What to do first?

This thread serves two purposes for me:
1. I just got my tracking info for my laptop! I should be getting it on Tuesday! Yay! It's a PowerPro J 10:15

2. I wanted some suggestions as to what I should first. I figured I would pop in my 2GB stick that I have here, then fully charge the battery. Double check everything was working and checking temps and what not.

Then I was planning to follow the Tweakguides.com optimization guide for Vista, as I have never done an optimization of Vista, and I assume it greatly differs from XP.

Anything else I should do? I wasn't going to take pictures or anything since I figured a bunch of people have theirs already, but I will if anyone wants me too.

 

I installed CCleaner, Firefox 2.0, AVG & Zone alarm. Stopped Automatic updates, Got rid of the stupid confirm delete on recycle bin, stopped system restore. Updated the system with all updates. Enabled Dual core on XP and basically went with the notebook optimizer thread and got rid of services that I didn't use. Black vipers website is a good one for figuring it out!

 

Black viper is still around?? what's his website, the old one?

 

Whenever I reformat, I go to IE and download Firefox, then I go about setting up my usual suite of antivirus and antispyware software. I'll do the same when I get my NP2090.

 

Congrats on the new system.

After having a clean install of Windows, get these:

The programs that are a must (and free):
Firewall: Zone Alarm Free Version or Kerio Personal Firewall
Anti-Virus (freeware): avast! 4 Home Edition or BitDefender or AVG (only had an issue with Clevo M570U)
Anti-Virus (commercial): (never Norton and McAffee) NOD32 or F-Secure or Avira
Adware/Malware Removers: Ad-Aware SE, Spybot, AVG Anti-Spyware
Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox 2 (w/ extensions: IEtab and Adblock)
Office Suite: OpenOffice (its the free alternative to MS Office 2003 Pro)
Media Player: Media Player Classic or VLC and/or WinAMP
Media Codecs: K-Lite Codec Pack, Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative (way better than installing the players, its the codecs that can play the video files on ANY media player).
DVD Backup software: RipIt4Me (requires to have DVD Decrypter and DVDShrink.. both are free)
Image Viewer: IrfanView
Image Editor: GIMPshop or Paint.NET
File Archiver/Zip Utility: 7-Zip (free) or WinRAR (shareware though)

Other Utilities (amazing and freeware):
Video Conversion Program: "Super"
Video Editing Software: VirtualDub (w/ vdfilters)
Audio Editing Software: Audacity
CD/DVD Burning Software: CDBurnerXP Pro or Nero (shareware... but most systems come with full OEM version)
Registry Cleaner: EasyCleaner
Trojan Scanner/Remover: AVG Anti-Spyware (ewido)
Rootkit Scanner: Panda Anti-Rootkit or BlackLight
Email Client: Mozilla Thunderbird
FTP Client: FileZilla or SmartFTP
BitTorrent Client: Azureus or uTorrent
Download Manager: Star Downloader or Free Download Manager
HTML Editor: NVU / KompoZer
Sticky Notes Utility: ATnotes

I got much more.... tell me if you want more freeware. I have collected and tried out thousands of programs.
And you know me, I like bang for the buck... even if its free... it has to be good.

_______________________________

Remember these things to have your notebook be healthy for years:

1) Battery: to maintain the longevity of any rechargeable battery
- you must NEVER overcharge it [especially for long durations of time] by keeping it plugged into AC
- when it reaches 100% you should unplug it and let it discharge to 5-15%, then plug it back to power
- OR you can just charge it to 50%+ and remove the battery and store in cool place [remember to use it occasionally to charge and discharge it].

2.) Heat: to prevent a healthy notebook from overheating
- ALWAYS use the notebook on a hard & flat surface
- RECOMMENDED to be used on a notebook cooler... namely the Zalman ZM-NC1000
- check your fans underneath occasionally (at least once a month) for any dust clogs [clean them out with Q-tips and air cans/compressors]
- ALWAYS monitor the temps (CPU, GPU, HDD, etc..) to watch for fluctuations, which would indicate overheating

By doing these simple things, your entire system will easily last for more than 3 years.

 

First thing you should do when you get your laptop is give it a nice, BIG kiss.

 

Wait, I'm confused about the battery. That would be a huge hassle to keep plugging it out every half hour if you want to have a gaming session. Is it really that bad to keep it plugged in? The laptop that I'm using now (Inspiron 5100) is about 3 years old, and has been plugged in almost all of its lifetime. It still has 3 hours of battery life when out of the plug. Got lucky?

And write a review. I need a review. Nobody has reviewed it, which is very surprising to me.

 

There are some reviews floating around. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Though personally I'll be using NOD32 for my AV and mostly live off Windows Firewall and my router firewall, won't really be using the wireless in too many other places, and I perfer opera over firefox myself. I will deff check all the other stuff, and Gophn, I think every time I see you post it's that awesome battery post!

You get rep for that!


Oh and I guess I will take some pictures and do at least a short review since one person asked me to, good enough reason right? Heh.

 

If you do a full review, you will get paid.

 

K-Lite codec pack is way old school

Combined Community Codec Pack <---



Also, if that's a saved list you have, add

Image Editing: Gimpshop, Paint.NET

 

huh... im confused.. u have to enable it?

 

Read this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

XP (32-bit) requires a small hotfix and registry entry to get Windows to properly utilize multi-core/processors/logical processors.

Vista (all versions) do not need anything... its already optimized for that,

 

I added more to my list.

If you want anymore freeware, I would be happy to share my extensive list with you.

 

This is a great list. Thanks.

Is what Otakumark said about Combined Community Codec Pack true (it takes the place of the codec downloads you have)?

In your opinion, would the options you mentioned for every category be interchangeable with one another (like avast! 4 Home Edition or BitDefender or AVG)? Is one of these better than another? How are they compared to the commercial ones?

 

This is getting bookmarked for when I get my lappy in.
Thanks everyone!
=D

 

Just picked up one of those off of newegg.

I will also stress the point of keeping your notebook dust free. Once it gets to a point where it is out of control and causing heat problems its a pain to get in there and clean, so its just best to keep the system dust free as possible.

 

I too am a little confused about the charging situation, with the quick charge button. Does it automatically charge to 100%, then when it reaches 50% charge back up again? Or do I manually have to monitor the battery levels and unplug it when necessary? I read somewhere that the laptop learns your usage and charges accordingly, is that true?

 

So I never did end up being able to review anything, which is too bad I could have gotten paid Probably be little use in doing a real review once I get my notebook.

I'd like to say thanks again though, there is a good chunk of information in here in what to do with your notebook when you first get it, even if it isn't the 2090.


About the battery, it's simple really. You let it charge up and you just try and make sure it doesn't stay full charged and plugged in for a long time, unless you are actively using it for something extensive. Then you are too fully charge it once it's nearly empty.

Unless you want to not use the battery at all, in which case you do a full charge/discharge once, and charge half way and store. Then taking it out every month and charging/dischargig.

The easisest thing to do is just fully chage and discharge through normal usage. At least that's how I understand it.

 

Scavar, you can still do it if you want to. I dont think anyone that has the laptop as of now wants to do it. but if you want to you should go for it.

 

I don't have it though heh. I HAD an FL90 with a broken screen. Wrong model and broken screen, so I'm back to waiting for the proper version and without the broken screen.

If by the time I have it though no one's done any reviews I'll see about doing it. Either way I'll at least be taking pictures.

 

I'd like to but seeing that I live in California (so its going to take about 3-4 days longer than the other Sager pre-order people), being a kid out of high school going to college and with a 3 year old digital camera that has horrible shutter lag
I'm going to try but who knows.

 

People in Cali are getting their 2090s 3-4s later? What?

Dammit. ><;

 

It's because if you'd like to avoid sales tax, like a lot of us Californians are, then it has to ship to an out-of-state reseller and then reshipped back to your doorstep. Unless you want to pay sales tax, there's no way around this unfortunate inevitability.

 

is this delay before or after it ships?

 

Quick question: when you first get a laptop, or any rechargeable device, should you run down the factory charged battery or plug it in to fully charge?