Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with laptop and vista

BitLocker and the battery NomNoms

@homer — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:55:36 -0800

How much will BitLocker eat my battery? I've been using BitLocker on my laptop since Vista came out and continue to use it with the Windows 7 RC. In my experience the drive performance with and without BitLocker is about the same. What I don't know is if power usage is the same. I've read everything I can find about BitLocker and anything related to resource usage talks about disk reads and writes and system speed impact and how little impact there is. I can guess that since there is encryption and decryption that my battery life between charges is shortened. What I'd like to know is by how much. Are there any hard numbers from Microsoft or is there any way for me to calculate the extra load and figure out power usage from that?

install Windows XP on Vista laptop

gigimakka — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:43:49 -0800

Trouble installing windows xp on a vista laptop (Acer 6530) I wiped my acer 6530 laptop hd, and upon attempting to install windows xp, it only recognizes 131 GB of the 250 GB hard drive.

Is this because I did not install the Win XP BIOS before I wiped the drive of Vista? (I have the XP bios on a flash drive, downloaded from the Acer site.) I did change the original Vista bios settings from AHCI to IDE, and boot order to DVD ROM drive first.

I'm considering 2 plans: 1) Install Win XP on the 131GB space I do have, and then install the Win XP BIOS, re-wipe the HD and re-install Win XP, or 2) Re-install Vista, replace those Vista BIOS with the XP BIOS, and then re-wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of Win XP. Which would you recommend?

Alternatives? Thanks...

Laptop connects to wireless network but not to internet

criticalbill — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:50:55 -0800

Laptop (running Vista) connects to home wireless network full strength but not to internet. The other laptop (OS X) connects to internet wirelessly no problem. The Vista laptop can connect the internet via ethernet cable. This seems to be a common problem but i cannot find an appropriate solution The Vista laptop is not new, but it is new to my house; it connected to a wireless network previously.

Things I have discovered while looking through replies to similar questions: The Vista laptop has been assigned the correct IP number (which has a different last digit to the OS X one). DHCP is enabled. Node type is Hybrid. The wireless adapter driver is working. When I try to ipconfig /release it tells me: The requested operation requires elevation.

Defragging problems

ricochet biscuit — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:35:31 -0800

I have a Toshiba laptop running Vista (alas) and a recent spate of problems (extremely slow operations, mostly) seemed to have possibly been caused by fragmentation. I tried defragging, with mixed success. This is my work computer. I checked the properties of the hard drives and for the defrag option, it seems to be set up to do this automatically weekly at 1:00 am (when the thing is never in use, of course). Just to be sure, I manually started the defrag when I left Monday evening and when I came in Tuesday morning it was still going (fifteen hours later). I stopped the defrag and worked. Yesterday I took the afternoon off and worked from home,again starting the cycle when I left. 22 hours later when I came in again, it was still in progress.

I see a couple of possibilities. One is that the weekly automated one is not happening, and the machine has not been defragged in two years, which might explain the time it is taking now. A cowroker suggests that when I am doing the defrag now, when I leave it alone for a few minutes it is going into sleep mode and so is not doing any real defragging.

Any suggestions?

DVD Shrink rips slower on my new Vista laptop! HALP!

wastelands — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:23:25 -0800

Speeding up DVD Shrink ripping on my laptop? I bought a new MSI laptop, which is otherwise powerful (Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz, 4 GB RAM, etc.). But ripping DVDs in DVD Shrink is about 3x as slow as on my old Dell!

How could it change so dramatically? Is this Vista related? I went from XP to Vista.

I tried turning on the "overleaving" or whatever feature in DVD Shrink; didn't help.

Laptop and projector need to play together nicely.

wile e — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:02:33 -0800

Managing a projector with a laptop at a different resolution. The short: classroom training sessions with a Dell laptop hooked up to a projector is giving me some issues, looking for advice on how to rectify the situation. Windows Vista Ultimate
Dell Vostro 1400 w/ embedded Intel video card (temporary, my Nvidia motherboard blew up, long story)
2gig Ram
2.0ghz Core 2 duo
VGA output

Half of my time is spent in a classroom training on how to use a particular software. The classroom changes weekly, so cannot give specs on the projector, but all are generic classroom projectors that take a VGA input on them.

When I hook up my laptop to the projector, it takes me out of my 1440x900 default resolution, and kicks me back to 800x600. If I try to change it back to 1440x900 it refuses as the projector cannot handle the resolution, even if I have it set up to not share my desktop. I can get it to work with 1280x768, but since this is not my default resolution, it annoys me to screw up all my settings on my laptop during the session.

So my question is this: Is there a way to better manage all of this, since I spend most of my time dealing with this? Are there programs to aid in this? I have briefly looked into Displayfusion and Ultramon, but they seem to be more aimed at permanent multi monitor setups. Whereas my situation tends to only be during 9-5 every other week or so.

It just seems the management utility that is in my laptop now cannot be the best thing. I would like to have some real control over what happens, not just resolution if possible. Like I would like to share certain windows on my screen with the projector, but not all.

Well anyway, if anybody has some insight into this, I would appreciate the help.

I will be checking this throughout the day, so any info I left out, feel free to ask and I will supply the answer if I have it.

I am looking for a signal booster that will play nicely on my laptop which has Vista.

cheero — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:45:18 -0800

I am looking for a signal booster that will play nicely on my laptop which has Vista. People recommended EnGenius USB Device but from what I gathered on Amazon, it does not work past XP. I basically need something that I can take with my on the go. Intel GMA 4500MHD / Intel Wi-Fi / 10/100 Eth is what came with my laptop. Is there a signal booster compatible with Vista?

Where is Vista Contrast Adjust?

Juicylicious — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:06:45 -0800

How do I adjust the contrast on my Inspiron running Vista? Everything looks washed out :-(

I did ask Dell support, but the tech kept telling me to adjust the brightness, which is not contrast. I've used my googlefu with no luck.

I love Vista, hate the way it handles flash drives. Obi-Wan, Help Me!

damiano99 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:51:06 -0800

I love Vista, hate the way it handles flash drives. Obi-Wan, Help Me! I use a Vista laptop and an XP desktop for work. When I copy anything from the XP machine on my flash drive and use it on my Vista Laptop, it won't let me delete or re-save it after editing, saying the file is Read-Only. Even if I copy something to it from the Vista machine it always asks to confirm things. I know UAC is a pain in the neck but is there anyway around it's behaviour on flashdrives?

Laptop RIP?

punishinglemur — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:06:07 -0800

I think I killed my laptop with SpeedFan and a spill. Yesterday, I spilled some Sprite on my laptop. Within a second or two, my screen went glitchy, with pink bars and distortion everywhere. My sound stuttered and then became a constant buzz. I quickly unplugged the power cord and all peripherals, and powered down the system. Half an hour later, I removed the battery. I put the laptop keyboard-down on a towel after draining Sprite to let it dry. After about 24 hours, I turned it back on without incident.

Once in Windows, I did a quick check and everything seemed to be working fine. The keyboard, trackpad, speakers, headphone jack, screen, wireless, hard drive, ethernet port, power jack, battery, and so on were all working. However, it seemed that my fans were non-operational, so I started up SpeedFan to check into things.

SpeedFan froze within a second, with its last message being "Scanning ISA BUS at $0290." Actually, everything froze; my laptop was completely unresponsive. I shut it down, and then tried turning it back on. As far as I can tell, here's what happens when I press the power button now: the fan runs briefly, the power light goes on, and the hard drive activity light stays on for a second or two then goes off. That's it. The screen never turns on, no beeps from the system, nothing.

I'm assuming that things are now pretty much hopeless. But just in case they're not: any suggestions?

Make my Vista Arrow Keys Work.

Juicylicious — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:07:15 -0800

How do I set up my arrow keys to cycle forward/backward in firefox? I had this ability with my T42 XP, now I have a 1720 inspiron Vista and I don't have that ability anymore. I've called Dell support, but they have no idea what I'm talking about. I miss using my arrows keys to move back and forth between pages on firefox, instead of the mouse. Help :/

How can I clean my computer when it won't let me?

bjork24 — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:56:11 -0800

I need to swab my old laptop as completely as possible before I sell it... the only problem is, I don't have a restore or new operating system disc. Please help! I'm wanting to sell my year-old HP DV1000 laptop, but HP did not include a restore or original Vista reinstall disc with the computer. Instead, they suggested I create and save a restore point on my laptop, which, of course, I chose not to do. Now I need to sell the laptop, but I want it as close to a clean slate as I can get it. I've uninstalled every program, deleted all personal files, cleaned out all caches and temporary file folders, but I still feel uneasy. I've also tried to create a restore point, but it's now saying that would require more space than is on my hard drive (wtf?!).

Does anyone have suggestions on how I can wipe my uncooperative laptop as clean as possible without having to shell out money for a new OS install disc? Thanks!

PS - It's running Vista Home.

Do I hate HP, Vista, or Walmart?

ZackTM — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:24:29 -0800

Tell me i didnt waste $1,060 on this laptop This is one of the saddest things thats ever happened to me regarding technology.

Long story short, I bought an HP Pavilion tx1417cl laptop/tablet last month. I managed to buy the display model from Walmart thinking it was a great computer. Little did I know the return period was 15 days!!! The sales lady told me it was 30, and I, of course, never checked the receipt.

The screen is too shiney to use in normal circumstances, the touch screen is super unresponsive, and it came loaded with both a ton of useless HP nonsense that eats up memory, and worst of all Windows Vista.

Since it was the display model, it had a bunch of stuff done to it that i didnt set up. I decided (after I couldnt return it) to format it, and start over from the recovery image. This was an even worse mistake apparently...

The damn thing now runs so slow, my 4 year old XP laptop puts it to shame. I can barely load web pages much less anything data intensive. This is without any new software installed at all!!

What the heck is going on?

HELP me figure out how to do any of the following:
- Get rid of this computer without losing too much money!
- Speed up Windows Vista enough to make me feel like 'hey! i can do things easier on this laptop than I could before I owned it!'
- Revert to Windows XP or maybe even Linux but still be able to use the features that made this damn thing cost so much!

Help me adopt a happy laptop

Polychrome — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:56:56 -0800

When should I buy a new laptop? Okay, I'm pretty sure my Dell Inspiron 1200 is on it's way out, but my tendency is to wait until I've completely fried something before replacing it; however, I don't think I want a laptop with Vista on it. What's the best way to go with this? How long can I wait before Vista is my only option? Conversely, how long could I wait until something replaces Vista?

The only things I care about other than that the OS is not Vista is that the total price is under $750--the cheaper the better. I've had an iBook before and don't want another one. I've been okay with the Dell except that the power cord has a tendency to come loose and drain the battery (both have had to be replaced on more than one laptop). Any thoughts?

Ram with a View

Iteki — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:43:07 -0800

Going to try "downgrade" my new laptop from Vista to XP. Most painless method? Software to identify all drivers or other methods? The providor (Packard Bell) doesn't offer downgrade disks it would appear, and while the support page for the unit describes most (all?) the drivers they have for Vista, I am thinking there might be a simpler alternative? I googled for driver identifier software but what didn't seem dodgy seemed to be pay. I am terrified of missing something and not knowing what the yellow question mark refers to. For the actual install I am gathering that booting with the XP disk in is the business?
All hand-holding appreciated, and sorry for the lame title.

Vista ate my music.

scrute — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:59:26 -0800

I bought a Toshiba Satellite with Vista two weeks ago - until today everything was fine. Then the music came to an end. Itunes freezes on 0:00 and Windows Media Player simply won't play any of it - including the sample music that came with the machine. As of yesterday I was listening happily - how do I fix this? I've tried looking on google and have found a couple of posts complaining about the same problem, but no solution. I checked my sound system and drivers - the device is working (I get sound effects on games), and the drivers are up to date. The error code I get from Windows Media Player is pretty much useless.

Help me please - I'm hoping it's something quirky that can be easily fixed.

Should I trade my PC Laptop for a Macbook?

monkeyagent — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:32:21 -0800

I was talking with a friend who owns a Macbook. She was talking about how she doesn't really use it for much and is looking for something newer. I mentioned that I just got my laptop but that I didn't like Vista and have been interested in Macs. Long story short, we came to the conclusion that we might each like to trade out laptops. I'm wondering if this sounds like a fair trade: My computer:
Acer Aspire 5050
AMD Turion 64 Processor MK-38 (2.2GHz, 512KB L2)
14.1" LCD
80GB HDD
DVD Burner
1 GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 Integrated graphics (variable GRAM depending on how much of it you assign from system general system RAM)
Has Vista Home Basic
It has internal wifi and is in more or less perfect condition.

Her computer:
Macbook
Intel Core Duo 1.8 Ghz processor [L2 Cache (per processor): 2MB]
LCD slightly smaller, though I don't mind that
34.22 GB HDD (? I couldn't figure out how to determine the full capacity - this amount reflects how much is "free")
DVD (i assume) burner? (not important, as I use my desktop for such tasks)
512 MB 667Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
OSX Version: 10.4.10
Also, while the case is scuffed up a bit on the outside, it seems to work fine and would clean up well. The speakers don't work, but the headphone jack work fine.

My only needs for my laptop are Internet accessibility, word processing, and basic multimedia playing functions. Everything else I do on my self-built PC. I know very little about Macs, but have been wanting to learn about them. Does this trade make sense? Are there any other things I should consider?

Insomniac Laptop

grandsham — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:40:06 -0800

How do I prevent my Vista laptop from spontaneously waking up from hibernation? I have an HP tx1120us laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium. Whenever I put the thing into hibernate mode, it stays off for a few hours, but will then spontaneously "wake up " into sleep mode, and (usually) run down the battery before I return to it. This happens just about every time I put it into hibernate, and I have no idea how long actually stays off, but it seems to be about 3-4 hours.

I know that it is not just the power button being bumped because it does not spontaneously start up after being properly shut down, nor did it have this issue while XP Pro was installed on this system.

Am I stuck having to just shut the thing down? I really like being able to use the Hibernate feature. I also can't just put XP back on the system, because various doohickeys on the laptop (fingerprint reader, remote, touchscreen) are not supported under XP.

New laptop with XP for under $500?

nzero — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:59:17 -0800

Is it possible to buy a new laptop for around $500 with Windows XP? I'm trying to purchase a laptop for my grandmother who lives across the country. She is absolutely insistent that she wants Windows XP instead of Vista. Since she lives so far away, I don't really have the option of buying a laptop and a separate copy of XP and installing it myself. I have searched all the usual places, and I simply cannot locate a new laptop with Windows XP on it. Do they exist anymore? Are there any places that would install Windows XP on a laptop before they ship it?

How do I get a Vista laptop over its wireless quirk?

Cricket — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 03:04:05 -0800

Why does my laptop disconnect after it wakes up? At tax time, my husband and I bought new laptops. They're Sony Vaio I-don't-know-the-models running Vista and have generally been great for what we've needed (communications, media, and schoolwork). There's one quirk, though. When either of us opens one of the laptops and enters a password, the internet will work for the first thirty seconds to a minute and look like it's been connected either the whole time or for a while (my IM will either show offline messages or messages that came through--and other people have reported me online when I know the computer was shut). After that first minute or so, the wireless loses connection and thinks there's no network at all for a few minutes. It automatically reconnects after that, and I can't manually reconnect any faster. Is there a reason it does this? Any help for the problem? Google only brought up people who were having problems with reconnecting at all after their Vista laptops woke up.

One foot in the grave (ie XP)

MaverickX — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:41:30 -0800

Is this stupid: buying a Vista laptop intending to immediately install and dual boot XP Professional? So I'm in the market for a new laptop and most of the new models have an option for Vista or XP Pro. Now it feels counter-intuitive to order a brand new laptop with last year's OS, but XP Pro has proven to be both reliable and stable.

If I do get a Vista laptop (probably Home Premium, possibly Business?) I would have to install XP Pro and dual boot almost immediately since my law school administers tests via Examsoft's Softest (which has yet to have full Vista compatibility...plus even if it did, I'd be too fearful of it crashing or locking up while uploading/taking a test).

My question I guess is: should I expect to run in any problems using an XP Pro dual-boot installation from Windows installation gunk, hardware incompatibility, etc?

MCE and Tablet edition on one Vista Machine?

Apo11o — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:59:48 -0800

Can Vista Laptops Have the equivalent of both Windows XP Tablet edition and Media Center Edition on one system without having to boot into separate partitions? I will be going to college soon and I'd like the convenience and features of a Tablet with the features and ease of MCE in one package. Is this possible on a Vista Machine or am i thinking a bit too wishfully? If possible, Who makes the best and best Priced Tablets? Thanks All.

Laptops for sale with XP?

clockworkjoe — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:00:39 -0800

I'm saving up for a laptop, but I don't want Vista. Can I buy a new laptop with XP installed? I'll have enough money in a month or so for a cheap laptop. However, I don't want to be on the bleeding edge of Windows. Vista doesn't offer anything I want that XP doesn't have. Can I buy a laptop that still offers XP or do I have to buy a macbook? (Which I don't want to, since they're more expensive and I'm not as familiar with OS X as I am with XP).