the Bengaluru blog

I had written about my experiences about the purchase of this laptop in two other parts, Part 1 and Part 2. Now that the hell has just blown over, I am left with upgrading this laptop to MS Vista, and to add another GB of RAM.

For now enjoy these snaps!(CLICK ON THEM FOR BIGGER IMAGES)

the laptop, the external headphone and microphone sockets and the optical dual layer DVD writer drive

power socket, and external monitor socket, modem, usb and laptop lock sockets, ethernet, HDMI, USB and memory card slots

the neatly laid out keyboard and touch pad

altec lansing speakers that surroung the keypad, and the inbuilt webcam and mic above monitor panel

keypad, speakers, touchpad and illuminated quick keys (power and wireless keys)

and finally! the laptop runs Windows Vista Home Basic displaying it on the brilliant 15.4″ widescreen.

Technorati : 1525, 16x, 32-bit, 4920, 64-bit, 8200, 8x, Acer, CQ50, CQ50-106AU, VAT, amd, aspire, asus, athlon, bangalore, bargains, bengaluru, blog, compaq, computer, core 2 duo, credit card, croma, deals, dell, dos, dual layer, dvd writer, eeepc, fujitsu, geforce, hdd, hp, hp pavilion, icici, india, inspiron, intel, koramangala, laptop, lenevo, nVIDIA, notebook, offers, one, pentium dual core, personal, presario, ram, service, shopping, sony vaio, staples, star bazaar, subnotebook, tata, toshiba, turion, vista, warranty, windows, xp

In my earlier post, I had specified my experiences on purchasing a Laptop. Let me take you through the second part of this hell, bringing up the laptop from being a FreeDOS system to be able to use one of our very one MS-OSes - Windows and more windows.

Expectations

My least expectation out of buying this laptop was to get atleast a driver CD for all versions of Windows and a spec sheet containing the chipset details and details about companies making the peripherals for this laptop. Having said that I was in for a complete shock, when all HP managed to give me was a CD containing the EULA for their product. User Guides, FCC regulations, materials used in the laptop - common HP, are you kidding me? “You could have been more personal with the computer.”

So now no driver CDs, but still I assumed, that’s ok with me and I went home and started installing Windows XP. Everything went well until I was asked to reboot the laptop.

Display and Sound Issues

The logon screen came up after ten seconds and during these ten seconds, each second saw one refresh of the screen in a different shade in blue. Every time I clicked my mouse there used to be one refresh and it was like layers and layers of blue coming up on the screen very slowly and irritatingly. Driver Issue, I thought, and tried to find the drivers for this laptop on the HP or other websites. Laptop Drivers website did have the drivers for XP.

So I went ahead and downloaded all these drivers and started installing them. The NVIDIA GE Force 6300 driver installation went fine and I was able to get rid of the refresh problem on the display. Things were pretty good looking on the screen after that. Thanks to my friend Amar, who also happens to be from my ex-company and an IT rep, for guiding me which NVIDIA driver to use among other information contributed by him.

Next was the sound. According to information I got, the driver to be used was the Conexant Smart Audio one. But this driver was not available on the same page as the other drivers. Also to be noted is the fact that the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture drivers needed to be done first before the audio drivers were installed. Thanks to Amar, I was able to install the audio drivers and the volume panel sprang up after that. I thought the hell blew over but little did I realize that the problems were only worse.

Upon muting the master volume, the other volumes still were unmuted, and upon connecting an external headset, the sound still came through the onboard speakers. The inbuilt microphone on the laptop monitor panel, would not work, and its settings were unchangeable as well. So that presented two issues - I could not use the mute facility as well as the microphone. - Oh the computer is so personal again!

For a long time, I always wanted to make my home entirely wireless in all respects. So I beleived this laptop can change the way I work at home now that I have an inbuilt mic/speakers and wireless. How sadly mistaken I was after this disaster. So now I was left with one brand new laptop, with one unusable useless license of XP and the need to buy another license of Vista just to see if the drivers were fine. Oh the computer is so personal again!

Quick launch buttons and Touchpad drivers

There are a good number of quick launch buttons on the CQ50-106AU for volume, brightness, etc for which drivers were available for XP. Those did not present much problems, and I was able to install them, except that the quick launch buttons were finnicky to work properly consistently. The touchpad drivers were not directly available, and I had to figure out which company made the touchpad and got the answer as Synaptics. These are the guys who write drivers for most laptops and I installed the touchpad drivers to get it working.

Wireless and Modem drivers

I installed the drivers for Broadcom wireless chipset, from here and the modem driver from here again the modem being from Conexant. However, my wireless button on the laptop would not go Blue, and stayed Orange always and the modem was fine. Also to be noted was that the modem driver was to be installed first prior to the audio ones, else we would not get proper audio output. No matter how many times and how all I tried to install the driver, the wireless interface itself was not to be found in Device Manager properties. Dumbfounded, I then had burnt an entire night’s sleep trying to get Windows XP to work on this laptop. And still I had the wireless and sound not working! Oh the computer was so personal again!

Customer Service

Day one, I bought a new laptop, and Day two I was floundering about to get my hardware working. This was definitely mentally not soothing me in any way for the cost incurred on this exercise. Since I had only one facet of HP left to test out, I tried that too - Customer Service!!

Off I went at 5:15pm (deadline for accepting customers was 5:30pm) and sat along with many other customers in a Queue. First I had a feeling I entered HSBC Bank, as it felt similar with all front desk executives wearing coats and suits, looking extremely professional. I was allotted a token number for my turn and asked to sit there. Waited for about 15 minutes before my number was called. I must say the queue moves really fast, since the executives encounter similar problems with all laptops, I guess! So not only was the computer personal again, so was customer service. I went in, told them I had problems with audio and wireless drivers for my laptop, and they exclaimed - “Oh, XP!”, as though me buying and using Windows XP was a crime or something. But the feeling I did get was that I belonged to Stone age as Vista (eating 2GB RAM for breakfast, lunch and dinner) was the in-thing of today!

I told them, either support me to make my laptop work or tell me that they cannot do it. So my laptop went into a “manager’s room”, since the executive could not directly solve the problem, and it came out with the wireless issue fixed, without the blue light glowing though - reason is that I was using Stone Age XP. I was elated that I could solve my wireless issue. I was trying to install a Broadcom Wireless Adapter driver, whereas the chipset contained an Atheros Wireless Adapter. Specs HP, Specs - this is why giving details is important. If your notion is to waste money on customer service I would suggest you waste the same money on providing details in the first place for people buying the laptop. It would go a long way in avoiding heartburn for yourselves at the customer service center. You can read this thread for more information on drivers, and check the last posts in the thread for the drivers. No one mentions that the chip in there is an Atheros. Unfortunately its been assumed that Broadcom Wireless driver and Dell wireless driver would work on an Atheros based machine which might be completely absurd! You can find the atheros driver here for Windows XP (yet to be updated)

Inbuilt Webcam

I had no trouble downloading the YouCam software and installing it to get the Webcam working on the laptop. I had no much use of it until now though so I could not test it fully. The pictures were of acceptable quality.

Inbuilt microphone won’t work

So I ended up at home again trying to solve the in built microphone issue on the laptop. Without any success and cursing Conexant, I had to retire to bed since it was midnight and my efforts went in vain. So I decided to take the plunge to Windows Vista and tune into the new age computing! Oh the computer is really so personal again!

I am taking the liberty to post Part III of this thread, the more happier part where I am now using Vista with all hardware working properly. That post will also have some close up photos of the laptop in question!

Technorati : 1525, 16x, 32-bit, 4920, 64-bit, 8200, 8x, Acer, CQ50, CQ50-106AU, VAT, amd, aspire, asus, athlon, bangalore, bargains, bengaluru, blog, compaq, computer, core 2 duo, credit card, croma, deals, dell, dos, dual layer, dvd writer, eeepc, fujitsu, geforce, hdd, hp, hp pavilion, icici, india, inspiron, intel, koramangala, laptop, lenevo, nVIDIA, notebook, offers, one, pentium dual core, personal, presario, ram, service, shopping, sony vaio, staples, star bazaar, subnotebook, tata, toshiba, turion, vista, warranty, windows, xp

Its been a while I blogged, and the reason was that I was very occupied with my work I will write about what was so important in a separate post, but in the meelee, I would want to describe my laptop purchase experience - nothing short of hell.

Brand choices

I had been to my favourite store Staples, and to Croma Electronics Megastore in Star Bazaar - both in Koramangala for scouting around for a laptop. I had a few choices:

Acer Aspire One:

This was a cheap notebook variety newly launched in India on that day with the famed Intel Atom processor (the latest in the market for low cost laptops) and this one sported 1G RAM, with windows XP, 80GIG HDD with NO optical drive. There was inbuilt wireless though. At a price of about 23,000 this was a steal and I would have directly purchased it that day. Barring for one annoying feature - they rather puny keyboard, bigger than ASUS EEEPC but smaller than regular laptop. Me having big hands this laptop was of no use for me straightaway when I tested typing on it at the Croma Store.

Acer 4920:

Looked pretty jazzy, I love the milky white keyboard with that odd spacebar, way too many buttons, and too many certifications and technical jargon. In the end it would have some variant of Pentium Dual Core or Core 2 Duo from Intel, or an AMD Athlon or Turion 32 or 64-bit processor, with 1 or 2GB RAM, and either Linux or Windows Vista. Though it was the usual weight any laptop would be, I felt it was too bulky. My budget was limited to about 30-32,000 and nothing more than that. Since I also had an original XP license with me, all I wanted is a linux laptop or a DOS laptop but with all other features.

My search went on for other brands.

HP and Sony Vaio were out of range for me, Apple was my dream, but it could wait, and Lenovo was looking like shit especially the lower end models. They were looking like bricks compared to other laptops around. This only left me with Compaq Presario and Dell.

Dell Inspiron 1520

I loved the feature set this laptop had to offer, with 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Vista Home Basic, Wireless, and all other usual stuff such as optical DVD dual layer writer, etc. But for the price it was too expensive - 39,500. After a discount on VAT of 4%, it would still cost me 37,500 bucks which was steep. And Dell’s low end Vostro laptops with Linux or DOS were too bulky and were bricks of the same feather like Lenovo. I had heard from everyone in Bengaluru (thanks to rumour mills) that HP had an edge over service these days compared to Dell. So I ditched the otherwise no compromise Inspiron for either a HP or a Compaq laptop.

HP/Compaq Presario

Ok, so the “Computer has become personal again“, I thought. Time to go to HP for some stuff. At Staples, Koramangala, just after my Croma visit, I checked out the CQ50-106AU DOS based laptop from Compaq and the looks impressed me a lot. I am not for jazzy stuff on my laptop, but I prefer the usual features to be good for extreme use. This means I expected my mouse/keyboard to be unmistakably usable to a large extent with no jazzy quick keys here and there. Having said that this laptop caught my attention for its clean build.

The same or similar versions with Pentium Dual Core and Vista with 2GB RAM was about 35,000 and with Core 2 Duo processor was about 37,000, more or less as costly as Dell which I had seen earlier. As I said, it was in my focus that I must be able to use the existing Windows XP license that I had, along with the laptop and at the same time spend as less as possible from my pocket. The salesman told me that the AMD Athlon would be suitable for multiprocessing and would handle many open applications as gracefully as an Intel machine.

He also told me that they may not be so great for gaming. My use was limited, blogging, occasional mails/chats and browsing. Period. This compaq machine came with an NVIDIA GE Force 8200 graphics processor and a relevant chipset. So this was a bonus at that price since I could game if I needed to. What really attracted me was the price, features and the ultra clean look of the laptop full with glossy screen, widescreen and extremely neatly laid out keyboard and black contours.

So after getting necessary permissions from my home minister (wife), I blew up 32,000 on my credit card and became a (proud?) owner of a CQ50-106AU. The laptop became personal again. In fact it got so personal, that I got personal with it and felt like shooting myself for the mistakes I made while buying this laptop. Read Part II of this article to know how I managed to get this laptop to a working state and the problems I faced in between while attempting this.

(will be continued in part II - all HELLs deserve two part posts! )

Technorati : , 106AU, 1525, 16x, 32-bit, 4920, 64-bit, 8200, 8x, Acer, CQ50, VAT, amd, aspire, asus, athlon, bangalore, bargains, bengaluru, blog, compaq, computer, core 2 duo, credit card, croma, deals, dell, dos, dual layer, dvd writer, eeepc, fujitsu, geforce, hdd, hp, hp pavilion, icici, india, inspiron, intel, koramangala, laptop, lenevo, nVIDIA, notebook, offers, one, pentium dual core, personal, presario, ram, service, shopping, sony vaio, staples, star bazaar, subnotebook, tata, toshiba, turion, vista, warranty, windows, xp

I had written a blog post about Staples, Marathahalli launch on this blog a while back. Well after that occassion, the store has now been opened in Garuda Mall, Margrath Road, and of late in Koramangala as well. I had a chance to visit the Koramangala staples store to check out on some stationery and on a few laptops, since its shopping season for laptops! I must say I was more impressed with this outlet than the Marathahalli one for some reason. Maybe its because of the number of people, or the varieties of things stored, or something else. The store looks huge, and is huge as well.

The number of things kept in the store is seriously going to give the creeps for smaller stationery stores to match upto staples! And if you are thinking the prices are unreasonably high, you might need to rethink. There are things that are affordable within Staples. From Files, to school products, to notebooks, to mobiles, to laptops, to label markers, to furniture to printers, to earphones, to vacuum cleaners to pens to erasers - you find everything here! I went in to check for laptops and their prices.

The real reason is tha I have an NEC Versa E600 laptop (anyone want to buy it at cheap price?), which has come of age. I bought it in 2003 and its now 5 years. The laptop still runs well with windows XP, I’ve increased the RAM to 780MB, the XP license is original, I’ve even managed to upgrade the CD-RW to a DVD-R, added a USB wireless dongle as well from SMC, and this has a 30 gig HDD. All said and done, I now want to have a laptop with everything inbuilt - webcam, mic, speakers, must run atleast windows xp, 2 GB RAM, Dual core processor, 160 GB hard drive, USB 2.0 ports, SVideo port, Wifi 802.11n , etc. Acer and Compaq fit my bill for these necessities now and I found these two to be interesting in Staples. However being unable to decide at the moment, I decided to come out of Staples with just some stationery purchases for the moment.

I did find an interesting pen however, which in essence echoes the proverb "The pen is mightier than the sword ! "

For those wishing to see some useful stuff now avaialble in India at the same quality as anywhere else abroad, head to Staples, Koramangala. You wont be disappointed. I have the telephone number for Staples Marathahalli for now : +91-80-6699-0608 and their website is at www.staplesfuture.com. If anyone can add the telephone number for Staples, Koramangala, I would be glad.

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Acer aspire, Compaq, Staples, Marathahalli, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Blog, Bangalore, Stationery, Office furniture, Gadgets, Electronics, Mobiles, Vacuum cleaners, Pens, Pencils, Boards, Label markers, Printers, Laptops, Nec versa e600, Windows xp, Software, Hardware, Wifi, 802.11, Dual core intel processor, Hard drive, Madiwala, Checkpost, Big bazaar, Forum

Yesterday I was a bit annoyed and frustrated with my office work and I was driving back home without any interest in reaching home as such. When I was at the Marathahalli junction, I remembered my discussion earlier in the day about a Canon Pixma All-in-one Printer that I was about to buy. Since Staples was just around the corner, and I had not investigated () the shop yet, I thought let me stop over and check out how I could burn down 10000 bucks as soon as possible.

I did manage to get car parking there and I entered the shop. I must say I was really feeling pleasant to find finally that our city did have a comprehensive stationary shop such as Staples. The items themselves were neatly arranged, with a lot of variety and there were atleast 3-4 salesmen to assist you with what you want, although I found that as being pushy with me.

I can go on and on with the way the items are arranged, the sheer number of items etc, but I prefer to just say here that you will surely not be feeling bad that you went there. In fact you would be pleasantly surprised.

In the given 20 minutes that I stayed there, I wanted to make a decision on the printer and a laptop. This in essence is what I wanted to buy.

Image courtesy : Canon Hong Kong

The street price of this all in one is Rs.7,500/- + taxes, but at Staples, I am getting the same offering at Rs.6,500, which is a cool deal. We did have a discussion at our office on the pros and cons of HP versus Canon for printers, and concluded that HP is putting in its development costs into the printer, while Canon sounded more reasonable for the same set of features. But I however ran into one problem buying this yet : My wifey! She was waiting with a gun at my home to shoot me if I ended up with this printer, mainly because of very less space at home to keep such things. So I gave up on buying it at the moment and will look into buying this next month.

I however could not stop myself from buying this - a fully rubberized, water proof, dust proof, noise proof, bend proof, usb keyboard from Enter Multimedia. I was not exactly convinced about this yet, when I saw it, but I am a person who encourages technologies such as this.

One look at this keyboard made me lap it up for just Rs.450/- ($11). Move over the great Samsungs, Logitechs, here is a new innovative, young company called Enter Multimedia which has done the most needed thing to keyboards. It does take a little time getting used to this keyboard, but once done, you are gonna love this cute thing! Open it to work, close it to go to sleep, pretty neat isn’t it ?

Child proof, spill proof, dust proof, bend proof, water proof, noise proof, need I say more? My child now sleeps in peace, while I work in peace. Both of us are not disturbed by each other.

My sincere request to technology product creators : Think, and Ease out our life with your products dudes!

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Technology, Staples, Marathahalli, Enter multimedia, Samsung, Logitech, Keyboard, Rubber, Foldable, Waterproof, Dust proof, Noise proof, Canon pixma mx308, All in one, Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax, Hong kong, India, Bengaluru, Bangalore, Blog, HP, Officejet, Wonderbox, Products, Technology