Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
Home Repair (alt.home.repair) For all homeowners and DIYers with many experienced tradesmen. Solve your toughest home fix-it problems. |
Reply |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer
is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? |
#2
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Terry wrote:
A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? A free Costco membership. S. |
#3
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Why would you expect a defective PC to be treated differently than any other
defective product? "Terry" wrote in message oups.com... A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? |
#4
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Terry wrote:
A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. |
#5
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
HeyBub wrote:
Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? Steve |
#6
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. |
#7
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Terry" wrote in message oups.com... A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? A great many video cards borrow from main RAM. It is quite possible the system has 1 GB and the video adapter is using 256 MB of it. I doubt a Wal-Mart would even know this. Where is the system reporting the memory? Is it in the BIOS or in Windows? Look in the BIOS for the memory configuration. Most BIOSs will let you modify the RAM allotted to the video card. If you don't need it, lower the number to 128 or 64MB. Acer is no better or worse than anything Dell or Gateway puts out at the price. Acer laptops are a pretty good value, a lot of features for a low price. Do buy the extended warranty, however. it is cheap but very good protection. Paul |
#8
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Steve Pope" wrote in message ... HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? 1024 - 256 = 768. 1 GB = 1024 megabytes. Paul |
#9
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Steve Pope wrote:
HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? Steve not sure what you're trying to imply, but 1024 - 256 = 768, where's the error? nate -- replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel |
#10
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Steve Pope" wrote in message ... HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? Steve Just needs to mind his K's and M's. |
#11
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
How do you figure that? All things considered, she's got a pretty decent
machine for a great price. It also has a 16X PCIE slot, so, if she wants a good graphics card, she can pop one in and free up that stick of ram "Terry" wrote in message oups.com... On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote: Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. |
#12
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Terry" wrote in message oups.com... On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote: Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. They aren't padding the numbers at all. The system has 1 GB of RAM. Anyone buying a computer should do a little research and check on Google for a review, first. All it takes is a little legwork. But it is not false advertising at all. Dedicated video RAM is slower than DDR2 RAM as it uses the restricted PCI bus speed so using the systems DDR RAM is actually better if you are into graphics applications as it runs at the CPU's bus speed. It's also cheaper. Paul |
#13
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"HeyBub" wrote in message ... Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. It undoubtedly comes with Vista Home. Minimum for that is 2 GB RAM. Vista alone uses up almost 900MB of system RAM without running any apps. Paul |
#14
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Steve Pope wrote:
HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? Steve Whether the math is correct or not (confusing Kb with Mb), I'm glad somebody here understands that, depending on the hardware, Windows will sometimes report less RAM than is physically present. The computer was probably not defective. Don't let that ruin a good Walmart-bash though, I don't much like the place either. |
#15
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Terry" wrote in message oups.com... On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote: Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. Download and run the free CPU-Z utility from http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php .. It tells you exactly what processor, FSB, motherboard and RAM (total, type and speed) you have. Then you can match the advertised specs against what is actually in the computer. |
#16
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Paul M. Cook wrote:
"Steve Pope" wrote in message HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? 1024 - 256 = 768. 1 GB = 1024 megabytes. Now I agree with that version. Steve |
#17
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Terry wrote:
I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. I'd be willing to bet that most computers you'd find at Circuit City or Best Buy have the exact same issue (I am surprised at some higher-end spec computers that use integrated video cards). I think the better advice is having a clue what you're looking at (and not posting computer related questions in off-topic newsgroups -- if you'd posted it in a computer-related newsgroup to begin with the first or second answer would likely have been correct). They also would have told you that since computer memory is never sold in 256mb increments anymore, having a machine with 768mb is nearly impossible. Bill |
#18
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Paul M. Cook" wrote: It undoubtedly comes with Vista Home. Minimum for that is 2 GB RAM. Vista alone uses up almost 900MB of system RAM without running any apps. Paul What??? Minimum for Vista Home Basic is 512mb. Now, maybe the minimum to run more than one or two apps at a time is more but surely not 2gb for Home Basic. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...uirements.mspx Bill |
#19
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Bill" wrote in message ... "Paul M. Cook" wrote: It undoubtedly comes with Vista Home. Minimum for that is 2 GB RAM. Vista alone uses up almost 900MB of system RAM without running any apps. Paul What??? Minimum for Vista Home Basic is 512mb. It will "run" at that size but it won't be useable. Now, maybe the minimum to run more than one or two apps at a time is more but surely not 2gb for Home Basic. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...uirements.mspx Just try running it with 512 and it will go virtual and drive your performance down to a crawl. A brand new Vista Home system with no apps running typically will demand 860MB of RAM If you only have 512 it will constantly swap to disk and that destroys performance. 2 GB is the practical configuration. Microsoft claimed XP was fine in 128 but you could never do anything with it with that little RAM. An extra gig for that computer is like 50 bucks. Money very well spent. You'll have to forgive me. I have only been in this business for 24 years and I make a living as a IT consultant. Paul |
#20
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
How 'bout a big mac on the way out?
s "Terry" wrote in message oups.com... A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? |
#21
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Bill" wrote in message ... They also would have told you that since computer memory is never sold in 256mb increments anymore, having a machine with 768mb is nearly impossible. That is most certainly not true. http://www.pricewatch.com/memory/ Bob |
#22
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Bill" wrote in message ... Terry wrote: I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. I'd be willing to bet that most computers you'd find at Circuit City or Best Buy have the exact same issue (I am surprised at some higher-end spec computers that use integrated video cards). I think the better advice is having a clue what you're looking at (and not posting computer related questions in off-topic newsgroups -- if you'd posted it in a computer-related newsgroup to begin with the first or second answer would likely have been correct). They also would have told you that since computer memory is never sold in 256mb increments anymore, having a machine with 768mb is nearly impossible. 256 MB is very common. It's a 512 stick with only one side populated. Not at all hard to manufacture. Very common and some systems still can be bought with that little base memory. Paul |
#23
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Terry wrote:
A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Hi, Maybe it has 1GB of main memory but the video card maybe sharing the memory taking away 256MB. Look at the spec. of video chip. Cheap PCs are built that way instead of having video memory separate. |
#24
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
catalpa wrote:
"Terry" wrote in message oups.com... On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote: Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. Download and run the free CPU-Z utility from http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php . It tells you exactly what processor, FSB, motherboard and RAM (total, type and speed) you have. Then you can match the advertised specs against what is actually in the computer. A much better one is Belarc Advisor. http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html It tells you everything about your computer. [8~{} Uncle Monster |
#25
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
In article .com,
Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. Poor thing. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? An apology and the offer of the correct processor with the stated memory for the same price she paid for the first one. Do you think she's entitled to more than that? -- -Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ For your listening pleasu http://www.am1500.com/pcast/80509.mp3 -- from the MN State Fair, 8-29-07 |
#26
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Steve Pope" wrote in message ... Paul M. Cook wrote: "Steve Pope" wrote in message HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? 1024 - 256 = 768. 1 GB = 1024 megabytes. Now I agree with that version. Steve You certainly answered my questions about weaseling credentials |
#27
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Paul M. Cook" wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message ... Terry wrote: I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. I'd be willing to bet that most computers you'd find at Circuit City or Best Buy have the exact same issue (I am surprised at some higher-end spec computers that use integrated video cards). I think the better advice is having a clue what you're looking at (and not posting computer related questions in off-topic newsgroups -- if you'd posted it in a computer-related newsgroup to begin with the first or second answer would likely have been correct). They also would have told you that since computer memory is never sold in 256mb increments anymore, having a machine with 768mb is nearly impossible. 256 MB is very common. It's a 512 stick with only one side populated. Not at all hard to manufacture. Very common and some systems still can be bought with that little base memory. Paul Fine, so they still make it. When was the last time you saw a machine sold with memory in something other than 512mb increments. I just checked all of the desktops being sold at Walmart and they all have 512mb, 1gb or 2gb. I have not seen a machine sold with an odd amount like 768mb in a long time. Bill |
#28
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Melba's Jammin' wrote: In article .com, Terry wrote: What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? An apology and the offer of the correct processor with the stated memory for the same price she paid for the first one. Do you think she's entitled to more than that? Surprise! She already got it and didn't realize it. Bill |
#29
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Bill" wrote in message ... "Paul M. Cook" wrote: "Bill" wrote in message ... Terry wrote: I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. I'd be willing to bet that most computers you'd find at Circuit City or Best Buy have the exact same issue (I am surprised at some higher-end spec computers that use integrated video cards). I think the better advice is having a clue what you're looking at (and not posting computer related questions in off-topic newsgroups -- if you'd posted it in a computer-related newsgroup to begin with the first or second answer would likely have been correct). They also would have told you that since computer memory is never sold in 256mb increments anymore, having a machine with 768mb is nearly impossible. 256 MB is very common. It's a 512 stick with only one side populated. Not at all hard to manufacture. Very common and some systems still can be bought with that little base memory. Paul Fine, so they still make it. When was the last time you saw a machine sold with memory in something other than 512mb increments. I just checked all of the desktops being sold at Walmart and they all have 512mb, 1gb or 2gb. I have not seen a machine sold with an odd amount like 768mb in a long time. Last week. My neighbor got a HP from Costco. Base RAM was 256MB. I installed an extra gig for him. Paul |
#30
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Uncle Monster" wrote in message ... catalpa wrote: "Terry" wrote in message oups.com... On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote: Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. Download and run the free CPU-Z utility from http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php . It tells you exactly what processor, FSB, motherboard and RAM (total, type and speed) you have. Then you can match the advertised specs against what is actually in the computer. A much better one is Belarc Advisor. http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html It tells you everything about your computer. [8~{} Uncle Monster Thanks for the link. Much more information, but it also has some minor problems. It gives the wrong total for installed memory (it subtracts out the video shared memory), but each slot is specified correctly. And it doesn't bother to read the SPD to specify the rated speed of each RAM module. Very useful for the list of Microsoft hotfixes. |
#31
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Paul M. Cook wrote:
Dedicated video RAM is slower than DDR2 RAM as it uses the restricted PCI bus speed PCI video cards are long gone, it's years they're all on the north bridge thanks to the AGP port. Moreover: 1) the RAM mounted on video cards is way faster than the system RAM and with a superior bandwidth 2) it is directly connected to the GPU so the GPU-to-video-memory path is shorter, thus quicker 3) a video card using it's own RAM doesn't slow down the whole system as integrated video cards (using system RAM) do -- Vilco Think pink, drink rose' |
#32
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
In article .com,
Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Your friend should expect nothing. Wal-Mart didn't get to be the world's largest retailer by giving away things to its customers. Your friend should get what was advertised, but if she expects more than that, she's likely going to be disappointed. You get what you pay for. Next time, your friend should visit a local mom & pop store to buy a PC and have it built to her specifications or make life really easy on herself and buy an Apple computer. Either way, she would get a lot more compute for her money and better tech support. |
#33
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
catalpa wrote:
"Uncle Monster" wrote in message ... catalpa wrote: "Terry" wrote in message oups.com... On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote: Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. Download and run the free CPU-Z utility from http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php . It tells you exactly what processor, FSB, motherboard and RAM (total, type and speed) you have. Then you can match the advertised specs against what is actually in the computer. A much better one is Belarc Advisor. http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html It tells you everything about your computer. [8~{} Uncle Monster Thanks for the link. Much more information, but it also has some minor problems. It gives the wrong total for installed memory (it subtracts out the video shared memory), but each slot is specified correctly. And it doesn't bother to read the SPD to specify the rated speed of each RAM module. Very useful for the list of Microsoft hotfixes. There is another program called Sandra that gives a lot of hardware data. I have huge collection of software and links and one day I'll get around to organizing them all. One day and another day..... http://www.sisoftware.net/ [8~{} Uncle Monster |
#34
Posted to alt.home.repair
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:41:27 GMT, "Paul M. Cook"
wrote Re OT Wrong advertised specifications: "Terry" wrote in message roups.com... On Sep 4, 9:21 pm, "HeyBub" wrote: Terry wrote: A friend of mine just bought a new computer at WalMart. The computer is a complete set with speakers, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It was advertised with 1G of memory and the system reports that it is 768K. She contacted WalMart and Walmart acknowledges that it is a mistake. Now she has to unplug everything, pack it up and take it back for a swap. This is a lot of work. What, if anything, extra should she expect for her troubles from Walmart or Acer (brand)? Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. They aren't padding the numbers at all. The system has 1 GB of RAM. Anyone buying a computer should do a little research and check on Google for a review, first. All it takes is a little legwork. But it is not false advertising at all. Dedicated video RAM is slower than DDR2 RAM as it uses the restricted PCI bus speed so using the systems DDR RAM is actually better if you are into graphics applications as it runs at the CPU's bus speed. It's also cheaper. Paul Good points Paul. I believe she got a decent machine at a reasonable price. |
#35
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
In article , "HeyBub" wrote:
Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Bzzzzt! Wrong answer, but thanks for playing. 1G - 256K = 1048320K = 1023.75M -- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com) It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again. |
#36
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Terry wrote:
Walmart customer service is likely wrong. Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. She went to Acer's web site and it turns out that it is true that 256k is being used for video. They are just padding the numbers. It is a good thing she found this information before she packed it up and took it back for nothing. I guess not buying at Walmart is good advice. If it's this one: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5969100 She got a 2.4GHz machine with 160GB SATA drive. For $498.00 (with 17" LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, DVD drive, VISTA Home Basic, a bunch of crap software, etc.) Specifications on WalMart's web site include: "256 MB shared graphics memory" |
#37
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
Shawn Hirn wrote:
You get what you pay for. Next time, your friend should visit a local mom & pop store to buy a PC and have it built to her specifications or make life really easy on herself and buy an Apple computer. Either way, she would get a lot more compute for her money and better tech support. She paid (probably) $498. You can't even get an Apple iPhone for $498. |
#38
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:48:18 -0700, none
wrote: Steve Pope wrote: HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? Steve Whether the math is correct or not (confusing Kb with Mb), Less confusing than confusing Kb with KB (kilobits with kilobytes). I'm glad somebody here understands that, depending on the hardware, Windows will sometimes report less RAM than is physically present. The computer was probably not defective. Don't let that ruin a good Walmart-bash though, I don't much like the place either. |
#39
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Vilco" wrote in message ... Paul M. Cook wrote: Dedicated video RAM is slower than DDR2 RAM as it uses the restricted PCI bus speed PCI video cards are long gone, it's years they're all on the north bridge thanks to the AGP port. Guess again. AGP is what is gone. PCIe is the new standard. AGP died years ago. PICe is factors faster than AGP. Moreover: 1) the RAM mounted on video cards is way faster than the system RAM and with a superior bandwidth Nope. The bandwidth is identical. 2) it is directly connected to the GPU so the GPU-to-video-memory path is shorter, thus quicker Nope. It is not. Shortness means nothing, speed means everything. 3) a video card using it's own RAM doesn't slow down the whole system as integrated video cards (using system RAM) do You are partially right here. What you describe is potential. What out get out of the box is not the same. Paul |
#40
Posted to misc.consumers,alt.home.repair,rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
OT Wrong advertised specifications
"Steve Pope" wrote in message ... HeyBub wrote: Depending on which system function is doing the reporting, she could very well have 1G of installed RAM with 256K taken up by the on-board hardware video circuitry. In such case, Windows reports only the memory available to it, which is !1Gig - 256K = 768K. Are you sure about your arithmetic there? Steve The math is correct but the measuring is wrong mb not k. 1gig = 1024 mb-256 mb= 768 mb Robert |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
DIY Heat Bank: PHE specifications | UK diy | |||
Hardinge lathe, poorly advertised | Metalworking | |||
Chuck Camlock Specifications | Metalworking | |||
tubing specifications | Metalworking | |||
Transistor specifications, (D1556)? | Electronics Repair |