Conference akocoa::decpc_portables

    We sent 15 units to the media in advance of the announcement.  It is
    their decision as to which products they fancy.
    
    There's an on-line magazine which *has* reviewed our MMX notebook.
    Check out:
    
    	http://www.cnet.com
    
    and select "HiNote VP 545"

:Three-conductor hexagonal?  I can't recall ever seeing such a thing.

   Pull the plug out of the back of the box on just about any Digital
   widget on the planet and look at it -- I've seen this same plug from
   HP, Apple, IBM, and a zillion other vendors.  (Yes, some shavers seem
   to use a plug compatible with the HiNote VP power module.)  I've seen
   drawers full of spare powercords at most computer sites...
     
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      /  |  \
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Oh, that.  That's an IEC standard plug but it's not appropriate for something
that's not grounded and takes so little current.  I couldn't make the leap
from "hexagonal" to the plug you picture (yes, I know it has six sides...)

					Steve

I was flying home and a passenger beside me had a Dell
laptop. The laptop had the same loud beep, used the
same batteries, same CDROM.

Nice to know that you can always use DELL accessories.

Gim

    re: .29 by SLOAN::HOM
    
    >> same loud beep, used the same batteries, same CDROM.
    >> Nice to know that you can always use DELL accessories.
    
    Hi Gim,
    
    It's nice to see that portables engineers are learning the economies of
    scale.  It's about time some portables' parts other than just PC
    Cards/PCMCIA are interchangeable.
    
    /Bill

I think that Dell and Digital buy the laptop from the same manufacturer!

Gim

    Digital and Dell did buy the product from the same Asian manufacturer.
    
    Digital came to market first, so we uncovered and documented hundreds
    of bugs that had to be fixed before the product could be shipped.  Dell
    owes our QA team a fair-sized amount of gratitude.

    Re .0
    
    I just still a pair of headphones in the VP and this keeps the machine
    quiet. At least it doesn't wake other people up in the office.

Hmmm. You could silence it completely that way by getting a 
cheap adapter plug from Radio Schlock and just plugging it into the 
headphone jack. 

If the thing's loud enough, plugging normal headphones in and leaving 
them lying on the table might enable you to hear the beeps...

    I use a 3.5mm plug to disable the noise completely, or the headphones
    if I want to hear muted sounds. It's amazing how much you can hear
    through the headphones without actually wearing them.

    Having read all of this, I understand the issue with the startup beep. 
    However, I never saw an answer to the question about the PCMCIA modem
    card volume.  Is this also a fixed volume (i.e. off or LOUD!)?  Or is
    there a way to get it to pay attention to the volume slide on the modem
    properties?
    
    Thanks,
    	Mark
    

Off and Loud are your choices.

		Steve

My workround for the VP speaker volume feature:

1) Stick a piece of self-adhesive tape** across each speaker grill, 
the default beeps and modem sounds are much more acceptable.

2) Adjust the sound card volume to taste.

Brian.

** The tape colour is not acoustically significant, but I'm sure we 
can get a discussion going on the visual aesthetic aspects.