Review About Vista On a TOSHIBA Equium A100-147

Hi, this is my opinion about Vista, first. The machine that I'm testing it on is a TOSHIBA Equium A100-147:1.6Ghz Intel Core Duo (Centrino) T20501GB of RAMIntel GMA950 (Intel Mobile 945GM w/ 128MB of Video RAM)Wi-Fi (Intel PRO/Wireless 3945abg)Realtek HD AudioNow, I have upgraded from XP MCE 2005 to Vista Ultimate, I'll tell some things.Pro'sThe Aero UI is awesomeI have used 60% of physical memory with IEXPLORE.EXE (IE) runningThe Windows Ultimate Extras!Compatibility with XP devicesCon'sHad to update drivers/softwareInstallation took 1hr 30mHDD (60GB) has 35GB left after upgrading from a FRESH INSTALLATION OF XP!My CPU is at 100% most of the timeThere will be more soon as I test it more and more until it dies.xxxx-jozh-xxxxTested:Windows 98Windows MEWindows XPLinux (Ubuntu)The BartPE CDWindows Vista (current)

Sounds about the same as my current setup on my laptop. I get the laptop pre-installed with Vista Home Premium. It started well, loaded fast and every looked good (thanks to that Vista UI ). After I started installing programs, the usual that I have my computer, I found that things started to slow down, very quickly. Vista was taking longer to boot, everything seemed to just be overly slower! Great! I managed to put up with it for a few months, but then just gave up.I got my copy of XP Pro and installed it right over the top of Vista. It seemed like a good idea to me, but boy was i wrong! After a quick scout at the Toshiba site, they had no drivers for my model for XP, only Vista. After some digging around the net, i managed to find a website dedicated to this model and moving back to XP! All in all, i am now running XP Pro perfectly without a problem.I might go back to vista one day, maybe when SP1 comes out, or maybe when I get some more memory (I have 1GB also, that just didn't cut it!).

More information:I found out that my Device Manager says 2 "Unknown Devices". I know one is TOSHIBA Mobile PC Driver but the other? Also, my EyeToy (Namtai, SCEH-0004) installs but in Windows Movie Maker, it says there is "no capture device available!". My SD/MMC and Pocket PC works perfectly (so far anyway!). Before I forget, my TOSHIBA A/V buttons still works!Hardware that is not working:EyeToyUnknown DeviceUnknown DeviceSoftware that is not working:Toshiba Virtual SoundToshiba Mousepad ON/OFFThe following Fn keys not working:Fn+F2 (change power setting)Fn+F5 (change display output)Fn+F8 (wi-fi on/off, but didn't work in XP)Fn+F9 (mousepad on/off)Fn+SPACE (change screen resolution)More soon!xxxx-jozh-xxxxMORE!: Now with Windows Media Player and IEXPLORE, my used memory is 69%. My CPU usage is around 70%. Oh yes, the Media Player is playing!

Edited November 27, 2007 by jbitkill (see edit history)

Hi, this is my opinion about Vista, first. The machine that I'm testing it on is a TOSHIBA Equium A100-147:
1.6Ghz Intel Core Duo (Centrino) T2050
1GB of RAM
Intel GMA950 (Intel Mobile 945GM w/ 128MB of Video RAM)
Wi-Fi (Intel PRO/Wireless 3945abg)
Realtek HD Audio

Now, I have upgraded from XP MCE 2005 to Vista Ultimate, I'll tell some things.

Pro's

The Aero UI is awesome
I have used 60% of physical memory with IEXPLORE.EXE (IE) running
The Windows Ultimate Extras!
Compatibility with XP devices

Con's

Had to update drivers/software
Installation took 1hr 30m
HDD (60GB) has 35GB left after upgrading from a FRESH INSTALLATION OF XP!
My CPU is at 100% most of the time

There will be more soon as I test it more and more until it dies.

xxxx-jozh-xxxx

Tested:

Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows XP
Linux (Ubuntu)
The BartPE CD
Windows Vista (current)

There's only one problem here, how would using up 60% of memory with only IEXPLORER and Vista be a good thing? Usually on Windows XP, IEXPLORER and the OS only takes up 40% or less memory on 1GB of RAM. That's basically a 20% jump which is really bad.

I can run Safari and NeoOffice on my Mac in order to eat up 60% and NeoOffice is written in Java and everyone knows how crappy Java is with memory usage. Even Linux doesn't use that much, I can be running Konqueror (which Safari is based on) and OpenOffice and I still won't use 60% of physical memory.

As for Aero, it's a fun interface to play around but it's a damn shame that Vista doesn't move most of the processing to the GPU than CPU compared to MacOS X with Quartz Extreme and Core Image.

xboxrulz

My guess on your other 'Unknown Device', it is most probably the Software Modem that most Toshiba's have. You can download drivers off the net for it.And as xbox said, 60% is not good, im hardly using 40% percent with media player and firefox running!

I just found out that 20% of my memory is going to my graphics card (Shared System Memory). I installed Microsoft Office 2007 on my Vista installation. It works great! My Orange SPV M2000 (HTC Blue Angel) is good but cannot install EXE files to my Pocket PC. My problem is, how can I use my EyeToy? It is killing me since I use it as CCTV in my window. I used Media Center for the first time, I tryed Internet TV, there is no Internet TV available for the UK :-( The SideBar is really useful, I've got Weather, Sticky Notes and CPU/Memory usage. More soon!xxxx-jozh-xxxx

I'm going to install the Visual Studio 2008 Express suite. I have installed BitComet, It works like a pro! But I'll replace Vista with XP/Mac OS X dual-boot installation. I'll start a new topic on the Mac OS soon! Also, FreeBSD (OpenDarwin) will come next. Won't be reinstalling for a few weeks.

I guess no one really created a Windows driver for the EyeToy yet, check Sony's website or maybe someone had reverse engineered the driver.xboxrulz

I had a BIG problem yesterday. My RAM meter said to me "100% of 1GB" and my laptop crashed. I lost most of my open work except Microsoft Office (AutoRecovery). I might be switching to XP again soon. Also, Visual Studio 2008 did not install since the RAM usage with something.The final piece of the piexxxx-jozh-xxxx

I had a BIG problem yesterday. My RAM meter said to me "100% of 1GB" and my laptop crashed. I lost most of my open work except Microsoft Office (AutoRecovery). I might be switching to XP again soon. Also, Visual Studio 2008 did not install since the RAM usage with something.
The final piece of the pie

xxxx-jozh-xxxx

As I said, there's a problem when your system eats up 60% of 1GB RAM (which is quite sufficient for most OS except Vista). Plus, your system should have moved the unused (or least used) memory over to virtual memory and that shouldn't crash the system.

Check that you set the virtual memory to system set and not a predefined limit.

xboxrulz

@xboxrulz: I am afraid it is too late, I have installed Ubuntu over Vista. If you want to know about the experince on Ubuntu, look at Review About Ubuntu 7.10.xxxx-jozh-xxxx