lowdown on the compal hgl30

hi diddly ho everyone.

I am looking at the Compal hgl30 and i am liking it a lot (and so do a lot of other people, after reading some threads). Could I have a pro's and cons list of the laptop? I've heard of some of the cons.. I.E. the keyboard flex, the fan issues (apparently fixed by a BIOS update).

I bought a Gateway MX7515, and it was not until 3 months later that the flickering screen issue, the slow USB speeds etc came out. I'd really like to know about problems like this BEFORE i buy it (doesn't everyone).

Also, is there a guide for taping the keyboard? if so, can someone give me a URL please? Thanks for everything guys, your help is always spot on

 

There you go:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1486697&postcount=329

and

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1487044&postcount=336

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1495163&postcount=392

 

Thanks for the links, Pureknight. That's very helpful. Nice to see my HEL80 in the spotlight again . Too bad it got caught with its shirt off .

The Compal HEL80 Owner's Lounge thread has some more detailed discussion if you need further instructions on doing the tape-fix for the keyboard. It will be right around the posts with the pictures.

There is also a Compal HGL30 Owner's thread in our forum that you can peruse for some user input.

Generally, it's not a bad idea to give a new system a little bit of time so that you can get some long-term impressions, etc. Especially if you're concerned about the little irritating drawbacks. But they don't always bother everyone.

 

ahh thanks guys. just some final questions:

could there be a hand rest squeaky issue with the Compal HGL 30? If i bought a bare bones kit, is there a way to reduce it?

is it possible to turn off the LEDs? (the status symbols, i.e. the hard drive usage light)

I've noticed theres two types of touch pads, totally smooths ones (which don't seem to enable your finger to glide across them as well), and rough ones (which seem to work awesome). Which one does the Compal HGL 30 have?

would I notice a big difference in games (specifically, Oblivion) by upgrading the stock T2400 to a T7200?

 

Mine doesn't squeak at all, or make any noises for that matter. It all seems very sturdy.

Not that I know of.

It's got a slight roughness to it. Seems pretty average.

There wouldn't be much of a difference; the bottleneck is still the GPU. Though with the T7200 you get the advantage of 64bit, which may come in handy later on. Load times might be reduced a bit, but overall the difference should be negligible.

 

dammit.. well when your building the laptop, is it possible to not connect the LED's? i sometimes watch movies in the dark, and those * LED's ALWAYS seem too bright

 

There's always black tape.

(edit) I was thinking of hte keyboard lights actually They're just little leds in the motherboard. Unless that was the other laptop... Anyhow, maybe the ones on the front have a similiar setup and you can just cover them up internally. I'd rather have them on though, and put something on top of them on the occasion I watch something in the dark.

 

There's also a fairly bright LED on the power button.

 

ooohhh.... i wonder if i can replace the LED's with green ones from radio shack... (i like green.. yeah i know im weird ) I guess i'll have to break out the multimeter. To anyone with some kind of electricity background, do green LED's have a higher, or lower voltage requirement than blue?

ahh never mind, the LED's in the board are probably integrated, and id definitely void any kind of warranty i would have

 

I guess it depends on your position and the position of the notebook when you're watching in the dark, but I'm able to completely tune the LEDs out when I'm using my HEL80 in the dark.

I am on a computer desk, and the notebook sits on the monitor shelf. But I focus on the screen even when I am using the notebook alone away from my desk.

 

My HEL80's lights are nothing compared to my new DLINK pre-n router.. OMG talk about bright blue lights... Feel like I need to bust out the Pink floyd when they get to flickering

 

I'd consider getting some mostly opaque tape (possibly just some scotch or masking tape on the lights as a whole, mark on it with a colored sharpie (not as dark as the black), let it dry and then cut it with an X-Acto knife to the size of the LED.), just to dull the light output. The LED's are almost certainly hard-wired onto the mainboard, and I personally hate disconnecting things like that because it's such a pain to re-connect them if you want it. And I've found status lights are handy many times. Extra info the screen can't/won't give you.

Just my $0.02