birdie Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 If you have several minutes, please, reboot your laptop into BIOS and say if the following things are possible: 1) Can you change the display brightness? 2) Can you enable/disable Wi-Fi and BlueTooth (verify by booting into Windows)? 3) Can you enable/disable touchpad (if your laptop has a hot button for that)? 4) Can you switch between the internal display and the external one? 5) Does the display go off if you close the cover but not completely (i.e. leaving an inch or two aperture) I'm asking this question because some laptops enable these features only if 1) you're running Windows 2) have appropriate drivers installed (Sony) - that's utterly inconvenient and in case your laptop manufacturer goes out of business or stops supporting your laptop, these features may stop working in the next version of Windows. Please, don't forget to mention your laptop model. Thank you very much. A sample answer: Dell Inspiron 11-3137 (not valid, just an example): 1) Yes 2) Yes; N/A (no hw switch) 3) No 4) Yes 5) Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aergan Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Yes Yes Yes No, automatic on POST (external) Yes Dell Inspiron 15 (4th generation i3). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted November 1, 2014 Veteran Share Posted November 1, 2014 Lenovo Thinkpad T440s (and my older T410s) 1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Yes (no switch however, just setting) 4. Yes (I can specify which one boots first when an external is connected but not completely disable the built in one). 5. No. Stays on all the way till 5mm or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dot Matrix Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 May I ask why you're looking in BIOS? Windows has most of these settings built into the OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neowinuser1991 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 1) Yes2) Yes. However bluetooth has no hardware switch, seems to be Windows driver based. 3) NA\no switch4) No monitor to test, but there is a button.5) Yes ** wifi light stays orange in BIOS and Ubuntu (suggesting its turned off), turns white (on) after Windows 8 starts booting. HP Pavilion TS 15-N088CA Notebook PC TS=Touch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anibal P Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 May I ask why you're looking in BIOS? Windows has most of these settings built into the OS. I'm guessing he's considering Linux as an option or some other alt OS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdie Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 I'm guessing he's considering Linux as an option or some other alt OS Exactly! Besides running Windows without additional drivers and applications results in a considerably faster and stabler system. I recently set up a Toshiba laptop for my friend, and his hardware buttons only work after installing 350MB of drivers (Toshiba Value-on Addon plus Toshiba bluethooth stack plus Bluethooth drivers) - you can imagine the laptop become quite slower after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Frank B. Subscriber² Posted November 2, 2014 Subscriber² Share Posted November 2, 2014 Exactly! Besides running Windows without additional drivers and applications results in a considerably faster and stabler system. I recently set up a Toshiba laptop for my friend, and his hardware buttons only work after installing 350MB of drivers (Toshiba Value-on Addon plus Toshiba bluethooth stack plus Bluethooth drivers) - you can imagine the laptop become quite slower after that. How slow a laptop do you have for drivers of all things to impact your performance negatively? Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to run Windows with all drivers and applications I need installed. The drivers to get all of the features and performance out of the hardware, the applications installed to do what I want without having to mess with portable apps. Dot Matrix, +E.Worm Jimmy, goretsky and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
francescob Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Consumers buy garbage, manufacturers keep producing garbage. i7s with mechanical hard drives, ultra-low-end videocards slower than IGPs and with gigabytes of VRAM, touchpads with the dumbest most-innatural gestures, HD audio cards with wrong pinouts that require custom drivers to work (that ofc are never updated again), hundreds of megabytes of drivers loaded for bluetooth or hardware buttons that often aren't even present, all sort of unnecessary wifi/camera/dvd/burning garbageware. The PC market has basically been inkjet-ified, cheap garbage that works like crap and is expected to be regularly replaced, because all most people care about are "TEH SPECS!" or the "nice case color". T3X4S and TDT 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdie Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 How slow a laptop do you have for drivers of all things to impact your performance negatively? Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to run Windows with all drivers and applications I need installed. The drivers to get all of the features and performance out of the hardware, the applications installed to do what I want without having to mess with portable apps. Without OEM garbage installed boot time is around 20 seconds. Occupied RAM: a little over 1GB. With all the garbage installed boot time is over two minutes. Occupied RAM: a little over 2GB. If it makes no difference for you, I'm glad for you. 100% of people around me prefer faster boot up and more free RAM (Firefox can easily eat 2 gigs of RAM, Chrome can easily eat all available RAM). This topic is only about drivers. Let's not talk about applications here. Consumers buy garbage, manufacturers keep producing garbage. i7s with mechanical hard drives, ultra-low-end videocards slower than IGPs and with gigabytes of VRAM, touchpads with the dumbest most-innatural gestures, HD audio cards with wrong pinouts that require custom drivers to work (that ofc are never updated again), hundreds of megabytes of drivers loaded for bluetooth or hardware buttons that often aren't even present, all sort of unnecessary wifi/camera/dvd/burning garbageware. The PC market has basically been inkjet-ified, cheap garbage that works like crap and is expected to be regularly replaced, because all most people care about are "TEH SPECS!" or the "nice case color". I don't see a vote up button. This is exactly what this topic is about. I want my PC to work right away without all OEM BS installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
francescob Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 I don't see a vote up button. This is exactly what this topic is about. I want my PC to work right away without all OEM BS installed. That's why I always check the manufacturer website for drivers (to see which components were used: ALPS, ELANTECH, CONEXANT, CMEDIA and many others are a big NO) and for the user manual (to see the BIOS settings) so I know more of what I'm getting. If you are registered on Amazon you can try asking questions there to know which extra drivers are required for the laptop to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdie Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 Sounds like no one else owns a laptop. Sigh. I thought there would be like dozens of answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbywild Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Sounds like no one else owns a laptop. Sigh. I thought there would be like dozens of answers. You realize people need a pen and paper for this, which is likely why nobody is doing it. They need to write down the 5 questions you want answered, reboot the system, find and write down the answers, then reboot again and type what they wrote down and submit it... Or they need a laptop and secondary system, together. Also don't forget most if not all windows 8 machines have UEFI, not a BIOS, which is a confusing menu-mess to get into. Aergan 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsupersonic Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 If you're consider Linux, check out System76 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted November 7, 2014 MVC Share Posted November 7, 2014 You realize people need a pen and paper for this, which is likely why nobody is doing it. They need to write down the 5 questions you want answered, reboot the system, find and write down the answers, then reboot again and type what they wrote down and submit it... Or they need a laptop and secondary system, together. Also don't forget most if not all windows 8 machines have UEFI, not a BIOS, which is a confusing menu-mess to get into. They just have to take a picture of his questions with their smart phones;. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbywild Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 They just have to take a picture of his questions with their smart phones;. Wouldn't just bringing this thread up on their smartphones be, um, smarter? Stoffel 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dot Matrix Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 I recently set up a Toshiba laptop for my friend, and his hardware buttons only work after installing 350MB of drivers (Toshiba Value-on Addon plus Toshiba bluethooth stack plus Bluethooth drivers) - you can imagine the laptop become quite slower after that. Wat. Buddy, storage space doesn't impact system speed. Aergan and +E.Worm Jimmy 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrikedOut Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Lenovo Thinkpad T440s (and my older T410s) 1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Yes (no switch however, just setting) 4. Yes (I can specify which one boots first when an external is connected but not completely disable the built in one). 5. No. Stays on all the way till 5mm or so. Lenovo Thinkpad T440p (and my older T400) 1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Yes (no switch however, just setting) 4. Yes (I can specify which one boots first when an external is connected but not completely disable the built in one). 5. No. Stays on all the way till 5mm or so. Was faster to quote than to type it all out. Roger H. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian S. Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Also, OP if you used Neowin's poll function it would be easier. Like others said, a lot of us are using UEFI now. Aergan 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Account no longer active) Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Wat. Buddy, storage space doesn't impact system speed. I had the same experience with my Toshiba. It's not the size; it's all the third-party stuff included in the installers, which you need to have to control things (ie. power plan settings, volume buttons/wheel). It's either you use Toshiba's software (which must communicate with internal hardware on the logic board at quite a low level), or don't get the functionality at all. Basically after installation/restart, you have about 10 extra things appear in your task tray and some 'control center' appear on your Desktop, all adding about a minute or two to the boot time (if you don't have an SSD drive). Thankfully other vendors allow you to run Windows 'clean'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiagosilva29 Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 If you're consider Linux, check out System76 Older Thinkpad models or a refurbished "LibreBoot X60", never System76. Roger H. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerino Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Toshiba C55D-B5212 Yes to all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T3X4S Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 this thread is asking me to do something that sounds exhausting.Im quite lazy in the morning.Maybe I'll reconsider after I have had my 2-3 Diet Cokes, (no I wont)Just ditto what Roger H. said - I have a T430. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironman273 Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 I hate to break it to you but installing a third party driver for something like Bluetooth is no different than using the drive that's included in the Windows installation media. It's just one got included and the other didn't. They're both still getting loaded into memory. As for hardware buttons, it's normal that buttons that do things that aren't standard would need a separate driver to control them. T3X4S 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T3X4S Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 I think the OP, in an effort to reduce bloat, has gotten some bad info, and has started paying too much attention to what amounts to miniscule difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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