withing Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Okay, so I bought a laptop off of Ebay - in a hypo-manic moment- now I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival. But! Even though I'm computer savvy when it come to programs, I don't know jack about hardware or memory. RAM, ROM, Processing speed... it all gets mixed up in my brain and turns to mush. So! can someone tell me if I got my money's worth, or if I'm gonna have to lay out some more for this baby once it arrives? (I paid $199 for it + shipping) I'm hoping that I didn't get taken to the cleaners. Here's the description: This listing is for an IBM Thinkpad T21 Type 2647-8AU. It has an 800MHz PIII CPU, 384MB of RAM, a 20GB HDD, and a 14'' LCD screen. Though this machine has a DVD-ROM drive installed in it this machine has been tested to not be able to play DVDs. The laptop still plays CDs perfectly though. Windows XP Professional that is activated and fully updated. Also included is a copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition. Wireless capabilities is available through the wireless PCMCIA Card included using the 802.11b standard. Memory Slot A has 256MB. Memory Slot B has 128MB The memory is tested with an extensive memory testing program. We thoroughly test every machine we sell. The hard drive is tested for errors with a complete surface scan. The machine is checked and rechecked for viruses and spyware. We install virus checking and spyware checking software on every machine we sell. All passwords are available, including bios and Administrator passwords. The battery has a discharge time of ~1hr 10 mins from a fully charged battery using Battery Monitor and Laptop Battery Tester. The charger included works properly with this system. It comes from a smoke free environment. There are no dead pixels. I spoke with a friend of mine about the DVD not working, and they said it may be that the CODEC is corrupt. I'm not certain how to fix that, but they said it was an easy fix if that were the problem. I've never had a laptop, so this is new for me. Did I buy a pig in a poke, or will there be a cat in the bag when I open it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve@3AM Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 I guess it depends on what you want to do with it. You said you were familiar with programs/software. It's certainly a slower and older laptop with small hard drive and minimal ram - (all by current standards). If you just need some word processing or internet access and stuff you should probably be OK. The software that's on it Windows XP and Office) were made to work with this set-up. It's the newer stuff that's more demanding. (Don't know about the DVD part. But if it is just a codec/software glitch then your friend is probably right about it being correctable. But sometimes broken is broken. Battery life is really short but you may not be a "road warrior"! It should be fine when using it plugged in. If you want to run lots of newer software or anything that does a lot of graphics stuff you may be disappointed. I would certainly advise just accepting it for what it is. If it doesn't work as needed I would question putting any $$ into upgrades. Good luck and I hope it does just what you need. Hope you're having a good holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
withing Posted December 25, 2007 Author Share Posted December 25, 2007 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I just need it for word processing and internet junk. I'm trying to set up a webpage, but it won't be graphic heavy, and I'm definately not into gaming. I may want to put a database on there to keep my stories all together, but nothing really big or memory heavy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HLofS Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I just need it for word processing and internet junk. I'm trying to set up a webpage, but it won't be graphic heavy, and I'm definately not into gaming. I may want to put a database on there to keep my stories all together, but nothing really big or memory heavy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HLof S Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I just need it for word processing and internet junk. I'm trying to set up a webpage, but it won't be graphic heavy, and I'm definately not into gaming. I may want to put a database on there to keep my stories all together, but nothing really big or memory heavy. Sorry I pushed the big red button too soon! If you find the computer is painfully slow, you may want to consider using win 98 ver 2. I did this with a pentium 2 DEL in East Timor and was pleasantly surprised at the performance but only on Office and simple grapghic programs. Of course you will need to be operating system software savvy as win 98 is troublesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
withing Posted December 27, 2007 Author Share Posted December 27, 2007 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I just need it for word processing and internet junk. I'm trying to set up a webpage, but it won't be graphic heavy, and I'm definately not into gaming. I may want to put a database on there to keep my stories all together, but nothing really big or memory heavy. Sorry I pushed the big red button too soon! If you find the computer is painfully slow, you may want to consider using win 98 ver 2. I did this with a pentium 2 DEL in East Timor and was pleasantly surprised at the performance but only on Office and simple grapghic programs. Of course you will need to be operating system software savvy as win 98 is troublesome. Yeah, I wasn't happy with Win 98 at all. I'll see how it runs on XP. It's supposed to be here any day now, so I'll let ya'll know how it goes. As I said, it's mostly for schoolwork, surfing the net, and such - not gaming or anything. I don't really need the DVD, but thought it would be nice to have. I do have a question though, if the DVD doesn't run, does that mean that Windows Media Player won't run? Maybe I should just wait and see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ka-mai Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 Windows media player should still work. You might be able to get that dvd up and running again too if it's just a driver/codec that it lacks. PM me when you get it and I'll show you a few tricks to maybe get it working again. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resonance Posted December 27, 2007 Share Posted December 27, 2007 It sounds appropriate for what you want it for. Does it only play CDs or burn them as well? Windows Media Player should run, as far as I know, just not play stuff off DVDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
withing Posted December 29, 2007 Author Share Posted December 29, 2007 Yay! I have my laptop! And, I talked the person I'm staying with into buying a router, so now I'm wired to the interenet too. Now I can be online all night if ai wanna. hahaha Anyway, I haven't checked out the DVD yet, because I've been *trying* to download Firefox - and it hasn't been working. I'll check out the DVD thing tomorrow. So far, everything else seems to be working. I'm fairly pleased with it. It's not incredibly slow, but it's not terrifically fast either. Who needs that much speed? Thanks all for the advice, and I'll let y'all know what goes on with the DVD. I haven't tried watching anything on Media Player either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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