Number 313 - June 2009

Setting Up A New Computer
by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D. Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Well, it finally happened. My faithful, five-year-old Fujitsu laptop starting giving me problems. Specifically, the power connection became very "flaky" and would stop recharging the battery. I would suddenly get a warning that my battery was very low and that the computer would have to shut down. Then I had to play with the power cord connection to get it charging again. This gets old after several repeated failures while you are working on the computer.    After some discussion with our friends at Discount Computer, it turned out that the cost of the repair would probably exceed the cost of replacement. So, I had to figure out how I was going to make a transfer of two operating systems and all my data to a new laptop. As I investigated the problem further, it turned out that the wireless PC card that I used to connect to Verizon's broadband would not work with a new computer. Most brands have replaced the PC card slot with an ExpressCard slot. This, as I learned, is totally different and the two cards are not at all compatible.    So what was I looking for in a laptop? Obviously a fairly large and readable screen and a great keyboard. I spend a lot of time reading and writing with my computer so these were very important to me. Secondly, I wanted 4 GB (gigabytes) of RAM and a dual core processor. Eventually, I plan on moving to a 64 bit OS before my next laptop becomes totally obsolete. I also wanted at least a 250 GB SATA hard drive to match the 250 GB external drive that I use for backup. I don't expect to use all of this drive space, but I do plan on allocating a partition to a Linux OS, preferably Ubuntu. I also wanted four USB ports, an HDMI port, an eSATA port as well as an SD card reader. It was a given that the laptop had to have a wireless connection and an Ethernet connection. So it looked like I had to do some fairly detailed investigation to find a computer that had the hardware I needed. As I learned, finding all of these items in a laptop took a lot of research. Especially since it had to be one that I could afford. Again, with an assist from Discount Computer, I was led to my final choice.    I purchased an ASUS N50VN-X5A at a time when it was on sale. (Every little bit helps!) It has a 15.4" LCD screen powered by an Nvidia GeForce 9650m graphics card with 1 GB of graphics memory. I really prefer separate graphics memory to the Intel integrated graphics on the motherboard that have to share memory with the computer's RAM allocation. This laptop is also equipped with ASUS automatic panel brightness control. This does seem to work quite well.    The keyboard on this system is phenomenal. I am an "almost" touch typist and really like the size of the keys and their response. An added bonus is that a full number keypad is included on the right side of the keyboard. You don't have to use the numbers that are across the top. Getting back to using a full number pad, just like those found on a full-size separate keyboard, is taking some time, but I really like it.    The CPU is an Intel 8600 dual core operating at 2.4 GHz. Combined with the graphics card, there is a rapid response to almost everything I do. It would probably be faster if the system weren't burdened with Windows Vista Home Premium. I seriously thought about installing XP, but I want to move to Windows 7, which is expected to become available later this year. Going from Vista to Win 7 will just be an upgrade. But going from XP to Win 7 would require removal of XP and a "clean" install. I would rather not do that at this point since I am essentially doing that in moving everything from my old laptop.    As for the other hardware items on this system, it has a 7200 rpm 320 GB SATA drive, 3 USB ports, an eSATA port, HDMI & VGA ports, S/PDIF port, fingerprint scanner, a 2 megapixel webcam, bluetooth wireless, 8 in 1 memory card reader, 1 GB LAN, 802.11n wireless, ExpressCard slot, Firewire port, DVD super-multi optical drive and Altec Lansing speakers. All in all, I got more than I anticipated in a laptop. It also came with a USB mouse and a carrying case.    So now all I had to do was move everything from my old laptop before it completely expired. I did have a backup of all my data from my WinXP and Ubuntu partitions. I also had an install disk for re-installing Ubuntu. Something I have yet to complete. That will be the subject of my next article.    Once I received my laptop, my first actions were to remove some of the superfluous software that came with it. The first package to go was the trial version of Microsoft Office. Next, I removed the Norton Internet Security. Of course, Vista complained loudly about my system not being protected. However, at that point I had no Internet connection, so I wasn't concerned. I also purchased a USB wireless modem from Verizon instead of an ExpressCard modem. The main reason being that the USB modem was free and the ExpressCard was not. Once the wireless modem was installed I downloaded a ZoneAlarm firewall and Avast! Anti-virus. After they were installed, Vista stopped warning me that my system was insecure. I also downloaded Open Office Suite, version 3.01. Since my financial records had all been in GnuCash on my Ubuntu partition, I downloaded a Vista version of GnuCash. Then I copied the GnuCash documents from my external drive to the new laptop.    Did I mention that the external drive was a 250 GB SATA drive and that the external case had both USB and eSATA connections? That's why I wanted an eSATA port on the laptop. The difference in transfer speed between the eSATA and USB is very, very noticeable.	Most of my writing on the old laptop had been done using Open Office, version 2. However, when I transferred all the documents from the external drive to the new laptop, Open Office 3 didn't hesitate in opening them for editing. I was a little concerned about losing documents as I had a 20 page (50 MB) Barbershop show program I had been developing in the Ubuntu partition. It came through with all its graphics intact. I was very relieved to find I had not lost anything.    Next I downloaded and installed GIMP. This is a photo-editing program that has both Vista and Ubuntu versions. I had been using it in Ubuntu for all my scanning and photo work. It works quite easily with my Brother MFC printer/scanner. It is, in many respects, the equivalent of Photoshop, but the price (free) is much better. Picasa was also included in the software bundle that can with the laptop. I use it for maintaining my photo library and for e-mailing photos. It reduces the size of the photo file to something that will transmit quite rapidly. It usually ends up under 200 KB.    I also had NVu installed on my WinXP system. I had transferred it to the external drive and was surprised to find that it worked with no glitches. So, I simply transferred it to the Vista system. It works quite well there. I can't get a new version of it as it is no longer being supported or upgraded by Linspire. There is a new web page designer called Kompozer, but it is still in beta. The Linux version of Kompozer doesn't work at all with some versions of Ubuntu and I haven't tried the Windows version. So I am sticking with the older designer software, NVu.    This computer has some new security software working with the built-in hardware. So far I haven't activated the fingerprint print scanner. It has a tutorial where it scans your finger three times. If all the scans match, then you can go ahead and setup the scanner. However, it doesn't seem to like my fingers. It generally doesn't find a match 2 out 3 tries. And of course, there is no real info to help you determine why it doesn't work or what you need to do to improve the scanning results. The other security item is a visual scanner using the video cam. My main problem with it is that it is V E R Y S L O W. If I am willing to wait while it keeps trying to scan my face, it will eventually log me on. I can type the password multiple times in the time it takes for the scan to decide I am the right person. In both cases, the software was included in the ASUS bundle, so I keep playing with to see if it can be made to work better. Obviously, on a laptop, either security version would be helpful in blocking access to my files.    As you can see, the transfer of my Windows programs was not really a problem. Although most of them did not need to be upgraded to work with Vista, installing downloads of the latest versions was the easiest way. Especially since all of them are free under the GNU General Public license. As all of my data was on an external drive, transferring it was a matter of simply copying the files to the new computer.    What has frustrated me more than anything else are the problems I have had with Vista. In June, September, and October of 2006 I wrote a series of articles on Vista's beta version. So I had a good idea what I was getting into with Vista. However, this installed version, which includes service pack 1, seems to have some significant bugs. The primary problem is getting the computer to shut down. It also seems I am not alone with this problem. The web is full of comments and requests for help in this matter. Unfortunately, most of the solutions are not broadly applicable. I've even found suggestions to edit the registry in locations that don't exist in the Vista registry. Frequently, after waiting for 10 or fifteen minutes for the computer to turn off, I've used the power switch to finally shut the computer down. When I do this I rarely get any message from Vista when I restart.    I've also found hibernation to be a problem. If I use hibernation more than twice in the same day, programs lock up and stay in memory so that even the Task Manager is incapable of shutting them down. When that happens you can no longer restart or shut down the computer using the Start menu. Instead I have to hold down the main power button on the computer for more that five seconds to get the system shut off. Of course, when you restart, Vista tells you the computer was not shut down properly. A normal restart does seem to work.    I've also removed the sidebar and its associated gadgets. As for the Aero interface, I don't find it impressive even though Vista rates the video function at the "five" level. As some of you may know, the default setting in Vista for the power icon (next to the lock icon) on the Start menu is to cause the computer to go into hibernation. You supposedly can change this setting in the Control Panel and when you do, the button changes to a red color from its default of brown. I have made the change several times, but the function of the power icon has never changed, neither has its color. As you may suspect, I will now turn my efforts to installing Ubuntu on the unused partition of this laptop.    Dr. Lewis is a former university and medical school professor of physiology. He has been working with personal computers for over thirty years, developing software and assembling systems. He can be reached at bwsail at yahoo.com.    Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication.
Number 313 - June 2009