Things to do after your BRAND NEW laptop comes in

Can you guys help me with a checklist?

All i know is that i need to first

a) recharge the battery, then kill it, then charge it all the way up again (i forgot what it's called)

also, i'm getting a Dell, my friends say that their dells came with like a bunch of 3rd party programs and crap, i'd like to get rid of that. thanks a lot!!

 

calibration i believe.

here is my list:

a dead pixel check
a reinstall of the basic os without all the installed junk.
a full windowsupdate or yum to get the latest updates.
a 12 hour memtest86+
at least couple hours of prime95 in torture mode (on both cpus simultaneously if dual core)

 

If you don't get recovery discs, make them.

 

I'm expecting a Samsung X65 in the next few days and after i've checked it over i will:

Replace the 5400 RPM HDD for a 7200 RPM
Peplace the 2 x 1GB sticks with 2 x 2GB sticks
Install Vista HP 64-bit and updates
Battle my way through driver issues
Install all my software and transfer my user files from my old machine.

 

That's a little excessive right there. All systems are burned it for like 72 hours before shipping, so it's already stable.

Plus, if your system is indeed unstable, normal operation will unveil those flaws anyway. No need to go thru hours and hours of hardcore torture.

If this was a brand new desktop that you put together yourself and overclocked, then those steps are very necessary indeed. But for an OEM machine, laptop no less, that's a little overboard IMO.

 

I agree with adinu on this everything else you suggested is fine but these last two are hardly necessary with a new OEM notebook. Plus prime95 is really used for stability testing like after you have overclocked or undervolted your notebook, and not used if you are just running your notebook stock from the factory (where it would have been tested). I also agree that if there was anything wrong with the a brand new notebook you wouldn't have to use such extremes to find it.

 

I would, in addition to all the stuff already mentioned, get some scheduled backup system in place. With Windows, you never know when you have to suddenly reformat your system

 

The problem with that statement is that with some of the issues posted in these forums when people when they turn their "new" systems for the first time, it's difficult to believe they've been even tried before let alone a 72 hour burn in. It also took 5 days for me from putting the order in to shipping so again it's difficult for me to believe that they spent 3 of those days with burn-in. It maybe a little too much but I leave my systems running over night with simulations so I'd rather know that the system can handle it when i get it the first time instead of finding it out later.

 

While that's a very valid statement for you, I'm just saying that not everyone on here, or that purchases is a laptop is a power user that needs all that.