AV5500-EA1 Opinions/information needed

Hi,

Has anyone purchased this unit yet? I need a laptop for DVD viewing, web surfing, VERY light gaming, and the usual productivity applications (MS oFfice). I have some questions for you about this notebook;

1-How is the quality of the LCD? I was very dissapointed by the quality of the Averatec 12.1 LCD I saw in store at Sam's Club, it was washed out and very dependent upon the angle which you are viewing it from.

2-How are the built in stereo speakers? Are they tinny or do they sound OK? I am buying a laptop primarily for DVD viewing and would like decent speakers. Most portable DVD players sound like AM radios, I hope this laptop is better. For reference I thought the speakers in the 12.1 Averatec left a lot to be desired.

3-I am not a huge gamer but would enjoy a game here and there. Does this machine have enough power for some basic gaming? I know that cutting edge stuff will choke it but what about in general?

4-Finally how long does the battery last and how long does it take to charge?

Thank you very much for any insights you can offer.

docprego

 

Hi Docprego,

Amazon has a review on their website
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006H5I3Q/qid=1103640094/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl147/104-8883405-9058338?v=glance&s=pc&n=507846

Their price is also very good i.e $829 before $150 rebate i.e $679 AR
Also no tax and no shipping charges (at least for me)
Also I purchased an Amazon Amex 25% off coupon on ebay which reduced the price further to around $529 AR

I was in the market for something larger and with a good graphics card a a low price, but I couldn't justify it in the end. So I went ahead and bought this - mainly to use to surf the web, Microsoft apps and to burn cds.

I don't know that much about the quality of the product and whether I'll keep it long term, but when I get it and if I get a chance I'll send in a review

But to be honest at that price, I think it's worth taking a gamble
You can always ebay it later

ttyl
- richard

 

Ordered this notebook (AV5500), while waiting for it, requested some information about memory from their costumer service, and look, that I've got - very interesting http://russtone.ru/av5500/av5500specs.pdf, waiting for it badly, will try to start writing a review as soon as I get it!
HAppy Holidays!

 

Hi all, I've had mine for a week or so and
so far so good. Very happy. I tested all the ports
USB, FW, card reader, Ether port, S-VHS. Only thing left to
test is the internal wireless which I'll try today at a friends.
I did add 512MB memory from Crucial as directed by AVT support.
I use them all the time anyway. Very easy to install.
Screen is bright. Keys easy to hit. Battery life is good. DVD
playback works very well. Plays/accepts DVD-R,DVD+R so far.
Sound is a little tinny. Still getting used to Synaptics
Glide point mouse. As this is my first laptop.[ ]
Speedwise it's acceptable, not planning on playing Doom3.
It seems the mobile Sempron is targeted at/to mainly preserve
battery life. Makes sense.
It runs PS Elements2.0, Adobe Premiere Elements, Canon Zoom Browser EX without a hitch.

Ok, enough babbling.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the unit.

BillAVT [ ]

 

2 questions!!

Whats the HEAT on this unit like? WHere are the hotspots and how hot does it get etc??

How long IS the battery life? Can you watch a full dvd movie on it before it goes dead????

 

Got my 5500 recently and on the whole I'm satisfied. But my expectations to be honest were fairly low, since I wanted something cheap to do some web browsing and some light Photoshop work and to sync with my MP3 player

Positives
- Screen is bright. No dead pixels
- Excellent vfm. Bought mine with rebates and certificates for around $530
- Wasn't overloaded with junk software

Negatives
- Wireless signal strength is not so good. I don't know how to measure the strength but invariably I get a low-very low signal to my router upstairs. My other laptop (old Compaq 906US) gets a stronger signal. So have resorted to using a USB wireless adapter, and it's much better
- Trackpad buttons are not very ergonomic i.e small and not angled. I didn't think much of this beforehand, but unless my fingers are hovering over the buttons themselves, I find that I'm 'hitting the bar' between the trackpad and buttons themselves. It's a small point, since I can use an external mouse, but I like to surf on my lap. Might just get a trackball mouse and this won't be an issue
- Still trying to get used to the Trackpad and despite changing speed settings, I'm not as precise as with other trackpads. But again perhaps minor point and I'll get used to this in time or just use the trackball mouse

 

Hey BillAVT. I am very interested in that amazon deal (how can someone resist?!) and i am curious about the battery life. How long does it last? Also around 6.8lbs i would say that it's not that light. In the pictures it looks very thin. Is this how it looks in real too?

 

My only complaint with this laptop is that I never see it max out at 1.8GHz. It's always at 800MHz or 400MHz (Checked using "view system information" in XP). So is this because I'm not taxing my system with CPU intensive loads? Others have complained simlarly on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B0006H5I3Q/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/102-3067363-2489717?%5Fencoding=UTF8&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc

"Nice budget laptop, similar problem with processor speed mentioned in other review, runs 800 mgz full capacity of AMD Semperon 2600 should be around 1800 mgz. I called Averatec, and basicaly got no answer . Also don't like LED's under left typing hand. I gave it 4 stars becasue of these 2 problems. I have read that Semperons use " 800mhz hypertransport" architecure?? what ever that is, and that power increases as needed. If that is the case I wish Averatec would get up to speed on their product and maybe provide a bios upgrade?"

I tried the power management stuff in the control panels to no avail. Anyone with a similar problem or have a solution?

 

Did you try to stress the processor, say with some divx encoding, or the Pi tool that I have seen ppl using in this forum? There is also a small program that comes with MBM5 (motherboard monitor 5) that stresses the cpu in order to check the speed, fans and temperature.

If after all that you still get the problem, check in BIOS settings, maybe you will find an option regarding this. I know the laptop has that button that slows the CPU in order to slow down the fans (=less noise) so maybe you can disable this whole fundtion in BIOS to get the most out of your Sempron.

Personally, I like this feature, since my computer habbits don't need much of a cpu and I like quiet in my apartment or when I go to bed with the laptop on. I think that if you look around you will find a way to disable this (I think a reviewer in amazon found a way).

About another reviewer in amazon who was disaappointed because it couldn't play games, I am sure that if he had noticed the features of this machine earlier he would have saved the disappointment (it was pretty obvious that the graphic card could not support any new games).

In about 10 days I am going to have my AV5500 and I will be able to help you more about the CPU issue.

 

Well I'm new to laptops and Windows in general. Just started playing around with MBM5 but I haven't found this "CPU hogging" program yet. As far as I can tell the BIOS has no such category dealing with CPU speed/Power consumption.

The 5500 manual can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-to-external-url/ref=mt_mo_view_43720/103-1748607-4387817?path=http%3A//media-server.amazon.com/exec/drm/digital/moleproxy.cgi%3Fname%3DQXZlcmF0ZWMgQVY1NTAwLUVBMSAxNSBOb3RlYm9vayBQQyBBTUQgU2VtcHJvbiAyNjAwIE1hbnVhbA%3D%3D%26file%3DTUFOVUFMMDAwMDYwNDgyLnBkZg%3D%3D&append-uid=no

So far I haven't needed all that speed so I'm am quite pleased. I just compile programs for a microcontroller and send it over via serial port and the laptop is a traveling engineering toolkit basically.

 

Well i am going to have mine soon so i will let u know. Abotu the program in MBM, u will find it inside the folder of MBM in Program Files

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by DoomX

 

I will have mine in 5 days [ ]. My gf that used the laptop a couple of times did mention that it's a little slow but i think the "slow" effect is due to the 256MB ram (- the GPU memory = 192MB). I used to operate WinXP on a 1GHz Celeron (and to be honest that was the most durable processor i have ever had) so I dont think 800Ghz will be an issue.

BUT I (and so do you) have payed for a Sempron 2600+ and I will do my best to see it working like one.

Did you call Averatec? What did they say about this? They CPU must be able to work at 1,6Ghz according to AMD.

I also found this on AMD website
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_11687,00.html
It's an updated processor driver (Dec04 instead of Nov04 that you can find on Averatec website) and maybe that can solve the problem, although I dont beleive it will. You could try it though, keeping in mind that updating a driver can also make things worse for you. When I get mine I will test this though if I am having CPU problems.

There are also these utilities that test the CPU (from AMD):
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_2364,00.html
I would use the first two ones and then contact AMD with the results.

I should also let you know that if the case is that Sempron pushes up when needed and it only starts with 800Mhz, then during power up the new speed won't be shown under System Properties but a tool that monitors the speed (or the clock) is needed. Maybe the tools I mention above from AMD will do. I haven't found on the AMD website any pdf regarding the normal function of the Mobile Sempron.

I emailed both Averatec and AMD and I am expecting their replies. I have a feeling that the CPU presenting as 800Mhz is nothing but a Windows misbehavior.
Has anyone tested the CPU with a CPU check tool or maybe a system chekc tool, like SiSoft or similar?

 

I checked and the laptop I am using now, a Compaq Presario 2140 with an AMD Athlon Mobile presents sometimes as 1,05Ghz / 1,45Ghz / 1,79Ghz (the latter is the speficied my AMD).

All these issues happen cause some AMD CPUs have this feature enabled (AMD PowerNow! Technology) that lowers the CPU when not in need. In my laptop and a friend's desktop (athlon 64bit) the feature is disabled when under the Power Options Properties > Power Schemes is set to "Always On".

Also I noticed that when the CPU works fast (tried SuperPi to stress my computer) both System Properties and CPUz (a freeware program) showed an increase in the speed.

Conclusion is, I am personally not interested in the CPU speed number that I see (meaning that maybe the Averatec bios is somehow faulty and is stuck to SHOWING 800Mhz even if changes occur to the speed) but the actually strenth of the CPU. The SuperPi will show me the potentials of my CPU and if that result is satisfying (less than 3mins for 2M calculation) I will be pleased and forget about this hoping that Averatec will release a bios update soon.

 

Microsoft is to blame for this one it seems. The CPU speeds seen in system info seems to be only 1/2 of what really goes on. When I see speeds such as 400MHz or 800MHz in reality it is 800MHz and 1600MHz (more like ~1500MHz), respectively, as seen in AMD's CPU monitoring utilities. The CPU driver on AMD's website is slightly newer than the one on Averatec's, but they are esentially the same as far as the mobile sempron is concerned. It is also curious that a recent reviewer of the 5500 claims that Averatec's CPU driver update solves the erroneous CPU speed reading in system info--it didn't fix that for me when I installed it. Anyway here's what the READ ME in AMD's CPU driver has to say about Window's problem with reading CPU speeds:

2) "System Properties" reports wrong processor speed.
For more information, please refer to the following website:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303602

3) The Processor speed may be reported incorrectly in Windows XP.
For more information, please refer to the following website:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316965

Although those links give the impression that there should be "slight" errors in CPU speed calculations. Being 50% off the mark is rediculous. Well at least I am slightly confidant that my CPU is no handicapped, but I am slightly peeved that the max speed is 1.6GHz and not the 1.83GHz claimed on amazon's website...oh well.

 

Did you try putting your laptop in Always On mode in the Power Schemes? Didn't that make your computer work in a constant speed? It did to the Compaq machine I am using now and I will test it on Thursday on the real thing.