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Why not check out Ciao's own Ladyfuscia at http://www.myspace.com/akolayd She can really play.
Member since:06.02.2001
Reviews:110
Members who trust:404
Computer rage is half what I expected, I was so unsure of this purchase. I had scoured the shops and not found anything that really caught my eye until I found the Packard Bell iPower 1475.
After satisfying myself that all was in order I purchased this machine and set of home. I had bought a Packard Bell years ago and had been sold a complete pup, this time though I was better prepared and knew what I was buying, however the nearer I got to home the worse I felt. Do you ever get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, in your head voices say have I done the wrong thing, can I take it back, what shall I do. I did nothing except take it home.
Fortifying myself with a bottle of my favourite brew I unpacked the machine, removed my old machine and installed it for the kids and then set about setting up the new one, which was simplicity itself. It comes with a comprehensive set up sheet, which would be of real benefit to a first time user.
Time to boot up the machine and the doubts were still there and the feeling in my stomach had now turned a gut wrenching spasm, which threatened to make me vacate the room at speed. More fortification was needed and taken.
The
machine booted in about 20 seconds and led me through the set up procedure, plug and play devices were detected with the exception of my scanner all installed easily.
I left the installation of the scanner and put the machine to work. Twenty minutes later and the upset in my stomach was beginning to abate when the mouse gave up the ghost. No matter what I moved or clicked the cursor would not move.
I carried out a restart and the same no mouse, the stomach spasms returned with a vengeance. What to do, take it back, no think Baz. Yes navigate into device manager via the keyboard and uninstall the mouse drivers, then a reboot and windows detects and reinstalls the drivers. Great the mouse works again, problem solved I feel great and a celebratory brew passes my lips.
All is well for the rest of the night but on booting up the following day guess what no mouse. Back through the whole procedure again and it works again for a couple of hours and then it freezes again. Rage is starting to creep in but no I decide to call the hardware help line, which to my surprise is charged at the national rate.
I hold on listening to the message all our operators are busy please stay on the line or something to that effect. I settle down expecting a long wait wishing I had something to drink, but no, after no more than 4 minutes an operator comes on. It takes a couple of minutes checking till receipt numbers and the like and we get down to the problem. He listens and decides all that should have rectified the problem has been done by me and so decides to send a new mouse. Three days later the mouse arrives and the problem is fixed. I should add that during this period I used a spare mouse that I had, encountering no more problems.
During the waiting period I had installed the scanner software and used it with no problem. Using the printer for the first time I was presented with a page of hieroglyphics any Egyptian or inebriated Scotsman would be proud of, I couldn't understand why as both the new and old machines were running Windows Me, . anyway a new driver downloaded from the net fixed this fault.
A couple of days later I am beginning to feel a lot happier with the machine when I decide to install my favourite flight simulator and give it a go. The sim in and away I go . Result nothing the joystick wont work, much cursing takes place and I try to calibrate the joystick. Well the control panel tells me its there, the drivers are reinstalled and nothing. I look for the master cd to reinstall the drivers from in case the originals had become corrupt only to find that the machine is not shipped with one. The instruction manual tells that the hard drive is partioned and you have to create you own master Cd's from it via the CD Writer. This process is fairly easy but I cannot help but feel that it could be difficult for a first time user even though the task is well documented. The Cd's created I restore the drivers but the result is the same. After a medicinal drink to calm my shattered nerves I come to the conclusion quite wrongly that it is a hardware fault and again decide to tackle the hardware help line again.
Like before it took about 6 minutes to get to an operator who when told the problem said "your at the wrong place you should be at the software help line". After his eardrums stopped ringing I explained the problem and what I had done to try to rectify it. He then decided to investigate the known problems with this machine and found nothing to help, then he came up with a brain wave. Switch of the Pc and restart and enter the bios and low and behold the game controller section was not enabled. Of course he's over the moon the faults fixed , me well I felt two foot tall, why hadn't I thought of that but why should I, surely any machine should be configured properly before it left the factory.
Now the spec for the technically minded Pentium 4 1.4 Ghz processor Geforce 2mx (32mb = tvout) 128 MB ram 56 kbps V90 modem 40 Gb hard disc Cd writer Dvd
For a machine that costs the best part of £1300 pounds less price match I feel the faults that I had with the bios should not have, been there, but that said after using it for almost a month I am now very happy with the machine, it fairly zips along doing everything that I ask of it. It does have one fault, a wobbly key board which when I get around to it I will take back to Pc world for an exchange and oh yes I cant get near it for the kids. The old ones to SLOW dad is the cry. Its enough to turn you to drink..
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