Knowing the numebr of IT gurus there are on here I thought I'd ask here first...

 

I have just aquired a PC laptop so I can run ConZult, TC settings, FAST etc.

 

It's s/h and the specs are as follows:

 

Pentium 120Htz, 40Mb RAM, 1.4Gig HDD.

 

It's running Win98.

 

I know I'm not going to get a perfect s/h laptop for the money I paid but there are a couple of things I can live with but I would prefer if I could sort them, they are:

 

Screen, seems to ghost the windows that are open in both the horizointal and vertical planes, there is also uneven illumination, the centre being darker. Is this just a tired display?

 

Cursor, seems to dissapear when you move the track pad, and it takes a sec to reappear, I have changed the mouse and performance settings but this seems to make little difference.

 

Any ideas or do I just live with it?

 

What I know about PCs could be written on the back of a fag packet - so be gentle! But with 12 yrs of Mac experience I can solve almost any Apple problems. :D

 

Thanks in advance

 

Tim

Sounds like the display is on the way out.

 

This might also be the reason for the disappearing mouse.

 

Today's laptops have much better screens than before - I remember I used to have to switch mouse trails on to stand any chance of seeing the cursor. Have you tried this yet?

 

Cheers - Gio

Try using an external mouse to eliminate the laptop's mouse controller - its a long shot but its an easy test.

 

On my dell the screen sometimes goes funny, it flashes and drops every other horizontal line - all I have to do is re-seat the ribbon cable connector on the motherboard.

 

What make is your laptop?

It's a Siemens Nixdorf Scenic, Mobile 500.

 

It could be that I've just been spoilt with a HiRes screen on my current Laptop. But, i'm sure that there shouldn't be these lines...

 

as I said it's not the end of the world - just annoying!

 

Tim

I had a look on the web but I cannot locate anything - my laptop has an access panel that covers the hinge where the screen is attached. All I do is lift the panel and press down on the ribbon cable connector and this fixes my scren problem.

It'll be a DSTN screen Tim and they are bloody horribull.

Try to locate a contrast control and fiddle a little.

Also go to Control Panel/Mouse and turn on the cursor trails to 30% or something and slow down the cursor.

Thanks Glen, so its not on its way out, its just not very good in the first place?

 

Tim

They are really to be honest, not nice at all.

 

Probably worth selling it on ebay as they hold their value well, to me a DSTN would not be useful for conzult or diag as they are such a pain to look at in any kind of detail.

 

Ive got a TFT IBM Thinkpad with TFT, its lying around doing nothing we could do some sort of deal on it... been offered £300 but you can have it cheaper if you want it... its a P2 300, 96MB, 6.4GB,12.1TFT, no cd though but PCMCIA 56K and LAN, be ideal for consult as it is tiny in footprint.

 

Let me know, i dont need it I have bloody computers and laptops coming out me ears ;)

Thanks for the offer Glen, but I only paid £99 for the laptop and for what I want to use it for I think I'll live with it.

 

I use a Mac PowerBook every day for work so I wouldn't use it for any serious work.

 

Having said that, what's the cheapest way to add a CD drive to this one I have? It has 2 x PCMCIA slots and all the usual connections, obviously not USB or Firewire.

 

Tim

pcmcia notebook cd-drives, try ebay;

 

here is a link 4u:

 

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.co.uk%2Fws%2F&query=pcmcia+%2B+cd&ebaytag1code=3&shortcut=2&currdisp=1&maxRecordsReturned=300&maxRecordsPerPage=50&SortProperty=MetaEndSort