I got a laptop... now I need some help!

[Toefur]

1 - Is it possible to turn the screen brightness down on a laptop? It's too bright and it's killing my eyes.

2 - Why is video playback so dodgy? It's a Pentium 333 with 128mb ram, and any sort of video it plays in incredibly bad quality, and it's all block and grainy, makes it impossible to watch any thing. Even a game that used to work fine on my 486 years ago the video doesn't show up very well.

3 - It has Windows98 installed on it, and it was like that when I got it, and it came with no CD's or anything. The problems this (perhaps) brings up are that if the system ever gets bogged down and I want to format it, am I going to be able to use a regular Windows CD to reinstall after formatting it, or will this not work?

There seem to be a few folders on the hard drive that contain drivers and such for the video card and the sound card, so If I put them onto CD or something...

Also, when i have installed stuff and it asks for the windows98 CD, it pulls files from a folder on the harddrive (Win98se), and at my best guess this is just the entire contents of the actual CD... sounds right, yeah?

Can I just get this onto CD (somehow) and I will be able to use that CD to install fromand such?

4 - I really want to install either Win2k or XP, but I am not sure if they will work okay on here, with the drivers and compatibilityand such; because I get the feeling stuff with laptops is pretty vendor specific, and so if i just install any old copyof xp or 2k, it might not work too well.

Any help really appreciated, because Win98 really doesn'twork too well, but I don't wantto stuff things upto a point where I stuff it up so much i cant even use it...

 

[Wojtek]

Originally posted by Toefur
1 - Is it possible to turn the screen brightness down on a laptop? It's too bright and it's killing my eyes.

2 - Why is video playback so dodgy? It's a Pentium 333 with 128mb ram, and any sort of video it plays in incredibly bad quality, and it's all block and grainy, makes it impossible to watch any thing. Even a game that used to work fine on my 486 years ago the video doesn't show up very well.

3 - It has Windows98 installed on it, and it was like that when I got it, and it came with no CD's or anything. The problems this (perhaps) brings up are that if the system ever gets bogged down and I want to format it, am I going to be able to use a regular Windows CD to reinstall after formatting it, or will this not work?

There seem to be a few folders on the hard drive that contain drivers and such for the video card and the sound card, so If I put them onto CD or something...

Also, when i have installed stuff and it asks for the windows98 CD, it pulls files from a folder on the harddrive (Win98se), and at my best guess this is just the entire contents of the actual CD... sounds right, yeah?

Can I just get this onto CD (somehow) and I will be able to use that CD to install fromand such?

4 - I really want to install either Win2k or XP, but I am not sure if they will work okay on here, with the drivers and compatibilityand such; because I get the feeling stuff with laptops is pretty vendor specific, and so if i just install any old copyof xp or 2k, it might not work too well.

Any help really appreciated, because Win98 really doesn'twork too well, but I don't wantto stuff things upto a point where I stuff it up so much i cant even use it...

1. Depends on your video card. try this:
display properties -> settings -> and cycle truh the tabs, one SHOULD have an option to set brightness/contrast

2. Update DirectX, thats the only thing I can think of

3. Burn you laptop-specific things, and yes, you can use a regular win98 cd. Just make sure you have a win98 boot disc + floppy drive to be able to boot.

4. Sure, you can update to win2000. Just make sure your laptop manufacturer has video/sound/and such drivers for win2k. If you can get them, no problem, install win2k.

More questions? ask

 

[Dusty]

1 - Is it possible to turn the screen brightness down on a laptop? It's too bright and it's killing my eyes.

All I've ever used have had a key combination, like fn+home/end on my ThinkPad, to change the brightness and contrast. I'm certain if you can it would be mentioned in the booklet, or if you've been blessed with one, the manual.

 

[Wojtek]

Re: Re: I got a laptop... now I need some help!

Originally posted by Dusty
All I've ever used have had a key combination, like fn+home/end on my ThinkPad, to change the brightness and contrast. I'm certain if you can it would be mentioned in the booklet, or if you've been blessed with one, the manual.

Some laptops can't quite give you good results using this technique.

My dell for exemple, I only have about a 5-10% change using the keys, while in the display panel I can set it as I want.


Try both toefur

 

[Dean]

Kim ty jestes? Polak Maly! Jaki znak twuj? Orzel Bialy!

Is that something backwards?

 

[Daniel]

Originally posted by Phyxisus
Is that something backwards?

It's Polish you dumbnut.

Don't bump back threads with useless comments that have no relevance to the thread.

 

[Dusty]

Rather old thread, but since it's been brought back up:

Some laptops can't quite give you good results using this technique.

None of my notebooks have the setting you spoke of for brightness or contrast in the control panel, the key combinations are their only method. On the ThinkPad I used as an example before, it's brightness ranges from black at one end to almost completely white at the other, so I'd say you can control it pretty well with the keys, but I suppose all manufactures could be different.

 

[foo2thabar]

The thing about pulling files from the hard drive when it asks for a windows98 cd ...
The original owner copied (say d: is the windows cd and c: is the hdd) D:\win98 to c:\whatever-it-was. This contains a lot of cab files and such, so windows gets them from there. It would be pointless for windows to require a CD and not use those files on the hard drive, they are exact copies off of the CD.

I hope I explained this well ...

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by Daniel
It's Polish you dumbnut.

Don't bump back threads with useless comments that have no relevance to the thread.

Yes Jan

 

[Wojtek]

Translation:

Kim ty jestes? Polak maly! Jaki znak twuj? Orzel Bialy!

Who are you? I'm polish! Whats your sign? The white eagle!

But I dont remember the rest


Little song soldiers used to teach their kids during wwII.
It sounds better in polish then in english...

 

[Daniel]

Originally posted by Phyxisus
Yes Jan

I just have respect for the rules.