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Last Dance for a Laptop?

My circa 2004 Toshiba laptop doesn't like to boot up on cold mornings, and I thought that was the problem today. But instead, it gave a message about a hard drive crash being imminent. I wonder if it meant it.

I have mixed feelings about this. It's nice being the Second Chance Store for the surplus gadgets of an RV friend, and this laptop has been a winner. But I've been impatient waiting for the oldie to die so I could get something modern.

Unless somebody knows of a stupendous deal, I will probably go with a 12 inch Asus mini-laptop, with an AMD E350 processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, 2 GB of RAM, $440. I couldn't care less about how big the hard drive is; in fact, I wish it didn't have one. The 12 inch size should be just perfect for easy reading plus portability; after all, I will need to cart it into a wi-fi spot on occasion, and I hate dragging in a larger laptop since they're like a patio flagstone.

I wish that the gadget write-ups mentioned how many watts are used under normal web surfing conditions. How nice it would be to drop from 3.5-4.0 Amps DC to 2-3. I've always wanted to just leave the laptop on most of the day when I'm camping without hookups.

Actually this is great timing, since a recent birthday gift card for Walmart is burning a hole in my pocket. Unfortunately they won't let you order over an 800 phone number anywhere. (See the Decline and Fall of Walmart, posted a couple weeks ago.) So when the old laptop crashes, how do you order a new laptop online? Answer: you spend $40 driving to the nearest Walmart store and use their computer to order a new one. Of course, there's always the pre-emptive approach.

Comments

Anonymous said…
For Home Premium, you will be best pleased with 4 Gig of RAM.

But for max portability, look at a Netbook. Only 1 Gig of Ram, but it runs Windows 7 Starter. Probably competent for all your needs except maybe streaming movies. HP has the best keyboard (93%). Use it all day on one charge. Can be had for under $300. Something like this:

http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=netbook&ic=16_0&Find=Find&search_constraint=3944

I'd still be using mine, but I dropped a motorcycle on it.

Bob
Anonymous said…
In the interests of saving a few bucks, may I suggest that you download and and burn an installation CD for ubuntu. Then when your hard drive finally does crash, replace the hard drive and install ubuntu. This doesn't solve saving any data that you might have but it can give you a fully functional laptop on the cheap.

I did this (installed Ubuntu) to an old laptop that was corrupted with a bad virus. It boots up faster than my macbook pro.

Tom in Orlando
Anonymous said…
oops, I closed out my comment a bit too fast... I should add that when I first installed my wireless wouldn't work. I needed access to Ubuntu's online forums in order to learn how to solve that problem. I got the help I needed and got the wireless to work, but if I hadn't had internet access during the process I would have been left high and dry.

Tom in Orlando
Bob, Yes, a netbook would be best from a "Power Management" point of view, which does matter to a traveler or a boondocking RVer. A 10 inch screen might be a bit small. Currently I have a 14" laptop that weighs 4.5-5 pounds, so I think the 12" size will be the right compromise.

In the future I'll bet 10" netbooks will lose out, because people will say "If I can live with 10", I might as well get a tablet."

Streaming movies on 5 GigaBytes per month?

Tom, sounds like Ubuntu Linux should have taken over the netbook/laptop industry. They started putting it on netbooks when they first came out, but customers found that they weren't used to it, and the netbook industry backslid to Redmond, WA.
Anonymous said…
Well, I was just remembering that streaming stuttered on 1 G of memory and Windows Starter 7. That was the only problem I had with the netbook, other than the slipshod manufacturing that wouldn't bear the weight of an 800 lb. motorcycle. Shocking.

I got another right away, but haven't used it much. 6 months later I got an Iphone from Verizon, and find that does everything I was using the netbook for. So the future arrived for me, and skipped right over the tablet.

But the netbook was fine for travelling, back in 2010. You know, right after Magna Carta and Caesar's untimely demise. Time flies when you are having fun.

The big 17 inch HP finally fizzled the other day at 3 years old, and was replaced by an HP DV6 with a 15 inch screen. 17 inches was just too big a monster to lug around, pretty as it was. So now I have a 15 inch for home use, an Iphone for travelling, and a netbook I never use at all. All bought within a year.

You'd think I had money to burn. But all three cost less than I used to spend on a desktop that would barely run graphics, back in the day.

Bob
Unknown said…
My iPad (day one purchase in 2010) has been great. Many times I seriously wonder about making this iPad my sole computing/internet device. It is a fleeting thought when I realize much of my time on the MacBook Pro is about photography.

If the use of the computer is primarily internet activity (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), the iPad (or another tablet) might be viable alternative to a laptop for some people. Instant on. Light weight. Lots of games and applications including some for photography. Need storage or data backup? Buy cloud storage. Safe and secure. (Sounds like a commercial).
Wandrin, I appreciate your points but would prefer to take the tablet possibility out of the Evil Empire. So I researched the Toshiba Thrive; it was fun. But by the time I buy all the add-ons, it would cost more than the 12" mini-laptop, and would be awkward to carry all that stuff into a wi-fi coffee shop.
Anonymous said…
I don't know if you can use the Walmart card at Sam's Club, but I was in there today and saw an HP with 15 inch screen and 4G of ram for $499. That's a lot more laptop for 50 bucks.

Prices are probably going to be best between Thanksgiving and Xmas, or so they tell me. My recent shopping indicates the best prices are at Sam's and Best Buy. Fry's, surprisingly, was relatively high.

Bob