Confused about laptop specs!!!

[junior212]

Hi all,

 

I dont know much about laptops and there specs, but i do know the basics. Im just a little confused with a new laptop i purchased a few days ago.

 

I have a HP DV72045ea laptop. The specs are:

 

AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-84 (2.3GHZ)

4GB memory.

250GB (5400) Hard Drive

17.3-in monitor

ATI Radeon HD4530 Graphics (512 Dedicated)

Windows Vista Home Premium

Windows index rating 4.6

 

Now when i check these specs on my computer i get a totally different specs.

 

Instead of 4GB ram i have only 3GB ram, and my hard drive is 196GB.

 

Can anyone tell me if all this is correct, is my comp using the remainder memory and hardrive space for programs on the comp?

 

Any way i can free up some memory and hardrive space for things i dont need?

 

Overall do you think this is a good laptop for basic needs and gaming?

[Tootech]

Hi junior

 

Instead of 4GB ram i have only 3GB ram

Any 32 bit operating system (I'm guessing thats what you have) can only see approx 3.2GB of ram, its down to the way they count. Also, that means your machine will only be able to use 3GB ish of RAM. Thats ok, Vista runs nicely on 2GB, and more smoothly on 3GB.

 

The only way around it, if you really wanted to use 4GB would be to buy a 64 bit version of Vista, for most people it aint worth the hassle.

 

my hard drive is 196GB

Gigabytes are quoted in standard base 10 that we all use to count.

 

Computers don't use base 10, they use binary.

 

250GB to the computer is 250,000,000,000 bytes / 1024 = 244,140,625 Kbytes

 

/1024 = 238,418 Mbytes

 

/1024 = 232.8 GB - thats the size your computer will report.

 

You may also have a hidden recovery partition which will take up space, plus anywhere between 10 and 20GB of space taken up with the Vista install.

 

That soon gets you down to 196GB space free.

 

ATI Radeon HD4530 Graphics (512 Dedicated)

It won't set the world alight, but it should be ok basic gaming. Edited May 6, 2009 by Tootech

[junior212]

Hi,

 

Thank you for getting back to me.

 

Ok like i said earlier iv had this laptop for about 8 days now. Everything on the laptop has been working fine until today.

 

When i load up firefox and go on to a certain page, just say for example ebay, the whole comp freezes, i cant click on anything but i can see the mouse icon moving around. At the top of internet page, it says page not responding, it stays like this for a a mintue or so, then everything goes back to normal where i can open and close the page and browse around.

 

Now iv only download some movies, programs, and basic web surfing. Iv run norton scan twice within the last 8 days and its only ever found two tracking cookies.

 

For a new laptop it shouldnt really be doing this, throughout the whole day its been doing it, its pretty annoying.

 

Can anyone tell me what is wrong? and what i can do regarding hp or the place i bought it from?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Where do you download the movies from Junior, as this may be an important aspect?

[junior212]

I download the movies from quicksilverscreen, i download the avi and divx versions found on the website, iv never had any problems before on my old laptop, that was a pentium 4 1.6 ibm.

 

What do you think i should do?

 

Dont you got like a 14 day period if anything becomes faulty with laptops you can return them?

 

I bought this laptop from the additions direct website, but i think the warranty is with hp, one year pick up and return.

 

As for my laptop do you think its best to delete everything and do a full reboot using the built in software to restore it to the state i purchased it in?

 

any way of them finding out i have downloaded movies or software on to the laptop?

 

Brand new laptop and something happened to it already.

[RandyL]

It seems quicksilverscreen adds a lot of crap to a computer. Since this comp is only eight days old the easiest thing to do is use the restore or recovery software to return it to it's original state.

 

Backup any files to a medium if you want to save them.

[KenB]

Hi,

 

This article may help with understanding why your system is reporting less than the 4Gb RAM that you have installed.

 

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed

 

Just to be the exception .....My system is 32bit and it does report the full 4.0Gb that I have installed.