Hi,

I've pretty much decided to plump for the TC1100 for taking lecture
notes. I plan to use OneNote and maybe basic office apps and some
browsing.

I get extemely frustrated by slow computers and waiting for apps etc -
for my planned usage have any experienced users got an idea of how the
TC1100 will perform? I dont want to experience any lag etc when
writing etc and am quite happy to run the os without any fancy bits.
Model wise I think the minimum I'll go for is the 1Ghz Pentium M.
512mb although I'd prob stick 1Gb in there if its worth it.

Also does anyone have any tips on where to look for one in the UK? Or
pricing? Obviously I'm looking at ebay but so far have not found
anywhere doing them at sensible prices? What price should I be looking
at?

Thanks in advance,

Damo

damo shared these words of wisdom:

> I've pretty much decided to plump for the TC1100 for taking lecture
> notes. I plan to use OneNote and maybe basic office apps and some
> browsing.

Good idea, IMHO.
I for one love the form factor and prefer it by far over the
"convertibles".

> I get extemely frustrated by slow computers and waiting for apps
> etc - for my planned usage have any experienced users got an idea
> of how the TC1100 will perform?

The CPUs (up to 1.2Ghz) are not the fastest ones compared to what is
in the manufacturers' pipelines and the graphics card will not run the
advanced graphical stuff of Vista.
But for me it works fine under XP (did not try Vista so far).

> I dont want to experience any lag
> etc when writing etc and am quite happy to run the os without any
> fancy bits. Model wise I think the minimum I'll go for is the 1Ghz
> Pentium M. 512mb although I'd prob stick 1Gb in there if its worth
> it.

I added 1GB RAM (to the 512MB it came with) and it's worth it.

> Also does anyone have any tips on where to look for one in the UK?

No idea except eBay.

> Or pricing?

Did not watch the prices on eBay UK (as I needed a German keyboard).
Half a year ago I paid app. 1.000 EUR for a machine in perfect
condition with almost 2 years of warranty left.
And from monitoring eBay Germany continuously I can say that the
prices still are in this range.

> Obviously I'm looking at ebay but so far have not found
> anywhere doing them at sensible prices? What price should I be
> looking at?

Main thing would be to check for warranty prior to bidding.
Standard warranty is 3 years and one easily check how much remains in
the HP "Warranty Lookup"
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ntyLookup.jsp?
Ask the sellers for the product number and the serial number and check
what remains.

In addition you might check for the docking station (good price around
100.- EUR) and/or a multibay cradle (app. 30.- to 40.- EUR) and some
multibay drive.

HTH
Rainald

Thanks thats all really useful - esp re warranty - hadnt though of
that.

Now just noticed the FUJITSU STYLISTIC ST5010 also, seems quite
similar....

Regardless of which system you buy, make absolutely sure before paying that
you'll be getting the recovery media with it. I'd suggest you get it in
writing as well.

Many users have bought used Tablets only to find that they couldn't do a
repair or reinstall when necessary, making for a very expensive notebook
with no ink or other Tablet capabilities.
--
Terri Stratton
Microsoft Featured Community
http://thetabletpc.net
Windows MVP - Tablet PC
http://writepc.com - a site for UMPCs

"damo" <damian.soong******.com> wrote in message
news:1162635554.811544.219340@b28g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
>
> Thanks thats all really useful - esp re warranty - hadnt though of
> that.
>
> Now just noticed the FUJITSU STYLISTIC ST5010 also, seems quite
> similar....
>

"damo" <damian.soong******.com> wrote in message
news:1162627531.652349.237750@e3g2000cwe.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I've pretty much decided to plump for the TC1100 for taking lecture
> notes. I plan to use OneNote and maybe basic office apps and some
> browsing.
>
> I get extemely frustrated by slow computers and waiting for apps etc -
> for my planned usage have any experienced users got an idea of how the
> TC1100 will perform? I dont want to experience any lag etc when
> writing etc and am quite happy to run the os without any fancy bits.
> Model wise I think the minimum I'll go for is the 1Ghz Pentium M.
> 512mb although I'd prob stick 1Gb in there if its worth it.
>
> Also does anyone have any tips on where to look for one in the UK? Or
> pricing? Obviously I'm looking at ebay but so far have not found
> anywhere doing them at sensible prices? What price should I be looking
> at?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Damo
>

Street price for a nice used TC110 should be about $700 (us dollars), often
with cd\DVD drive. I personally consider the tc1100 the best tablet to
date, the form factor just works for me, and the slightly smaller screen as
compared to others both makes the display sharp and makes it easy to carry.
I have not attached the keyboard since I got it, and I use it practically
daily. The unit is very close to the size of a standard piece of paper,
thickness not withstanding.

Performance wise theTC1100 keeps up fine today. I even run Rhino 3d and
Poser on it, thanks to the nvidia card and extra memory. Of course you can
expect Flamingo rendering times to suffer, but that is true on any 3ghz +
machine. MS office 2003 works fine, and the inking is smooth.

One Note is something you should consider looking at if going into a tablet
PC. There are some apps that do things better, but for all around handiness
it is hard to beat. Also get the MS experience pack, which gives you the
ability to "print" directly to OneNote. This saves cutting and pasting, and
for PDFS of planner pages, for example, you can have adobe fit the smaller
pages to the letter en masse with the click of a button. You can also print
calendars and designs for pen markup from applications that do not support
ink as well and use as desired.

Battery life is rated at 3.5 hours, but depending on the notebook age you
may want to consider updating the battery. These can be found for $57 (us
dollars) plus shipping, and up. The unit charges its battery at a timely
rate, so times on ac power will be shortlived.

Depending on you uses you may want to increase the memory. For simple uses
I do not know if you will have the need, to be honest. That is, assuming
you get at least 512m.

Be cautioned that you do NOT get the TC1000. The trans processor simply
pales in comparison to the Pentium M chip, and will give a less than
satisfactory experience IMHO.

For my use I will keep the tc1100 until the 10.5" tablet with 12+ hours
runtime, 2,5ghz + processor speed and indoor/outdoor screen makes its debut.
The price difference simply is not there until that point, and the 12"
tablets feel clumsy. Again, my opinion ( and what I have grown accustomed
to, no doubt).


The proceeding was all opinion on my part, but it sounds like you may have
come to this conclusion through independent research, at which point I can
only say that I would come to the same conclusion. There are other tablets
on the market (motion, fujitsu to mention some personal likes), but bang for
buck and ergonomics I happen to like the TC1100 best.

Good luck.

"terri" <help@thetabletpc.net> wrote in message
news:%23L9rMFDAHHA.4292@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> Many users have bought used Tablets only to find that they couldn't do a
> repair or reinstall when necessary, making for a very expensive notebook
> with no ink or other Tablet capabilities.
>

With the advent of Vista supporting tablets natively (well, all but home
basic versions), I wonder how much less of an issue that could be in the
future?

xTenn shared these words of wisdom:

> For my use I will keep the tc1100 until the 10.5" tablet with 12+
> hours runtime, 2,5ghz + processor speed and indoor/outdoor screen
> makes its debut. The price difference simply is not there until
> that point, and the 12" tablets feel clumsy.

100% d'accord ;-) ;-)
Took the data into an ON notebook in order to check when new models
appear <bg>.

Rainald

damo shared these words of wisdom:

> Thanks thats all really useful - esp re warranty - hadnt though of
> that.

Most important issue!

> Now just noticed the FUJITSU STYLISTIC ST5010 also, seems quite
> similar....

It's a slate *only*.
The HP has a detachable keyboard.
I do not use it too often. I always leave it back in the Lab when
going to a meeting or one of my lectures. But It take it with me on
longer trips.
And it comes most handy when configuring the system and other taks
where a keyboard is needed.

Rainald

> xTenn shared these words of wisdom:
>
> > For my use I will keep the tc1100 until the 10.5" tablet with 12+
> > hours runtime, 2,5ghz + processor speed and indoor/outdoor screen
> > makes its debut. The price difference simply is not there until
> > that point, and the 12" tablets feel clumsy.
>
> 100% d'accord ;-) ;-)
> Took the data into an ON notebook in order to check when new models
> appear <bg>.
>


As you guys probably know HP has discontinued a line of TC1x00 tablets
and quite possible that we will not see the updated model ever.

If this perspective isn't making you happy let's sign in that petition
which says:

"Save the TC1x00 Line"
No other machine represents the tablet pc concept as well as the TC1x00
line from HP. Recently discontinued, the TC1x00 is missed by many of
it's loyal owners. We ask that the TC1x00 line be reinstated and
upgraded. There are many buyers in the world just waiting for this
unique machine to be available again.

The address for it
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/666964490


Unfortunately votes are coming quite slow and the petition might not
reach it's target of 1000 votes by Dec 31. Please take your part if you
like it.

Regards,
Andrew Grigorashchuk

PS: you can find me listed there too, because I'm thinking of TC1100 as
the best investment into digital devices in recent years.

andy.ua******.com shared these words of wisdom:

> As you guys probably know HP has discontinued a line of TC1x00
> tablets

Ufortunately so ...

> and quite possible that we will not see the updated model
> ever.

I do not think that they will ever return to the old COMPAQ concept.

> If this perspective isn't making you happy let's sign in that
> petition which says:
>
> "Save the TC1x00 Line"

Thanks a lot for the pointer!
Been there done it ;-)

I do not think that "all the King's and the horses and and all the
King's men" will make HP change their mind.
Their product lines are rather chaotic and they have given up a lot of
good things in the field of portable devices.

Rainald

> > If this perspective isn't making you happy let's sign in that
> > petition which says:
> >
> > "Save the TC1x00 Line"
>
> Thanks a lot for the pointer!
> Been there done it ;-)

Thanks! This is the least we can do. Also I tried to reach the starter
of that petition and ask if he has ideas how to make it reach 1000. Of
course clean 1000!!! If there will happen any cheating It will be
totally discredited.

Also I posted it on the other forum IXBT (russian) and in wikipedia and
will surely post it on my site on this weekend. But still votes are
coming slow.


>
> I do not think that "all the King's and the horses and and all the
> King's men" will make HP change their mind.
> Their product lines are rather chaotic and they have given up a lot of
> good things in the field of portable devices.

And even if we have enough votes, there is smaaaall chance for success
but still this tough taks is interesting for me! :)

andy.ua******.com shared these words of wisdom:

> Also I posted it on the other forum IXBT (russian) and in wikipedia
> and will surely post it on my site on this weekend. But still votes
> are coming slow.

Thanks for your efforts!
There's quite some Web-forums out in the net where posting about the
petition might make sense.

IMO it also would not hurt to post in a new thread in here with
"tc1100 petition" in the subject. Perhaps one or the other might not
detect your posting in the existing threads.

Rainald

terri wrote:

> Regardless of which system you buy, make absolutely sure before paying that
> you'll be getting the recovery media with it. I'd suggest you get it in
> writing as well.
>
> Many users have bought used Tablets only to find that they couldn't do a
> repair or reinstall when necessary, making for a very expensive notebook
> with no ink or other Tablet capabilities.


I'm sure they have, but I have owned a TC1100 and a TC1000 bought from
ebay with recovery media and have never had trouble getting the media
at a later time from HP direct, for $10 or $15.

Regarding the TC1100 specifically, with over a gig of RAM you can turn
off the virtual disk for a surprisingly snappy OS experience. A warning
box shows up when you cram the RAM that takes a while to set up the
virtual disk from off to on, but didn't show up in my 1.25 gig system
in all but the most extreme multitasking tests.

I say with the extra RAM and virtual disk set to off, you'd have a fine
note-taking pad that would easily play mp3s from the hard drive while
you go over your notes. And it sounds like you (the OP) only want to do
that.

Doug Goncz
Replikon Research
Seven Corners, VA 22044-0394

The Dougster wrote:
>I have owned a TC1100 and a TC1000 bought from
> ebay with recovery media and have never had trouble getting the media
> at a later time from HP direct, for $10 or $15.

Er, *without* recovery media at the time of sale.

> Doug Goncz
> Replikon Research
> Seven Corners, VA 22044-0394

The Dougster shared these words of wisdom:

> I'm sure they have, but I have owned a TC1100 and a TC1000 bought
> from ebay with recovery media and have never had trouble getting
> the media at a later time from HP direct, for $10 or $15.

Thanks for the Info.
Good to know for future cases.

Added - for the lurkers -:
The HP "Recovery" CDs are working in a special way.
On installing no entry of any serial-number or key is required.
The install runs right through without asking anything.
Obviously they have made customized CDs based on machine IDs.

> Regarding the TC1100 specifically, with over a gig of RAM you can
> turn off the virtual disk for a surprisingly snappy OS experience.
> A warning box shows up when you cram the RAM that takes a while to
> set up the virtual disk from off to on, but didn't show up in my
> 1.25 gig system in all but the most extreme multitasking tests.

What do you mean by "virtual disk"????
Normally with this term I'd associate a "RAM-disk" or so.
AFAICS you mean something else.
Could it be that you are having the "Swap-file" in mind?

In case the latter:
Over time I have learnt to adjust the Swap-File's size to 4096 max and
min (both) for optimal performance.
And to all of what I have lerant so far, even bigger RAM (1.5GB on my
side at present) does not make any difference in as far as the size of
the Swap-file is concerned.
Could be that I'm wrong (would not be the first time <gbg>).
And it could be that I'm missing something.
But what???
Might you please expalain your findings a bit further???

> I say with the extra RAM and virtual disk set to off, you'd have a
> fine note-taking pad that would easily play mp3s from the hard
> drive while you go over your notes.

Same as above.
I did put an additional modul of 1GB in my tc1100. Left everything as
it was. So now it's 1.5GB.
And it works just fine.

Following your theory, would I have had to change any settings and/or
disable some features?

Just clueless ...
Rainald