Apple guy needs PC laptop. Advice please..

[Joe Harris]

I said it wouldn't happen again but I had a dilema using my Mac Pro Book. This only happens when I'm giving a lecture outside of the USA and it always involves the projecters.

Keynote is now second nature to me so I cringe at doing some lectures on Power Point but I do not want to get caught with my pants down again. Looks like I´m going to have to bite the bullet.

The majority of the lectures had Sony VIAOs while the rest were split between Dells and Toshibas. A buddy of mine in the States swears by Acers.

Is there really that much of a difference between PC laptop brands ?
Which would you recommend ?

[Buckocaster51]

Don't know about PC laptops, but can't you save Keynote files to play nice with Powerpoint?

I'll be interested in seeing what the kids here recommend for laptops.

[voided3]

What exactly prevents your Macbook Pro from working with a projector? The older ones like mine just use a standard DVI port which you can stick a VGA adapter in if needed, and the new ones have a mini display port, which has adapters available for both VGA and DVI, too. Any external display I've used with mine has always been plug and play, including TVs, projectors, LCDs, and CRTs.

If you just need a laptop to give Power Point presentations, though, don't spend more than $400 on it. Get something basic for cheap, reformat it (if it's used), and install only the essentials (i.e. Office, drivers, and a browser other than IE like Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari). Newegg or Tigerdirect probably have something that fills the bill. Perhaps something even as simple as a netbook would work for giving Powerpoint presentations; most have at least a VGA out, and they usually are under $300.

[E5RSY]

I'm a longtime Apple guy, too. For my PC needs, I have Toshiba Satellites. I've been pretty pleased.

[edhead]

Originally Posted by Joe Harris

A buddy of mine in the States swears by Acers.

You sure he didn't say he swears "at" Acers?


I say Toshiba as well.

[bingy]

I just saw an ACER that came from NewEgg and the computing power for $450.00 was incredible.
The hard drive was huge.
RAM was huge...several video outs including HDMI.
Just an amazing machine.

[Tdot]

Another Mac guy, I'd want a Toshiba if I had to use a PC. My wife has a Panasonic Toughbook that's pretty slick. Bargain choice would be Acer. I know their are happy Dell owners (I think Paul is still likes his), but my experience with Dell laptops has been nightmarish, flimsy designs, week components, and the worst customer service/support on the planet.

[J-man]

Hewlett Packard.

[Octave Doctor]

I thought MacBook Pros were dual boot--all you need is an XP disc.

[Clutch442]

+1 for Toshibas. My family has 4 of them including myself. I just bought a new after comparing several brands. The Sonys seem overpriced to me. I have had nothing but problems with Dell. Don't know anybody with an HP, but there was another thread on here with known problems. The Toshibas are hard to beat.

[Overseer]

Originally Posted by J-man

Hewlett Packard.

+1 for HP too!

love my HP.. would definitely go HP again (or compaq, same company now).


btw. what about running parallels on the mac?

[Joe M]

Another Toshiba user here. I'm using my second Satellite model and have had no trouble with either one.

[Pvee]

If you really like the Macbook, I would look at running Parallels with Windows, then you have both systems, as needed.

[rdchapman]

Toshiba. I have bought 3 and they are used by the family. great keyboard and tough.

[Birdmankustomz]

I use a Dell Inspiron 1545, its been good to me so far.

[HOBBSTER01]

Bought a Toshiba at WM for $348.00 on sale.
3gb and Windows Vista Home as well as a couple others.
Had it for two weeks and it's been fine so far.

[dangerine49]

I've been in computer sales for a long time and I've used and owned a myriad of laptops from many manufacturers. The only consistently bad ones were Dell's. I would never buy another.

If I were buying a PC laptop right now, I would only consider HP or Toshiba. Maybe a ThinkPad, but I'm not sure how the Lenovo takeover of IBM's PC line has affected their quality.

[detuned]

I can't tell what you're really asking here.

If you need an adaptor to use your MBP with a projector, they're pretty cheap. Or if you *must* use PowerPoint, MS makes a Mac version (pretty decent, too).

But if you just need a spare machine to show your slides on, then I agree with the misers here. Get something cheap & install as little as possible.

I'm looking for a PC laptop too, as a playground for server apps, Windows 7 test machine, & linux dual boot.

I've had too many Dells to buy another one - they're not bad, per se, unless you get a lemon, but mine were underpowered bricks compared to my old HP. I hope the newer ones are as nice...

Or you could get one of the white MacBooks, which has just about every port known to man, & install Windows on that... So many choices!

[Wardpike]

Just get VM software, or use bootcamp and get an XP disc. Your Mac IS a PC, already. And you can also burn off your Keynote presentations in PPT format and write them to a CD to play on any PC, you can also re-open them in POwerpoint and save as PPTX or PPSX and burn that to a disc, or for that matter a thumb drive.

You don't need another computer.

[Guitarzan]

Originally Posted by Joe Harris

I said it wouldn't happen again but I had a dilema using my Mac Pro Book. This only happens when I'm giving a lecture outside of the USA and it always involves the projecters.

Keynote is now second nature to me so I cringe at doing some lectures on Power Point but I do not want to get caught with my pants down again. Looks like I´m going to have to bite the bullet.

The majority of the lectures had Sony VIAOs while the rest were split between Dells and Toshibas. A buddy of mine in the States swears by Acers.

Is there really that much of a difference between PC laptop brands ?
Which would you recommend ?

Fujitsu is a major supplier of components in the business and also manufactures notebooks. As far as the number of ports and locations, etc., I believe the company does the best of anyone. That may be of concern to you since you seem to be interested in one for use with a projector. (That is the primary reason I mention them and refrain from the usual list of HP/Compaq, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Sony, Acer which others will cover well enough).

The standard screen is very good technology as well (called Crystal View). It seems the company does more business through corporate sales and leasing programs than anything, and has never made big inroads with consumers.

I have never heard of a systemic problem with Fujitsu notebooks, but it may be worth investigating to know if it has had such a thing.

[neocaster]

Dual boot. MacBooks run Windows XP better than most PCs.

[kelnet]

Originally Posted by Tdot

Another Mac guy, I'd want a Toshiba if I had to use a PC. My wife has a Panasonic Toughbook that's pretty slick. Bargain choice would be Acer. I know their are happy Dell owners (I think Paul is still likes his), but my experience with Dell laptops has been nightmarish, flimsy designs, week components, and the worst customer service/support on the planet.

+1 on Dell support. I won't buy another, despite being a Dell user for years.
I've had great experience with my Acer laptop.

[rangercaster]

i would find a way to make the Mac work rather than deal with a Windows laptop ... i was tech for two years and worked on them (often)

[JohnPurdy]

I've got a buddy that is Vice President of IT for a bank that switched to a mac book running parallels. He runs XP, Vista Ultimate and MS 7, with no problems. He says it is more stable than his Lenovo T series.

[jmaul]

If you have an intel mac:

+1000 on running windows on your current Mac- either in a VM package like parallels or in the free delivered BootCamp feature of the Mac OS X.

Also be sure to upgrade to Snow Leopard. It's only $30, and will upgrade older versions of OS X than Leopard.

If you dont have an intel mac, your best bet is to upgrade to a new macbook or 13" macbook pro.

Apple consistently delivers the best laptop hardware, no matter what OS is running.

[Buckocaster51]

Originally Posted by Joe Harris

I said it wouldn't happen again but I had a dilema using my Mac Pro Book. This only happens when I'm giving a lecture outside of the USA and it always involves the projecters.

Hope we can hear more about this problem.

I carry one of those little white - My MacBook Pro video out to VGA adapters and have never had a problem...

but then I have never left the U.S. with my rig.

If it is a problem with the MPB's video port, dual-booting into Windows will probably not be a fix.

[Joe Harris]

[quote=Buckocaster51;2025992]Don't know about PC laptops, but can't you save Keynote files to play nice with Powerpoint?

QUOTE]


I have received PowerPoints from friends to use in some of my own presentations and I simply dragged it into Keynote and it was ready to go.
Saturday, when I dragged my Keynote presentation into my PowerPoint ( I have Office on my Mac) it did not recognize it.

I wonder if I would lose the animation/smart builds. Swishes, cubes, flames, fadeeout etc etc. from Keynote once it was passed to PowerPoint.

[Joe Harris]

Originally Posted by voided3

What exactly prevents your Macbook Pro from working with a projector? .

That's what I can not figure out. It could have been something on my end though. In the States, AV guys get happy when they see an Apple but on these two ocassions they absolutely freaked out ... kind of like putting sheet music infront of Ted Nugent.

[Joe Harris]

Originally Posted by Buckocaster51

Hope we can hear more about this problem.

.

They were off brand projectors or as they call them down here , Cañones.
There was absolutley no problem with the PCs.

When we hooked my Pro to the projector, two secuential slides were shown at about 1/4 size with a black background. The slide on the left had a clock 10:43:02 and running.
We took it to the AV room and plugged it in with another projector and it worked fine. We took THAT projector to the lecture room , plugged it in and the same thing occurred. ??????????

What could have been going on ¿¿¿¿????????¿¿¿¿¿

[crackpot]

The Apple support forums (http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa) are probably a better place than this to find an answer.

[elsewhere]

Sounds like the people running their projectors just don't know how to use them. Could've been the display refresh rate, or wrong resolution, or something like that. If you go to System Preferences and then click on Displays, you can configure these kind of things.

I have never had my presentation not work properly on any projector. Yes, Macs are not as common here in Europe (they're even more expensive due to currency rates), but there's absolutely no reason for a reaction like that. It's just totally unprofessional.

[voided3]

Originally Posted by Joe Harris

They were off brand projectors or as they call them down here , Cañones.
There was absolutley no problem with the PCs.

When we hooked my Pro to the projector, two secuential slides were shown at about 1/4 size with a black background. The slide on the left had a clock 10:43:02 and running.
We took it to the AV room and plugged it in with another projector and it worked fine. We took THAT projector to the lecture room , plugged it in and the same thing occurred. ??????????

What could have been going on ¿¿¿¿????????¿¿¿¿¿

Sounds like you need to click "detect displays" under Displays on System Preferences. The clock was probably from a VCR or other source that also was connected to the projector. The projector should also allow you to manually select the input device to override auto searching.

[jjh37854]

Originally Posted by elsewhere

Sounds like the people running their projectors just don't know how to use them. Could've been the display refresh rate, or wrong resolution, or something like that. If you go to System Preferences and then click on Displays, you can configure these kind of things.

I have never had my presentation not work properly on any projector. Yes, Macs are not as common here in Europe (they're even more expensive due to currency rates), but there's absolutely no reason for a reaction like that. It's just totally unprofessional.

+1!!!