muggles

Ideal, that'll give me something to go on, thanks guys

OK thanks As I said, I'm quite prepared to look at the second hand market. The serial port is quite essential - I'm a glider pilot and often act as competition director / official scorer in competitions. A lot of glider flight loggers use serial connections to download their stored flight traces to a laptop for scoring purposes, and they're also a bit highly strung and don't always react well to serial-to-usb converters

Currently running a Dell Latitude D610 with XP Pro, issues with it are poor battery life and sluggishness. My laptop is used for work and Internet browsing, including playing videos, but no gaming. I run Microsoft Office Pro 2010, I sometimes need to do presentations using a mix of Powerpoint and the Internet, meaning I often have lots of tabs open in Opera, and I use Publisher quite a bit too. Some of the things I do require a few programs to be open at the same time, and whilst none of them are individually very processor hungry, it does of course all add up. I also need to use some ageing peripherals sometimes, so connectivity options are a priority too Requirements list therefore is:- Long battery life between charges Good processing power USB ports 9-pin "D" Serial Port for ageing peripheral connection Digital and Analogue video out for a projector WiFi Bluetooth SD card slot CD/DVD drive Happy to go second hand, any thoughts on what's good please?

Thanks, I can't actually do that as my PC won't allow me to set my paging file maximum to more than 4096MB, but I've set it to that and set the Initial to 3500. I'll see if it helps and post back

I'm running Windows XP Home SP3 on an AMD Athlon 3000+ 2.17ghz. I've just upgraded from 512MB of RAM to 3GB (I used the Crucial scan to find the right memory for my ASUS A7N8X motherboard and bought what they recommended). My problem is that this seems to have had absolutely no effect on my system's performance. If I look at the Properties of My Computer then the full 3GB is displayed, so it recognises that it's there, but for some reason it doesn't seem to be using it, there's certainly not the marked performance difference I expected. Here's part of my CPU-Z registers dump, hopefully someone can make sense of it - I can't post it all because it's too long, but I'll PM it to you if required ------------------------- CPU-Z version 1.50 ------------------------- Processors Map ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Number of processors 1 Number of threads 1 Processor 0 -- Core 0 -- Thread 0 Processors Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Processor 1 (ID = 0) Number of cores 1 (max 1) Number of threads 1 (max 1) Name AMD Athlon XP Codename Barton Specification AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Package Socket A (462) CPUID 6.A.0 Extended CPUID 7.A Core Stepping Technology 0.13 um Core Speed 2171.7 MHz (13.0 x 167.1 MHz) Rated Bus speed 334.1 MHz Instructions sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE L1 Data cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size L1 Instruction cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size L2 cache 512 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size FID/VID Control no Features K7 Thermal sensor yes Thread dumps ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CPU Thread 0 APIC ID 0 Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 0, Thread ID 0 Type 02001002h Max CPUID level 00000001h Max CPUID ext. level 80000008h Function eax ebx ecx edx 0x00000000 0x00000001 0x68747541 0x444D4163 0x69746E65 0x00000001 0x000006A0 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0383FBFF 0x80000000 0x80000008 0x68747541 0x444D4163 0x69746E65 0x80000001 0x000007A0 0x00000000 0x00000000 0xC1C3FBFF 0x80000002 0x20444D41 0x6C687441 0x74286E6F 0x5820296D 0x80000003 0x30332050 0x002B3030 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x80000004 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x80000005 0x0408FF08 0xFF20FF10 0x40020140 0x40020140 0x80000006 0x00000000 0x41004100 0x02008140 0x00000000 0x80000007 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000001 0x80000008 0x00002022 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 Cache descriptor Level 1 I 64 KB 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 1 D 64 KB 1 thread(s) Cache descriptor Level 2 U 512 KB 1 thread(s) MSR 0x0000001B edx = 0x00000000 eax = 0xFEE00900 MSR 0xC0010015 edx = 0x00000000 eax = 0x040B1008 Chipset ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Northbridge NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 rev. C1 Southbridge NVIDIA nForce2 MCP-T rev. A4 Memory Type DDR Memory Size 3072 MBytes Channels Dual Memory Frequency 167.1 MHz (1:1) CAS# 2.5 RAS# to CAS# 3 RAS# Precharge 3 Cycle Time (tRAS) 7 Memory SPD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DIMM #1 General Memory type DDR Manufacturer (ID) Micron Technology (2C00000000000000) Size 1024 MBytes Max bandwidth PC2700 (166 MHz) Part number 16VDDT12864AY335F2 Serial number E22D911A Manufacturing date Week 07/Year 09 Attributes Number of banks 2 Data width 64 bits Correction None Registered no Buffered no Nominal Voltage 2.50 Volts EPP no XMP no Timings table Frequency (MHz) 133 166 CAS# 2.0 2.5 RAS# to CAS# delay 3 3 RAS# Precharge 3 3 TRAS 6 7 DIMM #2 General Memory type DDR Manufacturer (ID) Micron Technology (2C00000000000000) Size 1024 MBytes Max bandwidth PC2700 (166 MHz) Part number 16VDDT12864AY335F2 Serial number E22D9121 Manufacturing date Week 07/Year 09 Attributes Number of banks 2 Data width 64 bits Correction None Registered no Buffered no Nominal Voltage 2.50 Volts EPP no XMP no Timings table Frequency (MHz) 133 166 CAS# 2.0 2.5 RAS# to CAS# delay 3 3 RAS# Precharge 3 3 TRAS 6 7 DIMM #3 General Memory type DDR Manufacturer (ID) Micron Technology (2C00000000000000) Size 1024 MBytes Max bandwidth PC2700 (166 MHz) Part number 16VDDT12864AY335F2 Serial number E22D911B Manufacturing date Week 07/Year 09 Attributes Number of banks 2 Data width 64 bits Correction None Registered no Buffered no Nominal Voltage 2.50 Volts EPP no XMP no Timings table Frequency (MHz) 133 166 CAS# 2.0 2.5 RAS# to CAS# delay 3 3 RAS# Precharge 3 3 TRAS 6 7 Dump Module #1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 00 80 08 07 0D 0B 02 40 00 04 60 70 00 82 08 00 01 10 0E 04 0C 01 02 20 C0 75 70 00 00 48 30 48 2A 80 20 80 80 45 45 00 00 00 00 00 3C 48 30 2D 55 00 01 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 69 40 2C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 31 36 56 44 44 54 31 50 32 38 36 34 41 59 33 33 35 46 32 02 00 09 07 E2 60 2D 91 1A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 70 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 90 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF A0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF B0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF C0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF D0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF E0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF F0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF Dump Module #2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 00 80 08 07 0D 0B 02 40 00 04 60 70 00 82 08 00 01 10 0E 04 0C 01 02 20 C0 75 70 00 00 48 30 48 2A 80 20 80 80 45 45 00 00 00 00 00 3C 48 30 2D 55 00 01 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 69 40 2C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 31 36 56 44 44 54 31 50 32 38 36 34 41 59 33 33 35 46 32 02 00 09 07 E2 60 2D 91 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 70 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 90 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF A0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF B0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF C0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF D0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF E0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF F0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF Dump Module #3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 00 80 08 07 0D 0B 02 40 00 04 60 70 00 82 08 00 01 10 0E 04 0C 01 02 20 C0 75 70 00 00 48 30 48 2A 80 20 80 80 45 45 00 00 00 00 00 3C 48 30 2D 55 00 01 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 69 40 2C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 31 36 56 44 44 54 31 50 32 38 36 34 41 59 33 33 35 46 32 02 00 09 07 E2 60 2D 91 1B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 70 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 90 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF A0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF B0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF C0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF D0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF E0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF F0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF