I used to be a PC World salesman and am typing this on one of their laptops.
At the moment they have a great deal - 15" screen, Celeron 2.0 GHz, 15" screen, 1 year warranty (upgradeable to 3/5 years including accidental damage, theft insurance for the first year, all parts and labour), 40 GB hard disk, 256 MB RAM, Word & WorksSuite, XP Home, for £899 including VAT. It has TV Out but only one headphone socket - I don't actually know of any with two sockets but maybe there are adaptors available. You would need to get a USB-serial (RS232) adaptor though - check to make sure that it's compatible.
The only downside is that it will be a desktop processor (so might not be that reliable) and will definitely go through batteries very quickly, although they are rechargeable. Therefore it's probably not ideal for in car use on long journeys - although, to be honest, not much is.
As for being something designed for off road use - I'm afraid that's too specialised for most people. Possibly the only option there would be to get a tablet PC, although they definitely won't have RS232 serial. However, it doesn't matter if the screen slams shut because they are all screen most of the time.
My advice to you would be to get a proper in car DVD player, which is only going to cost a few hundred quid, plus a standard laptop or tablet PC, and maybe a better navigation unit as well, such as an iPaq. I realise that it's going to come to the wrong side of £2k but I honestly can't think of anything that has the battery life and ruggedness you would need, and if it did, it would probably cost as much as three separate solutions.
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I used to be a PC World salesman
Blimey DavidHM, I never in a million years would ever expect anyone to admit to that! :o)
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Actually the words 'PC World' and 'salesman' are not are not good partners, in my recent experience.
We went to PC World a couple of weeks ago to get a PS2 (not a bad sale, for any salesperson in that area, I would have thought) - none in sight, so we asked a salesman. Answer, 'oh yeah we keep 'em upstairs (fair enough), you'll have to ask him over there'. Asked 'him over there'. Answer 'Oh yeah, we keep 'em upstairs but I don't have the keys - you'll have to ask her over there'. Finally located 'her over there', and after standing there like idiots whilst she finished off what she was doing, asked the question. Answer, 'oh yeah but they're upstairs etc etc etc'. If it had been up to me, I'd have walked out then, actually long before then. But it was the kids' money so I stayed the full course. And FINALLY got what we were after. But was left with the feeling that, although we were spending £170 in their store, and more once they'd bought games as well, the shop still felt like it was doing us a favour by actually lowering itself to serve us.
HF
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Quiet here tonight - are you all Scottish?
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Of course, if you'd gone in just wanting to browse you'd have been fighting the salesmen off with a stick...
I've vowed never to visit a PC World again after I was gripped by their security guard and quite pointedly told that I wasn't allowed to bring my bag in and would either have to get out or leave it behind the counter. When I did go to leave it, I was left standing for 5 minutes before anyone could be bothered to come and deal with it. What makes it worse is that there were no notices or anything saying bags weren't allowed and as this was before I got the car I had no option but to bring it in...
To answer some of the other points, you can quite cheaply buy a headphone splitter, either an adaptor or a cable so putting two pairs of headphones on will be no trouble. Most PC DVD replay is software based, and you can get a program called DVD Genie which will allow you to change the region setting to play all discs.
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Hi DavidHM, thanks for your reply.
As regards battery life: can't these things run off a 12v DC power supply?
CMark
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Sorry if this is a long post, but...
With regard to PC World - go in there expecting them to be bad, and looking for a confrontation, and you will get one. Be polite, listen (they'll always do you a better deal if they have one, and you ask about it), do your research, and you'll have a much less stressful experience.
It's the same with car dealers; acknowledge that they have a margin to work to, that they have limited freedom to do a deal, and that if they can't do what you want it's nothing personal. You can always walk away. There are many people who expect everything apart from the PC (service, accesssories etc) to be free, and others who expect sales people to know every detail about a machine off the top of their heads, even when it's only been on display half an hour. These customers can't be won over, unfortunately.
The warranty is the big source of profit for them, but... a lot of the profit does come from the fact that they get labour cheaper than you do. If you go for a store deal (the one I suggested is web only) you might be able to get up to half the value of the warranty for free (if you include warranty in the freebies).
Say, for example, you want a laptop for £1199. The 5 year warranty on that is an extra £419. That should leave you with about £200 to play with, e.g., an all in one printer for £149 and a £65 warranty on that for 5 years. Of course, that's a bit pointless if you tend to replace your machine after 2 years.
The other thing is that sales people in PC World are very badly paid - £18k per year, even for a full timer with London weighting, is about the maximum. £13k is possible in the provinces. People expect a lot of knowledge for that money. Most are therefore only doing it on a temporary basis, to keep money coming in, or as a second job. They can also be very short staffed on a Saturday and, if there's a rush, you're going to queue. Sorry.
To answer HF's point - from selling a PS2 for £170, the salesperson will get nothing. Also, security is very tight and only a management person can carry the keys - except when they unofficially hand them to someone else. The sales person you spoke to has no way of getting the product, even if they want to. A lot of the time, a sales person will be running around getting stock for another customer and they will be at least as annoyed if someone else takes their place.
Steve - There are notices about the bag policy (at least there were in my store) but you shouldn't have been manhandled. Unfortunately, when they suspended the bag policy (after it annoyed a director) shoplifting went up by about 30% in some stores. Sales stayed the same.
Maybe I'm biased but I would use the store again, maybe because I know how to get the most out of them. I always compare prices online first though, but sometimes a ten minute journey across the river is easier than waiting for something to be delivered.
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The odd thing is, even considering the small margins PC World work on, you can still buy the stuff considerably cheaper from an independent...
It's probably 3 years since the incident I related, but I definitely remember looking on my way out and seeing there were no 'no bags' signs, and I recall checking a few weeks later when I was passing and still no signs, despite me complaining to their head office. (A complaint which seemingly got filed in the round cabinet...) I understand the need for the policy, but I'd rather have been informed of it before I was practically accused of being a shoplifter...
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I have a wacky conundrum.
I have 2 CD drives, one being read only, the other a CD writer.
My 40 Gb hard drive is partitioned into two (Windows 98 and Windows XP), because I have an HP flat-bed scanner with no workable XP driver.
For some reason the two CD drives have 'disappeared' as far as W98 is concerned, although are 'present' and fully operational under XP.
Maybe I should re-install W98 - but how, if the W98 CD won't be found when put in the drive?
Alternatively, maybe I should re-start W98 with the CD drives electrically detached so that W98 can 'find' them again?
Anyone dealt with this kind of problem?
Oz (as was)
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Easy and good practice anyway. Simply copy the contents of the Win98 CD to your hard drive under XP. You only need the setup files and the Win98 directory. You can even get rid of some of the CAB file. Having it on the HD makes it easier if you need the CD later on to install any drivers etc - you just point it at the HD copy.
As for finding them, an easy way is to restart in safe mode and see if there are any obvious problems in the Control Panel / System list. Typically you'll find it's either found them twice or found something else multiple times which is confusing it.
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Right, I've mentioned this problem to a chap at work who knows a lot more than I do about the workings of Windows, and his response was worrying to say the least...
Apparently Windows XP actually reprograms your CD drives and this makes them incompatible with any other operating system, including earlier versions of Windows. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be horrified at the prospect of Microsoft messing with my hardward and rendering it useless with anything but their OS.
So, it appears the answer is that there is no way to get your drives back under 98, and even buying a new drive will not work as XP will automatically modify that as well....
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Echh!
Steve, Thanks for your efforts. Although I had thought that a partitioned drive would behave as if it were two different entities? in my case C and D.
This means I really need to use a software such as Partition Magic to remove the Windows 98 partition. Or use a separate PC for W98 and the scanner!
I probably won't be able to run my HP 3200C scanner under XP, because despite what HP say, I have never been able to get their latest offering as a driver for this combination (web site download) to work. I'll re-check.
Oz (as was)
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It doesn't matter - Windows XP has actually altered the software in your CD drives so (if this information is true) they will never work on a non-XP system again.
Is there any reason you couldn't keep a small 98 partition for scanning and do your normal work under XP? Do you actually need the CD when scanning?
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Steve,
Are you sure this is true? I wasn't even aware a CD drive contained software, I assumed it was strictly a piece of hardware controlled by the software on the PC. If your workmate really is a computer expert I wouldn't argue with him, but it does sound a bit far fetched.
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Not at all, Tom, the only thing that I find a bit unbelievable about it is that they went to the trouble of writing new firmware for all the available devices on the market - at least I assume this how they would have had to work it - I don't know if CDs have a 'standard' part of firmware that can be altered in a standard way, or if they would have to get the code off every drive manufacturer and alter it...
You'll find that an awful lot of devices contain software these days. With the rising complexity of systems and the high cost of implementing ASICs, it is easier for many circuits to use a microcontroller (in effect a basic computer) to operate the device. As Flash memory is now fairly cheap it has also become common to have a facility to update the software these microcontrollers run as an alternative to having to replace a ROM chip if an upgrade or bug fix is required.
I've been told there is more information about this out there on the net so I'll try and find it, for my own piece of mind as well as for your information!
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There's NO WAY XP has altered anything in the drives to make them unusable with other operating systems. NO WAY!
CD drives contain firmware, which is often on an erasable piece of hardware within the device (an EPROM). It's called firmware because it's not just hardware and it's not just software (in layman's terms!). The firmware controls the device itself, and the interface to it.
Firmware can often be replaced in a device by a software program. For instance, DVD drives can often have their regional protection removed by replacing the firmware. Firmware causes the device to broadcast it's manufacturing information so that programs like Windows Anything can identify it when required.
Depending on the device, Windows will then assign a Driver to operate that device. There are many many drivers for all kinds of device in Windows, and each release of Windows gets better at recognising devices and providing "native" support to some degree (i.e. not having to load manufacturers driver from CD). However sometimes Windows has to assign a generic device driver which will give basic operation of the device, but not necessarily support all the features available.
(For instance, I have a HP OfficeJet 1170C which I use on a network. When I configure it for "other" computers I had to configure it as a different model, a 550C. It still prints fine but the Options panel in the print dialogue is that for 550C. Hence some capability is missing.)
Microsoft would be taking huge risks if it rewrote firmware. It is ALWAYS a risky operation, as if it goes wrong it will often render the device completely inoperable. So, one more time, there is NO WAY that the operating system has altered any software within the device.
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I agree that it is certainly unlikely, but it is certainly technically possible. You could do something as simple as read in the firmware, search for the ID string and alter it so that the drive will still be recognised by XP but not by anything else.
What I am wondering is why? The only thing I can think is to stop people returning to an older version of the OS or to something like Linux.
The person who gave me this gen is usually reliable, but I can't find anything about it myself, so I agree we should regard it wish suspicion...
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If this is the case the M$ should be sued for damages as I don't see how they should be allowed to alter firmware without express permission and without damaging other os installations. Trouble is they have now had it written in all their licence agreements that they can install what ever they choose on your pc without you even knowing about it. That's why I use linux :-)
teabelly
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Oz.
At computer start up do whatever key combination you have to do to get into the system settings, and check that both the drives are visible there. (They should be, if they are working OK in XP).
Did you re-install Windows 98 at some stage? How did you get XP and Windows 98 partitions? How do you tell the system which one to boot from?
In 98 you could try going to Control panel and use the Add New Hardware selection which will cause it to re-scan which may then find the drives. Steve is also correct, you could copy the Win98 CD onto your hard drive (under XP) but that doesn't solve the problem of having no CD drives in Win98.
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On a related issue, I installed a new CD-RW on a mates pc at the weekend. I slaved it on the same IDE as the CD-reader and set the jumpers correctly. He's running W98 with a PIII 733 / 128mb. (Yeah, I know, next job is to give him a memory upgrade.)
The drive has been recognised correctly as a slave drive by the OS and will happily read disks. It point-blank refuses to recognise any blank CD-R that is placed in it (please insert disk message) and has only recognised 1 in 3 blank CD-RW. It refuses to write even on this one disk. I installed the Nero 5 software that came with it and have never had a problem with this software on my pc (2xPIII 500 AGP 512mb)using XP.
Am I looking at a faulty CD-RW, a software conflict or am I missing something here?
No Dosh - no clue either right now.
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Steve and David, I guess you both have valid replies to my post -thank you.
The bag issue, Steve, sounds crazy to me!!
But David, we went in most courteously, I wouldn't dream of acting otherwise anywhere.
We were not treated courteously, we were made to feel that our business didn't matter - which maybe it doesn't to such a big company - and I'd certainly go elsewhere in future, given the choice.
HF
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HF - I agree that you were treated badly. Unfortunately, the way the company is structured means that it probably wasn't the individual sales person's fault. The company doesn't particularly mind as games, though the margin is massive, don't make up a huge portion of their business. In the end, you get the feeling that, perhaps because of the money they pay, they don't attract people who are there for their careers, and therefore they don't generally have the chance to earn the company's trust.
As for margin: on big ticket items, they are fairly tight, but the £13.99 printer cable they sell you can be had for 70p online, plus a little bit of postage of course.
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Understand what you mean, David, I kow sales staff are often treated pretty badly, which is why I always love it when one comes across as helpful and caring and actually wanting to serve you! Rare, but it's wonderful when you find one!
I don't blame the individuals, just the company, and I take all your points on board.
As for profit margins - really???!!! Must browse online more.....
HF
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Probably a very basic question. I bought a no-name laptop about 4 years ago and eventually the battery failed to hold a charge. I didn't use it as a portable, but kept it permanently plugged in on my desk. The chap I asked to look at it said that keeping it plugged in wrecked the battery.
I decided to replace the machine with a new Toshiba Satellite a couple of months ago. I was told by our IT guy at work that keeping it plugged in wasn't a problem. After all the laptops at work are plugged into the docking stations all the time.
There's nothing in the manual either way. Question is do modern batteries suffer or not? Dhiuld I only plug it in when the battery runs down or is it OK to leave it plugged in all the time?
Thanks in advance
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Alfafan,
I suspect the battery on your previous laptop was a Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cad) type. These were prone to whats called "Momory Effect" if they weren't discharged fully before recharging. The batteries on the market now, Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) and Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) don't suffer the "memeory effect" and also have a higher capacity than the old Ni-Cad batteries.
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The batteries on the market now, Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) >> and Lithium Ion (Li-Ion)...
To finish my sentence, and can be charged at any given point, without having to fully discharge them first. However, mob phone manuals suggest not leaving them on constantly on charge for more than a few days at a time. Not sure about laptops.
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Memory might be one problem, another might be the charge algorithm. It can be difficult to detect when to go in to float charge mode and what voltage is safe to use. Some chargers go OTT and effectively bake the battery which harms it's life. Newer ones should be OK though. Do you realise BTW you can get replacement laptop batteries fairly cheaply?
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And lets be honest, a \"Momory\" effect is bad enough, but if it degenerates into a \"memeory\" effect, then anything could happen.
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at least it wasn't a "mammary" effect!
CMark
(now, what was I doing?...)
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a \"Momory\" effect is bad enough....
lol, did I really type that? It's not as if the "e" and the "o" are next to one another on the keyboard either.
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Another possibility that strikes me is that if you ran it on a mains adaptor for four years and never used the batteries, these would slowly lose charge and deteriorate.
Brian
Still learning (I hope)
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