In message Peter wrote: > How about Asus ? I just saw a new type of Asus laptop and I was = > wondering whether these have a good name ? Asus stuff is damn nice. Well, their motherboards are anyway. I've got an A= 8V Deluxe Rev2 in my main machine and haven't had a single problem with it. Well, I tell a lie.. To get the onboard Ethernet running in Linux, I had to download a patch that reprogrammed the VPD EEPROM on the Ethernet chip. Aft= er I did that, it worked fine. If you're just going to use Windows, you won't need to do that :P My current laptop is a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 that I picked up second-hand for =A3200. I've since replaced the TFT (=A351), installed a bi= gger hard drive (Seagate Momentus 5200 40GB, =A365), added a WiFi card (Intel 2200BG MiniPCI, =A329) and resoldered most of the audio section of the mainboard. The keyboard is a little worn, but very nice to type on - much nicer than my old Toughbook. The only thing I don't like is that the AccuPoint tends to hit the LCD when the cover is shut - this seems to be do= wn to the two rubber stoppers not being anywhere near stiff enough. I wasn't best pleased when my shiny new TFT earned itself an annoying dark pressure mark from where the rubber AccuPoint nipple hit it. Still a nice laptop though, especially considering the fact it survived a drop from 4ft onto a stone floor with nothing more than a stuffed hard drive and some scuffed plastic (battle scars!). At some point I need to get some CGR17670 Li-ion cells and rebuild the battery pack. I've seen them on Ebay, but the seller doesn't seem to be interested in replying to emails. Little hint - if you find a 4600 with dead or intermittent speaker output, but the headphone output is fine, you need to resolder the line filters that connect the amplifier IC to the speakers. They're grey cubes with four sold= er pads on each, located on the bottom-right of the mainboard under the audio riser card. Resolder, reassemble and enjoy. I also picked up a Port Designs "EVA Laptop Skin Case" for it - =A317 from Expansys. Nice little case, but I'm a bit suspicious of their claim that it fits machines with displays up to 16" - my 4600 has a 14.1" TFT and it's a pretty tight fit... But if you buy a Toshiba, avoid the machines with Phoenix BIOSes - most will NOT run Linux for love nor money, and the BIOSes are full of bugs. IIRC the Toshibas with Phoenix BIOSes are actually OEMed from other companies. The ones with a Toshiba BIOS (no "Phoenix" logo along the bottom of the screen) are the "pureblood" Toshibas. Also watch out for the newer Satellite Pro keyboards. There's no Home/End keys - you have to hit Fn+PgDn/Fn+PgUp to do that. Ewwww. I've also used a friend's Compaq Presario M2000 - the keyboard was incredib= ly stiff and kept missing characters. That alone gets it a place on my "AVOID!" list. Total pain to get Linux working too :-/ -- = Phil. | Kitsune: Acorn RiscPC SA202 64M+6G ViewFind= er philpem@dsl.pipex.com | Cheetah: Athlon64 3200+ A8VDeluxeV2 512M+10= 0G http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | Tiger: Toshiba SatPro4600 Celeron700 256M+4= 0G Acme Dynamite. Guaranteed to fail unsafe. -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist