ClareJonsson

You don't see those connectors on laptops :P

Only on Thursdays, I devote every other day of the week to Phil :)

You would love a Pandora then :P

If it's a SATA drive it will have a connector on the drive that looks like this: If it doesn't have that then it's an IDE.

:? When I look at device manager all these things are not installed Ethernet controller, multimedia audio controller, network controller, pci modem, sm bus controller, video controller (vga compatible) Do those have an effect? :? :wall: Yes, you need to install the drivers for them all. Get your drivers disks and install them, alternatively you could use another PC/Laptop to download them off the NET. Without the network drivers you will not get network (That should be obvious). Without video drivers you will get video, but it will not be optimised and games etc will run really slow or not at all. Without sound drivers your PC will be silent. Do you see a pattern here :)

thats if you start it -.- I notice you didn't include the 2nd part of my post. So please don't insinuate something as I obviously would never start a flame fest. I was just pointing out these usually end up in one by fanboi's

I hate these kind of threads, they always end up in a flame fest. Neither is better than the other, both have strong and bad points, it's all a matter of personal preference.

You can remove the hard drive from your laptop and use it as an external USB drive, you just need to figure out if it's an IDE or SATA drive, then buy the correct USB Caddy. Then after you have copied all the relevant files onto your new laptop/PC, you can format it and use it as a backup device! It's unlikely the Hard Drive has been damaged, incorrect power supplies on a laptop usually damage the power section and charging circuit first.

You're welcome and yes I am a member, actually I am a moderator on both the GP2X and OpenPandora forums, my user name is WarmFluffyUK (Don't laugh ok). As soon as I get my Pandora I will post it on Tip.it, though it looks like it will be in Jan as they are having problems with the supply of the TFT screens. I hope I will get mine before Christmas though.

Does it come with that :P And could i use an USB stick as memory to :?: As i have one of 8gb , it could be handy :) As far as I know it does come with the cable allowing you to connect to any S-Video input. You will be able to use a variety of external USB devices as this console is a true Linux distro. Anything that can be used with Linux can be used with the Pandora, and that includes external USB Hard Drives. However, you may need separate power for the external devices, but a USB memory stick can be powered from the Pandora itself, so the answer is yep! Don't forget this is a true mini Linux console, not cut down. I bet someone will have Gnome/KDE running on it within a month after thy get it, this is what the community is like, it's soo much fun. Imagine your friends going "Meh, what a DS?" and you opening it up, WOW factor or what!

I expect mine is going to arrive during December, hopefully there won't be any hold ups, and no you won't have to wait as the production line will be ready to go. My hold up is because this is totally new! Yes there are a lot of forum members, but don't forget that the forums cover more than just the Pandora, they cover the following consoles, GP32, GP2X, Wiz and Pandora, and not all want or more to the point can afford a Pandora. Linux is installed by default on the NAND and that's what it boots off, I am pretty sure it will come with a bunch of stuff pre installed on it. Also you will be able to put stuff on SD cards such as Apps, Games, Movies, Music etc... Yep the Pandora uses cheap SD cards as disc space. That means you can have a bunch of disk space on a load of different cards, also the Pandora has 2 SD card slots, so you can use 2 of the little devils at the same time :) It does have another space which is NAND based, this is what it boots off and why the Pandora is un-brickable. What happens with things like Quake 4 is when the source code is released some clever coder recompiles and tweaks it specifically for the Pandora, you place the quake 4 files in a folder and run it. The only thing you need from the original Q4 disk will be the maps data etc. All of this info is in a readme file with Q4 for the Pandora. I am sure Q4 and Doom 3 will be ported, you will be amazed at what our devs can do. you're going to see some pretty amazing stuff on this console, and don't forget you can connect it to your TV via an S-Video cable too :)

Unfortunately you will have to wait until they open the 2nd batch pre-order pages which will be early 2009, and I reckon there will be enough to go around so don't worry. What I can't wait for is being able to play Doom 3 and Quake 4 on it as the source code for them are being released, and the Pandora will be able to handle them with ease! :) The GP2X (The predecessor to the Wiz) can already play Doom, Doom II, Heretic, Hexen etc, and that doesn't even have any 3D hardware.

some program that is launching on startup requires those DLL's, I don't recognise any of those DLL's. First off I would un-install any programs you do not require, it's possible one of them is trying to auto run, and failing. Seeing as it's failed you obviously don't use it, so un-install anything you don't need. Secondly you could use MSCONFIG and selectively un-select startup programs and reboot, keep doing this until you find the one that's causing the error, you can then remove that program once you have found out the offending one. How would I personally go about doing this? I would check the startup folder and the two run sections in the registry, trying to launch everything I find there, One of them would cause this error and I would remove that entry.

Can you tell us what the DLL files are? Regarding the download folder, Vista will interogate all the files in the folder and try and create thumbnails, and I bet you that you have a Video in there which is DivX encoded, you can do one of three things: 1. Delete the video. 2. view the folder in details mode. 3. download and install the k-Lite codec pack which will have the divx codec with it.

The Pandora of the first batch is the finished product, they just decided to make 3000 units initially to test the waters so to speak. As soon as they opened the pre order page the 3000 were snapped up really quickly so they decided to up the total to 4000, and within a week or so the lot had sold out. They will making the next batch early in the new year. I am one of the lucky ones who have already pre-ordered, so I hope to get mine sometime in December, and I can't wait! Imagine a full computer with Wifi, Bluetooth, 2xSD slots, 3D hardware, touchscreen, full gaming controls, qwerty keyboard, 256mb memory, mega battery life and all in a package slightly bigger than an original NDS. Amazing!

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, could you explain more?

The pre-order form for the Wiz should be HERE, or from play-asia HERE, and both the Pandora and the Wiz should be out in about a month. The first batch of 4000 pandoras have already gotten snapped up, that's how cool they are, but the 2nd batch should be ready in the new year.

The Wiz uses Internal NAND and SD cards as storage, so disc space is very cheap, to load your data onto the wiz you can either use an SD card reader, or you can connect it to a USB port, you can also recharge the Wiz via USB. It can play movies, MP3s and view images, plus you can use it as an e-book and e-comic. It's also got a built in scheduler and it plays Flash 7 games. Although the device is quite small it's screen is awesome, you can use it in daylight as it's an OLED touchscreen. Initially on lauch there won't be a huge amount of software available, but this will grow with time as the community writes them, but it does come with a bunch of games on its internal NAND. For an idea of the software that could be available, take a look HERE. That's the file archive for the Wiz's Predecessor the GP2X. I am betting most of that will be ported across. I do agree though that the Pandora is the cooler of the two, but also a lot more expensive.

The wiz is only £120 so that's quite cheap, especially as it has an OLED screen. The Pandora is about £200, which for a UMPC is very good. And don't forget you will probably never have to pay for any software for these systems, and both are more powerful than a PSP!

Open source means that you are free to do anything with it you like, unlike the PSP which you have to hack to enable you to run your own code on it. And Sony keep updating the firmware to prevent this from happening. Both the Wiz and the Pandora are supported by a huge community and the Pandora has a very interesting background. Basically it was born from the very community that supports it as the manufacturer asked us what we wanted in a console and they designed it from the ground up. I have one of pre-order already and hope to get it before Christmas. GPH the makers of the Wiz gave me a free pre-production model as I am helping them refine the firmware plus I allowed them to use one of my games supplied with it. I did create a thread asking for flash game coders who were interested in getting a free Wiz to let me know if GPH liked the game they said they would give you a Wiz as a thank you gesture. The Wiz and the Pandora both run Linux, and the Pandora will be able to run KDE or gnome too. There are no restrictions on these devices, and there's a huge amount of software and emulators available for them. The Pandora will be able to emulate an Amiga and Playstation 1 perfectly. Plus all the mega 3D games that will be written for it by the community makes the Pandora the most powerful handheld device currently available. And the fact the 99% of the software available for it will be free makes it a very attractive device :)

And if you like open source, emulation and retro gaming, then you could go for a Pandora or a GP2X Wiz. Apparently the Pandora will be powerful enough to run Doom 3 :)

I'm amazed nobody has suggested portable gaming devices such as the PSP, Wiz or Pandora.

I have always been bang up to date with MS Operating Systems. I need to be as it's a big part of my job!

For the CPU I would go for Intel.

Eh, a new heatsink and some fresh thermal compound can't hurt. Along with being cheap, everything is reusable. The heatsink can be taken off and put on the new cpu, and taking off and then re-installing the fans takes all of 5 minutes (maybe a bit more, if you have to drill holes in the case for new fan mounts). Agreed, you generally do not replace just the Fan on the CPU, you usually replace the whole assembly including the Heat sink. This means you will have to clean all the old heat sink compound off the surface of the CPU and apply new compound. And for gods sake don't plaster the CPU with the stuff, you only need a small amount, a small blob in the centre of the CPU is sufficient.