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Argh! Not sure what to do

October 21st, 2009 (07:22 pm)
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I'm not sure what I want to do at the moment. The new laptop (temporarily name Benibara) seems fine overall, but late last night while working on his setup, I ran into an audio playback issue. Namely, I'm getting noise on playback. It's not machine noise or interference, but rather an odd buzz possibly associated with certain tones or pitches. I noticed it most with a couple of quieter vocal pieces (like the countertenor piece in Mononoke Hime). >.> So far, I've tried out 3 sets of earbuds and three full headphone sets, and the issue is there with all the headphones. (When I first ran into the problem, I thought I'd somehow managed to kill my earbuds since it sounded bit like I might've blasted them or something, but that wasn't the case.) The issue isn't present when I tried the files and earbuds/headphones on the desktop or two other laptops. >.>

So, now I'm thinking about taking the system back. The problem is, while I've found another system with similar specs (an HP), it's Win7 with a bilingual keyboard. Thoughts? Am I being too picky? Am I crazy to even remotely consider Win7 right after it came out? Any other ideas?

Comments

Posted by: Kakurenbo (akinarei)
Posted at: October 21st, 2009 10:42 pm (UTC)

I say you have a right to be as picky as you want. It's your money, not theirs and if you're going to spend on a new system, I say it should be completely and utterly to-the-letter of your specifications.

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Posted by: Shadow (kagedreams)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 10:54 pm (UTC)

I decided to take it back and even managed to get the shipping cost refunded (listed as refundable provided there's a problem with the product). All-in-all, a fairly painless process considering. (Although I would've much preferred if things could've worked out instead. >.> )

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Posted by: Kakurenbo (akinarei)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 11:04 pm (UTC)

So what have you decided to do in the meantime?

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Posted by: Shadow (kagedreams)
Posted at: October 23rd, 2009 01:55 am (UTC)

Well, I took a look at the HP system after returning the Gateway, and it seems fine in general (if you don't mind HP's weird art-deco on their laptops...), although again, that bilingual keyboard was a royal pain. >.<;; I'm going to try expanding my search parameters a bit and see if anything else comes up. Likewise, I'm going to expand my search to include specialised computer suppliers and see if that gives me any more options.

It might all come to naught though, and I might simply cave in and get the HP. Shall see over the next couple of days. >.>

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Posted by: Kakurenbo (akinarei)
Posted at: October 23rd, 2009 04:54 am (UTC)

And there's absolutely no way to order from America and have it shipped to you at all so you can escape the bilingual keyboard?

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Posted by: Shadow (kagedreams)
Posted at: October 24th, 2009 12:26 am (UTC)

Hmm, well, it's possible to order custom built systems from small companies (like Sager), but the problem is warranty work if any problems should arise. And given my current <3 yr average lifespan of a system... >.> Sadly, I don't think HP or Toshiba Canada allows customisation like in the US, but Dell and Lenovo do, so hopefully they have a monolingual keyboard option. (Dell does. I need to look into Lenovo more still.)

As much as I understand we're a bilingual country and all, I really prefer having a straight English keyboard for typing on. (It's bad enough having my laptop keyboard switch between English and French/bilingual whenever I accidentally hit [CTRL]-[Left Shift].) Hm, I wonder if business models are more likely to keep the two keyboards distinct...? Will have to investigate that angle a bit more as well, but business systems are configured a touch differently than consumer models. Shall see. The worst part about system hunting right now though, is that manufacturers are only now getting their Win 7 systems out, so there are many systems out there that are 'pre-order' still. *sigh* Well, on the flip-side, stores are trying to get rid of any Vista stock. ^^;

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Posted by: Ana (nomoreprinces)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 01:48 am (UTC)

Windows 7 is a fantasic OS. It's what vista should have been. I've been running the RC on my laptop since May with no problems and it runs so much better than my main desktop.

I honestly can't wait until this weekend to install the new version. I really want to install it tomorrow but I don't know when I'll have my disks or how MS is handling the order at right now.

So if you can get a W7 machine get it. It's great.

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Posted by: Shadow (kagedreams)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 11:01 pm (UTC)

Cheers for the info on Win7. ^_^ I'm going to let the debate stew in the brain for a day or two (and try broadening my search spectrum a bit) and see what the final verdict ends up being. ^_^

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Posted by: kitten on the keyboard (thinking_lotus)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 08:18 am (UTC)

if you're worried about w7 (not that I know anything about it ... mac for me) I would suggest returning your current laptop and getting another one of the same to see if it's just a one off issue.

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Posted by: Shadow (kagedreams)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 11:16 pm (UTC)

If the system were available in city, I would've done a straight exchange, but unfortunately, it was shipped (poorly packed) from across the country. I had debated RMA'ing instead but eventually decided against it. >.>

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Posted by: A faint shadow in the void (soruk)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 10:55 am (UTC)
 Lucky Star: Konata 1

While you might be crazy to be considering Windows 7, from what I've heard in the media you'd be even crazier sticking with Vista.

(My mum got a new netbook at the weekend - deliberately to ensure she got XP.)

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Posted by: Shadow (kagedreams)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 11:27 pm (UTC)

*laughs* After sp1 and 2 were released, Vista became more tolerable, but its greatest sin is that it's such a resource hog and it's slow. I'll also never understand why my widgets slowly migrated left across the screen just because they were detached from the sidebar. (They were doing it on the Gateway system too.) ^^;

(*laughs* FWIW, I went through the horrors that XP was when it was first released, and it was quite nasty, too. (It was much better after sp1.) After going through both XP and Vista before their respective sp1's, I'm a bit reluctant to jump on yet another new OS as soon as it's been released. ^^; )

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Posted by: ArianaTaniyama (arianataniyama)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 06:46 pm (UTC)

You can only rarely be too picky and this isn't one of those times. Make sure its as close to what you want as possible. As for Windows 7, the tech guys at my office have all been playing with Windows 7 for over a month now, and they say its great. Much better than Vista and an improvement on XP.

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Posted by: Shadow (kagedreams)
Posted at: October 22nd, 2009 11:33 pm (UTC)

^_^ Yeah, I did take it back for a refund. I kept debating the issue, but finally decided that trying to live with it would be like trying to put up with a mild form of something like nails on a blackboard. ^^; Cheers for the info on Win 7. It seems like the comments about it are more positive than anything else. ^_^

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