I have had a lot of problems with these Averatec C3500s. I'm waiting on my 3rd one since the 1st two were defective. The first one had two problems: The mouse was very erratic and didn't pick up finger motion well at all. I was stuck only using the pen input device. Also it had 4 "stuck pixels" on the LCD screen. I exchanged that for another one which I'm using right now. On this one, the keyboard doesn't work properly. The "E" and "I" keys hardly work at all. I have to smash them really hard to get them to register properly. Additionally, there are two "stuck pixels" on the LCD on this one. I am waiting for my third one to arrive in a couple of days from Staples. If this one has problems too I think I'm going to give up on these Averatec laptops!

Are these first two machines the Costco version? Those seems to be having problems for some unknown reason. Maybe the first batch off the assembly line or something. Maybe you're getting the machines other people have already returned.

Wow, I brought mine once and lucked out then however I have had some growing pains;

My biggest frustration was getting use to the vertical and horizontal scroll function along the right and bottom portions of the touch pad. Never had this feature on a touch pad, and a few times found myself unintentionally running my finger on those parts of the pad. This made the mouse pause until I repositioned my finger away from the scroll lines. I have now grown accustom and find the scroll on the pad very convenient.

I have had some occasional key skip, nothing serious. So far all the pixels work.

BTW; I don’t know of anyone that really loves touch pads. I found them all a little too small and sensitive. Most of the time people slap mouse right away. I do use it no matter what, did have to turn off the accuracy function on the touch pad controller, found that help some.

Luck

Spectrum003

Well, now you know someone who loves touchpads. I've used them for over six years and I would never buy a laptop that didn't have one. The little trackpoint stub is IMHO the worst pointing device in existence. I've used laptops with embedded trackballs, and those are somewhat better. I really liked the old Compaq 486 laptops that had a micro trackball embedded into the side of the LCD with mouse buttons on the back of the lid. But the touchpad was a revolution for me; instant and accurate instead of slewing a cursor around with a tiny joystick, and no sticking due to junk getting into the trackball. Of course for gaming you have to use a mouse for the quickest and most accurate response, but I am almost as good with touchpad as I am with a graphics tablet. If someone ever made a larger and more pressure-sensitive touchpad, I think it could nearly compete with standalone tablets. Finger painting instead of using a pen.

The two bad computers I got were from Staples, not from CostCo. The third one I got works perfectly. No keyboard problems, no mouse problems, no stuck pixels! Third time's a charm..

Aside from the TIP thing (which I hear Averatec is working on) and the one stuck pixel (which to me isn't enough to deal with returning it), my only complaint about the C3500 is that the power cable doens't stay in as well as I'd like. Nothing worse than using it plugged in and getting a message that your battery is getting low.

My C3500 came from Costco, I really had to hunt to get one, as they had very few and many on there inventory turned out to be returns ( costco has a 6 month return policy). Mine has been great. But the touch pad sloped down toward the upper left corner( or is bent in) it works fine, and the slope acutally makes it easier to tell were your inger is without looking. I am reluctant to return it for this, as odds of getting another as good seem poor.

Anyone else have this?

My only other things are the pen is sometimes too sensitve,and the keyboard sometimes starts typing back up the page in the wrong spot, which may be a cursor problem or I may be hitting the wrong key.

I love he option to go tablet mode, at the coffee shop with free dsl, a free table isn't always free, but I can jack into the dsl and use my computer in my lap tablet mode.

Finally got mine today, the box was crunched pretty dismally and the laptop box inside was unsealed, but everything inside was untouched. The little softshell is a nice touch.

I can see many of the ways they cut costs. Mostly, it's just a matter of using older parts where they can manage it. The keyboard is practically identical in every way to a keyboard I had on a laptop six years ago. The modem is a Motorola SM56 chip, the desktop version of which I had trouble finding XP drivers for two years ago. I guess another way to look at it is they are using tried and true parts.

As expected, this is a laptop first, and a tablet second. I think no one will argue with the fact that even for a big person, it's a bit too heavy and bulky to go strolling around doing Tablet PC stuff on the move. As a laptop, I have no complaints at all, it is a solid machine. As a tablet, the screen is somewhat of a detriment. The viewing angle is tuned for viewing in landscape mode from one orientation. In portrait mode there is a continual washing in and out across the screen due to your eye parallax and any computer or head motion. The digitizer itself is sensitive to pen tilt and most of the time your pen tip will not exactly correspond to your cursor tip. I think UC Logic's digitizer algorithm is not yet calibrated to the distance between the LCD surface and the impingement area of the digitizer, hence is unable to compensate for shift in pen position when detecting changes in the RF impingement shape. The pen is also a bit insensitive, requiring a decided push to register any contact, yet the surface of the screen is somewhat "grabby" in a way that hinders pen motion when enough pressure is applied. I will have to try some of the screen protector covers that are appearing on the market.

Anyway, I am pleased with the overall quality of the 3500 as a laptop, with tablet features added in for effectively no extra cost. I will continue to explore the digitizer and perhaps find a way to improve the pressure response or tilt compensation. I will also be testing this with Linux and the Digital Edge tablet drivers, which are said to be nearly identical to UC Logic tablets. Perhaps we'll get pressure sensitivity in GIMP under Linux before it works in Photoshop under Windows!

[Update: "grabby" pen problem was solved by the simple act of cleaning the screen.}