenaline-pumping, action packed parts so far, explaining the nitty gritty of all the stuff that makes your laptop perform. You should by this point have a clear understanding of where all the bottlenecks and boondoggles in your laptop are and be able to make some informed decisions.</p> <p>Or can you?</p> <p>While we've covered the vast majority of the internals thus far, it's important to keep in mind that you still have to connect things to your laptop. There are other utilities you may use it for outside of the odd game of Minesweeper (a personal favorite) or taking notes, because let's face it: If you were just going to use your laptop for that you might as well just save your money and buy an <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/scripts/buyDirect.asp?productFamilyID=1047" target="_blank">Eee PC</a>, since it does that stuff just fine.</p> <p>But now we're going to discuss a part of your laptop that I'm sure you take for granted: your optical drive.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=38369" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38370.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="314" /></a></p> <p><b>How It Works: Optical Drives</b></p> <p>Most of you probably call it the DVD burner or CD writer or DVD drive, but the best all-encompassing technical term for these drives is "optical drive." Why? Because that's how they work, and all of them are variations on a basic theme: a motor spins the disc in the drive super fast while a laser attached to a servo reads data off of it. This is why these drives tend to be pretty loud and draw a lot of power: a whole lot of stuff is moving.</p> <p>If you think back to last article when I talked about hard drives, you'll see similar concepts: a circular disc containing data which is read by a moving head. But while hard drives can hit transfer speeds close to 100MB per second (especially on the desktop), optical drives seldom hit anywhere near that. Data on optical discs is less dense, and the mechanisms for reading it are different.</p> <p>Optical drives, similar to hard drives, also have a small amount of built in memory, but because data on a disc is nowhere near as dense (or numerous), cache is usually very small and not terribly important for you to know.</p> <p><b>Anatomy of a Disc</b></p> <p>In order to understand how the optical drive works, you need to know how an optical disc works. This is pretty simple. The disc is basically three layers: the big plastic disc part is on the bottom, a reflective surface is in the middle, and then the top part of the disc is where the art or label is, and this part actually protects the data itself. The data is kept in microscopic pits in the reflective surface. This is why scratching the disc itself isn't catastrophic.</p> <p>Scratches still aren't good for it though, because the laser used to read the disc is tuned very precisely, and if the disc is damaged, the wrong scratch or hair may refract or block the beam and make the data difficult to read.</p> <p>That reflective layer sandwiched between the plastic part and the label part is also one reason why you want to use soft pens or markers when writing the label on your writeable disc: the label layer is basically protecting the reflective surface which contains the data.</p> <p> </p><table border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38372.jpg" width="200" border="0" height="133" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38373.jpg" width="200" border="0" height="69" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38371.jpg" width="200" border="0" height="106" /></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><b>Formats</b></p> <p>Now that you know the fundamentals, it's all just variations on a theme. CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs, and Blu-rays are all basically just different methods of tuning the same core technology to cram more capacity onto the disc. A finer laser results in being able to increase data density on the disc itself.</p> <p>We'll get to writeable, rewriteable, and dual layer stuff in a second. There are four (well, three still active) basic formats.</p> <p><i>CD</i> (Compact Disc) is the granddaddy of them all. Featuring the lowest capacity (topping out at 700MB), CDs remain the cheapest and easiest to produce since the data is not that dense and therefore easier to read.</p> <p><i>DVD</i> (Digital Versatile Disc) is the descendant. DVDs top out at 8.54GB in dual layer while a single layer DVD can hold 4.7GB. The laser used to read DVDs is a bit finer, and the higher capacity resulting made them ideal for video and data backup tasks.</p> <p><i>Blu-ray</i> and its defeated opponent <i>HD-DVD</i> (High Definition DVD) are where a bifurcation in the format occurred. You were probably aware of this. Blu-ray is so named because it uses a finer, blue-violet laser for reading data. HD-DVD uses a similar blue laser. The main differences between the two had to do with their total capacity (Blu-ray can do 25GB in a single layer and 50GB in a dual layer while HD-DVD could only do 15GB per layer) and their ease of manufacturing (HD-DVDs could be manufactured with minor changes at regular DVD factories while Blu-ray required a substantially larger overhaul).</p> <p>Let's be clear for a second here: for data archival purposes Blu-ray does indeed just kick HD-DVD around, all over town. More capacity is just plain king there. For doing high definition movies, though, the difference in capacity isn't really a major one. High definition movies, encoded properly, don't need much more space than is provided on a garden variety dual layer DVD.</p> <p>The HD-DVD and Blu-ray battle wasn't decided by the public, it was decided largely by back room politics, though in fairness, while HD-DVD was a superior movie format for consumers (not for its quality, but for its features, lack of region coding, and consistency), Blu-ray is superior for computer usage. If we're moving into the future, the higher capacity of Blu-ray does make it more ideal.</p> <p>Oh, and in case you were wondering why you can't just write a CD with a finer laser, part of each of these specifications requires a different laser for reading them and so on. The various formats physically can't work any other way.</p> <p><b>Layer Change</b></p> <p>So this is all very exciting, but what the heck does all that single and dual layer stuff mean? Dual layer discs have two reflective layers sandwiched between the label side and plastic side instead of one. The first of these layers is semi-transparent, so the laser can change its focal length and read through it to the next layer.</p> <p>If you have an older DVD player at home, you may notice movies pause at a certain point for maybe a second. This is the result of the layer change on the disc, and I've actually seen this occur every so often with high definition movies as well. Computer optical drives tend to be much more tolerant of layer changes and have the benefit of system memory to buffer them so the transition can appear seamless.</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38375.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="145" /></p> <p><b>Sub-Formats</b></p> <p>Okay, so now that we've established our types, let's hit the sub-types. These are specified by a suffix attached to the disc type. For future reference, while movies are just referred to as "Blu-ray," in computer terms, Blu-ray discs are referred to as "BD," similar to CD. The etymology should be obvious. Moving on ...</p> <p>"-ROM" stands for "Read Only Memory" and indicates a disc that cannot be written to, only read.</p> <p>"-R" stands for "Recordable." This is a disc that can be written to once. This is applicable to all formats, but there's a bifurcation here that needs to be discussed later on.</p> <p>"-RW" stands for "Re-writeable." This disc can be written to, erased, and written to again. This is again applicable to all formats, but has the same bifurcation that "-R" does. For Blu-ray, this is referred to as "-RE." Why they didn't just stick with "-RW" I'll never know, but whatever.</p> <p>"-RAM" stands for "Random Access Memory" and is the weird one out, appearing only for DVDs. DVD-RAM discs are basically designed to be usable like the floppy discs of old, and because of their flexibility this way, they are very popular in camcorders that write directly to discs. The flipside is that these bad boys tend to be pretty expensive, and write speeds on them are often slower than their "-RW" counterparts. It also tends to be less compatible than the other formats.</p> <p>"DL" is an extra suffix that stands for "Dual Layer." This currently only applies to DVDs; dual layer Blu-ray discs are also available, but there's no initial distinction made, the packaging will just specify the capacity.</p> <p>Now, I'm sure many of you have seen "DVD+R" or "DVD+RW." Basically, the + and - versions of these formats occur only in DVD, and have their pro's and con's. All DVD writers on the market these days can write to either one, and most drives can read either one fine. "+" format discs are usually a little faster and a little cheaper. "-" format discs, on the other hand, feature one major benefit: they sport excellent compatibility. Generally DVD+R discs will work fine in most drives that can read DVDs, but when they don't, a DVD-R almost always will.</p> <p>There was briefly a generation of DVD players early on in the format's lifetime that deliberately didn't read writeable media, probably because the manufacturers expected us to only use it for piracy. DVD-R discs, on the other hand, tend to do an excellent job of fooling these players and will run quite happily in most anything. It's for this reason that as a media major I use DVD-Rs almost exclusively.</p> <p><b>Drive and Disc Speeds</b></p> <p>As far as read speeds go, these numbers have become largely irrelevant. Read speed for any given drive is invariably "fast enough."</p> <p>Speed ratings for optical drives are measured pretty crudely, basically in multiples. You've seen "52x" CD-ROM drives, and the CD-Rs at the store may be rated for "16x." The basic problem is that it requires some mathematics to actually yield a theoretical bandwidth speed, so at the end of the day it's basically just "52x is faster than 48x but it really doesn't matter anyhow." Unless you've just gotta have that extra 1MB a second, in which case this series just isn't going to be able to provide you with the kind of help you need.</p> <p>But there is, however, one important place where these speeds matter, and that's write speeds. When you try to write an optical disc, usually the computer will give you an option of how fast you want to write it. The key here is that writeable or re-writeable optical discs also specify a safe range of speeds where you can reliably write to them, and some are specced for "High Speed."</p> <p>Almost all CD-Rs generally max out write speeds at this point, but just about everything else has some variation. If you're not sure how fast your drive can write, then keep this in mind: your drive can always slow down to take advantage of slower media.</p> <p>It also bears mentioning that re-writeable discs are almost always substantially slower than regular writeable media.</p> <p><b>Region Coding and Piracy</b></p> <p>I'd be remiss not to mention this, and it won't matter to the vast majority of readers. Optical drives are basically coded to a specific region in compliance with DVD digital rights management. These region codes matter solely to DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray movies.</p> <p>DVDs have the most restrictive regional lockouts, and sport six different region codes (along with the most preferable one, region 0, which means the disc can be played anywhere). The most important ones to know are region 1 (USA and Canada), region 2 (Western Europe), and region 3 (Southeast Asia and Japan). Of course, if you're an aggressive DVD importer, there are ways around regional lockouts. Unfortunately, the computer methods almost always involve software of questionable legality in the United States where we're based, so I can't really talk about those.</p> <p>Blu-ray is substantially less restrictive, with just three region codes: A covers the Americas, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan; B covers Europe and Australia; and C covers Russia and China.</p> <p>Finally, lamentably, HD-DVD had no restrictions this way, so naturally it went by the wayside.</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/38374.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="167" /></p> <p>Now, piracy: <b>don't do it kids</b>. Most optical media for games has some kind of protection preventing you from making proper copies of the discs themselves. Almost all DVDs have this, so don't get all excited like "oh, I'm gonna copy movies off Netflix." First, if you're the type who rents, copies, and sends back, you're a tool and you're part of the problem. I hate digital rights management with a passion as it really only punishes honest consumers, but honestly, ignoring all the politics involved ... if you like a movie, just buy the thing. You could make a case for CDs and Blu-ray movies being horrendously overpriced, but DVDs? Come on. I just got <i>The Terminator </i>for $3.99. It's affordable.</p> <p><b>Lightscribe and Labelflash</b></p> <p>I don't want to go into too much detail with these, but it's basically technology that allows you to use the optical drive itself to burn monochrome labels into the top of media designed for this purpose. This process tends to be time consuming (can be a half hour or longer per disc), but can also look pretty cool. You'll need to buy the proper media to do it (labeled "Lightscribe" or "Labelflash"), and you'll need to make sure the drive can support it. Mercifully, notebooks do tend to advertise these pretty aggressively.</p> <p>Lightscribe is the more popular of these two technologies, and parties almost exclusively on the HP side of town. If your drive can do Lightscribe, there should be a sticker on the notebook telling you just that. Failing that, the drive itself is often labeled (at least on mine).</p> <p><b>Media Quirks</b></p> <p>Really, it's the writing part that makes these things so freaking complicated. Basically, don't buy cheap writeable media.</p> <p>Let me explain. All "-R"s and "-RW"s are not created equal, and some are of substantially higher quality than others. Unfortunately, recommending brands can get a bit tricky because some drives will just write happily to about anything while other drives can get really picky. I have a DVD writer at home that used to be just peachy with Memorex media, but now produces coasters on anything but TDK.</p> <p>I will say that you should avoid the cheapo ones at all costs. In house brands like Dynex, Staples, and GQ are going to produce poor quality discs that may not last long and will certainly have difficulty reading in some drives.</p> <p>Of course, the unicorn in the room is Taiyo Yuden, generally regarded as the best brand of writeable media. These are almost impossible to find in retail and require special ordering, but if you simply must have the best, these are where you want to go.</p> <p>Re-writeable media is also kind of flaky. It tends to read and write slower than regular media, but more importantly, after a few writes and rewrites these can turn into coasters, so buyer beware.</p> <p><b>Conclusion</b></p> <p>This is one of those situations where I can't offer any clear recommendations: buy the drive you need. Notebooks generally only give you this option when they're being custom ordered, so you're pretty much stuck with whatever they give you. This usually isn't a problem.</p> <p>I wish I could distill this article for you as I've done in articles past, but the problem here is that optical drives are largely governed by aggravating minutiae. If I tried to distill things I'd wind up writing the article all over again, and you and I both would rather go play <i>Mass Effect</i>, so there's that.</p></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-16030133527477768542008-12-08T15:13:00.001-05:002008-12-08T15:13:33.922-05:0040. DIY Notebook Screen Replacement<span id="intelliTxt"><em>By: Kevin O'Brien<br />From: NotebookReview<br /><br /></em></span><span id="intelliTxt"><p>The screen on any notebook is one of the most vulnerable components and is the single most expensive part to replace in many models. If you are out of warranty, this type of repair can force you to buy a new machine as costs can spiral upwards of 500 dollars for a new panel. If the failure falls under the protection of an extended warranty you can be in great shape, but sending your notebook out for repair can take weeks. In this article we cover the DIY LCD replacement procedure as well as explain how you might acquire a panel through warranty services for an at-home repair.</p> <p>Like most DIY articles and guides, this advice must be taken at your own risk, as even simple mistakes can completely ruin your notebook. Please follow manufacturer’s guidelines and take as many safety precautions as possible.</p> <p><strong>Diagnosing the problem, defect or damage?</strong></p> <p>The first step in this process is diagnosing your screen to find out if it is actually defective, and if so, if it will fall into protection under the manufacturer’s warranty policy. If a baseball hit the screen chances are it won’t be covered; in my case hot spots the size of dimes started showing up on a screen that was pushing two years old. Since no physical damage was present, it was covered under my three year extended warranty. Below is a picture showing the marks that started to appear on dark backgrounds.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=37634" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37635.jpg" alt="" width="250" border="0" height="97" /></a></p> <p><em>Strange hot spots that started showing up on my LCD</em></p> <p>Contacting Lenovo for support was the next step, and getting them to ship out a part that retails for almost $1,000 was easier than expected. I called the standard Lenovo tech support line during lunchtime and had a representative on the phone after 45 seconds of phone prompts. I explained my problem and didn’t have to listen to any support scripts on items like reinstalling drivers, rebooting the machine, or other irrelevant steps that I had taken to diagnose the problem. I expressed my concerns over sending my primary machine in for repair, and told the technician that I could handle the repair myself. I was warned that any damage to the notebook would not be covered during my own repair, which was expected. This applies to cracking plastic trying to pry the case open, tearing connectors, or other damage that could be blamed on an untrained individual doing the repair. Soon the replacement panel was on the way. Total time on the phone was roughly 15 minutes.</p> <p><strong>Repair process</strong></p> <p>The panel arrived the next business day, one day sooner than expected. I was more than happy to see it and took an extended lunch break for the occasion. For the repair, I picked our conference room since it had such a large, clean table to lay parts on and easily keep track of the numerous small items. An anti-static mat or wrist strap would be advised for this process, but since I was lacking a proper grounding source I discharged my finger on a nearby metal framed wall.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=37636" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37637.jpg" alt="" width="250" border="0" height="216" /></a><br /><em>Lenovo T60 ready to be torn apart for repair</em></p> <p>The Lenovo Hardware Maintenance Manual describes, in a very detailed fashion, how to disassemble the entire notebook in order to replace any component you can think of. Below is the condensed version of removing the panel from the notebook, with reassembly being the procedure in reverse. It entails removing the lower screen hinge screws, removing the palmrest, keyboard, and top bezel, disconnecting the screen cable, lifting out the screen, and tearing apart the frame around the screen to get to the panel inside. Throughout the process little wires and connectors need to be disconnected, such as the Bluetooth control module, wireless antennas, and the backlight inverter board.</p> <table border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37577.jpg" alt="" width="296" border="0" height="175" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37573.jpg" alt="" width="277" border="0" height="176" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37574.jpg" alt="" width="226" border="0" height="155" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37580.jpg" alt="" width="286" border="0" height="178" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37579.jpg" alt="" width="337" border="0" height="263" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37576.jpg" alt="" width="286" border="0" height="149" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37575.jpg" alt="" width="281" border="0" height="186" /></td> <td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37578.jpg" alt="" width="280" border="0" height="182" /></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p> <p>Some of the repair (as with most DIY projects) requires some on-the-fly thinking. In my case it was a strip of glue holding the lower half of the screen bezel in place and needing a Sherwin-Williams discount card to carefully cut the line without bending anything or damaging the fragile screen. Note that even when removing defective components, if you cause physical damage to it during the process, you will end up being charged for the part when you return it. In this situation I didn’t feel like paying Lenovo almost a thousand dollars for a cracked screen.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=37638" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37639.jpg" alt="" width="250" border="0" height="222" /></a></p> <p><em>Screen assembly removed from notebook</em></p> <p>With the panel finally removed from the notebook I was able to inspect the old screen and make sure part numbers matched the new screen. With any repair you want to make sure the parts are identical before you start to reassemble the notebook. Mistakes can happen, so you just want to make sure. The delicate process of removing the screws attaching the screen hinge to the side of the panel was the most frightening by far, requiring quite a bit of pressure. I didn’t want the screwdriver to slip in the threads, but I also had to be careful to not use too much pressure and crack the delicate panel.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=37642" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37643.jpg" alt="" width="250" border="0" height="187" /></a></p> <p><em>Clean work environment is very important!</em></p> <p>Total time to tear down the notebook and remove the panel was about 15 minutes. I had some past experience repairing notebooks, so I did have a slight edge. Reassembly took four times as long, but only since I rushed and forgot to reattach vital parts. I forgot to reconnect the backlight inverter board, which caused my notebook to boot with a blank screen the first time I fired it up. Needless to say that wasn’t the most comforting moment after replacing the entire screen.</p> <p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=37640" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/37641.jpg" alt="" width="250" border="0" height="333" /></a></p> <p><em>Lenovo T60 partially complete to verify screen works before full reassembly</em></p> <p>After some last minute corrections the notebook was in working order and the screen was better than it ever was. Almost 2 years of use had dimmed the backlight considerably, moving the white point from a cooler blue tint to a warmer yellow.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong><br /><br />One message that doesn’t always get driven into the heads of new notebook buyers is the importance of a manufacturer’s extended warranty. For most components I would consider the extended warranty laughable (wireless mouse, webcam, ShopVac) but with the cost and complexity of a notebook, it can be a very wise investment. In my case it replaced a single component that roughly costs the same as a new notebook 2 years down the road for free. The repair process turned out to be easier than expected, but I did learn a few things:</p> <ol><li>Use high quality screwdrivers. (cheap screwdrivers don’t grip finely machined screws without a lot of pressure)</li><li>Plan out plenty of time for the repair. You don’t know what might crop up so it is best to plan out double or triple the amount of time that you think it might take.</li><li>Be patient. Rushing through reassembly might mean that you extended the time required for the repair because you now need to take it apart again to fix something.</li></ol> <p>Overall, most repairs could be completed by beginners with a basic skillset, requiring only patience and a good screwdriver. This repair did throw a curveball at me with the strip of glue on the screen bezel, but for the most part the manual detailed the entire process with plenty of pictures and tips. I also have to give props to Lenovo for the more than helpful customer support staff that were friendly to work with and understanding of my concerns.</p></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-85614247302619919352008-12-08T15:12:00.000-05:002008-12-08T15:13:01.782-05:0039. How It Works: Hard Disks<span id="intelliTxt"><i>By: Dustin Sklavos<br />From: NotebookReview<br /><br /></i></span><span id="intelliTxt"><p>It may seem that the more exciting parts of the "How it Works" series are behind us. We've covered the graphics, memory, and processor - three key performance-defining elements of modern computers in general. While there's no question that these components are the big performance workhorses of the machine, it bears mentioning that the memory and northbridge are designed with mitigating the low bandwidth of the hard disk in mind.</p> <p>Even beyond simple performance characteristics, understanding the hard disk in your notebook is very important. After all, it's where you keep all of your data. Family photos, video games, school work, music...all of it is being stored here. In some cases your hard disk can quickly become even more important than your car. You can always get a ride somewhere, but how easy is it to recover lost memories?</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/36808.jpg" width="300" border="0" height="300" /></p> <p><b>How It Workd: Hard Disks</b></p> <p>As mentioned in the introduction, the hard disk is basically where everything on your notebook is stored to be accessed later. It's also the second slowest component in your notebook in terms of bandwidth (the slowest being your CD/DVD drive). Since we love our analogies here at "How it Works," you can think of the hard disk as being the bank, and the memory (as mentioned in Part IV) as your wallet. The bank stores all of your important stuff, but in order to get it out, you have to actually go there. Your wallet holds a lot less, but you've always got it on you. And much as the bank tries to maximize convenience by offering more branches and adding debit cards, hard disk manufacturers have also made strides in improving access speeds and performance characteristics.</p> <p>Before we move on, it bears mentioning that the terms "hard disk" and "hard drive" mean essentially the same thing. They're interchangeable. For the purposes of this article we're going to talk about the mechanical hard disks that 99% of us are familiar with. I'll do a small blurb about solid state disks at the end, but for now it's not really relevant.</p> <p>In this article, I'm going to first explain how the hard disk physically works so you can understand all of the specs that follow it: form factor, spindle speed, cache, interface, and capacity. At the end, as I said, we'll talk about solid state disks, and I'll make some recommendations and talk about brands a bit.</p> <p><b>The Hardware Itself</b></p> <p>Hard disks are actually pretty interesting pieces of hardware. If you were to open one (which you should never do under any circumstances short of being a licensed technician in a clean room), you'd see a series of metallic discs (as many as three in a notebook drive), and mechanical heads hovering over them.</p> <p>A hard disk stores data on these discs, called platters, and this data is accessed through those mechanical heads, called drive heads. The software within the hard disk itself, called firmware, operates these parts and optimizes how they function to maximize performance and reduce this troublesome bottleneck. The drive itself also contains a small amount of its own dedicated memory (non-upgradeable) called a "cache" that also helps improve performance, but more on that later.</p> <p>Given that a drive head has to physically move over a spinning platter to get your data, it should come as no surprise that the hard disk is one of the slowest components in the system. In order to read your stuff, something has to actually physically move someplace else.</p> <p>The key component here is the platter. The more densely packed data is on the platter, the shorter distance the drive head has to move to get to it, and thus the faster the disk can operate. This results in an aspect that may at first seem counterintuitive: the greater the capacity (more on this later), the faster the disk.</p> <p>Now, remember how I mentioned that you shouldn't open the hard disk unless you were a licensed technician operating in a clean room? The reason for this is because of how ridiculously fast the platters spin and the drive head moves. A single particle of dust on a platter can fatally damage a hard disk. Alternatively, if the drive head fails, it can collide with the platter and ruin the disk, which is where you get the term "crash." The disks are designed to be as robust as possible, but the hardware within is still somewhat fragile, so violently shaking your laptop while you're copying files is probably not a good idea.</p> <p>You don't hear about bad memory that often, and almost never defective processors, but everyone hears about hard disks crashing. Manufacturers try to make them as reliable as possible and are standardizing on five year warranties, but there's only so much you can do with a mechanical device like this. I'm not trying to make you paranoid like a mental health student who suddenly thinks he's a paranoid schizophrenic hypochondriac, because these things really are pretty reliable (otherwise they wouldn't have flourished the way they have). Hardware can still fail, though.</p> <p>So how can you know if your hard disk is becoming bored with life? Hard disk failures in my experience have never been immediate, sudden things. There's usually a warning sign affectionately referred to as "the click of death." While your hard disk is usually operating, the little hard disk light on your laptop (typically symbolized by a cylinder) is blinking and you may hear faint, asynchronous "crunching." The click of death is not dissimilar to the sound a CD player makes when it's trying valiantly to read a CD you've left on the floor of your car a little too long: it keeps making the same series of noises at the same speed over and over again before finally informing you that CD cases were invented for a reason. The click of death will be a single hard click that often follows the typical crunching sound a hard disk makes, but it will repeat the exact pattern over and over again. In the process, your computer will suddenly become completely unresponsive in trying to open anything stored on that drive. Eventually, if you ride it out you may be able to back up your stuff. Odds are you're screwed, though.</p> <p>So how does all this stuff work? (I know, great lead-in.)</p> <p><b>Form Factor</b></p> <p>First, the important thing to know is that a desktop hard disk isn't going to fit in your laptop. This probably seems obvious to some of you, but it bears mentioning. There are three common form factors, or sizes, of hard disk.</p> <p>3.5" drives are used in desktop computers. These are large, heavy SOBs that as of the time of this writing can hold up to 1.5 terabytes. They draw the most power, and will not fit in your laptop.</p> <p>2.5" drives are the most commonly used in laptops. These offer a good blend of performance and capacity without being too heavy, drawing too much power, or taking up too much space. These are the drives we're talking about in this article.</p> <p>1.8" drives are the most commonly used in hard disk based media players as well as high end (read: expensive) ultraportable laptops, not to be confused with netbooks. These tend to have mediocre performance and the lowest capacity, but they're also tiny and keep power consumption and weight down.</p> <p>The hard disk in a notebook is generally user-replaceable and it's pretty easy to do, but there's a caveat: your data isn't going to magically hop aboard this new one, so you'll need to back it up first and then use your recovery media (you did write it when you got your laptop, right?) to reinstall your operating system.</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/36807.jpg" width="525" border="0" height="330" /></p> <p><b>Interface</b></p> <p>I know, I'm handling all the exciting stuff first, right? This is important, though. If you've bought your laptop in the last couple years, it probably uses Serial ATA, or SATA to connect to the computer. Serial ATA is the standard all modern laptops use, as it's the fastest and more importantly, universal between desktops and notebooks. Yes, this means you can internally connect a notebook hard disk to a modern desktop. SATA is characterized by two L-shaped plugs next to each other on the back of the drive.</p> <p>Parallel ATA, or PATA, and originally known as IDE (or EIDE) is the old standard, and many laptop hard disks available in retail use this standard. PATA is identifiable by two rows of pins on the back of the drive, and is generally slower than SATA. PATA laptop disks require a special converter to connect to desktops.</p> <p>This is important to know if you're planning on upgrading the hard disk in your laptop, so if you're unsure about which interface your laptop uses, check the notebook's specifications on its manufacturer's website.</p> <p><b>Spindle Speed</b></p> <p>Much like a vinyl, platters inside the hard disk spin. But while your mint Culture Club record rotates at 45 revolutions per minute, or RPM, the platters inside a hard disk can spin as fast as 7,200 RPM. On desktops drives this speed can hit 10,000 RPM, and server disks can reach a scorching 15,000 RPM. And of course, the faster the platters in the drive rotate, the quicker data can be retrieved, but the hotter the drive runs and the more power it draws. This is largely why notebook drives top out at 7,200 RPM and typically ship at 5,400 RPM.</p> <p>That said, thermal characteristics and power draw can change depending on the manufacturer and the kinds of optimizations they've made to the hardware. While in theory a 7,200 RPM drive should draw much more power than a 5,400 RPM due to the increased draw from spinning the motor that much faster, this is offset by the faster accesses from the 7,200 RPM drive. Simply put, it doesn't have to spin as long to get your data, so the power draw tends to even out.</p> <p>Of course, that doesn't change the heat dissipated by the drive. Depending on where the hard drive is located inside your notebook, this could be either a non-issue or a serious problem. I had an old Gateway laptop that practically buried the drive on the bottom of the notebook, so it wasn't an issue when I upgraded to a 7,200 RPM drive. On the flipside, my current notebook, a custom-built (and fantastic) HP dv2500t, places the hard drive squarely under the left palm rest. After a little while, the thing gets so hot it makes your palm sweat. I had to stick to a 5,400 RPM drive, much to my chagrin. Your mileage may vary.</p> <p><b>Cache</b></p> <p>In order to improve performance, hard drives also contain their own tiny amount of memory, or cache. This is really a sort of non-issue that you shouldn't spend much time thinking about. Notebook hard drives tend to come with between 8MB and 32MB of cache, averaging out at 16MB. While cache can have a definite impact on how a hard disk performs, the optimizations the manufacturer has made in how it's used tend to have a greater one. As a result, most retailers won't even tell you how much cache the drive has as it's generally irrelevant.</p> <p><b>Capacity</b></p> <p>And here we have the reason why hard disks haven't been replaced. Simply put, there isn't a better, more cost-effective technology for storing massive amounts of data on the market. We've already discussed how the data is stored and how it's accessed, and way back in Part I we defined how to measure capacity, so for the most part we should be good to go, right?</p> <p>Mostly. There are a couple of key elements here. First, while I said that a larger drive will oftentimes be faster than a smaller one (assuming the same spindle speed), this does get a little bit tricky. For example, if a 100GB drive has three platters of 33GB apiece, this drive will generally be a bit slower than an 80GB drive with two 40GB platters. However, by this logic, you can assume that the largest drives on the market will be among the fastest at their spindle speed.</p> <p>Second, there's the way GB are supposed to be measured and the way hard disk manufacturers measure them, and this is something I alluded to in Part I. Simply put, a drive advertised with a capacity of 100GB will show in the neighborhood of 90-94GB of space in the operating system. This is normal; your operating system measures bytes in base 2 as opposed to base 10 which results in this disparity.</p> <p>You should keep in mind that capacity is also further reduced by the installation of the operating system and by the file system that operating system uses. File systems aren't worth going into, but suffice to say your operating system needs some way of knowing where everything is on the drive and the file system covers this. Capacity can be reduced yet again by the manufacturer storing the recovery partition on the drive itself. After all is said and done, your shiny new notebook with a 160GB hard drive may only be offering you in the neighborhood of 90GB free.</p> <p>Worth mentioning is that while some larger notebooks include more than one hard disk bay, the vast majority do not, so the capacity of the single drive in your notebook is what you're stuck with.</p> <p><b>Solid State Society</b></p> <p>Mechanical hard drives are the standard in modern computing, and this makes them cheap to produce en masse. However, the next great technology is upon us: solid state drives, or SSDs. These drives occupy the same space that your existing hard drive does and is even backwards compatible, but what changes is how the drive stores its data.</p> <p>A solid state drive uses flash memory, like what you use in your digital camera or in a USB thumb drive, only it uses higher quality flash memory and it uses a lot more of it. Theoretically, this radically reduces power consumption and heat dissipation while dramatically improving acess times.</p> <p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/36809.jpg" width="250" border="0" height="220" /></p> <p>SSDs are a young technology, however, and while the industry is ramping up to produce more flash memory (and indeed, flash prices have been falling like rocks as a result), the drives aren't quite ready for primetime. Prices for SSDs are exorbitant, capacity is mediocre, and transfer speeds are in some cases poorer than their mechanical counterparts. This technology will mature and take over for mechanical drives, but it's a ways off still. As it stands, they generally aren't worth the money for any but the most indulgent buyers.</p> <p>As a side note here, it bears mentioning that the burgeoning netbook market is thick with SSDs, but there are caveats here. These drives are typically slower than standard mechanical drives and offer a fraction of the capacity. These are included because a few chips of slower flash memory are easier to fit into a small netbook chassis, draw minimal power, and are less expensive.</p> <p><b>Conclusion</b></p> <p>As far as drive recommendations go, it gets a little bit trickier. I've found that drive reliability in modern computers is worlds more consistent than it has been in the past. I've seen drives from every major brand fail (excepting Fujitsu and Toshiba, both of which are often too slow to be relevant anyhow). Manufacturers typically employ Fujitsu drives on the low end, with Hitachi, Seagate, and Western Digital drives filling out the rest.</p> <p>In my experience, Hitachi drives have been the fastest while running the hottest. This seems to be the prevailing theme over most (not all) of their products. I've used Hitachi drives before and been immensely satisfied by the performance, but the heat dissipation off their 200GB 7,200-RPM drive was too much for my HP dv2500t.</p> <p>Western Digital's drives fill out the market nicely. They're solid performers and don't dissipate too much heat. Though they have what is in my opinion the best price/performance knockout on the desktop scene, the rest of their lineup is just "solid." Nothing wrong with Western Digital, but nothing performance leading either. The 320GB 5,400-RPM drive I use in my notebook isn't the fastest thing in the world, but it does approach the performance of 7,200-RPM drives, and may be an excellent compromise for speed, power, heat, and capacity.</p> <p>Seagate is all over the map. I've always loved Seagate drives and found them to be exceptionally reliable, but their products range from industry leading to middle of the road. You can't really go wrong with a Seagate, and they were offering a five year warranty well before the other manufacturers.</p> <p>Last is Samsung. Samsung has a pretty devoted following among our forums, and I can understand why. While Hitachi, Western Digital, and Seagate duke it out for the limelight, Samsung offers hard disks at lower prices than their competitors while oftentimes matching them for performance. I don't have a great deal of experience with their notebook drives, but found their desktop drives to be a good value.</p> <p>Now, let's do what we do and condense it all. First and foremost, the most important specs for you are going to be capacity and spindle speed. Interface is good to know for those itching to upgrade, while form factor is largely a given and cache isn't worth the effort of researching.</p> <p>The rest of your distillation:</p> <ul><li>Higher spindle speed generally means a faster, hotter drive.</li><li>Capacity in Windows (or Linux, or Mac OS X) will always read as less than advertised.</li><li>Solid state drives are the future, but not worth worrying about right now.</li><li>If you're going to upgrade your hard disk, back up your stuff, have your recovery media ready, and make sure you buy a drive with the right interface.</li></ul></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-79194538625376743192008-12-08T15:11:00.001-05:002008-12-08T15:12:20.470-05:0038. How it Works: Graphics Hardware<span id="intelliTxt"><em>By: Dustin Sklavos<br />From: NotebookReview<br /><br /></em></span><span id="intelliTxt"><p>This is the entry to the How it Works series that I'm sure some of the more knowledgable readers have been waiting for: graphics hardware. This is one of the most often misunderstood parts of a notebook, or even a desktop, really. It's something that I've struggled with for a while, and recent models from NVIDIA and ATI (mostly or almost entirely NVIDIA at this point) have only served to confuse things further.</p><p>But before I get into things, I want to be clear about something: this is <strong>NOT</strong> going to be a technical article. Take your memory buses, pipelines, and shaders elsewhere. I'm not even going to talk about DirectX, really. Why? Because anything on the market that would require Shader Model 3 needs a dedicated graphics card anyhow to be halfway playable, so ATI's Radeon X1250/X1270 with their halfway implementation aren't even really relevant. And there are no games that require DirectX 10, which has largely flopped anyhow. It's just not worth going into.</p><p>I will say that the notebook graphics market, so simple just a couple short years ago, has gotten patently stupid at this point. NVIDIA's model vomit that we can affectionately dub the GeForce 9 series is so convoluted it has actually prevented me from updating my notebook graphics guide. Simply put, I can't keep up with it and I can't make heads or tails of it. What the heck is a 9650? Your guess is as good as mine. ATI, conversely, completely streamlined their model number system.</p><table border="0"><tbody><tr><td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35960.png" alt="" width="252" border="0" height="234" /><br /></td><td> <img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35963.jpg" alt="" width="260" border="0" height="202" /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><strong>How It Works: Graphics Hardware</strong></p><p>Fundamentally, the graphics hardware in your notebook is what puts a picture on the screen. It's responsible for a couple more things, though: it's responsible for handling computer games that require 3-D rendering, it's responsible for running Vista Aero Glass, it's responsible for decoding some video so the CPU doesn't do all the work (<a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4521" target="_blank">see Part III</a>), and it's responsible for driving an additional screen should you connect one to your laptop.</p><p>At its most basic, graphics hardware is comprised of two key components. First is the graphics core, or GPU, which is essentially a CPU that is highly specialized for handling 3-D rendering, video decoding, and outputting a picture. Second is the video memory, which is RAM used by the GPU to buffer images, store visual information for games, and so on.</p><p>One of the major points about graphics hardware is whether it's dedicated or integrated, and I'll explain what that means soon. But first, it's important to understand the two components in greater detail.</p><p><strong>Graphics Core or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)</strong></p><p>As I said before, this is basically a specialized CPU designed to handle video related tasks. The GPU runs at its own clock speed (MHz, <a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4485" target="_blank">as described in Part I</a>), which chiefly affects gaming performance.</p><p>So what do I mean by specialized? Well, your CPU is designed largely to be a jack of all trades. It can do just about anything, but the problem is that for some tasks, it's just too slow to be usable. For example, the extraordinarily complex graphic effects in modern computer games will completely gum up a CPU. Yet a GPU, designed specifically to handle these effects, can perform exponentially faster and produce a smooth, playable experience depending on the game's settings and just how powerful the GPU itself is. Likewise, decoding high definition video is an extraordinarily hardware-intensive task that gums up all but the most powerful of modern CPUs. A GPU with proper high definition support built into it, however, can radically reduce the amount of CPU power required to play back that video.</p><p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35964.jpg" alt="" width="200" border="0" height="150" /> </p><p>Which brings us to an oft-ignored but increasingly vital component of the GPU: hardware support for video decoding. What this means is that the GPU transparently controls how a lot of the video on your computer is played back. Generally, no checkboxes or settings need to be changed for your GPU to handle it. In fact, a visit to the control panel of your GPU can show you just how fully-featured it really is. You can control brightness, contrast, saturation, and a wealth of other settings from there. Most GPUs include some form of de-interlacing, which can produce a cleaner, crisper video. Likewise, many of them include noise reduction, which can help smooth out grainy video. Of course, if these optimizations don't appeal to you, they can also be disabled.</p><p>This component is becoming particularly vital with the advent of high definition video. High definition video is simply too much for most notebook CPUs to handle on their own. Even if the CPU can, it generally has to run at near full bore to play it back properly and without stutter, and that has a profoundly deleterious effect on battery life. But if the GPU is designed to handle that video, it can do most of the heavy lifting without anywhere near such a profound impact on battery life.</p><p>Of course, the most important place this aids is in watching Blu-ray. Mercifully, manufacturers will seldom sell you a notebook with a Blu-ray drive that can't properly play back that content, and the logic here is fairly obvious: Dell and HP don't want their customer service department getting phone calls about why "Transformers" (terrible movie that it was) is chopping and stuttering. Equipping their notebooks properly from the outset avoids this problem entirely.</p><p>I've spoken a whole lot about video playback, and that's largely because gaming is the more obvious application. Unfortunately, it's not easy to just say "oh this GPU is the best for gaming." GPUs are extraordinarily complex in design - in many ways more complex than CPUs - and it's just too difficult to tackle in a basic article like this. As with CPUs, one GPU running at 500MHz can be significantly slower or faster than another one running at the same speed. Even then, performance can become dependent on how much video memory the GPU has (more on this in the next section), how much bandwidth that memory has, and even what game it is. "<em>Crysis</em>," for example, runs pretty poorly across the board (even on top of the line desktop machines), but tends to run better on NVIDIA hardware. "<em>Assassin's Creed</em>," on the other hand, can run markedly faster on ATI hardware if left unpatched (this is a rant for another time).</p><p><strong>Video Memory</strong></p><p>Much as your CPU requires RAM (<a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4542" target="_blank">see Part IV</a>) to operate efficiently, the GPU requires RAM of its own. Video memory is oftentimes much more expensive than typical computer memory and is designed to run substantially faster to feed what is often a hungry graphics core. So while on a computer you'll see DDR2 or DDR3, video hardware can have DDR2, GDDR2, GDDR3, and even GDDR4 or GDDR5, and all of these are different kinds of video memory. This is a pretty easy one, though: the vast majority of the time, "higher is better."</p><p>While your CPU may have its memory controller in the northbridge (as is the case with current Intel CPUs) or onboard (as is the case with current AMD CPUs), the GPU's memory controller is always onboard. As mentioned in the memory article, keeping the controller onboard allows for improved performance. On graphics hardware, this can make all the difference in the world and it's an easy way to improve performance without having to raise video memory or GPU clock speeds.</p><p>Though the GPU has a major effect on all facets of your computing experience, video memory's is largely concentrated in gaming performance. </p><p>Now that we understand these two concepts, it's time to bring them together.</p><p><strong>Integrated and Dedicated Graphics</strong></p><p>The key differences between integrated and dedicated graphics are where the GPU is located and if the GPU actually gets its own dedicated video memory.</p><p>An integrated graphics part builds the GPU into the northbridge and as a result, the GPU is oftentimes stripped down compared to its dedicated counterparts in order to fit into the northbridge alongside everything else the northbridge has to handle. Consequently, it seldom if ever has its own video memory and uses its proximity to the computer's main memory controller (be it in the CPU as in AMD or in the northbridge as in Intel) to "steal" some of the system memory for itself.</p><p>The major drawbacks are fairly obvious: the GPU is stripped down to begin with so at best it may have drastically reduced gaming performance and at worst it may be missing entire features (particularly having to do with video decoding). The lack of dedicated video memory forces the GPU to use system memory which is much slower than the memory typically used for graphics hardware. Worse, video traffic now also has to piggyback on the same bandwidth the rest of the system is already using.</p><p>So why would you go integrated? If you're not planning on gaming or playing high definition content, you don't really need dedicated graphics hardware. Because the GPU is built into the northbridge and using system memory, it adds no chips to the design of the notebook - chips that draw power on their own. While the integrated GPU will use some memory bandwidth, it typically uses such a minute amount that the performance difference in regular tasks between integrated and dedicated graphics is more or less imperceptible. It's only when you start pushing your entire system hard (like doing video conversion and encoding) that a difference makes itself known, and even then it's a very minimal one.</p><p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35961.jpg" alt="" width="347" border="0" height="342" /> </p><p>Dedicated graphics hardware, on the other hand, is separate from the rest of the system. Generally it's either soldered into the motherboard or uses a proprietary connector (more on this later). The benefit is that the GPU's size (and accordingly complexity) is no longer limited by the northbridge and it has its own video memory which runs at a much faster speed. As a result, gaming is typically much improved and the GPU is much less likely to be feature limited.</p><p>The flipside is that a dedicated GPU and its video memory generate their own heat and draw their own power. While ATI and NVIDIA implement measures to reduce their power consumption when they aren't in use, it's never going to be comparable to an integrated part.</p><p>This is also where I explain to you why you won't see a high end part like a GeForce 9800M in a 12" notebook. Simply put, the GPU is too big, too complex, draws too much power, and generates too much heat. As GPUs get more powerful, increased size and complexity goes along with that. As they get bigger, they draw more power and thus generate more heat.</p><p>The big question is going to be: how can I tell if it's integrated or dedicated? The easiest way is if the graphics hardware has the word "Intel" in the title. If it does, it's integrated. As for the rest? If it lists a specific amount of video memory (not a range), it's dedicated. For example, a "Mobility Radeon HD 3650 512MB" is going to be dedicated.</p><p>Now we get to the most important part of the article...</p><p><strong>No, You Can't Upgrade Your Notebook Graphics Hardware</strong></p><p>Shut up. Just stop. No, you can't. You think you can, but you can't. This is the single most aggravating post that keeps rematerializing in the forums here on Notebook Review: "my graphics are slow, can I upgrade them?" NO. 99.9% of the time, the answer is no, and that .1% of the time it's yes, it's going to be yes for someone who already knows what they're doing and doesn't have to ask that question.</p><p>The reason why should be obvious at this point: notebooks are designed around very specific power draw and heat tolerances. More than that, graphics hardware is often soldered into the motherboard. There just isn't a slot for this and I honestly don't expect there will ever be a common one. I know someone in the forums will mention MXM or AXIOM, and to them I say: no. Don't even bother mentioning them, because you're just opening a bigger can of worms.</p><p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35962.jpg" alt="" width="302" border="0" height="227" /> </p><p>MXM and AXIOM are standards designed by NVIDIA and ATI respectably to allow for at least some upgrade options for video hardware in notebooks that - and this is key - already have dedicated video hardware to begin with. These standards, however, are somewhat rarefied and generally appear only in notebooks by more obscure brands. They're largely worthless, too. Since support for them is so minimal, you're not going to find graphics hardware upgrades for your laptop at your local Best Buy the way you can with your desktop. Even specialists like NewEgg and NCIX don't carry them. They're almost impossible to get and invariably very expensive. This is the long way of saying "don't waste another minute thinking about this."</p><p>What's the bottom line here? No, you can't upgrade your graphics hardware. You're stuck with the hardware in the notebook when you buy it, so you'd better do your research (the forums here are great for that).</p><p><strong>Recommendations and Conclusion</strong></p><p>First of all, if you're planning on playing games on your notebook, rule out integrated graphics immediately. Outside of the <strong>ATI Radeon HD 3100 and 3200</strong> at the time of this writing, integrated graphics really aren't adequate for gaming proper. Intel's graphics hardware in particular has frequent compatibility problems with games, and games it can actually produce playable performance in are basically a crapshoot. Beyond all that, you're just going to have to shop around and do some research, and there's just no way around it. Notebooks in retail seldom have dedicated graphics hardware. </p><p>As for brands? Presently I'm an ATI man, but my laptop has an NVIDIA dedicated GPU in it that games alright from time to time. This is one of those situations where it's probably healthiest to just be brand agnostic and pick whichever suits your needs best.</p><p>I am also going to openly recommend against gaming notebooks or buying a notebook specifically for gaming. In my opinion, these are a waste of money. Gaming technology tends to advance just too fast to make these machines worthwhile, and they tend to be at least twice as expensive as a comparable PC. The dedicated PC gamer is going to want to have a desktop to game on, where the parts are cheaper and the options are plentiful. Notebooks are fine for the odd game or bringing to a LAN, but buying a notebook just to game on is really silly. The most powerful notebook gaming hardware results in a machine that, frankly, is just too big to be used on your lap. Thus, it winds up being a glorified desktop anyhow.</p><p>Though I typically close these articles with a digest of points, there's really only one I want to end with here:</p><ul><li>No, you can't upgrade your notebook's graphics hardware.</li></ul><p>Unfortunately, my sense of responsibility requires me to distill the rest of the article proper, so here goes:</p><ul><li>Much like your CPU and RAM work together, a GPU and video memory are paired together.</li><li>Your GPU can substantially improve video playback, and options exist to tweak it to your liking.</li><li>Integrated graphics are better for battery life and heat but worse for gaming performance.</li><li>If you plan on gaming on your laptop at all, get dedicated graphics hardware. This is identifiable by having a specific amount of video memory attached to it.</li></ul></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-86293586816324750502008-10-30T17:45:00.001-04:002008-10-30T17:48:16.565-04:0037. How To Stream Video From Your Laptop To Your TV<span style="font-style: italic;">By: gary hendricks</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From: NotebookReview.com</span><br /><br /><b>Step 1: <span class="highlight">Inspect</span> <span class="highlight">Your</span> <span class="highlight">Laptop</span> and TV</b><br />To stream video from the <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to the TV, what you first need to do is to <span class="highlight">inspect</span> both <span class="highlight">your</span> <span class="highlight">laptop</span> and TV. The manuals are a good place to start. What you wna tto do is to identify the connectors located on the back of these devices. Usually, there are five basic types of jacks involved - RCA, S-Video, VGA, DVI or HDMI. Don't worry about those acronyms, we'll run through them below.<br /><br /><b>Step 2: Understand the Connectors</b><br /><br />- <i>Composite/phono plug (RCA)</i>. This is also called a phono connector and is used for analog video and audio components. You will see three round, colored sockets - red and white for audio and yellow for video. Just get a three-prong cable (from a computer or electronics shop) and connect the RCA <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to the TV.<br /><br />- <i>S-Video</i>. S-Video connectors is slightly more advanced, and uses a four-prong round plug (usually yellow in color). To connect a <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to a TV via S-Video, simply plug the single S-Video connector to the TV. You can use <span class="highlight">your</span> laptop's existing sound system for audio.<br /><br />- <i>Video graphics array (VGA)</i>. For this type of 15-pin connector, you you need a PC-to-TV Convertor to connect that <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to the TV. You plug the VGA cable from the source into the convertor. Then, from the convertor, use an S-Video or RCA cable and connect it to the TV.<br /><br />- <i>Digital video interface (DVI)</i>. A DVI port is rectangular in shape, with 24 pins arranged in three horizontal rows for digital video. The audio cables are separate and usually make use of RCA white / red plugs. You will usually find DVI ports on Macintosh laptops.<br /><br />- <i>High-definition multimedia interface (HDMI)</i>. The HDMI port is half the size of the DVI port. It is also rectangular and has 19 pins. The good thing is that it provides both digital audio and video. You will find these connectors on newer laptops and TVs.<br /><br /><br /><b>Step 3: Buy a Proper Connector</b><br />Now that you understand the various types of connectors from a <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to the TV, you need to purchase the correct cables to connect the two. Remember, if <span class="highlight">your</span> <span class="highlight">laptop</span> has RCA but the TV has S-Video, you will need to get a RCA to S-Video cable (a <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to TV cable ready available from electronics shops). If you have a TV with a HDMI port but the <span class="highlight">laptop</span> has a DVI connector, then you need a DVI-to-HDMI cable for the video and also a pair of RCA analog stereo cables for the audio. If <span class="highlight">your</span> <span class="highlight">laptop</span> has S-Video and the TV also has S-Video, you can just directly connect the two with a S-Video cable for video. Get a separate RCA analog right / white cable for the audio (or just use <span class="highlight">your</span> laptop's audio system).<br /><br />There are many other combinations I can think of, but the idea is the same - whenever ports do not match, you can by adaptors and cables to make any connection. Ok, you're almost there - one more step and you will be able to seamlessly stream video from <span class="highlight">your</span> <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to the TV.<br /><br /><b>Step 4: Tune the Display</b><br />With the <span class="highlight">laptop</span> and TV properly connected, you now need to tune the display on the TV. The key thing to note here is that if the screen resolution and aspect ratio of <span class="highlight">your</span> <span class="highlight">laptop</span> and TV are not the same, the picture on the TV will be distorted.<br /><br />Make sure both screen aspect ratio and pixel resolution of TV and <span class="highlight">laptop</span> are compatible. What you can do is to adjust both picture ratio and resolution with on the Display Settings of the Control Panel in the PC <span class="highlight">laptop</span>. You might need to refer to <span class="highlight">your</span> <span class="highlight">laptop</span> manual to get information on settings and options for video output.<br /><br /><b>Step 5: Enjoy That TV Display!</b><br />With all the above steps done, you're ready to get a cup of coffee, kick back and enjoy <span class="highlight">your</span> favorite movie clip or videos on the big TV screen. For the best results, you should get a large, flat panel LCD TV for this purpose. It'll cost ya though, but prices are coming down.<br /><br />And that's it! Now you know how to stream video from <span class="highlight">your</span> <span class="highlight">laptop</span> to the TV using conectors and cables. It's not that difficult once you figure out what connectors there are, and what cables to buy.Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-39699002215109524132008-09-26T16:44:00.003-04:002008-09-26T16:47:21.929-04:0036. Guide to Polishing Your Scratched Glossy Notebook<span style="font-style: italic;">By: </span><span style="font-style: italic;" name="intelliTxt" id="intelliTxt"><em>Kevin O'Brien </em></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From Notebookreview.com</span><br /><br /><span name="intelliTxt" id="intelliTxt"><p>If you purchased a notebook in the past couple of years, chances are pretty good that you were stuck with a glossy plastic finish whether you liked it or not. These notebooks look great when new, but they get full of fingerprints or worse, scratches. Just the act of sliding the notebook into a backpack can scratch some of these delicate surfaces, and from then on they look horrible. All hope is not lost though, as you can lessen or completely remove the scratches with a bit of elbow grease and some plastic polish. This guide covers all the basics and hopefully shows you how to get your notebook looking great again.</p><p>No brand is immune from this problem, with most manufactures offering at least one notebook with a glossy plastic exterior. Below is a small list outlining some popular <a itxtdid="6630190" target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4545#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">laptops</a> that have glossy finishes:</p><blockquote><strong>Lenovo: </strong>IdeaPad Y series, SL series<br /><strong>Toshiba:</strong> Satellite and new Qosmio series<br /><strong>Dell:</strong> New Vostros, M1730<br /><strong>HP:</strong> Almost the entire consumer lineup</blockquote><table border="0"><tbody><tr><td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35799.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="200" height="147" /><br />(<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35798','Picture',1094,931,'');" >view large image</span>)<br /></td><td> <img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35801.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="200" height="138" /><br />(<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35800','Picture',1094,884,'');" >view large image</span>)</td></tr><tr><td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35803.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="200" height="121" /><br />(<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35802','Picture',1094,800,'');" >view large image</span>)<br /></td><td> <img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35805.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="200" height="151" /><br />(<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35804','Picture',1094,954,'');" >view large image</span>)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Not all scratches will disappear; this guide isn't about making a notebook look as if the wrapper just came off. That would be almost impossible without a great deal of work and running the risk of creating permanent damage. We hope that if you follow this guide your outcome will be a notebook in better condition than before you started. However, any <a itxtdid="6384742" target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4545#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">application</a> of polishing liquids will likely expose your notebook to abrassive compounds that could, in theory, cause additional damage to the finish. Proceed at your own risk.</p><p><strong>Materials Needed</strong></p><ul><li>One scratched notebook</li><li>Polish (Novus 3 Step Plastic Polish, Meguiars Scratch-X)</li><li>Clean soft cloth (one for each step)</li><li>Patience</li></ul><p>I chose Novus plastic cleaner for this guide since I had good luck with this polish in the past. You probably won't find it at your local autoparts store, but it can be easily and cheaply purchased online. I went to <a href="http://www.mcmaster.com/" target="_blank">McMaster-Carr</a> for this purchase, where it cost $17 plus shipping. The Meguiar's Scratch-X came from my local Advanced Auto store for $8, but it can be found online as well. The Scratch-X polish was added to the mix since it was a finer polish than the Novus cleaners and helped give the notebook a much smoother final look.</p><table border="0"><tbody><tr><td><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35583.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="250" height="205" /><br />(<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35582','Picture',1670,1492,'');" >view large image</span>)<br /></td><td> <img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35797.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="150" height="281" /><br />(<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35796','Picture',925,1780,'');" >view large image</span>)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Cleaning the notebook</strong></p><p>Before you even touch the notebook with some of the fine rubbing compound to buff out scratches, you want the notebook to be clean enough to eat off of. You need to remove any leftover dust or fine grit that might re-scratch your notebook during the polishing process, which would make it look much worse than when you started. A damp cloth sprayed with the Novus Step 1 polish (just a cleaning spray) will work, or plain soap and water. </p><p><strong>Polishing the notebook</strong></p><p>Start off with the Novus #3 or Novus #2 depending on how bad the scratches are. If you have a very mild scuff that you can't feel with your fingernail, start with the #2 fine scratch remover. If it is deep enough to catch your fingernail, you will need to start with the #3 heavy scratch remover. Apply the polish to a clean cloth and gently rub the surface of the notebook. A circular motion or just up and down will work fine. Continue rubbing the polish onto the surface until it starts to dry and absorb into your cloth. When barely anything is left on the surface, wipe the dried polish bits off the notebook and inspect the surface.</p><p>Don't be alarmed if you see many fine scratches. If you started with the number 3 cleaner, it will leave a mild haze. The important thing are the original blemishes on the notebook, and if they have been removed or greatly lessened. Deep scratches will be impossible to completely remove unless you polish away a good deal of the plastic layer. I prefer to just smooth off the rough edges and let them blend into the notebook surface. </p><p>Move onto the finer polish once you find the original blemish to be acceptable. Apply it in the same manner, with a gentle motion and continue until the polish completely dries and absorbs into your cloth. Continue this step until the original polished area matches the surrounding notebook surface. It might take a few reapplications before all of the haze and fine scratches are gone. If you had deep scratches when you started, you will still see them, but they should be less noticeable and blended into the glossy finish.</p><p>Below is a quick example of a line of fine scratches being removed from the lid of a glossy Acer notebook. First picture is before, second is after the #3 polish, and last is after the fine polish. </p><p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35585.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="250" height="77" /><br />Before (<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35584','Picture',3658,1290,'');" >view large image</span>) </p><p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35587.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="250" height="79" /><br />After #3 polish (<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35586','Picture',3903,1385,'');" >view large image</span>) </p><p><img src="http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/35589.jpg" alt="" border="0" width="250" height="92" /><br />After both #3 polish and fine polish (<span style="text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;color:blue;" onclick="displayWindow('http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=35588','Picture',3856,1571,'');" >view large image</span>) </p><p>Notice how the bulk of the scratches were removed, and you are left with the deeper marks. Once the highly scuffed area is polished the visibility of the scratches is greatly reduced. You are only left with deep blemishes that are only visible under close scrutiny. Each stage of the polishing took about 30-45 seconds and the entire process took roughly five minutes. Additional polishing effort (much greater time) might yield better results.</p><p><strong>Results may vary</strong></p><p>Depending on the exact glossy surface and the process used you might remove all marks or be left with some leftovers from an abusive past. While our example shows the process with regular "by hand" application, some of our more adventurous readers might experiment with power buffers or additional <a itxtdid="6384744" target="_blank" href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4545#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">applications</a>. This could yield much better results, but also runs the risk of wearing away more of the surface with the possibility of damaging the glossy notebook further. </p></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-21605205085042477482008-09-03T15:21:00.000-04:002008-09-03T15:22:58.211-04:0035. Computer Optimization Guide<span style="font-style: italic;">By: jpzsports</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From: Notebookreview.com</span><br /><br /><br />*This Guide has up-to-date information and tips from what to do when you first get your computer and also for those who already have been using their computer for some time.<br /><br />*This Guide is meant to be simple and avoid any potentially damaging changes. Most of these tweaks/changes are meant to have no drawbacks or cause any problems.<br /><br />*These programs and tips are from my own personal experiences and also from other guides on this forum and others.<br /><br />*I will update this thread often and add in any advice that other people recommend so please post your comments.<br /><br />*Please Note: This info is not guaranteed to perform the same on your computer as it did on mine or anyone else's.<br /><br />Also, this Guide is meant for <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=183&script=showthread&forumid=1013" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Windows Vista Premium OS">Vista</a> computers, but should also work on XP, etc.<br /><br />Lastly, All of the tweaks mentioned are rather basic and don't involve anything drastic. If you want in-depth tweaks, see NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide (<a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532" target="_blank">http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532</a>) - Les<br /><br />*Please Comment and Rep and post anything that you think I should add in / edit.<br />-------------------------------------<br /><br /><b>When you first get your computer</b><br /><br />Check to make sure you have all the parts and read through the manuals, etc.<br />Check for dead pixels on your screen.<br />Go through the User setup and other first-time settings.<br />Make your recovery discs (if needed)<br />Update all your drivers, bios, Windows, etc.<br />(This guide is geared towards optimization so I'm going to skip past the real basics of when you first get a computer)<br /><br /><b>Bloatware removal</b><br /><br />You have 2 options:<br />1. Reinstall Windows - see Clean Vista install WITH NO ACTIVATION<br /><a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228" target="_blank">http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228</a> by orev<br /><br />2. Remove the bloatware manually<br /> - Remove programs using the Control Panel Uninstaller (ie any trial software such as Norton, etc.)<br /> - Download and run CCleaner - ( <a href="http://www.ccleaner.com/" target="_blank">http://www.ccleaner.com/</a> )<br />- Go into Computer and go to C:\Program Files and clean up any folders that were left behind after the Uninstall. There are some other directories that you might want to look around for old files such as \Program Data, etc but be careful not to delete anything you're not sure about.<br />- You can also try <a href="http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/" target="_blank">http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/</a><br /><br /><b>Antivirus, Firewall, and AntiSpyware</b><br /><br />1. Antivirus - Look for an antivirus with good ratings and one that is light on System Resources.<br />My personal favorite is AVG. It has antivirus and antispyware.<br />( free.grisoft.com )<br /><br />2. Firewall - I'm a fan of Windows Firewall because it come with Windows. But many people don't like it since it doesn't protect against outbound traffic.<br />So, if you want, you can use Comondo ( <a href="http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/" target="_blank">http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/</a> )<br /><br />3. AntiSpyware - I recommend Windows Defender. It comes pre-installed with Vista. And you also have AVG's antispyware so you've got double protection.<br />(Note: you can have more than 1 antispyware, but never use more than 1 antivirus or firewall because they can conflict with one another)<br /><br /><br /><b>Optimization</b><br /><br />Now we get to the good stuff.<br /><br />1. Clean up your startup programs.<br /><br />Go to Start > Run and type msconfig and go to the startup tab.<br />Go to <a href="http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/search.php" target="_blank">http://www.windowsstartup.com/wso/search.php</a> for information regarding each item. Disable only the programs that you are sure about. Items such as AIM, qttask, Adobe Update Manager, etc can be unchecked.<br />- You can also use Startup Inspector if you wish ( <a href="http://www.windowsstartup.com/" target="_blank">http://www.windowsstartup.com/</a> )<br /><br />2. Clean up Services that aren't needed<br /><br />Go to Start > Run and type services.msc<br />Go to <a href="http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm" target="_blank">http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm</a> and use that as your survival guide.<br /><br />3. Run a General Maintenance Utility Program.<br /><br />My personal favorite is Iobit Windows AdvancedCare or Glary Utilities.<br />It scans for spyware, prevents spyware from being installed by blocking malicious Active-X files, cleans the registry, has a system optimization function*, startup manager, privacy sweep and junk files cleaner, and the beta has a disk defragmenter and other utilities.<br />* The system optimization feature allows you to make some changes that Iobit believes will enhance your PC's performance. Please look at the detailed analysis and feel free to disabled many of the changes they recommend because you may not want some of them.<br /><br />4. Disable (Some) Indexing Options<br />See this article:<br /><a href="http://www.tweakvista.com/articles/39118/tweak_indexing_options_for_more_performance/" target="_blank">http://www.tweakvista.com/articles/3...e_performance/</a><br /><br />5. Set Vista's power profile to High Performance (when you're not using battery power)<br /><br />Go to the Control Panel<br /><br />Click on 'classic view' in the left hand pane.<br /><br />Open Power Options.<br /><br />Select the 'high performance' power plan.<br /><br /><br />6. Disable some Windows Features you don't need.<br />See this:<br /><a href="http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2110596,00.asp" target="_blank">http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2110596,00.asp</a><br /><br />7. If you want to get more in-depth, check out Les' awesome Tweak Guide:<br /><a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532" target="_blank">http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Other Advice</b><br /><br />- Download and use Firefox 3 as your main web browser<br /><br />- you may want to go into Control Panel and tweak the settings to your liking as well.<br /><br />- I recommend using OpenOffice as a Microsoft Office substitute.<br /><br />- Use OpenDNS<br /><br /><br /><b>Things to do:</b><br /><br /><u>Daily</u><br />- Update your Antivirus and AntiSpyware Definitions<br /><br /><u>Weekly</u><br />- Perform a full virus scan and spyware scan<br />- Do a backup<br />- Run Windows Update<br />- Run a Disk Defragmenter ( I recommend using the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=186&script=showthread&forumid=1013" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Windows Vista is the latest OS from Microsoft">Windows Vista</a> defrag)<br />- Run Advanced WindowsCare and CCleaner<br /><br /><u>Monthly</u><br />-check for updates to your programs<br />- Check for new drivers<br />- Perform chkdsk<br /><br /><u>Yearly</u><br />- Clean out the dust from your PC using a can of condensed air<br />- If your PC is running sluggish then perform a backup and then restore your computer to original using your restore disks and then move back the necessary files<br /><br /><br /><br />- More Coming Soon<br /><br />This guide is meant to be a basic guide for people to get an understanding of some simple and pretty important tweaks/programs.<br /><br />I will update this thread with more detailed info in the future when I have time.<br /><br />Feel free to add in comments.Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-87609536359250109982008-09-03T15:18:00.001-04:002008-09-03T15:21:47.426-04:0034. Guide to New Laptop Inspection...and Beyond!<span style="font-style: italic;">By: Matthewrs Rahl</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From Notebookreview.com</span><br /><br /><i>Disclaimer: I take no accountability to anything that might occur to you or anything that either exists, does not exists, never will exist, nor has ever existed, regardless of the time stream that you are partaking in, when utilizing this guide. With that said I must admit I haven't done most of this myself. But, I'm compiling what I've read all over the net (particularly NBR) and felt this was a good line of thought to follow. So, feel free to <b>brutalize</b> every single one of my statements and offer up more suggestions. This way we can have a KILLER guide for people with new computers...</i><br /><br />----------------<br /><br /><u>The Purpose of this Guide...</u><br />So, you just got a new laptop? Congratulations! But before you boot-up that bad boy you might want to take a moment to look over this beast you'll be spending every waking moment of your nerdom with. Got your attention? Alright then, let's go!<br /><br />----------------<br /><br /><u>You Just Received Your NEW Notebook!...</u><br /><b>1.</b> Carefully unpackage the laptop and all guides/cds/components/etc.<br />In case your computer has problems, you want to be able to ship it back hassle free and not be held liable for those unorthodox ripping/tearing motions you dub "opening". For those of you willing (<5%),><br /><br /><b>2.</b> Carefully inspect your notebooks exterior (front, back, top, bottom, sides).<br />If you discover any scratches/dents/sharp-edges/loose-screws/etc, then you may want to consider returning the laptop before proceeding any further. Take this moment to also press down gently, but firmly, all around the laptop. You want to do this to verify the integrity of your laptops chassis. It shouldn't give-in or creak excessively. You should do this particularly around the palmrest/keyboard.<br /><br /><b>3.</b> Slowly (repeat: SLOWLY!) operate the mechanism to raise the lid of your laptop, thus exposing the screen/keyboard. Carefully inspect the screen/bezel/frame/keys for anything out of the ordinary. Take a moment to press on the keys (excluding the power button) to make sure they operate properly.<br />If you discover any broken-keys/scratches/dents/sharp-edges/etc, then you may want to consider returning the laptop before proceeding any further. You want to open the lid slowly, otherwise you might weaken the hinges, thus setting yourself up for warranty problems.<br /><br /><b>4.</b> Smack yourself in the face if you didn't spend at least 10 minutes doing the above three steps.<br />This is because you were probably foolish and rushed through it. Ideally, you should spend 15-20 minutes doing the above steps.<br /><br />----------------<br /><br /><u>Time To Power On...</u><br /><b>1.</b> Place your laptop on a smooth flat surface (e.g. a table) and plug your power adapter into the wall outlet and then into your computers power port.<br />[i]Give your notebooks battery at least 5 minutes to charge up, before moving on to the next step.<br /><br /><b>2.</b> Rejoice as you press the power button for the first time! Keep an eye out for any "out of the ordinary" messages during the boot-up sequence, you'll recognize it immediately if you have this great misfortune.<br />Rejoice as you watch the OS boot the fastest you've ever seen it boot! Not just because it's the first time you've boot it up, but because it will likely never ever boot-up this fast ever again!<br /><br /><b>3.</b> Follow the simple steps of account creation and proceed with caution.<br />Caution, as you should be wary of accidentally allowing your computer to connect to the internet or registering your laptop prematurely.<br /><br />----------------<br /><br /><u>What To Do About Hardware</u><br /><b>1.</b> Make certain you got the hardware specs you ordered.<br />--For windows users. Right click "My Computer" and select "Properties". It will show your processor/ram info right there. Now, select the "Hardware" tab on top and click the button "Device Manager". Now, just scan through the items and compare it to your receipt.<br />--<a href="http://www.aida32.hu/" target="_blank">Aida32</a> = awesome freeware for <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=185&script=showthread&forumid=1013" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Microsoft Windows XP">Windows XP</a> and below (it may work with <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=183&script=showthread&forumid=1013" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Windows Vista Premium OS">Vista</a>, but I'm not certain). This is like the “Device Manager”, but MUCH more detailed (e.g. it includes serial #s and firmware for the BIOS). Unfortunately, the software is a bit out of date (it was discontinued in 2004) and is no longer hosted on the main website. Fortunately, you can download it from either <a href="http://www.download.com/AIDA32/3000-2094_4-10129233.html?tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10634930" target="_blank">here</a> or <a href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/AIDA.shtml" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />This software can directly link you to the manufacturer’s page for the device (or firmware) you select for more information. It even tells you interesting facts like your product key #, OS code name, # of licenses you have and so forth. This is also like “procexp” (a program that monitors and allows you to shut-down active processes, some of which your task manager does not keep track of. It is similar, but not quite the same, as “HiJackThis”) in that it tells you what processes, dlls and so forth are running (as well as where it is running and who manufactured the programs, with their available links)! You can also monitor your network and information (e.g. a hacker will be loving this aspect). The list goes on and on, so have fun and look around at the many other useful features! An added bonus with this program is that it doesn’t need to be installed, you simply run the executable whenever you need it.<br /><br /><b>2.</b> Open up notepad or another document writing program (e.g. word) and test out every key on your keyboard.<br />If something doesn't show up, or a key gets stuck, or whatever, then now is the time to find out.<br /><br /><b>3.</b> Test out the speakers/microphone/camera.<br />This can easily be accomplished in Windows, as sample music is provided in the "My Documents" folder. Now would be a good time to test your audio-in port, too. Just plug a headset/speaker into the headphone jack. If you have a microphone, use the "Sound Recorder" in "Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment". Make sure you can raise/lower the sound of your speakers/microphone (using both the programs AND your buttons on the keyboard, as well as the mute button). Find something to test your video camera, too.<br /><br /><b>4.</b> Test out the other ports/peripherals of your notebook (e.g. cd/dvd tray, hdmi port, fingerprint reader, all USB slots, firewire port, bluetooth, printer, etc (excluding ethernet port).<br />Try reading from the cd/dvd. Burning (if applicable) on to the cd/dvd. Transferring files from the cd/dvd. Do the same with your usb/firewire ports. Try plugging in an external monitor. Transferring a file to/from your notebook and another bluetooth enabled device. Testing your fingerprint reader. As well as any other ports/peripherals that apply to you (e.g. 7-in-1 card readers).<br /><br /><b>5.</b> Scan your screen slowly/carefully for dead pixels.<br />I wouldn't do this, unless you have a dead pixel guarantee policy in place. Usually anything less than 5 dead pixels will NOT be replaced. A "No Dead Pixel" policy lasts with most resellers for approximately 30-days.<br />If you REALLY want to be thorough (some people on NBR are against this practice, due to the fact that once you spot a dead pixel, it is hard to NOT notice it again in the future) you may utilize a program such as <a href="http://www.laptopshowcase.co.uk/downloads.php?id=1" target="_blank">DeadPixelBuddy</a>.<br />You can easily do this yourself without the program, however. Just change your desktop background to Red, Green, Blue, Black, and White. Be sure to carefully scan (by eye) the screen slowly with each color. The larger your native screen resolution (e.g. 1920 x 1200 for a 17" screen) the more likely you are to locate a dead pixel (given how much more probable it is to find a dead pixel).<br /><br /><b>6.</b> Look over your screen carefully for back light leakage.<br />This step is easier to do when following the steps detailed above (#5) for dead pixel screening.<br /><br /><b>7.</b> Test your screen brightness levels.<br />You can do this simply by changing the brightness levels and seeing if it looks horrible on one of the settings for some odd reason. Every computer is different, but many (like the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=168&script=showthread&forumid=1013" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Dell sells the Inspiron, Latitude and Vostro line of laptops">Dell</a> Latitudes) utilize a FN+Up/Down arrow.<br /><br /><b>8.</b> CHKDSK<br />This is for Windows only. You can read more about this in the "Help & Support" section on Windows, by simply searching for "CHKDSK". A brief overview of CHKDSK is that is scans your harddrive for anomalies (most tech support people will tell you to run this, if you ever have suspected HDD problems).<br />To run CHKDSK. Go to "Run". Type in "CMD". Press Enter. Now type "CHKDSK /?" This will provide you with a list of operations and briefly describe how they work (e.g. "CHKDSK /p will run an exhaustive search of the HDD, while NOT changing anything on the HDD itself). I would recommend "CHKDSK /p", personally. Given the fact that it won't modify any of the data on your HDD and is very exhaustive (thus, time consuming) search of your HDD for errors. If it finds any, then I'd recommend trying out some of the other CHKDSK options (some repair problems). Note: If you try to use one of the CHKDSK operations that actually fixes/repairs errors, then you must close all other programs running on your computer (this is good practice for most scans you run, anyhow).<br /><br /><b>9.</b> <a href="http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287" target="_blank">Harddrive Diagnostics Tools & Utilities (Storage Devices)</a><br />Your particular HDD might not be covered here as the above list is a bit outdated (if someone has a better list, please bring it to my attention). You can use these tools to make sure your HDD works.<br />You can try looking up the diagnostic tools & utilities directly on the manufacturers websites, too (e.g. <a href="http://www.seagate.com/maxtor/" target="_blank">Maxtor</a>). Much akin to the Memtest86+ scan (I'll discuss this later on), but for the HDD, as opposed to the RAM.<br />You can also use <a href="http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/" target="_blank">Active SMART</a> for any SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis & Reporting Technology) enabled HDD for a whole month (it's trial software, unfortunately). The site boasts a 70% success rate of finding HDD problems. However, I've seen some people report false-positives (meaning the program shows errors, even when there really aren't any) when using this program. So, if you get an error, I would recommend posting it on NBR to get peoples opinions on its validity and how to continue on.<br />You might also wish to try <a href="http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=" target="_blank">SANDRA</a> (from <a href="http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/" target="_blank">SiSoftware Zone</a>), you will need to have had the Windows Update for .NET Framework 2.0 (or above) installed beforehand for this to work, however. Regardless, I don't know how effective this software is (I've seen very few reviews) and it's up to you whether or not you'd like to experiment with it.<br />When it is all said and done, it is generally best to use the diagnostic utilities provided by the manufacturer of the HDD itself. If you're unsure of the manufacturer/model of your HDD(s), then you should check your "Device Manager", which you reach by right-clicking "My Computer", selecting "Properties", "Hardware" tab, and then "Device Manager". Then you simply take the information provided there and plug it into the greatest resource on this planet...namely <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/" target="_blank">Google H4x0r</a>. <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Big Grin" class="inlineimg" border="0" /><br /><br />----------------<br /><br /><u>Benchmarking & Stress Testing Ahead!</u><br /><b>0.</b> Stress test screen refresh (hertz/fps) rate of your monitor using this <a href="http://www.rep-if-you-aren%27t-having-a-seizure-mkay.doyouhaveepilepsy.com/" target="_blank">link</a> (I recommend doing this step later, unless you went against my suggestion of accessing the internet already).<br /><span style="font-family:Arial Black;"><b>WARNING</b></span>: Do NOT, I repeat do NOT use that link if you have epilepsy or believe that you might have epilepsy. I'm not kidding...If your monitor can survive the constant flashing of this page and refresh quickly enough (many laptop lcds have a refresh rate of 60hertz, fyi) and didn't burn-out, then congratulations! You're unlikely to ever stress your monitor as much as you did just now. Let it run for a minute (note: If you hear a chirping sound, that is your screen slowly melting from the inside out...just kidding).<br /><br /><b>1.</b> Test your memory with <a href="http://www.memtest.org/#downiso" target="_blank">Memtest86</a>.<br />You should run this for at LEAST two cycles (this will likely take a few hours, so don't be alarmed if you return in an hour to find cycle 1 is still running)! The more cycles (more time) you test it, the better! This will make for a more efficient stress test. I've heard some people stress test up to two weeks, I don't think that long is necessary. Within 1-3 days, I think you should have your answer. This test will NOT prove that you have no errors, mind you. It just shows that the memtest software couldn't FIND any errors. If you do find errors, then I urge you to read the <a href="http://forum.x86-secret.com/showpost.php?p=56931&postcount=1/" target="_blank">Memtest86+ </a><a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=29271" target="_blank" title="Click here to read the NotebookReview.com What Should I Buy FAQ">FAQ</a> section "What do I do when I get errors?", you should not have a single error.<br />To use Memtest86+ you must first download the Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip for Windows & .gz for Linux) file for cd/dvd usage. Alternatively, you can download the Pre-Compiled Bootable Binary (.gz for Linux) or Pre-Compiled Package For Floppy (DOS - WIN for Windows) file for floppy usage. Then burn (copy) the ISO image on to a cd/dvd. Leave the cd/dvd in the tray and shutdown your computer. Wait a few seconds (like 20) and then power on your laptop. At this point you will want to reboot from your floppy/cd/dvd, NOT your harddrive. Memtest should run automatically at this point and you can start playing the ever-popular "waiting game". The game MUST be fun, after all, it's been around since, like, forever!<br />Note: If you don't have a cd/dvd-burner (or can't get it to work), then you can try looking around the web (or NBR) for things like <a href="http://www.cdburnerxp.se/" target="_blank">CDBurnerXP</a> and <a href="http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm" target="_blank">ISORecorder</a>. A great post by Miner outlines how to use CDBurnerXP with Memtest86 <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39915&page=2" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />For those still confused, please read the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=142746" target="_blank">Testing your RAM with Memtest86+</a> (by Orev) and the <a href="http://forum.x86-secret.com/showpost.php?p=56931&postcount=1/" target="_blank">Metest86+ FAQ</a> (by Wichetael). They will cover just about any questions you have from start to finish, better than I ever could. Also, as an additional note, do NOT run this test in any different state modes, such as standby or hibernate, as these will skew the results (contrary to popular logic, seeing as hibernate is all about RAM usage, lol). The Memtest86+ may find errors that are actually problems with the RAM ports or other aspects of your computer (e.g. processor) and the interractions between. It is also a good utility to determine how far you can take overclocking (if you're into that sick sort-of stuff <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/wacky/tongue.gif" alt="" title="Tongue" class="inlineimg" border="0" /> ). Lastly, I shall reiteriate this point. You may have RAM problems, even if this doesn't find any problems (e.g. it doesn't always test ALL of the RAM). Also, to those warranty novices out there, RAM usually has a lifetime warranty. So, even if your "warranty" period has ended when you run this test, you can still contact the manufacturer for a replacement.<br /><br /><b>2.</b> Hard Drive Benchmarking & Stress Testing<br />--HDTune (my apologies folks…I got too lazy to write this part).<br />--<a href="http://www.iometer.org/doc/downloads.html" target="_blank">Iometer</a> (freeware, see <a href="http://www.iometer.org/doc/matrix.html" target="_blank">applicable platforms</a>) is a nifty app. This program is a bit outdated (last updated in July of 2006), but still does what it was designed to do just fine. Unfortunately, this program is a bit complicated and can't just simply be run. If you're still interested in giving it a try, however, then read on!<br />Download IOmeter. Install Iometer. Run iometer (no desktop icon, btw). Just agree to all the start-up stuff. Alright, now for the fun stuff. Under “topology” you have your host name and two “workers”. Select your 1st worker and select your HDD. Change # of outstanding I/Os to 16 (default is 0). Go to the next stab “Access Specifications” and then go to “Default” and click “Edit”. Here you will have the opion of how you want to stress test the machine in particular. You can do either sequential/random or read/write. I recommend you make the “transfer request size” 64kb. Then, move the Read to 100% and Sequential to 100%. Run this for 1-3 days (at least 15 min). Then, do this again with Write 100% and Random 100%, run this again for 1-3 days (at least 15min). When you click “OK”, take the default and “<<add” hand="" side="" assigned="" access="" go="" result="" tab="" and="" lower="" from="" infinity="" then="" click="" green="" top="" start="" will="" ask="" this="" t="" be="" able="" to="" see="" your="" results="" after="" save="" wherever="" you="" like="" i="" do="" it="" as="" a="" txt="" on="" the=""><br />Note: It is normal for this test to take a while to start (you may see a CMD open up that says it is “preparing” for a few HOURS, this is because it is filling up all the remaining free space on your HDD). Once all your testing is complete, you want to remove the written file (as it will REALLY write to your HDD, duh). Once it has finished “preparing” and has started the test you will be able to tell, as the “Results Display” tab will be showing everything running with blue bars. Just observe all the operations (e.g. Writes per second, Total MBs per second). You will want to post these results here on NBR (or elsewhere) to find out if the results or appropriate (or look-up the hardware specs of the HDD yourself). Once you are done, if done properly, nearly all of your HDD will be filled-up. The file that has taken all your “free space” is called “iobw.tst” and will be located directly on the “C:\” drive. Just go ahead and delete this file and you are back to normal.<br />Note: This will ONLY test your available free sectors of your HDD (nor will it damage anything existing on your computer). So, you want to run this BEFORE you install files on your computer, so it can test more of it (so, obviously, the sectors where Windows is stored, can’t be tested…sorry). (Courtesy of Tolga.US).<br />--For Linux users not interested in downloading any programs, try “dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/had# bs=64k count=20” or “dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda# bs=64k count=20” (these two codes vary depending on whether the disk is local “had#” or external “sda#”). This file “should” delete itself afterwards. This will ONLY test “writing” & “Sequential”. I do not know of any Linux commands to stress-test “Reading” and “Random”, however (sorry). You can look for yourself by getting the manual, which is “man dd”. Like I’ve said, I’m no Linux expert, lol. By any stretch of the imagination.<br />Note: This is NOT a great long-term stress-test, it will finish when it completes 20 times (you can make it more, however, by modifying “count=20” to something else, such as “count=300”). I would again recommend going to the manual ("man dd") and learning how to change the settings. Perhaps a kind linux-user reading this will post a response on how to do this? <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/wacky/spinny.gif" alt="" title="Spinny" class="inlineimg" border="0" /> </add”><br /><br /><b>3.</b> Temps/PCMark/Etc<br />My sincerest apologies folks. I’ve run out of time and cannot complete this part of the guide. Perhaps another NBR user would like to take up this task for me? So as not to leave you completely without direction, I’d recommend starting off at this <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852" target="_blank">great guide</a> by Gophn. Honestly, this guide is probably all you really need. <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" border="0" /><br /><br /><b>4.</b> Battery life<br />Once again, my sincerest apologies folks. Time is a limited commodity these days for me. Much like before, I won’t leave you completely stranded, however. I will direct you towards using this <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846" target="_blank">guide</a> (by Chrisyano), which absolutely rocks. As well as some additionally interesting battery information <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=106773" target="_blank">here</a>, provided by MysticGolem. Hope you can find all your answers here.<br /><br /><b>5.</b> Do the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1224110&postcount=3" target="_blank">Dunk Test</a> (courtesy of jhwyung).<br /><b><span style="font-family:Arial Black;">WARNING</span></b>: Chances are your computer isn't a gem and you should NOT attempt this test...It would certainly be a "keeper" if it survived this test, however.<br /><br />----------------<br /><br /><u>Additional Thoughts...Beyond Inspection...</u><br /><b>1.</b> Clean Install<br />Without a doubt, I'm sure some of you are wondering why I didn't include a "clean install" or "reformating" guide. Due to all the bloatware most OEMs will put on your computer (along with the required Windows OS). This path will remove bloatware, but can just be uninstalled if you take the time to remove it. Some things will obviously still partially remain (such as registry keys), but if you follow a good guide like <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=38092" target="_blank">this</a> (by Barry J. Doyle), you can hopefully be rid of most of the gunk and remain worry free about doing anything too technical.<br />If you'd like to go down this semi-difficult path however, then I recommend you read the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228" target="_blank">Clean Vista Install Guide</a> (by Orev). Orevs guide is a bit more difficult/technical than it has to be, however, so for the less technologically-inclined, you might appreciate <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783" target="_blank">this guide</a> (by Stallen, also for Vista OS) more, as it also includes driver download information.<br />Don't worry, I didn't forget about you Win XP users, either. You can find an installation guide <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81828" target="_blank">here</a> (courtesy of E.B.E.)<br /><br /><b>2.</b> Undervolting<br />Undervolting is when you decreased the amount of energy (electricity) into certain aspects of your computer. This is often practiced on the GPU. Undervolting will NOT harm your machine. However, if undervolted TOO much it will cause random crashes/errors (like BSODs) to occur. This is easily fixed, however, as you can just undo or lessen the amount of undervolting you attempted. Undervolting is particularly practiced on Nvidia GPUs, as they often have a "standard" amount of electricity they use on all the models. Thus, making for some very staggering benefits of undervolting them. The reason to undervolt includes...reduced electricity (being more "Green"), saving money (on electricity), increasing battery life, decreasing heat in laptop (thus, increasing the life expectancy of all the parts of your laptop), and due to reduced heat your fans may not need to turn on (or, at least not run at maximum) making your machine more silent. Best of all undervolting does NOT void your warranty and is FREE to attempt and is EASILY done (and EASILY reversible, too, so long as you do it through software). I recommend reading the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824" target="_blank">Undervolting Guide</a> (by FlipFire), it is very straightforward and should work for even the most novice laptop user here.<br /><br /><b>3.</b> Overclocking & Underclocking<br />This is not a practice I recommend and it WILL void the warranties of most OEMs like Dell & <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=161&script=showthread&forumid=1013" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="HP makes the Pavilion and Compaq Presario line of notebooks">HP</a>. Some who aren't voided, however, are <a href="http://falcon-nw.com/" target="_blank">Falcon North West</a>, <a href="http://www.xoticpc.com/" target="_blank">XoticPC</a>, and <a href="http://www.powernotebooks.com/" target="_blank">PowerNoteBooks</a>. Overclocking will also reduce the life expectancy of the hardware it is being used on (usually the GPU, RAM and CPU). It could fry the hardware almost immediately, if done improperly. However, the benefits of overclocking are increased performance from the part your OC'd. So, if you were "skimping" on hardware on a new computer and want to "boost" its performance, this might be for you.<br />You might wish to look at the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=239170" target="_blank">Overclocking Guide</a> (by PatrickR), which goes into greater detail about how overclocking works and how to do it for yourself. It is argued by many that you can OC a little bit without harming your computer, but I don't share their sentiment. I'd personally use OCing at the end of my lappys life (before I buy a new one), if I were to ever do it at all. Not really a "New Laptop" concept now is it? There are plenty of other Overclocking Guides on NBR, such as <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3000755#post3000755" target="_blank">this</a> (by Leon) and <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=124420" target="_blank">this</a> (by Ikovac). Just look around.<br />In regards to underclocking, this has the exact opposite effect of overclocking (except, it still will likely void the warranty). Another approach that one could attempt, without underclocking or voiding warranties, is to "turn off" the higher-end multipliers for particular hardware parts (e.g. the gpu). This thinking is very similar to undervolting, with one main difference. When undervolting, the user is LOWERING the voltage (electricity) used to run a particular multiplier. When underclocking, the user DISABLES the higher-level multipliers, thus never using that high of a voltage. Truth is, if you plan to underclock, you might as well undervolt in combination (for additive benefits), as the same software can often be used to implement both tactics. I'd recommend going back to <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824" target="_blank">The Undervolting Guide</a> (by Flipfire), and just using the information I provided you with to "disable" the multipliers while you are at it. The guide will also explain to you what "multipliers" really are at the top of section #4<br /><br /><b>4.</b> Notebook Cooling Solutions<br />A good laptop is a cool laptop (both thermally and cosmetically). In regards to thermal output, this is something we want to reduce as possible, without the use of Liquid Nitrogen (which, appears to be very popular with a small sect of NBR members, lol). I'd recommend starting with <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=263039" target="_blank">NBR </a><a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=263039" target="_blank" title="This guide details many ways to help you cool down your notebook.">Cooling Central</a> (by X2P), as well as the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60914" target="_blank">Guide To Cooling Down Your Notebook</a> (by Chaz). If you are still having heat problems (and, honestly, you shouldn't be having any with a new computer, unless you built it yourself or ordered something particularly exotic or high-end), then check out the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=252773" target="_blank">Notebook Coolers Guide</a> (by X2P again!).<br /><br /><b>5.</b> Battery Longevity Guide<br />Given the fact that laptops are meant to be portable, we often don't have the luxury of "plugging it in" while on the go. In these instances we find our selves completely dependent upon our batteries. The longer the battery lasts, the happier we are with the laptop and the less pressure we feel to have to "wrap something up" or save file quickly or having to check the battery power left every 5-10 minutes. That is where the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846" target="_blank">Notebook </a><a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846" target="_blank" title="Notebook Battery Guide">Battery Guide</a> (by Chrisyano) comes in. This guide is brilliant and quite straight-forward, while not going into the science of batteries (I could actually explain some of it to you, but do you really care? <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/wacky/SLEEP.gif" alt="" title="SLEEP" class="inlineimg" border="0" /> ).<br /><br /><b>6.</b> Traveling Guide *In Progress*<br />You got a notebook for portability, am I right? If so, then check out the<a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3572899#post3572899" target="_blank">NoteBook Traveling Guide</a>, unless you aren't interested in traveling in style, while avoiding injuring your new lappy and developing aches and pains from those amongst you carrying heavy DR laptops (like the Clevo D901c...12lb+, not counting the 2lb+ powerBRICK and HDDs). I wish I could say it was completed, but unfortunately members such as myself and Xirurg will just have to keep trying to mentally push him through meer thought to hurry up and finish the darn thing! Lol. <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Roll Eyes (Sarcastic)" class="inlineimg" border="0" /><br /><br /><b>7.</b> Fun Tweaks<br />I'm not even going to describe this, I'd never be able to do it justice... Check out the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532" target="_blank">Vista Tips & Tweaks Guide</a> (compiled by Les) IMMEDIATLY! You can also find some more fun additional tweak <a href="http://unlockforus.blogspot.com/2007/10/fun-stuff-hack-your-windows-experience.html" target="_blank">here</a> (the particular one I linked to can modify your WEI Score [Win Vista users only], to make people think your computer is more uber than it really is)!<br /><br /><b>8.</b> Free Software (freeware!)<br />Who doesn't like freeware, right? Go check out the <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206289" target="_blank">Best Free Software for Windows</a> (by Calvin). As well as <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=267533" target="_blank">Linux Alternatives to Software</a> (by Calvin, again!). I use a lot of the programs listed on there (I discovered this great list months/years after I had discoverd them on my own, lol) and I recommend it to anyone looking for high quality programs that work for free. Go check it out! Also, be sure to pick up the obvious security software (virus, malware, trojan, etc), before connecting to the internet (install w/ updated definitions to a cd/dvd/usb/diskette and install before-hand).<br /><br /><b>Boot CD</b><br />For those who'd like a Boot CD in case of the inevitable, try this <a href="http://radified.com/Articles/laptop.htm" target="_blank">guide</a>. It covers a lot of others stuff, too. I recommend his guide, assuming you have lots of stuff you want to boot-up from. Personally, I just use the regulars Windows boot-cd in combination with a list of installers (I keep all the installations of programs I like in .zip & .rar format) on a seperate external hard drive. This way. This way, if I ever change something around that I don't want, I don't have to make a whole new boot cd. It's all a matter of preference, really.<br /><br /><u>Terminology For Those Eager Too Learn, But Still Lost...</u><br /><b>HDD</b> = <b>H</b>ar<b>d</b> <b>D</b>rive/<b>D</b>isk<br /><b>SSD</b> = <b>S</b>olid <b>S</b>tate <b>D</b>evice/<b>D</b>isk<br /><b>PSU</b> = <b>P</b>ower <b>S</b>upply <b>U</b>nit<br /><b>CPU</b> = <b>C</b>entral <b>P</b>rocessing <b>U</b>nit (i.e. the processor)<br /><b>GPU</b> = <b>G</b>raphical <b>P</b>rocessing <b>U</b>nit (i.e. the graphics card)<br /><b>RAM</b> = <b>R</b>andom <b>A</b>ccess <b>M</b>emory (you can never have too much, but you can certainly have too little)<br /><b>LCD</b> = <b>L</b>iquid <b>C</b>rystal <b>D</b>isplay (i.e. the laptop monitor, can be either glossy or matte)<br /><b>Chassis</b> = The "box" your hardware fits inside of to form your laptop.<br /><b>Keyboard/Mouse</b> = Come on now...seriously? Lol<br /><b>UV</b> = <b>U</b>nder<b>V</b>olting (See #2 above)<br /><b>OC</b> = <b>O</b>ver<b>C</b>locking (See #3 above)<br /><b>BSOD</b> = <b>B</b>lue <b>S</b>creen <b>O</b>f <b>D</b>eath (something many people see when hardware malfunctions, forcing the user to shutdown the computer right there and then, provided it doesn't do so automatically on its own)<br /><b>ODM</b> = <b>O</b>riginal <b>D</b>esign <b>M</b>anufacturer. ODM companies (like Clevo, Compal, Asus, Quanta, etc) create and produce the chassis of computers for OEMs. These barebones are often the physical bottleneck of the computer<br /><b>OEM</b> = <b>O</b>riginal <b>E</b>quipment <b>M</b>anufacturer. OEM companies (like Dell/Alienware, HP/Voodoo, Sager, etc) are often referred to as resellers/retailers. As they are the ones responsible for putting together the barebones (provided by the ODMs) with the other components necessary to make a fully functional computer (such as the gpu, RAM, hdd, etc) and then market it to people. They do NOT generally build any components of the computers, they simply assemble them.<br /><b>Barebones</b> = A barebones set-up need only come with a chassis, but often times also comes with the motherboard and PSU, too<br /><b>Bottleneck/Choking Point</b> = This is the aspect of the computer, which prevents its unbound potential. It's "weakest link", as many would call it. For example, if you wanted to play a really intensive First-Person Shooter like Crysis, you'd probably get the best graphics card, sound card, screen, ram, processor, harddrive and so forth that you could get your hands. Once you got the best of the best in every category your computer will totally own Crysis...at least for the first five minutes. After that, your computer would likely BSOD due to an overwhelming amount of heat. In this case, the thermal budget was too high for all the components and the culprit of this is likely the ODMs chassis being unable to support the parts. Another bottleneck can be a weak component. For example, try running <a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/autolink.php?id=186&script=showthread&forumid=1013" target="_blank" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted blue; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" title="Windows Vista is the latest OS from Microsoft">Windows Vista</a> with <256mb>OS = <b>O</b>perating <b>S</b>ystem<br /><b>Windows/MAC/Linux</b> = The three most well-known OS platforms.<br /><b>App</b> = <b>App</b>lication<br /><b>OP</b> = <b>O</b>riginal <b>P</b>oster (short-hand when referring to the creator of the thread you are reading, when the poster is too lazy to take 5 seconds and spell out the users name <img src="http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/smilies/wacky/GEEK.gif" alt="" title="GEEK" class="inlineimg" border="0" /> )<br /><b>DR Laptop</b> = <b>D</b>esktop <b>R</b>eplacement <b>Laptop</b> (17"+ sized monitors on laptops. The performance of which often rivals that of the best desktops out there...and weighs nearly as much as one, too!)<br /><br /><u>Thanks for all the Fish!</u><br />Just wanted to give a big thanks to all the members of NBR to whom I could never have finished this guide without. If not for you men and women, well, I'd be some sort of kook twiddling away countless hours online talking to my imagination. Huh? Crazy talk-who-wha?<br />As well as a big thanks to <a href="http://www.tolga.us/" target="_blank">Tolga</a> who helped me with the Linux aspects of this guide, as well as suggesting the Aida32 & Iometer software for usage in this guide.<i><br /></i>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-19130659572047907622008-07-13T12:48:00.000-04:002008-07-13T12:48:55.602-04:0033. Notebook Travel Guide<span style="font-style: italic;">By: Johnny T from Notebookreview.com</span><br /><br /><br /><img src="http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/898/briefcase2ra0.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Introduction</b></span><br /><br />Travelling from A to B is part of everyone’s daily routine. More and more people are opting for notebooks instead of desktops, due to their portability. Whether you are taking it to work, class, or a LAN party, how you carry your notebook along with its accessories is an important consideration during and after the notebook purchasing process.<br /><br />This guide will aim to help people pick a suitable notebook “carrier’’ and to give you a few useful hints on the do’s and don’ts when travelling with your precious investment. There are 3 parts to this guide with subjects spanning from picking the right bag and accessories to advices on packing your bag for a long trip.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="font-family:Book Antiqua;">Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there</span></i><br />- Will Rogers</span><br /><br />Hope you enjoy this guide. More importantly, hope this helps with your next journey!<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Table of contents</b></span><br /><ul><li><b>Part 1 - Bags</b></li><li><b>Part 2 - Coming soon</b></li><li><b>Part 3 - Coming soon</b></li></ul><br />_________________________________________________________________<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>So lets get started with part 1!</b></span><br /><br /><img src="http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/2456/p2upperrcasedr0.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br /><br /><b>The ''Laptop Bag''</b><br /><br />Traditionally, when the term “laptop bag’’ (or laptop brief case) is mentioned, this sort of style of bags comes into mind…<br /><img src="http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/5259/standardnotebookbagvv1.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />The good old type design made purely for notebooks. They come in many shape and sizes, and are available from notebook manufacturers (usually rebranded), and big notebook accessory brands. Used by most professionals and corporate users, mainly because “it just works” and does exactly what it says on the box. They feature a well padded area within the bag and a strap to hold the notebook in place. They are usually quite rigid and durable, although they can be fairly heavy on their own. The bags are usually made from synthetic materials with a few high end products made from leather. In terms of comfort, they are pretty standard inline with messenger bags, though it might depend on the shoulder strap provided. At the end of the day if you don’t feel the pads that came with the bag are good enough, then you could always ditch the standard ones and purchase one of your own as there are wide selections available.<br /><br />Usually they don’t have much room for much else except for the notebook and its charger plus some discs and a small book or two.<br /><br />Deviating from the traditional style are modernised designs such as the one below…courtesy of NBR member John Ratsey’s snacks and accessories. As you can see it is quite stuffed, it features a much larger outer compartment for accessories and other goods. The design is edging more towards the “messenger style” bag.<br /><img src="http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/2408/johnrsbageu6.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />If you are looking for something practical, and not too flashy, this is the one for you!<br /><br /><br /><b>Messenger/shoulder</b><br /><br />Many members participated in polls a while ago, the first poll asked about which type of bag members used. Messenger style bags topped the poll, with back pack trailing closely behind. Notebook sleeves by themselves came last out of the three.<br /><br />So, let’s get on to messenger style bags. They have one strap going over the shoulder just like the traditional laptop bag, but they come in a large variety of shape and sizes. Original messenger bags were meant for telephone pole repairers in New York City, they were designed with easy access in mind so that workers can reach for their tools easily. Soon they were adapted by bike messengers and since then its popularity have risen dramatically. Since the 80s they are have became a fashion accessory for the masses, but also remained the choice of bike messengers.<br /><img src="http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/6961/timbuk2du7.jpg" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />So what made them so popular? Most bike messenger styled bags are made from durable canvas, and are designed to last. One of the main reasons is that the items inside remain easily accessible and have many useful compartments. There are many derivatives of the messenger bag. As a fashion accessory, it has downsized and its range of materials has increased too. This has resulted in many more designs and colours.<br /><br />Notebook messenger bags differ from the traditional laptop bags greatly mostly because the main priority of the bag is not only the notebook, but also the contents. This meant that the notebook compartment does not take up the majority of space in the bag, but it takes form as a small compartment, almost like a “sleeve’’ attached to the insides. This leads to another option: users can choose to pick any type of messenger bag they want and put their notebook in sleeve of their choice and just put it in the bag, meaning there is no need to purchase a notebook specific bag.<br /><img src="http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/1064/insidesofmessengerbagqp2.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />In terms of notebook messenger bags, there are many established brands such as Belkin, Timbuk2, Crumpler and Targus. The notebook accessories orientated brands tend to aim to design a messenger style notebook bag, where as the more traditional messenger bag brands focus on the materials of the bag and its functionality with an added notebook compartment, but they do tend to cost more due to the use of premium materials and more demanding quality control.<br /><br />Since the traditional messenger bags are designed for what its name says, they tend to have mountains of room for other goods. Even with the additional notebook compartment, I managed to fit 2 full size pillows into a messenger. On the other hand, notebook messenger bags are usually quite compact, essentially being a modernised version of the traditional laptop bag.<br /><img src="http://www.anthropology.com.sg/Products/bag%20messenger/god-messenger-newspaper.jpg" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />In conclusion, the messenger bag is popular because of the range of sizes and designs available on the market. The two main types of bags are the traditional messenger, which focuses on durability mixed with the traditional style that have attracted a strong following, and the “messenger style” bag offering good notebook protection whilst remaining stylish along with a affordable price tag.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Backpacks </b><br /><img src="http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5521/10196378fv9.jpg" alt="" border="0" /><br />Backpacks, or rucksacks as know in many parts of the world, are the preferred choice for comfort. Two straps distribute weight evenly on your shoulders in comparison to shoulder bags’ single strap design. Rucksacks also provide decent back support. The majority of backpack has a far superior capacity than standard shoulder bags; they also have many external compartments so that items can be easily accessed.<br /><br />When comparing its notebook carrying abilities’, it in very similar to that of a messenger bag because it is essentially a special notebook compartment build into a backpack. Again, you can choose to purchase a standard backpack along with a notebook sleeve to be put into the bag.<br /><br />While backpacks might not be considered as stylish by some people, the range of designs offered is definitely on par, if not better, than shoulder bags, with a selection ranging from camping packs to speciality notebook bags. Some designs even incorporate wheels and an extendable handle so that you can drag a heavy bag along.<br /><br />The size of backpacks is a problem for some people, especially among those who frequently travel by public transport. It might be considered as “bulky”, and sometime it is hard to find space to place the bag on the floor and carrying it on your shoulders without knocking into someone can be difficult.<br /><br />If capacity and comfort are high on your list, then backpacks would be an excellent choice!<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Sleeves</b><br /><br /><img src="http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/4285/sleeve1kw3.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />Whilst bags have a good amount of space for AC adaptors, and other accessories some people might not require that and that is where a notebook sleeve will do a great job for people on short journeys such as going to your local library or coffee shop. Although they are only designed to carry a single notebook computer, you can easily fit some paper work inside, or maybe a few discs.<br /><br />Notebook sleeves are usually made from neoprene, which is a soft material similar to that used for wet suits. For a higher level of protection there are notebook sleeves which have a hard shell, that although not totally rigid, provides extra protection for harder impacts. The downside is that they are usually slightly larger and not as light as their neoprene cousins.<br /><img src="http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/6201/1601hsbpan5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />Notebook sleeves come in a large variety of sizes and designs, so there will be one that will fit your notebook and style.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b><br />Hard shell/rugged</b><br /><br />Some users may be required to take their notebook to non-everyday destinations. This could be field work, or to destinations where carrying a notebook with you is not an option (e.g. must be checked in, or put into a boot of a car). Or maybe, you just feel like a bit more protection for your notebook is required.<br /><br />There are a few hard shell backpacks on the market. The “shell” is usually made from durable plastics and can withstand a certain degree of abuse. Of course this will not safe your notebook form the worst accidents.<br /><img src="http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/1530/hardcaseia0.png" alt="" border="0" /><br /><br />There are also rugged cases. The outer shell is generally made from metal (usually aluminium, may differ for premium products or others which require an even higher amount of durability). The insides are usually padded with thick layers of foam to protect the notebook from shocks. The compartments are usually pre-cut to fit specific accessories therefore it is not very flexible in terms of what you can put inside the case. Of course with good build quality and extremely durable materials, it all comes at a higher price in comparison to other bags.<br /><br /><br />_________________________________________________________________<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size:130%;">Picking right one for you</span></b><br /><br />There are several important factors to consider when choosing the right bag/sleeve for carrying your notebook. Below are a few important points.<br /><br /><b><i>Size of your notebook</i></b><br />The protection features are most effective when the sleeve/compartment fit your notebook snugly. This because a tight fit would mean that the notebook does not “hit” the padding when landing on impact, instead the padding will nicely cushion the notebook.<br /><br /><b><i>Notebook protection features of the bag</i></b><br />Some bags/cases pride themselves on protection features, whilst others might have other features or better style but only light protection. Perhaps you will pick your sleeve and bag separately. The choice is yours.<br /><br /><b><i>What other goods will you be carrying?</i></b><br />The capacity of the bag will be important if you carry a large amount of items with you daily. Cables, drives, paperwork, snacks, and drinks and take up room. Therefore it is very important to consider the amount of space you will require before making a purchase.<br /><br /><b><i>The length of your journey /comfort of the bag straps</i></b><br />This is important in terms of comfort. Whilst convenient, using a bag with poor padding will not be good for your shoulders in the long run. Individual pads are available for shoulder/messenger bags, some manufacturers even provide you with a choice. Also using a single strap bag regularly will put all the strain on one shoulder. Consider the distance of your journey and pick a bag that is comfortable for your shoulders will do much good for you!<br /><br /><b><i>Weight of the bag when unfilled</i></b><br />Certain materials whilst durable they are also much heavier when compared to others. This could add a significant amount towards the overall weight. Be sure to try out the bags.<br /><br /><b><i>The type of environment in which the bag will be used</i></b><br />You might require a rugged case, or you won’t need a bag at all! Don’t buy something you don’t need just because of looks and features. Consider your uses.<br /><br /><b><i>Looks/styling</i></b><br />The looks is an important factor for many people when purchasing a bag. A flashy bag might attract looks from people you might or might not want looks from. Sometimes a more subtle design hides the fact that you have an expensive notebook in your bag.Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-5743103496901448392008-07-07T15:47:00.000-04:002008-07-07T15:48:47.169-04:0032. How It Works: Your Guide to Notebook Technology<span style="font-style: italic;">By: Pulp (</span><span id="intelliTxt"><em>Dustin Sklavos) from NotebookReview.com<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></em></span><span id="intelliTxt"><p>I suspect the way most people look at their computers is the way I look at my car: confused and silently hoping that each day it will just work without any problems. The technology that goes into computers has progressed at a breakneck pace that until recently has only showed signs of slowing down; that said, the "slowdown" is roughly equivalent from reducing your speed from about 125 miles per hour to about ... we'll say 105.</p><p>Mercifully, if anything stays the same, it's the way computers are built. If you pop open the case on a desktop computer, there's an amalgam of wires, circuit boards, fans, and all kinds of crazy stuff that will likely just confuse people. But the logic and design that goes into this labyrinth of technology has actually gone relatively unchanged over the past decade. Of course, your laptop, on the other hand, won't do you the luxury of having all these interchangeable parts. In many ways a laptop can actually be MORE complex than a desktop.</p><p>Case in point: if my video card in my desktop goes on the fritz and decides it doesn't want to draw pretty pictures anymore, I can just pull it out and replace it with a new one. Not only that, but I have a wide variety (probably too wide) of cards I can put in a desktop, from $20 to even as far as $2,000 for workstation-class hardware. How did I know the video card itself went bad? I plugged my monitor into another computer and it worked just fine.</p><p>But what if your laptop stops giving a picture? It could be the cable that connects to the screen inside the shell. It could be the logic in the screen itself. It could be the graphics processor, the processor normally mounted to a removable video card in a desktop but soldered into place inside the laptop.</p><p>This long introduction boils down to a single point: laptops are complex. Even for the seasoned technology enthusiast they can be tricky; for the neophyte and the average user, they can be downright mind boggling. And that's where this guide comes in.</p><p><strong>How It Works: Prologue</strong></p><p>Over the next several weeks, I'm going to break down a single part of your laptop and explain what it does. This isn't going to be about recommendations, this is going to be about knowledge and understanding, dispensing information in such a way that eventually, you won't even need recommendations. You won't need someone to tell you "get this, this is good." You'll be able to know what you need and why.</p><p>This week I'll be covering the basic information you'll need to understand the stuff I'm talking about. Don't worry, it's not a huge deal, and there isn't going to be a test later.</p><p>There's one very important term and two units of measure that are vital to explaining any of these things to you.</p><p><strong>Units of Measure: Hertz (Hz)</strong></p><p>The dictionary definition of hertz is a measure of frequency.</p><p>You will probably never hear anyone refer to a computer as operating at hertz; the lowest you'll ever hear is megahertz (MHz, 1 MHz is equal to 1,000,000 Hz), and over the past few years you've also heard gigahertz (GHz, 1 GHz is equal to 1,000 MHz). I'll basically be starting at megahertz.</p><p>While megahertz may superficially be used to calculate "speed," it's best analogy would be revolutions per minute in a car. Basically, depending on the gear your car is in, 3,000 rpms may result in more or less work getting done. There are a lot of factors that go into just how much work actually gets done: who made the engine, what type of engine it is, etc. Processors are basically the same way. An AMD processor and an Intel processor both running at 900 MHz will do different amounts of work even though their frequencies are the same.</p><p>You will also hear megahertz used interchangeably with gigahertz (GHz); again, 1 GHz is equivalent to 1,000 MHz, so if your processor runs at 2.2 GHz, it's running at 2,200 MHz.</p><p>The terms "clock speed," "clocks," and "frequency" will all be used interchangeably in regular jargon to measure the same thing: the megahertz or gigahertz a processor runs at.</p><p><strong>Units of Measure: Bytes (B)</strong></p><p>Without getting into the esoterica of bits, etc., a byte is basically a means of measuring data. The same prefixes used to measure hertz apply to bytes, but it gets a little tricky. I'll try to make it easy for you.</p><p>We count in what's called "base 10," and just about everything we interact with on a daily basis is counted in this fashion. We count in units, tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on. We're used to it. It's just how we measure things and it works out fine.</p><p>Your computer, on the other hand, counts in "base 2," or binary. Computers operate data basically in a sequence of "on" and "off;" and just about everything "digital" these days can be broken down into 1s and 0s. What this results in is some math that's going to feel slightly goofy. Basically, here's how your units of measure work out:</p><blockquote><p>1 kilobyte (kB) = 1,024 bytes (B)<br />1 megabyte (MB) = 1,024 kilobytes (kB)<br />1 gigabyte (GB) = 1,024 megabytes (MB)<br />1 terabyte (TB) = 1,024 gigabytes (GB)</p></blockquote><p>You see how the scaling can get kind of confusing. If you visit wikipedia, you'll see "kibibyte," "mebibyte," "gibibyte," and "tebibyte." Look, that's probably closer to "correct," but that's not everyday jargon and it's not what everyone's comfortable with. I had an English teacher tell me "alright" isn't an actual word. You know what? Everyone uses it. "Alright" will make more sense than "all right" in modern language at this point, so if anyone tries to correct you on measuring bytes, punch them in the face because they have nothing better to do than quibble with you on minutiae.</p><p>Where were we? Ah yes. Since we're used to counting in base 10, we expect a megabyte to be a thousand kilobytes, not 1,024. Without getting into specifics of what we're counting, I'll just say that generally it's okay to fudge this particular detail. So if you buy something that advertises, say, 320 GB and you only see 299 ... it's in the ballpark. You got what you paid for.</p><p>That's a lot of confusing terms just to get to a simple point, ain't it? Like I said, it's generally okay to fudge it. When I get to a part of your notebook that it isn't okay, I'll let you know. Trust me, it seems like a lot, but it can become second nature in a hurry.</p><p><strong>Very Important Term: Bandwidth</strong></p><p>Bandwidth is basically used to describe the speed at which data can travel, and is generally notated as kilobytes per second (kB/s), megabytes per second (MB/s), and gigabytes per second (GB/s). You see how it works.</p><p>This is very important to know, because the connections between components inside your computer are largely designed around the concept of managing bandwidth. </p><p>Bandwidth has a nice bonus over the terms of measure I brought up above because it works pretty linearly. 23 GB/s is always going to be faster than 21 GB/s, unlike MHz where 900 MHz can be slower than 600 MHz if the 600 MHz processor is a better or more efficient design. Likewise, there's no confusing jargon like there is with 1,000 MB being used to fudge 1,024 MB. Bandwidth is what it is: how fast data can move from point A to point B, and we measure it in MB/s and GB/s because it sounds cooler that way (actually, we just measure it in whichever way is most practical and appropriate to scale, but I like my explanation better).</p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>This felt like a textbook, didn't it? Makes your brain hurt, doesn't it?</p><p>It's cool, I'll do you a solid like a good textbook does and condense the nonsense:</p><ul><li>Megahertz (MHz) are more or less analogous to revolutions per minute (rpms) in an automobile engine and are not a direct notation of "speed."</li><li>MHz are used to measure the frequencies processors run at.</li><li>Bytes (B) are used to measure amounts of data.</li><li>We count in base 10; computers count in base 2. It's okay for you to fudge the difference in bytes as long as you're conscious of it.</li><li>Bandwidth is measured linearly in a measure of bytes per second, and will be the basis for a lot of parts of this series.</li></ul></span>Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26187797.post-39806505820918872332008-06-21T02:16:00.000-04:002008-06-21T14:17:01.901-04:0031. A few XP Registry Settings that help improve batterylife. (for notebook)<span style="font-style: italic;">By: tebore from NotebookReview</span><br /><br />Under KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager<br /><br />Create a new key called Throttle. (If you've applied the tweak for dual core you'll already have the Throttle key.<br /><br />Inside the Throttle key add these dword decimal values:<br /><br />PerfIncreasePercentModifier - 70. This tells the OS at which load level to up the P-state to a higher one. Default is 20 which IMHO is a bit low. MS went save to avoid hiccups, but today with the CD or C2D it's powerful enough and has enough cache to avoid hiccups.<br /><br />PerfDecreaseMinimumTime - 150000 (150ms) this tells the OS how much time to stay in the current P-State after hitting the drop down percentage before it can drop back down. Default is 500ms. Why state in any P-State longer than you have to? Even if it is half a second.<br /><br />I got these from a Whitesheet. You may Google "Windows Native Processor Performance Control" and it'll bring it up.<br /><br />You can play with the values but I've tested these and they help keep power usage down with out affecting performance noticably.Mohit Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10645175909778207461noreply@blogger.com0