Ordered a "Beema" A6-6310 laptop.

[VirtualLarry]

How's the web browsing compared to the N2830 laptop?

Also lets us know about the Skype when you have the chance.

P.S. The recovery sounds like the system on my refurb PC from Arrow Direct. (I had to use Clonezilla to transfer to another drive). Shame MS is not including Windows 7 disks anymore.

Sure, will do.

It's actually worse than that, there's no Win7 key anywhere. So, install media's not specifically the problem. Rather, that there's no key to re-install with.

 

[DrMrLordX]

You can extract the key pretty easily:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...y/713e40f8-b736-4e6b-b7c8-c2eb70e950a9?auth=1

 

[VirtualLarry]

You can extract the key pretty easily:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...y/713e40f8-b736-4e6b-b7c8-c2eb70e950a9?auth=1

Not the same. OEM systems use an "OEM key", that is identical between systems of the same model (and possibly even across models), and need an accompanying "OEM activation cert".

The key stickers on Win7 laptops (real ones, not "downgrade rights" ones like this one), have an "OA key", but that one is unique, and can be used to activate an OEM copy of Win7, on one particular system.

 

[cbn]

You can extract the key pretty easily:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...y/713e40f8-b736-4e6b-b7c8-c2eb70e950a9?auth=1

I use the Belarc advisor mentioned in that link.

It is very easy to use of course, but I wonder how many people get the key before a hard drive failure?

At least with the refurb PCs they put a COA sticker on the outside.

 

[cbn]

Not the same. OEM systems use an "OEM key", that is identical between systems of the same model (and possibly even across models), and need an accompanying "OEM activation cert".

The key stickers on Win7 laptops (real ones, not "downgrade rights" ones like this one), have an "OA key", but that one is unique, and can be used to activate an OEM copy of Win7, on one particular system.

So if a person downloads Belarc advisor what key comes up? Special Windows 8.1 OEM key?

Then a person would follow these instructions for installation of Windows 7:

http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=QDhRs2NHjxv

(An unfortunate problem being no official download for Windows 7 anymore and Windows 8.1 needs to be installed first.)

 

[cbn]

With Windows 10, I believe the new laptops do not need the product key for re-installation of the OS.

So in the event of a hard drive failure (or SSD swap) Windows 10 could be re-installed. Then use Belarc advisor to get the special OEM key and install Windows 7 (on Windows 10 laptops with Windows 7 downgrade rights)? This assuming the person has a Windows 7 disc somewhere.

Does that sound right?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Not the same. OEM systems use an "OEM key", that is identical between systems of the same model (and possibly even across models), and need an accompanying "OEM activation cert".

Huh, didn't know that. What is the format of the "OEM activation cert"?

A brief search on Google shows that many people have struggled with this system of licensing/authentication, but I question the legality of some of the solutions proposed for the problem of how to deal with a lost key (or the problem of never having purchased a legit copy of the OS in the first place). I'll let you sort that out for yourself.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Part of the problem (and the reason that there's no Win7 key sticker), is that the laptop is "officially" sold as a Win8.1 Pro laptop, but the OS that comes pre-installed on it, is Win7 Pro, using "downgrade rights". So there's no key. The documentation says that I have the right to install either OS, either one at a time on the laptop, but it only included Win8.1 Pro re-install discs, and no Win7 discs. And there doesn't appear to be a Win7 disc creator program in the pre-installed OS. Quite a PITA, IMHO. If I have the OS, I should be given a way to re-install it. Viruses on Windows aren't exactly unknown, you know.

 

[Abwx]

Actualy there is a review of this laptop at NBC, the tested sample has the A6-6310 running at 1.98GHz in the MT tests, about the same as a A8-6410..

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-G50-45-Notebook-Review-Update.125641.0.html

 

[VirtualLarry]

Actualy there is a review of this laptop at NBC, the tested sample has the A6-6310 running at 1.98GHz in the MT tests, about the same as a A8-6410..

Performance is, suprisingly, fine. But the screen that they used, really kind of sucks, compared to my Dell with the N2830.

I think that perhaps the Dell is using an IPS display. The A6-6310 seems to be using a cheaper TN display. The yellow bar above re-scaled images in this forum looks slightly pink.

There's a visible difference in brightness, between the top and bottom of the screen. And overall brightness and contrast is no-where near as good as the Dell. The Dell isn't even at a high brightness either.

Edit: Oh, the Lenovo bloatware sucks too. I'm already at a Commit Charge of nearly 4GB (on a machine with 4GB of RAM), with Waterfox open with like 5-6 tabs. Closing Waterfox only lowered RAM usage by like 300MB.
svchost.exe is taking up 1.2GB, but I don't know where all of the other RAM has gone. McAfee is taking up a bunch of RAM too, and the CPU (quad-core, even) doesn't seem to settle down. (Good thing it's a quad, I guess, with all of the bloatware. Urg.)

Edit: I have Windows Update disabled. Also, the keyboard is fairly nice, which is in (contrast, ha) to the screen. I guess that might have something to do with it's Lenovo roots, and the fact that this laptop came with a Pro version of Windows, so it's at least semi business oriented.

 

[monstercameron]

Maybe it's running the updates.

 

[coercitiv]

You might want to upgrade to Win10, and not through normal update but rather clean install. Latest Win10 build accepts Win7/Win8 keys so it's a rather smooth procedure.

Windows 10 on my Kabini feels better than 8.1, or maybe some improvements in Remote Desktop made it seem better overall.(In the weekend I found myself forgetting I was in a remote session and kept browsing sites from my HTPC. That never happened before on Win7/Win8.)

 

[Abwx]

Performance is, suprisingly, fine. But the screen that they used, really kind of sucks, compared to my Dell with the N2830.

I think that perhaps the Dell is using an IPS display. The A6-6310 seems to be using a cheaper TN display. The yellow bar above re-scaled images in this forum looks slightly pink.


There's a visible difference in brightness, between the top and bottom of the screen. And overall brightness and contrast is no-where near as good as the Dell. The Dell isn't even at a high brightness either.


Edit: Oh, the Lenovo bloatware sucks too. I'm already at a Commit Charge of nearly 4GB (on a machine with 4GB of RAM), with Waterfox open with like 5-6 tabs. Closing Waterfox only lowered RAM usage by like 300MB.
svchost.exe is taking up 1.2GB, but I don't know where all of the other RAM has gone. McAfee is taking up a bunch of RAM too, and the CPU (quad-core, even) doesn't seem to settle down. (Good thing it's a quad, I guess, with all of the bloatware. Urg.)

Edit: I have Windows Update disabled. Also, the keyboard is fairly nice, which is in (contrast, ha) to the screen. I guess that might have something to do with it's Lenovo roots, and the fact that this laptop came with a Pro version of Windows, so it's at least semi business oriented.

Or perhaps that excess of blue is less visible, otherwise Dell doesnt seem to use decent screens on low end BTs..

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Inspiron-15-3531-Notebook-Review.130312.0.html

That said at 200$ there s not much left to be criticised, in Europe it s 269€ for this rebated Beema laptop without OS, still a good price as its CPU perfs are comparable to a i3 HW-BDW, GPU wise it s the level of a Haswell
HD4400...