Hi,

My C3500 arrived three days ago. You can't beat the price: $1200 after $100 rebate. I chose Staples over Circuit City because they don't charge a restocking fee if you return it. I'm testing it in a small business environment.

Here are my gripes:

* The big one is the battery life. On first use (after charging), it lasted 1 hour and 9 minutes. When I plugged it in to recharge for several hours, it didn't charge at all, but I haven't been able to reproduce this issue. After talking with support, I tested the batttery life after booting into the BIOS. This time it lasted 1 hour and 3 minutes. The fan ran almost the whole time, but of course no disk activity. Support assures me that this is unusual, that it should last 2-3 hours, that I should exchange the unit or send it in for repair (at my expense). But from others' comments and reviews, I get the feeling that these times may not be all that unusual.

* Maximum external video resolution is 1280x1024, even after bumping video to 64MB in the BIOS. I'm now using a 1600x1200 LCD in the office, and LCDs don't handle lower resolutions too well, so I'd have trouble converting to the C3500 as my main work computer.

* Comes with 2002 version of Tablet PC OS. Support says they support the machine, but if SP2/2005 doesn't work, they may ask me to uninstall it.

* No Windows Security Button, so I have to access the keyboard to press Ctrl-Alt-Del to log on to my domain. Support claims this is an "optional" feature, though to read the Windows Help file, it sounds like all Tablet PCs are supposed to have one. I'd find it a lot more useful than the non-configurable menu button.

* Pen seems to lose calibration sometimes, but maybe I just haven't gotten used to this.

* Awkward keyboard layout, especially having to press Fn to use the End key, and the tiny cursor/PgUp/PgDn keys. I honestly don't know why this is so hard to get right; Toshiba has did it well on my 4-year-old Portege (about the same size computer).

* Heavier than I'd like at 5.5 pounds with battery. (Fujitsu Lifebook 4010, which also has an optical drive, is supposedly 4.5 pounds. 'Course it's $1000 more ;).)

I am still enamored of the Tablet PC idea, and I doubt I will beat the C3500 for the money. If it weren't for the battery, I might be tempted to overlook the other issues and keep it. But probably I'll return it and keep looking for the holy grail.

Mark

Download speedswitch helps with battery, i get like 2 1/2 hours out of my c3500, other then that the other complaints i can't help with :-/

This is the download link for the software. Great tip !

SpeedswitchXP - CPU frequency control for notebooks running Windows XP

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Thanks for the helpful suggstion and link! I installed SpeedswitchXP and got about 1:45 on the battery, with wireless turned on. Speedswitch seemed to keep closing--not sure if it's something I did or what.

When having to start the login prompt by the pressing of the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys try the following:
Tap the Windows key and the letter "U" in sequence. This should pop-up the Utility Manager window.

Next, start the On-Screen Keyboard and voilà, this admittedly uglier keyboard will let you login without having to open up your convertible.

Attached Images

	UtilMan.jpg (36.7 KB, 6 views)
	UglyKeyboard.jpg (34.3 KB, 7 views)
	Manny.JPG (2.8 KB, 6 views)

Manny,

Very clever idea to use the Accessibility keyboard this way. I no longer have the Averatec to test with, but from testing on my desktop, it seems that this keyboard can be made available when you LOCK the screen, but not when you LOG OFF. Is that correct?

Regards,

Mark

Hi Mark,
This work-around works for me after logging off, after shutting down, restarting, etc. Just press Win+U. Then start Accessibility Keyboard.

If you log off it may not use your "auto start keyboard when locking" setting; but then you just tap the win+u combination again to start the keyboard again.

There is still the problem of waking up the Averatec from Stand-By or Hibernation while in Tablet mode as the power button is covered by the screen. I'm currently trying to figure this one out (maybe Wake on Lan or Bluetooth?).

Manny