Laptop decision

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NotVeryTechie

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Hi there

I am looking at buying a laptop while I am still living in the UK and will be returning to SA soon. I have been looking at the Acer range as there is support for Acer in SA. My problem is that the new Acers all come preloaded with Vista and I don't want Vista. I can get an older model with XP, but this doesn't have a Travellers Warranty. There are no drivers available for the newer model for XP.

Do I order the older one and hope for the best?

The reason I want a laptop is because of the power situation in SA. Is there another solution to this - eg a battery pack I can use with a desktop system or something like that?

I would prefer to buy a laptop here because of the enormous price difference. I won't be able to afford it in SA.

Hope someone can help!!
 
well firstly depending on the laptop specs it wont run well

all you do is ask the ppl your buying it from to downgrade you 2 xp

they will give charge you 180 bucks and give u a cd key and backup cd's

well this is what i do, not sure if everyone will be willing though
 
Vista definitely isn't a bad OS provided that the other software you want to run is compatible with Vista. I recently got an Acer 5920G with Vista Premium and I'm more than happy with it. Just make sure that the laptop has a minimum of 2GB of RAM and you should be set.

You could also look into HP laptops. They are also very good and the viewing angles on the LCD is better than that on the Acer laptops.
 
See the Toshiba return offer under the news section. For anyone buying a laptop out of own pocket this Toshiba offer is great.
 
The reason for not wanting Vista is that I have a lot of software that can run on XP but I doubt will run on Vista. It is expensive enough having to buy a new computer without having to replace every bit of software you have. Anyway, from what I have heard Vista is not great.

I don't see why I should be tied into a particular operating system in order to buy a piece of hardware. What if I want to run Linux? Sorry, you can't because the manufacturer of the computer hasn't supplied drivers that will run on this. This is absolutely ridiculous!

Boramk - Don't have a choice, visa issues.
 
dont waste your time with any other laptop other than an sony or an apple!!
 
How can it be a good thing? You don't have the original disks, so if you have to reload Windows (as you do) you have a problem. You also have no choice. You can't decide that you prefer Linux or XP or anything else for that matter. You are locked in to an operating system whether you want it or not and that is just in order to buy hardware.

Another question - is there another option to overcome the power cut problem? For example a battery you could use with a desktop system? Then I could get a desktop when I get home and won't have to worry about not being able to work.

I am being told (by the sellers) that you can't partition a laptop hard drive and you can't boot from an external disk. So I can't for example boot from an external disk running Linux or XP or whatever. Is this true?
 
There is alwayz wayz to do something,THere is no such thing as cant,There was threads about dual booting oem products,I did see it ,just search for it
 
You can most certainly boot off a USB device, it depends whether the notebook manufacturer has added this as a feature in the BIOS.

Get a Lenovo Thinkpad, they're rugged, you can get stellar international warranty support, and they have a downgrade option for XP. Get a notebook with Vista if you want, and install and use XP until you are ready to switch.

You can partition any notebook HDD and boot Linux and XP and/or Vista.
 
NotVeryTechie said:
How can it be a good thing? You don't have the original disks, so if you have to reload Windows (as you do) you have a problem. You also have no choice. You can't decide that you prefer Linux or XP or anything else for that matter. You are locked in to an operating system whether you want it or not and that is just in order to buy hardware.

Another question - is there another option to overcome the power cut problem? For example a battery you could use with a desktop system? Then I could get a desktop when I get home and won't have to worry about not being able to work.

I am being told (by the sellers) that you can't partition a laptop hard drive and you can't boot from an external disk. So I can't for example boot from an external disk running Linux or XP or whatever. Is this true?
Click to expand...

Dude, unless u know absolutely jack sh** about software, you should be able to run ANY O.S. on an OEM installed machine. I bought my HP laptop that came pre-installed with Vista, now I'm running XP no problemo and shud I want to I can still install Vista using the recovery disk that I created. So don;t be stuck in the dark ages man, move on, unless u wanna run Vista when MS releases their next OS ...
 
I would love to buy a Sony but I can't afford it. That's why I'm swimming down in the low-price mudpond.
 
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