fairwell soon

I started in this forum with an Averatec 2370, purchased at OfficeMax on a Black Friday sale ... I ran into the same problems as many others with a half-start and black screen...and of course the problem getting my copy of Vista, and legal issues with Averatec's warranty.

OfficeMax helped me jump to the nearly identical Everex Stepnote ST5340 (only difference was a better BIOS version and a teeny faster CPU). It took another version before I figured out the black screen issue has nothing to do with a BIOS failure, but poor engineering in cooling the GO 6100 GPU. I published a simple modification in this forum that (at least for me) completely solved the cooling issue. The Everex brand (part of FIC) has disappeared.

My stock unit has been upgraded with a 250GB drive, 4GB of 667Mhz RAM, and is running 64bit Win7 Professional (I had to use a jury rigged video driver - www.laptops2go.com, then Win7 found and installed a good driver).

It typically runs 16 hours/day, 7 days a week - that is when it is not plane hopping with me.

Because this is such a critical part of my employment and the relative unavailabilty of replacement parts (especially motherboards), this unit will soon be used by my spouse on only a sporadic basis. I am moving on another feature rich small and lightweight notebook manufactured by Toshiba.

I won't have time to keep up with this forum (it's been quiet anyhow). However, I will miss the Averatec old-timers and the lively discussions.

I am offering the following advice to all the new Averatec owners - learn how to search this forum and the rest of the net. There is some excellent advise out here. And expect to start helping yourselves more. I see all too many posts where users expect others to both do their research for them and continually hold their hands - for gratis, and often with little respect for the people they want to help from. We are not your (free) tech support, and we do expect you to share your experience, however limited, to assist other users. Some of the people here know a lot, but none of us knows everything. You can pay your way through your contributiions.

Fairwell!

 

Um ok. The Averatec subforum has been very quiet, but the rest of the NBR community has been bustling. You do realize there are other subforums right? :laugh: You don't need to leave just because you are getting rid of your Averatec, but whatever, that's your choice.

 

correct talin - I won't be leaving the site, just spending most of my time (I expect) in the Toshiba forum.

I am not getting rid of the Averatec (Everex/Twinhead) ... but it won't be used but a fraction of its current hours. My wife will use it for occasional web surfing and not much else.

 

You are leaving Averatec 2300 series, and I am just beginning. I bought a dead 2300 GPU and revived it all for $20. There's more for me to tinkle with. Be nice to have 4gb and Win7 installed as you have.

One thing i found wierd so far is when I test it with single core TL-20 @1.6 which is also socket s1. The bios couldn't recognized it. Bios issue.

 

Well the custom Toshiba U500 I purchased is a nice notebook. I wish this 13.3" notebook was available in a 12.1" form factor like the 2370. At least some technology advances saved some of the weight gain.

I will soon setup the Avertec (actually Everex twin) for my wife's occasional use. It continues to run well.

 

Did you get the Toshiba with the Pentium or the i3 CPU?

 

I have the Intel quad core i5 M430 - 2.27GHz with turbo mode (basically automatic overclocking) to 2.54GHz. nvidia 310M /w 512MB, 6GB 1066MHz DDR3, 320GB 5400RPM HD, 12cell battery, integrated BT, and Win7 Pro x64.

And for all that, I use it virtually the same way I did my 2370. Yeah, it feels "smoother", and boots a teeny bit faster, but in all honesty it isn't noticibly faster at most tasks than the 2370 with 4GB and Win7 x64.

90% of the time, I am at my desk and the notebook is for all practical purposes a brick with blinking lights. I have dual 19" widescreen monitors, external MS-Natural keyboard, wireless mouse, external USB sound, etc. My work life is centered around MS-Office (especially Outlook), Adobe Acrobat Pro, Internet Explorer, and some simple graphic and html tools.

About the only time I might 'push' the system is for non-work audio-video tasks. Most of the horsepower is there as "future-proofing". My sole reason for replacing the 2370 is because my job depends on my notebook and finding/obtaining repair parts for the 2370 are getting too time consuming for my comfort should something break.