The New Averatec Notebook PC (AV3250HX80)

Has Anyone seen the new Averatec with the dvd-rw drives? Im talking about the small 3200 series ones.
The basics: Mobile Athlon™ XP-M processor 2200+, 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive.

PowerNow!™ technology: This technology maximizes your notebook's performance with extended battery life and power when you need it. You get a powerful AMD Mobile Athlon™ XP-M processor and up to three hours (or more) of battery life.

Slim, mobile design: At around 4 lbs. and just 1" thick, it fits into almost any notebook case or portfolio.

DVD+/-RW/CD-RW: Work on multimedia projects on the road. Use it to create movies, music mixes, back-up files or watch DVDs.

Wireless: Built-in 802.11g wireless capability lets you roam while online, add to your wireless network and connect to public hotspots.

Graphics and sound: Built-in stereo speakers and the S3 UniChrome™ integrated video controller make all of your programs look and sound great.

 

They just updated the line yesterday...not sure if it's in stores yet, I have not seen it.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

This model look pretty good. I think everything is the same as the first model,except they exent the hard drive space and replace the combo drive with a dvd burner. I saw the model listed at circuit city for 999 after 100 rebate. Sound like a pretty good deal for the price and the specs. Hopefully the heat and battery issues will be resolved on this model.

thietlong

 

Hey. I saw this model, and kind made me feel regret about me buying the 3220H-01 from futureshop. Since it is the same price at futureshop. I will go exchange mine at saturday. I dunno if it is worth it tho. The only upgrade is 0.2mhz, and 20gig of hard drive upgrade.

Give some advise please.

Xin

 

If you can exchange it and not be out any money, why would you not?

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Thank you for your suppose Brian! those people at www.averatecforums.com said it morally wrong to take advantage of the warranty! seriously they are alreadying charging u like 200% of the money they spent making! i feel RIGHT doing it!

Xin

 

I agree with Brian, if u don't have to cough out anymore cash for the new one, then why not take advantage of the deal. After all, if you pay that much for the warranty, you may as way get all of its benefits then. Good luck with the return, and give us an update of how this model compare to your original one.

thietlong

 

THank you guys. On the other forum, people are so unsupportive. THey told me it is morally wrong to do that.

Xin

 

Ya i got then 3250, i feel ripped off. THe apperance is totally the same! It is nothing different, because now i see that the battery life is definatly shorter, i think it is because of the 0.2mhz difference? Ya i dunno why. maybe it is because of the battery's fault. Before mine shows 3 horus and 12 mins, now it shows 2 hours and 40 mins. I want my 32 mins back!!! Ya thats all, the video memory infact could be adjusted to 64mb, because it is the same integrated card. The processor performance will not be noticed at all. The design is abosultly the same, there is no question about that.

Xin

 

Circuit City's just added another $100 rebate, bringing the final price to $899 AR. Astounding! I just bought one. [ ]

 

I am just about to buy this machine from circuit city, so you all that have bought it - any idea about battery life and heat problems from the past? I see the keyboard is much more user friendly. Also what is the DVD RW speed, that is what I am really looking for.
I'm itchin' to get this machine.

 

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

 

What chipset is the wireless?

 

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

 

I bought the 3250 about 3 weeks ago and have the following comments:
advantages:
1) It's very good value
2) It feels and looks good
3) Very light. I carry it to work every day, similar weight to a computer manual.

disadvantages:
1) The screen is a bit washy as the other guy commented, but you do get use to it. (acceptable compromise at this price)
2) xp home - yuk.
3) Battery life is not good and the laptop get's hot - in other words same problems as previous models!! I switched it on today and checked battery life: 96% 2hrs 46 mins. After 1hr 10mins of hard use (SQL Server, asp.net, IIS, Excel) it went dead with no more battery life and my legs were noticeably warm! I might have a bad battery so plan to take it back this week.

summary:
I've owned/used several laptops and this is my favourite to date. If you need budget mobility this is quite hard to beat.

 

illcurite:

Interested in your post. I'd like to get a thin, light notebook for database app development: e.g. Delphi, .NET, etc. Don't play games and don't need it for watching DVDs. The 3250 looks great but I'm worried about:

XP Home vs. Pro
only 512MB memory
shared video (giving 480MB memory available).

Do the above impact your ability to use run IIS and SQL server, etc.? The fact that the machine gets warm doesn't bother me as much since I have a VAIO which also gets pretty hot.

I guess what I'm asking is if you would be kind enough to comment specifically on whether or not the Averatec is powerful enough to use for database development (not as a main machine but when you need to work off site).

Thanks.

=NLK=

 

Hi,

Just bought the 3250HX80: bought in Canada at Staples...the first one had a dead or stuck red pixel in the middle of the screen...took the decision to change it , and Staples replaced it immediatly with the second one they had in stock..the second is perfect for now...

Regarding the issue Win xp home vs Pro: for sure the Pro version was the real solution for me, regarding the use of the laptop at work...NOTE: the wifi card is a Ralink not Broadcom..and I had no problem afer I installed Win XP Pro...the last version of the driver is on the site of Ralinkk

Regarding memory: you can upgrade it to 1 Giga if you want..question of $$$ only...

If you compare Averatec with Sony: why spend $$$ in a Sony ????
Just maybe because the Averatec doesn't have an Svideo port or other multimedia ports ???? I bought an video adapter for the VGA port to plug on TV...works fine...

 

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

 

[/quote]

Hi,

Do you have any problem for you to install the Windwos XP pro version? I had tried for serveral times to install in on model 3250H. It seems missing GETIN**.DLL file and stopped. I have to use the recovery disk to recover it. Do you have any idea?

By the way, what name of the video adaptor to connect TV set? How much was it? Thanks!


[/quote]


Regarding the video adaptor, it can be found at

http://www.grandtec.com/ultimateEZ.htm

For Windows XP PRO: I did a fresh install , means formating the hard-disk during the install, and worked fine after the install. For sure , Wifi drivers and the all specific drivers must be installed afer: for the wifi and the all drivers, before the install I prepared a CD with the all drivers from Averatec, bios update included.

 

Hi NLK,

Replying to your question...

Sounds like you have very similar needs to me. The laptop is fine for DB development, the battery just gets killed quick, so you'll get about an hour of heavy use. I've been onto the helplines this morning and the the 'official' line seems to be that 1 hour is acceptable under heavy DB use. (my VAIO gave me more under the same conditions). However, I'm getting another battery this week and I'm gonna test that to see if it's the same. I'm still happy to spend another £100 on a second battery because I'm satisfied with the laptop.

A few words on XP home. If you need IIS, you'll want to upgrade to XP pro. You can hack about with windows 2000 dlls to get it working on home but I wouldn't bother...

I had the same problems running the XP pro upgrade as these other guys. You'll need to reformat the disk and do a fresh install (which I've always found to be the best solution anyway) and then reinstall the missing drivers.

 

illcurite:

Thanks for taking the time to post a reply.

Frankly, I'm not sure whether I'll have IIS on that machine or on one of my desktops on the LAN, or if I'll need SQL Server, etc. I just don't like to spend $1100 (which IS a lot of money in an absolute sense) and find that I should have gotten XP Pro. But the price of the Averatec combined with its size is very attractive. I was looking into perhaps an HP 5000 model with the Athlon which I might be able to swing but it's just so.....BIG.

I have XP Pro to install (it's legal, from a Universal subscription ) but it sounds like Averatec doesn't want to know you if it didn't come from the factory. I can do a fresh install; I just know that Sony never supplied XP drivers for my Vaio Z505 so I was stuck with Windows98 and I don't want to be in the same position here with XP Home. Also the 512MB limit is worrisome. But if you're saying that the drivers ARE available and the upgrade is doable, I'm sold.

Again, thanks.

=NLK=

 

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

 

I just purchased the Averatec AV3250HX with all the specs as previously noted -- only 3 hours old so far. I read ALL reviews GOOD and BAD (THANKS NoteBookReview!!!). So far, so good -- no problems. I will keep everyone updated.

-JayRizzo
Detroit, MI

 

I don't know ya'll. I think if laptop magazine gave it their editors choice award, there has to be something to that. I went to Circuit City to try it out, it had been on All day and was NOT uncomfortably hot. It was cooler than my 12" powerbook used to be. I ran a dvd while I was there both in wide screen, AND in regular mode, and it played fine. granted the sound was a little low from the speakers, but then I use headsets anyway, so no big deal. I trust laptop magzines testing, and I KNOW that the previous version of this laptop did NOT do well. but hey, 512Megs of ram,80 GBHD, Wireless,64 meg video ram (shared granted) and a dvd/cd burner, For 999? I think it is worth it. I think the keyboard might take some getting used to ,I have big hands, but hey, so did the powerbook. and You CAN update the ram to a gig. as to XP pro, has ANYONE just done an Upgrade? does it effect any of the drivers. If you need fast, light, and fun, this is the way to go. I am NOT developing on it, I am using it on the road to connect to the office, watch movies, and web search. I think it will be fine for that. My acer travel mate 4001 was 100 more , has a 40 gig hd, and NO dvd burner. I say GO FOR IT

 

Regarding the XP pro upgrade: works like a charm..I installed it because of business connection needs.
Absolutly no problem during the install of XP PRO.
After I installed the all bunch of drivers from Averatec site, including the BIOS update: another time, no problem at all.
I found a new driver for the Ralink Wireless card from the Ralink website as mentionned in this forum: this version gives you a lot of information on your wireless connection: works number one.
I updated the video drivers from Viaarena website and still no problem.
My only little problem was: how to set the Num-Lock by default to OFF. I found on the net a work-around in playing with the registry key and now it's perfect, no more Num-Lock at the boot-up.

The only thing I would like to have or to find is: how to set the wireless ON by default when I boot ??????
I tried different configuration and every time I have to activate it manually.

Regarding the 'hot' issue: sorry guys but I had before a 3150HW and I find the 3250 better, more better...maybe i'm the only one....

I understand that some users complain about keyboard, about missing expansion slot, BUT GUYS, remember for the price you paid you won't find better on the market now.

 

Do anybody have any idea when they will ship those 3250 with XP Professional? Can anybody comment on the suitabilty of the machine as a laptop to bring to client's home to eliminate virus/spam and cleaning up their PC? I am on a shoestring budget so I am looking at the AV3250PX. How about its reliability? I do not want to scarifice reliabilty for price. Averatec has not been around for that long and the warranty is only one year.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by slam5

 

Do you know where I can buy AV3250HX80 with the best price? I saw AV3250H1 for about $700, but this model does not have a DVD burner.