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I am loving the NHC thanks mgl for suggesting it!

Overall tho after almost 2 weeks of owning this and using it for hours everyday so far it has a few minor quirks -

The cd tray is touchy pops out with slightest touch for me and is located next to the power cord so everytime I go to unplug it opens tray or when I go to eject a cd power cord is somewhat in the way (wish it was on the back vs side).

Touchpad cursor snaps me off my sentence (jumps around) when my left thumb taps it by accident in typing (even went in and checked disable touchpad while typing), have been reading many touchpads are this way, so I am trying to re-train that thumb to stay UP.

Battery life - well it could be better but I did reduce a few settings for max battery life and I do keep the cord handy and am getting just shy 3 hrs out of it before I get the warnings of 10% left and have to re-plug in, if it were closer to 4 hrs I would be happier but 3 isn't horrible I guess and if I pushed it to 2% or something I could probably get 3 hrs 15mins or so out of it.

Loving the screen crisp bright beautiful (I turn mine all the way down brightness wise) and it is STILL very crisp and bright.

Dig the keyboard and layout feels good and have done well with it.

Haven't used any ports except a usb for my cooler pad and the power jack.

Burns dvds great tho and plays them well too.

Looking forward to reading others reviews on the 3450 and hope I can learn to get around the touchy cdrom and touchpad issues mentioned above with time and practice/use.

Bill

A little update after using this beast for just over a month....

Thought my review might earn a sticky but guess not....


Anyways,
still workin like a champ, fans are ULTRA quiet and rarely kick on, seems I only get a fan to kick on when I first boot for like 4 seconds and when I change video modes, beyond that have surfed, photoshoped, emailed, webdesign/edited, even made a few dvds on it, all without any fans that I felt or heard kick on.

My only complaints after a month of really breaking it in are with the touchpad (hours - ok too many hours) almost every night I have used it a good 2-4+ hours after dinner on lap in livingroom.

That darn touchpad is driving me nuts, if I type and even barely touch it it jumps the cursor to another sentence, (regardless of me checking the box for disable touchpad while typing), also can't seem to find a happy sensitivity spot, it either jumps around like a scared cat or I am thumping it to respond (again trying all sorts of sensitivity settings in options menus).

Lastly and this is probably software related, my junker old gateway 9500 scroll had this cool tap and it would allow you to with your finger from center of touchpad scroll down vs using the side scroll area part, this 3450 side scroll area just is a bit hard to use vs that old gateway, sorta like my mouse, when I click within a text block i could then scroll with the wheel down the page vs using the browsers side scroll frame.

So far I haven't seen any option like this on the 3450 and I didn't realize how much I miss it till I switched over to the 3450 and now when I want to scroll down I have to use that side scroll area and its sorta touchy, seems like the very right side of the touchpad doesnt do anything so you have to run your finger down the white line lane to get the scroll down to work, minor i guess but sorta annoying.

Beyond all that tho fast fast fast (even with only 512 ram, havent upgraded that yet), quiet unit overall, keyboard great, sound so so, touchpad not diggin it so much, but goin strong!

The Elantech touchpad drivers are crap. I uninstalled them and installed the Synaptec touchpad drivers, now it works great.

Guer,

Despite the fact I am 38, tell me like I am a 4 yr old, what do I do to try other drivers or whatever it is that might help me get along with this touchpad a bit better?

I will admit I am pretty stupid when it comes to changing stuff like that but sure will give it a shot.

Bill

Go to the Start Menu | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Remove "KTP Ware ..."

Then 2 options:

A) Reboot and Wndows XP will install the generic XP drivers, these work great.

B) Visit http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm and Download the Windows XP driver. Then just install them.

sweet thanks I am gonna try this tonight once I have time to sit down with the laptop after daughter goes to bed.

I still need to buy a real laptop backpack or case or something, im sticking mine in my normal backpack and its freakin me out a bit (no real padding), so thats next on the list - getting a good backpack or case of some sorts.

Bill

Well I did uninstall the original touchpad, installed the synaptics rebooted configured it and it IS better in terms of moving the mouse around (yet I still get that cursor jump thing when my thumb touches the pad as I type), I tried both ways xp loading basic drivers and also loading in the synaptics drivers.

Control of the touchpad IS better with both the xp version and synaptics versions but I am bummed i still can't just click in a text box and scroll down without using the side scroll feature, I dont know what my gateway had but it was super nice i could click in the center of any page and a small circle would appear and allow me to drag down anywhere in the touchpad to scroll downword.

The only other blah thing on this switch over (tried both versions saw no option for it) was top left and right corner options, I used those for back and forward in web browser, but on both of these other installed versions I see no options for assigning any corner button options.

Overall tho yes basic touchpad functions DO work better than with the original drivers for the mousepad Alienware issued, maybe in the future they will improve the touchpad drivers/software or whatever and I can go back to it and try it again someday soon.

Thanks for the idea to do this though,
Bill

This touchpad DOES have the scroll ability you're talking about. Tap two fingers on the touchpad, voila, circle scroll. Tap 3 figners and it's the same as a right-click, displays the context menu.

Guer,

Man I musta missed that, which version are you running the synaptics?

I only messed with that version about 5 mins then uninstalled, rebooted and let windows instal default basics for it, then i used it for a good 20 mins or so but never saw or was able to scroll except side bar (like original drivers did).

It is possible if its in the synaptics i just didnt tap fast enough or tick some box in settings, i do remember it showed wheel mouse or other device in the setup of synaptic menus i picked other device, maybe if i stuck with wheel mouse that feature would work.

Im a dork ill admit it, but trial and error will get me there later tonight when i sit down to use it.

Bill

Tapping with 2 fingers to scrool and 3 for a context menu is available with any of the drivers installed. You just have to have all 2 or 3 fingers tap at once.

hehe ok, see im learning stuff everyday thanks again for your patience with me on all this and answerin questions of mine often.

Bill

I can't even OPEN page one of my review thread here I keep getting


Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 1072263 bytes) in /var/www/sites/www.notebookforums.com/html/forums/includes/functions.php(4259) : eval()'d code on line 76

Weird when i click ontop of the new forum look on VIEW OLD SITE, I CAN see the page one part of my review and pics, yet in the new look for the forums (which I don't like somuch) it gives that error above.

Guessing a bug or something over on the new look design?

Looks like it might have been a bug. I use the newist version of Firefox and I can see your first page without any issues right now using the new and old site designs. Might have been a small bug for the time being.