Which Laptop gives this...?????????

[jamieboy]

cyberface said:

jamieboy said:

cyberface said:

It was a Tiger Atheros driver issue, I'm not sure if it's been solved in Leopard. Some dual-booting devilspawn found out that his Macbook worked perfectly over wireless when booted into Windows (obviously using Windows drivers) but was virtually unusable intermittently in OS X.

Not entirely sure that words like 'devilspawn' are helping lift the tone in here...

The problem isn't solved in Leopard in my case, on a MacBook Pro. It's fine if you've got a great signal and you're not hammering the connection. The further away from the base station you get, the less throughput it seems able to sustain. For me there's little difference between using OSX or Vista, they're as bad as each other - much worse than the Intel chipset in my Vaio is under either XP or Vista.

It's a shame, it's the only real complaint I've got about it.

It was a joke. Apologies.

I haven't upgraded any of my laptops to Leopard because of the aggro upgrading my workstation caused. It's bad to hear that Leopard drivers haven't solved the Atheros problem

Do you get perfect performance in Windows then, or are you getting bad performance in Windows as well? Some of the guys trying to diagnose this found that the wireless worked in Windows but not OS X. If it's still duff in Windows then that would point to hardware, if it's duff in just OS X then it points to duff Apple drivers.

Like I say - it's pretty much as bad in both.

Likely doesn't make any difference, but I didn't upgrade - I wiped and did a fresh install of both Leopard and then Vista.

[Gorvid]

I think I need another "What Laptop" thread.

This one is broken.

[Noger]

cyberface said:

jamieboy said:

cyberface said:

It was a Tiger Atheros driver issue, I'm not sure if it's been solved in Leopard. Some dual-booting devilspawn found out that his Macbook worked perfectly over wireless when booted into Windows (obviously using Windows drivers) but was virtually unusable intermittently in OS X.

Not entirely sure that words like 'devilspawn' are helping lift the tone in here...

The problem isn't solved in Leopard in my case, on a MacBook Pro. It's fine if you've got a great signal and you're not hammering the connection. The further away from the base station you get, the less throughput it seems able to sustain. For me there's little difference between using OSX or Vista, they're as bad as each other - much worse than the Intel chipset in my Vaio is under either XP or Vista.

It's a shame, it's the only real complaint I've got about it.

It was a joke. Apologies.

I haven't upgraded any of my laptops to Leopard because of the aggro upgrading my workstation caused. It's bad to hear that Leopard drivers haven't solved the Atheros problem

Do you get perfect performance in Windows then, or are you getting bad performance in Windows as well? Some of the guys trying to diagnose this found that the wireless worked in Windows but not OS X. If it's still duff in Windows then that would point to hardware, if it's duff in just OS X then it points to duff Apple drivers.

If it is the same AR5006X that I have in my Q1, then it is the original MS driver that came with Vista that is the one that is currently working, not any of the later Samsung or Atheros updates. We have ended up manually rolling the driver back to the oldest version.

I know this is a cross Hardware problem on Windows, but didn't realise it was such an issue cross OS too !

[plasticpig]

Gorvid said:

I think I need another "What Laptop" thread.

This one is broken.

You have been overun by the geek hordes I am afraid.

[Gorvid]

plasticpig said:

Gorvid said:

I think I need another "What Laptop" thread.

This one is broken.

You have been overun by the geek hordes I am afraid.

[TheGriffalo]

Ahem.

I said:

How many hours do you want between charges when "working" wirelessly?

[Gorvid]

TheGriffalo said:

Ahem.

I said:

How many hours do you want between charges when "working" wirelessly?

As little as possible.

[TheGriffalo]

Numbers man, I need numbers. 1, 3 or 6? it makes a big difference in choosing the right one. How you use it also affects the time between charges but it's easier if you can tell us how long you would like to be able to go.

For example, my laptop has a 17" screen and it lasts about three hours between charges according to the bumph (about 2 1/2 in practice). The 14" variant goes nearly six hours according to the manufacturers figures.

Tell us what you actually need and we can help

[Gorvid]

Whats the most time you can get?

[Neil_Sc]

Kinky said:

I'm not saying a word, other than buy a ThinkPad with the extended battery to give you circa 9 hours (IIRC) but probably more with the battery stretch application.

But to be honest I'm more interested in the 'geekathon' - and wondering at what point the PH posting rules were broken

Totally unacceptable.

K

9 hours? My T60 with an extended battery barely gives me 3. Good machine though, well built.

[Neil_Sc]

Gorvid said:

shadowninja said:

Gorvid said:

In fact.

What I really want is a great laptop that has a nice clear screen and is quick for downloading all manner of smut such that I won't get frustrated or blind.

EFA.

And a kleenex dispensing peripheral ...

An essential add-on

[Noger]

Neil_Sc said:

Kinky said:

I'm not saying a word, other than buy a ThinkPad with the extended battery to give you circa 9 hours (IIRC) but probably more with the battery stretch application.

But to be honest I'm more interested in the 'geekathon' - and wondering at what point the PH posting rules were broken

Totally unacceptable.

K

You won't see 9 hours unless you realy turn everything down (the X series Thinkpads can turn the wick pretty low thanks to the BatteryStrectch thing), and don't do anything too taxing.

But a thinkpad with the 8-cell is going to hard to better IMHO. Unless you carry an external battery pack :-

http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php?t_id=3565...

Doesn't work for Macs, for some reason.

[Holst]

You do have the other option of buying a cheaper laptop plus some additional batterys.

This wont be as practical if your working on the battery regularly (as charging them will take some time) but if it you just need long battery occationally then you could buy a cheaper £400 laptop and a couple of spare batterys.

You need to give more information on what you want the laptop to do before anybody can advise you. Knowing your budget will help allot, as long battery life laptops tand to be very expensive.

Oh and as for the intternet speed, I would recomend buying a decent router. this will have more impact on your wireless speeds (and range) than what laptop you buy. I would recomend the D-link 655, although its a bit expensive.

Edited by Holst on Tuesday 18th December 13:46

[Gorvid]

OK...

Budget is £1000 - although it isn't relevant really....could double that if it was >worth it< etc...

I will need it to:

..surf the NET all over the place both wired and wireless.
...work with basic documents and databases and spreadsheets.
....work on the move possibly without mains power.
.....have a big screen.
......be fast and great.

[Noger]

Macbook and look at some sort of external power pack should you not being getting enough battery time.

Huge screens and whizzy performance don't go with long battery life.

I know someone you has a small external battery in his backpack, and can plug it in if things get tight.

[Deva Link]

cyberface said:

Yes, you're right, and it's a bit sad that this is the case now. Back in the 'old days' you knew exactly what you were getting (things like the orinoco gold cards and the cisco aironet)...

Yes, but - didn't Orinoco gold cards cost about £300 when they first came out.

Pigeon said:

And while I'm at it, why are they also obsessed with making the resolution of the screen so pointlessly fine, with the result that either everything's chunky and fuzzy at lower-than-native res, or just too bloody small to read properly?

I do agree with that - why can't I buy 1024x768 14" screen laptop anymore!! I really don't want a 15.4" that's 1920x1200!!

Buying LCD monitors is a nighmare - the bigger the screen the smaller the pixels. Until you get to 30", which is a bit big to sit in front of!

[jimmyjimjim]

Deva Link said:

I do agree with that - why can't I buy 1024x768 14" screen laptop anymore!! I really don't want a 15.4" that's 1920x1200!!

Buying LCD monitors is a nighmare - the bigger the screen the smaller the pixels. Until you get to 30", which is a bit big to sit in front of!

Trust me on this - you get used to it after a few weeks and wouldn't use anything else.

[Deva Link]

jimmyjimjim said:

Deva Link said:

I do agree with that - why can't I buy 1024x768 14" screen laptop anymore!! I really don't want a 15.4" that's 1920x1200!!

Buying LCD monitors is a nighmare - the bigger the screen the smaller the pixels. Until you get to 30", which is a bit big to sit in front of!

Trust me on this - you get used to it after a few weeks and wouldn't use anything else.

Get used to what - the bigger screen size, or hi-res?

I do sometimes use a 1600x1200 laptop and really struggle with that. And web pages that are fixed at 800 wide so only filling half the screen seems stupid.

[jimmyjimjim]

The bigger screen and resolution. Once you take into account the screen being hayuuuuuge, the resolution makes more sense; like two A4 pages side by side.

The higher res screen on laptops is a PITA though; the icons appear about a centimeter high and text is bloody difficult to read.

[cyberface]

Noger said:

Neil_Sc said:

Kinky said:

I'm not saying a word, other than buy a ThinkPad with the extended battery to give you circa 9 hours (IIRC) but probably more with the battery stretch application.

But to be honest I'm more interested in the 'geekathon' - and wondering at what point the PH posting rules were broken

Totally unacceptable.

K

You won't see 9 hours unless you realy turn everything down (the X series Thinkpads can turn the wick pretty low thanks to the BatteryStrectch thing), and don't do anything too taxing.

But a thinkpad with the 8-cell is going to hard to better IMHO. Unless you carry an external battery pack :-

http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php?t_id=3565...

Doesn't work for Macs, for some reason.

Ironic given that they've stolen the design of the Powerbook / Macbook Pro battery - with the silver button and line of green LEDs to tell you how much power is remaining. I'm surprised Apple haven't hit them with a lawsuit over this one...