Re: [LAU] query re: HP notebook

Is there by any chance another number on the HP box? My HP/Compaq
laptop had a funky number like that but it also had a more simple
number - in my case F600US. This turned out to be the machine name
where as the complicated on was the one that indicated the machine
coupled with the disk, memory, etc. (Or so I think...)

The first review I found wasn't overly kind:

http://review.zdnet.com/product/laptops/hp-g60-125nr/33360964

but I wouldn't personally care too much about that.

I guess based on the way you purchased that you weren't able to boot
it with an install disk?

My guess is that the specs will turn out to be 'ok'. Not great, but
ok. That's pretty similar to mine when I bought it a year and a half
ago. Probably your machine is an nvidia chipset and probably it's
going to work fine in Linux. Possibly the nvidia video card will be a
problem with the real-time kernel, but possibly not. I think lots of
people use nvidia and do fine. In my mind, for what little I know
about what you really do Dave, I'd guess the video chip issue is the
risky thing, and then ONLY if you use the nvidia driver. Probably not
much of an issue at all if you can get by with the Xorg nvidia driver.

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-g60-125nr/4505-3121_7-33360964.html

This page say the chipset is the AMD RS780M. That means it's really an
ATI chipset. (ATI is now owned by AMD) I couldn't easily find anyone
writing in English that's used it for Linux. There doesn't seem to
have been any posts about this chipset on the LKML.

The 2GHz Turion might be part of what makes it pokey. Possibly the
memory isn't the fastest memory the machine can use. I tried looking
up the memory specs at http://www.Crucial.com but I couldn't find the
machine. They have a nice enough system scanner but that requires that
you open and boot the system.

Don't know what to tell you. Maybe you can still go back to the store,
or another store, with the Linux install disks and try things out
without opening this box. I suspect that with the economy being so bad
that you're going to see LOTS of laptop deals over the next few
months. If you need something this week that won't help but I'm sure
there will be lots of low price machines out there.

Wish I could help more. My end message is that if you like the price
and features then go ahead and open the box but be forewarned I once
had a compaq laptop with an ATI chipset. It worked great for Linux
audio but I didn't get full speed disks for about 3 months after I
bought it and it had an ATI chipset so I'm always a bit more careful
about these things.

Good luck. If you decide to keep it you can be assured that you're
going to get LOTS of support from LAU members, but we can't fix real
problems with support by the kernel if it isn't there.

cheers,
Mark

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 4:13 PM, Dave Phillips <dlphillips@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> First, thanks again for the helpful replies.
>
> The machine at WalMart was gone by the time I got there, so I went over
> to Best Buy to check what they had in stock. I wound up purchasing a
> very similar machine (with a better price), an HP G60-125NR. Since Best
> Buy has a 15% restocking fee I thought I'd do some fact searching before
> I open the box. What I found was some rather mixed reviews, but only wrt
> Windows. I haven't found a Linux review yet.
>
> Here are some of its specs:
>
> AMD Turion 2 GHz Dual-core CPU
> 250 GB hd
> 3 GB memory
> nVidia 8200M video
> 15.6" widescreen display
> LightScribe 8X DVD drive
> built-in webcam et cetera
>
> Hardware-wise it looks right for me. Alas, the reviews gave it a rather
> poor rating, compared to other machines at the price point, but the
> reviews refer to a ~$800 price tag. My bill came to about $580.
>
> So I'm at a bit of an impasse. I can open the box, try it out, and if it
> doesn't work for me I can take it back and pay almost $100 for the
> restocking fee (which IMO really sucks), or I can take it back unopened
> and start over. Btw, if I open it I'll keep it for 13 days. 14 days is
> the limit for returns, so I might as well get something out of it for
> the hundred bucks.
>
> What's the tribe think ? Any & all opinions/recommendations are most
> welcome.
>
> Best,
>
> dp
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-audio-user mailing list
> Linux-audio-user@email-addr-hidden
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user@email-addr-hidden
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
Received on Wed Nov 12 04:15:04 2008