Hi, Windows XP definitely uses up more memory than other Windows OS. There are a lot of tweaks that can improve the performance of XP. For example: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,5728,00.asp http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html Have fun.
documentation is online, and is represented by some icons on your desktop. call the vendor to see how they represented the online documentation, or just press help from a blank screen (right click), or from the Start button
well said, however I would never recommed a downward regression of the op sys to the heinous WinME/98/95. HT does require proper compilation to take advantage of. AMD's Athlon's have delivered on the Intel promisses, instead of the usuall Intel: "wait until the 4th release of the new processors for the promised improvements". Glad to see others swearing by the AMD layouts. Good to hear about your successes with XP Pro (notice not XP Home).
Well I called Toshiba for the 5th or so time in the past 4 days. The guy I spoke with today suggested re-formatting the whole hard drive. Since I had very little in the way of files to lose on this machine, I gave it a shot. I emailed a few files to my son so I could get them back (forgot my Outlook address book) Seems to be running very well now. Can't understand how a brand new machine should need to be re-formatted, but that seemed to be the problem. Thanks for all the input. If I run into more problems, I will contact all you computer geeks again Peace, rs7
just got my hands on a Celeron (P4) equivalent series. Performance on opening and managing swaping between 4 applications (AOL, MS Word, Internet Explorer, File Explorer) was horrid. The differences between a full fledged Pentium and the half fledged Celerons was glaringly evident. Even though the desingers know of these differences, and de-emphasize the significant nature of these simplified processors, one needs to be aware of this. I strongly suggest that you consider a full Pentinum, especially for heavily used multitasking features of the Direct Access software platforms place upon these processors and system configurations. Just a word to the wise...
Well, as I said, I ended up with the P4 toshiba. After a bit of a struggle I have it humming along very nicely. And I am getting more impressed with xp by the day. No fatal error blue screens, no hang ups, none of the low resources and other annoying things I suffered through with my P3 desktop with win 98. At work I use windows 2000 pro, and have never experienced a problem. But the home xp is a friendlier interface (or maybe it's the Reuters software I don't like on my office computer. One thing that really made a huge difference in the operation of my new laptop...getting an optical mouse. What a VAST improvement over the touchpad. Just like using a real computer now Peace, rs7
Yup, and a port for a monitor too. The reason I wanted the laptop was a space issue. Since I primarily use my home computer for online banking and email, I find it much nicer to have this thing out of the way and easily accessible and moveable. So if I want to pay my bills at the kitchen table, or even on my bed I can do it. My old setup was a tower with a 20" monitor. Had it in my bedroom, and it took up too much space. My son has a desktop in his room, so I bought a wireless router and a card for the laptop, and now have the flexibility I wanted, and a lot more room on my desk. I actually came home from work today and paid some bills out by my pool on the patio set. Sure was a nice change from being tied to the old desktop. But you are right, a regular keyboard would be easier to use, but I seem to be adapting to the little keyboard on the laptop pretty well. But I was NOT adapting too well to the touchpad. Never seemed to be nearly as smooth as the mouse. Got this little Microsoft USB corded mouse (for laptops). I actually went into the store with the intent of getting a cordless mouse, but they were out of stock, and the desktop versions had big boxes as receivers, and the laptop wireless mouses (mice?) took up a slot anyway (they said they would have them in stock "tomorrow"....always seems like BBY is going to have what you want "tomorrow". And they are substantially more money. This corded mouse just plugs into a USB port, and the wire is not an inconvenience. Short wire, and the optical (first time I ever had an optical mouse) is a pleasure. Works on any surface, and works exceptionally smoothly. And cost only $14 at BBY. Now if I can figure out how to get this to print on the printer attached to my son's desktop, I will be set. But so far, no luck. Linksys support says they don't do that, toshiba says they don't, my ISP is no help. They all said to get in touch with MSFT. Not so easy so far. And there was virtually zero documentation on Win XP that came with the computer. Every other computer I ever bought had a Windows manual. Maybe they think that it is adequate to have support on line. But I feel like I need to speak to a human, and MSFT seems to have no human support. Unless I am looking in the wrong places. And I tried calling Hewlett Packard. They used to have pretty good phone support. But now their site has changed. Maybe because of the CPQ merger. I know there is a file and printer sharing configuration (wireless...my friend has it set up in her house...., but I get the feeling I am gonna have to pay someone to come set me up. Or wait 'till my friend's son comes home from school...he set hers up. Too bad. But maybe it's worth it. In the meantime, I can always make floppies and print from my son's computer. BTW, the Toshiba seems to be one of the few laptops with a 3 1/2 inch floppy drive.....which is nice. Peace, Rs7
"Banking and email," eh? Hah! Your 1900+ ET posts would belie that. Printing? A no-brainer if both devices have an IrDa (infrared data port).