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Left for a MacBokPro and Back for Some Advice

post #1 of 12
8/10/08 at 4:36am
Thread Starter 
The last time I was being beaten up by your guys was about a year ago. I left, spent $3000 on a MacBookPro, tried to run a small business with it, and now, I need to go back to the most reliable, least amount of added crap on the notebook, and need some help with what is the best notebook for a teacher who seems to ruin every notebook I try to make work.

The last Lenovo T61 (I think) had so many registrations associated with all the crap that was added by third party companies, I could not get to the registration for the actual notebook. I also destroyed the machine because I could not get Vista. I was unable to get the hang of it and ended up with so much ad-ware, spyware, and crap like that which destroyed the machine.

Lenovo took it back and gave me a full refund, but can I get some serious help now. Please. I had the people who needed attention, the people who needed to knock all the newbies down, put down every question I asked, so I am hoping there might be a few "new" experts that can lead me toward some sweet, clean running machines, so I can finish my PhD, and start 2 classes I will be teaching coming up in 4 weeks.

I have a Canon MX700 multifunction printer that I love, lots of nutrition and exercise science teaching software, high speed and wifi internet, the touch-pad and I do not get along and I have zero idea where the world is with Vista, XP, XP Pro, or what people are investing in these days.

I know there is a form somewhere, but please some advice so I can start looking. My MacBookPro just burned (it was always super hot but I never got a fan to put under it. I am assuming that is what happened.

Thanks Tons in Advance!
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post #2 of 12
8/10/08 at 5:29am
The problem is that it's impossible to get a budget notebook that doesn't come with Vista....or crapware (trials, junk, etc). The only options you have are to install XP yourself, which you don't sound savy enough to do (I'm not trying to insult you), or just live with Vista.

To get rid of crapware, you have 3 options. Either try to uninstall it yourself from Add/Remove programs, reinstall Vista (see above comment), or take it in to Firedog @ Circuit City and pay them XX ammount to remove the crapware for you.
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post #3 of 12
8/10/08 at 6:35am
I recommend downloading cCleaner (free app), run it, and post a screen shot of your startup processes. With the inputs, and your own research of the processes functionalities, one can disable many of the startup processes and see how the system functions. Then the removal of the extra apps that you dont need. Then some performance tweakings. Then you'll be set

cheers ...
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post #4 of 12
8/13/08 at 3:34am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr/owned View Post
The problem is that it's impossible to get a budget notebook that doesn't come with Vista....or crapware (trials, junk, etc). The only options you have are to install XP yourself, which you don't sound savy enough to do (I'm not trying to insult you), or just live with Vista.

To get rid of crapware, you have 3 options. Either try to uninstall it yourself from Add/Remove programs, reinstall Vista (see above comment), or take it in to Firedog @ Circuit City and pay them XX ammount to remove the crapware for you.
thanks--
any feelings on a great notebook for a person who needs the "greatness" to be in the quality of the machine, power, speed, storage, not in the ability to play games in HD while riding a bike, but the $$$ goes to the quality of the machine. A sony I purchased is an example of a poorly built machine .
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post #5 of 12
8/13/08 at 3:37am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
I recommend downloading cCleaner (free app), run it, and post a screen shot of your startup processes. With the inputs, and your own research of the processes functionalities, one can disable many of the startup processes and see how the system functions. Then the removal of the extra apps that you dont need. Then some performance tweakings. Then you'll be set

cheers ...
last time I had a Dell & IBM notebook and tried to see what programs wee starting up upon boot-up, I did not understand many of the programs that were listed except Office and a few others. There must be somewhere a person can put that info and get names of programs they know what they are..
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post #6 of 12
8/13/08 at 4:06am
you can generally google the name of the application and there's tons of websites that'll tell you "good" or "bad". http://www.liutilities.com/products/...rocesslibrary/
You could also just tell us what's running and we should be able to give a yay or nay.

Quality is really a crapshoot between brands. For every love there is a hate. I think an extremely solid brand is Lenovo...the fact that they use the old-school black color scheme says a lot because black computers back in the day were built like tanks. (I love technology....I'm young and I get to say "back in the day" because tech changes so fast ) Lenovo is more of a business-brand so they naturally come with a larger price tag.

I personally use HP and am plenty satisfied with the quality. I have no doubt this laptop will last for another 3 years. But, HP bloats their computers a ton which wasn't a problem for me since I just reinstalled Vista and added XP anyways. And HP has a very fair price as well and is available in plenty of brick and mortar stores to boot.

Some brands I'd avoid just based off personal bias (remeber love/hate)- Acer, Gateway, Toshiba

Hope I'm answering everything you're asking but if I'm not lemme know.
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post #7 of 12
8/13/08 at 5:52am
Thread Starter 
I did purchase a Lenovo T61 15.4" (I think ) when they first came out. My friend talked me in to sending it back (Lenovo was going to take it back--no questions asked) and get a MacBook Pro. She could not talk enough about her Apple.

it has not performed or me and is caving in from my hands, has cracked which has led to one big crack and has so many "small" things wrong with it. I thought it was going to be able to held up my hans much better than it has. I sent Mr Steve Jobs an e-mail yesterday and a lady replied this am to my e-mail. She wants to have a talk on the phone.

Go figure...should be interesting.

I thought if you are a doc you must be fairly old. he-he

What is the best processor for notebooks now? I se there are mobile this and moble that, which was not a huge thing a year ago. The core 2 duo was it but it seems like there are so many more options for the mobile computers.
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post #8 of 12
8/13/08 at 5:57am
Nope on the dr. part (unless you were joking). My name is really is a 3 part interpretation: drowned (in homework and tests), dr. owned (gaming term), and droned (hacking term). You can see my location being a university so I figured it would cover all my bases/interests. Yeah, I patted myself on the back for coming up with a name that would have 3 possible meanings depending on who looked at it

Nope it's pretty much core2duo = king still today. There is centrino 2 which just means core2duo with intel wireless card and other "bundled" mobile stuff but that's it. Yes, there's the AMD Turion x2 but it's really only in low cost notebooks and doesn't have near the performance per ghz nor power savings as a core2.

In my opinion, Macs suck horribly, but I don't want to say that outloud or I'd get a bunch of mac fanboys jumping all over me.
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post #9 of 12
8/13/08 at 6:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr/owned View Post
...
In my opinion, Macs suck horribly, but I don't want to say that outloud or I'd get a bunch of mac fanboys jumping all over me.
ahem, *cough* *cough*
actually my likings for apple/mac stemmed from the day of programming (macIntosh as client, pascal, interfacing with HP midi machinces) and then later when attending audio engineering classes.

cheers ...
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post #10 of 12
8/13/08 at 12:30pm
pick a computer for the hardware- power, build, and feel. lenovo, business dell/hp, asus, apple.

don't get caught up over the software. that would be like hating a nice wallet because it comes with sample inserts of random photos. custom install and move on.
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post #11 of 12
8/13/08 at 2:27pm
Some resellers offer to give you the laptop, and then the OS cds seperately so you can install it yourself. And installing it really isn't all too difficult. For XP, at least, it's a matter of putting the CD in and repeatedly hitting "Next". That will give you a crapware-free install. Alternatively, if they install XP or Vista for you, and give you the CDs, putting the CD in the drive and installing it will overwrite the copy they installed, and all the crap that you don't want.

For good all around computers I've always been partial to Gateway. They build solid PCs that have a variety of uses, but it really is a personal preference.
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post #12 of 12
8/13/08 at 5:23pm
The problems for non-geeks with reinstalling is getting all the drivers back. I know Compaq gives driver discs but that's probably a courtesy that not everyone gets.

qhn- yeah, I think I was a little too young to be appreciating those parts of macs
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