• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Sony Vaio?

I've had the pcg-fxa53 for a couple of years, has worked well considering the abuse I give it. Goes chasing, to work, to school... 1 of the 2 USB ports quit working, it got rammed when I hit the brakes and everything flew forward, cramming the usb plugged in there into the jack. Recently the ethernet port quit, but I have not determined if it is a software or hardware problem.

I have the 4 year service plan so all the problems will get fixed whenever I can go without laptop for a few weeks.

Did have to replace power supply pack... service company just sent a new one after I called.

I'd buy another Vaio again... and another service plan.
 
I have 2001 Sony Vaio 850mhz model with 128 ram......cant say I am all that happy with it. It seems to run far far slower than my 500mhz desktop, ports were quick to break, screen broke easily (but then again dont they all). It treated me well for the first couple years but its to the point now that I had to get new one. Using programs such as DeLorme and Adobe Photoshop or Premier it had major crashing and freezing problems. Oh, and the batteries.....they suck, you WILL have to buy more. I am now to the point that if I want to move to another room without powering down (or it doing it for me) I have to plan ahead and run to the next room!!!

I have also been told they are expensive and hell to upgrade hardware.

This could be an isolated case but just my experience.

good luck

-Graham Butler
graham.butler at ttu.edu
 
Thanks for all of the replies!

I decided to go with a manufacturer refurbished Compaq R3000 (from ebay) instead, and hopefully that works out :o

For $899.00, I got:

2.4Ghz P4 processor, 512MB of DDR333 ram, 40GB HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics, WXGA 15.4" display, Firewire port, S-video out port, and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM

The only problem I have is that there is no integrated Wi-Fi support. I tend to have a problem breaking the pcmcia wi-fi cards, and have been through about 3 of them in the past year (well, one lost it's soul while I was trying to modify it) :oops:
 
Originally posted by Stuart Robinson
no fire wire ??? - for a chase laptop I would want this for video uploads.

Very easy to add. You can get a pc card that has USB 2.0 and firewire for like $20. My new HP doesnt have either so I have a card on the way.

-Graham Butler
 
Originally posted by Stuart Robinson
no fire wire ??? - for a chase laptop I would want this for video uploads.
Amen to needing one on any chaser's computer, hard to find a newer camcorder that doesn't have a firewire connection. Looks like Robert's Compaq has one, though.
 
Just got my Compaq Presario R3000 yesterday, and so far so good. It has actually run some pretty good games with decent settings, and seems pretty quick (just ran Far Cry at 1024x768 with low settings, and ran very well (graphic quality is still excellent, even on low settings)). This one actually includes a firewire port, built in media card reader, remote control (I purchased that seperately), S-video output... You would have thought though, with all of that, that they could have included a built in wi-fi card... So, purchased one of those, and so far that card has been pretty crappy (it's a very low end card, $20.00)... I can barely get a signal a few rooms away from the wireless LAN router. And of course, battery life seems pretty short, but I guess a P4 2.4Ghz, overclocked video card, and a bright WXGA 15.4" widescreen LCD pretty much drains the power.

I payed a total of $950.00 for the laptop and accessories (its manufacture refurbished with 6 month warranty from HP), and bought it off ebay. All in all, I would recommend this laptop if anyone out there is shopping around.
 
Back
Top