The Energon Pub

[Optimist_Prime]

One of my Christmas presents was a Dell XPS M1530. It finally arrived this week, and I set it up last night. I absolutely love this thing !

[Liege Evilmus]

Nice, even the picture of that picture is nicer than what I get off mine!

Enjoy it

[Bumblebee-otch]

that's rad, but i like my HP pavillion better!

[Omega Charge]

Cool! I got the laptop I'm using now, a Gateway, a few days before Christmas. I love it, and I enjoy the freedom of roaming away from the desktop.

[Cascadia]

Cool...another Seibertronian that received a new Dell laptop. Too bad I do not have a picture of mine but it is an Inspiron 1520 that is white and silver. But it looks very similar to this one

[Counterpunch]

Cool...another Seibertronian that received a new Dell laptop. Too bad I do not have a picture of mine but it is an Inspiron 1520 that is white and silver. But it looks very similar to this one

I just got the 1521...in yellow.

I call it Steeljaw.

[TheMuffin]

I would love a laptop....But you can't build one of those yourself. And the specs I want for mine would put it in the $3000 range. So a little above my affordable level at the moment. But congrats on the new one. If I absolutely had to buy a retail computer, it would be a Dell.

[Counterpunch]

I would love a laptop....But you can't build one of those yourself. And the specs I want for mine would put it in the $3000 range. So a little above my affordable level at the moment. But congrats on the new one. If I absolutely had to buy a retail computer, it would be a Dell.

My last Dell laptop went for 4 years with no problems.

Then it was stolen, which I suppose was a problem, but it wasn't Dell's problem.

[Moonbase2]

That's pretty nice. I've never had a laptop in my life. I guess I don't like using them that much. My desktop was expensive enough.

[DREWCIFER]

Cool...another Seibertronian that received a new Dell laptop. Too bad I do not have a picture of mine but it is an Inspiron 1520 that is white and silver. But it looks very similar to this one

That's the one I got my wife for graduating College. It's pretty nice; however, I'm having difficulty with installing wireless interweb. According to the Linksys rep, I have to contact my ISP to have them "unbridge" my DSL Modem, whatever the h&ll that means.

[Carnosaur]

very cool

[Cascadia]

I am on my 5th Dell computer and I have never had a problem with them. My last one ran for 5 years. In 1996, I got a chance to tour the factory and meet Mr. Dell himself.

[Just Negare]

I often wonder "man, NZL sux". Primarily because down here Dell is something you don't touch with a barge pole. But I've heard wonderful things from the ones overseas.

I love my ASUS though, that thing has more grunt then a horde of wild boars.

Of course, it has ants living in it.

Kudos on your electronic score!!

[Autobot032]

Beautiful laptop.

Sullied by Vista.

SHAME ON YOU!

SHAME!

...hang that head down. For shame. *shakes head*

[TheMuffin]

Beautiful laptop.

Sullied by Vista.

SHAME ON YOU!

SHAME!

...hang that head down. For shame. *shakes head*

Quite true. If you think it runs great now, it would run easily 1/3 faster if you had XP on it instead.

[Autobot032]

Beautiful laptop.

Sullied by Vista.

SHAME ON YOU!

SHAME!

...hang that head down. For shame. *shakes head*

Quite true. If you think it runs great now, it would run easily 1/3 faster if you had XP on it instead.

Indeed. I was joking about the shame thing, but the whole sullied part is 100% true.

I downgraded my cousin's C521 Dell Desktop to XP and it just *FLIES*

It's insane what a difference it makes. Granted, finding drivers can be an absolute pain for XP these days, but it's worth the work.

Even ME is better than Vista because it's been around long enough that it's compatible with more items than Vista and perhaps even more stable, because we're used to it being t3h suck. Vista's taken on a new level in that respect.

[Optimist_Prime]

Beautiful laptop.

Sullied by Vista.

SHAME ON YOU!

SHAME!

...hang that head down. For shame. *shakes head*

Quite true. If you think it runs great now, it would run easily 1/3 faster if you had XP on it instead.

Seriously? Is there a way I can get XP without paying up the @$$?

[Autobot032]

Beautiful laptop.

Sullied by Vista.

SHAME ON YOU!

SHAME!

...hang that head down. For shame. *shakes head*

Quite true. If you think it runs great now, it would run easily 1/3 faster if you had XP on it instead.

Seriously? Is there a way I can get XP without paying up the @$$?

You can get Windows XP Home Edition brand new, or used on eBay here:
http://tinyurl.com/yptjxp

You can get Windows XP Professional Edition brand new, or used on eBay here:
http://tinyurl.com/29mvob

I must say Professional is the better of the two. XP Home has limits. Pro will allow you to use the Remote Desktop to control other XP computers in the home so you could do repairs for family, etc. Administrative tools out the wazoo.

It might be $50-100.00 for Pro, but it's well worth it. All you need to do is go to Dell's website and download the XP drivers for the hardware and you're done. It's a bit of a time consuming process and you'll lose Vista's Aero interface, but what you gain is sooo worth it.

Good luck! If you have any questions, I'm sure one of us will be willing to help you as much as we can.

Also, find out what the motherboard chipset is (NViDIA, ASUS, etc) and download the drivers from them if possible. Dell does a nice job of providing drivers, but if you've got SATA/RAID, you'll need the drivers whle you're installing XP, otherwise it'll be a pure pain to do it the other way around. Not impossible, just irritating.

EDIT: Okay. I went to Dell's site and checked on your Laptop. there's three models with slightly varied specs, however, the NViDIA drivers are universal for all GeForce 8 series chipsets. And here is the direct link on their site for the video:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

http://members.driverguide.com/ <--- has the Sigmatel HD Audio drivers for XP and Vista.

But until I know the exact specs of your laptop, I can't get all of the drivers you'd need for XP.

There's a service tag (white background, black barcode 5-7 alphanumerical line) on the laptop somewhere (my guess would be right on the bottom of it, or under the battery in it's compartment, something.)

You you post or PM me that number (which won't personally identify you at all) I can get the exact specs of the hardware and dig up some XP drivers.

[Burn]

Even ME is better than Vista because it's been around long enough that it's compatible with more items than Vista and perhaps even more stable, because we're used to it being t3h suck. Vista's taken on a new level in that respect.

What a load of rubbish.

ME was the most bug filled version of Windows in creation.

I've used Vista from within a few weeks of it's release. I had a couple of problems at the start but NOTHING like the problems I had for the six months I ran ME. (Six months too many in fact, holy heck that was a bad OS.)

And no Autobot32, sorry to disappoint but i'm not on a crusade with you, or any vendetta to go around disagreeing with every single post of yours nor do I go looking to attack you, I simply seem to disagree with a lot of things you say. That's perfectly natural so you don't need to get up in arms about it.

Optimist - Give Vista a chance, if you find things a bit slow or you're having too many problems THEN look into going back to XP but don't go out and spend more money that you may not need to.

[Autobot032]

Even ME is better than Vista because it's been around long enough that it's compatible with more items than Vista and perhaps even more stable, because we're used to it being t3h suck. Vista's taken on a new level in that respect.

And no Autobot32, sorry to disappoint but i'm not on a crusade with you, or any vendetta to go around disagreeing with every single post of yours nor do I go looking to attack you, I simply seem to disagree with a lot of things you say. That's perfectly natural so you don't need to get up in arms about it.

Ya know? The post would've been fine, but that disclaimer of your's just wasn't necessary. This is why I have problems with you. Just gotta have the last word when something wasn't even started to begin with. Have you ever heard of letting something go? Even temporarily? Keep that crap in another thread or PMs. Don't address it here again, and stick to the topic at hand. DROP. IT. NOW.

[Counterpunch]

I <3 Vista.

4reals.

[TheMuffin]

Well that is confirmation that you're crazy. AKA Batshit insane.

[Shadowman]

There are a few things in Vista that I can't give up at this point.

The ability to merge folders, for one. The ability to jump from one directory to another, from the folder's sidebar.

[Burn]

Well that is confirmation that you're crazy. AKA Batshit insane.

In time you will rejoin us. The ranks of Vista Users will once again be graced by your presence.

And when that time comes, we shall give you .... a cookie.

[Tekka]

I haven't seen a significant speed drop from XP to Vista Basic. But then I don't use them all that much.

Crysis still runs at full speed, so that's all that matters.