FF:QLD QldFF Techie Thread

Wow, very nice indeed. Sexy piece of kit.

 

Excellent - my lappy has approval.

The Lappy 386 weighs in at an impressive 15 kg, and has a battery life of one half of 15 minutes...

 

"And then there's the lappy, which rules over all technology with a 42 pound, allegedly portable fist."

 

Well, the Lappy is mine, and I was preparing to laugh maniacally and stuff, but Vista is thwarting all of my efforts to install XP.

I'm baffled really as far as what to do goes - the ASUS site instructions seem tailored for certain recovery discs, and I quite frankly only have my install disc for my version of XP. *flails*

To be honest, I'm feeling very intimidated by vista at the moment.

 

All i need to say is....

1.5 TB of Network Storage is definately the Win, espically with a 50gb a month ADSL2+ connection

 

Morgan:

1) Go into the BIOS and ensure that the laptop is set to boot from the CD-ROM first.
2) Insert the XP disc, turn the machine on, and when it tells you to press any key to boot from the CD, do so.
3) Follow through the steps to format the drive and install Windows.
4) Once the system is on, track down XP drivers for all necessary hardware.

It will work, trust me. They don't give you instructions on how to do it on official tech support sites because they don't want people to do it. They want you to use the restore CD because it makes the support process very easy on them (and, to be fair, on you as well). They don't have to train phone operators to talk people through installing an OS, only in activating the restore process.

If you need help, let me know. If I've got a free evening sometime next week, I can come over and help. I've performed so many Windows installs in the past year I can do it in my sleep.

 

I'm not completely silly, I have installed Windows before.

I have been able to get to the windows install screens and whatnot - when I click to install, it tells me I don't have any hard drives.

What I've been reading up says I'm probably going to have to make a slipstream windows install with the SATA drivers in so it actually recognises the hard drives being there, seeing as I don't possess a floppy drive. Guess this means my goal of having my lappy converted to XP before bed time ain't gonna happen then.

 

Morgs, when the install disc first boots up, watch the bottom of that horrible blue screen - one of the options might be to install SATA drivers, but you have to press one of the function keys to do so, the bottom of the screen will tell you which one.

I managed to get XP to work with SATA II no problems... never ran with the original SATA.

 

Ah. Sorry, Morgan, misunderstood what you were saying.


The issue here is that the computer was designed for Windows Vista, not XP. The XP installer can only recognise SATA interfaces when the BIOS is able to present them as additional IDE channels. If they're not set in that legacy mode, the XP installer doesn't know what the heck to do. The Vista installer, on the other hand, has a large number of SATA drivers built in, so it will recognise the drive straight off the bat.


We've got a teetering pile of USB floppy drives lying around at work. I'll nab one for your temporary use. Theoretically, that should work, but no promises.


And on the subject of the machine being designed for Vista rather than XP, you may possibly have a hard time finding XP drivers for some or all of the hardware. It depends greatly on what's under the hood.

 

Eeesh, I knew this wasn't going to be easy Temporary loan of a external floppy drive would be fantastic - although I will have to find some floppy discs... They still sell those these days, right?

Well, where there's a will, there's a way so I'm sure I'll get it to work eventually.

 

As i informed Morgan, Asus offer an XP recovery disc from Vista to all ASUS notebook owners who buy an Asus with Vista Business and Ulitmate Versions. All you have to do is contact them.

 

Well there you go. Like magic.


Let me know if that falls through, Morgan, and I can pop over to try plan B with the USB floppy.

 

Magic shmagic. I still have to acquire a disc then. They don't exactly advertise it on their website... Guess I won't be getting it downgraded over the weekend either. Blast.

 

I've abandoned all sense of reason and my usual character and installed an open source graphics program (GIMP) as Vista won't even run the setup for my copy of Photoshop. On that note, why does Photoshop have to be so damned expensive? It's all well and good for Businesses, but the average jane can't really warrent affording $1000 odd for a program...

 

Which is why almost no one in the world uses a legal version of Photoshop. Lord knows the only time I ever have, in my many years of dabbling with it, was at University.

Gimp is supposed to be pretty good these days. But if you do want a copy of Photoshop CS3, which will work under Vista, you never know, some of your friends might be able to help.

 

Ain't that the truth.

Will CS3 work under XP? As much as I'm fond of my copy of PS 6.0, I should probably upgrade one of these days

 

To be perfectly honest I prefer using GIMP to photoshop, but then I've been using GIMP for a little while and I've got used to the menus which are quite different in a number of instances to PS.

 

I think I've spent about a grand total of 5 minutes using GIMP. All I know about it is by reputation, which can basically be summed up as "Great program, good alternative to Photoshop on all but the most high end stuff, let down by sometimes dodgy interface design." The great thing about it being open source is that theoretically the interface problems can be fixed by updates, and I've heard something to suggest that new versions are a lot better than old versions in that regard. Again, though, that's all just hearsay to me. Ask Loz.


Will CS3 work under XP?

Yep. My, um, friend's copy works just dandily.

 

Excellent.

GIMP seems alright so far - of course, getting used to it isn't easy. I'm a little bit cynical towards it because I haven't really seen any examples of work done in GIMP that actually look good. Every bit of "art" I've seen displays what seems to be artists in love with their smudge tool.

 

To be fair, the same accusation could be leveled at those pirated copies of Photoshop. See the "Photoshop comics" bit in Strong Bad's "Web Comic" email.

 

I love that Strongbad hasn't yet been blocked at work yet.

Srsly though, There's a lot of junk out there produced by would-be PS artists - but on the flip side, it's a lot easier to find brilliant stuff created in Photoshop than the same from the GIMP.

 

Few more online Tutorials for PS than gimp too.
..if that helps make your mind up.

 

I think the fact that I know Photoshop like the back of my hand in comparison to GIMP made my mind up, Goobs, but the GIMP will do alright until I can get a hold of Photoshop again.

 

Playing aroud with the shiny new Creative Zen Vision:M. For those interested, so far so good. Unlike my brother's iPod, it did not freeze upon being connected to a computer for the first time (always a good sign). I've still got a bit to learn about how it orders things and what I can do - no complaints so far though Heh, it came with a track called Starman. I was amused...

 

Hey, nice purchase! I've been the proud owner of a Vision M for a couple of years now, and I love it. I'm considering upgrading to something newer, as it's starting to get a little battered and I'm having problems with it locking up too often (to the point where I've almost started taking a bent paperclip with me everywhere I go to reset the silly thing). Right now I'm looking at either a new generation iPod or a second generation Microsoft Zune, with the Zune actually looking better at present, but regardless, a Vision M is not at all a purchase one should be disappointed with.