ria_oaks | (no subject)

(no subject)

I'm currently on Dell's website designing my ideal laptop... someone please stop me before I spend money. o.o

(incidentally, does anyone know if I can load my copy of Microsoft Office, which I bought years ago for this computer, onto a new one if I get it? Does the license prevent that? Cause I think it's absurd that I have to pay another $159 for Office just because I bought a new computer..)

(one thing holding me back from buying a new laptop, aside from money - Vista. Reeeally don't want it. But I suppose I won't be able to avoid it much longer.. *sigh*)

It comes to $788 with taxes; 120 gig harddrive, 2 gigs of ram (1 gig is $100 less, but I want the extra memory...) God help me. *resolutely closes browser and goes back to deleting files off current laptop to make it run better* Anyone have any more suggestions for making this poor old (which is absurd, it's only 2.5 years old) thing run faster? Maybe I should defrag again... I'm seriously considering just backing up my files and wiping the bloody thing. Wonder how much that would help. And I wonder how much it would cost to buy a new harddrive, say $120-160 gigs, and another gig of ram? (mine's only 500 megs). I suppose it wouldn't be worth the cost; should just buy a new one, but...

This on top of the TiVo I want to buy... yeah. -___- I promised myself that I wouldn't spend anymore money after Christmas. *le sigh*

And shit, I just remembered that the deadline for opting out of UBC's medical is I think Monday, and I don't have my proof of insurance from work yet... need either a copy of my employee benefits card (which I haven't received) or a letter from my employer (which I totally meant to write for my manager yesterday so she could sign it, then.. I forgot.) I suppose I can do it tomorrow then either mail it to UBC and hope they accept it if it arrives after Monday, or trek out there Monday to give it to them. It's $130, and I don't really need it because my health coverage at work is pretty decent.

Okay, I've gotta run now. Class in an hour and a half. Going to Futureshop on the way with Dad to look at TiVos. XD XD

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as long as you have a key and the version is compatible with the operating system, you can use your current version of office.

did you pick a pretty one? I know they come in colours now.

Vista is lame and has a learning curve, but eventually you get over it. Vista's solitaire has infinite undos. You must be able to appreciate that.

Thanks, that's good to know..

I like the blue one, but also like the 'blossom' one (purple with a subtle flowery pattern). I dunno, if I actually decide to buy one then I'll see. :)

Lol, sounds like a good way to cheat at Solitaire. XD Yeah, I'm sure I'd get used to it, it just kinda annoys me...

Anyway, for now I've cleaned up my harddrive a bit and now have 5 gigs free (woo hoo... -_-), and I'm thinking seriously about wiping it clean. And maaybe looking into buying another harddrive/more RAM, but it may not be worth putting that stuff on an old computer. I'm tempted to take it somewhere and get some professional advice.

I think you should buy an external dvd-burner (they can be as cheap as $100), back up the files you want, wipe it clean, and start fresh. You'll notice a MAJOR difference, and you'll have your important shit backed up for as long as you keep the dvds

Support for XP has been extended to 2012, so you have plenty of time. Also if you go with Vista, I'd strongly suggest more RAM, at least 3 gb of DDR2 (or whatever is the newest type). What CPU/processor did you pick out? Vista is a pretty heavy operating system, so with all of your programs open and running on top of Vista, you might notice some sluggishness if your specs aren't up to it.

If you decide to completely format your current hard drive and you need an external DVD-burner, you can borrow mine. Although it's probably just easier to transfer everything to an external hard drive.

As for how expensive upgrading would be, check out ncix.com for prices; I'm not sure how laptop hardware goes.

Re: the processor, the truth is I dont' know one from the other... I usually just look at RAM and harddrive. I was lookin at this one - http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspnnb_1525?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs
The $599 one. Cuz I'm cheap. :) Anyways, I dont' really plan to buy one now... I was tempted, but ultimately I'm just going to stick with some upgrading for now. Or just wiping the harddrive. Maybe come graduation I'll buy one as a present to myself for making it through the last five years, lol. ^^;

Looking at those Dells, they seem to come automatically with Vista - I don't think it's possible to get XP instead. Dammit. -_- If that's possible, then I'll be more inclined. I'm staying away from Vista as long as I can get away with it...

Thanks, but I'm just going to throw stuff onto my external harddrive. Mostly it's just my 15+ gigs of music that is taking up the space - other than that it's just some pictures (about 5 gigs, admittedly), and some Word files and shit. Then it's a matter of getting the programs I need again.. will need to figure out what my liscence numbers for Office/Norton/OpenCanvas/etc are so I can reinstall them.

Dell's website has 2 gigs of RAM for the Inspiron 6000 for only $89. It's two separate sticks of 1 gig, so I assume that, since my laptop has 2 slots, I'd take out the 512 meg one and put in the 2 one gig ones. I might call them to clear everything up and make sure I'm doing it all right. I'd love a bigger harddrive, too, but if I seriously decide to buy a new laptop within the next 6 or so monthes then I don't want to waste too much money on this one. Mostly I just want it to move smoother/faster... how would you recommend going about wiping my harddrive? Can I do it easily, or should I take it to Futureshop or wherever? I want it completely wiped clean, Windows XP reinstalled, then put all my programs back on it. I'm sick of this thing being so sluggish and movies skipping all the time and shit.

Formatting is really easy. One way to do it is to just insert your XP CD and reboot your computer; the CD will boot and you'll be presented with a series of options. It's pretty straight-forward, just be sure to select the Full Format (or whatever) option. I'll talk to a friend (who has actually formatted before) when he gets home for more detailed instructions. I'm sure Futureshop will also do it for you, or someone who knows what he's doing (Ryan's Dad?).

Also, be sure to have your Windows XP install CD and any other CDs that came with your computers which contain hardware drivers and such.

If you don't want to go with Microsoft Office, I recommend Open Office, which is a free suite of programs which pretty much do anything Microsoft Office programs can. It's what I personally use.

I also wouldn't go with Norton, personally. It's so bloated. When I get a new computer, I'll go with something else; I'm just not sure what's good these days. :\

As far as hard drives go, remember that Vista takes (at least) 40 GB of space. So be sure to accomodate that - I don't think a 120 GB drive would cut it, since you'd only have 80 GB to work with; really, less once you get everything onto it.

I went through the little building wizard and came out with this for $1059, from the $599 starting one. The software and everything probably jacks up the price. The graphics card also doesn't impress me, but they didn't offer any option to change that.

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache) English
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Edition
SYSTEM COLOUR Jet Black
LCD DISPLAY Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
INTEGRATED WEBCAM NO WEBCAM OPTION
MEMORY 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
GRAPHICS CARD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
OPTICAL DRIVE CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)

Hmm, okay, good to know it's so easy. Thanks for the advice. :)

40 gigs? o.o Holy crap...

Still think I'll just stick with upgrading for now. Might get a new computer eventually... so for now i'm researching RAM and harddrives.

Sorry, 20. I was looking at the wrong column.

[20:30:02] > What choice does it offer?
[20:30:20] > Wait..
[20:30:37] me> No idea. My friend wants to do a full format and I'm just trying to get some more details
[20:30:39] > Switch it in the BIOS to boot from CD primary rather than Hard Disk
[20:31:00] > It shouldn't offer any choice.. it should just act like it wants to do the install
[20:31:07] me> Yeah
[20:31:27] me> and there you can select which partition you want to format and so on?
[20:31:27] > Then have it format for NTFS, full disk space no fucking with partitions
[20:31:38] > Aye
[20:31:48] me> Don't like partitions now? :p
[20:32:11] > I dont' have a problem with them, but explaining how to do it to someone else is bad lol
[20:32:17] me> Lol
[20:32:36] me> don't manufacturers set the cd to primary now?
[20:32:49] > Perhaps
[20:33:00] me> I remember when I couldn't load windows and had to fuck with boot disks I didn't have to change anything in the bios
[20:33:14] > Previous versions of Windows wouldn't allow CDs to be bootable
[20:33:43] > and some old bioses (is this even a word) may have issues with it
[20:33:57] me> That's a good question.. What is the plural of bios?
[20:34:07] > No clue lol
[20:34:48] > Things are easier when you can do the install directly from CD, because the XP CD is bootable
[20:35:12] > But if you're going from an old bios or something you need like 8 floppy disks to do ti
[20:35:36] me> Is it still possible to do it the cool way? format c:\?
[20:35:48] > fdisk worked in windows 98
[20:35:53] > I never bothered with xp
[20:37:03] me> After it finishes formatting does it automatically begin installing xp?
[20:37:12] > Yeah
[20:37:33] > I once had an issue because my keyboard was USB when reformatting lol
[20:37:35] me> Is that something you have to instruct it to do beforehand?
[20:37:38] me> lol yeah
[20:37:48] > That was a pain in the ass
[20:38:06] > No, it'll do it automatically
[20:38:33] > It'll ask to you reformat, it won't do it automatically.. it can install over the existing install
[20:38:51] > Or reformat and do it fresh which it says is recomended

Short form: Stick the CD in, reboot, follow the on-screen instructions for a NTSF full format. Deal with partitions if you like.

The next conversation is about how coated Advil tastes so good. That's irrelevant.

Okie dokie. I also read somewhere that my computer should have come with a system restoration CD or something that just does it all for me, so I'll see if I can find that.. otherwise I'll go dig up my XP CD. it's all at the other house, anyway, so I can't do much now except prepare by backing stuff up and shit.

Yeah, when it comes to Dell I think they're one and the same. Mine says "Windows XP Reinstallation Disc." It's plain, brown, and boring. Be sure to dig up the discs with all the drivers too.

Ahh, okay.

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