Chase laptops......Vista......HELP!!!!!

[Karen Politte]

Okay folks - it's late January, it's the traditional time for hibernating chasers to start stirring around in their great collections of cables, wires, antennae, monitors, radios and PCMCIA cards to see what random configuration of components will suffice for on the road 2007, right?

Okay. Help me, please!

To rephrase that - we just decided last night (after pulling out the old laptop from it's bag and plugging it in to find that it is now a very heavy, very ugly paperweight) that we need a new laptop - NOW. We have alotted up to about $600 for a basic laptop. We only need it to function well for chasing. We're not going to be playing games or anything intensive on it. We would prefer it to be new.

The trouble is - when we started shopping online last night for laptops - we came to the horrific realization that almost ALL new computers (be they desktops of laptops) are being sold with VISTA now instead of Xp or anything older. G-U-L-P. Now - I dunno about you, but buying a laptop for chasing that is running on a totally new OS that hasn't been debugged yet by previous editions makes me twitch.

Does anybody have any experience with this VISTA thing? Does it run chase-related software (GPS mapping, GRLevelX etc.) easily and is it user-friendly in doing so??? I don't care about the XM/WeatherWorx thing as we don't have it and don't want it.

The other question I have is - who now sells laptops with the old OS, not VISTA? Is there anywhere online that is still selling these neolithic Xp machines?!?!?

ANY input would be greatly appreciated!

KL

 

[rdale]

Vista runs wonderfully, I've been running the beta's for nearly 6 months now and put the final edition on my box last weekend. I'd have no worries about it.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I installed a beta of Vista on my 2nd computer and ran it for about a month to test it and never had any problems. Since it was only a beta version I went back to XP, I'm sure before too long I will be running Vista final on both my computers.

I think you'll be fine with Vista installed, if there is by chance a program or hardware that isn't compatiable with Vista that it will be before too long.

 

[Nick Parker]

Try Best Buy or Circut City. They usually have some "layover" models that should have the old OS on them. I bought my HP laptop through Best Buy about 7 months ago and have never had a problem with it. I run Windows XP Media Center Editon. Hope all works out for ya. ( I got a couple of those "paperweights" myself...

Nick

 

[fplowman]

No thanks.

Might as well give .gov a backdoor to all your personal files.

http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196802240

 

[Jeff Smith]

...also be careful because most new laptops come with Expresscard slots----NOT compatible with PCMCIA..............

 

[Eric Whitehill]

Dell has a number of laptops for sale in their outlet store online that are XP.

Good luck.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

...also be careful because most new laptops come with Expresscard slots----NOT compatible with PCMCIA..............

Indeed. I had a Dell XPS that was Expresscard Slot, it sucked. I don't have it anymore, I don't know if it was just me but twice the backlight on the LCD went out, I sent it in once and they fixed it.. then in August the same thing happened. I just sent it back and after fighting with Dell they refunded me the credit.

 

[John Diel]

To the the howls of outrage I'm sure this will provoke, try Wal-Mart. I picked up an Acer (don't remember the model number) for $550 (tax included) and it's a nice machine so far.

AMD Turion CPU, 1 GB RAM, 100 GB HD, Nice video card (Smooths GRLevel3 just fine) and has a single PCMCIA Slot. The price was the regular price and not marked down or sale price.

Don't drop it! It's not overly built and is mostly plastic, but if babied and taken care of will serve your needs.

Now I'm going to go hide from the hail storm I'm sure will erupt after this post.

 

[Karen Politte]

Thanks for the info, John! This is the kinda stuff I'm keen to know - as we have been looking at the line of less-known laptops that Wal-Mart carry. Some of them seem to have some fairly good reviews......and well you know that Wal-Mart is pretty good on customer-service if anything goes wrong.

Good to know that you've had a good experience with that Acer brand. Hmmmmmm.

KL

To the the howls of outrage I'm sure this will provoke, try Wal-Mart. I picked up an Acer (don't remember the model number) for $550 (tax included) and it's a nice machine so far.

AMD Turion CPU, 1 GB RAM, 100 GB HD, Nice video card (Smooths GRLevel3 just fine) and has a single PCMCIA Slot. The price was the regular price and not marked down or sale price.

Don't drop it! It's not overly built and is mostly plastic, but if babied and taken care of will serve your needs.

Now I'm going to go hide from the hail storm I'm sure will erupt after this post.

 

[rdale]

Might as well give .gov a backdoor to all your personal files.

You read it backwards... NSA provided some of the encryption procedures for keeping your files safe, Microsoft didn't give them the key to your PC.

 

[fplowman]

You read it backwards... NSA provided some of the encryption procedures for keeping your files safe, Microsoft didn't give them the key to your PC.

Oh my bad.. i guess that means your all good to go then. No worries..

 

[Greg Campbell]

LOL, Fred.

Hey, RD. I've got a real nice bridge I'd like to show ya!

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Please stay on topic... In this regard, it seems that people think others are either wearing tinfoil hats or they're being naive (depending upon what side of the aisle you are on). Whatever you think, I'm not sure this is the best place to discuss the issue (interaction between NSA and MS). Anyone have advice specific to Karen's original request?

 

[rdale]

I've run all GRLevelX apps with no problem, RealEMWIN with no problem, mapping software no problem with Vista.