Lap top computer deal

[JohnEd]

I recently read a bunch of reviews of my lap top computer.  They were HORID!  I did a lot of research before I plunked down my hard earned moolah.  Toshiba Satellite came in a serious winner.  Seems they invented Laptops...or something. Well, I am delighted with this critter except for two things:  It weighs a ton and the carry case needs wheels or a skid plate.  The battery is flat dead in less than an hour.  These are big flaws in almost everybody's book.  To compensate for that I bought Wifey a smaller version that has more endurance and weighs less and will communicate with mine or any WiFi or use my air card.  Mine is 7 or 8 or 9 pounds (505) I don't know which.  It is not to be carried lightly nor taken so.  It is all grow-ed up with dual processors( I don't fully understand that)  quick speeds and Blue Ray drives and huge disc and oodles of RAM and ports?....let me tell ya.  And Bla Bla Bla!

I am not the type that caries a computer around with me and sits for hours in a coffee shop computing.  I watch the girls/women/dogs...not in that order.  I bought this thing for the Bus as the "desk top replacement" system.  It has a 18+inch screen that eats as much power as a 18 inch screen should.  It will sit on the dash and read out GPS and speed and silver leaf and rear/side/roof vision cameras and not movies(honest osceffer!).  It is only "mobile" not really portable.  It will be powered by 120v AC just like it is now.

So why am I sharing this sordid tale with Y'all?  There are a ton of seriously unhappy Toshiba Satellite users out there that say they would "unload this thing in a second" for a pittance.  Battery life and weight are the issues.  Want a really nice desk top replacement?   Connect the dots.

My 2 cents and a heads up.

John

[philiptompkjns]

For light and portable  I'd highly recommend a SSD (solid state drive) and no optical drive.  I've had an asus EEE for about a year.  It originally came with some form an linux which I used for about 2 days untill I discovered  that it would not run MegaTune (what I use to tune my car).  I  then put an Nlite'd version of XP on it  which runs great.
For the internet, megatune, word (open office),  Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007, it's performed as well or better than any other computer I've used.
I especially like it because the combination  of the  custom XP install and the SSD, it boots  up in under  12 seconds!
Specs:
4gigSSD and a 4 gig SD card
SD card reader
1.6 intel atom
2gigs ram
normal battery
5 hrs normal  runtime on battery (normal battery)
$160 over  a yr ago (refurb)

Cons:
HD is on the small side, I might upgrage to a 32gig SSD  soon
Keyboard takes some getting used to, I'm  pretty big... so I  suspect it would not be too big of a deal for smaller people, I just don't type as fast on it as a do on a normal laptop.


On another computer note:
I got a Dell E1405 when they first came out with the dual core about 4 years ago. The original  battery is now down to about 45 mins but I'm used it very hard.  It used to last 3 hours or so.
I personally like the 14.1" size the best.  For me it is the best  compromise between portability and capability.  The screen it arge enough to use multiple windows and the keyboard is a good size for me.  I'v done 5  years  of college and carried a computer with me every single day of that, so I've got a  lil experience here.
The little EEE pc is nice and I use it a lot, but its just to small to type out a 10 page essay on.  I use it more now that I'm  "working" and only use the computer for checking the weather :-)
Anything with a numeric keypad I have found to be too big to carry.  I've never don't THAT much data  entry and have gotten good at the number row at the top of the keyboard.  I've also figured that I'd rather carry an external USB keypad  than a 15.5"+ computer if it came  to that.  I had an old 15.5" dell before and felt a huge relief when I got the 14.1"

my $.02, finally a  topic that  I can contribute to :-)

Oh, and this is bus related because  I got my EEE pc for  my car, both to tune and navigate it,  and would use it in the bus at least for navigation.

[fe2_o3]

   I've got one of them Toshiba 505d portable hernia builders.  I love it. I'm sitting in the bus at Rickreall right now. We used it to get here (co pilot) and air card while here. 400 watt inverter while on the road and plugged in or gen when sitting...Cable

[Jeremy]

I had a Toshiba Satellite 4600 for years, and it was a great machine. Eventually I killed it by spilling water on it whilst using it to play music whilst working in the bus. It was kicking around for a further 18 months until just a couple of weeks ago when I got around to selling it for parts on Ebay - and even then I got more for it than I would have expected.

On the subject of computers for in-vehicle use...I'm just in the process of installing an HP Vectra in my car - the Vectra is a very compact mini-PC (a desktop) which, crucially, runs on DC power - no need for AC in the car. You can run laptops off DC as well of course. You can find Vectras on Ebay for not very much money, yet they are effectively the same as the very expensive purpose-designed car-PCs that are available now. The specification is fairly low, but it runs Windows XP and the limited software I need in the car without any problems.

In my current car I'm using a Ride Runner front-end and a large-ish touchscreen, which means no need for a keyboard or mouse. In a previous car I didn't have either of those so used a small trackball and had a miniature keyboard in the centre console which I could pull out when I needed it (entering addresses into the nav software etc). This worked but using a keyboard in a moving vehicle cannot be described as particularly safe - and I suspect a police officer wouldn't be too impressed if they saw a keyboard within reach of the driver, no matter what justification you used.

Jeremy

[cody]

My Acer that I bought on black friday from walmart works just fine, has my GPS in it, (I replaced my old Granny Pointing System) and rides around on the dash of the bus and tells me if I'm speeding and which corn field I'm about to run into.  I did get pulled over for a burnt out tail light bulb and when I went back to check the bulb with the nice officer, he confided to me that he had seen the screen glowing nicely in the dark of the bus front and was just wondering what GPS program I was running and why I liked it so I showed him my delorme and told him what little I knew about it.  He liked it and told me to have a nice day or night as the case may be and went on his way, I did in fact have a burnt out tailight bulb lol but I carry spares and it was unburnt in a jiffy lol.  That was down by Stephans Point in Wisconsin and they have some very nice officers on the road there, I've been helped by them in the past and can't say enough nice things about them.  Iggles make changing a light bulb a pleasure by the way the whole light assembly swings out lol, he liked that too.

[luvrbus]

I have 2 Toshiba's the P205 with Vista is a piece of junk and MS or Toshiba will not furnish any support for Vista and A105 with Xp is not too bad but a very short battery life.
I will not be buying any more Toshiba's because of the suckey attitude the tech dept has.
FWIW you know the places were you can write a review I wrote 1 on the P205 it lasted about 30 min there and it was gone never to be seen again lol  




good luck

[philiptompkjns]

I have 2 Toshiba's the P205 with Vista is a piece of junk and MS or Toshiba will not furnish any support for Vista and A105 with Xp is not too bad but a very short battery life.
I will not be buying any more Toshiba's because of the suckey attitude the tech dept has.
FWIW you know the places were you can write a review I wrote 1 on the P205 it lasted about 30 min there and it was gone never to be seen again lol  




good luck

Just so you know I have  instaled Win. 7 on 2 toshiba laptops recently.  The ONLY issue I had was that I had to manually install the wifi card driver on one of them.

[JohnEd]

So can I get a GPS that is homed on the laptop and I don't have to purchase the hand held part?

Thanks,

John

[JackConrad]

So can I get a GPS that is homed on the laptop and I don't have to purchase the hand held part?

Thanks,
John

John,
   Not sure what you mean by homed on the laptop.  We use my Toshiba Satellite in ther coach and a Dell Latitude D610 in our toad. Both computers run MS Streets & Trips 2009 and Delorme 2009. We split screen, running both programs, Streets & Trip on left half of screen and DeLorme on right half.  Only thing not in the computer are the antennas which connect via USB cable and set on the dash of the car and attached to the underside of the front fiberglass cap of the coach.
   We have recently had a problem with Streets & Trip on the Dell. When GPS antenna is activated, the map portion of the screen will flash from normal map to white screen and then back to map. It does this almost continuously until GPS is turned off??  Jack

[Just Dallas]

Removed

[JohnEd]

I think you are a fine figure of a human being.   I liked it better when you dissed me. Spooky!

You are both getting close to appreciating my level of ignorance.   Where do I get the software to load in my computer?  I was told that my Laptop has the hardware needed to decode the sat signal provided by the antenna.  All I have come up with is "Hand Held" receivers.  Now I will get one of those for Wifey cause she can walk a 13 mile marathon(half) and that is well out of my reach and a GPS and a radio is required for those jaunts of hers.  I will also get a antenna for the Bus but why do I need one for the car.

I am rushed right now....I'll get abck.  Thanks

John

[philiptompkjns]

I think you are a fine figure of a human being.   I liked it better when you dissed me. Spooky!

You are both getting close to appreciating my level of ignorance.   Where do I get the software to load in my computer?  I was told that my Laptop has the hardware needed to decode the sat signal provided by the antenna.  All I have come up with is "Hand Held" receivers.  Now I will get one of those for Wifey cause she can walk a 13 mile marathon(half) and that is well out of my reach and a GPS and a radio is required for those jaunts of hers.  I will also get a antenna for the Bus but why do I need one for the car.

I am rushed right now....I'll get abck.  Thanks

John

Ok, besides the laptop which you already have, you'll need this (or similar) for hardware: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=usb+gps+receiver+for+laptops&cid=6482896719493198656&ei=PColTPjEIpWYwAWQjqQn&sa=title&ved=0CAcQ8wIwADgA#p

and this for softwar: http://www.microsoft.com/streets/en-us/STLanding.aspx?ci_tag=TSA&refcd=go001745s_microsoft_streets_and_trips

There are other options for software other than MS streets and trips, I like that one  though.
Sometimes you can find the software & usb receiver sold together.

[JackConrad]

I purchased both the MS Streets & Trips and Delorme (2009 versions) last June as package deals (software and antenna).  I use separate antennas connecting both to the computer in separate USB ports.  Both worked since last june until just recently when the Streets & Trips stsarted acting up.  I uninstalled and reinstalled Streets & Trips (antenna is part of the software). Sometimes it works OK, other times it flashes between noprmal map view and white in the map area of the screen. Turning off the GPS mode stops the flashing.  Jack

[Jerry32]

I am sitting at BusnUSA with the datastorm dish up and using a dell small desktop computer. I have a Dell boat anchor type laptop as a backup and have co pilot for it Jerry

[Christyhicks]

I've probably only had about 15-20 laptops through the years, but after the last purchase of an HP touchscreen one, I'll never stray away from the Toshibas.  I keep a Samsung netbook (currently using it and love the little thing) next to the bed and anywhere I go, I use the HP touchscreen in my living room, and then a different laptop at work.  I've used Sony's, HP's, Toshiba's, Sumsungs, Averatec, IBM, Acer, etc. . .  only major ones I haven't tried are Dell and Apple.   My general impression is that I've had less problems with and enjoyed the Toshiba's better than any.

What really racks me is when I buy a new laptop, and have problems, only to find that Microsoft and the computer manufacturer each blame the other's software and refuse to solve the problem.. . . . .or, as in the case of the touchscreen, I buy a brand new computer, repeatedly get the "blue screen of death", have HP techs insist it MUST be the software I've installed, only to find out, after searching online, that I needed to update practically every driver on the unit.  So, we produce the computer, sell it, let our customers discover the problem, and then write patches to place on our website, but don't inform our tech support guys because we don't want to admit we put out a product with built-in problems???  Not acceptable.

So, computer gurus. . . . would you agree that if I want to run 2-3 monitors and have extremely fast caluclating and database performance, and I don't do graphics or publishing. . .  would I be better to build a desktop for my office instead of trying to use an off-the-shelf desktop or laptop?f  Even considering I need to stay Microsoft Windows so that I can use the network and software that we use throughout the office, therefore would have to purchase Windows?  Inquiring minds. .. Christy Hicks