[WriteLog] Notebook Soundcard "Audition" Results

[Marty Tippin]

Having decided that my Dell Inspiron 4000 isn't going to cut it
for use with WriteLog (soundcard score 77, no way to route mic
directly to output), I went out at lunch and "auditioned" a few
notebooks at CompUSA by running the "SBrdChk.exe" program on
them (had to really hassle the sales people to unlock several
machines so I could get to the diskette drive)... 

Remember that a score of "7f" is the best you can get from
SBrdChk.exe, but as the program says, that's still no guarantee
the soundcard will work 100% with Writelog - however it's a lot
more likely to work correctly than one with a score less than
7f!

Also note that all of these machines were running Windows ME -
some of them won't even run Windows 98 without a lot of grief
(Sony in particular). 

Here are the results of my (limited) testing - I was interested
primarily in notebooks with 14" monitors, DVD and 128MB RAM, so
there were many models I didn't check (plus I only had an
hour..)

* H/P Pavillion N3370 - Scored 6f - has *no* serial port, only
USB. Didn't bother checking any other HP's
* Sony VAIO PCG-FX120 - Scored 7f - has one serial port + USB
* Sony VAIO PCG-FX150 - Scored 7f - has one serial port + USB
* Toshiba Satellite 2805-S202 - Scored 73 - No serial port, no
"Windows" key on the keyboard(!).
* Compaq Presario 12XL510 - Scored 7f - no serial, USB only
* Compaq Presario 18XL390 - Scored 7f - has one serial + USB

So hopefully this is useful to anyone who might be considering
purchase of a new notebook for use with WriteLog. My best advice
would be to run the SBrdChk.exe program on any machine you're
considering purchasing, before you take it out of the store!

73,

-Marty NW0L
 martyt@pobox.com


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