What does the Fox say?

[mudpuppy]

It's all about the girth. But I thought thicker was better?

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Not if you're hung like a tuna can.

 

[knight1fox3]

Manufacturers see thickness as better portability. To the average consumer, it tends to be an attractive marketing tool. To the more techy crowd, it's typically irrelevant.

 

[willsee]

I'm starting a side business and looking into laptops...why are they all touch screen now? To work with Windows 8 I presume? Doesn't seem to be much of a difference in price.

I'm looking at this one:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/5827053.p?id=1219163970040&skuId=5827053&st=categoryid$pcmcat247400050000&cp=1&lp=1

Primarily to run AutoCAD 2015 and maybe PowerSKM

Good? Bad? Something Better for the price?

 

[knight1fox3]

Definitely headed in the right direction with the brand and the specs. But price seems a bit off. Then again I would never buy a laptop from Best Buy either.

For the same price, you can get an equivalent model that has a bit more punch in the graphics dept. (2GB GeForce Video Card) which AutoCAD will appreciate. I've heard of PowerSKM but never used it so I don't know what the system requirements are. If there are any graphic intense operations, again the supplemental graphics will come in handy. The i5 should be sufficient as will the 8GB of memory. Which can always be increased to 16GB I imagine. Not sure how well versed you are with drive imaging, but for a minimal cost adder, I'd also drop in a solid state drive (SSD). Something like the Samsung EVO 120GB. But first I would go to the ASUS website to see if either laptop has dual HDD bays. That would be ideal because you could have the SSD as your operating system drive and then a 2nd drive for storage. That's how I have my ASUS laptop set up and it is pretty slick. HTH.

EDIT: Laptops are definitely trending toward touchscreens, but if you are going to use it as a workstation, it really isn't practical. They do work pretty nice with Windows 8/8.1. But from my experience, more on the multi-media front (i.e. you won't be using a touchscreen in conjunction with a CAD program...LOL).

 

[willsee]

I was just surfing best buy, not necessarily buying from them.

Looks like it only has a single HDD bay but with some googling it appears I can replace the optical drive with a SSD Caddy. Any experience using that? Then just buy an external optical drive for whenever the need arises.

 

[knight1fox3]

You could do that as well. I haven't used one before. Another option would be to just install the SSD (maybe 240GB vs. 120GB) and take the HDD out and drop that into an external enclosure. Then if you really need to offload some data, just connect that up and do what you need to. I use this and really like it. Smallest, thinnest HDD enclosure I've ever come across. USB 3.0 too which is awesome for fast transfer rates. :thumbs:

 

[NJmike PE]

So I have a Samsung GS4 since May 2013. Recently it stopped getting a quality mobile signal. At the time we were experiencing those solar flares so I chalked it up to that being the reason. However it has not gotten any better. In fact, additional problems have begun to arise. One of which is my battery life. It has severely decreased. If I attempt to do anything above basic phone operations below 40% I run the chnace of having the phone shut itself down. And when I reboot it, I have 1, maybe 2% battery life remaining. Is the battery dying or is something else going on?

 

[engineergurl]

So I have a Samsung GS4 since May 2013. Recently it stopped getting a quality mobile signal. At the time we were experiencing those solar flares so I chalked it up to that being the reason. However it has not gotten any better. In fact, additional problems have begun to arise. One of which is my battery life. It has severely decreased. If I attempt to do anything above basic phone operations below 40% I run the chnace of having the phone shut itself down. And when I reboot it, I have 1, maybe 2% battery life remaining. Is the battery dying or is something else going on?

did you download a virus?

 

[willsee]

You could do that as well. I haven't used one before. Another option would be to just install the SSD (maybe 240GB vs. 120GB) and take the HDD out and drop that into an external enclosure. Then if you really need to offload some data, just connect that up and do what you need to. I use this and really like it. Smallest, thinnest HDD enclosure I've ever come across. USB 3.0 too which is awesome for fast transfer rates. :thumbs:

I like this idea. My mind is blown but I guess that happens when you have a twelve year old desktop.

 

[knight1fox3]

So I have a Samsung GS4 since May 2013. Recently it stopped getting a quality mobile signal. At the time we were experiencing those solar flares so I chalked it up to that being the reason. However it has not gotten any better. In fact, additional problems have begun to arise. One of which is my battery life. It has severely decreased. If I attempt to do anything above basic phone operations below 40% I run the chnace of having the phone shut itself down. And when I reboot it, I have 1, maybe 2% battery life remaining. Is the battery dying or is something else going on?

You bought it new, yes? Solar flare sch-mare. You'd have to get quite a bit closer for that to have any meaningful impact.

Li-Ion batteries will eventually fail or poorly hold a charge. Perhaps yours was a recycled one or just old to begin with? You can buy replacements for relatively cheap. I'd also be closely monitoring any recent apps I installed to see if they are continually running in the background. There are a few apps out there that can provided detailed monitoring and provide the capability to kill apps in the background that you don't want to have running. FB is huge battery hog. So are any cloud based services (i.e. dropbox, Amazon, Pandora, etc.). I'd suggest cleaning house a bit and going through to get rid of apps you don't use. Also, in the Play Store, disable all apps from auto-updating. Update them as you see fit, not when the phone/Google decides.

As for the reception issue, I've never come across that problem and have had the GS4 since 2012. Do you have the latest firmware installed? It's not unheard of for Verizon to be doing "upgrades" to their network in your particular area. You could check around to see if that's a possible cause. Otherwise if it doesn't improve, I'd take the phone in to a Verizon retailer and see what they recommend.

 

[knight1fox3]

You could do that as well. I haven't used one before. Another option would be to just install the SSD (maybe 240GB vs. 120GB) and take the HDD out and drop that into an external enclosure. Then if you really need to offload some data, just connect that up and do what you need to. I use this and really like it. Smallest, thinnest HDD enclosure I've ever come across. USB 3.0 too which is awesome for fast transfer rates. :thumbs:

I like this idea. My mind is blown but I guess that happens when you have a twelve year old desktop.

I'd be more than happy to give you additional information on the items I mentioned. Most PC/laptop user documentation today is pretty comprehensive so it's relatively easy to find instructions on how to maintain/replace various parts within a laptop. And of course there's always YouTube as well which usually has some type of video tutorial. Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

[NJmike PE]

So I have a Samsung GS4 since May 2013. Recently it stopped getting a quality mobile signal. At the time we were experiencing those solar flares so I chalked it up to that being the reason. However it has not gotten any better. In fact, additional problems have begun to arise. One of which is my battery life. It has severely decreased. If I attempt to do anything above basic phone operations below 40% I run the chnace of having the phone shut itself down. And when I reboot it, I have 1, maybe 2% battery life remaining. Is the battery dying or is something else going on?

You bought it new, yes? Solar flare sch-mare. You'd have to get quite a bit closer for that to have any meaningful impact.

Li-Ion batteries will eventually fail or poorly hold a charge. Perhaps yours was a recycled one or just old to begin with? You can buy replacements for relatively cheap. I'd also be closely monitoring any recent apps I installed to see if they are continually running in the background. There are a few apps out there that can provided detailed monitoring and provide the capability to kill apps in the background that you don't want to have running. FB is huge battery hog. So are any cloud based services (i.e. dropbox, Amazon, Pandora, etc.). I'd suggest cleaning house a bit and going through to get rid of apps you don't use. Also, in the Play Store, disable all apps from auto-updating. Update them as you see fit, not when the phone/Google decides.

As for the reception issue, I've never come across that problem and have had the GS4 since 2012. Do you have the latest firmware installed? It's not unheard of for Verizon to be doing "upgrades" to their network in your particular area. You could check around to see if that's a possible cause. Otherwise if it doesn't improve, I'd take the phone in to a Verizon retailer and see what they recommend.

thanks duder. I'll look at what's running in the background. AT&T is my provider. Not sure if that's a major contributor.

 

[knight1fox3]

thanks duder. I'll look at what's running in the background. AT&T is my provider. Not sure if that's a major contributor.

Oh I thought you had VZ. I don't want to turn this into a knock AT&T fest but that's one of the main reasons we dropped them. LadyFox and I both travel for work and we were consistently not getting good reception in major cities. I can understand for remote, less populated areas, but c'mon, major cities? Finally we got tired of paying a premium for sub-par service and switched to Verizon. Do they have have the best reception and coverage? Can't say for sure but they've worked for us so far in all the places we've traveled. Even works in Alaska and at high altitudes, right Bly?

 

[NJmike PE]

I've been strongly considering dumping them for the V. This is yet another reason. To answer your first question, I bought the phone brand new.

 

[knight1fox3]

Tough to beat this price for a new battery: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Replacement-Battery-2600mAh/dp/B00BW0X892

 

[NJmike PE]

wow. great call.

 

[MetsFan]

Careful with those cheap batteries. A lot of them are knockoffs and can result in a fire under your pillow.

 

[engineergurl]

Careful with those cheap batteries. A lot of them are knockoffs and can result in a fire under your pillow.

why is your cell phone under your pillow?

 

[snickerd3]

Careful with those cheap batteries. A lot of them are knockoffs and can result in a fire under your pillow.

why is your cell phone under your pillow?

my thoughts too