> On Thu, Feb 01, 2001 at 05:38:56PM -0800, Heather wrote: > > * video chipset that is -actually- supported by X 4. I'm strongly > > interested in moving that direction, but since my current systems > > work, I'm not terribly interested in half measures or putting up > > with bleeding-edge vendor bull. Wish me luck. I think this is > > my pickiest feature request. > Hmm, my Dell Inspiron 5000e has ATI Rage Mobility M3 16 MB (r128). > Works rather well in XF4 (@1400x1050), although I get some weird > "desynched" "burning" LCD screens when switching back to text mode > in certain modes.
Ah, I know that system. Really nice box, a bit large for me though. They solve the sound driver for Maestro3i yet? which modes? Hmm, does using a kernel with framebuffer text modes fix that? (that should give you a proper graphic reset; framebuffer text modes are really graphical states.) > And if using frame buffer on bootup, then the same weird thing happens. Oh. ouchy! Is this a custom kernel? I think you have to go in and tag something special in the framebuffer section for ATI cards when building it. > > * it has to have decent onboard disk space. ... > > btw: best 9 mm drives, anyone? criteria - well behaved, then > > capacity, then price. I might just buy one of these > > and not bother with a new laptop yet. (trimming; DELL's support is good, the drives aren't so hot.) > My 20GB Fujitsu drive just failed on me after only 7 weeks. > IBM drives are said to be rather "clunky", and it seems Dell has *frequent* > problems (... clunking [ouch], high pitched noise) with big HDDs > (many brands, but also IBM). > Somebody said Toshiba drives were more quiet in general, but I don't know > much about this. Yeesh. I think I can settle for 12Gb then. > I had my previous HDD spin down rather frequently (every 20 minutes), Sounds like one of those things the BIOS thinks is a feature, and we usually don't. I'm not enough of an electrical engineer to be sure (even if you are, and gave me details :> ) but I have the impression that keeping the platters at bernouilli-vacuum speeds costs less power than the spinup. > Actually I don't let the IBM spin down any more at all. seems wise... > In short: bigger drives seem to be VERY fragile !!! > But OTOH the 6.4 GB IBM in my very old Acer notebook already grew > much louder, too :-\ Well, they do get old eventually :( * Heather Stern * star@ many places...
