Guest brwneydtrouble Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 I have a laptop, a Dell Inspiron 3800 that i've had for about 5 years. Its been good, but never upgraded since I got it, matter of fact im still running Windows ME. I'm having a few problems and want some advice as to whether I should give up on it and get a new machine, or maybe its not quite so bad....Problems:1) Keyboard is almost dead.2) Battery died, I had to take it out and its permanently on the cord.3) Hard drive making noises, I think its on its last leg. Only 10 gig.4) Needs to be reformatted and upgraded to XP.5) Memory maxed out at 256 mb.OH and somehow, the number lock is on, and I dont know hot to turn it off....every time I use the I, O, P, [, J, K, L, etc. keys, its numbers unless I hold down the FN (Function) key. And I don't know how to turn it off!! VERY annoying.So what are your expert opinions? I'm almost here: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 With all that "battle damage", it's probably best to consider it on it's last legs...stuck keys, shorts, and a flaky HD, it's almost dead..Any repairs would probably exceed the total value...if it was a desktop, I could easiy swap things out, but laptops are a different deal.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laliux Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Originally posted by brwneydtrouble I have a laptop, a Dell Inspiron 3800 that i've had for about 5 years. Its been good, but never upgraded since I got it, matter of fact im still running Windows ME. I'm having a few problems and want some advice as to whether I should give up on it and get a new machine, or maybe its not quite so bad....Problems:1) Keyboard is almost dead.2) Battery died, I had to take it out and its permanently on the cord.3) Hard drive making noises, I think its on its last leg. Only 10 gig.4) Needs to be reformatted and upgraded to XP.5) Memory maxed out at 256 mb.OH and somehow, the number lock is on, and I dont know hot to turn it off....every time I use the I, O, P, [, J, K, L, etc. keys, its numbers unless I hold down the FN (Function) key. And I don't know how to turn it off!! VERY annoying.So what are your expert opinions? I'm almost here: Save your data, format the hard drive, install Windows 2000 (it's an old machine so Win 2000 is a better fit)...and to get the NumLock off , press the key NumLk..maybe you need to press Shift and Scroll Lock..that's the way it is on my IBM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 That may solve the keyboard issue...but the HD making unusual noises is a bad sign in general...the unit's days are probably numbered... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest brwneydtrouble Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Originally posted by pod That may solve the keyboard issue...but the HD making unusual noises is a bad sign in general...the unit's days are probably numbered... Ok. I fixed the number lock problem, thanks Laliux. The keyboard still gives me problems. I think its the contacts underneath. I forgot to mention that I have no screws holding it together either. Had to take it apart because someone spilled soda in it. That was like a year ago and it still works. I dont want to scrap it just yet cause I paid like $2200 for it, its a P3 600 and I dont really do much on it that I have to have some kind of multimedia super computer. I dont even download music.I was just searching the Dell website and its impossible to find parts for it. I guess a list of stuff I would need:1) A set of screws2) Keyboard3) Battery4) Hard driveI'm sure I can probably get someone to save everything and reformat/set up the machine when I get the new parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shroomy Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 PM or call me tomorrow, we have a ton of dell laptops at work.and they are known for having keyboard problemsI may be able to swap out the keyboard and HD if we have the same model under warenty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest brwneydtrouble Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Originally posted by shroomy PM or call me tomorrow, we have a ton of dell laptops at work.and they are known for having keyboard problemsI may be able to swap out the keyboard and HD if we have the same model under warenty You are the MAN Shrooms. I adore you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obby Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Originally posted by brwneydtrouble I forgot to mention that I have no screws holding it together either. Had to take it apart because someone spilled soda in it. In that case press F-4 and throw it the fuck away.Jackie, it would be best if you invest in a new Dell PC which are very reliable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonyquest Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Apple ibookG3... under 1000 bucks.. way better than any crappy dell.. dells are for suckers that dont know crap about computers.. dell is the dodge neon or the honda civic of cars... cheap and crappy.... MAC:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 But who the hell wants a laptop that looks like a bloody makeup case? Nevermind the fact that the processor inside might as well be a dorito. The best laptops for your money are the IBM Thinkpads www.thinkpad.com .... there's a configurator there so you can build your own...you can get a basic R series with a Mobile Celeron processor for about a grand...they are available in your choice of colors, too, as long as it's black. Plus, you're not supporting some degenerate in Cupertino, either.Dell notebooks are ok at best, but the best notebooks out there are Thinkpads, Sony VAIOs, and if you've got the cash, Panasonic Toughbooks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonyquest Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Originally posted by pod But who the hell wants a laptop that looks like a bloody makeup case? Nevermind the fact that the processor inside might as well be a dorito. The best laptops for your money are the IBM Thinkpads www.thinkpad.com .... there's a configurator there so you can build your own...you can get a basic R series with a Mobile Celeron processor for about a grand...they are available in your choice of colors, too, as long as it's black. Plus, you're not supporting some degenerate in Cupertino, either.Dell notebooks are ok at best, but the best notebooks out there are Thinkpads, Sony VAIOs, and if you've got the cash, Panasonic Toughbooks... Powerbook G4... 1g speed..2g of memory.. inch thick... aluminum plated... 4.4lbs... keyboard lights up automatically if lights go out..... and you get 2 OS's 9 and ten....... no thinkpad can compete with that bro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonyquest Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Originally posted by pod But who the hell wants a laptop that looks like a bloody makeup case? Nevermind the fact that the processor inside might as well be a dorito. The best laptops for your money are the IBM Thinkpads www.thinkpad.com .... there's a configurator there so you can build your own...you can get a basic R series with a Mobile Celeron processor for about a grand...they are available in your choice of colors, too, as long as it's black. Plus, you're not supporting some degenerate in Cupertino, either.Dell notebooks are ok at best, but the best notebooks out there are Thinkpads, Sony VAIOs, and if you've got the cash, Panasonic Toughbooks... celreron??? Power Mac g5 has 2 2.5g processors.. thats 5 gs of speed.. and up to 8g of memory... front bus is 1g per processor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
attomic Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Thinkpads are work horses. I have had just about every brand for my work and I like thinkpads the best. Running a loaded A31 now.... No fluff, no stupid features just all the the goodies and reliability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 Funk, we're talking laptops here...of course a G5 will make short work of my Thinkpads! I was merely saying the iBooks and TiBooks are overstyled pieces of junk compared to the Thinkpads and Toughbooks. You get an i or TiBook to go with you Vuitton luggage, you get real work done on a Thinkpad or a Toughbook...for general purpose computing, the US military uses both in the field...an Apple laptop would shit the bed the minute it got off the C-130 on the ramp at Bahrain. As for the G5's supposed superiority...check the latest real benchmarks...the G5 is beaten in several key categories by the new Athlon64 FX-51, and even the lowly Pentium 4. Athlon 64 has an FSB of 2 GHz, plus an on-chip RAM controller...not present in the G5 architecture...and as I love to point out, the vaunted G5 chip is made by no less than IBM, and is really a PPC 970 chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laliux Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 my Thinkpad T23 works like a charm. and Pod, Funk is not Jonyquest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 29 Report Share Posted December 29 My mistake! Well, glad to see you're a thinkpad user Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaughanz Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 Where do I start???APPLE RULES!!! LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 We'll have it out when I come and visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgeacasta2 Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 Originally posted by pod Athlon 64 has an FSB of 2 GHzi really wouldn't call that front side bus, atleast not in the traditional sense. that's core speed. fsb is for northbridge setups.it's all theorectical bandwidth anyway. There's alot of overheard: timing issues, controllers, signal frequency changes, error correction blah blah blah that mean alot more then that overhyped marketing jargon. PC3200 is actually ddr 400 which is actually fsb 200. blah blah blah. The whole hardware scene has gotten ridiculous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 No, the FSB is clocked at 2 GHz on an Athlon 64...i.e. i didn't make a typo. Now for real FSB, I'm not sure what it is, but I'm sure the G5 suffers from the same overhead issues...but AMD has historically had fast FSB speeds...It's like network speeds...there's a lot of overhead inherent in TCP/IP, so your real speeds are about 70 percent of your reported speeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexusgroove Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 show it sum tities............ and maybe some ass.. and it will be alright......umm, upgrade to 2k would be a good move, but I agree with some other post.....BITCHA GET UR SELF A NEW LAPTOP>.. HINT HINT....about the keys and #'s//are they purple or blue....look for a key labled.... ScrLK under that u should see the NumLK..now what u got to do it hold down shift, and the NumLKand that should resolve the issue..if not comeover to my casa and we could work someting out... j/k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexusgroove Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 fock Appel, Windows, and Os2...LINX AND UNIX is teh shit!it's free ware and has drivers for almost anything.HOTBOX BABY,ls - la Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgeacasta2 Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 Originally posted by pod No, the FSB is clocked at 2 GHz on an Athlon 64...i.e. i didn't make a typo. well, then your wrong! 2 Ghz is core speed. read AMD's site. there is no mention of a frontside bus in the CPU specs for the athlon64. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pod Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 Going on an article in Maximum PC...they weren't specific enough...however, the AMD site is specfic.The Northbridge is 2 GHz (core speed)The system bus (Hypertransport) is up to 1.6 GHz, which is still 600 MHz faster than the bus on the latest Apples...Those are for the Athlon 64 FX.Bottom line, the Athlon 64 line, especially the FX and Opteron variants, are the best personal computing processors out today.The persistent rumour always has Apple looking at AMD, even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaughanz Posted December 30 Report Share Posted December 30 Originally posted by pod Going on an article in Maximum PC... That would be like giving a review of what music is better, House or Trance... and using Trance World Weekly to quote from!!! Not exactly the unbiased report we're looking for Let's keep this one going! You guys are fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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