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  • #31
    Re: laptop recommendation?

    Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
    You'd think it should be a simple jumper setting to unlock it.
    "Unlock" may not be the right term for what I'm experiencing. More like "stuck" or "jammed". Jumpers aren't going to fix mechanical problems. If yours has become password locked, I did a quick google and found some instructions and utilities that should do the job.



    Originally posted by shaveice View Post
    cough! uh, that totally blows my budget!
    Oh, I think the guy I was talking to paid something like $2K for his.

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    • #32
      Re: laptop recommendation?

      Originally posted by GeckoGeek View Post
      "Unlock" may not be the right term for what I'm experiencing. More like "stuck" or "jammed". Jumpers aren't going to fix mechanical problems. If yours has become password locked, I did a quick google and found some instructions and utilities that should do the job.
      And? This 60gb hard drive is looking more and more like a door wedge everyday I look at it. Where did you find it?
      Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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      • #33
        Re: laptop recommendation?

        Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
        Where did you find it?
        Is your drive saying it's "locked" or is it just dead?

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        • #34
          Re: laptop recommendation?

          Originally posted by GeckoGeek View Post
          Is your drive saying it's "locked" or is it just dead?
          It's locked. I actually found a website that let's you use their $10 software for a free trial period. So I downloaded it but found out it won't work with RAID or USB drives. So now I have to find a 2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapter as my hard drive tray only accepts 3.5 IDE hard drives. Oh did I say this hard drive is a 2.5" notebook HDD?
          Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

          Comment


          • #35
            Re: laptop recommendation?

            Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
            So now I have to find a 2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapter as my hard drive tray only accepts 3.5 IDE hard drives.
            Too bad you don't have a CompUSA down that way. They have (or had) them.

            From a quick glance, I think all you really need is the power adapter. The laptop IDE connector is just a little wider to accommodate an extra 4 pins for power. You might be able to jerry-rig something, but I'd check the pin-outs first. Or if you can boot the laptop from an external drive or CD and then use it to unlock the drive.

            As for unlocking, I found this site

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            • #36
              Re: laptop recommendation?

              This may sound stupid but how do you create a bootable disk?
              Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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              • #37
                Re: laptop recommendation?

                Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                This may sound stupid but how do you create a bootable disk?
                Dang. The only way I know is the old way: FORMAT D: /S or SYS D:

                Not even sure that works anymore. There's got to be a website out there that covers that.... link. The search results are all for flash drives, but I'd think an external USB drive would be the same.

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                • #38
                  Re: laptop recommendation?

                  Well after tinkering around XP I found the way to make a bootable diskette. It was wayyyy too easy but it works. Boots the computer to the A: in MS-DOS

                  1) Find a 3-1/2" diskette (I know that's hard these days) and insert in FDD
                  2) On "My Computer" select 3-1/2" Floppy (A funny how the colon/right parenthesis makes the funny emoticon
                  3) Single Right click and select "Format"
                  4) In Format window select "Create an MS-DOS Start Up Disk"
                  5) Hit "Start" and drink a beer
                  6) When it's done, reboot computer (make sure boot sequence starts with floppy)
                  7) See the black screen with the magical letter: A:/

                  Taa daa

                  Now how do you unlock at that point?
                  Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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                  • #39
                    Re: laptop recommendation?

                    Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                    Now how do you unlock at that point?
                    Check this link

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                    • #40
                      Re: laptop recommendation?

                      I'm buying a 2.5 to 3.5 ide adapter from NewEgg so it'll be in sometime next week.

                      In the meantime, I scored at the Salvation Army today, I went down around 10:30 in the morning and as I was browsing an older Dell Latitude went on the shelf. I immediately snapped it up and when I came home naturally it was dead. But I was able to salvage the power supply that works for this Dell 2650 Inspiron I've been working on, 256mb of RAM for another laptop I'm working on, a PCI -wifi card that came in handy and a 20Gb 2.5" notebook hard drive.

                      So I plopped the the 2.5" into the Inspiron and loaded up XP then used the Vista Transformation package to give it the look and feel of Vista, I even modified the logon screen with a Vista logon instead of the XP logon.

                      Not a bad deal considering the Inspiron was given to me DOA and I picked up the Latitude for $4 at the Salvation Army. Between the two I have a decent working Pentium M running 1.7Mhz at 512Mb of RAM running a Vista Clone with a DVD-ROM/CD=RW drive and wifi.

                      $4...what a deal.
                      Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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                      • #41
                        Re: laptop recommendation?

                        Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                        $4...what a deal.
                        $4 and how many hours?

                        Good job!

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                        • #42
                          Re: laptop recommendation?

                          Originally posted by GeckoGeek View Post
                          $4 and how many hours?

                          Good job!
                          Hmmm mostly how many forum hours! The neat thing about this Inspiron is that the battery still gives me just over 1.5 hours of run time with the DVD-ROM drive or the Wi-Fi.

                          Now here's a question, my boy who is in the Marines asked me to rate this Viao Laptop, a Sony - VAIO Digital Studio Laptop with Intel® Centrino® Duo.

                          He wants to do some decent gaming with it. The really neat thing about this laptop is that it has HDMI outputs and can play Blu-Ray disks. The suck part of it is that the battery life is 1.5Hrs but if you buy the extended battery pack at $300 you get 2.5 hours of run time.

                          He'll be on a ship for a few months making port here and there until Afghanistan and he wants a computer he can take along for entertainment and online classes.

                          I've read some reviews and so far its been very good. It's running Vista Home Premium with 2Gb of SDRAM PC5300 and it has an NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT Video card.

                          I'm thinking he should upgrade the RAM to the maximum of 4Gb as Vista Home Premium shares 256mb of that RAM to operate and get the extended battery. I've heard horror stories about onboard ship voltages and fried electronics.

                          Anybody have any opinions on this laptop?
                          Last edited by craigwatanabe; March 14, 2008, 09:21 AM.
                          Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Re: laptop recommendation?

                            The Sony should be fine for casual gaming and watching movies. Running Crysis at max resolution and AA would probably result in some juddering though, even w/RAM maxed out. If it's offered as an option, pop for the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT card to get better gaming performance.
                            "If it's brown, it's cooked. If it's black, it's f***ed" - G. Ramsey

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                            • #44
                              Re: laptop recommendation?

                              I'm wondering if that option is available in notebook form. I don't think he'll be doing that level of gaming. He does play Halo 3 and that seems to play okay with his desktop running a P4 2.2Ghz at 1Gb of PC3200 RAM and a 256Mb ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. I'm thinking this Viao will be okay but there may be things I'm not aware of about this model.

                              I'm wary about Sony because they do have a record label and they do love to be propietary in their computer hardware as well as protective of their music licensing rights. I'm thinking they build in copyright protection circuitry in all of their optical drives and computers in general. That's my general paranoia about Sony Viaos anyway.
                              Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: laptop recommendation?

                                The GeForce 8600M GT comes standard in the MacBook Pro and the mid-level models in Dell's XPS line. One thing to consider about VAIOs is what kind of lighting environment the unit will be used in. The super glossy screen that VAIOs are known for tend to catch more glare and backlight than a satin or matte finish. On the other hand, glossy is sweet when you have good lighting conditions.

                                I think Sony is slowly learning from the CD rootkit fiasco a while back. Ripping CDs and DVDs shouldn't be a problem. Heck, you should even be able to rip Blueray DVDs to the hard drive.

                                You might find this forum thread about some people's experiences with the VAIO/8400M GT helpful.
                                "If it's brown, it's cooked. If it's black, it's f***ed" - G. Ramsey

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