Alita: Lenovo Ideapad Y480

After 7 years of a love-hate relationship, I'm preparing to say goodbye to a frenemy AYUMU. She helped me out well, but recently work and browsing was proving too much for her. I end up screaming and almost pulling my hair due to frustration.

Gigahertz Computer got into my radar after my cousin bought her ASUS laptop from there. I noticed a clearance item for sale on their site and got me interested. After a few exchanges and a few weeks, they told me that a unit was available. I insisted to visit their main office to inspect/confirm and they were very accommodating. The unit checked out so I paid and went home very happy.

Lenovo Ideapad Y480(released 2012) -Bought July 11, 2014 for 24,999 php from a Clearance Sale of Gigahertz.

DESCRIPTION	IDEAPAD Y480 LAPTOP
CPU/Chipset	3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (2.30GHz, 6MB Cache)
Operating System	Windows 7 64
Memory	4GB (DDR3)
Graphics	NVIDIA® GeForce® GT640M LE GDDR5 2GB
Dimensions	345mm x 239mm x 20-32.8mm (13.6" x 9.4" x 0.8-1.3")
Camera	1.0MP fixed-focus HD webcam
Display	14.0" backlit HD display (16:9 widescreen) (1366x768)
Weight	2.2 kgs (4.85 lbs)
I/O Ports	3 USB 3.0 ports 1 USB 2.0 ports 6-in-1 card reader (SD, SD-Pro, MMD, MS, MS-Pro, XD) Headphone jack Mic jack S/PDIF 1 VGA port 1 HDMI port 2 mini PCle RJ-45
Storage	HDD: 750GB (5,400 rpm)
Wireless Connectivity	Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200BGN Bluetooth® 4.0
Keyboard	Full-size, 6-row keyboard
Battery Life	Up to 4 hours
Durability Features	Real metal shell
Security Features	OneKey Recovery VeriFace face-recognition software

It took a while for me to decide on her name. Going over anime/manga that were really memorable, Alita/Gally jumped at me and seemed like a good fit. Similar to the story, this laptop was broken/faulty, but was brought back to life and fulfilled a better purpose.

Battle Angel Alita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Angel_Alita

Gateway MA3 MX6447

Symptom: Blue Screen of Death(BSOD) after logging in. Fan does not spin once Windows starts.
Googled cause: video card(ATI) driver version seems to prioritize GPU temperature over CPU temperature, causing cpu overheat before gpu signals fan to spin.

Solution attempts:

• Clean fan and heatsink with brush and blower.
  
• Uninstall ATI driver, unsuccessful... BSOD before reaching uninstall.

Solution Steps:

• Backup data, prepare for reformat and reinstall of Windows XP Media Center 2005
• Download Win XP MC2005 (laptop has license key anyway)
• Laptop refuses to boot using the downloaded disk, but it works on another laptop.
• Remove HDD and connect to usb. Make sure there are multiple partitions, one for the OS and another a temporary drive(FAT32). Attempt diskless install via: "Z:\I386\winnt32.exe /syspart:K: /tempdrive:K: /makelocalsource /noreboot" where z is the dvd drive is and K the fat32 partition. (note: DO NOT use sp3 installer, will give 'iaStor.sys' not found errors)
• Place back HDD in laptop. Boot and install winxpmc2005
  
• After XP, install ATI video driver and ATI Catalyst.
• Installation is stable although fan still doesn't spin while in XP. still investigating.
  

AYUMU... NEO Empriva 630nvp2 (HGL30)

NEO Empriva 630nvp2
Quick Specs:
Intel® Core™2 Duo T5500
1.66 GHz, 2Mb, 667MHz
Intel® 945PM chipset
1.0Gb DDR2-667MHz
80Gb SATA Fujitsu MHW2080BH
SlimType DVD Dual
14in. Wide (WXGA) / 1.3MP camera
nVidia GeForce Go 7600* - dedicated 256MB VRAM
Intel® PRO Wireless 3945ABG / 56Kb
Finger Print Scanner
SD/MMC/Stick Reader
Windows Vista™ Home Premium

What Vista has to say:
I was sort of proud that I'm buying from a local brand. I was then a bit surprised that this NEO is a rebranded COMPAL lappy. It is also known as internationally as HGL30 and marked like this:

The mix of specs and features is pretty good. To test it out, the first thing I did was set it up to dual boot Vista and XP using this guide. I plan to use Vista as a test platform and XP as my staple development comfort zone.

Pushing things a bit, I installed the last game that I liked: Need for Speed Most Wanted. Playing it at highest quality settings was astounding for me, because my desktop pc (Rebirth) had to scrimp on the quality a bit. I also used this opportunity to train the battery, played NFSMW on just batteries (only above an hour), recharged to 100% when it got low, then repeated the process.



Likes:

• Core 2 Duo allows it to run a virus scan without pulling other activities down.
• The HD is SATA and 5400rpm. There are tons of perf gains from those.
  
• The finger print scanner saves me the trouble of entering my long password.
• The display is hinged at only 2 small areas, but the friction/force required to tilt it is very reassuring. (I'll forever be scarred by HP Omnibook 6100's terrifyingly brittle hinges)
• Camera seems like a good one.
  

Dislikes:

• The DVD drive feels like the slowest point in the lot. Poor reaction time.
  
• Onboard speaker output is weak and sounds like crap.
• TFT is normal, meaning at an angle vertically, viewability sucks.
• Although the processor is supposedly geared for lower temps, other parts of the system aren't. Which is fine by me, power has its trade-offs.
• Haven't throughly tested the mic, but it has been weak so far.
  

Over all... I love this! It is going to be crucial in the path that recently, I have been really considering.

AYUMU... The Birthday Gift That Took Too Long

The long story quoted below was written with hate and spite. In retrospect, the harder it is to get something, the more you cherish it.

The owner of the shop talked to me and testified that the model I chose was extremely hard to procure. Retailers probably have to go the extra mile to nick one from the suppliers. For my patience, I got a 1k price cut(because of the processor?), an optical mouse and a 1GB Apacer Flash Drive. I'll write a review for AYUMU on the next post.

At last, a proper gift... 11days after.

What takes 11 days to buy?

An island? A palace? A car?

April rolled in and I knew what I would buy myself for my birthday... a laptop. I wanted one to unshackle myself from being tied to working from the house.

During the third week, I nailed the brand and model I needed: NEO Empriva 630NVP2. On April 20, I called PCEvotech but they said it would take one day to order. So I decided to buy it from the site I was browsing from, PC Corner. I called them up and asked if they had it in stock, they said they had one so I hurt my bank and scurried to Gilmore.

When I arrived, they said it wasn't there anymore. Shucks, I specifically went there because they said they had it. They were pimping me other brands but was fixed on what I wanted. I talked again to the salesperson and what they can provide is a temporary replacement laptop (Asus A8JR) that will be swapped when the actual one arrives. I turned this one down because I didn't want to use a laptop that wasn't really mine (or wanted). So I just left a generous downpayment for the 630 (either NX2 or NVP2 would be fine) and left a bit downhearted.

Three days went by fast as I had a great time in Pangasinan. I called on April 23 to check up on it, but my contact said they need 3 more days. I can wait... 3 more won't hurt that much.

I called again on April 25, my contact was absent so I talked to another person. He said that there will be a delivery at 5pm and I should call again. At 530pm as I was going home from MOA so I called from my mobile (something I rarely do). The same guy answered and with bite of impatience told me to sit quietly and wait for them to call. *insert tons of curses here*

April 27: I received a call from my original contact. I wasn't expressing anger or spite but she was all apologetic and cowering as she told me to give them one last chance and that she'll get me my laptop by Monday(April 30). She was going to throw in a Flash Drive for all my patience (*wow, flash drives can now quell all suffering*).

April 30, 500pm: I suppressed all the boiling anger and called. I got hold of her but she was running around and made me hold the line for 5mins. Another guy talked to me and said "For delivery on Wednesday" WTF! I firmly said that Wednesday would make it 13 days, and asked to talk to the girl again. She said she'll call me in 5mins. She did call and told me that it wasn't there yet and but will definitely arrive at 7pm.

I flew at full haste and arrived there before 8pm. After more waiting(it arrived 930pm), the laptop I have been drooling over finally arrived. As pretty as it was, it fell a bit short. The supplier plugged in a T5200 processor, where I specified a T5500 at least. They said I can bring it back the next day and they'll replace the processor.

I went back the next day and finally got it as I wanted. 11 days.