Decent laptop 289.99 for first 250 cust [CLOSED]

loracan1

the 256mb ram went up in price today - in between me checking on website and getting to the store. Came up on the till as £34 but sticker was still on shelf so got the £12 refunded.

Now I just need to find the right page on this thread that explains how to install it.

calibrax

djrobmac wrote:

OK Guys, I have missed this thread, lol.

I received my wireless mini PCI card today from ebuyer and the antennas from ebay yesterday and was looking forward to some internal wi-fi action but it didnt go quite as planned. All installed sweet with latest drivers and it connected straight away. All seemed fine until I started to stray away from the room with the wireless router in.
Dispite it still recording full signal strength the Data rate was dropping as low as 1Mbps (so dispite it looking fine it was suffering behind the scenes) I have tried different config's of the antennas within the housing and it still cant match the Bellin PC card I had before (That wouldnt drop from 54Mbps anywhere within my apartment)

You peeps that have done the internal job......whats your feedback now after youve had time to play?

Regards

Hi djrobmac... I've missed the thread too

My connection did the same initially, but I quickly found that if I changed my router config from the default wireless channel 11 to channel 4, the problem went away. I suspect that my cordless phone operates on the channel 11 frequency and was interfering with the network. But if your previous card was ok, then it may not be the same issue... first thing to check is that your drivers for the miniPCI card are up to date, and then maybe check your antennae haven't come loose.

If those are all ok, then I don't have an answer... sorry!

Steve

amit_1

is every 1s laptop going good. I still cant belive the price we got it for.

djrobmac

calibrax wrote:

Hi djrobmac... I've missed the thread too

My connection did the same initially, but I quickly found that if I changed my router config from the default wireless channel 11 to channel 4, the problem went away. I suspect that my cordless phone operates on the channel 11 frequency and was interfering with the network. But if your previous card was ok, then it may not be the same issue... first thing to check is that your drivers for the miniPCI card are up to date, and then maybe check your antennae haven't come loose.

If those are all ok, then I don't have an answer... sorry!

Steve

Cheers for your advice matey. I did change the channel to 4 spookily enough and it still just dropped here and there and wouldnt connect. Latest drivers.

The even stranger thing is that with the antenna hanging out of the bottom of the laptop i.e free of the casing the signal would still drop real low where as the PC Card would remain solid as a rock at 54Mbps.

Possibly a faulty card or antenna but im just not sure.

Oh well, back to sticking out with my PC card then :-)

Anyone else care to share their feedback on the Mini PCI route?

scrooge_mcduck_4

Does anyone know a way of improving the dvd playback on this laptop, as mine is quite jerky and therefore pretty much unwatchable?

MyUserNamesTaken

Right, just got back from Hungary. Used the £50 voucher to buy a new wireless router/modem (the Buffalo one with the free usb adapter) and got my dodgy stick of ram swapped over. Installed the antennae this morning (one is under the left hand speaker, with the wire neatly tucked away along side the speaker wires, the other is at the front of the laptop on the right hand side). Connection seems fine right now, but haven't moved it out of the room yet and haven't set up my new router (still using my crap 11mpbs d-link router). Will install the new router in a bit and have a play. New ram seems ok, too.

MyUserNamesTaken

scrooge_mcduck wrote:

Does anyone know a way of improving the dvd playback on this laptop, as mine is quite jerky and therefore pretty much unwatchable?

scrooge, are you using the pb software that came with the laptop? I'm using powerdvd (with dvd regionfree running alongside) and playback's fine on mine.

Tojo_Ralph

I just tried the DVD player using the software supplied, and it runs fine.

I have 512MB of Ram, if that affects things.

One point though.... The sound is crap, you have to listen hard from 18 inches!!

(maybe I gotta find a setting other than the volume controls?)

MyUserNamesTaken

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

I just tried the DVD player using the software supplied, and it runs fine.

I have 512MB of Ram, if that affects things.

One point though.... The sound is crap, you have to listen hard from 18 inches!!

(maybe I gotta find a setting other than the volume controls?)

Oh, that's right! I forgot to add that I'm running on 512MBs ram, too. I got around the sound problem by using a set of spare dell speakers I had lying around. Settings won't make up for the fact that the inbuilt speakers are total pants. They are small and tiny, and no amount of B/T messing is going to make it much better.

If you want to try fiddling with the audio settings, winamp is a good way to go. The graphic equaliser gives you a bit more room to mess around.

MyUserNamesTaken

OK, how do I change the channel on the minipci card? I know how to do it on my new modem/router. (Now installed and running well). Seems the laptop's connection is a bit slow.