SEMC's 8790 Review - Page 2

I seem to have avoided many of the problems G-Omaha is experiencing. I have Linksys wireless G router and am using the internal wireless G card without any problems. The signal strength is great all throughout my house and outside on the porch too. In fact, outside I am picking up no less than 5 different and completely unprotected wireless signals. Gee, if I knew it would be that easy to surf the web for free, I wouldn't have purchased my cable internet service. I'll keep it anyway, just because my signal is so much stronger than the others (48db v 15db or lower).

I now believe that I am the only one in my entire neighborhood that knows anything about computers or networks. I would only take one ignorant dumbass to come through my neighborhood in a car and he/she could wipe out or infect a lot of networks. I don't know how to make WPA work, but at least I use WEP 128 with a really long key.

I haven't run down the battery yet, I'll have to give it a try. I have kept it plugged in constantly since I got it Wednesday (except for a momement ago when I walked around my house and outside to test the signal strength). While walking around for about 15 minutes, the battery went from 100% to 60%. Odd, I was expecting the battery (12 cell) to last a little longer. I will do the DVD test tonight and watch Pirates of the Carribean.

The powerblock is much cooler now that I have placed it on a wire bracket that is suspending it about 5 inches off the table.

I ran a power-drain scenario. I stripped a DVD movie to my hard drive of mine to test the ability to run both DVD to hard drive transfers on batteries. It took 23 minutes for a 2.5 hour movie. The battery drain during this period was 1%/min exactly (I could time it, and did in fact).

I then ran PowerDVD and watched 50 minutes of the first DDR Project (dance music with anime clips to create a continuous animate music video collage). The entire project lasts about 1.5 hours. At 47 minutes the warning beeps started and the warning message started flashing. At 50 minutes, a continuous beeping occured. At 51 minutes, the machine stopped completely, the screen went black and it powered down instantly (no log of, no warning (well beeps were the warning), just off).

Afterwards, I was an idiot and tried to power it on again and the machine froze up, the lights turned on, the fans engaged, but the machine didn't boot, beep, nor did the screen light up. I tried pressing the power button, but it wouldn't power down again, even after plugging back in again. Then I grew a brain and remembered that the power switch is not a button, but a software controlled switch like a Mac is. I then remembered that to do an emergency override you hold it for about 20 seconds. The notebook then turned off.

I now have the notebook plugged in and charging. The notebook was set to shut down at either 3% or 4% (I forgot and the machine is off at the moment), and it did so correctly. The total time before emergency shut-down at 3% was 1 hour and 24 minutes. This is great battery life. I love having a 12 cell battery. I didn't do a complete discharge because I didn't want to damage the battery. I don't intend for the battery to discharge this much again, unless I am on my annual flight to overseas. I intend to keep it plugged in wherever I go (unplugged in transit otherwise).

It should be noted that these times and stuff is with the stock video card settings and no overclocking.

At the College of Charleston, the library lab has a wireless network where students could come and rent out a Dell notebook (with lots of buzzers and alarms attached inside of it that would set off loud alarms in the building and emergency shut and lock all exits if someone tried walking out with one or pieces of one) with a wireless PCMCIA card. The students abused the heck out of them and broke them constantly.

My point is, I like the screwed in battery type because there is no latch that will break/fail over time (at which point the battery will simply fall out). So with no means of securing it, then it renders the notebook useless until the frame/latch is replaced (say RMA with me). Okay, I will agree that I like the idea of modular bays, and swappable hard drives, batteries, optical drives, etc; but I also realize that the concept in practice falls far short of my expectations when I saw it in real life. The most useful feature of swappable bays is additional batteries. Okay, here's the problem, unless you are plugged in, when you pull the first one out to swap out with the second one, then the notebook dies. If you are plugged in, you don't need batteries anyway. Catch-22: can't swap w/out power, lose power if don't switch. That means I would have to shutdown all the way, stop what I was doing (if I can), and then re-insert new battery, and the start over again.

Give me screws. The only time the battery will be used is in powerloss situations (house power dead then I have time to shut down), and on 23 -35 hour plane rides and lay-overs in European Airports once a year. No battery, no matter who makes it or how big it is can last that long. Furthermore I would have to bring a suitcase full of batteries just to last just a section of the trip. Example: the second leg of the trip from Detroit to Amsterdam (7 hours on a good day). The third leg from Amsterdam to Dubai is 8 hours. Find me a battery that lasts that long and you will be a very rich man/woman.

Therefore, given the unlikely chance that I could afford to purchase enough batteries to last such a journey (and carry them - in case you haven't noticed lithium ion batteries are heavy), then I might as well let the battery die and be done with it. Who would I lan with on the plane anyway.

I might not understand here. Are you refering to that piece of crap black case that comes by default with the notebook? I only used it for the day it took for my Targus 315 Sport bag to show up. Thank you lord for making backpacks. My back is so thankful to have the weight evenly distributed across both shoulders. This thing is huge! It is almost 2 1/2 feet tall and has room for the 8790 and more to spare. I can fit all of my college books for each day in the secondary pouch and have room for the notebook in the padded pouch in the main compartment with the assesories distributed throughout. This is definitely the ultimate carry-on for me, no more rollers and broken wheels. I hope the bag lasts at least 6 months.

http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/

These? What would you do with them? That's dangerous, how do you prevent shorts? There is a reason why our unit's 931 A2 5-tons ground to the frame (and then back to the battery). What do you use a voltage regulator to keep the battery from spiking or over heating? Well, if it explodes, it's on you. The last time I accidentally dropped a screw-driver inside the battery box and it touched both terminals, it arced and half melted the screw-driver.

Potential Problem:

My powerbrick fan apparently has stopped working. It turned on at random intervals yesterday, but not today given identical usage. Furthermore, the battery reports 100% charge, but the battery light won't turn green (and the little battery marker icon won't change from charging symbol to cord symbol). This all happend today. Suggestions?

Adam, please help me out on this one.

should I leave it plugged in overnight or unplug it?

Ok, sorry about the spaz on the powerbrick. I suspected that after doing an almost complete battery drain that the battery would take longer than usual to charge. I unplugged the whole thing and let both the computer and brick cool down for an hour. Then, I plugged them in and let it charge overnight. This morning, the green light was lit (full charge). I am still concerned about the powerbrick fan though.

Further bits of info. The battery will charge while the system is under a light load, idling, and of course when it is off. However, the system does not charge the battery when under a heavy load such as gaming. I didn't notice this before, but I just got finished playing Beyond Good and Evil for about 5 or so hours. The battery had discharged an unknown amount throughout the day (left unplugged for a couple hours). If anything the battery remained at the same level after the game as it was before, maybe even lower. Now that the game off and I have the OC back down to 418x276 (stock speeds), the battery is charging back up quickly. I think that gaming must draw enough power to max out the powerbrick, because as soon a game starts, the brick's fan starts and it heats up a lot. The gaming power requirements must not leave enough "oomph" to charge the battery in addition to the machine at full power.

Suggestions for others. Let the battery charge, then game. That way the battery isn't working harder than it has to.