The Packard Bell EasyNote R0422
Claiming my space
At first glance, there is only one partition (shown in Windows Explorer) which is less than the advertised 50GB, but the Disk Management MMC Extension shows a hidden 7GB partition, most certainly containing recovery data. No wonder the PC came with no CDs/DVDs. I decide to delete the recovery partition and reclaim my space, but I know that means I wont be able to restore the Windows XP Home or the accompanying software in case i get Vista (Viruses, Intruders, Spyware, Trojans and Adware), so I start looking for some kind of Recovery Disk Utility. Sure enough, there was a Master CD/DVD creator, and I promptly started it up. It asked me to provide one DVD-R or 4 CD-Rs. I don’t have CD-Rs around and I dont like swapping disks during installs anyway, so I go for the DVD option.
The DVD Writer that came with the laptop is advertised as DVD+R DL, which made me a little sad at first because the DVD+R format doesnt agree well with a lot of DVD players. I had a brainwave and decided to test with a blank DVD-R disk I had lying around, however. At first the Master DVD creation process failed and I had begun to condemn the drive and its +R format, until I realised that it actually did not reject the disk! I tried another DVD-R disk, and I got a functional Master DVD (I tested it). Turns out the drive supports both DVD+R and DVD-R formats, as I later confirmed with Nero InfoTool (Nero is the best!). That was a great discovery.
The Master CD/DVD creator asked if i wanted to keep my recovery partition (how very polite and considerate of the folks at NEC/Packard Bell), and I said No because I knew I would be using my own operating system. IMHO, WinXP home is crippled in too many ways that I dont want to mention here. As soon as the program exits, I notice a new, empty partition of approximately 7GB in My Computer - the recovered space! Now that I had my Master DVD, I proceeded to wipe off the whole hard drive and do things my way. I know that voids my warranty but I dont really care.
Caveat Emptor
One of the labels on the laptop mentions that the machine is Vista-capable, but when you try and find out more, it turns out that you will need to add more memory because Vista is a memory hungry beast.
The positioning and design of the touchpad buttons also looks funny; I keep getting this feeling that the buttons are going to peel off, and the right click button is always raised above the general flat level of the touchpad. The speakers are not that great and they sound tinny, making me wary of cranking up the volume when I’m playing music - the speakers might burst or something like that.
The quick install guide is rather uninformative for someone with general experience with laptops like me, and the full documentation is available only on the laptop, as part of an application called InfoCenter. It was the only place where I could get a step-by-step guide on installing a new memory module (yeah, i added another 512MB, pilfered from the now idle Alienware machine). Infocenter is not even downloadable from the Packard Bell website, so if you format your hard drive like I have done, you are left without any documentation.
Summary
The laptop is great and i’m getting used to it. I can live with the lack of the legacy ports for now, since I am sure I will still get a more featured laptop later on. It’s a good laptop, for the unusually low price. It may not be a Dell or an HP, but it still looks and works good - I can play all my 3D games on it without hassles, so I know what I’m saying.
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on March 26th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
links to images are like dead…