Woohoo new laptop.

And it works nice. First time I've owned a laptop with a proper number pad.

Reply to
Elder
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Now all you've got to do is wipe off and disable all the pre-installed shit they usually come with.

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Reply to
Conor

My father-in-law bought one of these earlier today:

I've just spent a while copying his stuff over from the old laptop, seting up the wireless printer etc. etc.

It's huge. Nice laptop, but too big for me. He wants a desktop replacement as it's used on the dining table, so he can put it away when the family come round. It's got an 18.4" screen! I prefer something smaller myself, and just dock it when it's at my desk.

Reply to
Abo

Is the D420 the small one with HSDPA data card? - 'cos that's what we're getting, on a Vodafone data tariff.

Reply to
SteveH

snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

The D4xx series are the older lightweight mini-lappies (rather than the "Mini 12" which is the bigger netbook). They've been superceded by the E series now - I've not had a prod at one of the Es, but we've got a couple of D430s, which are gorgeous.

Yeh, they can be had with built-in data cards.

Reply to
Adrian

Yes, only mine didn't come with the integrated HSDPA card :( I was given it because my D620(?) melted down and the D420 was going spare after someone left the company. Only they were working on a MOD contract; they don't allow wireless, so the thing had no HSDPA card, no bluetooth and no wifi. Luckily I nabbed the wifi and bluetooth cards from the broken machine before it went back so I slotted them in, but no WWAN.

I'm not too bothered; I use an O2 H160 mobile dongle on the rare occasions I need mobile broadband, but it'd have been nice to not have the stupid dongle there. It's on my own PAYG; since it's only once in a blue moon I use it I just pay the £2 for a day's access (500MB) which works for me. Most of the time I'm at home, or on a customer site with our own network available.

You'll like the D420; it's very light and luggable, something I learned to appreciate when I was all over the country in my last job. Processor isn't fast compared to bigger laptops but if you're doing typical work stuff on it'll not bother you, and it's less of a drain on the battery I guess.

Reply to
Abo

I may have spoken too soon. It was hibernated last night but when I came down this morning the fan was running and the AC light on.

So I tried to start it up and got a black screen of nothing. No boot, so safemode menu, no bios/splash screen, nothing. Tried taking out both battery and AC and leaving 30 seconds.

Power button lights up for about 5 minutes when switched on then goes out like it is going into power saving and the backlight flickers for

2 seconds when you first start it. On AC power light stays on, battery light comes on for 5 minutes, fan runs while plugged in. Off AC no power light, battery light comes on for 5 minutes.

All I did was change the power button function from power off to hibernate in Windows, and removed the office trial, McAfee and some bobbins, and installed Avast, Open Office, Firefox, flash/acrobat etc updates and windows updates.

Going to try an external monitor to see if anything displays there. Then it goes back. For the record it is an Acer 5735z, and while there seem to be a lot of good reviews of Acers, among owners the one fault seem to be regular and random black screens of nothing, sometimes requiring replacement of the laptop, and not always involving hibernate or sleep.

Bum flaps.

Reply to
carl.robson

This Apple laptop is working well. And it's shiny, shiny...

Reply to
Steve Firth

I bet it cost a bit more than the acer though. And the acer is shiny black too.

Reply to
carl.robson

And it's lasted a bit longer than the Acer. Indeed when I turned it on

24 hours after buying it, it was still working. It's still working three years after buying it.

For a few seconds until it gets scratched like all the other "piano black + scratches" Acers out there.

Reply to
Steve Firth

If it has hard drive protection it may have entered protect during or just before the hibernate - turn it on, hit it firmly...

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

Toshiba Tecra. If you rely on the damned thing buy something robust, well thought out and reliable.

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

I've been told there is a sacrificial solution but it requires a chicken and the full moon.

Reply to
carl.robson

Nah. Lenovo thinkpad.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

I find hibernation is a total pain in the arse on just about every machine I come into contact with. The amount of "issues" it creates - not redetecting hardware . Voda 3G cards for example, had 2 today. Both laptops reporting no card installed. They'd both been hibernated. Take card out, do a full reboot, put card in, problem solved. For us techies it's easy enough to understand, but to a non-technical user on the phone miles away, it's a utter pain.

Reply to
Mike P

Working now, see new post. Has a weird "feature" where is won't start on mains but will on battery.

Reply to
Elder

Not as robust and reliable as they used to be, though.

A bit like comparing a Golf MkII with a Golf MkV.

Reply to
SteveH

'Unibody aluminium' is the one true way to make a laptop....

Reply to
SteveH

Wasn't there some very fancy magnesium ones arround for a while?

Reply to
Elder

Titanium.

Reply to
SteveH

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