Are there any Issues with Lenovo B560?

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
Back to Lenovo. Have a look at how many of their books ship with 32 bit Windows 7?

What is the upgrade cost to go from 32 bit to 64 bit Windows 7?

I don't think there is any upgrade potential.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
Can you activation one and then the other later? I doubt it.
 

BingBangBop

Storage is cool
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
667
You still have to have x64 media. While I don't know about Lenovo, most OEM's don't ship media anymore. You are lucky just to get a free restore disk that will get your machine back to its startup state.
 

Tannin

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 15, 2002
Messages
4,448
Location
Huon Valley, Tasmania
Website
www.redhill.net.au
Serious answers: On Windows, it's all about keeping up with security software. And it's ridiculous. Modern Antivirus software likely as not will bring a decent Pentium 4 to its knees. Not to mention the number of truly awful Flash applets and web sites that use Javascript in unspeakable and CPU intensive ways. An Atom benefits from being a modern CPU (it's of the same processor generation as the Core i, though obviously a huge, diverging branch from it), but I'd call a dual core a starting point for anyone who wants to run reasonably modern Windows software like a latter day version of MS Office (which it's entirely possible will be set as a requirement for some of their schoolwork; most first year students at most colleges have to take an MS Office class. Yes really.)

My two-year-old netbook runs modern security software just fine. Takes longer than I like to boot, but after that it is no problem. Mind you, if I was stupid enogh to use Norton or Mcafee bloatware, it would be different.

I'm tempted to ask why anyone in their right mind would want to run the current interface-crippled versions of MS Office, but (as you say) students often don't really get a choice.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,275
Location
I am omnipresent
Your two year old netbook is a modern CPU, Tannin. It has the benefit of seven or eight years of engineering, materials and manufacturing advances over and above a Pentium 4 or Athlon CPU.

Windows programs that support the ribbon are actually completely usable, unless you're one of those people who memorizes paths through programs rather than pattern recognition for the functions you're looking for.
 

LiamC

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Feb 7, 2002
Messages
2,016
Location
Canberra
Hmmm.
My son is starting to hog my PC more than I do, so I grabbbed a few leftover parts and whipped together an Athlon 64 3400+ (754). Boots from a Raptor (1st gen) and uses an X1650 Pro for graphics. 2GB RAM.

I use Avast! for antivirus as it seems to be the most lightweight of Avira/Avast and AVG. A quick check of Task Manager shows only a couple of hundred meg being chewed up. Malware is taken care of by Spybot and Malwarebytes (nothing resident). Flash movie trailers were a bit of a problem, but installing the AVIVO add-on for Radeon cards did wonders, as well as MPC-HT. It's not slow or painful to use at all. I've had XP and Vista on it, and there isn't much to pick between them.

A Spybot system scan will make the system sluggish. Simply fixed by dropping he process priority (wish I knew of a way to set that automatically). That could be a limitation of 1st gen SATA though (no command queuing).
 

Santilli

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 27, 2002
Messages
5,278
Liam:
My home theatre PC is pretty close to that:
AMD 64 3200+, 2 gigs of ram, XP Nvidia 9600GT, and boots from a Velociraptor as well.

Funny thing was I tried running 64 bit windows, and had all kinds of driver problems with it, so went from an SSD with 64 bit, that didn't have drivers for some important hardware, to 32 bit XP Pro.

I use AVAST, and, if I run it, it will eat a bit of processor on scanning.
But not on normal functioning.

Doesn't look great on Passmark, but, it gets the job done, and, the setup is compatible with an old printer, and old, but good sound card.
 

Santilli

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 27, 2002
Messages
5,278
What is the difference between the essential line, and the Thinkpad line?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,275
Location
I am omnipresent
Cars are boring and I can't be bothered to make a more proper analogy unless it involves Ricardo Montalban.
 

BingBangBop

Storage is cool
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
667
I ended up pulling the trigger on this purchase. I really never found a compelling competitive alternative that I could purchase. Since I'm giving this as a graduation gift, I'm not going to be able to report back a review of the machine for I'm not the end user...

As a totally independent side note: When I went to my local Fry's they are heavily promoting that they will now price match -10% any internet price for any identical product that they carry. They used to price match only local retail prices.
 

P5-133XL

Xmas '97
Joined
Jan 15, 2002
Messages
3,173
Location
Salem, Or
Just as a longevity report.

I just got the machine back from my niece. Over the year, the DVD faceplate had broke off; one of the battery sliders broke off and is still rattling around inside the case; and the reason she returned it to me was that it no longer powers up. Luckily, there is a month still on the warranty. So I'll ship it off tomorrow to their repair depot.
 

CityK

Storage Freak Apprentice
Joined
Sep 2, 2002
Messages
1,719
Was I the only one that hadn't made this connection before now?
I had consciously noted a same style of writing/post, but I had not made the connection .... I had pictured/thought Mark to be the type who would be above sock puppetry :-D .... (Anyway, I had wondered on several occasions where he had been hiding, and am glad to see that it turned out to be a case of being not very far away)
 

CityK

Storage Freak Apprentice
Joined
Sep 2, 2002
Messages
1,719
And, yet, at the same time, I am saddened to learn that BBB is not a unique individual and that, rather, here on SF, I continue to still read the inputs from all four of you ;-)


Speaking of multiple splits ... where's the ape been hiding at recently? And what about the gang of ten from Houston?
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,728
Location
Horsens, Denmark
It would be interesting to know how many unique members have been active for >2 years. I know many of us go back over 10 years here and many many more at SR.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
22,275
Location
I am omnipresent
It's getting on toward winter down there. It wouldn't surprise me if the chimp pops in again once Tony has climbed out of the bush and taken a weed whacker to his beard.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
13,926
Location
USA
I thought Tony and time got into a tiffy a while back and Tony went away, likely for good. The joys of drama and sock puppets.
 

LunarMist

I can't believe I'm a Fixture
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
17,497
Location
USA
Hey, just because someone is in their fifties does not mean they are forgetful!
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Some months ago I sent Tony a PM on a topic of interest to him (I was going to ship him something if he wanted it), but he never replied. He must still be out shooting birds with his multiple cameras.
 

paugie

Storage is cool
Joined
Dec 13, 2003
Messages
702
Location
Bulacan, Philippines
I purchased my first notebook 2 weeks ago, a Lenovo G470 with intel B950 processor.
My complaint is that quite often, while I am typing, the cursor will jump to another place on the page and I'll have 3 or four characters somewhere else.
I have noticed this behavior on quite a few other laptops/notebooks. What is wrong? Does it have a solution?
 

sdbardwick

Storage is cool
Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
609
Location
North San Diego County
You are accidentally brushing the touchpad. There is probably as switch or Fn key combo to turn it off; most also have an setting in the control panel to adjust "palm sensitivity".
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
Location
SC
I have to turn off the nub joystick because of this, you have one of those?
 
Top