- Oct 19, 2000
- 17,860
- 4
- 81
Just got my eMachines M5405 in today after ordering one from eBay, and here are my thoughts. Keep in mind I've never owned a laptop, nor have I used one for more than 5 minutes at a time, so please excuse any stupid statements.
First up, the packaging. Upon opening the box, there was a big, colorful beginners guide. Sadly enough in my years of computing, I had to read this thing to make sure I was doing everything right. Put the battery in, plug in the AC, blah blah. The recovery CD is just one CD and one only. The WinXP reg code is on the bottom of the laptop. It comes with a main manual, which is very precise about the functions of the laptop, as well as a section on adding RAM and changing the hard drive. Very nice. It also came with a little manual on setting up networks, but I didn't look through it. My only complaint here is that another insert made mention that the integrated wireless networking was by default turned off. It told how to turn it on, which is good and all, but the transmitter was also turned off in the BIOS as well, which this little insert says nothing about. A person who knows nothing about this stuff would try in vain all day to press Fn+F2, but would get nothing. Luckily I know a little of what I'm doing.
Booting up the first time was a excersize in patience, with the 4200RPM hard drive. Keep in mind I'm not used to this slow of a hard drive, so I tapped my foot many times during the WinXP intro. After getting through that, and a few more seconds of loading, I was able to check out some of the software preloaded on the machine. After not much looking, and much cringing at the bloated crap that's on here, I promptly formatted the drive and installed WinXP Pro. Install, overall, took around 30 to 35 minutes, so not too bad I don't guess. Once I got Windows installed, everything was damn responsive, and I was happy. Comp specs from My Computer.
One of the first things I did, at the request of a friend, was run CPU-Z. The results. CPU-Z also confirmed the system used 2 256MB RAM chips, instead of 1 512MB, which wasn't really expected anyhow.
Things of note as I used the lappy for about 3 hours tonight:
1. While charging the battery and using the laptop at the same time, the power "brick" gets hot as hell. I couldn't keep ahold of it no more than a couple of seconds before letting it go. After finally charging the battery full, the brick cooled down considerably, but still remained warm.
2. The system is fairly silent (minus the CD drive windup). The whole time I used it, the TV was on, and I couldn't hear it one bit.
3. With normal TV abience, the speakers are actually quite loud. No bass to speak of, they just sound like loud, tiny speakers. But atleast I can hear them.
4. I really miss the digital vibrance feature of my nVidia cards. The color is too dim. Maybe I can adjust this myself? (but I don't know how)
5. No dead pixels on the LCD. The screen is crisp as it should be.
6. Will not let me do 32-bit color in 1280x800 resolution. It is possible, however, that I do not have the optimal drivers installed. After installing XP Pro, I let Windows search the restore cd and do what it wanted.
7. No gaming experiences yet, but I'll be sure to check it out soon to see what, if anything, is possible on this thing. And no, I'm not even going to try the WoW's and Half-Life2's out there. I'm talking older games such as 2d strategy and older 3D engines.
8. After using the thing on my lap for about the first 45 minutes, I've learned that when my legs get hot, it's time to pull up the coffee table.
Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase. Not really anything bad to say about it. There does seem to be an extreme lack of input options, but that's what you get with a value laptop. It seems to be powerful enough to do quite a few things, and is quick on it's feet. I have nothing to compare it to, but I like it.
EDIT: I downloaded an updated video driver from here, and this fixed my above stated problems with being stuck in 16-bit at 1280x800. I am now running in 32-bit at 1280x800. I also was able to access the SiS video controls (I could before I reformatted, but not after reinstalling the drivers from the restore cd). I had mentioned missing the digital vibrance from nVidia cards, but I found this video chipset has a similar color "strengthener" in it. Doesn't look as good a nVidia's solution, but it defeinitely helps 10 fold.
Ran the battery out for the first time yesterday, and I got about 2 - 3hours use out of it. Of course, this included many reboots though, as I was trying to get it to work with the network at work (problem turned out to be the damn cable!). I also used it most of my 1 hour lunch, and also on the way home for about 15 minutes. I then used it for another 45 minutes after getting home just to run it down, and even then it only ran down to 10% before I plugged it in.
First up, the packaging. Upon opening the box, there was a big, colorful beginners guide. Sadly enough in my years of computing, I had to read this thing to make sure I was doing everything right. Put the battery in, plug in the AC, blah blah. The recovery CD is just one CD and one only. The WinXP reg code is on the bottom of the laptop. It comes with a main manual, which is very precise about the functions of the laptop, as well as a section on adding RAM and changing the hard drive. Very nice. It also came with a little manual on setting up networks, but I didn't look through it. My only complaint here is that another insert made mention that the integrated wireless networking was by default turned off. It told how to turn it on, which is good and all, but the transmitter was also turned off in the BIOS as well, which this little insert says nothing about. A person who knows nothing about this stuff would try in vain all day to press Fn+F2, but would get nothing. Luckily I know a little of what I'm doing.
Booting up the first time was a excersize in patience, with the 4200RPM hard drive. Keep in mind I'm not used to this slow of a hard drive, so I tapped my foot many times during the WinXP intro. After getting through that, and a few more seconds of loading, I was able to check out some of the software preloaded on the machine. After not much looking, and much cringing at the bloated crap that's on here, I promptly formatted the drive and installed WinXP Pro. Install, overall, took around 30 to 35 minutes, so not too bad I don't guess. Once I got Windows installed, everything was damn responsive, and I was happy. Comp specs from My Computer.
One of the first things I did, at the request of a friend, was run CPU-Z. The results. CPU-Z also confirmed the system used 2 256MB RAM chips, instead of 1 512MB, which wasn't really expected anyhow.
Things of note as I used the lappy for about 3 hours tonight:
1. While charging the battery and using the laptop at the same time, the power "brick" gets hot as hell. I couldn't keep ahold of it no more than a couple of seconds before letting it go. After finally charging the battery full, the brick cooled down considerably, but still remained warm.
2. The system is fairly silent (minus the CD drive windup). The whole time I used it, the TV was on, and I couldn't hear it one bit.
3. With normal TV abience, the speakers are actually quite loud. No bass to speak of, they just sound like loud, tiny speakers. But atleast I can hear them.
4. I really miss the digital vibrance feature of my nVidia cards. The color is too dim. Maybe I can adjust this myself? (but I don't know how)
5. No dead pixels on the LCD. The screen is crisp as it should be.
6. Will not let me do 32-bit color in 1280x800 resolution. It is possible, however, that I do not have the optimal drivers installed. After installing XP Pro, I let Windows search the restore cd and do what it wanted.
7. No gaming experiences yet, but I'll be sure to check it out soon to see what, if anything, is possible on this thing. And no, I'm not even going to try the WoW's and Half-Life2's out there. I'm talking older games such as 2d strategy and older 3D engines.
8. After using the thing on my lap for about the first 45 minutes, I've learned that when my legs get hot, it's time to pull up the coffee table.
Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase. Not really anything bad to say about it. There does seem to be an extreme lack of input options, but that's what you get with a value laptop. It seems to be powerful enough to do quite a few things, and is quick on it's feet. I have nothing to compare it to, but I like it.
EDIT: I downloaded an updated video driver from here, and this fixed my above stated problems with being stuck in 16-bit at 1280x800. I am now running in 32-bit at 1280x800. I also was able to access the SiS video controls (I could before I reformatted, but not after reinstalling the drivers from the restore cd). I had mentioned missing the digital vibrance from nVidia cards, but I found this video chipset has a similar color "strengthener" in it. Doesn't look as good a nVidia's solution, but it defeinitely helps 10 fold.
Ran the battery out for the first time yesterday, and I got about 2 - 3hours use out of it. Of course, this included many reboots though, as I was trying to get it to work with the network at work (problem turned out to be the damn cable!). I also used it most of my 1 hour lunch, and also on the way home for about 15 minutes. I then used it for another 45 minutes after getting home just to run it down, and even then it only ran down to 10% before I plugged it in.
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